Sledding

One of the other surprise presents Jeff got for the girls is a sled. We decided to give it a whirl today.

Here's Aubrey's first time sledding.

She got a little nervous when they turned backwards. However she did ask to go again. The second time down was going great until they hit a bump at the end of the hill and fell off the sled. This scared both Aubrey & Jeff and they decided not to do it again. So, daddy pulled Aubrey around the park in the sled. She loved it. She would reach out and grab snow and eat it while she took a little ride.

Brooke and I hung out together all snuggled up. She was a little angel the whole time just watching and obviously intrigued with everything going on.

I was planning on taking Aubrey on the sled also, but I think we'll try and find a smaller hill next time. Does anyone know a good place with small toddler sized hills?

Even though Aubrey only sledded twice we had a fun time. She was perfectly happy to tromp around and play in the snow.

Christmas

My Girls must have made it onto Santa's nice list because this is the loot they had waiting for them under the tree Christmas morning!

Aubrey surprised us when she woke up and made no mention at all about Christmas or Santa. She just jumped into bed with us as usual. We were happy to snuggle in bed a bit longer, so we didn't say anything either. A while later she asked if she could watch a show. At this point I asked Aubrey, "Do you think someone came last night?" She responded with, "I don't know." So I said, "Do you think Santa came last night?" Aubrey said, "No, I don't think he came." She had been convinced that she would hear Santa and his reindeer and see them at our house before they left. I think it's from all of the Christmas movies that show the kids and families seeing Santa at their house. I had been trying to convince her that she would in fact not see Santa at our house, but I guess she had not been convinced. So I asked her, "Should we check and see if he came?" At that point she got excited and jumped up and said, "Yeah lets go see!"

She was very happy to see he had visited and brought her presents!

After playing with her Little People Zoo for a bit, she went over to check out the note Santa left and to see if he ate his milk and cookies.

Then she noticed that Brooke got some toys too. She was so sweet because when she saw what Brooke got she said, "Look Mommy there are balls in this toy, Brookie LOVES balls!" She was so excited for her sister to get something that she loves.

She then noticed Brooke's stocking and we let her know that she had a stocking too. She got excited and ran right over to her stocking to take a look.

Since it's Christmas, kids must be allowed a piece of candy before breakfast!

She LOVED going through her stocking and finding all of the surprises.

Here she is being introduced to Pez for the first time. She ended up eating all three Pez packages before her nap that day. It was a big hit.

Then Brooke finally woke up. We decided that since Brooke really wouldn't know what is going on this year, we wouldn't wait for her to wake up. Next year we will - but this year it was nice to get to focus on each one individually.

Aubrey was right, Brooke went right for her balls as soon as she saw them.



She doesn't know what is going on but is very happy for the attention and new balls!



This ball rarely left her mouth all morning.



Aubrey had to come over and show Brookie how her toy worked.

And then was very willing to go through Brooke's stocking and show her what she got.

We then just let them play with their Santa stuff for a while.

Then we told Aubrey that she could pass out all of the presents. She thought that was great fun. She just started arbitrarily giving presents to people. We had to explain that there was a tag and that said who the present was for. As luck would have it the first several presents Aubrey grabbed where for Brooke.

Aubrey just kept piling them on Brooke's lap. She was enjoying the wrapping paper so much we didn't even bother opening them for a while.

She finally got a good grip on one and got it opened.

I was excited that I finally got a picture of Brooke waving!

Hooray - Aubrey found one that was for her!

Aubrey giving the present she helped pick out from her to Daddy.

The girls got a Barbie movie from cousins JJ & Cali. We have watched that movie over and over again the last few days. Thanks cousins for a great present!

And of course Aubrey had to play with all of her things after opening each one. We had discussed it before and had decided we'd just let her take her time opening the gifts. We don't have any older kids in a hurry to rush it along, so we'd take all morning if she wanted. And that we did!

Oh yeah, I was there too! Mostly behind the camera - where I like to be!

Grandma Buell sent a cute little makeup kit in the shape of a rocking horse. Aubrey loves it! I am sure she's going to use it all up by weeks end. Grandma Buell - if you find any more of these I am sure Aubrey wouldn't mind a refill!

After opening quite a few presents Aubrey announced, "I am all done opening presents - I'm going to play with my zoo now."

We took that opportunity to turn our focus to Brooke and open more of her gifts.

