Booster!

Maddie has been counting down what feels like forever to be old enough to be in a booster in the car. She'll be 4 on Monday and so last weekend we headed to Target to let her choose her very own booster! You would have thought this was the greatest thing ever! She had to have everyone look at it, she had to call her Grandma Kathy and let her know about it and she had to show Kaylin and Macie right away on Tuesday! She is one proud little girl! On a side note, don't you LOVE her glasses? We were in Michaels the other day and Taylor wanted some new yarn to finger crochet with so we had told Maddie she could choose something for a $1 as well. The glasses are what she picked out. Dave popped the glass out and she wears them everywhere! Love it!

Seaside!

At the end of December, we headed to Seaside with Carolyn, Jerry, Mindy and her family as well as Jerry's kids- Chris, Paul and Senna. When we arrived it was the most beautiful day you could imagine! It was warm and the sun was out. We literally threw our bags in our condo and ran for the beach! The kids had their shoes and socks off and I even got the comment "Mom, I told you we should have brought our flip flops". It felt so nice to have the sun on your face and to be on the beach in December! It was probably a good thing that we got to experience the beach that first day because for the rest of our trip we didn't see any more sun- just rain. We spent our days reading, playing board games, shopping (it's amazing how long 2 little girls can shop when they are given some money!), eating and playing in the pool. Dave and I hadn't been to Seaside in ages and I am quite certain that we will not let that happen again. We had so much fun!

Really? In December? SO pretty outside! This was also the view from our condo window!!

Maddie loving the sand- a happy girl!

We could hardly pin Taylor down for a picture. She was so thrilled to be on the beach!

No shoes or socks...

Taylor quickly headed for the water!

Sunset view from our condo! Gorgeous!!

Maddie, Alex and Taylor after their swim!

What's not to love about this face?

The Last of the Christmas Pictures (finally!)

New jammies on Christmas Eve have become our tradition!

Miss Maddie was quite excited!

Our two sweet little girls!

Does life get any better then this?

A Visit with Santa!

What's not to love about visiting Santa? Apparently, a lot of things! This year due to lack of time my mom, sister and I headed to the Alderwood Mall to get the girls pictures taken with Santa. I have to say that the line wasn't too bad and that the Santa is actually kind of cute! Dave and I had been preparing Maddie and Taylor for the "big visit" for all of December and both claimed that they were going to smile for him because they wanted to be big cousins to Emilie. As you can see from the pictures below, one of the girls held up on that agreement while the other one didn't! To her defense, right before they went to sit on Santa's lap, she hit her chin on my camera and that set her off. Needless to say my mom, sister and I got to have a very good laugh (and all the people around us thought we were the most evil people EVER!) Until next year.....

Here is Maddie Happy :)

Here is Maddie Sad (and a little bit angry!)

Now, here is both Emilie AND Maddie sad!

Cookie Decorating!

We had our annual cookie baking/decorating party with our friends the Kovals again this year. Krista was so kind to host our event and we even had our friends the Gentry's join us this year which was lots of fun! As usual, the kids enjoyed themselves- they used lots of frosting, ate too much candy and giggled the night away together. I love watching all six of the girls play together- they are all so different yet all have a very special bond with one another. We are so lucky to have such great friends in our lives!

The girls (with clothes on this year!!) making sugar cookies!

Taylor decorating her cookies!

Maddie's Masterpiece(s)! Yummy!

All the girls! Kaylin, Taylor, Molly, Maddie, Chloe and Macie!

Christmas with Papa and Grandma Lynette and Seattle!

I know, I know...January 8, 2010. It may be next December before I get all of our events posted but feel like I want to share them all- they were all SO fun! For our next event we went to Matt and Amy's house for our family Christmas with Roger and Lynette and Amy, Matt and the boys. As usual, it was a fun time! The kids had fun opening their new sleeping bags (from Pottery Barn which their mommy finds to be to dang cute!), cougar sweatshirts and many other great gifts. After presents and dinner the whole family was treated to a fun evening in Seattle. We got to go on the Carasol and then go on a horse drawn carriage ride around down town Seattle. Talk about a fun thing to do! Amazing was more like it! Dave and I were talking on the way home about how lucky our two children are to be able to experience these type of things at such a young age!

