December

December has flown by and I still can't believe it is almost 2010. Even though I blogged very little this past month we were still busy bees. Here are a few things that we were up to this month that I didn't get a chance to blog about.

Making gumball balls:

Went on a field trip to a local grocery store bakery where they let the girls decorate cupcakes.

Had a birthday party for Jesus at a friends house. The girls had so much fun dancing, singing, reading books, decorating cupcakes, and doing crafts with the occasional fit thrown in about this and that:)

It was a busy fun month but I am looking forward to getting back on track with school and just chilling out a little!

Happy Birthday Emily!!!!

I can't believe my sweet baby girl is 2 today! Time is passing by so fast which is such a great reminder to stop and enjoy my time with my girls. There will always be dishes and chores but they are not always going to want to sit and play with me! Emily, you are so smart and funny and say the cutest things. I love it when you say "How I look?" when you get dressed and my favorite "I loves you"! It is so cute the way you tilt your head onto your shoulders and grin really big when you are doing something you are not supposed too. I love to watch you play with your big sister and I especially love the way you snuggle into my shoulder at night while I sing songs to you at bedtime! You are so funny and smart and I love you so much!!!!!!

Christmas Light Express

Remember the idea I found here about looking at Christmas lights? Well we finally went the other night. Both girls are sick right now and we didn't want them going to bed too late but we didn't want to stray from our plan of letting them think they are going to bed but instead going to look at lights so we did the only thing that makes sense........set all of the clocks forward an hour. I know, I know we are rotten but it really was a win win situation. The girls thought they got to stay up really late and we still got to have our down time after they went to bed:) I put a BIG golden ticket on Ellie's little sofa bed where we were all going to read books. Of course she wanted to know what it was and when she found out both girls started jumping up and down and we all quickly got on coats and shoes and headed off in our pj's. I had the girls each a baggie of popcorn, M&M's and Skittles in their car seat with hot chocolate to drink. It was so fun and we found some great lights!! Ellie spent today off and on looking for more golden tickets even though I told her there were no more!

Visiting Santa

We went to visit Santa last night and Ellie and Emily were so excited! I asked Emily if she was going to sit on Santa's lap and she said YES! When I asked her what she was going to ask for from Santa she said animals. While we were waiting in line she kept peeking around the corner and waving. She kept saying "I excited" but when it was our turn she preferred giving him a high five instead:) While we were standing in line Ellie was busy watching the other kids and informing us which kids were probably going to end up on Santa's naughty list. She was very serious and seemed very concerned for those children. It was hilarious. Once Ellie sat on Santa's lap he talked to her a little but never asked what she wanted and when she got off of his lap she turned around and said "Santa, I want a snow cone maker" but the way she said it was like I am not leaving here until you know what I want!! They keep us in stitches!!

Winter Wonderland

We have been so busy with the last few weeks that I haven't had a chance to blog and have been very slack taking pictures. I did remember to take a picture of the sensory tub that I keep rice, spoons, bowls etc. in that I changed into our winter wonderland sensory tub. I was inspired by this post. I added a lot of little figurines and snow covered trees so they could pretend the rice was snow. It was fun and they have already asked for it a few times today so that was a hit.

Gingerbread Play Dough

The girls and I made gingerbread play dough the other day. We used this recipe and then used buttons, stones, pom poms and google eyes to decorate our creations.

Advent Calendar

We started our advent calendar yesterday and I just wanted to share what we will be doing. Some of the ideas are ones I just came up with but most of them came from other blogs such as I Blame My Mother and Activity Mom. Here is the list in no particular order:

1. Give the girls a Veggie Tales Christmas CD
2. Make gingerbread playdoh
3. Go see the singing bears
4. Read new book The Night Before Christmas and do a matching craft
5. Read Christmas books by the tree with hot chocolate (to do with mom and dad)
6. Paint ornaments
7. Make a gingerbread house
8. Go to a Christmas play
9. Put on a family Christmas play (this will probably be one of Ellie's favorites)
10. Make a gumdrop tree
11. Give the girls peg doll necklaces I painted
12. Dinner picnic while watching a Christmas movie
13. Go see Santa
14. Go to the Live Nativity at church
15. Let the girls go shopping to get dad a Christmas present
16. Shop for our angel tree person
17. Christmas party
18. Make reindeer food
19. Make cookies for Santa
20. Camp out in front of the Christmas tree
21. Eat breakfast for dinner in our pj's
22. Make a birthday cake for Jesus to eat after Christmas dinner
23. Make Christmas cards for friends
24. Bake a Christmas treat

The idea that I am most excited about came from this blog!! I just love it and will be doing this every year! I am going to make tickets and put in the girls beds. We will put them to bed like normal but when they see the ticket we will tell them it is for the Christmas Light Express. I will have popcorn, hot chocolate and a little candy in their car seat and we will drive around in their pj's and look at the lights. I think they will just be overjoyed for so many reasons:) I just love love this idea!

Goodwill Finds

The girls and I were out running errands this afternoon and decided to swing into Goodwill. I walked in and the place was packed. It turned out to be senior citizen discount day, who knew?? Anyway, I wanted to walk back out because there were no buggies and Emily is darn heavy but Ellie wanted to do a quick sweep and boy am I glad we did. I found a little Melissa and Doug fold up kitchen set with accessories for $4.99. It looks new and still has the M&D sticker on it. It is going to go perfect with one of the girls Christmas presents I am making (I'll post about that later). I love the fact that it folds up like a suit case so they can take it to over night visits to Aunt Rhonda's:) I also found a cute little doll house to keep in the downstairs playroom for $4.99. It also looks practically new and will go great with all of the dollhouse furniture Ellie is getting for Christmas! Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE Goodwill!!!