The Littles

I like to refer to all the grandchildren as "the littles." They were all pretty darn cute this visit.

This is Elia's typical hair in the morning.

Austin and Elia are at the age where they are really anxious in a new environment. So if Mom/dad and Grandma/Grandpa/aunt/uncle/cousin/babysitter were in the same room, it turned into an instant whine(scream)-fest. Once the wedding festivities were over my mom would make Megan and I leave the house as much as possible so she could enjoy her grandchildren. There was one morning when I left the house with Elia screaming and crying bloody murder and literally as soon as I was 1 minute away, she was a perfect angel and stayed that way the whole time I was gone. So thats pretty much a look into the future of daycare. She is going to make me feel as guilty as possible as I leave but then have the time of her life while I agonize over leaving her etc. Mom bought all the littles matchy footie pajamas and also got them shirts with each of their names embroidered on it. It was very difficult getting a good picture of all 4 of them (hhhmmmmm, sound familiar?) but here are a few to enjoy:

The last day we were there we took a quick trip to the Science Center.

Discovering

This is hilarious of my dad!

WOW!

Oh how we miss everyone!

Colleen's Wedding

Dang it is hard to get back to real life after being out of town for a while! The day after Christmas, the girls and I flew to St.L.

The plane ride went pretty well. The portable DVD player was my savior!

From there, it got CRAZY. The Bachelorette Party was Sunday night.

All the sisters for Col's last fling.

The rehearsal and dinner on Monday night.

G got a really cute purse as her thank you present for walking down the aisle.

And then of course Tuesday was the Wedding.

I love this picture!

Gianna was a star walking down the aisle for the 3rd time in her short life. When Colin and Gianna got all the way down the aisle, they had to bow. It was sooo cute.

It was a fabulous, beautiful, and fun wedding! I can't believe my lil sister is married. She looked beautiful.

One of the highlights and of course I don't have a picture is she wore this white hooded cape and they took pictures at the church courtyard and it looked like she had literally stepped onto the set for Narnia. Then Bobby and Colleen got into a horse drawn carriage. Awesome. I'll post more about the visit with cousins later.

Most Wonderful Day of the Year!

Boy did these girls have fun!

The girls played with their new presents all morning and then we went to church.

finger paints

Elmo, elmo, elmo

We saw Uncle Matt for a little bit and played some more.

dress-ups

It took forever for them to get to sleep tonight. Gianna was wired- she is so excited to go to StL tomorrow!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

We started the evening out with some homemade mini pizzas. Second year in a row, and I hope to keep the tradition up! Its fun for the girls to pick their toppings.

We opened presents from family members, and something tells me that this is going to be a very Elmo Christmas for Boom. We set out treats for Santa and of course, the carrot is for the reindeer!

What a difference a year makes:

Once the girls were snug in their beds, we took the stocking advent calendar down and put their stockings up. We put out the Nativity scene with Jesus in it, and put all the presents under the tree.

Can't wait to see their reactions! See that Elmo bag Santa left? Elia is going to go ga-ga over it!

Merry Christmas to all!

Great Weekend!

We've been doing a lot of driving around our neighborhood at night these days to see all the Christmas lights. The girls love getting dressed in their jammies and bringing their blankets to go driving. So that was our Friday- pretty low key.

Here is Elia all snuggled up! Check out the sweet new boots Aunt Shanny sent her that just happen to match PERFECTLY with the hand-me-down coat from G.

Chris worked Saturday morning. We headed out to John and Sam's kiddo's birthday party. It was sooo fun- bounce house to start, plenty of great food, and then an Elmo pinata!

They did a fabulous job with the party. The kids were dressed for the theme, which was Thing 1 and Thing 2- as their 2 kids are 13 months apart. Love this creative spread:

Both girls had a few swings at the piñata. Piñatas at this age are hilarious because no one gets a really good satisfying blow, so the kids could literally hit the thing all night long. John eventually ripped it open a little to get the goods out.

Sunday was the usual- cartoons, Church, and lunch. Weinpel came over to help with the room so he brought Koda. The girls got to see her once they woke up from naps. I couldn't believe how excited I was to see her- I even let her lick me a couple times! (this is huge guys) Anyways, while they worked on the room G and I made these awesome button cookies. Sooooo kid friendly, and no batter to mix! I'll give you the recipe really quick because it is SO easy!

You Need:

Pretzel checkers or waffles

Hershey kisses, hugs, etc.

M&Ms

Directions:

Put pretzels on baking sheet. Place an unwrapped kiss on each pretzel. Put in oven at 200 for 5 minutes. This will make the chocolate nice and soft. Here is G waiting for them:

Then pull them out, and press an m&m into each. You can mix it up however you want- different flavors and colors of kisses and m&ms. Durn Tom Thumb was out of plain Christmas m&ms so I went with the regular ones. G loved pushing the m&ms into the kisses, and sampling everything of course. This is seriously my new go-to recipe!

So I know I keep saying I am going to put pics up of the room. I might just wait until it is completely done. Baseboards are in the works, and sometime this week we are going to get our bed! Merry Christmas to Chris and I, YAY! This week I am going to be soooo busy getting ready for Christmas and then packing for our trip to StL for Col's wedding. See ya!

Cleaning Out My Closet

Love my little helpers! They helped me turn this:

Into this:

Here they are helping me!

Hide and Seek

These girls are OBSESSED with Hide and Seek, especially when Chris is around. Elia is especially hilarious about it. She sits still so well when she knows she is hiding, and sometimes she willingly encloses herself into the laundry room or a closet just so she can hide. If I open the door to get her out, she says "No, hide!" and then pushes the door closed. This is more or less how it goes:

Chris is notorious for finding really good hiding spots (like laying across the kitchen counter, etc.) and is teaching the girls his ways. He even got G in the wash machine the other night.

No children were hurt in this game of hide and seek. Whenever we play hide and seek, there is constant adult supervision. No doors are ever closed on our children!