Our Family Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. We had the Christmas Eve party at our house this year. The weather was very bad out and a lot of people already had plans, so it was small and nice. Madi was so excited Christmas Eve day that she was non stop and we could not keep her in bed for nap time. But she did very well that evening for not having a nap and it made it easier at bedtime because she was spent. We were so afraid she would get up and come out while we were putting presents under the tree.

Santa came undetected, ate his cookies and milk and the reindeer ate their carrots that Madi left. She even drew a picture and left it under the tree for Santa. He left her a nice note in return and way too many presents! Madi was up at 6:30 and was very excited. "Mommy, Santa left presents, Santa left presents! Let's go open them!" I sent her to the bathroom while Chris and I got up and before we made out to the living room, Chris heard wrapping paper being torn. And of course, the first present to be opened was her sewing machine!!! She was so excited and I wanted to get her reaction on camera, but we were too late. Oh well, it was fun to watch her and all her excitement. Even after telling her during the day who some of the presents were from, she still thinks everything came from Santa!! We opted to let Evan sleep and not get him up for presents. He really has no idea what is going on this year. And I am glad we let him sleep. I would have had to feed him and miss watching Madi open her gifts. It was nice to give her all the attention one last Christmas.

After we opened our gifts and played and picked up a bit. Dan, Jane and Jon came out with their gifts and we opened again. Again, all those gifts were also from Santa! We did more playing and cleaning up and started making lunch. My parents came out and joined us for Christmas. It was a wonderful day. And my wonderful husband did all the cooking this year. It was very amazing and he did a great job!


After opening her sewing machine.


My Happy Christmas Baby!!


Loving the exersaucer!


Madi's team shirt! She told Grandma she wanted a team shirt with her name and the number 3 on it. She opened that gift and immediately tore off her other shirt and put her team shirt on. She was so excited. That night she took it off and folded it and layed it on her table in her room. I asked her why she didn't put it in her hamper and she said she didn't want to get it dirty. First thing the next morning she woke up and put that shirt back on. I thought oh no, she is going to want to wear this shirt everyday!! Later in the afternoon of the second day, we ended up turning the shirt around and wearing it backwards because she wanted to see her name and 3!! She is just too much fun sometimes!


Sleepy baby.

New Year's Eve we are having a get together with the Gengler family and New Year's Day we are spending the day with my parents and Jason, Tabatha and Jaxson to have our family Christmas. Fun and busy weekend coming up!!

Happy New Year!!!
Love, Amy

Merry Christmas!

We are ready for Christmas. I have a couple of things to pick up from the grocery store tonight. We are having the Christmas Eve get together at our house this year. And then Christmas Day we are doing the lunch for Chris' family and my parents. It will be a nice day and I am looking forward to it. Chris is taking Thursday off and has a very long list of baking things he wants to do. So, it will be a very messy day at our house and hopefully he can get what he wants done and I can get the mess cleaned up before the party! And I have all the wrapping left to do. I am not very motivated to get wrapping done this year and I don't know why. I need to hire someone to do my wrapping!!



Here are some pictures from this last week. We had a fairly busy week last week. Madi had her Christmas Program and party at school on Thursday. We also got to go see Santa at Kennedy and Coe on Thursday.

Here's my smiley man!! I can't get enough of those smiles. He is a pretty happy and content little guy. We also had a huge milestone Friday night. He slept all night long!!!! And has slept every night since! Merry Christmas to me!! Very exciting!

Madi at her Christmas Program. I didn't realize that the settings on my camera for my flash were wrong until later that night after the program and seeing Santa were all over. Very disappointing, all my pictures were blurry from the day. :(




Meeting Santa.

She sat on his lap this year, no problems. She asked for her sewing machine again. And after opening her gift, she had a sad face. We asked her what was wrong and she said Santa didn't give me a sewing machine. We had to assure her that the gift that we ask Santa for will come Christmas morning under the tree. This was just an extra gift.

My special present!!

Playing!



Madi's snowman. First his name was Frosty. Then once we added the hat, he became Daddy!

Last Saturday night we went and looked at lights around town. Evan wasn't interested very much!!

But Madi loved the lights and was excited to see the Georgetown Santa's!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Love, The Helm's

3 Months Old

Evan turned 3 months old on Friday. Time is going fast, I can't believe it's already been 3 months! Not a lot of changes going on right now. He is holding his head up very well and has graduated to playing in the exersaucer. He loves it. He doesn't really play with anything on it but he likes to look at all the bright colors and loves being able to sit up. He isn't much of a floor player. But that could be because he gets a little crowded in on with big sister when he is on the floor. He probably feels a little more safe in the exersaucer.

