First Winter Snow

It's not quite like an Idaho winter, but it was fun to see the snow in Oregon this year! And, it's nice that it is almost all melted by the next day.

Christmas Morn

We had an awesome Christmas! It was probably the best one we've had since Matt and I were little kids. It is so much more fun to have Christmas with little kids. And this is the first year that Erika was old enough to get excited about presents and genuinely enjoy the festivities. Laurel was a cutie as well, but she basically just sat in Uncle Jacob's lap and waited until someone handed her a new toy. We had a great time with my mom, sister, brother, and sister-in-law. It was a very relaxing four days of watching movies, playing games, doing puzzles (way to go Lisa!) and playing with the girls new toys.

Erika and Laurel waiting to open their presents.

Erika with her little kitchen that Santa brought.

Laurel in the rocking chair that Santa brought.

Opening their stockings.

Aunt Sarah and Laurel.

Erika doctoring Aunt Lisa and Uncle Jacob.

Erika loved her new baby doll complete with doctor kit.

I love Christmas!

I think she thought Uncle Jacob was Santa.

The girls received a princess dress up kit from Grandma. They love it! Erika is now constantly Sleeping Beauty....her favorite princess.

And Laurel got to be Snow White.

Enjoying a good book.

Everyone in Oregon needs a nice umbrella.

Aunt Sarah made the girls little aprons for their new kitchen set. I also got one for myself when I play in my kitchen!

Unfortunately, the weekend ended with Laurel getting very very sick last night. Both girls have had pretty bad colds with coughs and runny noses and I think the drainage got the best of her last night. She got sick three times in 2 hours, each time directly all over Mommy. But, she seems to be a lot better today. Still coughing, but not as bad as last night. Prayerfully, they will both be better soon!

We are now looking forward to our second Christmas celebration this Friday with Matt's family!

Cute Christmas Presents

Ruff Ruff Ruff

This is probably the only thing that is cute about toys in which an animal "sings" a Christmas song with their animal sound....rocking Laurel!

Erika helped me make Christmas cookies last night. She was actually a really big helper! Her favorite part of cookie making, as is mine, was to lick the cookie dough off the beater.

Remember our pretty Christmas tree with no barriers in front of it? That lasted for one day before some baby-proofing happened. It's still pretty, just a little boxed in.

Santa

Ok, we found the BEST Santa ever! Sarah and I took the girls to see Santa this evening (Matt had a dinner meeting and didn't mind skipping out on going to the mall in the evening this close to Christmas). The girls were super cute in their little Christmas dresses. I have been prepping Erika for a while now that we were going to see Santa and she was going to sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. She has been a little more apprehensive about strangers and people dressed up than she ever had been before. So, we get to the mall and wait in a little bit of a line to see Santa. Sarah took Erika to ride up and down the escalators while Laurel and I stood in line. The first clue that this adventure might not be successful was when Erika saw Santa leaving his "workshop" (bathroom break) and was terrified. She ran back to Sarah and didn't want to even look at Santa. This might not be so good. After a few minutes of riding the escalators, it was our turn to go into Santa's workshop. The girls loved looking at the decorations and touching the fake snow. Then, the moment of truth came. We went around the corner and saw Santa sitting in his chair. Erika wouldn't go around the corner. She started crying and had to be held. We did a little coaxing to at least get her to go in front of Santa. She was still crying and not extremely excited about the whole Santa issue. But then, jolly old St. Nick did his magic and actually got Erika to stop crying, come near him, and talk to him. He had us put Laurel on his lap and then he talked very calmly and quietly to Erika about if she was a good girl and if she could come be a big helper and stand by Santa to hold Laurel's hand. He was so great with her! She even told him what she wanted for Christmas (a little kitchen) and that she was a good girl and a good big sister. Then, Santa told her that she was in fact on his good list! And, to top it all off, we got a REALLY good picture of the girls. It was awesome! A very fun night!

Also, it helped that Santa had a huge basket of candy canes beside him.

Here is a super cute video of Erika singing 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town'. Until Mommy ruins it by adding another verse. Erika was supposed to join me, but got distracted by Caillou.

O Christmas Tree

Last week, we put up our Christmas tree! The girls loved it.....Erika was a super helper putting up the ornaments. Granted, she put every ornament we gave her on the same branch, but a little strategic placement by Daddy helped solve that. Laurel just liked to touch the tree and try and play with the ornaments. Therefore, the majority of the decorating occurred after Laurel went to bed.

I love these lights!

