The Christmas Season

We had a truly wonderful Christmas season this year!! Way, way too short... but perfect. Thanksgiving fell at the very end of November, so after Thanksgiving it was only a short 3 1/2 weeks until Christmas. I also managed to bring home a terrible stomach bug over Thankgiving break, which eventually got EVERYONE in the family (even extended family and friends) sick. This delayed our Christmas fesivities by a solid week! We had to get festive quickly this year, which was not easy to do with us living in 2 houses (in seperate cities), a toddler, a pregnancy and 3 jobs between Rich and I! Whew!

Can't wait for us all to live under only 1 roof in 1 city with only 1 job!! July is going to be amazing!!

The Lights Before Christmas at the Riverbanks Zoo. If I haven't said it already, I really really love our zoo! It's the best!! The Christmas lights did not disappoint, and Blakely went absolutely CRAZY!!

Blakely and Banks both LOVE lions, and they will "roar" at each other often! So funny!

MIRACLE! Both babies looking at the camera and NO ONE is crying!!!

Blakely and her PopPop!!

Sadly, this was as good a picture as we could get of the littles, Gigi and PopPop!! I just love that these two love each other! I'm just not sure how Banks feels about all the "love" Blakely has to give him!!



We knew we had to get Blakely to the zoo this year. She absolutely LOVES "twinkly lights!" She will stare all day at the colored lights on our tree, quietly examining each one. Whenever we play in the playroom at night, the windows have a great view of neighbor's homes which all have colored lights on them. She will point and shout "Lights! Green! Red! Lights!" She did not disappoint... her excitement at the zoo was contagious!!

Gigi and her best girl



Blakely HATES Santa. I knew that a picture was Santa was off the table, but thought that a picture in his chair might be a good substitute. I could not have been more wrong!

She could see Santa coming, and it was over. Oh well, guess we will have to wait for Santa pics until she is older.

Blakely's Daddy loved the lights too! Hee hee.

 

 

Our new home decorated for Christmas

Our first live Christmas tree!! It was so much fun to have the house smell like Christmas, and Blakely LOVED having a "twee!!" in the house.

Blakely is kind of into fairies right now, and the angel did have "wings" just like a fairy. It was her favorite Christmas decoration, and she would always tell us about the "angel" and her "wings" everytime we went up our down the stairs.

Ready to decorate...

This girl loves Christmas lights, just like her Mommy!!

Helping Daddy put our special decoration on the tree.

Our first fireplace to hand stockings on!!! Usually our stockings are just hung on a shelf... this year we were ready for Santa!

Love our new house decorated for Christmas!!

 

 

Every year, I tell Blakely all the storied behind our ornaments as we put them on the Christmas tree. May not be the most designer, beautiful tree, but it is full of precious memories from our family.

So we thought that if the kids don't like Santa, maybe they would warm up to him if PopPop dressed up like Santa. After all, PopPop is like their favorite playmate. We could not have been more wrong! This is a picture of Blakely screaming as PopPop walked in the room JUST in the red pants and boots!! Banks reaction was just as bad. Poor PopPop.

But WAIT! Does PopPop have my 12-days Presents?

Blakely loved opening her 12-Days-of-Christmas presents each day... her favorite gift (probably of all of Christmas) was a box of plastic bugs! So strange, and who would have guessed, but she LOVES them!!

 

On December 20th, GrandAnnie and GrandPop arrived for the Christmas festiviites!! It was unseasonably warm, so Blakely and GrandPop got to enjoy some "fall fun!"

She loved playing in the leaves with her Grandpop!

 

My little chef also helped decorate Christmas cookies for friends and family. She was very focused and diligent in her decorating. She placed the M&M's and sprinkles on one at a time!! So careful and precise.

Daddy sampling Blakely's handiwork!

She enjoyed eating them as much as decorating.... she ate ALL the M&M's off the top of the cookies (as fast as you please) and then kept asking "more cook-ie, more cook-ie."

