Loose tooth?

So, when we picked Morgan up from school the other night, the teacher said "I think that tooth is about to fall out" and looked at us like we knew what she was talking about. Um, we did not have a clue! Morgan never mentioned she had a loose tooth. The only thing she ever told me was that same morning when she said she couldn't eat because her tooth hurt. I thought, ugh maybe she has a cavity and didn't really think much of it. (Mom of the Year, right?!?)

Well, the teacher was right. Morgan had been working on that loose tooth all day and kept on fidgeting with it all night until she got it out! I almost cried. Yep, I realized how old she is getting when she pulled that tooth out. Every milestone is like that. It's so hard letting them grow up! :)

The tooth fairy had to improvise because we were not expecting a first tooth coming out anytime soon! Gave her a leftover LOL doll from Christmas. She said that a friend of hers at school got a mermaid tail sleeping bag for losing her first tooth. Wow! She was also disappointed because she thought the tooth fairy brings chocolate coins when you lose a tooth (thanks, Pinkalicious for that!). Since the other bottom tooth is loose, I think I should stock up on a few chocolate coins!

Avery was super excited for her sister when she pulled the tooth. But, the next night, Avery had a meltdown and asked "when will I get a wiggly tooth?" I guess their friend at school, Maddie, has a wiggly tooth and with Morgan losing her tooth, Avery is feeling left out. I checked her teeth and they aren't budging. Not sure she's going to be getting a visit from the tooth fairy anytime soon. But, who knows!

Twister

Avery conned Daddy into playing Twister with her. Ha! I'm pretty sure he was in pain after playing! Avery did pretty well!

Christmas

Christmas morning started off pretty early. We took a video of the girls coming down the stairs to see their gifts. Avery ran to the stockings by the fireplace first and Morgan went into the front room with all the presents. What was funny was that neither of them saw the enormous dollhouse in the room! Matt had to point it out to them and then they were in awe!


They have played with that dollhouse for hours since Christmas! Besides the dollhouse, the girls favorites were their LOL dolls, anything My Little Pony or Disney princess related. Thanks to my parents for tracking down one of those gigantic LOL dolls! I couldn't find one anywhere!

After we opened the gifts from Santa, we went over to the Wilken's house for brunch. It was fun for the girls to see what the boys got from Santa.

And we got our traditional family picture with matching pajamas!

After brunch, the girls crashed for a couple of hours. We hosted Christmas dinner at our house for my family. Everyone came over and we exchanged our family gifts. Matt deep fried a turkey and a chicken and we had another delicious meal! It was crazy as usual, but the kids had a blast!

Patiently waiting to open gifts

One of the best gifts I got this year was the instant camera from Matt. It prints out these little pictures and we had such fun taking them!

One of my holiday favorites

I had taken the girls out shopping to pick out Matt's gifts and we ended up with a fun assortment of things! They picked out a "snowball fight" kit for him and it was a hit. We threw fake snowballs around the house for quite a while. They also found him a Grinch sweater that Morgan just knew he would love. Avery asked that we get Daddy a beer mug that says "best dad", so I found that and this wine glass. Ha! Avery also said we needed to get Daddy a book to tell him how to make the best steak. So, I found a book about steak with a huge steak on the front and she was so excited when he opened it. We also got him bunch of Happy Socks, because the girls know he loves crazy work socks. And then there was the Christmas Story Hot Sauce gift set... just silly! I think Avery is going to be a great gift giver in the future. She really puts thought into what the person will like!

Aunt Erin made iced sugar cookies in some dark colors. We had a few before bed Christmas night. :)

We had an amazing Christmas with the girls and our family! It always goes by so fast and is so chaotic. But, after it's all over and quiet again, I sit back and think how special these times are with the girls and my family and how lucky we are! I love Christmas time! :)

Christmas Eve

This was such a fun year with the girls. They are really into Christmas and Santa and everything that goes along with that! We hosted Christmas Eve at our house again this year. My parents were in town and the Wilkens came over. Also, my aunt Mary Alice, uncle Scott and cousin Sarah joined us.

Santa (aka my uncle Scott) made a quick stop off at our house and dropped off a small present for each of the kiddos.

We ate SO well! Matt made prime rib for dinner and it was delicious and perfect!

We celebrated my uncle Scott's birthday. The kids (and apparently my mom) love to help blow out candles!

Our neighborhood set up luminaries again this year. They looked so nice!

After dinner, we got on our matching pajamas (Mickey and Minnie Mouse this year!) and headed to bed for Santa to come! We had some really excited girls that had a hard time falling asleep!

Matt had a big project this year! We got the girls a new HUGE dollhouse! The one they've been playing with is really small and hard for them to "share" without getting in each other's space. I don't think they'll have a problem with this new one!

It took like three hours for Matt to get this together! And when it was done, it was awesome!

Merry Christmas from the Plothows 2017!

Holiday Program

The girls school held their holiday program the week before Christmas. The daycare has almost doubled in size, so they were trying to figure out how to work this whole show. It was sort of chaotic, but what isn't with a bunch of kids 5 and under!

