A Zoo Birthday...

Analese's little friend had a birthday at the zoo today. We enjoyed spending the morning at the zoo, feeding the giraffes and brushing the goats.

My Birthday and Christmas...

We spent my birthday (known as my birthday to me and Christmas Eve to the rest of you) and Christmas in Arkansas. It was a lovely trip. We enjoyed spending lots of good quality time with our families. There was a lot of eating involved. I partook of my favorite cheese ball and a chocolate zucchini birthday cake. There were also champagne truffles involved. It was worth the extra working out in my future. I was living the moments, so I really did not take many pictures. Present opening pictures are a little monotonous and dimly lit anyway. My children are spoiled with gifts, but they are also very blessed to have such great relatives. Uncle David is a favorite, because he takes so much time with the kids and gives them so much attention and love.



I can't NOT share this beautiful mother/daughter photo of my sister-in-law and her daughter, my precious niece. She crocheted the dress and headband, by the way.



The upside of Christmas is I got a new Toyota Highlander for my birthday/Christmas! I have not taken pictures of it, believe it or not, except for this one of the dash, which is actually pretty beautiful.



It is blizzard pearl, and I am really liking my new ride.

The downside of Christmas is that my grandmother spent some time in the hospital, and she is still not feeling too well. At least she did get to come home on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Week Fun!

Since we will be in Arkansas over Christmas, we decided to let the girls open their gifts a little early over a few days. Today we let them open the big ones. Mariele got a balance bike. I have not taken pictures of that yet. Analese got the lemonade stand / grocery store. She has been really wanting to have a lemonade stand. I made her a pitcher of lemonade, and at first she was a bit disappointed that I was not letting her sell lemonade on the curb to total strangers. However, she soon realized the fun of practicing and pretending. She charged a dollar for half a dixie cupful, and Lee and I got several refills (but talked her down to a quarter a cup). This toy worked very well with their existing toy food and cash register. They had lots of fun with it.

Adventurers Cookie Exchange...

First, they all made Baby Jesus ornaments. Analese was very proud of her finished product.



Then they had the cookie exchange.




Then they had the Secret Santa gift exchange. I was Mariele's Secret Santa, since she is not old enough to be an Adventurer yet.



They also had the store where they got to spend all of their "cub bucks." "Cub bucks" look like money. They are given out as a merit system in the Adventurers. Analese had 24 cub bucks to spend, and she only spent 9! She could have bought way more stuff, but she wanted to save her bucks. They do another store in the spring, so she will be able to make a haul then if she wants to. I did think it was sweet that she bought some little glow sticks for her sissy. She also bought a crystal growing kit and a light up Santa pen for herself.

The Sweetest Christmas Card...and Cookies!

Here is the sweetest Christmas card I have received. It is from Analese, and was made and given with lots of love. It reads: "Dear family, I love you so much and merry Christmas and I am so excited for Valentine's Day. Love, Analese. {sic}



My sweet little Valentine's Christmas elf and I spent the afternoon decorating cookies for her Adventurer's cookie exchange that will be tomorrow. They turned out better looking than I expected!

Mariele learns to type!

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My Little Ballerinas...

I know I said I was through with barfing blog posts for the day, but psyche! I have one more. This week, the girls started in ballet/tap/gymnastics combo class. The most awesome thing about this class is that both girls have class at the exact same time! The class is divided into big girls/little girls, but the time is the same, which is a dream for my schedule. This was Mariele's first non-parent/child class. I was not in the class with her, but I was on the other side of the glass watching. My heart completely swelled with pride as I watched my baby listening to her teacher and dancing her little heart out. She stayed on her dot when she was supposed to and was just a perfect little student! Here are some pics I took before we left the house. And I'm throwing in a pic from Analese's first time in ballet when she was 34 months old (same age as Mariele is now).