Can't wait til this little chef gets to help me more in the kitchen!! Such a big girl.

 

 

23 Months Old

December 3rd: 23 Months Old

Big, big changes for the Monk family! We bought our first REAL home!! On November 22nd we closed on our first grown-up house!! We own the land, the walls and no one is attached to us!! It's amazing, and we are so excited to have a room for EVERYONE to sleep in and a yard to play in. We feel so blessed to get to have such a beautiful home for our growing family, and we can't wait to see how God uses this blessing in our lives.

WELCOME HOME!! Not sure why, but I failed to take a picture of the exterior of our home.... the next post!!

Highlights from the Month:
- Closed on our first home!!! (November 22nd)
- Blakely LOVES to play in boxes and ride on blankets.
- Communicating with us like crazy... 2-3 word phrases ("Dad where go?" "Help up!")
- Loves to play in her new yard.... hours of fun with sticks, pine straw, and acorns. This girl is in heaven.

Picture Highlights from the Month:

Our front door

I love this beautiful front porch.... looks like a yard sale with all this furniture jammed on it. Can't wait to enjoy rocking Katy Ellis outside this spring.

No furniture yet for this room, but it will be Richard's office eventually. Loving my hardwood (slightly grossed out by my carpets in my old house!)!!!

This will be the dinning room. Notice the trend??? No furniture! HA! This is what happens when you move from a 1500 sq. ft. home to 4000 sq. ft. home.... empty rooms. Eventually, these rooms will have furniture... for now Blakely is enjoying running around all the extra space.

Still love my Pottery Barn wrought iron and crystal chandelier.... might have stolen from our townhouse.

Breakfast nook and a peek into the kitchen.

This room is such a hodge-podge of my favorite things from the our townhouse. No room in the budge currently for new furniture, but I gathered my favorite things together and this room feels fresh and new!!

Eventually, our King sized bed will come to Lexington!! Loving out tray ceilings!

Master bath... planning to paint the walls a light gray. Hoping to achieve a spa-esque look in here.

Jet tub!!!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my new kitchen.

My favorite feature is the above/below cabinet lighting with a dimmer switch.

The first time I came to see the house, I couldn't get in. All I got to see was the backyard, but that was enough. I knew it was our house! I told Rich on the phone, "we will be making an offer on this house!" When we were trapped in our tiny townhouse, we always dreamed of having a home that had just as much outdoor living space as indoor. The front door of the townhouse is 10 ft from the street and the backdoor is 10 ft from an alligator pond... not ideal for an outdoor loving toddler! This house has a HUGE backyard that was already fenced in, with a playground, a big screened in porch, a new flagstone patio with a beautiful outdoor kitchen!! What more could a girl ask for? The backyard is STILL one of my favorite things about this house. 

Our new neighbor hood is called Governor's Grant. It is a beautiful neighborhood of all custom built homes. There are the light rolling hills of the midlands and the beautiful trees of an established neighborhood. The neighborhood also boasts a playground, clubhouse and olympic size swimming pool! Can't wait for the fun we will have this summer at the pool!!

Blakely absolute LOVES to play on our bed!! She will take you by the hand and lead you in to our room and say "bed, please!" Who could refuse that face?

She loves to tickle and wrestle. She has even learned to do a front roll. She loves making mommy pretend to sleep, snore and then shoot up and shout "Morning!!" She giggles like crazy, hugs me and shouts "Mornin' " right back!

Giving her Baby doll a sweet kiss! This girl is going to be SUCH a good big sister!!

First real meal (ie not pizza or cereal) in our new home! Publix recipe called "Chicken Tender Bake." This super simple recipe is a new Monk family favorite that is worth googling and trying!

More wrestling on Mommy and Daddy's bed.

This is Daddy's girl!!

"MORNING!!"

Why do I even bother buying her nice toys, when a box is so much fun?