Brooke checking out the singing and talking bear we gave her. She's both interested and a little nervous about it.

The minute Aubrey caught eyes on it, she said, "Can I have this?" The nice thing about having a baby sister who is not quite old enough to appreciate her toys yet, is that big sister gets double the presents! (Or so she thinks!)



The bear brought Aubrey back into present opening territory and she was now up for round 2 of present opening.

That only lasted for one gift though. We got her a doll highchair/swing, with Minnie Mouse sitting in it. The minute she saw Minnie she fell in love. She pretty much did not leave her side the rest of the day. Minnie helped open gifts and helped play with all of the new toys. Go figure the $5 toy is the hit of the day!

Aubrey ran immediately to her room to get a bowl and a spoon to feed Minnie her cereal.

During this break, Jeff & I opened our gifts. (I have pictures of it, but it's just not that cute!)

Then we convinced Aubrey to begin round 3 of present opening. Once again, that only lasted for 1 present. G & G Bagley got her a Little People House that was a BIG hit. She had to play with that for a long time!



We finally convinced her for round 4 - the final round. That was dedicated to the surprise presents Daddy got for her (well and Brooke too - but she won't quite appreciate them yet.) After Mommy had completed the shopping for the girls, Daddy got in the Christmas spirit and got more presents. Lucky kids!

Here is Aubrey with her loot.

And here's Brooke with hers.

And we thought that we were going to have a small Christmas. The grandparents and the Daddy sure did spoil them! (Ok maybe Mommy & Santa too)

And here is Brooke still with the ball in mouth as she explores other toys.

One of Daddy's surprises to the girls was a play tent.

Aubrey had a ball with it!

My girls playing together.

We played all morning, had a late breakfast, played some more, napped in the afternoon and ate and played in the evening.

Then right before the girls went off to bed Aunt Summer & Uncle Steve stopped by on their way home from Steve's parents house.

Aubrey enjoyed showing off her new stuff to them!

It was a nice, relaxing, pj's all day kind of Christmas. I already can't wait for next year! I hope all of your Christmas' were just as fun!

Christmas Eve

Aubrey & I started our Christmas Eve festivities making some crafts while Brooke was taking her morning nap. First we made an ornament of baby Jesus in a manger (made out of an envelope).

Aubrey loved gluing on the hay.

Aubrey showing off her completed ornament.

Then we made a card to leave for Santa. To thank him in advance for his gifts.



Aubrey loved the glue stick.



Putting on the cotton was fun too!

Showing daddy her Santa. We wrote the letter later.

When Brooke woke up she enjoyed her new found freedom of scooting. Just like Aubrey she is starting with going backwards.

She backed herself into a corner.

Most of the day, Jeff spent working on our meal. (See the post below for details on that.)

Here we are getting ready to enjoy our scrumptious homemade traditional meal!

Brookie especially loved the rolls!

Then after dinner and clean up we headed into the Front Room for some family time.

First we opened up our gift from the Bagley crew. We had heard that my SIL Karen had made a fun game that we could play together.

She took pictures of all of the extended family and made a match game. It was too cute! Aubrey loved playing it.

Aubrey was excited because she got the first match!

Then the girls got to open one present. They got matching red dresses from G & G Buell. Aubrey immediately had to put hers on and ran around the house saying, "I'm Cinderella." Funny kid.

Then we got out our scriptures to read/act out the nativity. This was always my favorite family tradition. Well it certainly did not go as planned. Aubrey was way hyper and Brooke was acting cranky and tired. I was a bit disappointed by our failure to bring in the spirit.

While I was getting Brooke ready for bed, Aubrey ran into the Family Room to play. I didn't notice this until much later, but Aubrey had gone to her nativities and once again put baby Jesus right in the center and placed all of the figures towards him and looking at him. So, maybe our Nativity play wasn't as much of a failure as I had thought it was!

After we got Brooke down, Aubrey got the milk and cookies ready for Santa.

She reminded me that she needed to put out her letter and picture for Santa as well.

Since, I was not feeling that great about our spiritual aspect of Christmas Eve, we got out a Nativity movie and watched that together before we put Aubrey down. This went much better. Aubrey sat right between us and watched the whole thing. She kept leaning over to Jeff and I and giving us kisses and telling us that she loved us. I was glad Christmas Eve ended on such a good note!