'Twas the Week Before Christmas...

I absolutely love the fact that at Christmas, there is always something special going on that we can do. These extra activities were especially nice this week as we endured our SECOND straight week of rain. One of the highlights was our visit with Santa. Caroline has never been comfortable being held by anyone but Chad or me, but Aly has had stranger anxiety creep in only in the past 6 months or so. We had been talking about the visit, colored pictures to give to him, waited in line (behind a school trip!), but both girls LOST it when the moment came. Needless to say, I was in the picture too. I've included pictures from last year and this year:

Last Year's Visit with Santa...

...and this year's!

Ever since our trip to the ballet, Aly is absolutely taken with the Nutcracker. She pretends that her friends are Fritz, Clara, and Uncle Drosselmeyer...I woke her up from nap a couple days ago and she had put on her black-patent-leather shoes and said when I opened the door, "I'm getting ready for the party, Mama! I'm going with Clara and Fritz!" She sleeps with her Program that we got, and this is how Chad and I found her several nights ago:

Visions of Sugarplum (Fairies) Dance in her Head

I always pictured Caroline being a newborn forever. I am proved wrong day by day! She seems to be growing an inch a day, and this week she started throwing tantrums! I guess that she, too, has her own little personality! She is still just as sweet as can be, and imitates everything that Aly does.

Caro wears her thinking cap!

Playing with Dolls

Merry Christmas, everyone!!

A Recipe for Disaster...and Some Pictures.

Well, I got lazy and tried to TRIPLE a recipe for cookies tonight...as usually happens when I make a bigger-than-recommended recipe...I screwed up. 3 times the amount of butter! So, my kitchen is a wreck, I feel like a complete Scrooge because my neighbors are no longer getting cookies, and Chad is on the road recruiting. So why not catch up on reading blogs!

Aly had her Christmas program on Thursday. It's funny, because at home she is such a performer; she sings into anything she can get her hand on, dances around, and yells, "Ladies and Gentleman!" But on Thursday during the 2-year-old's single performance, she stood there! But what a cutie, stage fright and all!

I took the girls on a little trip to Nashville this weekend. Chad had a tournament (we only made it to about a half of one game!), but I got to spend the weekend with my best friend from Farmville, Cortney, and three-fourths of her kids! Her parents live there, so we stayed with them and just had a ball catching up and hanging out! I just have to laugh when I think of the two of us driving through her parents' beautifully lit neighborhood with a car packed with kids- the two of us belting out Christmas songs while the kids yelled, "Can we turn the movie back on?!" Ahh, Christmas memories for everyone!

Lillie Claire, Lizzy, and Aly...pre-performance

Mama, Daddy, and our little 'show-stopper'

The "Two's"

Caroline, Emma, and Aly (in Nashville)

Mademoiselle Aly

I think that from the day that we found out that we were having a girl, I've been looking forward to Sunday. I grew up going to the Nutcracker Ballet every year with my mom, and on Sunday, I got to take Aly... and she LOVED it. She was honestly captivated by the entire performance and absolutely lost it when it was over and we got up to leave. The day was one of the most fun I've had with her, and I look forward to many many more years of it! We made the trip to Atlanta (along with Chad's mom- Big D), ate lunch at the Steak and Shake, and got to The Fox in plenty of time to climb up and look down from the balcony, visit the orchestra, and look through the program.
Caroline got to spend the entire day with Daddy, which she thoroughly enjoyed. I'm not sure if she's going to be a Nutcracker fan yet...I can't imagine her sitting still that long right now! But I do look forward to finding what it is that will also captivate her. Right now, we're just all enjoying the impromptu ballets we get to watch in the kitchen every morning with our own little Prima Ballerinas!

Lunch at Steak and Shake

Outside of the Theatre

On the 6th of December, my True Love gave to me...

An arm-full of sweet little girls!

Gobble, gobble!

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and a fun time with family! We don't have another game until tomorrow so Chad had NO practice on Thursday, so we had a great day all together. I'm sure that this is typical of all kids, but ours' don't seem to get sick until weekends and holidays. Our pediatrician's office was closed from Thursday until tomorrow (Monday), so it was not a surprise that poor Aly woke up with a fever Wednesday night!! She was just miserable all day Thursday and Friday; we took her to Urgent Care on Friday morning to find out that she had pneumonia, bless her heart. The upside to being sick on Thanksgiving (at least for a little girl) is that it is the perfect excuse to watch 2 hours of Macy's Parade! Antibiotics work wonders, and she is back to old Aly. Caroline woke up with a fever this morning...OFFICE STILL CLOSED! I'm sure that to our doctor this break has flown by, but it seems like that office has been closed forever!

I think that the lesson that we work on DAILY at our house since Caroline has gotten old enough to play is "Taking Turns". I can see why it's so tempting for parents to buy two of everything! The latest is both girls wanting to dress up as a princess (we only have ONE dress!) This has been Aly's daily uniform for the past month, and now Caroline wants to wear it too! The other pictures are just a few from the past few days. Oddly enough, I did not take ANY pictures on Thanksgiving! We had Chad's parents, sister, brother-in-law and our niece and nephew over, along with a few players...I guess that with Aly being sick and having a house-full, I completely forgot about pictures!

My parents are coming December 24th, so the countdown has officially begun! We have an Advent calendar to count days in December...I can't decide if we're counting the days until Christmas or Nana and Papa! Can't wait to see y'all!!

Just your EVERYDAY princess...

...and Caroline's turn

Playing in the leaves (pre-pneumonia!)

Caroline getting to play with Play-doh

What kind of mom takes a picture of her sick, miserable child?!

Good Morning!

A Blogging Vacation

I want to say that I'm sorry to all of you family members (and even some friends!) who check up on us from time to time on this blog. We have been busy these past few weeks, and I can honestly say that I have forgotten about this thing! I don't think that I've built in time for sharing pictures since the season has started! But we're good here, and trying to emphasize the importance of Thanksgiving with the excitement of Christmas getting closer and closer! I have to laugh, though, because Aly's absolute excitement about Christmas right now has nothing to do with receiving gifts-- (I don't think she even knows that she gets gifts!)-- it's all about the decorations. She loves going inside of Walgreens, Kroger, and Michaels because of all of the snowman, Santas, and lights!

Below are a few random pictures that do a poor job of summing up our past few weeks...but it's a start!

Morning "Dance Parties" in the kitchen

The "Thanksgiving Feast" at Aly's school

The last few pictures are from Saturday. Chad had a game and a great win against a 10-ten team! I was supposed to go to the wedding of a girl who I had in a small group as a middle-schooler! (yikes, I'm getting old!!) while Chad had a special date planned for the girls. But by the time that the game was over and interviews were done, I still hadn't changed and I was going to be late for the wedding...so I accompanied my family on a celebratory carriage ride and dinner in Rome.

Caroline and Frosty, waiting for the carriage
A family shot...about as good as it gets these days!