Christmas Part 2

{If you missed the exciting post entitled Christmaas Part 1, scroll down}
Here Annika is making snow. It is really fun. You put a tiny bit of magic snow powder in a bowl and a little water and it fills up the bowl. It is cool, but mostly I just love this picture. I CANNOT believe this little girl is turning 5. It hit me one day and I haven't been the same since. I am not sure why 5 is so hard for me, but it is. Terribly hard.


Ok, back to Christmas happiness. Here the girls (and Travis) are waiting to go open presents at my mom's. They had a great time and got lots of fun things. They are very blessed. Do you see the green animal Annika is holding. It is a cat called Mistletoe Kitten. It is a GREAT book. I highly recommend it to add to your Christmas book collection. It is about a little cat that isn't wanted and has no family. I still can't make it through it without crying- because, of course, I am thinking of little orphans all over the world with no family to care for them. But it very sweet and heart warming.



How do I pick from over 600 pictures- especially since Picasa will only add 3 pics at a time to blogger. I am randomly choosing. Can you tell by the next one? When Olivia was a baby my mom got me some house shoes from the Gap. They were great. Olivia was not great. She did not sleep (much). So at night when I was begging God to make her go to sleep, I would walk her around until she finally gave in for a short while. I always turned on my right foot and totally wore out the sole of the right shoe. Since then, I've gotten new house shoes every Christmas. I love them and since we are home most days, I wear them out quickly. This year mom gave me a pair a little early. I didn't know why since they are an annual Christmas gift. But I found out! She got me 2 pair this year! Now in Aug. when the bottom has worn off and I am finding bits of foam around the house, I can ditch them and switch pairs! {i still have the ones I wore out when Olivia was a baby and my pregnancy test from Annika. That's kind of weird.}

Christmas Travel Part 1

We had a great time traveling around to see family. Now don't get me wrong, it will wear you out. But it is worth it. Plus how else can you take over 600 pictures in just a short time? We first drove to Fayetteville to see Trav's family and this sweet little guy. He has the most gorgeous blue eyes you've ever seen and he's my nephew. It was hard not to pack him up in our car, but I am pretty sure he'd be in princess outfits serving tea to the girls in no time.



Trav's parents were sick, so our visit with them consisted of opening presents together on the front porch the night we left and going to eat and sitting way at the opposite end of the table from each other. It was sad. The girls were looking forward to their annual tradition of making candy cane cookies and lots of playtime.

We drove to LR and the girls both got the stomach bug. That was not a good time.At.All. But thankful we live where we can access all the things we need to help our little ones get better soon. And I am the most thankful it was over before Christmas! Just in the nick of time to have a house full of people over.

My mom got a new hot tub- it is amazing. The girls loved it. It even lights up.



Pink too- although it is the fastest color, so hardest to catch!

Umm, 3 posts today. It's a little much

But this was so cool, I had to share! Olivia got these Flexees (or something like that) for Christmas. And while we were gone, Travis made this person- with annika's help. Pretty cool. I still haven't quite figured out how to hook them together. But they are super fun and great for this age!

My new favorite

Not my new favorite child...I try to love both of my girls equally. But my new favorite picture. I LOVE this picture of Olivia. We took about 200 pictures in my mom's backyard at Thanksgiving and this was one- just a "Hey Olivia- turn around." And this is what we got. I feel like this picture captures her and her sweetness. I printed it off and it looks even better! I am not bragging- but it looks like a professional picture. I can say that because I have 190 pictures that look terrible! My friend's husband suggested printing at Walmart instead of Shutterfly and he was right- they are so much better. Anyway, I just had to share because she makes me smile!

We always do Christmas a little early

Just a quick update in a very busy time of the year. We are currently off the list for foster care just until Jan. Because we are traveling out of state, it makes it difficult to get court approval this time of year. It is killing me to be off of it, but there is no need to waste the case workers time with "I so wish we could take her!" It makes me anxious for January! Otherwise, I am not anxious for this time of year to pass at all. I love spending this time with family and friends. We are so amazingly blessed to have so many that love us and so many to love. We had a nice visit with my dad and step-mom here. It was their first time to visit and it was great!

Here is Annika getting ready to open her gifts on "Christmas" morning!



My super creative husband made me this big hot chocolate mug! It had two big bags of dried marshmallows- my FAVORITE!!, a pretty scarf wrapped around the top to look like hot cocoa and down in the bottom was a gift certificate for "Coco" Chanel- so it was the cocoa part. I am actually not a big fan of their perfume, but I love their makeup. When I was in high school I did some modeling for a store that paid me in Chanel makeup. I got hooked, but it has been at least 12 years since I bought anything from them. It will be a special treat to go pick some things out!



Every year I want to limit the presents for the girls- especially since they also get gifts from Travis' parents and my two sets of parents. But I always see a lot of things I want to get them. And even after they open them all I still feel like it wasn't enough. I think I'd feel like that even if I had given them a million presents. But this year Travis made the girls a bakery display case. I was so glad he did- not only because it is AWESOME, but also because it is such a meaningful gift. He worked hard on it. And the girls did too- that is what makes it so neat. We all put something into it- they didn't know it was for them, but they were so excited on "Christmas" morning to find out it was for them. They have enjoyed it so much already. I am thankful that Travis can build this kind of stuff. I was just thinking he could build them some shelves or something and he planned this whole thing. It has two drawers on the back on the bottom with knobs we picked out at Anthropologie. {they have the cutest knobs EVER!}



For several years I sort of struggled with how to balance Christmas while still honoring Jesus. A couple of years ago in bible study we were talking about this. We came to the conclusion that we should celebrate Jesus everyday (spending time with him, giving, etc). Making ONE time a year to celebrate him is really just ridiculous. He has given us so much and saved us from so much just focusing on him once is simply not enough. This has given me freedom (in my mind) to enjoy this time of year and continue to enjoy him everyday and celebrate him everyday. And be thankful for him everyday. Otherwise, for me, I don't think there is a real way to balance our fun Christmas traditions while celebrating him {without having some sort of guilt}.

Hope you all have a wonderful time with family and can really enjoy this time of year- and celebrate the birth of our savior today and everyday!

My Little Cowgirl

Today Annika danced at the TCU basketball game. She was so cute and knew every step! She was a doll! She smiled the whole time and told me tonight she wants to do it again! Maybe we can show up to next week's game and see what happens! My mom flew into see her and got it all on tape on her new, fancy HD recorder. It is amazing- it totally beat my Nikon camera and she was a lot higher than me in the stands! I guess I know what to wish for now. :)

Annika dancing at the TCU basketball game

After the game we headed to the car and found this fun, new water fountain. The girls played for at least 30 minutes and had the best time! It was so fun to watch them- but hard to keep them out of it!

melts my heart

As you can see, I wasn't successful at keeping them out of it- so I decided to join the fun.

brrr!

Quick...

Olivia as a Party Girl

Olivia with her friend in the Nutcracker. She was amazing. Have I mentioned that? I promised she would not be doing this next year, but how can I keep someone so perfect for the Nutcracker away from it? {She was also an angel and bonbon}

Annika in AR

We traveled 20 hours for Thankgiving. It was a lot, but it was great! I am so thankful we have family to visit and that we can get there by car because we live close enough!

Bonfire

We went to the little town I started out in to my uncles' farm. We ended the night with a weenie roast and making smores with cousins. The girls {and I} thought it was so fun! Looking forward to Christmas because it should also include a heating of delicious marshmallows to quickly be stuffed in the mouth. Right?