Christmas 2014

 Love this picture. Our tradition is that each Christmas Eve, after dinner, this girls open their presents from each other. This year dinner was a little later than usual as we went to C's grandparents house, so we let them open them before dinner. Leah got Juliet a Kitty Surprise (the only thing she consistently asked for) and Juliet got Leah an assortment of Palace Pets. 

 That night Santa came! The girls got a ton of stuff. I forgot to take a picture of our piles to them. For their "big" gifts, Leah got the Frozen Ice Palace and Juliet got a doll house--though she actually didn't get it because it was not attached correctly. We tried to fix it around midnight, but ended up just sending it back to Amazon. Her replacement doll house came today and she is thrilled. 

 Leah was so excited to get her own Kitty Surprise. She kept wondering how Santa knew that she wanted "Snow". She also got the Matilda movie (the very first chapter book we read together) and was pretty excited about that, too. 

 Santa must have heard my cries for new bath toys and brought Juliet an assortment of toys. She really liked these little boats. 

 This year we remembered Brain and got him a new toy. As you can tell, he is pretty thrilled. Also, Santa brought him some wet food. That really made his morning. 

 Here are the girls posing before heading off to Christopher's side of the family for Christmas. Juliet and her babies! She got some new things for her babies. She really like the rocking chair that Grandma got her along with the cat outfit. She also got a monitor that she enjoys playing with. She REALLY likes the vacuum that Aunt Renee got her, too. "Mom" (my mom and Juliet calls her "Mom" like I do) is joking that Juliet got her vacuuming gene. It's pretty funny because Juliet **HATES** when I vacuum in real life. Like she runs out of the room and has a tantrum sometimes. 

Leah is funny with toys. She will tell you over and over the toys that she wants, but she really doesn't play with them. Her favorite things are really books. She loves to read. She also really enjoys coloring and doing "art projects". It's hard to come up with ideas of things that people can get her. I thought I had some good ideas that ended up being huge bombs (as it played with them ONCE and not even looked at them again in the 5 days since Christmas). She is happy, and doesn't really know any different, but it can make Christmas a challenge. 

 Both girls wanted to pose with their Kitty Surprises. 

 ....And the babies butt. Juliet made sure I knew what she was doing in these pictures....

 We got a lot of new toys. In no way did I think I went overboard this year, but I still feel totally overwhelmed with toys. I even cleared out a bin of toys as well as a 2 garbage bags of "baby toys" for the basement. I resolve to get a little more streamlined and organized in the new year. 

Christmas Party

Christmas Party with the Z's. The girls in their coordinating outfits. Love it. 

 This year we did a puzzle exchange with our friends Lukey and Anna. Leah loves her Frozen puzzle. It was a good way to cut down on all the toys. :)

 Juliet and Anna. I love Juliet's saucy look here. 

 Posing with babies. 

Christmas Cookies

 Juliet and her baby doll making cookies with Leah the baker. Often, when we ask Leah what she wants to be when she grows up, she says, "A mommy and a baker." 

 Geez Louise. All this girl did was suck sugar and frosting off her fingers and the table. She wasn't so into decorating. Just eating an unhealthy amount of sugar. 

 Leah, on the other hand, took the entire process very seriously. Her first cookie probably took her 20 minutes to frost and decorate. She sped up a little as the process went on. 

 Here are the final products. Nailed it. 

 Eating the cookies is the best part, of course!

The Cutest Girls in the World

 Sometimes Leah and Juliet get in the mood for a photography shoot. These are my favorite moments. I love them being silly and posing for the camera. I love when one of them gets a silly idea (like Leah who kept wanting Juliet to sit on her lap like a baby) and then they laugh and laugh like it's the funniest thing ever. I love how Momma Juliet needed to have a baby in every single picture. It's real life and I love it. 

 Both girls wanted to sit on their chairs. It turned out cute.

 Then they wanted individual pictures, too. Leah wanted to pose all 1980 like. :)

Costco Gingerbread House

 The above picture doesn't really have anything to do with our Gingerbread house, but I love it and it's sweet. Juliet has regressed a little with sleeping in her own bed. She often wakes up and comes into bed with us around 2 or 3. Usually she ends up perpendicular between Chris and I. This morning she was snuggled in with Chris. It must have been a Sunday, because I can't imagine how I would have been up before him.

