The Magic of Christmas Eve....

Here in St. Louis, we were lucky enough to get a white Christmas. For those of you who read our blog and know me well, you know that I hate hate hate, loathe loathe loathe, WINTER...but cold weather and snow for the 3 weeks surrounding Christmas are okay with me. I personally, believe though, that after January 10th, it should be warm or spring like conditions. I know, but a girl can dream! ANyways, we woke up to very big, beautiful snow flakes and it was simply magestic. Made even better by the fact that I didn't have to work and Matt was off all day! YAY. The girls, super stoked about their super cool sleeping bags from Aunt Amy and Uncle Keith, wanted to watch TV...specifically the Wizard of Oz in the living room, while Daddy made breakfast and I made cookies. Fine with me!


Here the girls are watching the Wizard of Oz.....it's their new favorite movie....Sydney even knows the words to Somewhere Over the Rainbow..I caught her singing it tonight...so so cute!

After breakfast, I contined to bake cookies, while the girls played. On one of my 'breaks' I tried to find my Ipod, but it was missing, SO we told the girls that if they helped us find it, we'd let them open a Christmas gift from under the tree....they like to borrow our things and hide them! Thankfully, the Ipod was located...I'd definately put it somewhere where they couldn't reach it, but not a normal location for me to place it in. I have to admit I was freaking out a little!

So, we kept with our promise and strategically picked this gift out....from my Dad and Stepmom....they were absolutely ADORABLE when they realized what they had gotten!

Inside the bags were big stuffed Mickey Mouse animals...and man were they so excited! THeir new favorite show on TV is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse...they adore it, know all the words to the theme song, and I in turn adore it as a great distractor when I need to do things like...oh cook dinner or get something done around the house. I had briefly mentioned to someone else to get them MIckey Mouse dolls, when my Stepmom called and said the girls HAD to have a Mickey....and who'd have guessed that he would turn into the IT toy for them...and he sure has...well, except for one or two other things. That said, Sydney has taken to carrying him around everywhere...and Olivia too. So cute!

 Here is Miss Olivia opening her Mickey Mouse...and yes, they do not match, which I think in this case is a GREAT idea! We are very into MY things lately, and this is going to help them keep their toys seperate.

 What do you have over there Sydney?????

 ...it's just dawning on her that their Mickey's are different looking.

I love Mickey Mouse....can we watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse???

 Miss Sydney opening her Mickey Mouse......

 OH!!!!!!!!!!!! It's Mickey!

 I LOVE Mickey!

 ALREADY dancing around with her MIckey Mouse!

Smile for Grandma and Grand Dude... you know that they sent you these? Right???

There are grumblings about going to Disney Land for family vacation this summer....this could be super cool for the girls..and us!

HOpe you had a Magical Christmas Eve Day, where ever you are!
J

Christmas Family Pictures....

Apparently Nana or Neena as she is called these days, doesn't think we get the girls' pictures professionally taken often enough, SO last Spring she purchased some special card through JC Penny that gives us a free sitting fee. SO, Matt and I decided, knowing this that what the heck, we'd take the girls up, get some Christmas pictures taken and see if we like one for our Family Christmas Card. Due to the fact that we purchased many of them to give as gifts, none of these were shared before now, so here goes all our cuteness! :)

Hope you enjoyed the pics I chose to share! Aren't Holiday pictures so much fun?

J

Christmas Traditions....

As the girls get older, we are attempting to establish more and more Christmas Traditions....one of those being Christmas Lights....so, one night we ate dinner, put the girls in their PJ's and headed out to look at some super cool Christmas lights...and of course munch on some Christmas cookies, that the girls and I had baked together earlier in the day! That was certainly a learning experience...for me!  I know that as the girls get older, we'll create more and more traditions, but I do have to say, it was fun 'starting' some of those traditions....like going to see Christmas LIghts in your PJs, this year! I'm pretty sure we all had a great time! :)

Here are the girls...before we left....apparently we needed to wear Daddy's hats!
Sydney in her Mizzou hat, she is always stealing this hat from her Daddy!

 Olivia....of course I bought Daddy another Mizzou Hat for Christmas, so that Olivia could have one to wear too...I didn't want her to feel left out, b/c she too loves TRUMAN TIGER!

Another family tradition we have, is celebrating Christmas with the Fatzingers. As the years have changed, so have our celebrations...we used to go out to a nice restaurant and then out to have some drinks...now we hang with our kids..who were quite magically born very close together..in fact if the girls had been born at term, they would have been 2 weeks YOUNGER than Caroline. Keith and Amy are also, one of the two sets of godparents to the girls, and Matt and I are Caroline's godparents as well. So cool to have awesome, fun friends, that we think of as family. So, the 23rd, we got all our kiddos together. Caroline is of course Sydney and Olivia's BFF and they are hers, It's super cute!

Here's Olivia running around....

Sydney being silly.....

Caroline..enjoying different toys, which is always super cool to kids!

Exchanging gifts for one another.....

The girls got these really really cool puppy sleeping bags from the Fatzingers, that they are obsessed with, and the girls gave Caroline a Jessie Doll, a Toodie shirt, a Foofa shirt, a doll, and some dress up clothes....everyone was super into the gifts and loved them all!

Sydney, wearing the fairy wings she gave Caroline.

 Saying her goodbyes....

After the Fatzinger's had gone, and bathtime was over, we found Olivia reading the new Night Before Christmas book that her Uncle Sean and Aunt Kelsey had sent....it's one of those recordable books....most thoughful gift of the season and the girls ADORE it!

What are your Christmas traditions?

Hope all is well,
J

W Family Christmas...

Many, Many years ago, it was decided that Matt's Dad and Step-Mom, would have us celebrate our Family Christmas out at their home, the Sat/Sun before Christmas, so that we all would have one less place to travel on Christmas Day, especially once we all had kids and they would want to be at home on Christmas morning with their booty from Santa, rather than in the car on the way to Grandma and Grandpa's.

It is so relaxing to do this and so fun...especially, now that we all have kids who are super into Christmas!


The girls...Celebrating Christmas at Grandpa's house....

My diva..Sydney and her Christmas at her Grandpa's...you know, she suckered him into taking her out to see his horses too! :)

A montage of Miss Olivia and her Chrstmas at Grandpa's....

All the Grandkids...trying to coordinate all these kids at once, is quite a job...:)

Hope all is well as you prepare for Christmas with your family!
J