Eli's First Birthday

This year for Eli's birthday we had a small family party at our house. It was a little chaotic with Christmas so close...but we all had a good time. We (ie: me) are thinking that next year or the year after we will switch and have his big birthday celebration in June as a "1/2 year birthday" so that he doesn't have his birthday clumped into Christmas.

Present Time

Eli got this Mater ride-on toy from Mommy and Daddy....I have to say that it was hit for all the kids. Kaylin kept climbing on it and Eli would hold on to the back and walk along with her

Maddie with her beloved Aunties: Esther and Abby

Since Eli didn't know what to do after we sang to him, Kaylin and Robby helped him blow out his candle

Eli's first taste of birthday cake

The post-cake grin...gotta love it!

Sheffield Family Christmas Party

For years my dad's family in Arizona has an annual Sheffield Family Christmas Party a week or so before the holiday. We all look forward to catching up with each other, seeing how much our kids have grown, eating yummy homemade soups, salads, and treats. And of course there is the annual "white elephant" gift exchange.

This year we shook things up a bit and switched it to Cousin Laura and Katie's houses which are next door to each other. It was the perfect location and situation with all of our little ones. Laura has four little boys so all the grandbabies LOVED running around their kid-friendly yard playing with all the toys. Then when it was dinner time we wandered back to Katie's house to eat and socialize. I think every single person in the family came for at least part of the time and I know I enjoyed seeing each and every one of them!Above: Mommy (me) and little E

Below: playing outside at Laura's house on their fake grass
Jesse, Kaylin and Grandma S relaxing on the porch swing
Aunt Lori and Zack

Adam, cousin Katie and T

N with her boyfriend T; I was so glad to see Nats again. I think the last time I saw her was last year at our family party and so it was fun to play catch up for a few minutes in between chasing the crazy kids around. N was so sweet to come to the party ON HER BIRTHDAY!Holly with her little girl, Brooklyn

Adam and Clay (both married my cousins)

Cousin Kevin with Uncle Evan

Some of the Watkins fam: Ashley, Lisa and Danny

When we were outside playing...all Robby wanted to do was to try to fish this shark out of the small pond and to put one of the toy boats in the water. It cracks me up to see how smart and logical his little mind works. I am sure he thought we were all silly for not wanting him to put the boat in the obvious place it belongs...the water :)

(Grandma and Rob-sters)

Miss M found herself another boy buddy at our party. My cousin Laura's second son, , is five years old and became the perfect playmate for Maddie. They spent time rolling together in the grass outside and then she LOVED wrestling indoors with 3 of Laura's boys. I have to admit that she cracks me up with her semi-tomboy self. Maddie has one side of her that is so prissy and girly which includes loving make-up, doing hair, clothing, dresses, jewelry; but then she also has another side of her where she is completely at ease rolling in the mud, wrestling, playing trains, kicking balls around...she is definitely one tough cookie!

Aunt Gail with cousin Laura's baby boy, and Aunt Nancy

Ryan, Ben, Uncle Mike and Scott

Eli sort of has Uncle Ben wrapped around his little finger and he always reserves some of his best giggles for when his Uncle is around. I have to admit that Ben is a great babysitter to my kids and is typically willing to pitch in a hand and help us out when we run into binds with babysitting.

I pretty much love this sweet picture of my dad and little E. My dads looks says it all...he sure loves the grandbabies. Just like he always says, being a grandpa is "awesome." Luv ya daddy!

Every year we do the annual family gift exchange. The past few years we have instituted the "dollar store rule" where all gifts need to be around one dollar in cost. It is fun to see what everyone comes up with for the exchange...I think this year the top picks were "Muscle Lotion," small screwdriver set, and my dad even lucked out with the set of Ensure...yummy! For the little kids we also bring an inexpensive gift for each of them to open and enjoy during the adult gift exchange.

Maddie sure enjoyed her Tinkerbell coloring set and she spend the next 30 minutes absorbed in her artistic world

Robby was sooo excited to have his very own present, and walked around for awhile clutching it like so and showing everyone "my present." Once he finally opened it and found matchbox cars he loved it until he saw that one of the other kids got a train instead. Luckily the other little boy loved Robby's cars as much as Robby loved his train and so we did a little switcheroo and each boy left happy as can be!

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

This fall we decided to take some dance lessons with one of Maddie's good friends, Kailey, and she has had so much fun doing this. It has given her a chance to dance (which she loves) and spend time with a friend one on one. They have loved laughing & giggling together, carpooling to lessons, eating yummy snacks afterwards, dressing up in tutu's and ballet slippers, and of course learning more dance moves. A week before Christmas, Miss Maddie had her dance recital where her and 11 other girls performed a dance to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. They all were so cute and their teacher only teaches a few classes so the recital was finished in 30 minutes! Miss M has adored her teacher, Miss Venessa, and now walks around the house singing that song word for word :) Abby and Miss M eating doughnuts afterwards
Maddie, Mommy and Eli

Eli smiling despite his battle wounds. Two days before Miss M's recital he had a run in with a tin gingerbread man cookie cutter at his grandparent's house that resulted in six stitches on his cheek and dermabond glue under his left nare and above his left eyebrow. Maybe someday I will tell this tale in full details :(

You can see Maddie right in the middle of the picture if you look hard!

Robby {and Daddy} barely survived the recital due to the yummy bowl of hershey kisses in the back just waiting to be eaten....good thing the performance was short :)

Sunday Christmas Pictures

After last years failed attempt to get Sunday Christmas pictures of the kids...I was determined to get some this year.....and success! I managed to capture one image of all three kids sitting together without a single tear shed and they are all semi-looking at the camera.

I have felt behind the eight-ball this entire Christmas season, due to working overtime the first few weeks of December. By the time I hit my break in work I literally had no time to pull everything together for Xmas, let alone Sunday outfits. I normally LOVE doing semi-matching color themed outfits each year, where I will spend hours thinking of cute shoes, pants, belts, ties, tights, bows, necklaces; well you get the idea. Due to a major time issue, this year was rather thrown together without a color theme at all. All in all I think it turned out rather well.

ENJOY!!Robby, Eli and Maddie
Miss M in pink and black

E in blue and khaki

Robby in black and silver

Sister and brother lovin'

Maddie took a turn snapping some photos with the camera, first of just her momma and then when E felt left out he joined in

Later that evening we snapped a couple pics of our whole family at my in-laws and our kids once again went crazy in front of the camera...gotta love pics with wild children

Merry Christmas!

Love the Toronto's

Happy Birthday Eli!

It feels like just yesterday we welcomed this sweet little boy into our family and now already we are celebrating his one year birthday.


We sure love him and couldn't imagine life without him.

Happy Bday E!