Wednesday, December 16, 2009

The 1st Gift of Christmas

Look a new present from Ali to Mama.... (this was all typed by Alexandra with a bit of help!!)
Ali made me a beautiful necklace at preschool. It was my very first gift from my daughter!! She also took the picture!

Ali mama lavethesitwt ali mant prficd i ali (Ali's mama loves it. Ali made it perfect. I'm Ali....typed all by herself.) Don't you also love her headband? :)


Sunday, December 13, 2009

Breakfast with Santa

The High School theatre group had a Breakfast with Santa at the high school this weekend. It was well put together...we got our faces painted, made cute crafts, talked with Santa, and watched a cute little play about Randy the Red Horned Moose who wanted to fly with Santa! Very cute!

The only thing that Chris didn't like was that the breakfast wasn't as healthy as could be (donuts and bagels...the GIRLS loved it!!)....he is this super healthy guy now since he lost 20 pounds since last year. He is always looking for more protein in his diet...I've started calling him Mr. Jackman (did you see Hugh Jackman in "Australia"??) :) But I'm VERY proud of my healthy husband!! He motivates me to get up early and workout...I get up maybe 3 times a week but he is up at 5am five times a week!!



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Neighborhood Christmas Party

We decided to go look at Zoo Lights this year with our neighbors! It was COLD but the kids wore snow suits, boots, and were all bundled up! It was fun and the kids did great!
All we are missing is snow! We really miss playing in the snow here...we keep hoping!
Here are all of the neighbors last year at our Christmas party...it's fun to have some friends to have traditions with!
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Advent Calendars

Thank you to Uncle Colin & Aunt Elizabeth for the chocolate Advent calendar again and also to Chris' Aunt Vicki, Jim, Kirstin & Kris for the princess Advent calendar. The girls get so excited every day after lunch to open a new window and eat a "Nacky" (a treat in Lizzie speak.) Here the girls are sharing with our friend Lillian. What a fun tradition!
Here is Ali last year with the chocolate Advent calendar...this year she gets to share it with Lizzie!! :)
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Monday, November 30, 2009

Holidays begin

Our first attempt at making our own gingerbread house. I made the dough, cut out the shapes, & baked them a few weeks ago. Then the day after Thanksgiving, we put the pieces together with frosting and let it dry for a few hours before decorating. However, I should have researched a better frosting to use because a couple minutes after this beautiful picture was taken, it all fell apart!! The frosting wasn't dry enough or strong enough to hold it together...ah well...it was fun for a bit! It was a great way to use up a lot of our Halloween candy! :)
Oh yes...here it is by the end! The two roof pieces are just laying flat across the top and Oma called it the DOUBLE WIDE gingerbread house! HA! Yes, it fits right in our little town in Missouri! :) By the end Ali was just pouring on the candy and frosting...it was lovely!!
Our little town had a little old town celebration to light the downtown Christmas tree...we got to make crafts, eat cookies, drink hot chocolate, and SEE SANTA!! Last year Ali didn't want anything to do with Santa...she was a bit scared. But this year she REALLY wanted to see him and tell him all of her wishes. Here are the 3 things that she told him she wanted:

1. a princess scooter with a basket (check...thanks Nana!)
2. An Ariel baby (Hmmm...didn't know about that one)
3. Legos (she said that at the prompting of our neighbor who said "Don't you want some Legos for Christmas??" because our neighbor knows that I bought some for Ali!! Thanks Susan...the suble mind game worked!!)

By the way...this poor Santa had all three of us on his lap...Sorry!! But it was best that Lizzie didn't want to sit on his lap because her pants and diaper were a bit damp that night! Ugh...cloth diapers aren't very forgiving when you leave one on for too long! have I mentioned that I CAN'T WAIT to be done with diapers?? I'm so eager that I had Lizzie try on undies the other day just to see what would happen...well by the end of an hour (and two accidents "uh oh" she says) she looked at the potty and said, "NO DIS"...meaning "No this"...or "Not that potty thing AGAIN I'm much too busy to be bothered"!
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Happy Thanksgiving

We are so THANKFUL that Oma & Opa could come out to celebrate with us this year. I am so thankful for Oma's expertise in the kitchen...everything came out hot at the same time and was SO delicious! Thanks Oma!
After we started eating, we had a couple different ways to share what we were thankful for. Ali and I made name cards (turkeys made out of our hands) and on the back we had everyone write one thing they were thankful for. We then collected them, read them out loud without names, and had people guess who wrote what. It was cute...although most people wrote "my family" so it was harder to guess! Ali wrote "my friends" and we wrote "Dora" for Lizzie!! We also had 3 kernals of corn on every plate and everyone had to say 3 things they were thankful for. I am thankful for my lovely family, for our health, for Chris' job that makes him happy, for being able to stay at home with the girls, for my kind husband, my sweet daughters, our 3 sets of grandparents for the girls, lots of aunts and uncles for the girls, our house, our new neighbors...okay that's more than three things.

Ali was being a bit crazy and Oma and Opa were protecting Lizzie from the "EAR PULLING MONSTER!!"
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Decorating for Christmas

So we were very early this year in putting up the tree but I wanted to enjoy all of the decorations for as long as possible...especially since we are going to Arizona this year for Christmas (which we are very excited about!)
Here we are Thanksgiving Day...don't confuse it with Christmas day!! Ali asked, "Where did all of the Thanksgiving decorations go? It isn't even Thanksgiving yet!" I know...I'm a bit impatient sometimes!

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Monday, November 16, 2009

Ali is 4 and a half!

Here she is at a year and a half
Two and a half years old
Three and a half years old
Four and a half years old! We don't celebrate half birthdays but we like to recognize them so that the girls can add on that "and a half" when telling their ages! I can't believe Ali is getting close to turning 5! This is the last year she will be at home with me most days so I know that I need to work on cherishing this time. I know I'll miss her next year when she starts kindergarten...so my focus needs to be NOT on getting the next thing done but on enjoying this precious little girl! She loves to be silly, make up rhymes, play "Ariel" in all of her dress up clothes...We love you sweetheart!
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Thursday, November 5, 2009

The Best Part

Look at all that CANDY!!

Lizzie got the hang of trick or treating and she would RUN to the next house yelling "MORE NAA! "
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Wizard of Oz Plus a Bee

Dorothy (Thanks Nana for the beautiful homemade dress!)
The Bee!
Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Wicked Witch, and the Bee! (Lizzie says, "Ali--Dodo, Mommy--witch, Me--Bee, Daddy--BOX!!")
Aunt Wendy came to visit for the weekend...it was so fun to go trick-or-treating with her! (Lizzie calls her "uuu-eee")
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Playing Together

Elizabeth is getting old enough now that the two girls are playing together so well! Here Ali is giving Lizzie a horsey ride with the bib as her "reigns"!! Ali is such a good big sister....most of the time....well, sometimes...okay, most of the time!! :)


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