Coming to a close...

Tonight (New Year's Eve), we decided to continue with the 'family fun'. First, we had dinner at Wing Stop (the kids had happy meals...). Then, we came home and Brian started a fire in the chiminea. We toasted marshmallows and made s'mores. Olivia loved it, but Isabella wasn't so keen. She didn't like the fire, but we ended up talking her into swinging on the porch swing for a bit, and then on the swing set.

The girls ended the evening with some sparkling cider in 'grown up cups'. Then Bella went to bed, and Liv went with my mom to visit Mamaw (they leave in the morning).

NLR Christmas Parade

I just found these and wanted to post them as soon as I could... The first weekend in December, Olivia was in the NLR Jingle Jubilee Holiday Parade for the Petite Pom Squad at school. It was pretty chilly that day, but by the look of this picture, she doesn't look that cold me!

The Pom Squad had been practicing cheers, and this was their first event. Olivia did a great job and looked stinkin' adorable!

While we were waiting for her group to pass our location, Brian, Isabella, and I hung out, grabbing candy out of the streets when the floats would pass by, and spent time 'waving to the princesses' (AKA, pagent queens...) There is a picture of Bella on the other page that I
just LOVE... She is taking a drink out of a Backyard Burger cup, but I absolutely love it anyway...
When the Pom Squad's group was done with the parade, we headed home. It had been a loooonnnnnggg weekend. Olivia had dance on Friday night, I had an ordering session...and Liv's school had a Winterfest carnival from 5-9. Brian had to take items to it and pick it back up...but we did NOT go to the carnival...and that was an issue with Olivia... Then, the day of the parade, she was supposed to have dance practice from 10 - 1:00 and be at the Robinson Auditorium at 2:00 to meet up with her squad. Luckily, Ms. Karen said she could come just for duet practice so Olivia wouldn't be so tired walking in the parade. Brian was the one carting the girls around because I had a photo shoot in Austin! Oh MY, we must be crazy! LOL!

2nd Annual "Charlie" ride

We rode the trolley, AKA "Charlie" to my kids, last night. We have made it a family tradition for all of us (my family, my sister's family, and my mom) to ride it during the holiday season (while they are all decorated with lights and garland) and this year we decided to eat at the Rivermarket along the way.




I am always amazed at how beautiful those things are. The woodwork on the inside is amazing and they are fun to ride especially during the holiday season! We parked on the NLR side and rode it across the bridge and near the Clinton Library where we stopped, flipped the seats (which was cool), and started back toward the River Market. We then got off and waked to the Flying Fish for dinner. It is another "gotta do" during this time of year.



It was pretty crowded, but we were able to find a table, eat, and head back just in time to catch another trolley across the river to our cars.




My kids absolutely LOVE this tradition and I know it is one that they will NOT ever want to give up!

We LOVE Christmas!

We had a fantastic Christmas this year! First of all, we started out the day with our long-standing, multi-generaltional tradition of eating cheese biscuits for breakfast. YUM! Then we all got to play around with Rock Band. Oh MY. So much fun, but we need some serious practice! Ha!









Then we went outside and watched Liv ride her bike a bit before getting ready for lunch with the family.




Emily, Justin, and Cooper came over for lunch...a traditional Christmas meal of ham, hashbrown casserole, squash casserole, and corn casserole (ok, the sides aren't so traditional, but my mom insists on ham for Christmas...). Justin and Brian then played Tiger Woods golf on the Wii.





We had one last surprise for Olivia...tickets to see Marley and Me! So, my mom took Bella home with her and we took Liv to the movies. The movie was fantastic! We checked on Belle, and she was being VERY good at Nana's house...so we went to TGIFriday's for dinner.





The day felt very long, but I can't complain. We had a great time!

I guess my girls were on the 'nice' list...

...because Santa came bearing gifts! Olivia woke us up Christmas morning asking if she could wake up Bella. I asked if Santa had come (she had to pass the tree to make it upstairs to our room) and she said yes, there was more stuff under the tree. (Can you BELIEVE the child didn't stop for a peek on her way up?? Not so sure she's mine...LOL)

When the girls got downstairs, they were very excited to see what Santa had brought. And, we were all excited to see that he brought the whole family Rock Band for our Wii. How thoughtful of him to include Mommy and Daddy on that gift! ;)

Christmas Eve

Tonight we all went to my mom's house like we usually do for Christmas Eve. We had fun finger foods and opened presents. I didn't get to take many pictures, but that was ok. Uncle Justin din't play the guitar like he has in the past, but the little ones were getting restless and Olivia was ready to get in bed for Santa!





Come on, Santa. We're waiting for you...

COOKIES!

What adult DOESN'T have childhood memories that involves baking sugar cookies? I was grocery shopping today and saw a mix for sugar cookies, and thought my kids should have memories of that as well--even when I don't feel like making an extra effort...or mess. (Yes, I said a cookie mix. I'm ambitious, not INSANE!)

So tonight we mixed up the dough, and got ready to roll it out. In the past, I have purchased the pre-cut Pillsbury cookies, but isn't it more fun to roll it out anyway? (I won't mention the flour on my floor...) As it worked out, Brian took Liv to wrap presents she bought so I started with Belle by herself. She was so cute! And while it was stressful for me to watch her be a KID while cutting them out (oh, you know, pinching off the dough and eating it off of the cookie sheet, shaking colored sugar ALL OVER THE TABLE, etc...) I know that is part of it. I'd like to say I just laughed it off, but I tried. :) She was quite proud of her sheet of cookies!




Then we started on Olivia's... You know she had to make each cookie different than the one before...not wanting to waste any creativity (ha!), but I was very proud of how well she did. Not much of a mess at all! When they were done baking, we added some finishing touches and they are beautiful! Santa will LOVE these tomorrow night!

All in all, easy clean up, and just enough cookies for each girl to have their own pan. A fairly easy 1 hour project....and I hope it will be added to their Christmas memory bank. It will be added to mine.

Here comes Santa Claus...

We were sitting at home last night and heard sleigh bells outside. Who else could it be, but SANTA! (visions of ELF just came to mind...Ha!!) Bella was excited to see him at first... Luckily I got a picture of her in his lap at the beginning, because after she realized what she was doing...she didn't want much to do with him! Olivia, of course, loved it (although it is only the second year she would actually be in the same room as Santa--and she still won't see the 'mall Santa')