Merry Christmas 2015

Merry Christmas from the Plothows!

Christmas Show 2015

The girls practiced and practiced for their show this year. They sang Jingle Bells at the top of their lungs for weeks before the show. I thought maybe this year would be different than last year's debacle. The girls were both crying, sobbing messes last year.

This year, Morgan walked in the room, saw us and immediately made a b-line to us. Ugh. They weren't crying this year, so that was good. But, I had to sit with the girls during their portion of the show. All the kids in their class stood up on the ledge. Avery and Morgan sat by me.

Oh, Morgan

The girls getting ready for their show

Avery takes over my phone

Avery has been interested in taking pictures with our phones lately. Here are a few of her recent snaps...

Bienvenidos a Miami

To celebrate our anniversary, Matt and I left the kiddos with Grandma and Grandpa and headed somewhere warm... Miami! We stayed in South Beach and had a blast. Lots of great weather, great food and some excellent people watching! It was very relaxing and a nice little getaway. The girls had fun with Mama and Papa. Avery kept them in line and told them at least 100 times "That's not how Mommy does it". Ha!

View of the pool from our balcony

Drinks at sunset

Miami Beach

Happy Anniversary to us!

Our room had some interesting wall decorations

Morning yoga by the pool (filled with ping pong balls for the Sunday Funday party)

Selfie

Dinner at Juvia

Miami skyline at night

Cookies

Just for fun, I let the girls make and decorate some sugar cookies. Considering how they turned out, we may only eat a few of them! We started with about 8 bottles of sprinkles and ended with less than half that! I think Morgan poured an entire bottle on one cookie! :)

Eating more sugar than putting on the cookies

She said "I can't see the cookie mommy!"

Avery is very serious about cookie decorating

The first batch

After all that sugar, the girls put on a dance party with Daddy! Just your typical Saturday night at the Plothow house!

O, Christmas Tree

We picked out our Christmas tree after we got back from Thanksgiving in Ohio. The girls each picked out an ornament for the tree. They are really into Christmas this year and starting to understand the whole thing. It's really fun!

At Wannemakers picking out our tree

Getting some help from Papa

Helping Daddy give the tree a drink

Ballerina Avery decked out in garland - courtesy of Papa

The finished tree!

Thanksgiving

We trekked to Ohio again this year for Thanksgiving. The girls did surprisingly well in the car. We made one stop both ways at a McDonalds for lunch. There was a play place so they could burn off some energy. As always, Thanksgiving was a whirlwind and a great time to catch up with Matt's family. The girls did lots of crafts with Gramma Ruth and loved playing with Matt's cousin's kids.

Dressing up as a ballerina

Craft time with Gramma Ruth

Turkey hat!

Morgan was very serious about this craft!

Painting turkeys - another fun craft

The girls got to use their new sleeping bags

Can you see the cat? Morgan was obsessed with these poor thing!

Love this little turkey!

And this turkey, too!

Avery said she was a "rockstar"

Lights

We took the girls to the Morton Arboretum light show right before Thanksgiving. The weather was still warm enough and the lights were very pretty! I think their favorite part was the hot apple cider!

Pushing the buttons to change the colors

New toy

Someone is happy to get to use his new toy!

First snow of the year!

The girls were really excited to get out in the snow! We had to go outside Friday night and let them check it out.

And Saturday morning, the first thing Avery said was "is it still snowing?" They begged us to let them play in it, so we got all bundled up! We built a snowman. Then, Avery wanted to build a snow castle. :)