More Treats!

H&G came down one day while we were all out of school. She brought stuff to make these cute wreaths. However, Courtney wasn't so sure...

Then one day we made sugar cookies! This was my best experience yet with cutting out cookies! I bought the Betty Crocker bag cookie mix and it was wonderful!

They cut out lots.

Then I made icing and they painted their cookies. I saw that idea online and thought they'd like it and it might be easier. It took longer, but seemed to be a little less messy. They had fun!

Here are 2 of the finished projects! These are pretty self explanatory of these 2 girls!

I love how different my girls are! I love how they don't care what the other is doing (sometimes) and they do their own thing. I hope they always feel like they can be theirselves!

Craft Time

So Martha told me about this cute craft that she found. So we copied her! It was a Santa made out of popsicle sticks! You can sort of see it on the computer screen on the table.

They got to paint....

She just got to hang out with us!


This is what we made...pretty cute!

Cookies with Friends

We had several projects and found some friends to come over to play with us! Here comes trouble: Bethany and Courtney!

Lindsey and Emily

Making reindeer cookies

Another day the Coston crew came over and made more reindeer cookies (they were too easy and the girls loved them!)

These big blue eyes pretty much have me wherever she wants me! She named me Shar-Shar and she is precious! She's a mess...but I don't have to deal with that side of her! :)

I'm so thankful for the good friends, for my girls and for me, in our lives! We were missing the Hollands, but they were out of town celebrating an early Christmas in Searcy!

My Girls!

On Christmas break they have asked to sleep together several times. We tried it this night. I was in there talking to them, getting ready to pray and put them to bed and asked Ryan to grab the camera! I'm so glad I did! (we are still working on Courtney's smile) I love this! It was a fun time that I realized I hope lasts forever when I walked out of the room and heard them talking and giggling! I pray that they will always be close and want to be friends!

This was on Sunday after church! They looked so cute and I wanted to get a pic of all 3. Lindsey suggested this pose, so we went with it! Pretty cute!

I love these girls!

Traditions

We have developed a few new traditions the past few years. This is us searching for the pickle. The winner gets $5! There is a pickle ornament hidden in the tree. We walked up and in about 5 seconds, literally, Amber says that she sees it. She always finds it first! So she just didn't play and let us keep looking. The little girls are playing too. SO here we are. Amber dying laughing that we are all searching and can't find it. I bet we looked for a good 3-4 min. She'd stand there and say, "I'm looking right at it." I'd stand where she was, look at her eyes, and I could NOT find it! Finally I had her show me. I was too frustrated!

Once we (Taylor Ryan and I) knew where it was, we hinted and let the little girls look.

Lindsey found it!

So, she got the $5!

Then we moved on to the nativity scene!

The Narrator/Inn Keeper

The rest of us...Joseph, Mary, Wisemen(women), Angel and baby(toddler) Jesus
We need some more cousins (wink wink) to participate to give some adults a break!

The last tradition is the peppermint pig. I'm not sure (sorry mom) what this one is about, but there is a peppermint pig in this red bag. We all hit it with a little hammer. I think it's good luck or something. Anyway, the girls like hitting it and then you can eat a piece of the peppermint.

We ended our night in sort of a rush. It had been a long, fun filled, exciting day. The girls took a bath and put pjs on so when we got home, they could go straight to bed. We were all tired after having so much fun!

Christmas with the Smiths

This year we got to spread Christmas out. Our family has 3 Christmases to celebrate, so it is nice when we don't have to cram them all into one weekend. This year we went to Honey and Grandad's house the weekend before Christmas to have our time with them. We spent Friday night and pretended it was Christmas Eve and had a snacky supper. We didn't do stockings/santa the way we would on Christmas Day since Santa can only visit once. But, we did presents. Here are more pictures than most of you will care to see...but it is our family Christmas!

Making breakfast Sat. morning with Honey

Someone wanted to help...

Lindsey cut the strawberries all by herself

Aunt Amber, being a good Aunt and letting the girls hang out with her!

One of the only family of 5 pictures from the entire Christmas season. It is so hard, I have to do better about this! Ugh! Yes, we are all in our casual, hang out, pajamas, but it is a picture at least!

Then it was time for presents! First, a picture with Honey's tree and the moose! (Whitney was taking a nap, but we couldn't put the girls off any longer for opening presents)

The Smiths! :)

Passing out presents....

Sing a majigs from Uncle Taylor and Aunt Amber

Wii game from H&G

Pillow pet from H&G. This was just about all she talked about wanting...a unicorn pillow pet! She was beyond thrilled!

Then when Whitney got up, they got to help her open her gifts.

H&G did stockings for the girls just for fun!

We made them rest. Of course Lindsey didn't go to sleep, but this one did. They both rested with their new pillow pets and their new snuggies! She slept all afternoon!

Hanging out with Uncle Taylor!

Getting napkins ready for dinner!

This time was so special. I'm so thankful for my family. Mom and Dad always do such a good job of creating a fun, exciting atmosphere! These girls are blessed with some amazing grandparents!