Cookie Palooza

Our Christmas cookies are finished and oh so delicious! Ben and I made them yesterday while Ellie napped and this morning as a family we decorated them (well Ellie ate 2, but Ben and I decorated them). Ben did it growing up so we started doing it last year and it has become a family tradition for us. Ben is looking very forward to when the girls and I do all the work and he enjoys the eating, there are many benefits for a man living in a house with girls :)

McAdenville and a Christmas Treat

This year we went to see the lights in the town of McAdenville (another tradition with Andy and Katie we have been doing about 5 years, pre kids). We had a great time and it was especially fun with Ellie this year as she is obsessed with pointing out all the lights, especially the ones that are red. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of our fun evening, but I will remember to take some next year.

Also, I have been making treats. I love making treats in general, but I especially love making them during the holidays and giving them away to good friends. Here is one of my treats that I made and found on pinterest.

Billy Graham Library

We love this little girl more than words can say and watching her sit during story time was so cute!





This year we wanted to go to Billy Graham Library. It is another free event here in Charlotte. We met up with Ben's sister and her family and though it was more adult friendly with the space they had they did a good job of setting up the area. There was a live nativity and performers singing and playing Christmas songs and there was a little story time for the kids, which Ellie loves a good story and enjoyed her sticker she got afterwards. It was a short event, but we got to see Rachel's family and Ellie enjoyed the time with her cousins, who she also got to play all morning with :)

Village Park

Ellie and I enjoy going to Village Park in the summer and playing on the Splash pad, riding the train and playing on the playground. This summer one of our visits the train conductor told us about the Christmas lights they put up and we decided to check it out. So Ben, Ellie and I headed there one night and it was a great family event in the community. It was free except the train ride, but the train ride was minimally priced. We started at the model train set up, which was one of Ben's favorites. He has his own model train that he would love to set up and this one was large and interactive. We then saw the singing bears, which are puppets, and Ellie loved them. Santa was there and you could take your own pictures for free with him, but Ellie is not into that this year, we will try next year, but I will say I am a stickler with Santa and look to make sure he looks like the real thing and must have a real beard and this Santa did :) We then rode the train through the over 100,000 lights that were set up and Ellie loved it and so did Ben and I. We ride the train in the summer and never have to wait in line, but that was not the case here. The line was not at all horrible, but Ellie did not understand why she had to wait and after everyone got on and we watched the train pull away while we waited our turn, she turned to Ben and started screaming and crying and saying "Choo-Choo". Her little heart just didn't understand why it left her, but Ben consoled her and we told her it was coming back for us and she looked diligently for it to return. We felt bad her little heart didn't understand, but I also told Ben that we were definitely not ready for Disney World :) Ellie then had a great time dancing and running around while we watched the light show. She kept us laughing. We have fun pretty much anywhere we go together so this was just another adventure that we are looking forward to going to year after year.

I have included many pictures of the model train mainly for my dad, my grandpa and Ben's grandpa as they love model trains and we thought of how much all 3 of them would have loved this model train set up.





Not feeling the picture, just wanted to enjoy that train!

Halfway There!!

This post is a little overdue, but we are halfway there to meeting our precious little girl. As Ben would say I am now on the down slope. I have been able to feel this little one kick in the past 2 weeks and Ellie loves to say hi to my belly and even kisses the baby now. So far things have been going well. I have gained little weight and have been trying to snack healthy, which at this time of year is very hard, and I have been trying to walk 5-6 days a week. Our prayer is that I would have a healthy blood pressure for the rest of my pregnancy and would avoid bedrest for many reasons. I would also ask that you would pray for me to continually trust that God will provide me with the health I need for me, this baby and our family and that we will make it to 37 weeks with no spike in blood pressure. My doctor seems very confident that I will be fine and I need to trust in the Lord and have the same confidence.


Not the best picture of me but had to include it due to the monkey in the corner :)




Baby Kisses

Merry Christmas from The Holdens!!

We have had a wonderful year! It has been full of many busy times and many blessings.

Ben is loving pouring into the middle school students and it is a true joy as his wife to volunteer in the ministry that he leads and walk along side him in the passion that God has given him and watch him pour his life into what God has called him to do. He is also going to seminary part time and has stayed focused in the past year to achieve his goal of graduating in another 3 years.

I have been blessed to be able to stay at home with our sweet Ellie and it has been through God's constant provision, even when it didn't seem possible from my limited perspective, that I have been able to do that. My sister-in-law found a great part time opportunity online that I have been doing since September that has provided exactly what we need and that is all that I have asked of God and he has always shown up in this year. Ellie and I have enjoyed lots of fun adventures and did a ton of playing this year. I have also enjoyed a new love for sewing and have made many fun items and of course Ellie is the prime recipient of this items.

