Monk Family Christmas

December 25th: MERRY CHRISTMAS Y'ALL!!

Christmas at our house starts on Christmas Eve! This year we rushed home from Gigi and PopPop's and got the girl in her Christmas jammies. We put out cookies and milk for our Santa, read the Christmas Story and tucked the girl into bed....

Then the "elves" came out and got to the business of setting up Christmas morning and all the surprises. Eeee! I could hardly wait for our little toddler to come down the steps Christmas morning!!

Uh-oh! Rich is stealing some of Santa's cookies!!

Blakely loved reading "The First Christmas" with us. She loved to tell us about all of the animals and point out baby Jesus (pronounced: Gee-hus!). Our prayer is that Blakely will above all else know that Christmas is about Jesus and the amazing gift of salvation this is offered to us!!

The Spread! Important note: all of Blakely's Christmas gift (with the exception of Lion) were purchased on consignment.

Lots of Baby stuff to practice being a good big sister!

The first thing Blakely noticed from the stair landing on Christmas morning was lion. She immediately started yelling "lion-lion-lion" and roaring as loud as she could. When she got downstairs, she immediately snagged new "grey baby" out of her stocking and then headed for the tree!

Again, Lion was a HUGE hit! She would constantly stop what she was doing and go over and give lion of hug and a kiss.

Then she found her baby carriage! She put Grey and New Grey into the pram, and....

...she was off!! She walked those babies all around the house singing the whole time! So, so, so adorable!! Love this little baby mama!!

Yes... this is a roller-coaster in my living room! So crazy. Never, ever would have bought this crazy thing, but it was a last minute consignment find! She loves this roller coaster!! She will push off all by herself  and yell "wee!!!" When she gets to the bottom she will yell "again-again" or "ready!" She could ride this thing all day!

Roller coaster rider!!

Blakely got lots of Bitty baby stuff this Christmas, but probably her favorite thing was this tiny, plush elephant. Just her size.

Blakely and Banks are both VERY into animals and magnets right now, making this animal puzzle book an instant hit. I am fairly certain that Blakely things the bunny says "hop-hop-hop!" HA!

Grandma Pinkie sent this adorable little farm.... Thank you Pinkie!! She loved it!

Feeding her new baby. Such a good little mama.

From GrandAnnie and GrandPop Blakely got this  wooden rocking horse. It is so special and beautifully crafted.... did I mention GrandPop MADE IT!?!?! So crazy!!! An instant family heirloom!!
Blakely is really into horses right now, and as soon as this was revealed she went crazy yelling "neigh-neigh-neigh!!!" She loves to ride and rock on it, but mainly she just loves to pet the pony and pretend to feed him! So, so sweet!! Thank you, thank you GrandPop for such a thoughtful gift!!



Our cake for Baby Jesus. Every year since I was little, my mom would make a chocolate eclair cake, and we would sing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus. This is a tradition I am continuing with our girls. Rich and I were both very impressed with Blakely. Not only did she try and sing with us, but she was also able to blow out all the candles! Bring on her birthday cake! This girl must have been practicing!!

Jam Session: Miss AnnMarie decided to try to play Rich's old saxophone for Blakely. Blakely decided she was going to join in and started playing along on her recorder!! We have quite the musician!!

On December 26th, we got to have Christmas with Uncle Brian and Aunt Sarah. They had come all the way from Hawaii to celebrate with us, and they had a "little surprise" of their own....



They are expecting Monk Grand baby #3 on July 14th!!

This was a great Christmas, and so special to get to celebrate with all of our Monk family!! Can't wait to meet my new niece or nephew!! They are keeping their cards close to their chest, so I guess we will have to wait to meet him or her next summer!! Congratulations guys!! We are so excited for this adventure y'all are on. Such a blessing from the Lord!!