Cookie Party!

The girls had some buddies over to decorate Christmas cookies with them. They had so much fun!

Sweet William!

Marin just wanted to eat the icing. 

Finally put some icing on the cookies!

Lillian!

Johnny loved the trains!

A little lunch break with the boys. :o)

Watching the train with Dad

 I love these pictures so much. He is such a great dad! The girls are both in his lap watching the train go around under the tree.....

Last Day of "School"

Marin had her last day of "play school" for the fall session this past Thursday. 

She loves this class and her teacher. :o)

A quick picture....

Hollis likes her class too. 

With her teacher Ms Katie. 

Looking so big sitting on the rug for story time. 

The first time she actually sat and listened to the WHOLE story.
Usually she gets up and starts running around with the rest of the class.
Getting too big. 

Waiting for her craft supplies.....

Way. Too. Precious.

Hollis got to sit at the table too.
She ate a ball. 

She did the handprint wreath all by her self.
Again,  a first. 

Aren't they cute?

Tis the Season....

Some of our holiday happenings...

Hollis was checking out their little Christmas set up in the play room. 

She found the table decorations. :o)

She had just woke up. So.Very. Sweet. 

We made some nativity magnets for Jj week. Hollis loves them.
(Look at those chubby little fingers.)

All ready to go to lunch downtown at the Walnut Room. 

The sister pose. 

Ok, Marin is NOT scared. She is starving. We thought it would be a good idea to see Santa while we waited for our table. Uh, not a good idea. Hollis on the other hand ate all the snacks so she wasn't sure what was wrong with sister. :o)

See. Cheeseburger and fries makes a happy girl.
(She has seen Santa out at different places since then and loves him....when she isn't hungry. So, we may try and get another picture. Chicago only has about a million opportunities to see Santa, so I think we can make it happen.)

Just because my husband looks gooooood.....

The family picture.
hahahahahahaha!
This was about the 10th picture taken.
Both girls were way more interested in the tree in the back.
(Note: The last two Christmas seasons, I was HUGE pregnant in this same photo. )

We had a little North Pole breakfast with special Christmas donuts!

Jolly the Elf came during our North Pole breakfast.
She is like an Elf of the Shelf in training. :o)
You know, very friendly with toddlers and loves baby drool.

Two things about this picture....
1. Our tree may not survive Hollis.
2. One sock. One sock. One sock. AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH.
It's cold and I have a thing about keeping socks on the girls.
And this little stinker, every,single.day. takes ONE sock off. Just one.
Cracks me up.
And drives me crazy. 

Our tree. 

I found these on Pinterest.
We do them almost every day and I really need to get a video of Marin acting them out.
It is pretty HILARIOUS. 

Her toilet paper nativity.
This was another Jj week activity.
I may have helped out with baby Jesus. 

We have been reading through the Jesus Storybook Bible for advent.
There are 24 stories in the Old Testament that all lead up to the birth of Jesus.
I love it. (Thanks, Amanda!) The illustrations, the stories. It's great.
But....the funny part of this is that one or both girls ALWAYS starts crying during the story.
We just keep reading like we can't hear them but it makes me laugh just a little bit.
Next year the attention spans will be a bit longer and we can make the ornaments that go with it. 

Burke reading our story for the day.
Hollis is hanging in there.
Marin is at my feet crying. :o) 

Making a paper plate Christmas tree garland. 

Dad helped out with this project and Marin loved it.
(I love this picture.)