Gingerbread

Every year I am always on the lookout for fun Christmas traditions to add to our repertoire. My mom and I spotted this gingerbread kit in the store and thought it would be a fun one to start with the girls.

I think K consumed more sugar than she put on the house. Every time I looked up she had something else in her mouth. Goofball. :)

She was very precise about her "pat-rern".

And was quite pleased with her finished product.

Boo's favorite tradition this year is snuggling.

Does anyone have any fun ideas for Christmas traditions that we could borrow?

Bear

K found something the other day that instantly shot my sympathy meter for Koala through the roof. This...

Isn't that the most adorable furry face you've ever seen? No? Why not? Is it the missing nose? It used to be a velvet chocolaty brown. When that wore off it was a black mesh. A few years later it was just a brown plastic nose. Then, after an encounter with a new puppy, the nose disappeared completely leaving a crusty brown and white hole. So other than the nose, most adorable? Still no? Is it the grungy, shaggy gray fur? It used to be white. You can still see the white if you pull back the seams.

This was my Bear. Creative name, I know. He was given to me for Christmas, by my Aunt Karen, in the second grade. It was love at first sight. I slept with him almost every night for the next 15 years. In fact, my new husband had to request that I stop sleeping with him when we got married. I took him to college. I took him on vacation. He was my baby. He was so big and fluffy that he was kind of like an extra pillow and I could never get comfortable when sleeping without him.
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I went to my scrapbooks and found a picture of him in the first one I took down. (I happen to have 24, 25? scrapbooks, one or more for each year of life...that is a dedicated mom!)
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Here we are, gliding peacefully through dreamland together. Apparently we were going skiing. In New Mexico?


Here's Bear sitting on my bed in my first college apartment.

And proof that my husband wasn't always against him. :)

And here's some proof that I wasn't the only one taking a "lovey" to college. My roommate had a doll on her bed too! Haha. Maybe she can tell us the story behind it in the comments? :)

So there you have it. I will now be much more sympathetic to my daughter when her beloved Koala gets left behind. Because you just can't replace those memories of your first love.

Trimming the Tree

As soon as we got home on Sunday we started to put up all our Christmas decorations. We got the tree all set up so as soon as the girls got up from their naps we could start decorating. The first order of business was the Santa hats. For some reason we always wear Santa hats while decorating the tree...and listen to Christmas music. It's tradition. Boo wasn't too keen on the tradition of the hat. She did NOT want to wear that thing!

We tried to keep it on long enough to get a picture but she was a master at whipping it off.

This one was taken mere nano-seconds before the hat was off once again.

Daddy finally pinned her hands to her sides so I could snap a pic.

Bug was very "helpful". Actually she did really well decorating the tree, she just didn't do very good with the ornament box. She pulled the cardboard layers out so all three tiers of ornaments ended up all piled up in a tangled mess at the bottom. Ugh.

After I got it semi-sorted out we started hanging them on the tree.

Two of my loves.

She takes this job pretty seriously! :)

All the ornaments are up...time for the star!

There it goes!

Ta-da!

(and yes she is wearing a hot pink shirt w/red checked capri pants when there is two feet of snow outside...and yes, she dressed herself!)

I tried to get a sister picture to commemorate the 2010 decorating of the tree.

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As you can see it did not go over so well.

Maybe next year.

10 Months

Well Boo just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I guess that's only natural. I wonder why I expect her to stay small? :) She is really moving these days. She can crawl across the house in a matter of seconds and is quick to get into things before we can stop her. She loves to crawl over to something and pull herself up.

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She's not too interested in standing b/c there is usually something she wants to grab on the floor but she has stood several times on her own for a few seconds. My mom actually got a picture of her standing the other day!

She is such a little busy bee. I had hoped that since we already have a VERY active child that we would get a more mellow second baby, but so far it looks like I am out of luck. :)

She loves her sister so much. It is so sweet to watch them interact.

Peek-a-boo!

And the biggest news of all...she said "Ma-ma" yesterday! For the first time! I was SO excited! She has been saying, "Da-da" for months. Bug did the same thing. But it was worth the wait. There is no sweeter sound to a mother's ears than a little voice calling for Mama. Love it.

She is so fun at 10 months. I can't wait to see what she is like at a year!

Today I am Thankful For:

Little pilgrims.

Good food and three-year-old prayers.

Sweet Potatoes.

Great-grandmas and Playdoh.

Made up games.

Squiggly tongues.

8 teeth!

Learning new things.

Sisters.

Snuggles.

Forts under the pool table and happy grins.

Tickle Fights.

Working puzzles.

Decorating the tree.

Bedtime kisses.

Bundled babies.

Snow angels.

Building a snowman.

And snow slides.

Family.

Being daring.

Laughter.

Big smiles, happy girls, and snow.

And too many other things to count!

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Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!