Christmas - Part 2

Then it was off to Mimi & Grandbob's house for more Christmas fun!  We took the girls to their first Christmas Eve service and they did such a great job.  Kate sat in Grandbob's lap most of the time and Elle sat next to me and colored - both were as sweet and quiet as can be!  It was a sweet memory for me being with my family and my girls on Christmas in the church I grew up in.  Santa came to visit, we opened more presents, ate our Christmas breakfast (delicious as always!) and had a wonderful visit with everyone!  It's the bees knees being a parent at Christmas.  3 year old faces lit up with excitement and squealing with joy.  Nothing quite like it.

Being silly on the couch with Gabby

The Christmas Lily

Christmas lights

Playing with the aforementioned flashlights before church!

More presents!

Puzzle-mania

Uncle P!

Enjoying their new "iPads"

Bubbles on Christmas morning

Shooting some hoops on their new goal

Playing "store" with Daddy & their new cash register

Santa Kate

Hanging out with Mimi & Mickey

Post-Christmas morning relaxing

The one pic I managed to capture of our visit with the Porters!  Kiddos in motion.  Anna showed the girls the bouncy house ropes. :)

Packed to the gills and asleep! 

Christmas - Part 1

As usual, we had a wonderful Christmas with our families this year!  All this talk of Christmas in May is making me want to break out my Christmas music.  HA!

We spent the first part of our "Christmas Break" with all the Burns and enjoyed every minute of it!  We played guitar, poker, opened presents, ate tasty food, played, watched Christmas Vacation and played some more!  We also had fun celebrating Grandma's birthday and playing "Dirty Santa".

Practicing their chords with Coco

Cousin Kade about to school everyone in poker

Clowning around with PeyPey

Presents!

Favorite present?

A flashlight!

They seriously loved them.  Still do!

Cousins!  Hello flash!

Kate trying to gallop away on Kade's horse

With a Gobble Gobble Gobble

 And a wobble, wobble, wobble... *excerpt from one of the girls favorite Thanksgiving songs this year.  Ask them to sing it - they are not shy.  :)

We had a great Thanksgiving with our families this year.  In the spirit of the holiday, we are so thankful that both sides of our family are close enough that we can visit everyone!  We started out in Huntsville with a turkey dinner at Aunt Wissa & Uncle Scott's house.  Everything was delish (beautiful turkey, Wissa!) and we had fun laughing & hanging out with everyone.  The only hiccup was when Tyler locked the keys in the van.  On Thanksgiving Day.  Oops.  Thankfully, Papa had a friend who was a locksmith who graciously came over and helped us out!  It also gave the girls some time to run around outside, shoot some hoops & play with a cool light-up football.  :) 

Ready for turkey!

Burning off the after dinner calories.  :)

Big fans of these glasses.  They made the football glow!

Take me to your leader

Then it was off to Franklin for more fun!  We had a great time visiting with Mimi, Grandbob, Gabby, Uncle P & Mallory.   There was lots of reading, being thrown up in the air (the girls, not us!), laughing and all around good times.  Then, we all got to go see Shrek - carved entirely out of ice.  It was pretty cool (pun totally intended).  There was even an ice slide - and I don't know who enjoyed it most - the grown-ups or the kids!  We made it over to Opryland Hotel to look at the lights for a few minutes before the girls decided they were hungry & commenced meltdown - so we hit the road and enjoyed a delightful Mexican dinner.  Ole!

My kids have mad Where's Waldo skills.  Just like Uncle P.

Storytime with Gabby

Wheeee

That'll do donkey.

Family Picture attempt.  FAIL.

Daddy & Elle

Ready for the ice slide!

Mimi & Grandbob.  Modeling the always fashionable giant parkas provided.

Ice Ice Baby.  (couldn't resist)

Tyler's good side.  ZING!  :)

Beautiful ice Nativity Scene at the end.

And we are happy & pooped!

A wonderful Thanksgiving with lots of great memories!

Music Party!

One of the girls BFF's celebrated her birthday with a fun music party and the girls had a lovely time.  This sweet friend is moving away soon and we are so sad (and by "we", I mean "me", as I have not told the girls) and will miss her & her parents tons!  I'm serious, guys.  Her mama is awesome and a great friend and neighbor and I may start sucking MY thumb and rocking in a corner once they've moved away.  To another COUNTRY.  Thumbs down.  But total thumbs up for it being a great opportunity for their family.  I suppose the thumbs down is really just for me being selfish and wanting them to stay.  :)

But, as usual, I digress...

Elle & Kate got to make their own noisemakers and tambourines and then participate in a music class where they sang songs, danced, and clapped and engaged in all manners of music-making.  Kate?  Not so much into it.  She just kinda wanted to hang out with me quietly and watch everyone.  Which, if you know Kate, seems a smidge out of character.  The child is hilarious and loves to be silly and dance.  I always happy for snuggles from my girl though.  :)  Elle jumped right in and joined the fun!

PS - Christmas posts coming soon.  Promise!

I'm supposed to clap?  And sing?  Um, no.

Crafting it up - making their own musical instruments.

Starting to feel the music.  :)

Sweet pic of Elle & the bday girl!

Spiders and Kitty Cats in Pumpkins..Oh my!

Happy (wayyy belated) Halloween!  We had an action-packed, fun-filled one here.  This may be the only time in their lives that I am able to convince the girls that because they can fit into them, they should wear the same costumes they did last year.  I took full advantage and voila!  A spider and a Kitty Cat in a Pumpkin.  You will recall last year that Kate wanted nothing to do with the pumpkin part of her costume.  She started out that way again this year, but after cajoling and promises of eyeliner-drawn whiskers, she consented.  So it was like, a TOTALLY different costume for her.

Leading up to the big night o' Trick or Treating, the girls were able to celebrate in style at our local library during story time, and at a church Trunk or Treat.  We went Trick or Treating with our dear friends and neighbors on Halloween night and they racked up even more candy and had a great time, despite accidental beer spillage on the Kitty Cat.  For the rest of the night, she was a Stray Cat who reeked of booze.  HA!

Story time at the library with their friends, the Flamingo & the Ladybug

More candy?

Getting candy from Ms. Laura at the library - she's famous at our house.

Sweet friends!

Approximately 1 house into Trick-Or-Treating, we are already checking our stash

Kate even sat down for the occasion

They were PROS at this by the end of the night!

One house had a wheel of candy - fancy!

We also got to go to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens to see the scarecrows on one of our Field Trip Fridays.  

Ready for the scarecrows!

There were tons of them!  Here's a troop leader and her scouts.

Posing in the gardens

And they celebrated BIG time at school!  I've never seen so many Halloween crafts.  Who needs Halloween decorations when you've got kiddos in preschool??  They got to wear these cool spider hats they made below and parade around school.

Now that Halloween is over, they are still requesting candy after every meal and for snacks.  Needless to say, Mommy is NOT their favorite person during those times.  :)  All in all - Halloween was big fun.  They were super excited about everything and really got into it!  Makes me even more excited for Christmas.