Let the holidays begin!

The holidays are so much fun, but seem to go by so fast! I love spending time with all the family and seeing all the kiddos playing together. The girls have so much fun at all the "parties".

Matt's mom, Ruth, flew in on Thursday. My parents drove up on Thursday as well. On Friday, the girls school was closed. So, we had a morning playdate at the Wilken's house. All of the kids were wired! They ran around, screamed and bounced in Aunt Erin's bouncy house for a really long time! Luckily, this is always followed by exhaustion and a nice nap!

The girls had a ton of fun playing with "Mama Ruth" as well... reading books, doing arts and crafts, playing Go Fish, decorating gingerbread houses.

Just having a  picnic with some of her closest friends

Sliding out the bouncy house

Catboy mask and Gecko cape (PJ Masks are super popular at our house!)

Avery loves Go Fish

Decorating gingerbread houses

Avery's finished house

Morgan's finished house

She wanted her "guys" to move into the house

Selfies!

Silly selfie

Doing sticker puzzles with Mama Ruth

We got this cute angel feather headband at Michael's - in every picture we took, it glowed!

Making monkey bread

Best part is licking your fingers at the end - butter + sugar = delicious!

Playing in the snow one last time before it all melts

They made a reindeer - ha!

Our little fish

Morgan loves swimming! She spends most of the swimming lesson underwater. It used to freak me out, like I thought she might be drowning. But, she always pops back up with a huge smile on her face. We started the girls and Grayson together in swim lessons in the Level 1 class. Avery and Grayson are doing really well. But, Avery refuses to put her head underwater. She will blow bubbles, but totally has a panic attack if she goes underwater. So, needless to say, she will be in Level 1 for a while. Like I said, Morgan is underwater most of the class and has really done well. She was moved up to Level 2 and is in a new class now (which, conveniently for us, happens to be at the same time as Avery's lesson and in the next lane to her!)

Christmas Program at school

Every year, the school puts on a Christmas show and the kiddos all sing and dance (and cry!). Morgan used to be one of those criers, but now she's doing so much better. I took some videos, but the sound is terrible. They are in a huge soccer field area, so the sound just gets lost. But, I'll share one video where they are actually dancing. It's the reindeer pokey (like the hokey pokey). You put your antlers in... etc. :)

The few weeks before Christmas

There's always so much going on before Christmas!

Curler cuties!

She just looks older and older all the time - stop growing up!!!

Lots of Christmas dress up days at school

Helping shovel after another snow storm

Um, you have a man down, Avery!

Morgan pulling Avery

This picture may not look like much, but this was probably one of the first times the girls decided to sit down and play a real game with each other (without me prompting them to!). I love that they have a playmate all the time!

Merry Christmas!

The girls had pictures taken at school a few weeks before Christmas. Considering that morning we had a double meltdown at school drop-off, I think they turned out pretty well. Ha!

Christmas Card 2016

 

I caved

They have an Elf on the Shelf at school and have seen the show. Avery asked when our Elf would be getting here. So, I caved and got one. I got a little ballerina outfit for it and we named it Twinkle Toes.