What's more fun than catching snow flakes on your tongue....

One of the things I hate most about being a working Mommy is all the fun stuff I miss out on with my girls. Today, it was their first experience playing in the snow.  

 Today we got our first significant snowfall this season.  It's mostly gone now, but the girls had a great time playing outside.  I love the phone calls that I get at work when they are so excited to tell me what they just did.  I just hate the fact that I miss out on being a part of it.  Here are a few pictures that Terry took to capture their fun....

My favorite....

Bounce U...

Friday evening we took the girls to a local bouncy house.  We were scoping out a possible location for their birthday party next year as well as hoping to let them jump off some pent up energy!  We all had a blast and slept very well that night.  It was kind of hard to get great pictures because the girls were constantly on the go but here are a few as well as a video....

No fear these kiddos!

She looks petrified but was seriously having a blast!

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Magical....

I can't tell you how much fun we are having in our house this holiday season!!!  While I'm not 100% sure that the girls fully understand the concept of Christmas, it absolutely melts my heart watching them trying to comprehend it all.  Here are just a few thing that I need to document:

• I've tried to incorporate the birth of Jesus story into our holiday traditions.  While playing Santa is super fun, I also want my girls to understand the "real" reason for the season.  We have two nativity scenes in our home.  One is "supposed" to be off limits to tiny hands, and one is the little people toy nativity scene.  The girls love to sing "Happy to you" (their version of Happy Birthday) to baby Jesus.  They know that Baby Jesus has a birthday soon.  They also know that there is usually cake involved when we celebrate a birthday.  Addison has requested a "shock-lat" (chocolate) cake.  The Baby Jesus figurine has also been MIA in our house on numerous occasions.  Last night I found him in the freezer. 

• The girls LOVE Christmas lights and decorations.  The first house you see when you enter our neighborhood has a few of those large blow up decorations.  One of them is a polar bear with Santa sitting on it and the other is a penguin with a Christmas tree.  The other night we took the girls to get hair cuts.  For whatever reason the penguin wasn't on.  I thought Alexis was going to freak out.  She kept saying "penguin broken".  Luckily when we came home the penguin was inflated and all was right with the world. 

• I made Christmas cookies Monday evening.  I always try to let the girls "help".  This usually ends up causing me more work in the end, but I love getting the girls involved.  I look at it as a teaching opportunity.  We always count everything.  Two eggs, 3 cups......the girls love this!  Every night since then, Alexis has declared that we need to "cook more cookies". 

• The girls like to point out everything Christmas related.  For example:  If they see a snowman, they point and say "Mommy, look a snowman".  Same thing for Angels, Snowflakes, Santa, Christmas trees and a million other holiday related items.  Last weekend after reading bedtime stories, Addison declares that she sees and angel in her room.  I asked her where?  She pointed to a little angel ornament that is setting on a shelf in their room.  This particular angel ornament was left at the girls bedside while they were in the NICU.  It has been on the shelf since they came home.  Terry told Addison that we got that angel when she was a baby.  He also told the girls that the angel is on that shelf to remind us of how lucky we are, because they were so tiny when they were babies.  Not only did hearing that conversation bring tears to my eyes.....but every night since then, one of the girls will point to the angel and say "Angel, tiny babies".  I'm tearing up just typing this.

I'm sure I will have a several more of these little holiday things that I want to document over the next week or so.  Here are a few pictures of the girls from our recent trip to see Santa.....  Happy Holidays to you all!!!

My tiny dancers....

Several months ago the girls started taking dance classes at Wishes Dance Studio.  I have no clue why it hasn't occured to me to blog about it until now.  Seriously, a super cute program for little toddlers!  The class is 40 minutes long, which in my opinion is the perfect length of time for my kiddos.  It keeps their attention for just long enough before they are ready to move on to other things. 

Each week of their class has a different theme... ballet week, fairy week, hula week, tea party week, princess week, stuffed animal week etc. etc.  Each class includes learning new dance techniques, story time and ends with a little coloring time.  The girls have really enjoyed dancing and are looking forward to the new class sessions starting. 

Here are a few pictures. 

 

CRAFT TIME...

Lately I've been reading about a lot of people making homemade Christmas ornaments.  Last night Terry was going out with some friends and I figured the girls and I would have some "craft time".  I got the idea from a fellow blogger, whom followed this recipe.  Like her, I felt that the recipe needed a little more water to help the dough take shape.  The girls had a great time helping me measure out the ingredients.  Rather than kneading out the dough, we let the dough hook on my fancy mixer do all the work. 

Alexis waiting for the mixer to do it's work.  She told me several times that it was taking too long.

Addison checking out the dough's progress.  Yes, she insisted on wearing that hat all evening long.  She put her bib on just in case she made a mess.

Before they went into the oven.....  The dough was kind of sticky.  If we do this again, I would probably recommend spraying your child's hand with cooking spray first if possible.  The dough really stuck onto their hands.  We had to do Alexis' a few times.  Rather than pressing her hand into the dough she wanted to smoosh her hand into it and squeeze.

UPDATED:  I forgot to originally add....I also baked these for probably an hour and 15 minutes to make sure they were hard enough.  The recipe states 45 minutes.  At 45 minutes they were still relatively soft

Terry came home during the middle of our process.  I had a tiny bit of dough left so we decided to make a family ornament with all of our thumb prints.  It didn't turn out great but I didn't want to waste the dough.

 Terry laughed at my chart that I drew to remember who's hand print is who's. 

The almost finished product.  After the girls went to bed I started painting them.  I knew better than to let the girls attempt to paint them by themselves.  Painting in our house always turns into a ginormous mess.  I didn't have any white paint on hand to paint the middles.  I'm hoping to get that done tonight. 

We are having a great holiday season at our house.  I love all the traditions we are starting and the memories we are creating.  I'm not sure the girls fully grasp the concept of Christmas yet, but it has been so fun to watch them as the begin to understand the meaning of the season. 

ABC'S....

Terry and I have been working with the girls on learning their Abc's and counting.  I've really been trying to get it on video.  Tonight I got it.  Yes, I did have to bribe Addison with a cookie to get her to comply.  You will see proof of that at the end of the video.

 

 

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Thanksgiving Part 2

I'm not sure who had more fun on our trip to Missouri??  You be the judge....

Grandma had two little helpers anytime she set foot into the kitchen.  This particular day I believe they were helping to make french toast.  Alexis is hysterical when cracking eggs.  She's getting better, we eat fewer and fewer eggshells with each meal she helps prepare.

I'm not really sure what was going on in the above pictures.  I came into the dinning room to find Gamma and the girls reading under the table???  For someone who used to tell me not to sit so close to the TV because my eyes would explode in my head....she didn't seem to concerned about my girls eyes, while reading under the dark table?  Just saying.....

 

Coloring with Gamma.

I'm kinda bummed that this picture didn't turn out better.  Addison keeps asking us when she can ride on Grampa's tractor (lawn mower) again.

We also made a trip out to Eureka to visit Santa's Magical Kingdom.  If you are in the area and you have never been there, this place is really neat.  It's a park that has been converted into a winter wonderland with over eight million lights.  It's a few miles long and took us about 30 minutes to drive through.  Below are some videos.  The quality of the videos are horrible because it was dark and had just started to rain.  But make sure to turn your volume up to hear the girls reactions to the lights.