Sleeping Under The Tree!

For as long as I can remember, growing up, my sister, mom and I always slept next to our Christmas Tree one time during the holiday season. This year, I decided it was time to start the tradition in my own house. We've come a long ways. Gone are the sleeping bags and the hard floor. Sleeping on an air bed is so much better :) Taylor and Maddie started off being very excited about sleeping under the tree. Maddie quickly realized though that this wasn't her cup of tea and bailed to her own bed! Taylor had a hard time going to sleep but once we turned the tree lights off and it was dark she fell asleep quickly. For a first time thing, I thought it went pretty well!

Family Party!

This year, my family decided to have a family Christmas party before Christmas arrived. It was such a fun evening! Jill and Mike hosted at their home in Everett. We played a fun game with gift cards (I get to spend mine at Macy's!), opened gifts and just had time to visit. So fun! Jill just sent me some really cute pictures from the evening, so I will try and post them soon.

Before we went to the party, my mom had my grandparents over for a yummy luncheon (is anyone noticing yet how much we have eaten this holiday season??) and to open gifts. Both my sister and I would not be with them on Christmas Eve and so it was nice to get together and be with the two of them. My grandpa will be going in for surgery on the 29th to remove the cancer from his neck. It will be quite an extensive surgery and he will have to stay in the hospital for quite some time. They are removing lymph nodes, the tumor and a few other things. The 29th will be a very stressful day for all of us as our sweet grandpa goes into the hospital.

Taylor, Emilie and Maddie

Maddie girl!

Taylor (she was so excited that Nana curled her hair!)

Could they be any more different from one another? Sweats and a dress...hmm....Heather and Darci?

Taylor loves her Grandpa Woof-Woof!

Christmas Cookies

I have to say that I am starting to enjoy making sugar cookies just a teeny, tiny, little bit! Way more then I ever did as a child! The girls and I had a lot of fun rolling out the dough and using all the different Christmas cookie cutters as well. Taylor was very insistent on using the angel cookie cutter for most of her cookies and Maddie used the star quite a bit so we ended up frosting many stars and angels! The next day, the girls had two of their dear little friends over (Kaylin and Macie) to help decorate the cookies. I thoroughly enjoy watching Taylor and Maddie interact with Kaylin and Macie because they are such good friends and so sweet to one another. Kaylin and Taylor frosted until the very last cookie was gone off the platter and Maddie actually frosted 6 or 7 cookies (the most she has ever done!). Macie (as you will see in the picture) didn't frost any cookies but really enjoyed eating them! Taylor and Maddie are lucky to have such great friends in their lives and I sure do enjoy spending time with their mom, Krista!

If I remember correctly...last year the girls were also wearing only their underwear to make Christmas cookies- go figure! And I am not taking any comments from my family about my apron :) I was trying to have a good attitude!!

The girls decorating cookies with their friends! Maddie, Taylor, Kaylin and Macie

Such good friends! Taylor, Maddie and Kaylin

Christmas with the Myers

Every year the week before Christmas we head north to spend time with Dave's family for an early Christmas! I cannot tell you how much I love doing this! The kids love getting a few gifts before Christmas and I love all the good food and fun entertainment! This year, we met at Matt and Amy's for dinner and gifts. It was so fun to watch Taylor, Maddie and Drew play with another! They play so nicely together and even play upstairs now (without mom's and dad's!) which is nice also :) Our plan was to go to Seattle and ride the carousel and go on a carriage ride after gifts but as soon as we got on the road another snow storm hit us! We ended up heading back towards Matt and Amy's and ended up eating more good food! We were disappointed not to be able to go to Seattle but still had a great time! We are looking forward to a trip to Chelan to spend more time with the Myers clan!

The Cousins! Taylor, Drew, Luke (in back) and Taylor

Front Row...Maddie, Drew, Taylor. Back Row....Heather, Dave, Amy, Luke and Matt

Taylor and her gift for Maddie...

Dave and I decided that this year Taylor and Maddie should give each other a gift from one another just so that they can begin to appreciate that it is nice to buy gifts for others and not just to receive them. Maddie bought Taylor a unicorn that she has really been wanting and it was an easy choice for her (I think she is still a little young to grasp the whole idea!). Taylor and I headed out on Wednesday to find the "perfect" gift for Maddie. 2 hours later...yes, I said 2 hours! we finally found it! I have never been so proud (okay and a little irritated!) of Taylor and the way she insisted on finding the perfect gift for her sister. She wanted to start out at Fred Meyer and she really wanted to get her a shirt. I told her that she had to stay within her $20 budget so she proceeded to find the "sale" rack. It cracked me up! She managed to find the take an additional 40% off rack by herself and found a cute butterfly shirt for her. We then had to go to Target because she was looking for a dog with a bottle. She ended up finding her a horse that came with a purse and inside the purse there is an apple, a brush, etc. She was very happy with her choice! I really thought I might pull my hair out because she took FoReVer but in the end she was doing exactly what I wanted her to do- to be excited to give to others. After we paid at Target she said: "Mom, how about if we go to Taco Bell and eat and have a nice chat and visit". Too, cute!! So, we ended our time with a visit to the Bell! (a girl after my own heart!). The night was still not over of course because when we got home and Maddie had gone to bed she wanted to wrap her gift. Again, my hair almost came out- Taylor wouldn't let me do anything to help her. I took a picture of what it looks like because it is priceless! Enjoy!

