Yesterday we finally stopped to see if they had the big-girl bed we wanted from the store. (Mind you we've been meaning to do this now for several months...so this is amazing progress for us) And AMAZINGLY, they did have it. So we brought it home and I put it together with a little "help" from Laurel. As soon as the mattress went on it she jumped and played and pretended to sleep. So we went ahead and moved it into her room and gave her the choice as to which bed she wanted to sleep in. She chose the big girl bed, so we moved over the puppies, the blankets and the aquarium music maker. (All essential parts of Laurel's bed time ritual) We read our books like normal, but when it was time to actually go to sleep she started crying and begged me to read more, which of course I did. (Sucker, I know) Then after I read those she started crying and climbed out of bed. What do you do then? So we struck a deal and I lay on the floor next to her until she fell asleep and then quietly snuck out. Neither Jon or I slept the rest of the night. We listened to every creak of the new bed, every shuffle of the new mattress. She did fine and slept the whole night through. Jon and I on the other hand are very tired. It doesn't seem like Laurel's transition to the big-girl bed will take long, hopefully ours won't either!

It's Christmas day. After a long (but fun) night last night, Jon woke up early to go to work. I managed to get about 30 minutes sleep after he left, but then got up and went to my parents to open gifts. The kids were waiting on us to open gifts, so we were trying to get there early-ish. After a couple of false starts (losing the keys then realizing that they were locked IN the car, and then having to take the unheated truck instead) we headed out. This picture of the unhappy child is right after I woke her up and put her in the cold car. She actually was in a good mood despite her look in the picture. The rest are pictures of Christmas morning. Merry Christmas everyone!!

It's Christmas Eve, but for us it's Christmas Day. Since Jon has to work tomorrow we have to do everything today so that everyone can be together. We went to church, had dinner and opened gifts. We had a lot of fun, despite having to shop at three different grocery stores on Christmas Eve. (which was insane!) Anyway, we wanted to post some pictures and video over the next few days so that everyone could see Laurel's third Christmas. (It was definitly the best.)

By the way, all pictures and video were taken with my new snazzy camera that Jon bought me for Christmas. Woo hoo! I dressed Laurel up with the intention of taking a nice Christmas picture, but all she would give me were fake smiles and goofy faces. But this is definitly my kid, what can I say?