Getting Ready for Christmas!!

Wow! Christmas is almost here! Since December 1st, we've been busy preparing and enjoying this time together. Here are the girls sitting on Santa's lap sharing what's on their list.

A few nights later, we picked out our tree and decorated it with all of our special family ornaments.

Then we got dressed in our matching Christmas dresses to take our Christmas card picture. That was definitely an adventure!

Last weekend, the girls sang Away in A Manger at church. Then we made cookies...LOTS of cookies! The girls also decorated trees for their rooms!

Anabelle and Sadie had parties at school. Anabelle's class made gingerbread houses and Sadie made many different ornaments. Elise's class had Polar Express day and she got to wear her jammies to school! Here are the girls with their Daddy after making a beautiful gingerbread house. They keep claiming that pieces are just falling off...hmmm I think it's just too tempting!

Thanksgiving 2008

Well, since it's almost Christmas, I thought I should post some pictures from our Thanksgiving!! We travelled up to Northern Virginia to visit family and friends. On Thanksgiving, we started off with brunch at Nanna's, then dinner at Pop Pop's, and ended the day with dessert at Troy & Rachel's house. We had a great time seeing everyone and the food was delicious!! Here are a few

pictures of my little (and big) pilgirms :0). Doesn't Danny look cute!!!

I'm not sure if it was the visiting or lots of eating, but the kids crashed hard when we got home Friday. By Saturday, we were digging into our Christmas bins and decorating the house. At 4:00, I was hanging wreaths on the windows outside and I thought, "Hmmm...should it really take all day to decorate?" The kids had a great time and really enjoyed playing with our collections of Nativities!

Happy 7th Birthday Anabelle!!!

Well, this year, Anabelle wanted a big gift, so we decided to offer her a choice. She could have the big gift and a little party or a big party. It was a hard decision for her, but after a few days she decided to go with the big gift (I was secretly happy her decision!). The big gift she wanted was an American Girl Doll. Yes...we have entered the world of American Girl Dolls...Oh my!!! Anabelle also decided against getting one of the standard historical dolls and wanted a 'Just Like You' doll. I didn't tell her it arrived before her birthday so there would be some surprise to it. I was expecting more of an enthusiastic reaction when she opened it & was worried it was going to sit in the corner of her room with all of her other dolls. Thankfully, she has played with it a lot and even puts it to bed at night.

Here's one American Girl Doll you can't resist!

As for the little party...I suggested we take two friends bowling. It was a lot of fun and the girls were VERY excited. My ears are still ringing from the squeals and high pitched giggles. I can't imagine how crazy it would have been if she chose to have a big party! You can see the excitement written all over Anabelle's face!

Here are Elise and Sadie having a great time. Thankfully, we had a lane with bumpers and a ramp to make for a more successful bowling experience! However, Sadie usually preferred to push the ball herself. When that happened we had a good two minutes to wait before the next turn. I didn't know a ball could roll that slow :0). Here's Elise giving it a good roll. There were a few times she threw it so hard I was worried she may have left a dent in the floor!

Bye Bye Binkies

Well, last week Sadie collected all of her binkies to give to the Binky Fairy. She placed them all in her special monkey box (that Aunt Jeanne gave her) and left them on the front porch for the Binky Fairy to take. She was such a big girl about it! She was also very excited to find lollipop binkies in their place the following morning. It's so strange to be binky free after 7 years! I'm very proud of my big girl :0).

Halloween

This year we had a Pumpkin Fairy, a Beautiful Witch, and a Cowgirl! It was a great night for trick or treating and the girls got LOTS of candy. When we got back home, we gave them 30 minutes to eat whatever they wanted. I knew they were on sugar overload at bedtime when I saw Elise do somersaults on the way to brush her teeth, a few handstands on her way to get her jammies, and a few backbends between her room and the laundry basket. Phew! It was like the Dow's on fast forward :0)!

Here's Sadie and Danny on their way back. Sadie needed a ride after all of that walking!
Here are the girls and their carved pumpkins before we headed out on Halloween night.

Sadie turns 3!

Sadie originally wanted to be a ballerina fairy mermaid princess for her birthday, but I got her to agree on a fairy. Then when we were talking about her birthday party, we thought it would be fun to do a Pumpkin Fairy party and it turned out great!














The kids used their fairy magic to blow the clouds away from the sun! We also played musical pumpkins and went on a pumpkin hunt. The grumpy troll hid them in the backyard. Here's the one Sadie found!














We played pumpkin games with the parachute, too! The fairies and their friends went for a ride in the magical pumpkin and even got stuck inside! It was a good thing that they had their magic with them so they could use it to escape!

Here are Sadie's special friends.

Sadie requested a princess cake with a crown on top and here it is!

Pumpkin Patch

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch today. The girls got to race ducks using a water pump, shoot corn at targets w/ a really loud corn shooter, ride the barrel cars, go through a spooky pirate's cove, & of course, pick out the perfect pumpkin. It was a beautiful afternoon!

Carter's Mountain Apple Orchard

Last Friday, we took a trip to Carter's Mountain to pick apples. The jonagolds were awesome!!!! It was a beautiful afternoon and we had a great time. Anabelle & Elise really liked using the apple pickers! Sadie enjoyed spending time with her sweet cousin Marena and they all liked eating lots of apples. That Sunday, we decided to make a delicious dessert with our apples, so the girls ran upstairs to get ready. I wasn't sure what that meant until they came downstairs wearing their aprons and Sadie came decked out in her bakers hat! They thought the apple corer/peeler machine was the coolest!!

Our Backyard Campout!

We had a campout last night! We made hotdogs, some ooooeeee gooooeeee smores, and slept out under the stars. It was VERY cold, but because mom was up every 30 minutes coping with the rock solid ground poking at her bones, she was able to make sure her girls were snug as bugs under lots of blankets. Just about 7 am when mom's back, arms, and hips started to go numb from lack of blood circulation and she was able to sleep comfortably, a flock of LOUD geese flew overhead and woke up the crew.

Anabelle woke up in a particularly excited mood when she discovered that the tooth fairy had visited her in the tent!

What a fun time :0)!