The cousins! Maddie, Taylor, Luke, Drew, Abbey, Zack and Kitrick

Taylor loving her gifts from her family!

The Myers before we got on the carasol ride!

The Myers girls enjoying a horse ride!

The whole crew!

Luke, Drew, Taylor and Maddie SO excited about their carriage ride!

Thanks for a very fun evening Papa and Grandma Lynette! We love you!

Pemberton/Anderson/Sieck Christmas!

The day after the Myers Christmas we headed to Bothell to be with my family for the day. It was so nice to be with everyone! The little one's played like crazy and the adults had a good time visiting and catching up. After a yummy taco bar we had a gift exchange with one another. This year in August we drew a name of someone in the family. It was fun to watch and see who had who and what they had picked out for their person. The girls had fun giving their presents to the person they drew; Maddie had John and Taylor had Emilie. It was an all around fun time!

This was the best picture I could get...Emilie was not thrilled at all to be having her picture taken by her Auntie Heather!

Maddie helping John open his present that she wrapped for him all by herself!

Kelsey and Taylor playing with her new toy from Grandma Oh-Oh! I love this picture!

Myers Christmas!

The day after Dave and I got out for winter break we hosted the annual Myers Christmas party at our house. I think the party was a huge success! I know that Dave and I had a blast hosting everyone ( did we mention that we had around 38 people?) and we certainly hope that everyone had as equally a good time as we did!

Taylor and Papa!

The kids waiting for their number to be drawn so they could pick a present!

Anne~ This one's for you! Love your spirit! Everyone is getting ready for dinner!

One of the cooks! Dave and I each made a different type of chilli for the family- yummy!

Most of the Myers girls!

Zoo Lights!

Needless to say this Holiday season was a little hectic, maybe a little crazy and just a tiny bit exhausting...but we still managed to squeeze (just barely) in an evening at Zoo lights in Tacoma. Looking back, we maybe should have just stayed home- it was one of those days, a Friday, where everyone was a little bit tired and maybe just a smidgen grouchy. We drove up with our friends the Kovals and upon arriving we went to feed the goats and little Macie got bit by one of them! She cried for a majority of our visit ( I would as well!), it was raining, Taylor was whining ( I want cotton candy, why can't I have a light up toy?) and quite frankly, it would have been a bust if had we not gotten into the car and the four girls said: "Thanks Mom and Krista, that was SO much fun!" Really? All we could do was laugh hysterically and hope that they would soon fall fast asleep!

So our trip started out great! All smiles here!

This picture was minutes away from the goat biting incident.....

The topper? All the kids whined and begged for some cotton candy....look at their faces.....of course none of them liked it!

Gingerbread Houses!

We had a fun pre-Christmas visit with Jerry's family! We had a delicious dinner and then spent the evening watching the kids decorate Gingerbread houses. Taylor and Maddie both loved doing this but Maddie especially got into it. Her house turned out really well and although she did get help with frosting her house she did put on all the decorations by herself. Taylor was not feeling the love of the houses quite as much as her sister and ended up only doing half of her house but she was lucky enough to do another one at school during her last week before break.

Taylor working hard on her Gingerbread house!

Maddie working on her house!

Maddie's finished product! Nice work!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Yes, I do realize it is January 1st, 2010 but I can't not post all of our Winter Vacation adventures. As you read along you will realize why these are getting posted now instead of earlier!

The past few years we have been going to a great U-Cut tree farm right down the road from where we live. We love the prices ($15!) and the trees are amazing! My mom is even in love witht his place- she and Dave went and cut a tree down for her house and even managed to shove it into her little car for the ride home to Everett! The big news this year was that the girls got to have a Christmas tree in each of their rooms! The weather was cold, wet and windy when we went to pick out the trees and so they both picked out their trees very quickly and then headed back to the car while Dave and I looked for our tree! The girls loved decorating their trees and had fun all of December with them.

One of my favorites...carrying her own tree!

Maddie's tree!

"Our tree"~ The girls were already in the car so we didn't get a family photo but I love this one because it is so rare that we have our picture taken with just the two of us!

Taylor's tree all decorated! She spent almost 2 hours hanging her ornaments (she had to put string on some of them first).

Ta-Da! Maddie was so proud of her ornaments! She is standing in front of most of them as she sat on her rocking chair the whole time and put them all in one area! Love it!