Birthday Party Fun!

We headed off to Madison in the fog yesterday for Kiah's birthday party at the Little Gym. The girls had so much fun, I just wish we had something like that around this area. Madison really enjoyed the parachute and walking on the balance beam. We have a couple of pictures, and short videos from our time there. I guess Madison is patiently awaiting birthday number 3...she hopped down from her chair and wanted to blow out the candles of the cake. I was able to stop her before she did! At the very end, they


took a group picture and told them to make funny faces. Madison continued to hold her funny face long after most had stopped. It was a great day! Macy just loved running around and was fearless climbing up on most of the equipment.

Snow fun!

Here is Macy wearing all of her snow gear for the first time! She loved being outside. We feel horrible for not getting out sooner, but it was always so dark or cold by the time we got home from school. We were out for a couple of hours. Jesse built a fort for the girls, and we pulled them on their sleds to the trail by our house, and then went snowshoeing. Ginger loved it, too. We decided to wait to put snowshoes on the girls...maybe next time. We are excited for more outdoor fun in the future! OOPS! I accidentally posted one of the videos twice, sorry!

Santa's Letter

Here is Madison and Daddy reading the letter that Santa left. He really loved the cookies and hot cocoa - he's messy, though, lots of crumb!

Santa Came!

Santa Came! The girls had so much excitement on their faces when they saw the tree filled with presents Christmas morning! Madison had left two types of cookies for santa, and she insisted on leaving hot cocoa instead of milk. Santa even left her and Macy a letter! They loved opening, and of course, enjoyed standing on the box of the LP castle! Fluffy even enjoyed playing with the wrapping paper! We took a picture of Madison by all the opened gifts, before we headed out for the day. We had a wonderful Christmas filled with family and fun (and some driving). Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

New Toy!

This is the ball popper toy that the girls got from our friends, Joy, Jeremy, and Braden. They love it! Especially when the air blows their hair up!

More parties!

Our friend Kristi had us over with some other friends for a little Christmas cheer! Santa stopped by and brought presents for all the kids! Madison even got to help him take the gifts out,

and enjoyed being around him. Macy, on the other hand, didn't even like me holding her sitting on his lap! At least I had time to wash their santa shirts, so Santa really knows how they feel :) After Santa left, we all had ice cream ornaments. They were delicious!

Christmas Party

A co-worker from La Valle school hosted a family Christmas party this year. It was such a blast getting together, especially when many of us have small children. The kids loved playing together. She set up this cute cookie frosting table. Madison put one clump of frosting on, then licked the knife before I could stop her (they were community frosting knives). Then Macy stole an unfrosted cookie and took off running. I caught up to her, and minutes later someone told me to look at Madison's plate. She had a plate full of sprinkles...you couldn't even see her cookie! I guess she liked it! Santa also stopped by. Macy, yet again, screamed. This time she was wearing her I Love Santa shirt, so it was much more funny. Madison stood nice by him, but the pic turned out blurry. Oh well! She also hopped on the piano and was singing songs. Enjoy the video! What a fun day!

Tea Party

We met my sister Julie and her husband John last week for a quick visit in the Dells while they were passing through. It was so wonderful to see them...it's been way too long! They had the girls open their Christmas presents before they left. The Rose Petal Cottage table and chairs was for Madison, and Macy got the Rose Petal Cottage nursery set. Macy loves having her own doll, and they both like the little wipes container it came with. The table and chairs worked great the first night...they really sat for "tea" together! Since then, they have been a way for Macy to climb up on the furniture, so they have to be taken away every now and then. If it's not that, it's something else she'll find to climb on. The girls loved their gifts, and I think it is getting us all more into the Christmas spirit!

Winnie the Pooh

These are some pictures

from Winnie the Pooh in Madison. Madison and Madelyn had matching sweatshirts and backpacks, so cute! We had so much fun, and the girls just loved it!

Snow Day!

