Yummy Christmas Trees

We had some of our best church buddies over to decorate sugar cones as Christmas trees. They all did so great and the M&M ornaments were a hit. 

Sweet Nathan! 

Journey and David working hard. David really liked the icing. :o)

She didn't want to get her hands "sticky". 

I have these Christmas "charade" type cards...run like the gingerbread man, spread your branches like a Christmas tree, etc. Here is a little video of Marin "twirling like an angel". 

MVI 8291 from Stacey Brednich on Vimeo.

And completely non-Christmas related but I pulled our egg game out to work with Hollis on shapes. They played with this game together FOREVER. It was pretty cute. I love their little "conversations" they have with each other. 

Christmas Festivities

So we are in full swing Christmas time over here. We have done projects and made Christmas cookies and sugar cookie castles and ornaments....We love Christmas. 

Hollis is making her Christmas wreath. She LOVED doing this project. It was really fun to watch her.

 Marin practicing cutting with big girl scissors. 

 Goofball. 

 Their finished wreaths on our play room door. 

 Hollis is a bit obsessed with the Christmas ornaments. I am pretty sure it will be like an Easter Egg Hunt when it is time to put the tree up because ornaments are hidden everywhere around the house. 

This beautiful girl is going to be three soon. I can't believe. This picture will be for  her birthday invitation. Her first friend party. Side note: If you only knew the back and forth torture I went through trying to decide what to do for her birthday...friend party, no friend party, family party then friend party, just family party, just extended family party, just friend party in January. Oh. My. Word. It stinks her birthday is two days after Christmas which puts a whole different kink in the plan. But again Oh. My. Word. My brain was spinning. Still kinda is.
Amanda, you are the only one that can truly understand how crazy this party planning thing is. :o) 

Working on their Christmas tree paper plate garland. 

The tree garland is our stairwell decorations. :o)

Our Christmas train conductor. This girl LOVES the Christmas train.
And she has learned how to do it all by herself. 

Baby Jesus and the whole nativity crew went for a ride. 

Waiting for her turn....

We had some of our neighbor friends over to decorate Christmas cookies.  :o)

Hollis liked the icing. 

"Santa" sent an early present. A Princess Sofia sugar cookie castle. I knew the girls wouldn't like gingerbread so the sugar cookie was a good pick, Santa. And the fact that it was a castle and Princess Sofia...big hit. Although, Hollis ate most of her decorations. 

Checking out their hard work. 

My FAVORITE Christmas project so far. Their little handprint trees. They turned out so cute.   I laminated them and put the date on them so I can pull them out year after year. 

Christmas cookies in the oven. Gotta keep an eye on them, ya know. 

Family Photos 2013

I'm not sure how to describe this photo session. Let's just say both girls (especially Hollis) was NOT in a photography kind of mood. Yowzers. I was pretty sure our photos this year were going to be of Burke and I wrestling two fit throwing toddlers. But she managed to get some good ones that really do show our REAL life these days. :o)

1. If you only knew how many times a day I get this Hollis face....
2. I love that Marin is playing with my rings. We call them Daddy's special rings. 

And here Marin is in the process of putting her fingers in her mouth and sticking her tongue out.
And Hollis was pulling at my earrings ( I think) and laughing. 

Our family of 5...Curious George included.  I do love this one. Marin had brought her favorite dog (Pinky) and now I so wish I had put him in the picture too and had each girl holding their favorite stuffed animals. (They LOVE stuffed animals.)

I love Burke in this one. :o)
Hollis was recovering from a stage 5 meltdown in this one. 

And this is real life.... these girls make life fun. 

And just for fun...

2012

2011

Santa Pictures

We took the girls to see Santa today. I have our Santa pics from previous years hanging up as part of  our decorations. So I pulled them down and showed them EXACTLY what were going to be doing. Before we even left Marin was saying "Santa be scary." We pepped talked her by telling her was nice because he will bring her presents. Once she remembered that, she got a little more excited. 

Well....this is what we got. 

Hahahahahahahah! We expected Hollis' reaction. But Marin's...oh my. Cracks. Me. Up. I was busy trying to get Hollis happy when I heard Burke behind me laughing. Then I looked over at Marin. So funny. I have looked at these pictures all night and laughed. Love these girls!

December Begins!

We started decorating this week and the girls are having so much fun. 

All of our Christmas books.....

Hollis investigating the tree. :o)

Marin putting the star n the tree.

Loves it.

Marin took her tree decorating job very seriously.

She had two branches that were her favorite. :o)

I have had these hoops and this fabric forever.  So decided to do a little Christmas decorating with them. The pictures below are all of Santa Claus pictures. We will be adding this years photo with Santa soon! 

Our neighborhood really goes all out for Christmas. I really need to go around and get pictures and post about it. It's pretty funny. But here is one of our little outdoor decorations. A yard sale find, of course. I call it a candy cane tree. We will put some more lights up. 

Our little Elf. We just play hide and seek with her.  She brought some Santa pajamas and a couple of new Christmas books for our basket. But she just likes to hide while Marin is sleeping. Hide and seek is Marin's favorite game, so she thinks it's pretty fun. So far, Jolly the Elf has hid in the cups, our fruit drawer, and Daddy's stinky shoe. ;o) 

Non-Christmas related.....

Some doodle doodling....Marin drew a flag while she went potty. :o) Later came a balloon.  Did I mention she takes forever to go potty??

This girl loves some shoes!

Our neighbor friend, Makenna, came over to play. The girls had so much fun!