Ellie has grown immeasurably this year. She has begun walking and talking and has developed the sweetest and funniest personality in this last year. She keeps Ben and I laughing all the time and she is so sweet to others. I know when her little sister comes in the spring she is going to be an amazing big sister. She is like a little mommy Ben says. She has spent the year taking care of her baby doll and learning to do so many chores. She loves to do whatever I do and has become quite independent. She brings so much joy into our home. We can't even remember life without her.

As a family we have had many fun experiences throughout the year and made many exciting memories and are excited to have many more in the coming year, our biggest being adding another sweet little baby girl into our family. Ben will be in a house full of girls (even our kitty is a girl) but he couldn't be happier and we are so excited to meet our newest addition. The Lord has given us many blessings this past year and many challenges and He has shown up in all of our moments and as we look back on our year we can see it very clearly that He is always there.

We pray you all have a very Merry Christmas and stop to remember why we truly celebrate this very special season!

Love,
Ben, Emily, Ellie and Baby Girl

Daddy's Little Helper

Ben is our light expert around here and I must say he does the best job I have ever seen at putting on our Christmas tree lights. He does the lights and I do the ornaments. This year he had a little helper. We let Ellie stay up a little later to help her Daddy put the lights on the tree and I think Ben enjoyed the time just as much if not more than Ellie. They both did an excellent job!

Tree Hunting

We ventured out on our annual Christmas tree hunting fun with our great friends Andy and Katie. We had a great time picking out our tree and was actually the fastest either of the families have done it so fast. It is a great tradition for us and we love the time we have with our friends. It has been a blessing in our lives to have such great friends to walk with and to watch as our families grow. We have been going since it was just the two couples and have since grown to include Ellie for the third year (this year being a year she could walk all around the tree farm) and next year we are super excited to have a new little one in our family and a new little one will be in Andy and Katie's family to join in our tradition. Each year simply gets better and better.

Business Woman

Ellie watches Mommy and Daddy do computer work so with the help of a laptop from Nana and PopPop Ellie did her very own work as well.

Another Precious Little Girl

We found out on Friday that we have another precious little girl on the way. She looked wonderful on the ultrasound and everything looked healthy. Ellie was there too and she would see the baby on the screen and say "baby". We are very excited to bring another little girl into our home and I am super excited Ellie will have a little sister. Ben is a wonderful father to our little girl now and can't wait to see him with our new little one. He has quickly become outnumbered (even our kitty is a girl) but he enjoys every minute of it :) I will be sure to post a picture of the growing baby belly very soon, but so far things are going great and we are healthy and this week Ellie has started kissing the baby in my belly and it is so sweet to see her developing love for her little sister. I can't wait to see them together!

Little Miss 2 Year Old

On 11-11-11 Ellie turned two years old. We did a family party as she is so young she has no idea what is happening :) Ben and I decorated the house when she went to bed with her birthday banner I made her and some streamers and balloons. I also made her cupcakes from my family's birthday cake recipe we had every year growing up and Ellie picked out the frosting she wanted earlier in the week, so that is what I put on them. My parents (Nana and PopPop) got her an easel for her birthday so Ben put it all together so she could see right when she came downstairs on her birthday. She LOVES her easel. She constantly wants to draw on it. I then made her french toast for breakfast on her birthday plate. For lunch we went on a family picnic and Ellie got to play on the playground for a long time, which is a favorite of hers. After naptime Ellie opened her few gifts from Nana and PopPop and her gift from us, which was a Little People's Bus. She loves buses. She loves to watch them out the window of our house and one has a stop right in front of our house for the elementary kids. We live right across from the school, so on our walks or drives around town she is always saying "bus". And she loves the bus we got her. She takes it around the house and up and down the stairs. Her gifts this year have definitely been a huge hit. After dinner Ellie got to have her cupcake. We lit her candle and sang to her, but as soon as the candle was lit, she screamed until we blew it out. Apparently, she does not like fire, which is a great thing :) She then ate some of her cupcake, but preferred to bend down to eat it so her hands would not get dirty :) After cupcake time, Ben read her the "Happy Birthday to You!" book by Dr. Seuss that his dad read to him every year growing up and Ben said she did much better than last year :) She had a wonderful birthday day and even gets to open a few more gifts when Geep and Gran come for Thanksgiving, so she has more to look forward to and doesn't even now it :)

We love our sweet Ellie or as we call her in our family, Elliebeans! We can't imagine a life without her and can not believe she is already 2! She is a joy to have in our home and brings us so many laughs and cuddles! She is so caring and is the smartest little girl! This year will be a big year for her as she learns to use many more words and becomes a big sister, we are excited to watch her grow and learn.