Easter, The Almeida Way.

It all began early Sunday morning with an egg hunt...
...with the reward of baskets.

Excitement was written on Emma's face.

Bubbles in Jammies

Ready to go out for the day.

Gifts for sweet little boys and girls.

Even a new puppy to play with. (Hi Jazy)

Ethan wasn't to sure.

Hi Lauren!

Egg Hunt #2 Katelyn and Emma did all of the finding.

Pops and all seven of his grandkids.

Lucy

Home by 7.
Josh considered it a perfect holiday.

Christmas Take 3?

I think this counts as our third part of Christmas. Today Nanny and Grampy gave by with more gifts. Nanny had to work on Christmas so we had to have a make up day the next night.

Now for the aftermath...

Can you tell I spent the whole day cleaning?

Christmas with the Almeida Family

We were spoiled again this year. It began on Christmas Eve. Every year my in-laws host a Christmas Eve party at their home. Emma and Ethan received many wonderful gifts that Emma was very excited for. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures because I left my camera in the car, sorry!

When we got home I began cleaning for Santa. Santa will not leave presents at a messy house because if your home is messy you are not taking care of your things. I looked over at our nativity set and I noticed a few strange things. Can you find anything wrong with this picture?

There are actually two things wrong. The first is that their is a Fisher Price baby Jesus in this set. That one, surprisingly enough, is not the baby that came with our set. I still had our Jesus "up in Heaven" because I do not put him in until Christmas. Well, for the second year in a row that was making Emma crazy so she supplied us with her own baby Jesus.

The second thing that doesn't belong is the cowboy behind Joseph. I guess he is just guarding everyone. That is very kind of him.

Emma was so excited to leave snacks for Santa and his reindeer. She was so excited to go to bed on Christmas Eve. It was really fun how she "gets it" this year.
We had an Elf On a Shelf this year (Click here to learn more). If you have any toddlers I highly recommend this for next year. Emma really enjoyed searching for him each morning. You are not supposed to touch the elf, our elf is named China, because they loose their magic if you handle them too much. We made an exception on Christmas Eve since he would be heading back to the North Pole on Santa's sleigh. We will miss China a lot!

Santa Came!
He left two sacks of goodies and a huge train table with all the train stuff you could ever need.

Ethan woke up first

Then Emma and Daddy

"Just what I wanted a Belle dress!"

The Christmas Chaos at our house

The best gift of 2008

The family picture with a reluctant 3 year old

Then we were off to my Grandparents for round 2

The Retelle Side

My dad finding out what Santa has in his sack.

Princess Aurora peeking out from the forest (aka Christmas tree)

Lauren's Fancy new Ristmas Socks. They are all the rage

Now for this boy...

He happens to be my almost 18 year old brother. He gave us quite a scare on Christmas. Apparently he hit a patch of black ice on the way home and ended up flipping his car onto its roof. Thankfully he is fine, his car is not so lucky. I am just so thankful that he is fine. Love you Bob, take it slow please. <3

Thanksgiving...blah!

My Thanksgiving was less than wonderful. I felt terrible...turns out I had Strep Throat. I am positive that those kids at school got me sick. I have had at least 5 kids with Strep in class and one that refuses to stay home. He wants perfect attendance. Why I don't know but he is making all of us sick!

Now that I have been taking medicine for 2 days I feel like a billion times better. I felt bad that I was such a terrible guest at Matt and Steph's house but I just felt lousy. The food was great and the kids had fun and that is what matters most. On the way home we stopped at my grandparents so I could infect the rest of the family before heading home (*wink*wink*).

Now look at little man's new trick. Yup! He can pull himself up to standing.

He's still not officially crawling but he can pull himself up on his feet. He is still moving like an inch worm (army crawling) on his tummy. He can get where he wants to for sure though and he is already torturing his big sister, but what are little brothers for?

Hayden stopped by for a little while on Friday to play with Emma. They had a great time playing dressup and Playmobile.

(Photo Removed Due to Grandparents Paranoia.)

Jammie Party with Hayden.

Emma wants him to come back, "Oh pretty please Mommy. I want him to come back." That is all I have been hearing today.