Gracie

Touchdown Dance

Christmas

Checkin' out the presents.

We tried to be smart this holiday and get our kids picture out of the way early in the evening. It didn't go so well. I don't think anyone got a decent shot.

My girls opening one of their gifts.

Gracie had been very into The Little Mermaid lately, well, really, all things mermaid. Working at a toy store was an advantage when Daddy came across this mermaid doll one day. Her tail lights up and she can even go in the bath tub! We haven't had a mermaid-less bath since Christmas.

Dancing with Elara while momma's car warms up.

Wrapping Paper

We decided to get creative with our wrapping paper this year. I created a few potato stamps for the kids to use taped a roll of paper to the kitchen floor and set them loose with paper plates of paint. Gracie was really into the stamps~until she realized she could walk in the paint. Brianna just dove right in!

Bee watching Gracie to see what to do.

Stamps are awesome, mom!

Getting her feet wet-literally.

Bee gets really into her work.

SO FUN, MOMMA!!

Santa

Gracie had a blast talking with Santa. We saw him at a local restaurant that was having a free breakfast with Santa for Toys For Tots. Not many people showed up (it wasn't very publicized), so Gracie sat on his lap three times.

Bee, however, was not so impressed with the Jolly Ol' St. Nick...

Haircut

Gracie has mentioned haircuts a lot lately. Usually when her hair is getting in her face and she's frustrated with it. When I ask if she really wants one, though, she looks at me like I'm crazy and says no.

One day Gracie got out her plastic silverware and decided to give Brianna a "haircut." Bee was ok with it, as long as she could sit at the table like a big girl.

Girls' Night!

Now that Gracie is getting a little older, I have been having a lot of fun introducing her to Disney movies. Her current favorite is Toy Story~I got her some small figurines from the dollar store of Woody (she calls him "Poody"), Jessie, Buzz, and Rex. She carries them with her everywhere and calls them her "buddies." She also really likes Bambi and Finding Nemo. Now all fish sticks are "Nemo." sigh.

Sisterly love around the popcorn bowl while watching Toy Story 3.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. In addition to our family, we got to spend the day with both sets of grandparents, Josey, Bret, Uncle Tony, Aunt Julie, Cousins Elara & Meira, and their grandpa Yul. The picture above is Gracie and Elara helping Nana prepare our meal.

Waiting ever so patiently for dinner.

Gracie loves playing with Elara, and asks about her often. Above, they were both laying on the couch together, until I got the camera out. Can't have any proof that Gracie actually sits still at any moment!

Amazing. You can actually see ALL their faces. In one picture.

Thanksgiving recital.

Brianna

I still can't believe Brianna is over a year old already. I think this is my favorite age (so far). She can communicate almost anything she really wants, but doesn't know how to talk back yet! Everything is new and exciting. Bee is such a fun, happy girl.

She loves to paint with her sister. Although, she doesn't actually put much on the paper. If Gracie is in the tub, Bee will attempt to climb in after her. Good thing our tub is higher than most!

Full of smiles!

Like I said, loves to paint with Gracie!

Gracie

So beautiful. I actually took this one for our Christmas card, but couldn't use it since I didn't have my camera cord. She's growing up so fast, and we couldn't be more proud of her.

Remember when lollipops were bigger than your head?

Playing in Nana's playhouse on Thanksgiving.

Umi Goggles

Remember when we were going to visit Dora on Saturdays over the summer? One of the giveaways that we got was toy binoculars. Gracie enjoys a Nickelodeon show called Umi Zoomi, about three mini characters that help kids out when there is a problem. In a few of the shows, "Team Umi Zoomi" has asked their "Umi Friends" to get out their "Umi Goggles." They just put their hands to their faces on the show, but when Gracie found her binoculars from Dora, she was convinced they are her "Umi Goggles." She begged me to put the show on (it's OnDemand), and I was sure to pick an episode that included "Umi Goggles." Here she is watching:

Anticipating the request to "get out your Umi Goggles!"

Santa

I have a lot of stuff to blog about. Cute pictures and videos of the kids learning, playing, and growing up. However, I cannot find my camera cord! I promise to keep looking and post as soon as I can. Until then, I'll leave you with these two little gems. Taken by the Hudson newspaper and put online after we met with Santa yesterday.

Snowman

With our first snowfall this year, we decided to get out and have a little fun. Gracie has experienced snow before, but never really played in it. I had grad school all weekend, but they gave us a long lunch on Sunday, so I went home and played with the girls.

Gracie LOVED it. She had so much fun packing the snow together and adding it to our snowman! I just wished I had more time to play with her, and had to remind us both that we have a very long winter to play in the snow together!

I think this is my favorite picture.

Bee was not as impressed with snow. I think part of it was that one of her mittens kept falling off and, of course, that's the hand she would grab the snow with. She was screaming within ten minutes and needed to go back inside.

We got some branches for the arms, but didn't have anything for the face. With Bee screaming I had to just find something fast so it would seem finished and Gracie wouldn't scream about not being able to finish it. So, I grabbed some food coloring. I made the face and Gracie emptied the yellow on the head for hair.

Here's our completed snowman. Pretty unique, but LOTS of fun!

Trapped!

We have a new rule in our household.
If you get yourself trapped, Momma would be happy to help get you out~after taking pictures and laughing at you.

Fall Bazaar

One of my schools has a wonderful Fall Bazaar as their main fundraiser for the year. Last year I was not feeling up to going, with Brianna being only a few weeks old, but the girls and I made it there this year. As an elementary school, most of the activities were a little advanced for my little ones, but they did have a lot of fun. On the way out, Gracie said it was fun, and she wanted to go back. I promised her we'd go again next year.

Squirting the second of three colors onto her spin art.

Spinning

Amazed at the results.

Ring toss onto pumpkins.

Catching duckies with a little net. They each had a number under them, and she was given that many tickets. They had a prize room to cash in the tickets.

Plinko

Tossing fake apples into buckets. The actual goal was a tic-tac-toe, but I was just impressed that she made all but one of them into a basket from the line!

She didn't exactly get the concept of standing tall to drop the balls into the fishbowls!

First time getting her hair done!
She picked gold (closest they had to her fav: yellow) and pink.
Bee also got her hair done, but I had to hold her on the barstool so I couldn't get any pics of the process. There's a pic below of the results though.

Gracie loves getting her face painted! She changes her mind about 50 times in line and then picks something completely different when she sits in the chair. This time she got fire.

Pink haired beauties.