Merry, Merry, Christmas!!

Chloe put her own headband on this particular morning, and Claire is reading her book upside down! Must be early. :):):)

We attempted to keep very busy this week to make the time go really fast until Christmas.....

Coloring...

And cleaning up after coloring and then....

Taking walks............

And finally Christmas Day! Aunt Suzie let the girls open one package early as a teaser.....

Papa keeps Chloe busy.....

We read the Bible story and pray and then Claire and Chloe did a surprise song for their Mommy and Daddy, singing "Away in a Manger". They did an excellent job without any hesitation at all.

Presents galore......

Rapunzel's hair was a hit.....

And a new doll crib....

And way too many sweets............

Our Christmas week was a great mixture of family and friends and wonderful times together. We are so blessed! We are so thankful for the gift of Jesus, God's Son, and for the freedom to celebrate and worship during this season and throughout the year.

Celebrating Paula's Birthday!!!

Walking on the curb...one of Chloe's favorite things to do when we take a walk! This week brought a very special birthday for Claire and Chloe's Mom, Paula. In celebration of that day, we decided to bake a cake. The girls are preparing to take on this task!

We carefully mix the cake......

Next, of course, the cake had to be baked and then cooled. It was so hard to wait all that time before making (and tasting) the frosting. Finally it is time and we mix the frosting....
Spread most of it on the cake.....

And lick the spatulas.....

Add some sprinkles and some writing.......

And show off our proud accomplishment.....

The next hard part was waiting for Mommy to get home. She had to take some classes at the hospital on her birthday so was gone for most of the day. Chloe stated several times that we "needed" to cut the cake. All in all it was a great activity for a cold day and it went very smoothly. We also celebrated with a family brunch this morning after church. The birthday girl opens a gift from Uncle Superman below.

Quote of the day as Papa was kissing Chloe goodbye after the brunch. Papa: "Can I come see you tomorrow, Chloe?" Chloe: "Not so quick, Papa, not so quick! I need to come to your house for Christmas and THEN you can come to my house after that."

Guess she thought Christmas would come much sooner that way. So much to look forward to. Christmas and then a new baby boy shortly after. So many blessings!

Merry Christmas!!!

Fun Was the Name of the Game!

We had a busy but very fun week, and Papa and Grandma got to spend a few more hours than usual with Claire and Chloe. Here Papa and the girls are playing ball. They played with all different sizes of balls for quite some time. The tossing, catching, and rolling skills are getting better all the time. A big box arrived and boxes always provide lots of creative play. The next day the focus seemed to be on the "dress-up clothes". They had all of their costumes and accessories out, and Chloe ended up wearing one, or the other, of her fairy costumes for a couple of days.

Chloe with her beautiful fairy crown....

Claire in her pink superwoman cape and princess tiara. What a combination.

Great anticipation of Papa's arrival......

Here he comes and he has burritos for lunch....yum-yum!!

The real treat for us was that the girls got to go home with us on Tuesday to spend the night. We had planned for a special time with our good friend Miss Connie, and her granddaughter Danica, for Tuesday evening and Wednesday. So it was pizza parlor for dinner on Tuesday, and a movie on Wednesday...girls day out!

Below are Claire and Chloe in Papa and Grandma's bed starting to watch Charlie Brown's Christmas on TV. They watched about half of it and then we called it a night.


After a great night's sleep, we got up, had breakfast, and got ready for an outing to the movies. This was Claire and Chloe's first movie in a theater and I was just a bit hesitant about it being 3-D, but with Mommy and Daddy's permission, we decided to try it. Below you see Claire, Chloe, and their new friend Danica with their 3-D glasses on, enjoying their popcorn. Mommy Paula met us there so that made it much more special. Amazingly, the girls kept their glasses on for the majority of the movie and other than a few "scary" parts I think they really enjoyed it.

Time to say goodbye to Danica. We look forward to planning another outing in a few months again. All of the girls used their best manners and were so pleasant to be with and a great time was had by all!

Two weeks until Christmas----can you believe it?