Update on Us

The holidays just flew out with 2011 and I figured at the very least I owe you an update. Prepare yourself for lengthy and very photo heavy.....

The Grandmas' are gonna love this.



Our Holiday's always start off with Hallie's birthday, which is always right around Thanksgiving



Hallie turned 7 this year, and here she is with the American Girl Doll she received for her birthday.

This now puts me at 5 heads of hair to fix in the morning including my own...

Kanani is on the assembly line now too....

Oh Lord, please help me! (:

Sophie's birthday follows Hallie's and she is a big full hand of fingers.

5 year olds are goofy and Sophie is no exception. Everybody loves her and her quirks.

She received Bitty Baby for her birthday last year and so this year she wanted a back pack to carry her in.

Lillie is 21 months going on 5.

She decided she wanted to sleep in her big girl bed and potty train within a week of each other. So out went the crib and the diapers and here we are with a little girl, not a baby. Thank goodness she will still wear her footy jammies.

Here is a rundown of 2 of the 3 Santa's we saw this year..

 

Do you see "Rudolph"......Hm mm....

I was told he is a City Counsel Member.....I hope he was given a really good bonus for having to dress up....I'm still baffled.
The set was nice, they had a great Santa, a cute elf, and......ahem....Rudolph? Needless to say the kids were as baffled as we were. 

This is the "Santa" we see every year at my Hunny's office. He does a great job and makes for a great Santa!

I made the girls an Advent Calendar for our feather tree....the cones were filled with a piece of candy for every day of the month.

  It was a great idea, until Lillie was found on top of the table with this.....

She ate 6 of the days, destroying our sweet little tree, so we gave up on the Advent Calendar. Maybe next year....(:

We took the girls on a Holiday Express train ride to the "North Pole" on a 1880's restored train and it was so sweet.



Here we are waiting in line....there were so many people I couldn't get a good pic of the train itself.....

Here is an elf handing out Hot Cocoa and Mrs. Claus gave out some of the best sugar cookies I have ever tasted....I need to find out where they got those from.

We headed into the woods, picked up Santa at the North Pole and headed back. The girls loved it and it was a great memory.

Here is a glimpse of my obsession with peppermint stripes....

I we3nt peppermint crazy decorating this year....I was sad to take it all down, I just love the feeling of a decorated house for Christmas. My Hunny on the other hand said it felt good to have the "North Pole" packed up and have the house back to normal....(:

Christmas Eve service was beautiful! After a long day and lots going on Lillie was so tired and we paid for it. She is just going to hate me when she is older. Every group picture we take of the girls she cries, poor baby. I have no idea why, however a trip to the manger scene and she was good as gold...

We took Christmas morning really slow and easy and we have started a new tradition with opening 1 present every hour, that way the girls get time to enjoy it and play with that particular present before they tear through the rest. It worked great! I'm excited to start this tradition with the girls.

Lillie's new "ride" as she called it.

We had such a sweet time with the girls this Christmas. We made it simple celebrated with friends and family, and ended it with great memories.. They most important thing was that we enjoyed the celebration of our Saviors birth to the fullest. It was wonderful, relaxing and then the vacation ended this morning as we rushed out the door back into reality.

I wish you a Happy and Blessed New Year.