Christmas Eve

Another full and busy day! Dana and Colie came over in the morning and Dana painted all our nails. We all got sparkly red nail polish for Christmas. She also painted the girls nails a sparkly pink nail polish. As soon as my nails were dry I made a couple batches of sugar cookies. Then we had a girls lunch. Mom, Colie, Dana and I snuck out to Red Robin. We split 2 salads and an order of fries...so yummy!! From there we all rushed home to get ready for the Christmas Eve service at church. Our church had two services...one at 4 for people with little kids and one at 11. The girls loved it. They loved being part of the "big" church and getting to sing Christmas carols. From there we came home and loaded the car up with presents and packed an over night bag so we could spend the night at my parents' house. Now they only live 2 miles up the road but we all decided to have an "old fashioned" Christmas this year. When my parents lived on their farm in Virginia we would all come from where ever we were and stay in their house for Christmas. Since Necole has been in Alaska for 3 years we haven't had a Christmas with the whole family together. This year, we were all together! Anyway...when we got to my parents house there was chili on the stove and cornbread in the oven. Before we ate dinner I made up some frosting for the sugar cookies I made and everyone decorated the cookies so we could leave them out for Santa.

As soon as the girls were done decorating, they got on their Christmas pajamas and we had to throw the Magic Reindeer Food(from grandma) on the grass. Supposedly you sprinkle this stuff all over the lawn and when the reindeer come within a 100 miles they smell it and come to your house first. After you sprinkle it you're supposed to go right to sleep so they don't come to your house and find you awake and then have to leave. 

 Heidi was very excited if you didn't notice. :)  

 Shane pouring the reindeer food into their hand. It really just looked like ground up oatmeal. 

They didn't get the whole rushing to sleep cause Sanata was coming. They did not want to go to bed!! We finally got them to sleep, ate our amazing dinner and started playing Santa. I have to say that being the grown up is so much more fun that being the kid who has to go to bed early on Christmas morning!! By the time we were finished setting everything up it was after midnight and we headed to bed. The house my parents live in now doesn't have as many rooms as the farm did. We got the room with all the kids. Shane and Nat and I got the bed (Nat was supposed to have the floor but she kept asking to get in bed with us) and Heidi, Gracie, Luke and Matthew were on the floor. I spent my night back and forth between the bed and the floor cause Heidi kept crying because she would wake up not knowing where she was. Lets just say I didn't get a whole lot of sleep!

Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes

I don't know what it is about the holidays but I have been seriously baking all month! I'm not even tired of it. I just can't stop myself! Today I made chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream frosting. The other day I made white chocolate covered Oreos with crushed peppermint on top. I had a ton of peppermint candies left over so I threw them into some frosting and stuck it on top of a yummy chocolate cupcake. Very good. Very festive. :)

4 More Days!!

Today we made chocolate lollipops. It was a little crazy. And a little messy. And really yummy. :) We got one of those kits from Michaels and I let the kids go nuts. It was pretty hard and they don't look pretty at all. Oh well...they had fun. 

 Love Heidi's face over there :)

 My girls are so focused!

  

 When they finished making the lollipops they started eating all the candy that ended up on the table

Probably their favorite part!

6 Days Till Christmas

Today was a really fun day! This morning the kids opened their advent box and they found a note saying they got to make Jumbo Snowmen Ornaments. Since Natalie is on break from school, the girls got to do the ornaments right away. 

 After they finished their ornaments, we ran some errands and then met friends for lunch at McDonalds. My friend Sarah has two kids the same ages as the girls. Natalie and Heidi LOVE playing with Luca and Winnie so while they played in the play area, Sarah and I got to hang out. So fun!

After lunch, I came home...put the girls down for their nap and then Gracie came over to babysit. I got to have a girls day with my sisters! We went Christmas shopping and then had dinner at PF Changs. So much fun! Really, a great day! :)

Yesterday I was trying to take pictures of the Christmas tree and get those pretty bokeh light effects. I didn't really figure it out but I did get a couple pretty ones. :)

9 Days till Christmas!

I tried something that I saw on Pintrest today.  I put my Christmas wrapping paper on the wall and used it as a backdrop to take Christmas pictures of the girls. I really loved how it turned out even though I would do a couple things differently next time. The light reflected off of parts of the paper which bugged me. I think I needed to wait for better lighting. Also...maybe more tape. :) By the end of my little photo session the paper was moving around a bunch. Anyway...here are some cute shots of my kids. I'm really bad at picking just one so...

 Single shots first 

 I really love this one 

 Getting tired of me taking their picture :)

 Yay for reversible paper! Now they wanted to take pictures with their "babies."

Photo session was over when the paper fell off the wall and on their heads! 

The Thank You Game

There are 10 days left till Christmas!!  The perfect time to remind the girls about being thankful! I found this game in a magazine a long time ago and I have been using it before their birthdays' and before every Christmas. It's super easy but I think it really makes a difference. So the game is this....You get a gift bag and put a random "gift" inside, then give it to the girls and they open it. Kind of like a practice gift giving session. They have to find something nice to say about it, say thank you and then give a hug. Super easy and for some reason they really really love it! So today I sat the girls on the couch...Natalie went first. I took the gift bag and went into the playroom and brought back a My Little Pony. She opened the bag and said, "Thank you, Mommy! I love the rainbow hair!" Then it was Heidi's turn. And then they both gave a gift to me. 

They get so excited about this game! We practiced what to say. To not just say thank you but to find something particular you like about the gift. Then the girls kept playing the game by themselves. Natalie would get something for Heidi and then Heidi would get something for Nat. It's very cute! The best part is that it helps them learn to wait their turn and to be thankful. :)

 

The Christmas Play

Tonight was the girls' Christmas play at church. Seriously the cutest thing ever! We have been to two practices where it was complete insanity. The whole play was made up of kids under 10 and half of them were under 5. The fact that they got everyone to do what they were supposed to was pretty impressive! Everything was going well...Shane was videoing the whole thing. As soon as Heidi came out...she was a sheep...I started to take her picture. You could see her looking at all the people and trying to find us. The only person she saw was Dane and she ran right to her crying! She was scared to death of all the people there! She got passed down the row to me where I tried to talk her into going back out there with her friend, Winnie. She wouldn't do it so I walked her back to the back when the other sheep left. Then she had to come back out, so I walked her back out hoping she would stay on the stage but she didn't. She just kept walking with me toward my seat. Her little friend Winnie followed us too! Her mom came and got her and took her back to the stage and she just sat there quietly like she was supposed to. :) In the mean time Natalie was doing everything she was supposed to be doing as an angle. (I missed all that! Thankfully Shane has it all on video. We will have to watch it with the girls later!) At the end of the play they all stood at the front singing and when Heidi saw Natalie standing at the front she ran to her and gave her the biggest hug. She didn't let go of her for the whole song! It was really adorable!

 All the family...we took up two rows!

 This is when she walked out and she was looking for us

 Heidi crying in Dana's lap :(

 That's Natalie if you can see her...

 And here a little blurry. I had Heidi on my lap and I was lucky to get anything!

 Natalie singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing

 I wish I would have taken it fast enough to get Heidi running full blast to Natalie! 

Afterwards they were supposed to have a Santa Clause and a professional photographer to take free pictures for everyone but Santa didn't show. Seriously?? How does Santa just not show?!?! The girls were so upset. It's kinda funny cause we don't play up Santa that much around here but they still really wanted to see him. Guess we'll have to find another one. :)