The last two weeks he is sleeping for longer stretches at night. YEAH!! Last night I was so surprised because he ate at 9:00, went to bed at 10:30 and slept until 3:30, ate and slept until 8:45!!! What was even better was that Madi also slept until 8:45, Momma got some good rest!! He is still eating about every 3-4 hours during the day and I would love to get that stretched out a little too. One step at a time!

He is a very happy boy and loves to be talked to and also has big grins when Madi sings to him. It is very cute. Of course I have no pictures of it because as soon as I get the camera out he stares at it and clams up. I'm going to try to get more pictures taken. But like everything else around here, I just don't seem to have the time to get it done. But here are some pictures from this last month.


Visiting deer camp


Playing patty cake with Madi.


Sleepy time in the swing.

I also updated our family picture slide show on the right side of the page. Check out the awesome pictures that Andrea did. I got very large pictures of the two of them together and then the individual pictures to put on the wall in the living room. They are gorgeous and can't wait to get the old pics down and holes repaired in the wall and get them up. My Christmas present to me this year!!

Have a great week!
Love, Amy

Christmas, Christmas Time is Here

Madi is so in to Christmas this year, it has been really fun. She has been talking about Santa and visiting Santa since July! And once Halloween was over, to her, it was Christmas time. So, last weekend when we told her we were putting up the tree, she was so excited!! I put the tree up and it only takes five minutes, it's pre-lit and all the branches are attached, super easy to put up and plug in. Unfortunately, our poor tree had some major electrical issues this year. But it was so funny and so precious. Madi was standing in front of the tree when I plugged it in. Only two little sections of lights came on but Madi's reaction could only come from the innocence of a child! "WOWWW, it's like magic!" She didn't care that not all the lights came on, she was in total awe. Priceless!!

We tried to get the lights working but it just didn't work. We would replace one bulb and it would flicker on and then pop another bulb. Totally not safe to even try and fix. Luckily I had bought an extra tree last year on Black Friday and had a back up. I took my $20 tree out of the box and Chris' reaction was "Nice Charlie Brown tree Amy!" It looked very sad and thin. But with a lot of fluffing of the branches, it looks really nice now. Madi decorated our Charlie Brown tree all by herself this year. She was so proud of herself and it looks amazing!! I especially love that all the decorations are on the bottom two rows of branches! I could just eat her up, she is so darn cute! I did end up adding some balls to the top part of the tree just to finish it off. But every day she asks for more decorations to put on the tree.





Now the tree is up and every day this week when she would get up in the morning and at nap time, she comes out to the tree and says "No presents yet? When is Santa going to leave the presents?" After telling her several times in terms that she doesn't understand yet, I finally got the advent calendar made. I've seen a lot of neat ideas and different ways to do advent calendars. But I just don't have any time to do any crafty things this year. I remember making a Santa and filling in his beard with cotton balls to countdown to Christmas when I was younger. So that's what I made and she loves it! Except now she keeps asking every night if she can put all of the cotton balls on. I don't know if she wants to fill it all in because she likes to put the cotton balls on or if she has caught on yet that once it is all filled in, it is Christmas day. That's what I remind her every evening that when it is filled in then it will be Christmas day and Santa will come that night with gifts. Then we count the open spots.



We went shopping last weekend and saw Santa at Wal-Mart while we were there. Madi will see a toy or something she wants and she'll say "I wish I had that." And I'll tell her she needs to tell Santa what she wants for Christmas, we are not buying toys this close to Christmas. So she went and sat with Santa and told him what she wanted and got her picture taken and got a candy cane. She was very excited. I asked her what she told Santa she wanted for Christmas. "I told him I want a sewing machine and he wants to give me a doll! But he didn't give me what I wanted." I had to laugh, she thought he was going to give her her gifts right then! I told her Santa is making his list of things to bring all the kids. He will bring your gift and leave it under the tree. So cute! The only thing she is consistent with that she wants is the sewing machine so that is the only thing she told Santa she wanted. He said that's a new one, do you want a doll too? So she asked for the sewing machine and thinks that Santa also wants to give her a doll!! Maybe I better pick up a doll too, just in case she remembers that!!



This evening we are going to go to the mall and maybe visit Santa there and pick a name off the Angel Tree. I have done the Angel tree the past couple of years but this year Madi will be able to understand what we are doing and help pick something out. I think it is important to not focus only on the receiving part of Christmas but also the giving. That is the fun part of Christmas and also the most memorable. Being able to help others. And I want her to have those kinds of good values.

Love, Amy