Last weekend, St. Nick came to the house and put some candy and a book in the girls' stocking. He also left them new dinnerware, one with Dora, and the other with Disney Princesses! I took Madison to Winnie the Pooh at the Coliseum with our friends Tara and Madelyn. I will share pictures of that soon. We had such a fun Mommy/Daughter day complete with lunch at the Olive Garden and shopping at the mall before the big show. Monday night the snow starting falling, but we still went to swimming lessons. Madison was the only one to show from her group, and I think she enjoyed the one-on-one time with Miss Stephanie. They ended up calling school Monday night already. Unfortunately, Madison woke up to make tinkles at 5:20, so our day to sleep in didn't happen. We enjoyed the day vegging in our pajamas, doing laundry, and we had some people come over to look at finishing the basement. I took this video of Macy's first meal using a fork, and she did so good! Also, the saying about "marrying your father," came to be a reality for me while Jesse shoveled the 8-10 inches of snow off the porch to grill out in 0 degree weather!!! Dad was proud!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had such a wonderful long weekend. It was the first time EVER that we didn't travel...what a treat! It actually felt long! My parents came up on Weds. night and stayed until Sat. morning. The girls just loved having Bumpa and Nana here. We had a big Turkey on our back door with things we are thankful for, and Madison made quite a few decorations with Robin. On Thanksgiving, we made our first turkey and all the "works," thanks to our helpers. Aunt Ellen, Uncle Randy, Cousin Sabrina, Chad, and Ethan also joined us for our meal. Jesse and I did our first Black Friday shopping having babysitters at our house. We had a lot of fun, but I'm not sure if I'll ever want to do that again! As you can see in our pictures, we have MUCH to be thankful for!

Haircut

These are before and after shots of the girls with haircuts. Jesse was brave after their bath last night, and gave them both trims. It was Macy's first one! She did pretty well, when we kept her occupied. Her little bangs were so long, they were starting to go in her eyes!

Playing

The girls have been having fun playing with each other (for the most part)! We have "caught" them reading together, chasing each other around the room, and playing peek-a-boo. Madison even pulls Macy's high chair really close to her at the dinner table. It's amazing how nice she shares when it is not her favorite food! The other morning, Jesse was trying to eat his cereal, and both girls brought their own spoons over, and were hounding him! He loved every minute of it! The video is of Madison attempting to sing her ABC's while playing peek-a-boo with Macy by their cottage. (We didn't let that game go on much longer)! If you notice at the end, Macy takes a little spill. She didn't even make a sound, she just got up and started playing again! She's one tough cookie! The other video is Macy jamming on the piano. Of course, every time I tried to video tape her, she wasn't jamming as good. That's her new favorite toy lately.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Madison goofing around with our Thanksgiving decorations!

Fall fun

These were some pictures that our sitter, Robin, took of the girls over by her house. I was thankful she got pictures of them playing in the leaves. We don't have any mature trees on our property, so they don't get to jump in the leaves. By the time we have leaves, they will be too old to want to play in them, and not want to help rake, either! Robin also had the theme of Teddy Bears one week, so on Friday, they had a Teddy Bear Picnic! She also got them performing together!

One last Halloween picture!

We just received this picture from a friend, and I had to share it. We had no pictures to really show Jesse's costume! He did a great job on his make-up, huh?

Pumpkin Carving

Nothing like carving pumpkins on Halloween in your pajama top and underwear! We finally carved our pumpkins before lunch today, and Madison really enjoyed it (so did Daddy)! We had quite the day! After an unsuccessful napping attempt, we went to Viking Village Grocery store for our Halloween picture and went on a horse-drawn carriage ride. From there, we met up with the Preschool Pumpkin parade downtown and then some friends came over to trick or treat

with us. After they left, we went to our neighbors Halloween party. They had a pinata and Tim took them on a "spooky ride." Some of the Dad's came out of the bushes to scare them. Madison kept wanted to go for another ride, she loved it so much! Jesse dressed up as Dracula, and the girls weren't scared of him at all. I had a black widow spider costume on (it didn't show that much leg when I was standing up)! We lit our pumpkins at dawn. Jesse's was a scooby-doo pattern! We had such a great day!