More Snow!

I am officially enjoying my second snow day off from work and loving every minute of it! I have gotten to do things (like wrap gifts, bake, clean, do laundry....) that I would have been doing at the last minute on Friday night before we head to Matt and Amy's for Christmas fun! The girls are having a blast outside in the snow! We spent a lot of time yesterday making snowmen and sledding down Grandma Carolyn's hill- the perfect size for both of them! Maddie is officially quite the sledder! She was so cute going down the hill, giggling all the way! As soon as she got to the bottom of the hill, she picked up the disc and ran back up! Needless to say she was worn out when she came inside. She fell asleep on the couch (at 4:20) watching Mr. Incredible and slept for a couple of hours! Taylor enjoyed everything outside but really had fun making her own snowman! She rolled all the balls for him by herself and I just put them on top of one another for her. It was cute! She also spent some quality time with her cousin Abbey sledding. After outside time, Grandma Carolyn, Abbey, Taylor and Maddie all made Gingerbread houses together. Maddie really wasn't interested but managed to eat a ton of the candy! Taylor however, spent a long time on her house. Well, that's about it from here. I am thinking we will be heading outside soon for some morning sledding! We are looking forward to a fun weekend with both Dave's family as well as mine in Everett. Keep warm everyone and enjoy this beautiful weather!

Taylor making a snow angel!

I love these pictures of Maddie...look at her face- so excited and having so much fun!

Taylor and her snowman!

Taylor focusing very hard on her gingerbread house. I don't know if you can see it but one of the peppermint candies has the wrapper still on it...she insisted on that!

Santa Pictures

We made our annual trip to the Seattle Nordstrom's yesterday to have Taylor, Maddie and Emilie sit on Santa's lap. We usually go on a weekend and this year we decided to take a day off from work and see if the line might be shorter. We were very happy when we arrived to see that you could open the door and walk in. It was so cold outside that I was really excited about that! Once we got inside we had to wait for about an hour (much better than our usual 3!). All the kids did a great job in line and were so excited to see Santa. Of course, as soon as it was our turn, the excited part turned into pure panic- especially for Maddie. As you can see by the pictures she was not a happy camper and she told me later as I was buckling her into the car that she was "Very afraid of that man!" Me being the horrible mother that I am made her get the picture taken anyways...childhood memories right? Taylor didn't cry this year and she actually looked at the camera (a big step up from last year) however I don't believe I saw a smile in any of the pictures. When I asked Taylor what her favorite part of our weekend with Grandma Kathy was she said: "Today, Mom when I got to see Santa". Go Figure! Emilie did really well! She had no idea what was going on. Darci plopped her on Santa's lap, tried to grab his beard a few times and gave us a smile! After the Santa pictures we headed to lunch and then back home....I hadn't been home yet and had no idea if the roads were icy or not and I didn't want to go down our winding hills with the girls in the dark- we made it home okay though! We had a blast (the adults at least!) and will definitely be going again next year during the week. Merry Christmas!

We have just arrived in Seattle- everyone is happy!

Emilie entertained lots of people while we were in line waiting to see Santa!

Can you see how quickly we went from happy to quite sad? I love it!

This was probably one of the most comical pictures to try and take! Emilie kept sliding off the girls laps because their dresses were so slippery!

Such a cute first picture with Santa!

Snow!

My mom, Darci, Emilie, Cathy, myself and the girls have been planning to go to Seattle to sit on Santa's lap for a long time now (Darci and I took the day off from work!) and as I saw the weather reports begin to show snow and ice I decided to drive to Everett on Saturday instead of Sunday as planned. I was glad I did. It snowed about 4 inches in the night and the girls got to wake up to a winter wonderland! Once they got outside and realized how cold it was and that the snow wasn't sticking together to make a snowman they lost interest pretty quickly. Our day ended up being rather long...lots of inside time (okay, maybe it was just long for my mom and I!). We did walk to my grandparents house and back and stopped by Connie and Richards for a while so that broke up the day a bit. The girls also made snow ice cream with my mom and they both enjoyed that quite a bit! We are hoping for more snow this week (alright...Dave and I are hoping for snow so we can have an early start to winter break!) so we can play outside at our own house and take a walk to the marina! Stay warm everyone!