 Anyway, we got our Gingerbread House at Costco (per usual). When we went to get it, a man stood in front of them, acting like he was blocking the way. Juliet yelled, "YOU MEAN!" at him. It was hilarious. 

 We got home and started decorating. For Juliet this means just eating copious amounts of candy. 

 My pictures always make this activity look like a Daddy/Daughter activity even though I do enjoy this and actively help (now making Christmas cookies, though, that IS a Daddy/Daughter thing--I make so much stuff with them that I feel like it's more special if they do it with their Daddy--though I do like to decorate them). 

 Juliet is pretending to help here, but is probably just plotting how to get the frosting away from Leah in order to suck it dry. 

First Annual Family Hooky Day

 A mall local to us had a Frozen Ice Palace set up complete with Santa Claus in December. I thought Leah would like the Frozen palace, and wondered if it would be enough to break her of her fear of Santa.

Ever since we tried to take her to see Santa (which she was excited to do) at 3, she has lived in fear of Santa. I certainly don't need a picture of my kid with Santa (especially those crying child ones that people post--I find those offensive), but I didn't like that Leah was so afraid of something. She begs to go to Disney World, and I always worry that she would be uncomfortable with the character piece (which would be one of the primary reasons you would go, right? Other wise we could just go to any other amusement park in the world). So, I was hoping we could gently break her fear. I told her she didn't have to sit on Santa's lap, or talk to him, but just to try it out. Every time we talked about it, she would end the conversation with, "I don't have to do anything I don't want to. If I don't want to talk to him or sit by him IT IS FINE." I got it. Then I told her that Santa told me that he just really wanted to see her awake, and he understood if she didn't want to talk to him or sit by him. That made her so much more relaxed. 

 We got all dressed up to go. Both girls were pretty excited. I was a littler nervous in the full parking lot because I had heard that the wait that weekend was over 3 hours. Luckily we got right it.

 There was too much going on to really take pictures. I got it. 

 They really liked the ice palace. It was just a small circular room that had "snow" falling from the center. The girls thought it was awesome. They just played and played for the 10 minutes or so that we were in there. 

Then it came time to see Santa. Both girls seemed a little nervous, but Santa struck up a conversation with them about Frozen and Leah warmed right up. She had been telling me that she wanted me to sit by her in the Santa picture, but she didn't end up needing me. Leah wore my necklace for a little extra security, and smiled big. Juliet seemed a little more unsure. You can tell in the picture. She wasn't sad or scared or anxious, just a little suspect. Daddy made the mistake of telling Leah she looks like a zombie, and Leah now happily points that out to everyone she shows the picture to. 

After we met Santa we went out to lunch and played in the play area. I am sold on "Family Hooky Day" in December. I really felt like I could enjoy the season, my kids, and our little family without the pressure that the month can bring for moms. We declared it a new tradition for our family. 

Buddy the Elf

 Buddy is our elf that comes every year when we get the Christmas tree. He sometimes brings presents, but always watches the girls to make sure they are on their best behavior. He moves all around the house after flying back from the North Pole each night. This year, the best thing that he did was to take pictures of the girls when they were sleeping. Leah thought this was hilarious and wanted to tell everyone about the time Buddy was petting her head while she slept. I have a love/hate relationship with Buddy, but watching Leah bound downstairs every morning to find out where Buddy was hiding always made me smile. See you next year, Buddy!

Christmas Tree Farm

 I can't believe that I haven't updated the blog this month. Now that the girls are getting older, trying to cram in all things Christmas without letting them know what I'm buying, hoarding, wrapping, or planning is a little more of a challenge. We took a hooky day to enjoy the season, and it was the best decision I made in December.

 We went to cut down a Christmas tree at our favorite Christmas Tree Farm. It started out fun, with the girls excited to "visit" Rugen and leave him notes and a toy. After that, they were suddenly both cold and hungry. And wanted both to be immediately rectified. 

 We finally found our tree and cut it down. We took a horse pulled wagon ride back to the front of the farm, and did our annual Mexican lunch afterward.

 I love this picture of the girls. Juliet was being such a stinker. I kept trying to make her laugh or look at all happy, but she just kept giving me this little stinker look. It's my favorite.