New Year's Eve

We are ending 2010 with our good friends Uncle Andy, Aunt Kim, Conner, and Scott. Oh, and Uncle Steve and Cooper too! We spent the day and evening playing and catching up on everyone's Christmases. After dinner we watched a little slide show recapping our 2010 memories together in pictures. The kids were all tucked in by 8:00 and then the adults got to have a nice quiet dinner and play some board games, something we haven't done in FOREVER! We are going to do our very best to stay up until midnight and watch the ball drop even though we know the kids won't be sleeping in!

Second to Last Day of the Year

We spent our second to last day of 2010 doing nothing special. Which turned out to be kinda special after all. The girls chilled...

Loved on their Pillow Pets...

 

(Cora banged her face up on our treadmill last night. Not a good time.)
And played with Play Doh...

Leyna made lots of strawberry "cookies" and I was surprised that Cora only ate one small piece. She's growing up ;) Mostly she just liked smooshing it into a pancake and saying "MOOSH!"
Here are a few of Cora's other favorite sayings these days:
"I shee you!" (I see you)
"Be back"
"Let's shee"
"Oh my"
"Oh dear"
"Oh no"
"Heey Mama" (Here mama. She likes to say this when she hands me things, especially boogers)
"Mon puppy" (c'mon puppy)

Warm Enough

Today it was warm enough to go outside!!! I can't put into words how excited these two girls were to be on their long lost swings. It was great :)

Sicky Icky

Half of us were under the weather today and fingers are crossed that the other half of us will still be healthy tomorrow. We did a lot of laying around, watching movies, taking vitamins, drinking orange juice, and sanitizing today.

Well, some of us did a lot less laying around than others... ;)

Back to Normal

Today was our first day "back to normal" after all of the Christmas festivities. We pretty much spent the whole day playing with new toys.
We watch Sesame Street every morning and when Abby Cadabby the fairy came on this morning Cora walked up to me and said "I want wings." Her wish was granted...

After breakfast we went through quite a few rounds of "dress up." Having girls is fun :)

There was a teensy bit of contention over the Sit-n-Spin...

But then they made up and moved on to playing "Lion Cubs" in a homemade cave. It was super cute.

 

After dinner Cora made sure Cookie Monster had gotten his veggies for the day...

They dried off from bath with their new princess and butterfly towels, we played our new princess memory game, and thankfully they are now nestled all snug in their beds with their pillow pets. Thanks for all of the great new toys everyone!!!

Christmas #4

Every year we spend the day after Christmas at my Grandpa's house (Nana's Daddy). We had a very nice afternoon there with more food, more gifts, more cookies, and more family fun. The girls went a little stir crazy in the tight quarters but we all survived and enjoyed the company ;)

Leyna loves playing with the deer and bear under Great Grandpa's tree.

Cora and Great Grandpa

Just cute, cute, CUTE!

What can it be???

Leyna sitting at my Grandma's dressing table. This is really cool. And Great Grandpa told her she could keep the necklace! Super special :)

Merry Christmas!

Wow, what a magical morning we had :) It's so much fun seeing Christmas through kids' eyes. I think we really captured the magical feelings that Andy and I remember having as kids. I hope they last a long, long, long time.
Despite the late night last night, Leyna was up at 5:15 and ready to see if Santa had really come. I held her off until 5:30 and then went ahead and woke Cora up and headed downstairs...

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Santa and Rudolph had had their fill of cookies, eggnog, and carrots, and they left us a sweet note!

Leyna couldn't believe it!!!

Candy canes for breakfast anyone?

Oh yeah.

Cora said "Wow" or "Oh my" after opening each of her gifts.

Leyna wanted only two things for Christmas: A snow globe and a ladybug Pillow Pet. Here she is opening her snow globe.

She cannot believe Santa really brought her a snow globe!!! (This is real emotion people!)

Look at how wide her eyes are. I love it!

Double snow globe fun :)

Love how she has to unwrap with one hand because she can't put the snow globe down!

Leyna got LOTS of stickers in her stocking. She spent about 20 minutes doing this sticker activity as soon as she opened it. It took us from 5:45 until 8:00 to open gifts. It was a SLOW process  but I'm glad they didn't rush it.

New lip gloss ;)

Somebody really likes stickers...

The girls paraded around the house in these towels for a good ten minutes. SO CUTE!

Leyna and Cora gave me pajamas :) Leyna knew for a month what she was giving me and kept it a complete secret. She kept telling me "Shh! It's a secret. You'll find out on Christmas!" This morning when she brought me the wrapped box she gave it to me and said "IT'S PAJAMAS!!!" I still LOL every time I think about it.

Here they are about to open the big ticket items...

Can't get it out of the box fast enough. Meanwhile, Cora sees what Leyna has and looks at her wrapped box and starts saying "PUPPY! PUPPY! PUPPY!"...

Finally a Pillow Pet of her own!!!!!!!!!!

PURE happiness

She got everything she wanted for Christmas

Her too ;)

And Daddy too :)

Christmas girls

Nana and Pee Paw came over for a couple of hours this morning as well...

Pee Paw read lots of books...

Leyna took this picture of me with my childhood stocking

When Cora unwrapped her gifts she brought me each piece of paper and said "Here Mama!"

This puppy from Nana and Pee Paw was a huge hit. We may have to get another one!

And Nana and Pee Paw gave Leyna "Beauty and the Beast." After they left she got to watch the whole thing for the first time. Very exciting for this little princess fanatic.

Afterward she promptly passed out with her pillow pet and new princess blanket/robe.

Cora took a 3 hour nap

And in the evening we had a visit from Uncle Doug, Teresa, and Uncle Steve.