Taylor's Nutcracker Performance

Wow! Were we ever impressed by Taylor's dance recital on Saturday evening! It was low key and so cute! Taylor had been in a spring recital that was very formal and very fancy last year and she was a hoot to say the least! She didn't look up the entire time she was dancing and had limp arms and what not. However, on Saturday we saw a completely different girl! Smiling, laughing and so proud of herself! I think having the recital in a familiar place really helped her! I had wanted to post some of the video on the blog but am having a hard time doing it so sorry family! You will have to wait until we see all of you this weekend. We will bring it with us! I have a few pictures to share- nothing fabulous but you will get the idea behind how cute the whole thing was!

It's hard to see her...in the back, 2nd from the right.

Look at that smile! So proud of herself!

Maddie gave her these flowers after her performance.

Grandma Kathy's, A Baptism and Zoo Lights!

We had a very fun (yet, very busy!) weekend! Dave had to work on Friday evening supervising a basketball game in Sumner and then had to work at Christmas in the park and supervise a double header basketball game on Saturday so the girls and I headed to Everett on Friday evening. Getting there was comical...picture 2 suitcases, 2 blankets, 2 very large stuffed alligators, a Christmas tree and the three of us. We were a little cramped and we laughed a lot on the way to Everett about it but we made it :)

Saturday we walked to the Twig shop to visit Grandma Oh-Oh while she was working and then played at the park nearby. The rest of the day was spent hanging up tree lights and playing! Taylor got it in her head that she wanted to play Mary and Joseph and thankfully (I swear, she gets stuck with all the fun jobs!!) my mom volunteered to take that one on. As you can see Taylor took her job very seriously as Mary! Darci, Paul and Emilie arrived in the late afternoon and we had a blast playing with Emilie! I cannot believe how big she is getting...she already weighs 20 pounds at 6 months! I love the cheeks and thighs:)

"Mary"

Maddie and Emilie

Sunday we attended John's baptism at church and it was very nicely done. As the water was being poured over him he jumped a few times but ended up not crying! After the bapties (as Taylor and Maddie were calling it) we went to Katie and Tim's for a celebration which was very nice! It was fun to see the whole family as well as some people we hadn't seen in awhile. Thanks Katie and Tim for including us in such a special day!

Brent, Mike, Jill, Katie, John and Tim

After the party we packed up the kids and all our stuff (minus the tree) and headed to Tacoma to go to the zoo lights. I absolutely LOVE going to this- it is so peaceful and beautiful! We got rained on a little bit but it ended up being an overall really nice evening. Taylor and Maddie were both very impressed with the lights. Madison actually liked the music more than the lights. She kept telling us how "This is a really great song". It was cute.

We got home around 8 and all of us were completely wiped out but we had an absolutely wonderful weekend! Our week is a busy one....Dave has to supervise a ton of basketball games, I have a math meeting (ugh) but afterwards get to go out to a nice dinner with the other first grade teachers in my building. Taylor is performing in the nutcracker on Saturday which I can't wait for! She has been extremely secretive about what she is doing for the performance so it will be fun to watch for sure! Wishing everyone a great week! Don't forget to stop and enjoy this wonderful month!

The Christmas Tree

Hi Everyone!

On Sunday morning Dave, myself, Taylor, Maddie, Grandma Kathy, Grandma Carolyn and Jerry all went to look for Christmas Tree's together. We always go to a tree farm right in our neck of the woods and cut it down ourselves. My mom and Carolyn found their trees instantly and it took me an hour (at least) to find a tree that made me happy! Dave was very patient I must say! Taylor walked all over with Dave and I to find the tree while Maddie hung back with her Grandma's!

Last night as soon as we got home from work the girls were ready to decorate the tree. They had gotten a note in their advent calendar that they would get to help with this today so they were extra excited about doing it!

This is the girls advent calendar...I was so excited to get it out of storage! I have had it for 3 years and this is only the 2nd time I have gotten to use it!

I only got one picture of Maddie hanging up an ornament because that is literally all she hung up on the tree! I love that my children are so different! She picked up an oranment didn't even think about where she might put it and was done...Now Taylor could have still been decorating the tree into the wee hours of the night! It cracked me up! "Mom, where should I put this one? Does this look pretty right here?". It was too cute! And the good news is we only dropped and broke 3 oranments :) We had a few tears over the first one but after that it was all okay! The tree looks beautiful now that it is all done!

Oops!

The finished product!