Christmas Portraits

If you recall, every year Ema buys the grandchildren matching outfits and we try and catch a portrait of them...

This year was the CUTEST outfit yet. The girls wore brown shirts, black leggings, black boots and a cheeta petiskirt!

We caught a few cute photos...

The boys wanted to wear hats, so we let it go...but this was the best we could get.

Merry Christmas from the wild Tremper clan.

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas Eve was spent with mommy's side of the family.

We tried to line all of the kids up to open their gifts for photo purposes, and it lasted for one gift.

Ema made each grandchild matching pajamas.

Here is a little glimpse of what they look like... they are awesome.

It is Claire's first nightgown. The boys got pirate two piece pajamas.

I made all of the kids sock ponies, and boy were they a hit with the twins.

After they opened these bad boys, they didn't want to open any more.

We were so happy to get a set of family rocking chairs!

I cannot wait to rock on our porch in the spring.

And I caught the most special moment of all this Christmas!

Christmas morning we woke up at home and opened our gifts from Santa.

Claire got a new kitchen! She has not stopped playing with it since.

This was the one special think Santa brought to her. We want her to know and appreciate the real meaning of Christmas, so each year we will be giving one nice gift from Santa.

Claire helped daddy open his painting...

And Claire and Mommy gave Daddy a guitar!

After Christmas at our house, we went to visit Daddy's family for gifts and lunch.

Claire got her first car...watch out!

Paintin'

We were invited to our dear friend's home, Leila and Erin, to paint some pictures for Christmas for Daddy.
Since Erin is an amazing artist, she has great canvases and wonderful paints that we set up for the girls.

It took Claire a long time to get used to it, she had never painted anything before, so she had no idea what to think of it.
Leila on the other hand was a pro! She was dipping her brush in paint and knew exactly where to paint.

Finally we go tthe hang of it, and although Claire only painted one side of the canvas, it was perfect.
I am so excited to give it to Daddy on Christmas morning.
I realized as I was loading these photos up that it was before Christmas...so I kindly asked him to steer clear of the blog until then.

We had so much fun, and I can't wait to get some paints and canvases at home so we can decorate our entire house with her art.

(photo credits: Erin Sullivan)

Gyro Bowl

Claire got a Gyro bowl for her birthday... it was a little advanced then, and we just busted it out to see if she could use it.
This thing is genius.
She can walk around with a snack, and it won't spill!

It is a bowl inside of a bowl and it pivots so even if it is turned upside down, the interior bowl flips
as well and nothing falls out.
I love it.

Santa

One of Daddy's co-workers has Santa to her house every year for her grandchildren.
She invited us this year and we decided to take Claire to see this Santa instead of waiting for hours at the mall.
We have been talking and singing about Santa for 2 months now, so I thought for sure she would be ecstatic.

Not so much...She stood for all of 3 minutes before she lost it.

She cried anytime we put her down in the same room as him.
I think those crying photos of children with Santa are quite humorous, but we couldn't make her sit on his lap.

So we grabbed a quick family photo, which she dispised as well.

HOLLYWOOD

Nativity

Grammy gave Claire a fisher price Nativity set, which we love. We set up all of the animals, wise men,
Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus a few times, and now she will try and set them up the exact same way.

Baby Jesus is her favorite one.
We can say, "Go get baby Jesus", and she will know exactly which one to find.

stool

I bought a little stool at Chartreuse a few months ago and it fits perfectly in a little cubby in our kitchen.
It is pretty much Claire's stool now...she loves to sit on it, and have her snacks on it.

potty

Since my child must follow me everywhere and be touching me at all times, I decided to get her a potty.
That way, when she needs to be next to me while I use the potty, she has a place to sit.
She now claps and says "yay" when mommy uses the potty, and when she sits on her potty as well.
Let us hope this means potty training will be soon to follow!