Brooklynn's New Couch

Brooklynn adores her new couch. We try and keep it in her room in the closet "special area" for her to read on but most of the time it's out in the living room. She watches tv on it, reads on it, puts all her babies on it. She looks at us and pats it and says, "sit! sit!"

She loves to share, too. Whenever Cece comes over she tries to get her to sit on it with her and she will for a minute or two, but Cece is at the pretty busy age and always on the move. No time for sitting.

We will get many years of use out of this. I'm pretty excited because I've wanted to get it for her for almost a year now and Josh made me wait to put it on her Christmas list.

Thank you Aunt Charity, Uncle James, Adeline and Andrew! We love it!

Pillow Pet

Brooklynn LOVES her new Pillow Pet. It has even made it in the rotation with her Baba and bee blanket with things she brings from her bed out to the living room when she wakes up. AND it's a bee, so I of course love it. It goes with her room. AND it's yellow which is always a bonus in Brooklynn's opinion. 

Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa Ashley!

Big Rumbler Truck

Brooklynn loves her new truck! We were really excited to get a truck for Brooklynn. It's normally thought of as a "boy toy" so I don't think anyone would think to get it for her, but she LOVES them in the toy store and when we play at other places. So I asked for one for Christmas. She is pretty excited about it. She's only tried to actually ride it a couple of times. Mostly it's the little guy it came with or her babies. Thank you, Aunt Erin! We love it!

 This picture I totally had to post because she's so mad. She kept trying to pose with the truck for a picture but would turn it on so it would be shaking and then hit her in the head. We kept trying to tell her NOT to turn it on and to give it a hug but she kept turning it on anyway. And she kept crying. So I took a picture.

Baby All-Gone

Brooklynn LOVES her new Baby All-Gone. It is by far her favorite baby and she carries it around with her all the time. She's becoming such a little Mommy.

Thank you for the present, Aunt Betsey!

 

Tag Jr.

Brooklynn got a Tag, Jr. for Christmas. She loved her cousin's regular Tag systems over Thanksgiving, and my sister explained that they make a Jr. version for 2-4 year-olds! I had no idea they even made these. I usually skip this aisle at the toy store because I assume they're too old for Brooklynn still. Well she LOVES it! She even knows how to use it. (Even though most of the time she just loves turning it on and off again.) I knew she would love it because she loves books so much. How fun that she can actually interact with them by herself now! She loves it! Thanks again to Andi, Marc and the girls! We love it!

Brooklynn's Stroller

Brooklynn really loves her stroller. So much that she's been EATING it.

Ashley Christmas

Here is the entire Ashley Family! It's weird to think that next year at Christmas there will be two more added to the family!

Our annual sister picture!

Diana, Jacob & Bernie

We do Stockings first at the Ashley house!

Our family picture. We didn't sit in front of the tree this time because we all wanted to start opening presents.

Brooklynn LOVES her new magnets!

Thank you everyone for all of our presents! We love everything!

Bean Christmas

Christmas morning! Look at all those presents! I especially love how festive the fireplace looks. So Christmas-y.

I really like the tradition of reading the Christmas story right before we open presents. It helps everyone remember the true meaning of Christmas and help us set our focus on the spirit of giving.

Muskegon Beans with their first presents. They sat like this for the whole Christmas story. What good discipline. (Brooklynn sneakily opened her present before it was time.)

Brooklynn LOVED opening presents. I think she also loved everything inside them but I'm not sure she made the connection that opening the presents=receiving a gift. I think she just liked tearing the paper off, and then, oooh, what is this toy? This wasn't here earlier!

I guess Andrew wanted to put his train down his Pajamas. He's such a silly boy.

Brooklynn has been wanting her own couch since April when James and Charity brought theirs to Florida. She sat on it every chance she got. I tried to buy one for her on sale and Josh wouldn't let me, he just kept saying, "put it on her Christmas list." It was so long to wait for both of us, but we're really excited we actually got it! Thank you, James, Charity, Adeline and Andrew! Brooklynn will love it for many years, I'm sure! (And so will Gabriella when she's big enough to sit on it.)

Brooklynn and Andrew sitting on her new couch. I wish I could fit right in the middle of them.

Josh starting his career as a Dad putting things together during Christmas. He's official now. :)

He is putting together the truck that Erin got for Brooklynn. She played with it for like half an hour at the toy store and was again SO excited to open it. Now she has her very own truck! Thank you, Erin!

A very happy Adeline with her Pillow Pet. That is all she wanted for Christmas. She even sang the entire theme song from the commercial when you asked her what she wanted for Christmas. (And I must give a shout out to the Pillow Pet company. WAY TO GO this Christmas. Every kid I know got one this year.)

A very cute picture of Adeline and Betsey.

Charity was the popular one with the kids during present time. Maybe next time I'll sit on the floor.

Brooklynn got some shoes that are sparkly, glittery, and best of all, LIGHT UP! She loves them and every time she wears them she points and says, "oooooooo!" Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa!

Andrew opening his 150 balls. I couldn't think of a better gift for him, nor a better boy to receive that as a gift. It was a no-brainer.

Brooklynn and Andrew both were pretty excited about her "Baby All-Gone." Brooklynn has been playing with it in the stores for months now so we're really excited she got it for Christmas! Thank you, Aunt Betsey!

Adeline with her new Tag system.

Brooklynn opening her stroller. She LOVES her new stroller and plays with it all day, every day. Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa!

Brooklynn with her favorite presents from the Beans:

Her stroller, two new babies (that is "Baby All-Gone" in the back), her very own truck that makes noise and even moves, and her new couch! Thank you so much, everyone! We're working on thank-you notes, but Brooklynn is so busy playing with all her presents it's hard to tear her away.

Mom Bean opening her sweatshirt. It had the kid's pictures AND all of their handprints on it. It was so cute.

Betsey modeling some type of yellow reflective vest? I think it's for her running?

Josh's reaction when he realized that our HUGELY wrapped present, was in fact the GPS that he wanted.

Adeline helping Betsey look at the picture she drew all over her present. Aunt Betsey got to be the favorite Aunt for the day because she got Adeline her beloved Pillow Pet.

We let the kids open their presents first. Clearly, we need to hire a babysitter for next year to keep them all busy. I think Brooklynn probably ate about 10 cookies while we weren't paying attention, and the collage below highlights some of the things she got into while we were doing that. From top left: she's sitting IN my new basket, she and Andrew opening my present from under the tree, lying underneath the tree next to all the presents in her own little world, and finally a shot of her helping Josh open his present.

Letting Brooklynn help open presents seemed to be a winner. Here she is opening one of Gabby's presents. We told her it was for her and she put each tiny piece of paper on my belly. It was so sweet.

Trying to get a shot of Andrew with his underwear over his pjs, and with a bow on his head. He took the bow off and this is the best one from the front.

After presents we do stockings. This year we put the kids to bed and did stockings when they woke up. (And even though we all had to wait, I'm thinking EVERYONE was happy with that decision.)

Andrew modelling some pretty sweet goggles.

Brooklynn seemed to be more into what Adeline was doing.

Brooklynn really focused on opening her present.

Andrew with Grandpa. AND presents to open. Life doesn't get much better than this for Andrew.