A Welte Family Christmas: Our Elf Breakfast

Our Elf, "Chippy" made the girls a good-bye breakfast on Christmas Eve morning. We woke up to our table fully set, powder doughnuts on the table, and a letter from our elf. 

The girls had their Santa plates, a hot chocolate package, a Santa straw, and a candy cane at their places.

We ate powder doughnuts. 

And, "elf hats" made of bananas and strawberries. 

Our elf also set out magic snow for the girls to play in.

Gretchen was surprised and then so thrilled and excited!

Gretchen kept talking about how this was the best breakfast ever and that our elf should do this every year, and I totally agree! The look on their faces was priceless.

After breakfast, the girls helped clean up, and then we went into the office and the girls called Santa on the computer.

I just can't even describe the look of magic in Gretchen's eyes. She was talking to Santa when he asked questions, and had the biggest smile on her face while watching their videos.

She was thrilled to find out that she was on the nice list!

I don't think Meggie quite understood, but she was still excited!

Then the girls enjoyed playing in their snow.

Addy finally joined us later that morning, after she woke up from her first night sleeping in her own room in her crib!

I finally decided that it was time for her to make the transition to her room in hopes of us all sleeping better at night. I was nervous that her crying would wake up Megan, but we've been closing Megan's door after she falls asleep, and Addy's only been waking up twice a night.

I started putting her to bed sometime between 7:15 and 8 pm, and then she woke up the first two nights around 9:30, but went back to sleep. Because we've had late nights getting ready for Christmas, I would feed her around 10:30 or 11 before I went to bed. She's woken up around 1:30, but was able to fall back to sleep without being fed, and then she's woken up around 5:30 to eat. I already am so grateful that we made the choice to move her, and she's still been a happy girl!

Addy Pearl's First Christmas!

By: Unknown On 05.45

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IPhone Picture Re-Cap

Last week was nothing short of a miracle that we survived. The girls and I were home Monday and Tuesday thanks to more snow days. I was honestly glad to be off on Monday, but by Tuesday, I was ready to get back to work. I had planned to take the girls to the movie Tuesday morning, and then decided that I might be crazy bundling them up and taking all three girls to the movie by myself. So, we stayed home and made gingerbread houses instead. (I'll post more about that later this week.)

 

I was ready to get back to work on Wednesday, until I realized this:

I hadn't actually caught up on laundry over the break.

 

I mean, I did once, and then I got behind again.

 

We spent this past weekend trying to catch up (again). I'm pretty sure laundry will be a daily chore in my house. Forever.

I decided to go ahead and send out Christmas cards this year. I went back and forth about sending out cards, and finally last week I decided I should go ahead and do it. They'll likely be late going out seeing as to how I just ordered them last week and they still haven't arrived, so I went with something sort of non-Christmasy.

 

I was working on the card, and sent DJ the picture above and he told me absolutely no to the pictures I had chosen! I loved the picture of Megan picking her nose and Gretchen freezing in the snow, but DJ was afraid someone would call CPS on us after receiving our card.

I was going to save this for a What I Wear Wednesday post, but really- should I show me off in my pj's? I'm still not sure..... but it was so cold every day last week that I just wanted to get home and put on pajamas. I've had these for about 6 years and I love them. I think they'll be my Christmas morning pajamas this year.

Our elf stole a hair bow last week and hung out in the bathroom.

 

And yes, that is a picture of Meggie sucking on her "dede" and sitting on the potty. She just looked so cute and I couldn't resist taking the picture and then framing it.

 

After we survived the work week, we were ready to enjoy some family time this weekend!

 

DJ and I took the girls to see Frozen on Saturday (pics to be posted later). If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it! We'll be adding it to our DVD library!

Once we got home Saturday afternoon, Addy Pearl just wanted to be held! I put her in the bjorn and carried her around until she fell asleep. Then I sat down and enjoyed resting! I thought I may never have to get up!

Our elf was found taking a ride on the toy train.

Addy Pearl before going to bed on Saturday night.

I got the best news ever when I found out Sunday morning that my best friend got engaged this weekend!!!!! I know she's been anxiously awaiting for her man to pop the question over the last year.... or maybe, all of her family and friends have been anxiously awaiting! I may or may not have shed a few tears of happiness for her!

And lastly, I took the girls to see Santa when we were in Branson, and I finally snapped a picture of the picture with my phone, so I could post it online. Aren't their Christmas pajamas precious!

 

And y'all, it's 5 more days of the work week before I get two weeks off over Christmas break! I'm counting them down, because this week, just may be my busiest work week ever!

By: Unknown On 08.21

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Deck the Halls!

