Bedtime with Elizabeth

Elizabeth is crazy about her baby dolls and stuffed animals, sometimes I can't even find her in her bed, she is surrounded by her animals, she insists on having them all in her bed before she goes to sleep. I went in the to check on her the other night a few minutes after I put them down and this is what I saw.

She had put her baby doll and Oklahoma bear to bed on her pillow and put a blankie on them. I can't even get over how adorable she is!

Bedtime with Daniel

I guess it has been a couple of months now since we broke Daniel of the pacifier, he has done really well, he only asked for it a couple of times and seemed to forget about it pretty quickly. The problem is that it obviously relaxed him and helped him get to sleep at night and now he just can't seem to wind down. He doesn't cry, he just bounces around his bed, talking, singing, keeping Elizabeth up, etc. I stood outside their door and captured this the other night.

Cheers!

The kids love to do Cheers while they eating, with us and with each other - how cute is that? Their tables manners have gotten considerably better in recent months and much less food is finding it's way to the ground, much to Providence's dismay. They really are getting too big for their high chairs but I am waiting for the MOMS Sale on March 13th to get another booster seat and then it's "bye bye high chairs!" I can't even tell you how much I won't miss washing those humongous trays!

"Look at my blue tongue!"

I had to post this pic of Elizabeth and her blue tongue that she got from a lollipop at church. We switched them to the 2 year old class in December and they absolutely love it! They were in the toddler room before which is basically just a room full of a bunch of toys where they just play for an hour. But now they are in more of a classroom where they sing songs, have a lesson and do a craft. One night they even came out with a piece of paper that they had glued things to, I was like, "you gave my kids glue?!" Well I didn't really say that but I thought it. It's just so great to see them socializing with other kids and really enjoying being somewhere like that and the best part - no tears! They are learning too, Elizabeth was going around the house saying "God gave us Jesus" over and over again. My babies are getting so big and grown up!

Playing Dress Up

Check out sweet little Elizabeth playing dress up. She loves to wear hats around the house, she found this scarf in my closet and has claimed it as her own, she finds all kinds of creative ways to wear it, even likes me to tie it around her waist as a skirt. She is such a sweet, outgoing and adventurous little girl, I see big things in her future. Maybe even a career in fashion design!

Grandpa D and Miss Carol's visit

We had a whirlwind visit from my Dad and Carol the week before Christmas. Again, the kids got some awesome gifts and had such a great time playing with Dad and Carol. They absolutely love when people come to visit us, I think they really get bored with just ole Mommy and Daddy all the time. We all went to The Wildlife Experience Winter Wonderlights and froze while looking at all the really cool lights that I am pretty sure we could have driven by and seen for free from our warm cars. We had fun though, were sad to see Grandpa Danny and Miss Carol leave but were so glad we got to see them around Christmastime!

I am pretty sure Daniel is crying in both of these pics because he kept trying to take off and all of his efforts were thwarted. Poor kid.

Santa Schmanta

Like many families, we have fallen victim to the idea that we must participate in all of the standard holiday traditions. It was actually my idea to go see Santa this year, I think maybe if I hadn't mentioned it, Chris may have not thought of it and we could have just skipped it altogether. Me and my big mouth. We had gone to a really neat (and free) Fall Festival at a local nursery and wanted to go back there to see Santa Claus. We thought it might be less crowded than the malls, but there was still a long line of people there when we arrived and we got there right when they opened. We had talked it up quite a bit and kept asking the kids if they wanted to sit with Santa, and guess what they said? "No!" I knew they weren't going to do it so why spend a Saturday morning out in the cold trying to keep 2 2 yr olds occupied for over an hour? I did try to talk Chris into leaving pretty much as soon as we got there, even tried to bribe him by suggesting we go eat, but he felt like we should say since we were already there. Well once we finally got up there, the kids had no interest in sitting with them and well....you see the end result. This is the 2nd picture with Santa I have been in with them. It's crazy, why do we do this? They didn't talk to him but did give him high 5's when we left and talked about the candy canes they got from him for days after that. All in all, it wasn't a bad experience, just not really sure it was necessary. Next year, I am keeping my mouth shut.