Merry Christmas!

We had a busy but fun Christmas. We had Christmas morning at home, went to my parents' house for brunch, came home for naps, had Carey's parents over this afternoon, then went to Carey's aunt and uncle's house for dinner. The girls did remarkably well with all the busy-ness and gifts and excitement. Seth, on the other hand, becomes a little fussy with a lot of hustle and bustle. He's much happier now that we are just at home alone, quietly relaxing.


Their stockings were stuffed with a book, princess cell phones, mini slinkies ("ninkies"), beanies, and mini lint rollers (they LOVE lint rollers).


What could be in this beautifully wrapped present?


It's a teeter totter!

What did Seth do during the morning festivities, you might ask...

He was lying on the couch smiling away!

Two Times Tradition

This year, for the second year in a row, my brother, Nathan, made gingerbread houses for us to come over and decorate. We went over on Sunday and had a fun time decorating...and eating candy. Haley did a really good job decorating her house (and asking before she ate any piece of candy). Abby did a really good job eating candy all day! Really, she put like two pieces of candy on the house and about twelve hundred in her mouth! She takes after her mom...I ate plenty of candy myself! Oh, and somehow, Carey ended up with his own house to decorate, and he did a good job, too!

Cuter Every Day

Oh Abby!

This morning I sent the girls into their room to get socks on (since it's freezing). Abby came out wearing this:


She had taken her pants off and put on tights, and if you look at the picture closely, you may think she put on purple socks, but those are actually gloves! Yes, she's a creative child. Free-spirited, you might say!

Super-Human Strength

On Friday, the girls were having a hard time napping, and I kept having to go into their room and remind them that it was time to lie down and sleep. At one point I heard a LOUD thud and walked in to find this:


In case you don't know, that is Haley's bed on the opposite side of the room, standing on it's side. The thud was them knocking her bed into the wall. I was so stunned when I walked in. I mean, what on earth were they even thinking! The good thing is, they are learning to work together (come on, that had to have taken some teamwork)!

Don't Under-Estimate A 3 Year Old

This morning the girls and I (and Seth, of course) went to Costco. I saw some men's slippers, which is something Carey has been mentioning that he would like. I had the girls help me pick out which color slipper we should get for daddy (of course they didn't agree, so we voted and the color I liked won...obviously since I was the tie-breaker). I told them it was a surprise for Christmas, but I figured by the time they saw daddy they would have forgotten all about it. Well, as soon as Carey walked in the door on his lunch break (about three hours after Costco) Haley said "We got you new slippers, Daddy. It's a surprise!"

Welcome Home Rodeo

Yesterday we went with our friends, the Orlandos, to Johnson's Tree Farm in Boulder Creek to pick out our Christmas Tree. At Johnson's Farm they have fun things to do and see, and, my favorite part is that they name every tree. We looked around and we found Squirt and Sheera, and we liked them, and then we saw Rodeo and we were sold.








Our friends Dana and Nicole Orlando


Notice the hay on the side of the tree. Haley was finding it on the ground and decorating the trees with it.



This morning, we let the girls decorate the tree. Their finished product looked great, with ALL of their ornaments grouped together on a couple of branches! I love it.

Seth's Happy Place

For some reason, Seth is never happier than when he's on his changing table. It's so strange but he just smiles and coos so much when he's on there (whether he's being changed or not)! He's a pretty happy guy, but it's like complete bliss for him on the changing table in his room! When I was walking down the hall to his room right before I took this video, he was crying. You'd never know once he hit that table.


(Sorry if it's a little long...I could stare at him all day so it's never too long for me!)

Happy 3rd Birthday!

As of Dec. 2nd, Abby and Haley are officially 3 year olds! On the Saturday before their birthday, they had a birthday party at Tumbling Tutor (the place that Haley has gymnastics class). When we pulled into the parking lot there, Haley threw up her arms and said "Hip hip hooray. It's my birthday party!"















It's really weird for me to look at those pictures because they in no way show the chaos that was really going on in that gym!

On the girls' real birthday, they woke up to pink milk in their sippies and then hot chocolate with their breakfast. We had a fun day together and then, that evening my family came over and we had birthday dinner, cake, and gifts.






