Teeter Totter fun

Hannah and Ellie came over the other morning and put one of Paige and Alaina's Christmas presents to good use. I think Hannah and Paige played on it for the first 45 minutes. It looked like fun.

Christmas with the Safly's

We drove to Mark's parents house in Ames Christmas afternoon and spent a few days there. Uncle Mat and Aunt Myra came and stayed, too. We enjoyed visiting and relaxing together.

Grandpa got to play "Santa" and Paige enjoyed opening all her fun new presents.
It was fun to watch the girls excitement over each new gift.
Alaina even got in on the action.

Paige got a new Fisher Price kids digital camera. She learned very fast how to use it and actually takes some good pics. Be watching for some posts by Paige.

Alaina was getting pretty tired. It was a big day.

Paige got a new hat. Doesn't she make a great cowgirl!?! She even wears the hat low.

Alaina got to finally meet her Great Grammie Herrick.

And also her Great Grandma Safly.

Grandpa and Grandma brought up their trampoline. Paige absolutely loved jumping.

Grandpa even tried it out with her.

Paige and Alaina taking a bath in the same bathtub their Daddy used to take baths in. They love the water.

Christmas Morning

This was our first Christmas morning spent at home. It is important to Mark and I to start our own Christmas traditions. We are still going to travel to grandparent's homes, but want to at least be home for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. We also have decided that we want our girls to grow up knowing the true meaning of Christmas, which is the birth of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. So Paige and I sang Happy Birthday to Jesus at breakfast. This also means that Santa doesn't play a part in our Christmas. I know that Paige doesn't really get it yet, but we tell her that Santa is just a man in a costume. Someday we will read her the story of Saint Nicholas and how Santa came about, but for right now, she doesn't really question it.

It was so fun to see Paige's excitement as she came down the stairs and said with a big gasp, "Presents!"
My lambs sitting in front of their presents.

Paige helped me make Monkey Bread before we opened presents. She insisted we were making Monkey Munch because we had made that the day before. She is such a good helper now. And for those that are wondering. I did cut Paige's hair. She hates to have her hair washed, combed, done up. It's just easier to have it short. I hope it doesn't look too bad considering I did it myself.

Alaina patiently waiting to open presents.

Alaina with her books. I love the open mouth. It looks like she is in awe.

Alaina with her new top.

This year we got Paige dress up outfits. It was fun to watch her transform into a princess.

I love it. She even put on the clip on earrings. Mark says that we are going to have to take the girls camping this summer. We have way too much princess going on.

Paige all dressed up with her new vanity and dress tree.

Alaina got a Little People Farm. Paige thought that all the gifts were hers. It is a great way to teach her about sharing and kindness because it was ok for her to play with Alaina's new toys, but if Alaina took something of Paige's, it was the end of the world.

I got some Zumba workout DVD's. I'm really excited.

Here are my cherished ones with their stockings.

My little sunshine!

Christmas Eve

This is the first year that we have decided to have Christmas at home. I am excited to start some family traditions. We spent the day with the Isaacson's and had a wonderful day of relaxing, playing Hand and Foot, eating, going to Christmas Eve service. It was a great day.

I dressed the girls in these adorable sweatshirt dresses and leggings. I loved it. They were so cute!

All dressed up for the Christmas Eve service. I'm sure it was a good service, but the girls were so excited to be in the service and sit with their friends, that Mark and I really didn't hear much. The kids were noisy and it was packed out in there. It's ok with me that we couldn't hear much, I just want the girls to remember going to a Christmas Eve service for as far back as they can remember. I'm sure it will be better next year.

Isn't she adorable!?!

Look at that coat from her Grandma Safly. It is so cute.

It's hard to get a good picture of both the girls.

Alaina and Zachary Isaacson

Hannah, Paige, and Ellie checking out the tree.

Ellie had this kind of face in all the pictures we took.

One tradition that I wanted to start was to have the everyone open one gift on Christmas Eve and I wanted it to be new pajamas. Emily and I were at Old Navy and thought it would be hysterical to get Mark and Greg matching pajamas. . . ugly ones.

Don't they look awesome!?!

Here we are in our new pj's.

New Camera

We got a new camera, a Nikon D90 SLR. It is so much fun. One of Mark's hobbies is photography. He loves to take pictures, especially of our kids. We are still trying to figure out all the bells and whistles and this camera is full of them. I wanted to share a few candids of the girls. I think they need captions. I numbered them so you could leave captions in the comment section if you wish.

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Thanksgiving

Go Vikings! I found this outfit at a garage sale and had to have Alaina wear it. My dad and brothers HATE the Vikings, but my mom and I like them. It was pretty fun so see their reactions to it and she was pretty darn adorable in it if I do say so.
I think the festivities got to be a bit much for Paige. She settled down to watch "Bandaid", as she liked to call Bambi.

One of the things we love about going to visit my parents in FD is that we play games all weekend. Hand and Foot is our favorite, but we played a little Quelf, Rigamarole, Imaginiff, Whoonu, and more. I do have to rub it in a little that Mark and I were the Hand and Foot tourney champs!!!!

Papa even got in a game of Memory with Paige. And yes, grandparents, we do have that game.

Alaina and her Unkie.

Paige loves to sing and dance right now. And the reason that she is in just her diaper is that she was coloring with markers and I didn't want it all over her clothes. We have an awesome video of her dancing that I'm going to try to get posted on here. It's a longer video so I may need some blogger advice. Any takers?