Christmas at Home

All ready for Santa and his reindeer!  Millie worked really hard on this pic.

Santa brought Millie a Big Wheel Bike!

...and the pink kitchen with the phone, of course.

...and Syd a much smaller "bike".  Great job, Santa!

kids these days...always on the phone

My dad, Tricia, and Hillery were all able to come stay the night and wake up Christmas morning with us.  It was fun to have them here!  The tradition of chocolate syrup and biscuits continues...

Syd loooooves baby dolls right now, so the new baby Stella and stroller might just be her fav gift this year

thank you kisses <3

New princess gowns were a hit...they are actually nightgowns from Target, so they are soft and pretty freaking adorable, I must say!

They performed Let It Go together...I see many performances in our future 

Play doh is one of her favorite things right now, so this fun factory really excited her.  Thanks B & L!

Hillery helped Syddles open some gifts.  I love love love that Syd will sit on other people's laps.  It's such a change from our snobby Millie. ;)

I set up the camera for a timed pic.  I love when I get to use the good camera.  I feel so professional.

Our other family members didn't get much for Christmas, except more gray hair.  Sorry Beansie...

...and Buddy Love.

It was nice enough on Christmas Day for Mills to ride outside!  It was so insanely adorable to see JKK walking along with her on the trails behind our house.  She's in love with her new bike!

This year was fun, and Millie "got it" for the most part.  She understands who Santa is, but I think we talked about him for so long that she didn't really know when to expect him.  She certainly didn't want to talk TO him.  Next year will be better, and I hope she'll be good for the elves next year too.  She sort of just ignored them this year...ha!   Another fun Christmas for the books.  We are certainly blessed and I'm so thankful for our little family.

Great Wolf Lodge

The weekend before Christmas, we stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City with Cayden and family.  The kids had THE BEST TIME!  The parents spent a great deal of time reminiscing about how vacations used to be. ;)  My how things have changed...

We arrived Saturday afternoon and headed straight for the indoor waterpark!

corralling the fab four for a pic is quite the task

These two.  Truly best friends.  I love how they just pick up right where they left off.  And they do things like this hand-holding without us prompting them to.  It really was a better vacation with them there...Millie and Cayden play great together and entertain each other.  Syd and Beck got to know each other better and shared food at meal times.  I imagine they'll be version 2.0.

telling a story

Syd's favorite place was the cupcake shop.  No surprise there ;)  girl enjoys some cake.  At breakfast, she loved the mini muffins and kept asking for "mo cake".

Beckham is the best picture poser and is always happy to say cheese.  He's also the fastest little runner I've ever seen.  He has these cute little bow legs, and he sprints everywhere.  He's thin and wiry...future athlete, for sure.

I bought the fab four some BFF shirts and attempted a posed photo, which never ends well.

...but thanks to Amanda's help, we got some cute shots.

Syd was not cooperating at all.  Beck sure was though...

Cayden is so silly and absolutely cracks me up.

This is what went on most of the time...running the halls.

For dinner Sunday night, we took the kids to the nearby T-Rex cafe.  Surprisingly, it took Millie awhile to warm up to the dinosaurs.  Once we got to our table, she was fine and had a great time being silly with Cayden.

For dessert, they got to "paint" their rice krispie treats in the shape of dinos.

After dinner, we stayed up late to attend the story time in the lobby.  It was packed and a fun experience.  It even snowed during one of the songs.  Millie and Cayden stood up the whole time dancing and putting on a show...and even shared their first kiss in front of the audience.  I wasn't watching, so I'm not sure who made the first move. ;)

In an extremely disappointing turn of events, my disposable water camera was a dud.  When I went to pick up the prints, none of them were usable...all blacked out.  They gave me a CD of the images and I was able to lighten up a few of them...but they are still terrible quality and you can't see the cuteness going on.  Bummer.

Cayden and Beckham can swim year round in Brazil, so they are little fishies.  Cayden has to wear his goggles ;)

Syd's swimsuit might have been a bit too small.  Sorry Pid Pid.  She LOVED jumping off the side of the big pool into our arms.  She even went down the slide a few times.