Since the girls are in the second to oldest group at the daycare, we waited a while for their portion of the show to start. They were playing the whole time, so they were fine!

The show was cute! They sang three songs, which they had practiced a lot! They had even went to the nearby nursing home twice to sing and practice the week before. It's a pretty big nursing home, so they sang for half of the people one day and the other half the next day. They had a Santa there and face painting and cookies, so the girls had a blast! The girls always talk about seeing all the "grandmas and grandpas". :)

A new car for the new year

It was about time... Matt's BMW was getting older and we needed a second car that we could use for the kids as well. So, Matt researched what cars would be good for us and we narrowed it down to a few options. When the girls were at school one day, Matt and I went out to test drive our top two options - Honda CRV and Subaru Forester XT. Now, going into it, I thought we would end up with the CRV, but I was wrong. The Subaru won! It has all kinds of nifty features that we are still figuring out (like I just learned we had a heated steering wheel yesterday - score!)

We picked the girls up in the new car that night and they were really excited. Probably even more excited about the new car seats we got for that car (the next step up for them - high backed booster seats). They love the drop down cup holders between them. The girls closed their eyes on purpose and wouldn't let me take a "good" picture... those little shits!

The Polar Express

A week before Christmas, we took the Polar Express train at Union Station. I've actually not seen the movie or read the book from cover to cover, so I don't know the whole story. But, the girls had seen the movie at school before. Apparently, there is a part of the movie where the train is on ice and the ice starts to crack or something like that. Well, just as we were walking to where you board the trains, Morgan starts to freak out that we're going to get out on the ice and it's going to crack, etc. It took her a few minutes into the ride to actually calm down and enjoy it. Of course, at the end, she declared it the most awesome ride ever!

The whole train was decorated with greenery, presents, ornaments and lights. There were characters on each train car that sang and danced up and down the aisle. They brought out hot chocolate and sugar cookies for everyone. They played the Polar Express story and held up huge books for all the kids to follow along. At the end, Santa Claus came through the train and handed out bells to everyone. It was really cute!

Waiting in the Great Hall to board the Polar Express

Golden tickets are ready

Boarding the train - me carrying a terrified Morgan

Daddy and Avery selfie

Morgan and Mommy

They loved the hot chocolate

And a sugar cookie - that's a big thumbs up!

Daddy and Avery

Morgan and Mommy selfie

Waving our gold tickets in the air

Here comes the hot chocolate

They stamped the gold tickets for the kids

Hot chocolate and sugar cookies!

Hearing a condensed version of the story

There was a point where they asked for a few volunteers. Well, Morgan likes to volunteer for everything - she's not shy! And she got picked to help them sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. They gave her some antlers to wear and they walked up and down the aisle singing. She loved it!

Meeting Santa Claus and getting our bells

Mommy and Morgan

A visit from Grandma Ruth

Ruth came for a visit the week before Christmas. The girls love visiting with her and we had a ton of fun!

The girls wanted to do gingerbread houses and this year we had a set that you had to build the houses yourself first. Well, that was a big fail! Those little houses did not want to stay together. We almost got out the glue. I ended up just putting on a TON of icing and letting them sit overnight. We were able to decorate them the next morning. In the meantime, the girls decorated the pieces on a plate. :)

Grandma had some really fun gifts for the girls. Morgan got a bug vacuum, which was a huge hit with all the kids! You can suck up a bug and then stare at it through a little magnifying glass, then let it go outside. Can't wait until we have more bugs to check out this summer. Avery got a fairy house with four little fairies.

Finally got to decorate the gingerbread houses the next morning! The girls love dumping lots of sprinkles everywhere, so they made their gingerbread village into a "sprinkle village".

Then, we baked sugar cookies and decorated those. We manage to keep the sprinkle usage down so that the cookies were edible!

  

We went to swim lessons after that. Avery got a badge! This is a big accomplishment for her. She just really hates swimming and isn't that motivated to move up to the next level (mainly because it means she will have to swim more on her own and put her face underwater even more than she does now). But, she was really excited to get a badge. Hopefully, it will boost her confidence a little and keep her somewhat excited to go.

On Sunday, the girls had a dance recital. They've been taking a ballet and tap class through the park district the past few months. The girls seemed to like the dance school better than the park district classes. Avery is really interested in dancing and does really well at it.

My little ballerinas posing by the tree. They wanted me to get a picture of their hairdos. :)

Waiting for their part of the recital to start with their friend Eliza.

Their number was Have Yourself a Merry Christmas and was a tap dance with some ballet moves incorporated in.

My dad was in town helping Ross out with the boys while Erin was out of town, so he brought Grayson to watch the girls dance.

After the recital, we celebrated a job well done with lunch at Steak-n-Shake. Milkshakes for the ballerinas!

So, Morgan has a really hard time being quiet. Matt told her if she could be quiet for a whole 30 seconds, he would give her a quarter. This is him timing her and Morgan trying REALLY hard to not make a peep. She did it!

Ruth taught the girls a new game by drawing letters on their backs and trying to see if they could guess what the letter was. I was surprised how well they did. They just love when she comes to visit! :)