Ok folks! Well here it goes... Not short, but definitely sweet! What a busy couple of weeks we have had
pre-holidays, so I can only imagine what the Christmas season will bring! We'll start off with a couple of cute pics of the twins. They love the outdoors and the colder it gets the more they get bundled... by the end of the Christmas season I'm confident they will not be able to move under all of the layers they have on! Although in pink, it is Brooke above and Aspen below (as if the helmet weren't enough to give it away!)
The girls LOVE to hang out and just enjoy any fresh air... hot, cold, warm, cool, stinky or not!
We are making the most of our Willow leaves before it comes down. John helped cut down a grown Willow a couple of weeks ago and said this is the last season ours will see. Bye bye Willow! Our three years together have been short and sweet... we are not sad to see you and your leaves go!
Hannah loves to jump in leaves... slide into leaves... throw them... crunch them... and make crafts out of them! Leaves on the ground can be so much fun!
Four... can you believe it??? Four years old! What a big girl! We like to decorate Hannah's door on her birthday so she wakes up to a surprise... this year John completely covered her door (with breathing room on the bottom to avoid panic!) and he colored a fun "Happy Birthday" picture on the other side! What a fun dad!
Hannah spent the day opening gifts from friends and family far away! Every gift had to be tried on, tested out, and assigned to a home in her new play room or closet! Training a child to be organized can be quite exhausting when as a parent you are ready to leave it all in a pile for a couple of days but your 4 year old insists on organization. Thank you Hannah, truly... I appreciate the motivation to stay organized!
Nice chocolate mustache! I was at work but am pretty confident her birthday breakfast consisted of chocolate!
The openings were slow as she had to play with everything right away!
Perfect gingerbread cookie cutters... Just in time for holiday cookies!
And then came party time! Which was new as it require some organization as 4 year old can be quite busy if left to fend for themselves! Hannah wanted to have a bug party and what a bug party it was! She even introduced a couple of new friends from school to the group. Very sweet girls with great families!
Anxiously waiting to dig in!
And dig in everyone did!
Present time!
Eva and Hannah were pretty close in sharing a birthday! We will actually be attending her party today! They met when they were 9 months old and it has been incredible to watch the both of them as they grow!
The girls even had one of their friends to play with. Although
Zyan is crawling now and a little puzzled that there are two of them? I'm sure he wonders if he is truly seeing double!
Turning 4 is so much fun! One more finger to add, and before we know she will simply have to hold up her hand in response to the question... "How old are you?" Happy Birthday Hannah! You are an amazing little girl and we love you!
Yep... makes you want Thanksgiving all over again doesn't it!?!?!? (I told you this was a long post!) We spent Thanksgiving at the
Meistrell home along with a bunch of others and had a great time! Great food... great company... couldn't ask for more!
The morning of we explained to the twins what Thanksgiving was and what would happen that day... they were excited to go hang out with so many people and you can see their smiles as they heard it was
bath time first!
Well then we got to talking about how much food people actually eat and they were both shocked!
Then when we told them that everyone takes a nap just to wake up and eat more... they couldn't contain themselves! I'm sure believing they will never ever eat that much! ;)
Our beautiful 4 year old waiting to NOT eat turkey (she is just appalled that anyone would eat turkey..), just simply anxious to get there and have fun!
Happy Brooke!
and Happy Aspen!
Let the festivities begin! Fortunately we were in a home that is well aware there may be no food left after the men go through the line (there were more college age guys than any cook could prepare for!) and they waited for all of us gals to get our food first! Never once complained on how slow we were! What gentlemen!
Lots of different families all intertwined as one for the day... it is great to be loved by many and so great to love them back! Both we and the girls are so blessed to have so many wonderful families directly in our lives!
Lots of people... lots of food.. and room for more! There was definitely life in this home today!
And plenty of extra hands for baby holding! That is what my back was grateful for this year!
Need I say more than the picture already does?
What a great Thanksgiving we had this year! And as Hannah and Jackson played the night away, and the adults came out of our food comas...
The Forrest family showed up and 4hours of intense spades began! (We left somewhere in the middle but I can only imagine the competition that occurred as the night went on!) Now on to Christmas tree cutting, cookie making, and Christmas decorating! I love the holidays!
Another one of Grandma Pat's visits has come to an end, but not before we had an early Christmas! The morning started off with a yummy breakfast!
Then came presents! The twins actually did a pretty good job. They love to crinkle and eat paper right now so tearing wrapping paper off of their presents wasn't a much harder task!
Grandma was just as excited to see what she got from the girls :)
Puzzles and board games are a couple of Hannah's favorite things to do!
Now if this isn't someone ready to make cookies I don't know who is! Thanks Aunt Lis for the perfect Christmas Cookie making apron! (Although Hannah was completely sad when she got flour on it! Had to explain it's purpose a couple of times!)
This is Hannah trying to act as though she didn't just eat some dough! The evidence is on your cheek booger!
Later on that night Grandma and Hannah made a huge batch of sugar cookies... nice hat Grandma!
It helps when you bite your lip.... try it! ;)
And then came more snow! Nothing like helping Dad clean the driveway! (Or throwing snow on him while he cleans the driveway!)
Dad's shovel is bigger Hannah! You better be able to run fast in those snow boots!
And of course you can't shovel without Sadie's help! She constantly runs back and forth across the driveway the entire time just for that last thrust of the shovel full of snow! What a fun dog!
And this was a photo op gone completely wrong! Leave it to sweet Aspen to enjoy it though! Brooke was not even almost convinced and Hannah was a willing participant until John accidentally dropped snow on her eye when he stood up... oh well! Maybe next time! Hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season, I know we are! Now on to the next task... laundry.... humph... maybe we should go back out in the snow!