Millie's confidence was definitely buoyed by Cayden's experience in the pool.  She did much more than she would've if she had only been with us.  She still won't go under water, but she loved going down the slides.

Definitely a fun weekend adventure for the kiddos!  Hope to make it an annual event...

Christmas Concert at School + Other Random Cheer

Today was pajama day at school for the girls!  I don't do many matching things for them, but I do love me some matching pjs.

We always drop Syd off first, then Mills enjoys showing me what they've been working on in class

lately, they've been busy learning their last names

snowman cookie pops for her party...this age group really loves stuff like this

Today was also Millie's very first Christmas Concert.  She's been practicing her songs around the house the past few weeks.  The kids did pretty good, especially considering there was a bit of a delay to get the thing started.  It was really fun to watch and Mills didn't seem embarrassed at all!  Video: Away in the Manger  & more Video: Jingle Bells

Before it even started, we could tell Millie was tired.  She was yawning and looking close to throwing the towel in.  No doubt because she woke up at 5am this morning...which isn't normal.  There's a bit of a story there though...nothing dramatic, just that our house is currently under construction.  The rock on the front of our house has been leaking into the dining room and garage.  We are having it fixed, and since Millie's room is above the dining room, we've had to move her bed into Syd's room.  Sleeping in the same room has been going really well, and they seem to love each other's company.  It's pretty sweet to hear them giggling on the monitor in the mornings.  But.  There are always random days where one wakes up wayyyy too early and wakes the other one up too (one morning, Millie surprised Syd by turning on the light...gah!  can you even imagine?!).  Which is what happened this morning and they both were extremely grumpy going to school this morning.

yes, Millie is still in a crib and we plan to keep her there until she's 10

Since moving her into Syd's room, she won't nap in her bed anymore.  Most days, I can get her to nap in our bed though.  She sleeps in the craziest positions.  I just want to smooch all over her when she's this peaceful.

It's felt very Christmas-y around here with all of the decor and tree up.  Syd runs in every morning to turn on the Christmas tree lights.

Our tree is looking a little sad this year.  No ornaments on the bottom half and some of the lights won't light up anymore....and possibly a few more holes than it used to have.  It still makes me happy to see it though.

Finally got back out the felt tree I made 2 years ago...it's going much better this time ;)

Our annual handprint art came out pretty cute...Millie was excited that hers looked like Chippy

Syd's Santa

And just because we were in the swing of things and Millie spotted the pink paint...

The school always does cute handprint art with the babies also.  Syd made two ornaments and one Santa sack this year at MDO.

She also made this magnet

She loves to get it down and hold it.   I think she's proud of it.

We are always blessed to have some nice weather days sprinkled into our winter.  It really helps us all to get outside for a bit.

I see the resemblance! <3

Some days it just doesn't work out though.  On this day, we bundled up and drove to the park, only to freeze our bottoms off.  So we hopped back into the car for a trip to starbucks to warm up.  This is Syd's very first cake pop.  A true milestone.  She grinned at it for quite awhile before chomping into it.  I love this picture.

Another milestone: this is Syd's last "Birds" class at The Little Gym.  After Christmas break, she will move up into the "Beasts" class.  Just like her big sister, she is absolutely loving her gym time.  So thankful I can do this with them.

I'm still terrible at getting a clear picture, even with the good camera.  I have lots to learn.  Maybe 2015 will be the year...

I so badly want to get a pic of Syd's beautiful chompers ;)

And finally...Millie gets to see Cayden this weekend!  They are home for the holidays, and we are lucky enough to snag them for a whole weekend!  We are going to the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City.  It has an indoor water park, so it will be entertainment right on the premises.  I'm really looking forward to spending time with them and seeing M & C play.  Millie can't wait to swim with Cayden.  I took a little video of her talking about it...and it's adorable because she's using her sweet voice.  Video: Mills can't wait to swim with Cayden