It's finally time for my Christmas decorations post!!! I love Christmas and I love Christmas decorations! I've mentioned it before, but DJ and I were given a Christmas-theme wedding shower and so many of my decorations came from our shower and I've picked up a few pieces through the years, and I just love this time of year!

It took the girls and I an entire day to decorate the house and another evening to put our tree up as a family. Every day we come home and we get to soak in all of our hard work and I just love looking at our lights.

Before we get started, here are a few more pictures of our elf:

Hanging out in the tree.

The girls made paper ornaments one morning, and our elf took them back to Santa that night. The next day our elf was found with a letter from Santa thanking the girls for the ornaments.

I have frames, Santa's, and our Christmas card basket on an end table in our living room. The album was a gift from our Wedding shower and it holds many of our pictures from our first few Christmas' together. Now, I make albums in Shutterfly and we have the books in our living room.

On this table I placed more of my wooden decorations. The three wooden Santa's and the smaller one were given to me by my mom. The "snow" set was given to me at a shower and I bought the "Noel" sign when we lived in Indiana from a little Christmas store at the mall.

(Close-up)

I have a framed picture of the girls visit to Santa and another Santa figure with a few coasters on our DVD stand.

I decorated our mantle with holly bushes, garland, burlap ribbon and red feather picks. We have snowflake ornament holders that I purchased at Hobby Lobby, and our stockings came from Lillian Vernon. I do finally have Adalyn's stocking; I just took this picture before we had it!

Gretchen really wanted the banister decorated this year, so this is what I came up with.

Our nativity is in the entry way along with a few framed pictures.

In our kitchen, I have a nativity light and a Santa face. The nativity light was given to me at our Christmas-theme shower, and I bought the Santa face in Monroe, La at Paul Michaels.

I decided to decorate the chandelier in the kitchen with garland, red beads, and ornaments.

We have a tiny antique sewing stand with a butcher block top in the kitchen, and I placed all of my gingerbread men decorations, along with our Santa advent.

(Close up)

I set a few platters on top of the kitchen cabinets.

Added a cheese block, cookie jar, and spoon rest near the stove.

We have the Spode dinnerware collection that we use every December. I take down all of our plates and dishes out of the cabinets and replace it with our Spode. I also have the cups and a few baking pieces, and we use those throughout the month.

This year, I decided to not use our angel as a tree topper and I am so glad that I changed it up! I used some holly, pearls, feathers, and glittering picks stuffed in the top.

Here's our entire tree.

Our ornaments are a mix of what we were given at our wedding shower, a few that we've picked up on travels, several that my mom has bought the girls, and a few handmade ones that the girls have completed at school. I love that it's a hodge podge of so many memories.

Don't forget to check out yesterday's Elf on the Shelf post, and remember that my Facebook page is an open wall right now and you can post your own Elf on the Shelf pictures to share with others! I may even give away a few coupon codes!

By: Unknown On 06.20

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Our Elf on the Shelf ~ A Few Ideas For You

Our elf came back to our house on December 1st. He was waiting for us when the girls and I came home from our Branson trip. I called DJ to make sure that he had arrived and he happily reported that our elf had been waiting on the girls to get home!

 

Once we came in, Gretchen found our elf all set up with his book and he had used green and red m&m candy to spell out "Hi I missed you".... the red candies were used as a border and the leftovers were placed in a bowl for the girls to enjoy!

Gretchen was so excited that our elf had come back!

Meggie on the other hand was a little shy about him, and finally warmed up when she realized he had brought candy, to which she happily referred to as "elves".... She would say, "I want more elves" and then go grab a few more M&M's.

 

Later that night, we read the book, and Gretchen decided to name our elf Chippy. Last year, it's name was Sally, and I think it was something different the year before. Gretchen likes to change his name every year.

 

Our elf has been very busy over the last few weeks!

He made a snow angel in honor of the snow we had.

He celebrated Hawaiin style and relaxed for the day while snacking on a hershey kiss, popcorn, and enjoying a drink.

One day he shoved himself into a cannister of ornaments.

And another, he was giving Santa a huge hug.

 

(Random fact: I'm not sure where this Santa decoration comes from, but DJ and I had it before we had children, and Gretchen's name is actually on the list! Claire, Megan's middle name is on the list too, and I've thought about adding Megan above it, and then figuring out how to add Addy's name as well.)

Chippy decided to hang out on the microwave ledge one night. I just prayed he didn't get too much radiation poisoning.

And then he took a ride in a LaLaLoopsy ferris wheel.

 

This morning the girls found him as the tree topper in our Christmas tree!

 

I'm having a link up party today on my facebook page! You'll be able to post pictures of your elf in action all day!

 

And you can follow our daily elfgrams on instagram with #honeypieaccessories

 

See last year's Elf on the Shelf ideas here.

By: Unknown On 06.58

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