It's the Greatest Time of Year

   Last week Michael's parents came down and we got to see them Tuesday night, all of Wednesday, and Thursday morning. They brought all of our presents down so they wouldn't need to ship them later and I loved having them displayed under the decorations Michael put up. I love how he enhanced the wreath by adding berry twigs and snowy branches!

  Below is our family Christmas photo from last year at Winnie Palmer hospital which was taken before we flew up to Michigan for her surgery. I didn't pick the best time to dye my hair black, haha!

   After we got our tree last Wednesday Michael did all the work getting it set up and brought the Christmas ornaments down from the attic.

 He found out half of the bulbs on the string lights were busted and he didn't have enough replacements to fill the whole tree, so he went to Lowes and got more. While he was gone Michael's parents were being extra wonderful making dinner for us while I had a photoshoot with Emma.

 Our dog, Sasha, who is 10 years old, was being very needy this evening, so we gave her extra attention while Emma was being loved on by GiGi and Grandpa Al.

 Emma helped us hang up the gingham candy cane that she got at Cracker Christmas two weeks ago. Michael partially held on to it and directed her hand to a branch since lately she has been liking to either immediately drop the thing we put in her hand, or she shakes it a few times then throws it! The little chocolate chip cookie charm was given to me by my mom when I was pregnant since Emma's nickname was "Chip" before we found out the gender. I thought it would be nice to turn it into an ornament. I did the same with my Shrimp necklace charm and hung it at the top of the tree by the angel.

     We love having family dinner especially when Emma joins us and gets to use her high chair, but this evening she was not having it and began crying, so we put her back in the living room. She seemed really tired and we were sure she would immediately fall asleep, but surprisingly she did not.
   It was a really great time together with Michael's parents and luckily they were able to stop by again the next morning for an hour before driving home. We'll have to wait until April to see them again, but I am positive Emma will be sitting up on her own by then!! She can balance up to 5 seconds now, and the other night I noticed that both of her second molars on the bottom are coming in already. :)