Ok, I approve of the tree.

Daddy and the girls after the lights were up.

Erika's favorite part of helping decorate was that she got to stand on the step stool!

Post-decoration.

Mommy and Erika at the town's tree lighting at the library.

Old News

I'm sure everyone is tired of hearing about everyone's Thanksgiving...but there is one more! Laurel got to celebrate her first Thanksgiving this year by performing cheers for the food, looking at all the Christmas decorations we put up, and enjoying yummy food! She loved everything on the Thanksgiving table, although the rolls were probably her favorite. We enjoyed a very relaxed Thanksgiving day with our family, my mom and my sister. The real fun came on Friday when Matt and I met Sarah at Fred Meyer at 5am. We proceeded to shop for the next six hours, where Sarah got ALL of her Christmas shopping done and even found time to buy herself a few items. Or a lot of items, but who's keeping track? Now, to make some of you even more envious, Sarah now has all of her Christmas gifts wrapped and under the tree. Well done Sarah! Friday afternoon, we drove down to spend time with Matt's family, which was a ton of fun! Erika loved playing with her cousins and Laurel loved trying to eat the poinsettias. It was a super fun holiday weekend and we are so looking forward to Christmas with our girls this year! Matt is getting a tree after work today and we will decorate it tonight. I'll be sure to take pictures of it after it's complete. And then take another picture of it once Laurel gets a hold of the lights, ornaments, and possibly the tree itself and rips it all up!

You'd think the only thing we ate for Thanksgiving was rolls, but that is not the case. We had all the traditional Thanksgiving spread, the girls just loves rolls!

Doesn't Laurel look like she is a little tipsy? She's not.

Hooray for turkey!

I also want to be a cheerleader!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Erika showing Laurel Santa's workshop. And telling her not to touch anything.

Yes

Seven years ago today, Matt drove me to Mt. Rainier on a beautifully sunny day. We drove to Paradise, where we got out and walked around in the snow a bit. Then, Matt knelt down in the snow and asked me to be his wife. And we've been living our dreams ever since. I love you Matt!

Ads

Well, it happened. Erika found the toy catalog from Target. All morning, I've been hearing, "I never had that doll before." "I never had that game before." "If I'm good, I'll get it for Christmas."
Um, little does she know that she will not be getting the doll for $50 that you have to change its diaper. How is that a "bonus" on a doll? Maybe I'll put a bow on Laurel for Erika on Christmas morning, "Here you go, change her diaper!"
I thought I had a couple more years before commercials, ads, or magazines attracted my daughter's attention enough to ask me, nay, tell me that she must have this particular item. Sigh.
I guess it's never too early to teach thankfulness for what we already have. I've been working on that with her so that whenever she says, "I want that doll" I remind her that she has a bunch of dolls and isn't she lucky to have so many dolls to play with already? We'll see on Christmas morning if my words are making an impact or not. Hopefully, and this will probably be the case, Erika will be so excited with the toys that she did get, that she'll forget all about the ones she thought she wanted.

Playing and Reading

Too busy wiping snotty noses to write anything of significance. Just some videos to enjoy!

Who doesn't love a ride in the laundry basket?

Erika loves reading to Laurel. Her little voice is hoarse from her cold. :(

Picture Thanks

It always seems appropriate to post what makes me thankful in the month of November. So, here it is.

I am immensely thankful for:

And:

And:

And how the girls play together:

And especially that they can both boogie like none other (just like their Mama)!

What a blessing they are to me.....I thank God for them every day!

Backlog

We just got our computer fixed so no more virus! Hooray! Which means I have a bunch of pictures that you get to see since I haven't been able to do anything with our computer for a while.

I love fall! I love the colorful leaves the most. It's even lots of fun to rake them up. And fun to watch Erika jump in them.

Jumping in the freshly raked pile.

Erika kept yelling at Wyatt to hold still so she could put leaves on his back. He didn't obey.

The entire family got to rake.

Even Laurel enjoyed it.

Next year we're buying the girls little rakes and we'll sit inside watching them rake the entire yard by themselves!

Matt made the girls their first blanket fort/tent/house. They love it! Erika's imagination has exploded lately so she'll take a bunch of her stuffed animals in the tent with her and have little conversations with them. It is so much fun to listen to!

The tent.

Erika had to coax Laurel to go into it with her.

Then she couldn't keep her out!

Wyatt enjoys the tent as well.

Laurel has discovered that if she sits on the top of the slide and scoots back and forth, she will eventually go down. It's pretty cute!