Christmas Eve!

We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas! It was so nice to be with my family, mom always has the prettiest decorations and everything smells so Christmas-y. Some of my fondest memories as a child was knowing that Santa was going to come visit me at Mawmaw and Pawpaw's, and that tradition has passed on to Emma now. Santa came to deliver Emma's toys under Nanny and PawPaw's tree this year! But we had our own special Christmas gift opening on Christmas Eve night.

Some pics of Emma with nanny's pretty tree.

Every now and then, I'll let Emma watch SpngeBob, I'm not a huge fan. But she was really excited to get some SpongeBob bubble bath from Nanny and PawPaw!

I just thought this pic was so funny, b/c we are BOTH so excited about Emma's gift!

I gave Emma some lip gloss for Christmas, lately she has been wanting to use mine whenever we are getting ready to go somewhere. So, I thought she'd be excited to have her very own, and let me tell you......SHE WAS! Can you see her sparkly lips?

Nanny was so excited about her Emma calendar! The grandparents have all gotten one each year.

Emma even got to open some of Lilian's gifts, here are a beautiful pair of crocheted booties and dress for her first Easter!

As much as Emma loves to take pics with our digital camera, we thought she'd like having her own, so Nanny and PawPaw got her this awesome "kid proof" digital camera!

Our friends, Mark, Laura Lynn, and Maggie gave Emma some "magic" reindeer food. The sparkles in it helped light up the lawn so Rudolph would know where to land. It was so cute!

She found the perfect spot for it! Okay Santa, we're ready when you are!

Santa Claus Came to Nanny and PawPaw's!

Emma woke up bright and early to see what Santa had left her under the tree!

A bicycle with a helmet and pads to match! He also snacked on the cookies she left out for him!

Trying out her new bicycle in Nanny and PawPaw's house! Thank goodness for hardwood floors, it was way too cold and too rainy to take the bike out that morning :(

A "big girl" backpack! No more diaper bags for mommy....at least for a month or two!

Having more fun on her Dora bike!

After Christmas, Nanny came up and helped us get the room ready for Lilian. Emma loved helping!

Don't be fooled, mom's standing right behind her! She wanted to try rolling on her own :)

Helping daddy with the curtains!

Posting Christmas Pics

I am going to post our Christmas pics on the blog, but I will not be emailing them out, you can just visit www.cranstonfam.blogspot.com to check them out. There are way too many to send in an email and I know you'd probably appreciate me not overloading your email! Hope you all had a great Christmas! We love you!

Amy, Mike, and Emma

Cranston Christmas in B'ham

Sunday we had an early Christmas with Mike's side of the family in Birmingham. We had alot of fun, the two girls Emma and Chloe got to take turns being Santa, bringing gifts to each person.

Mike helping Chloe put on her new Christmas necklace from Emma!


Emma's cool new piggy bank from Alaska, thanks to Amy and Rob!

Emma and Chloe being the little Santa's!

Emma helping mommy open her gift, it's nice to have a little helper these days especially since my tummy is ever expanding!

Emma was so excited to get her new "mommy" zebra from Christie and Jamie, she has a baby one at home and kept asking to get it a mommy.

Emma loves Curious George, this was just one of many Curious George gifts she got and she loved them all :)

We all gave Jamie an autographed picture of Bo Jackson for Christmas, Emma thought it was pretty cool!

Mike modelling his new sunglasses, what a cutie!

Enough said!

Jamie likes to kid Mike and Johnathon about having cabbage patch dolls when they were little boys (granted they were boy dolls dressed in GI Joe outfits), he thought they'd be so excited to get their own little dolls for Christmas! Thanks for the laugh Jamie!

Emma helped Daddy open all of his gifts too!

SILLY GIRL!

What a little personality!

The Big Three-Oh!

Yep! That's right, yesterday marked the day that I have been alive for THREE DECADES! In other words.... YES, I'M THIRTY NOW!.. I'm hanging on (by a very fine thread, mind you) but never-the-less hanging on to the age old saying, "With age comes wisdom", you may not see any grey hairs on my head but I know I've got at least 3! One for every year Emma's been alive :) And after today, I probably have at least 3 more!

All joking aside though, yesterday was a special day! My parents came up to help us celebrate. It was a very special day to me, I really enjoyed being with them and Michael was so sweet, he gave me beautiful roses, took me shopping, and Mom and Dad treated us all to dinner at Macaroni Grill. I'm truly excited about this time in my life. I'm very thankful for the life God has given me and the lessons he has taught me along the way. And I'm looking forward to what this next stage of my life holds!

Guess Who Came to Our House?

This is a tradition we've started with our family b/c I just think it's so much fun! According to German tradition (Mike's mom is of German descent), St. Nicholas visits little boys and girls on the eve of the 5th. That night, the children sit their boots by the front door and in the morning they'll wake up to find St. Nick has filled them with lots of goodies! So, to make it our own we all placed our boots by the front door right before bedtime but of course only after we read a couple of Christmas stories, watched a Christmas movie, and drank some hot chocolate! It was such a fun night! It took Emma a while to go to sleep, I haven't figured out yet if it was the hot chocolate or the excitement of getting her boots filled with goodies!

This is how Emma sat all the boots out!

St. Nick came and he even left some snow from the North Pole!

She was so excited!

And cold, so we hurried back inside!

She said, " I can't believe he knew that I liked curious george jammies, playdough, and paint!"

We still do the traditional stockings on Christmas morning along with Santa gifts but this has been a fun little addition to our Christmas the past 3 years!

Seven Years!

Yesterday, Mike and I celebrated our 7th anniversary! It seems just like yesterday that I was sitting here typing up a blog about our 6th! This past year has really flown by but it has been one of the best yet!

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart........Psalm 37:4