Twin Christmas Princesses

Mae and Emerson Hahn (with Mommy Alicia) modeling their Christmas dresses

Lenn and I with the twins!

Meemaw and Papa Carl with Mae before church

On Sunday, December 27, we got our children all decked out again in their Christmas pretties and went to Carl and Evelyn's church, Union Center Church of the Brethren. One of our friends there has a beautiful 7 month old daughter named Emerson who was dressed in the same dress as Mae so we had to get a picture of the 2 ladies together. Cute.

Christmas 2009--Part 1

Yia Yia and Ella in their pretty pink shirts

Pappou and Yia Yia with Mae.......Mae's mouth is purple......there's a very legitimate reason......it's called "Gentian Violet".......long story

Ella the Fairy Princess

Ready to open our presents......except Mae who'd rather just sleep through the whole thing

Part one of Christmas has come and gone. We spent Christmas Eve day in Columbus with Mimi and Papa Don, Yia Yia and Pappou, and Uncle Tim and Stephanie. We had a great day. Lunch was yummy and the presents were a hit. Personal favorites.........Mae: warmies (Uncle Tim did try to sneak in an "IU" onesie......Mae's already a Boilermaker.....sorry!); Ella: fairy and Cinderella dress up outfits tied for first followed closely by the Princess sleeping bag all courtesy of Uncle Tim and Stephanie; Nicholas: Legos and Knex (again, thank you Uncle Tim and Stephanie.......you rock); Lenn: One Year Bible from Mimi and Papa Don.....nice!; Me: My fleecy polar bear jammies followed closely by my new brown sweater. A fun day was had by all.



We spent Christmas Day at home having a (semi)leisurely day of presents and breakfast and play time. The kids were so fired up to discover that Santa had left them each a board game, he had eaten all but a couple bites of the cookies we left for him, and best of all (at least according to Nicholas), he left our family a Wii!!!!! Yippee!! I'd love to tell you that Niko was the most excited about the Wii but I feel I must confess that as I'm typing this, Lenn's and my bowling game is on hold. Lenn won the first set, I rocked the second round and now we'll duke it out for the outright bowling title. Talk about a good way to blow off some steam after a long day!!!

Mae is 3 months old!!! And our friends came to visit today.....

Mae and Alex.....new best friends

A couch-full! Mae, Niko, Isaac, Alex and Ella......my blue blanket backdrop did not cooperate but if you think I was going to halt the picture-taking to fix it.....you're mistaken! Gotta snap those pics while the kids are sitting still!!

Big brothers and baby sisters

Mae turned 3 months old today (well actually yesterday, the 21st.......that's when these pictures were taken). Anyway, she's starting to lose the newborn look and she looks like a full-fledged chubby baby. Time is flying. She's smiling and talking and watching us. Her siblings enjoy making her smile.

Our friends, the Biggerstaffs, came to visit us on Monday. Their son, Isaac, is 6 days older than Ella and their daughter, Alexandra, is 5 days older than Mae! Wow! We had a very fun and very busy visit with them. Nikki, the mommy, is a dear friend of mine from college. Matt, another Purdue grad and the daddy, helped us out in a big way with our electrical set-up for a Christmas present that is TBA.......as in, Santa will be bringing it and I will not elaborate at this point! A HUGE thanks to Matt b/c we would have had 2 very disappointed children on Christmas morning if Matt would not have saved the day. It's good to see Matt putting his electrical engineering degree to such good use!

Christmas Fashions Courtesy of Mimi Demas

All ready for church

Loving each other

Mommy even broke out the rhinestones so I could be "sparkly" like Ella

What a doll!

Mimi had fun shopping for holiday attire for our kiddos. We got them all dressed to the nines this morning for church. Rest assured, they were adorable but they were far from the only dolled up kiddos at church today!! It was fun to see all the little people in their Christmas gear.

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family. May God pour out his blessings on you this holiday season as we celebrate Jesus' birth.

Ella's Birthday Party

Ella's Princess birthday party feast

I was so thrilled that Mimi was able to come to Ella's party

Ella's Strawberry Swirl birthday cake with princess decorations......she helped pick out the cake, she helped decorate the cake, she taste tested the strawberries.......then she wouldn't eat any of the cake!!!

Ella opening her presents from Meemaw and Papa Carl while Grace and Gabbie (our neighbors) watch

Lovely ladies......Mimi and Mae

I'm doing all of this blogging while all my children are sleeping......all 3 of them were worn out by Ella's big party and then the terrible night of sleep that followed. Mae was up about every 2 hours grabbing her ear........doctor's appt is at 3:00 today. Ella woke up crying loudly at 12:45 and proceeded to vomit.......she's been fine but a spitfire ever since because it took her a long time to get back to sleep. We're thinking the food overload and stimulation overload of her party took its toll on her. Then Nicholas woke around 5 or 6 (don't know......Lenn handled this one by himself) with a huge leak in his bed......as in too much wee for the Good Nite to hold. So the kids are crashed and I should be but I kinda missed my window of opportunity.

Ella's party was lots of fun. Our neighbors, the Francis family, along with Meemaw and Papa Carl and Mimi Demas were all here for the festivities. Papa Don was sick yesterday and my super wonderful best ever husband and father-in-law drove to Columbus to pick up my mom and bring her to the party. Awesome!!! We had yummy food and good fellowship. I think everyone enjoyed themselves.....except Nala who was banished to the garage. Poor girl.

Ella Marie Turns 3!!

The Birthday Girl sitting in the van before preschool. Yes, she insisted upon wearing her Princess Tiara......she is a little princess, after all!

Ella opening her presents

Ella holding the awesome wooden giraffe puzzle that Niko and Papa Carl made

Ella's birthday was December 3. She's become such a big girl in a short amount of time. She became a big sister with the birth of Mae. She has become potty-trained within the last few weeks and moved up to her big girl bed as of her birthday when she received Princess Bedding! Oh my! We are observing a real inner tug-of-war with her as she is leaving babyhood behind and becoming a big girl. Sometimes she will act like a one-year-old and the next minute she's talking like she's a teenager! We're just trying to enjoy all the changes she's going through. She is a joy to be around and we love her so much.

Getting into the Christmas spirit!

Daddy, ever the photographer, snapping our picture from the 2nd floor hallway

Nicholas and Ella helping with the ornaments

Ella's preschool costume on 12/3/09


We decorated our Christmas tree a week ago and got some cute pictures of our kiddos. You don't see Mae in the photos because our photographer, Lenn, was wearing Mae while she slept in the Baby Bjorn. She was joining in with us in spirit. The kids were so cute as they unwrapped ornaments and helped hang them on the tree. I think we made it through the whole experience without breaking anything!

On Ella's birthday, Thursday Dec 3, her preschool class dressed up as Christmas trees. So sweet!