Christmas Part Two

After a great few days with the Schneiders, we headed north to the Cotas!
We had a nice Christmas Eve dinner with everyone!

Then Avery was busy working on a note to Santa!
She decided the reindeer would probably like some tomatoes and carrots again this year!

We were pleasantly surprised when Avery woke up at 7:30! :)  Not too bad for being sooooo excited!
And THANK YOU Santa!!!  He knew exactly what Avery wanted!  She couldn't believe she got just about everything (she only asked for 3 things....) that she wanted!!!  Way to go Santa!

And Annalise loved the toothbrush. :)  It's the little things!

Then it was on the Santa presents!!!
Love the look of TOTAL shock on Avery's face!!!!  Like...."how did he know????"  I just love the innocence and joy on Christmas morning. 

 

Thanks to Grams and Gramps for all of the great presents, too!

Annalise LOVES Big Blue!!!

 

After a break for a while....the Dietzs came up and we opened some more presents.  Seriously....the girls were SPOILED by EVERYONE this year!!!!  We had a great Christmas day!

After the Christmas wrapping dust had settled, we went to Deer Park bowl and did some bowling! 
Avery was THRILLED that she out-scored her Auntie Lori by one point!  Way to go Avery!!!  (Maybe it was the practice she had with Grandma and Grandpa earlier in the week that gave her the edge!?!)

It was an exciting week in Spokane!!!  We LOVED spending time with all of our family.

But it IS nice to be back HOME.

Here's to a healthy and happy 2010!!!!!

Christmas Part One

We started our Christmas celebrating with the Schneiders this year!
We made it over for Mark's birthday--he was happy to spend the day with his family!

Happy Birthday Uncle Mark!



The following day was our Christmas celebration with the Schneiders. The girls were EXCITED!!!!! Stockings were filled and there were LOTS of presents to open!

This was Elsa's first Christmas and she hung right in there!!


Annalise, too!

It was a crazy present-opening morning followed by an entire day of playing with all of the cool stuff everyone got!We had a great Christmas celebration with the Schneiders!

Winter Program

So there WAS a Winter Program before Christmas at Central! :) I've just not gotten around to post the pictures. The Kindergartners were once again the HIT of the show!! And it was even better this year with my OWN Kindergartner singing!! Avery had a blast!!! (Thanks for the fancy dress Auntie Lori! )
She even got to stand next to Kaelee! :) Think they knew ALL the words and motions. So cute!

Our Little Daisy Girl Scout

Avery is an official Girl Scout.

Her Investiture Ceremony was on Monday.
The girls were very excited!!

(Yes....they are ALL Kindergartners. And YES...Avery is ALWAYS the tallest!)

Their troop leader, Mrs. Bergman, talked about the program and the girls sang a couple of songs.



Each part of the Girl Scout Law represents a petal on their daisy. Once they've talked about/done a lesson on each, they earn that petal.

The Girl Scout Law

I will do my best to be:
Honest and fair,
Friendly and helpful,
Considerate and caring,
Courageous and strong, and
Responsible for what I say and do,
And to
Respect myself and others,
Respect authority,
Use resources wisely,
Make the world a better place, and
Be a sister to every Girl Scout.

I wish EVERY child could learn these things! You can imagine how proud we are of Avery.

Imagination Movers

Avery loves the show Imagination Movers on the Disney Channel. It's a show about 4 guys who help people solve problems....they're the Imagination Movers. It's really fun and has a lot of music in it. They were advertising their LIVE tour one Saturday morning. Avery thought that sounded AWESOME!!!!!!!!! After some research, we found the closest they'd be to Bellingham was Seattle.

Auntie Robin and I took Avery. It was actually a lot of fun! I'd never been to the Moore Theater before....what a cool place. The look on Avery's face when they actually came out was priceless. It was like "WOW....it's REALLY them!!!!!" So cute.


A highlight was when "Mover Rich" came up to the balcony and high-fived all the kids. (Yes, the balcony...I WASN'T paying $100/ticket to be on the main floor!) Avery claims it wasn't even CLOSE to a real high-five, but I'm not sure what else to call it!
It was a lot of fun!!! We had a good time decorating cookies and playing with the Wii when we got back to Geoff and Robin's! Avery had a captive audience!!! :) It was good to see everyone!! Clark and Cathy were there, and Avery was glad there were other kids! Scott and Erika were there with their kids. Bryson is 3 and Lila is 1 1/2.

Thanks for playing Auntie Robin and Uncle Geoff!!! :) We had a great time!!!

Our Tree

We decided to take advantage of the blue skies and 45 degree weather the day after Thanksgiving! We headed to the Christmas Tree Farm to get our tree!!! :)



Grandma and Grandpa helped us pick out the perfect tree!!!

Santa...REALLY!!!!

When Avery was a baby we were able to get her to sit with Santa. Obviously she had no reason to be fearful.

We tried again when Avery was 1 1/2. You can see the result. This was the best picture we got.

So....we kind of gave up on the whole Santa picture thing. She even refused last year even though we promised Annalise would be there with her. No way. Not having ANY part of the Santa thing.

This year, at 5 1/2, the big sister decided to talk to Santa to show the little sister how it's done. She thought and thought about it, and then became actually excited to see Santa. She knew he'd be at the Olde Fashioned Christmas! Ferndale has this annual Christmas tradition at Pioneer Park (a historic park in town with a bunch of log cabins). You begin the tour at the school house where each child can write a letter to Santa.

Annalise wasn't too sure about the whole thing.

But once she saw Avery writing away, she began her letter to Santa also. We're not exactly sure what she asked for, but I'm sure it was something good! :)


Avery simply wrote: "Dear Santa, I hope you have a good Christmas. Love, Avery"


So we made our way through the cabins. They had lots of craft activities for the kids, including making cookies! Yum.

Finally....the cabin with Santa Claus.

Annalise was SUPER excited to see "SANTA"! Every time shes a decoration with him on it she says "HI SANTA". So to see him in real life was pretty cool!!!! Avery got cold feet. There was just one little boy in front of us and when he was done she thought maybe she didn't want to do it. I suggested maybe standing NEXT to Santa instead of sitting on his lap. She thought that might be okay. I told Santa our plan (but I think Santa's hearing wasn't the greatest because he just smiled at me and pulled Avery over to sit on his lap). She just went with it. He asked her what she wanted for Christmas this year. "A Leapster2".

Annalise wanted to see Santa, too. Mark put her on Santa's lap.


Good thing I got the picture when I did. 30 seconds on Santa's lap MAX before she started crying. Guess Annalise likes the IDEA of Santa. Especially since she keeps bringing it up. All day today..."I see Santa". So sweet.

Way to go Avery!!!! :) HoHoHo Santa.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!


What a nice Thanksgiving we had!!!! It was the first time we've ever had company for Thanksgiving!!! Grandma and Grandpa made the trek over from Spokane to spend some time with us!

We had a nice, mellow day. Well...as mellow as a house with two little kids can be. :) We had a great dinner with all the Thanksgiving fixin's!



The dessert was great, too! Pumpkin pie made by Avery and Grandpa! Nice work you two!


We have so much to be thankful for.....especially the wonderful family that we are so lucky to have!