Modeling their gifts from Uncle Nate!

No More Pacifiers!

Today was Abby and Haley's birthday (I'll post more about it with pictures later) and we've been telling them that when they turned 3, they had to get rid of their pacifiers. So, today, before nap, we put the pacis out on the fence so that baby birds could come and get them (I thought the paci fairy might be a little scary for my girls...a stranger coming into their room while they're sleeping and taking something...creepy). So, when Haley put her pacis out, she walked to the doorway of the house, turned around and said "Birdies, come get the pacis. I don't need them. I'm three!" It was so cute.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving started with a PTT (pre Thanksgiving Thanksgiving) on the Sunday before the actual holiday. The girls saw the turkey on the counter and asked me what it was. They didn't believe me when I said that it was a turkey, so I told them it was a dead turkey. Then, later, when they were eating, they kept asking me for more "dead turkey"! Here's Haley enjoying dead turkey:


On the real Thanksgiving we went to my parents' house. Our friend Laura (auntie Laura to the girls) came with us.



The girls dressed up in some princess dresses that my mom got for them, and Abby walked around singing "I'm a princess" for basically the WHOLE day. That song is sort of the soundtrack of my life right now! We all had a great time and enjoyed the delicious food (especially Auntie Laura's sweet potato pie).

The Gimp

Last night Abby and Haley were playing in their room and somehow she hurt her leg. She couldn't put any weight on it and it seemed to be really painful, but there was no swelling, so we decided to wait until this morning before we took her to have it looked at. This morning, she had forgotten about it, of course, so she tried to just get out of bed, but immediately started to cry and fall when she put weight on it. So, Carey took her to the ER and they said she had a fracture and they gave her a splint (I know that's a run on sentence, but I did it anyway). I took her this afternoon to have her cast put on, and that doctor said there was no fracture, so he didn't give her a cast. Hopefully he's right. We're supposed to take the splint off on Saturday and hopefully she'll be able to walk. Anyway, here's a picture (you can kind of see the splint):



If you're puzzled by the fact that she looks so happy, she's our little tv-head, and she actually got to watch shows pretty much all day. Oh, and Cars, which is her FAVORITE movie! A funny thing about it being her favorite movie is that if you watch it with her, in the very beginning there is the screen that says THX and the little Robot comes out (you know that screen they always show in the theater). When that part happens she will smile and say "this is the best part".

So Cute and So Big

Seth continues to be the cutest boy on the earth. He just keeps getting cuter and he's just started making cute little cooing noises. Oh gosh, it's so so darling. He's getting so big, too. I can hardly believe it.

Wax Face

The other day I had candles burning on the mantle. We were leaving to go on a walk, so I pulled them down and let Haley and Abby blow them out, then I stuck them back up on the mantle. Abby asked if she could hold it, and I said no, but she grabbed it anyway.



You can see the result of her disobedience! I was trying so hard not to laugh, because it really scared her (I'm sure it felt so strange...and hot) but she looked so funny. Now we have this picture as the desktop picture on our laptop, and anytime we pull it out, Abby says "I want to see wax face."

Our New House

A Playdate

Seth had his first playdate the other day. Well, not really, but he did lay next to his future friend, Owen. Owen and his family are friends from our church and they live in our new neighborhood. Seth was born 8 days after Owen, so we've decided they're bound to be great friends. Look how cute:

Happy Halloween, Y'all!

Well, I figure this is the last year that I'll get to pick out the girls' costumes, so I had them be little cowgirls. They were the CUTEST trick or treaters out there! Seth was a pretty cute little cowboy himself, although he didn't trick or treat.

We went trick or treating at the Capitola Mall with Grammie Lori, Grandma Jackie, and Grandpa Steve. The girls were a little overwhelmed with ALL of the costumes to look at, and it was pretty darn crowded (maybe due to the rain), but we made it through and got some candy out of the deal! After that we came home to see daddy, had some dinner, and headed out to do some more trick or treating. We went to the Coastlands Church (they had advertised no scary costumes allowed...hooray) and it was GREAT. They had so many doors to trick or treat at, and they gave out really good candy! We even ended up meeting up with some friends at the end.