Final Pics of 2011

Maggie made a new discovery this Christmas season--hot chocolate. She requested it a lot!

We made a trip to a sporting goods store to buy me some goggles and a swim cap. Maggie saw some children's goggles and begged me to buy them for her. I said I would ONLY if she put her head under water the next time we went swimming. She wore them all that day and has yet to put her head even close to the water when at the pool. Will this girl ever learn to swim?

My sofa finally came. I was so excited when I bought/ordered it back in October then it took what felt like a year to arrive!

An evening out. Maggie and Caroline are both wearing my headbands. You might wonder why I let them run around town looking like that. I'd like to say I have a good excuse or that it normally doesn't look like that. I can't and I won't. I just don't care to fight that battle. Whatever they want to wear it fine by me.

Again, I'm not going to fight the outfit battle:

Since Maggie's birthday is during summer break she got to bring a treat into her kindergarten class on her "half birthday".

A quick trip to the mall for last minute gifts meant I had to reward these girls somehow. A moment in a photo booth proved to be the perfect thing. They were so excited about it and I got the cutest little strip of sister pics ever!

Christmas 2011

This year we were lucky enough to have Grandma and Grandpa come to Colorado to spend the holiday with us! The girls were so happy about it and they loved all the attention.
Grandma crafted with them:

Christmas Eve gift opening. It was always a tradition in my family to open one gift on Christmas Eve and it was always pajamas.

Modeling the new jammies:

Santa doesn't need ALL the cookies we made for him, right??

Christmas morning:

One of Caroline's gifts from Santa was a Belle dress-up:

Maggie got a new leotard for gymnastics:

I'm kicking myself for being so lazy with the camera this year. I had a very laid back and relaxing holiday and because of that I kind of forgot to document things! And, to make matters worse, the few picture I did take were with my cell phone so the quality is low.

Christmas really was great! We ate well, relaxed a ton, the kids entertained us, etc. I even got a hands on lesson from my mother-in-law on her bread making.

New Years was uneventful--young kids can really put a damper on your desire to celebrate anything after about 9pm. We went to bed early like any other day. As much as I enjoy the festivities and fun associated with the holiday season I also really love starting new goals, getting back to a family rhythm, and focusing on the clean year ahead. Here's to 2012!

Merry Christmas 2011

My Birthday

This year I turned....well, let's just say I got (what felt like) A LOT older! My good friend, AJ, put together a little celebration at her house for me. It was absolutely perfect in every way. The food was fabulous. Her house was already fully decorated into a winter wonderland. And the company was awesome--I lovey LOVE my friends.

Unfortunately I spent the entire night before my lovely, perfect party in the bathroom vomiting. Awesome. I was fine by morning but so very weak. I didn't document the celebration with even one photo. I'm so bummed about that. My birthday has never been my favorite day to celebrate. I usually try to ignore it completely. But the one year a friend does something amazing for me and I don't even get a pic to remember makes me very, very sad. So this is my tiny little way of documenting one fabulous birthday celebration. Thank you AJ for throwing me such an amazing shin-dig and thanks to all of my lovely friends who attended!! I appreciate it more than you know.

Black Friday 2011

I love how we spend our Black Fridays. It's such a peaceful family day.

I made the girls some pj's. I really wanted them to be a Christmas eve gift but trying to sew up two sets of jammies in private would have been near impossible. So they got them early. They are darling if I do say so myself!

Big Girl Bed For Caroline

We recently put Caroline in a big girl bed. She seemed more attached to her crib than Maggie was so I was a bit worried. We took a trip to our local furniture store and let her pick out the mattress then came home for set up. Here's the last pic with the crib. Maggie is being a little dramatic about the crib coming down:

Maggie was more than happy to show Caroline how to over-populate the new bed with stuffed friends. They had a great time with the new spot to play. Of course now I need to redecorate completely. I've been knocking a few ideas around in my head...

Caroline seems to be doing well in the new bed. She likes the fact that I can lay down next to her and sing our night time songs. I'm happy to do that but I feel a little sad that it means we no longer use the rocking chair for song time. I'm not ready to be done with rocking my babies!

Halloween 2011

Carving the pumpkins:

I didn't get every pumpkin's end result but here's two:

Our church's trunk-or-treat:

Halloween night:

More Misc Pics

Long story: I had some dental work done and we had to do a couple of trips to the lab that was making my crowns. The lab had a very strong smell--a chemical smell. Maggie was totally freaked out by this so my solution was to stick her nose in a package of gum. She kept that thing up under her nose for the whole 30 minute appointment.

Sweet little pic of Caroline in a leotard (which she refers to as her uniform).

The girls like to help with dinner prep lately:

After many cheap cuts (that always end up crooked!) I have started taking the girls to my friend for cuts. She does a great job and they love the blow-out at the end. Their hair never looked better!

Maggie's little kindergarten Thanksgiving party.

We took Katelyn to Discovery Days with us:

Misc Pics

No matter where I store (hide) my label maker Maggie finds it. These little "notes" can be found all over the house.
"I love you mommy I do (with the addition of our house number)"


"Ask Maggie if you need help"--she's quite the helpful child:


First big snow of the year. She mostly just stood there and walked aimlessly around for about 5 minutes then was done.

I took the girls to the Butterfly Pavilion. Here they are checking out the bugs and spiders.

Maggie's outfit deserves an explanation. She picked both fabrics for me to make her a nightgown. I did and for her schools pajama day she chose to wear it over all of her store bought character options. I was a little touched by her choice. The nightgown didn't come off at the end of class.

Maggie's kindergarten picture. I was sorely tempted to send her back for re-take day but decided not to since this is just SO Maggie! Every time she's asked to smile for a picture this is the smile she provides. If you've read my blog for any length of time you'd know that means tons and tons of pictures taken in order to blog pics that don't have this smile. Gosh I love that silly face.

Pumpkins, Anderson Farms 2011

I'm aware of how far behind I am with blogging. But I can't skip anything so pumpkins in December will have to do.

In October we did our family trip to the farm to pick out some pumpkins. It was a really sunny day so please forgive all the squints and closed eyes.

When Maggie spotted the ponies she started sceaming and running toward them. Caroline followed along with great enthusiasm until it was her time to actually get on one. Maggie picked her pony immediately and hopped on. Carolines eyes got very big and she backed away saying, "I...I....I too LITTLE for that!". No amount of coaxing helped so Caroline did not do a pony ride this year.