Such Big Girls

These are the school pictures from Kelsey's preschool. I just cannot believe how old both girls look! Where did my babies go??

Randoms

Here are some random photos throughout the past couple of months that really didn't need their own post but I thought they were either cute or just showed off the kid's personality so much that I had to share.


What can I say - the girl has some interesting ensembles. Sadly this is one of her more tame ones :)


The girls got a wagon for Christmas (which they LOVE) but the box was an even bigger hit...at least until recycle came. Go figure!


I can't wait to show this off at her wedding :)


The girls definitely play together more now and I love that Josie likes to dress up like her sissy


Love the little piggy tails in this one! If you can't find Josie, chances are she's brushing her teeth. She's going into the dental field when she's older...I know it :)

SNOW!

Shortly after Christmas the girls got to experience their first snow storm of the year (since we missed the one at Thanksgiving). Kelsey LOVED it! Josie loved the idea of it but hated the coldness of it all ;) She would beg to go outside and play but once we were out there she didn't want to be put down and when you did put her down all she would do was cry/scream. But if you'd try to take her inside she'd scream more and would want to go back out! Thankfully the temps dropped to below freezing for quite a number of days, the snow stuck around long enough for Josie to acclimate and decide that snow was pretty fun stuff!


Trying out the sled we bought two years ago after our last major snow season...you know, the year we got TONS of snow and then never saw snow again until this year? At least we were prepared this time!




She may seem excited....


...But really she's not. We saw this face a lot the first couple of days :)

The Arnold Side

From Orting we headed down to Longview for Chuck's side of the family. The kids took a great nap on the car ride down and were raring to go when we arrived. We had a great time opening presents and playing Kinect into the wee hours of the night :)


Getting all set to start in on presents



Kelsey suddenly got shy about opening presents so needed a little of Mommy's help with her first one but after that she got the hang of it ;)



Josie on the other hand was ALL over opening presents!



Kelsey and Rylee


Josie and Macey playing Kinect

The Stacey Side

On Christmas Eve we headed down to Orting for the Stacey side of the family (my mom's side....and yes, that is where I got my name) :) It was a great time and a fabulous dinner! Unfortunately we were rather remiss about taking photos so I have very few to share.


After dinner entertainment


Santa's helpers


The four generations


Our only family photo from the holidays....I swear we are the worst at remembering to take family photos! By the time we remember the kids are exhausted and don't want to cooperate. Maybe my new years resolution should be to take more family pics!

Christmas with Nana and Papa

Since Nana and Papa were at our house for Christmas, we had an early Christmas with them. The girls LOVED their presents - the tools were by far the biggest hit. I just hope they don't try to use any real tools in the same way they use the toys (can you say drilled out teeth?)




Opening new Hello Kitty jammies which were immediately put on for the rest of presents

Arnold Family Christmas

The girls really got into Christmas this year which made it so much fun! We only got the girls a couple things each because they had a great big together gift - a bouncy house!! Oh boy was that the hit of the year! Josie learned the word "bounce" very quickly!






New Christmas jammies - this is the closest I got to the two of them together (and in front of the tree)...maybe next year! ;)


The bouncy house!!!!!

Holiday Festivities

We did some fun holiday festivities this year and I decided to just combine them all into one post since I'm so far behind and I'm feeling a little lazy ;)

Christmas Tree
This year was fun as both girls were helpers with the tree. Kelsey loved decorating and finding all of the ornaments with her name on them. Josie thought it was fun for a while but got discouraged since Mommy kept taking away the "balls" which she wanted to play with :) I thought Josie would be the problem child with the tree but it was actually Kelsey who just wanted to play with all the ornaments and tote them around in her purse :)






Alas, I could not get both girls to sit in front of the tree to save my life - so here is our finished product sans helpers :)


Annual Holiday Gathering
Every year around Christmas we get together with the Doehnes, Worsleys and most years we have the Hoveys as well. Sadly they weren't able to come into town this holiday season. You were greatly missed Hoveys! In past years we've gone on the Santa Train but we didn't get tickets in time so we just did our annual dinner which was fun as always!


This is the only picture the boys sat still for - the rest of the time they were ALL OVER! :)


The "big kids"


Movie time!




Preschool Party
Kelsey's preschool party was a hit as usual and she even got brave enough to go near Santa - with the help of her friend Tehya :)



Josie LOVED the cookie room....she kept trying to go back in and frost more!




Woodinville Wonderland
We checked out the Woodinville Wonderland light show this year since it was so much closer now! It was so pretty! The girls thought it was pretty neat to watch all of the lights dance to the music - and of course the free candy canes were a huge hit as well :)





Gingerbread Houses
We did our annual gingerbread house making at the Worsley's again this year. Sadly my frosting abilities have not improved over the past three years but hey - its the effort that counts right?





Christmas Cookies
What Christmas wouldn't be complete without cookies for Santa (and visiting relatives) :)