Christmas Celebrations

We had a busy but wonderful Christmas week. We started on Tuesday celebrating as a family. Then on Wednesday we celebrated with Nana and Papa. On Thursday we did Nana's side of the family and then drove down to Grandma and Grandpa's house to celebrate all over again. On Friday we headed to Papa's side of the family. Phew! Kelsey keeps asking if we can open more presents. I think she wants every day to be Christmas!

While we took a ton of pictures I just pulled out a few of my favorites.


Cuties in their pjs


I love how sweet Kelsey is being in this picture helping Josie with her present. Of course she immediately laid claim to it once it was open ;)


With Nana and Papa


With Grammy and Great Papa


Cousins


This picture cracks me up in that Kelsey is playing with Josie's toy and Josie is playing with the box. So typical :)

Santa Train

For the third year in a row we did the Santa Train with the Worsleys, Hoveys and Sextons. We had such a fun time! Can't wait for next year! (Doehnes - we missed you! Hope you're all feeling better!)


Off we go!


Josie's first train ride - she loved it!


The Worsleys - thanks for always organizing and hosting!


Waiting in line for Santa - can you sense the excitement? ;)




The cookie and hot chocolate reward




The babies got a treat too ;)




Very excited to be heading home!


Intently watching "Curious George - A Very Monkey Christmas"


All the little monkeys

Santa Claus

Kelsey is not a fan of Santa so we like to take her to Artis Photography as they're able to photoshop her in. This year she didn't even want to sit on the sleigh by herself so she was actually on my lap. You'd never know it! Josie was ok with Santa for one photo before she started crying. Maybe next year we'll get one with both girls happily on Santa's lap. A mom can dream right? :)

Preschool Holiday Party

We all had a fun time at Kelsey's preschool holiday party this year. Kelsey still wanted nothing to do with Santa but she did enjoy the crafts and puppet show.


Showing off her cookie (decorated by mom...directed by Kelsey)


At least someone sat with Santa this year!


My girls


Santa and Frosty

O Christmas Tree

Kelsey was a big help with the tree this year. She helped test all the lights and hang them....well she tried at least ;) She also put up a few ornaments but had more fun going through all of them and playing with them.


Hanging the lights


Mommy's helper










I think the advent calendar has been Kelsey's favorite thing this year. She can hardly wait each morning to open her "prize"


When we pulled out the snowman she said "I've missed you snowman!" and gave him a big hug

Crafty Holiday

Our best buds from playgroup came over for our annual holiday playdate. Sadly Matt wasn't able to make it due to being sick but the girls all had a grand time!


Hadley


Tehya


Kyra being silly

The girls had a great time doing crafts. They got to make presents, Christmas trees and necklaces. Thanks Tracy and Tehya for supplying the fun!

Double Wide

I finally broke down and bought a double stroller this last week with money saved from Great Grandma Simon and Uncle Ted. I'd had hesitations about buying a double stroller just because of the size of them. But I decided it would be much easier to take the girls for walks with a double jogger rather than continuing to put Josie in the Bjorn. They both seemed to love it and its been great so far! Thanks Grandma and Uncle Ted!


Taking up the trail :)


I think Kelsey's favorite part about the stroller is she gets to sit RIGHT next to Josie and hold her hand

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year with Chuck's side of the family all making the trek to our house. While we had good intentions of taking a big family picture it never worked out. Here are a few highlights from our day.


Uncle Jeremy and Gigi


Aunt Ulynn was by far Josie's favorite!


Hanging with Uncle David


Grandpa napping after the big turkey dinner


Grandma managed to catch up on some much needed rest too


I love this picture because of Kelsey's adoring look at Macey. She LOVED having her around to play with and has asked every day where she is.

First Foods

Last week we gave Josie her first taste of rice cereal. Overall she seems to like it - its hard to tell for sure since she basically spits out most of it. But she doesn't make the totally disgusted face or gagging/coughing noise that Kelsey always did so we consider it to be a success :) The night we gave it to her she slept from 10-7. We thought we'd hit the jackpot! The next few times we gave it to her? Up every few hours. Guess it was a fluke!

Jump Planet Heaven

For those of you that know Kelsey - she's a little monkey. She loves to climb and jump on everything. So when her preschool had a trip to Jump Planet she was in heaven! After over 1.5 hours of non-stop bouncing, running, climbing and sliding with friends she slept great! Maybe we should go every night! ;)

All Aboard!

I love the creativity of toddlers! Kelsey loves making trains out of things...chairs, books, etc. Recently it was the bins that hold all her toys. A major mess was created but boy was it fun! :)


Getting everyone situated in their "seats"




She made sure that someone was in every "car". Sometimes the passengers decided to switch cars and got off at different stops. Thankfully there was always another passenger waiting to get on! :)

And the little one said "Roll Over"

Josie has been working on rolling over for a few weeks now but she either couldn't get the momentum down or her arms got in the way. Well all that practice has finally paid off and she's figured it out! She found it so exciting that we had a heck of a time getting her to sleep today because every time we'd lay her down (even if she was asleep) she'd start trying to roll :)

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun week of Halloween celebrations! Last weekend we went to a carnival put on my the Shoreline Co-op Preschool. Then this week we carved pumpkins, celebrated at preschool and went trick or treating in our neighborhood with our good friend Matt. The kids were a little hesitant at first with the trick or treating so we only did three houses (we had to force them to do the second two). But then after coming home and having some candy Kelsey and Matt went back out for more. And then back home to eat some candy. And then back out for more :) I guess they figured out that trick or treating really was pretty fun!


Getting ready to check out the Shoreline Preschool Halloween Carnival


Fishing for prizes


Preschool party


Not too sure about this whole carving thing




Tada! Funny face complete with bat as requested by Kelsey


Dorothy and our little pumpkin


Matt and Alivia


The kiddos all dressed up and ready to go...they were so excited it was nearly impossible to get a picture!


The evening started off rainy but cleared up by the second house


Trick or Treat!


Mmmmmmm