2014 Holidays

The girls certainly had a lot of fun over the holidays.  The girls were Anna and Elsa for Halloween.  We got to visit Daddy at work for the Halloween party and meet most of his co-workers.  The girls especially loved painting our "teal pumpkin."  We decided to not hand out candy this year to support our goal to consume less sugar.  We handed out glow bracelets instead and the "teal pumpkin" on our porch helped tell others we were giving out allergy free treats.

  

For Thanksgiving, we drove down to Arizona.  We spent the first few days with Auntie Keri and Uncle Jeremy and we were all able to meet Baby Blake.  Grandma JJ and Grandpa Paul were there too. The girls also had fun at the zoo with everyone.  We spent the rest of the week at Grandma LuLu's and got to spend time with all of the Arizona cousins.  They got to jump on the Jumperoo and spend a day at the Children's Museum.  Hopefully we will be able to make the trip a yearly tradition!

While we were with Eric's family, we were able to do family pictures.  The girls were a little tired, but we lucked out with some cute ones anyway.

After Thanksgiving, the Christmas fun started!  We picked out a tree at a local tree lot and the girls spent a lot of time inspecting the tree stand and every aspect of the tree decorating process.  They definitely loved it whenever the lights turned on.  The girls loved their Christmas link countdown and would jump up and down everyday after breakfast when they got to take another link off.  The girls had fun making gingerbread houses too, although, I think they mostly just loved that they got to eat the leftover candy at the end. Wrapping presents was fun with Mia. We're still working on explaining that the gifts she chose are a surprise, but she loved wrapping and labeling them for everyone!  Another highlight was having Elfie come visit our house this year.  Every morning, the girls would run downstairs and run around looking for Elfie.  When they found her, they would each point and yell and jump to show us where she was. Ari would always point and yell, "Fluffy." Elfie hid in our tree, on top our TV, in a stocking, on top Lexi's crate, in the kitchen, on the piano and in the playroom.  It was sad when she left to go back with Santa.  The girls will definitely be excited for her to return next year!

We borrowed "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" from the library and whenever we asked Mia what she wanted for Christmas, she would say a Hippopotamus. Shortly after that, we told the girls to start thinking about what they wanted to get each other for Christmas because we would be taking them to the toy store to get something. Mia started jumping up and down and yelling, "I know what I want to get Ari!"  She then leaned over and whispered, "a lion."  Hopefully she wasn't too disappointed that we didn't get a zoo for Christmas this year!  :)

We went to a Christmas party at the church and they had arranged a visit by Santa.  He entered the room through the door closest to our table and Mia followed as close as she could the entire way to the stage.  She still had to wait in line, since other kids had lined up prior, but she was definitely excited!  While we were waiting in line, she heard other kids talking about what they were going to ask for.  First, she turned and said, "Mommy, can I have a lion for Christmas?"  I said, "Is that really what you want?"  She then heard the girl in front of us talking about Frozen stuff she wanted.  Mia said, "I want a Frozen movie for Christmas."  I reminded her that we already had that movie and asked her what happened to her wish for a Hippo?  She responded that a Hippo would be too big for our house.  I asked why she thought a lion wouldn't be too big.  She then said she wanted a little hippo and I told her to just tell Santa she wanted a small one that would fit in our house. 

When it was her turn, she ran up to Santa and climbed right up on his lap.  Ari was trying to cut the line earlier, but for some reason she became a little hesitant when it was actually their turn.  She almost cried, but when she saw all of us watching her and smiling, she decided it was ok and just kept turning around to stare at Santa.  After pictures, Santa asked Mia what she wanted for Christmas and she said, a little tiny hippo.  Santa responded with, that sounds like fun!  
 

Christmas day was super exciting!  Grandma JJ and Grandpa Paul were able to visit and enjoy Christmas with the girls. The girls each got a red car from Eric and I and some cool wood puzzles from Santa.  Santa even left behind some footprints from tracking through the snow.  They got lots of cool toys from the grandparents and were able to spend the afternoon playing at their cousins' house.  It was a fun Christmas and we certainly had fun watching their excitement about everything throughout the season!