Elia Builds

Elia loves to line things up.  She will take apart all of her puzzles and line them up.  She calls it making a circle. 

One night, she took all of the board books from the playroom and set them up in her room.  She was hilarious, running back and forth from room to room for each book.  And she was so proud of herself for her creation.  Love that girl.

Haircut

I took the girls (Elia's first time!!) to get their haircut.  They were both champs through the whole thing.  Gianna got a bob and Elia just got all her dead ends cut off.  When I texted pictures to Chris, my caption was, could they get more beautiful?

You'll see the after in the next few posts!

1/2 Days are the best!

Chris took a half day this week so we headed over to the Galleria to see Santa.  All day Gianna insisted she did not want to sit on his lap.  Even after we showed her Santa's picture setup and all the cool decorations, she still said she didn't want to do it.  But Elia really wanted to, so we bribed Gianna with candy.  She did very well, but I didn't want to fork over the $22 for ONE picture, so they just sat on his lap and chatted with him.  He was a great Santa- he asked the girls if they were helping pick up their toys and clothes and if they were being sweet to each other AND he said that if they are extra good he will bring them some surprises.  Gianna has been talking about that part of the visit ever since.  I think next year we will get a real picture.  We probably spent another hour walking around the mall and we took a few pictures in front of the Chrismas trees- where we finally took a decent enough one to send one out in the mail!  Score for us.

When Elia first walked close to the railing, she reached her hand out very cautiously to touch the glass to make sure she wouldnt fall through!  They could have stared at the ice skaters for a VERY long time.

We thought about taking them skating, but decided to wait till next year!

Those little dresses they are wearing are from one of my 2nd grader's moms- made especially for them!  So cute.  As we were leaving the mall, Gianna told us that "this place is awesome."  Haha!

A Quick Christmas Craft

Our computer is officially broken, so I can only blog from Chris' computer.  So blogging will be less than usual, sorry!
Earlier this week, the girls and I made crayons for cousin's Christmas gifts.  I found this idea on pinterest.  I bought a gingerbread mold at walmart and so the girls had fun sorting all of our broken crayons by color.  Taking the papers off the crayons was the most labor intensive part of the process (I suggest having another adult friend to help you.  And use a safety pin or needle to score the paper and then peel.).  It was really fun to take the mold out of the oven and see all of the wax melted together!  Gianna did not want to "give" them up as she wanted to color with them all day long.  I hope that Phoebe, Colin and Austin enjoy!

Getting Ready for Christmas

The tree is up with all the trimmings and it looks FABulous!  

We also took around 100 pictures for our Christmas card and maybe we have one worth sending out.  Here are some of the more hilarious ones!

This one is my fave!

Last year's were equally hilarious!

New Bunk Beds!

After Thanksgiving, Chris and I left the girls in St. Louis for a few days so we could make it to Aaron and Mary's wedding festivities on time.  Then Tuesday I shadowed the teacher I am going to work for in January.  On Wednesday I met my mom in Joplin (a 6 hour drive from Dallas) to pick the girls up.  I was so happy to see them!!  We got back in to Dallas on Thursday.  One thing we did while we were kid-less was set up their new bunk beds.  When we got home on Thursday afternoon, they would not come out of their room they were so excited about them.  And they LOVE to go to bed, which I am sure will wear off soon.

Thanksgiving

My last day of work was right before Thanksgiving break.  We drove to StL the next day and spent the week there for Thanksgiving.  We fit in a lot of cooking, a trip to the Magic House, the library, and plenty of family time.

The whole gang went out for dinner on Thanksgiving Eve

We made tepees(courtesy of pinterest)

Grandma and Grandpa!

Halloween

Pumpkin Patch

The pumpkin patch is good for ONLY one thing: pictures.  The morning consisted of taking cute pictures and fighting crowds, long lines, a collapsing bounce house, and don't forget a very overpriced pumpkin.  I told Chris we will never go there ever again.  He thinks we just need to get there earlier instead of 11 am when literally half of the metroplex is there.

 We found a very beautiful pumpkin, and it was so heavy that daddy needed help picking it up.

 Afterwards, we went on a hay ride and then home.  I'm glad the girls had fun!

Laundry