Christmas is Here!!

This last week we put up our Christmas tree. It is so fun to see our girls get so excited for Christmas and putting up the tree. All growing up it was a fun night to put up our Christmas tree as we would unwrap all of our ornaments and put them up by taking turns...I have a second cousin who gave us ornaments every year with our name on it. As we grew up and left the house, we got to take our ornaments with us. Now that I'm married and have my own kids, my cousin continues to send us ornaments, only this time to our girls and some for Nick and I. They love pulling out their ornaments and taking their turns to put their own ornaments up. This year it was fun as the girls put on their Santa hats and loved to decorate the tree! It's fun to see our tree decorated with all my ornaments from when I was little and now seeing it being filled with their ornaments as well. Isn't Christmas so much fun!? :)

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we were sitting at home getting the girls ready to head out to Walmart when I heard some sirens that sounded like they were right outside our door. We looked out the window and sure enough did see some sirens from the police escorting Santa Claus through our neighborhood. Apparently the City of Grain Valley has this cool bus that has been transformed into a trailer or Santa's sleigh. They go around the whole town throughout the end of November and all of December on Saturdays to have kids come out and sit on Santa's lap...for free!! :) The girls were way excited and we rushed them outside with our camera. They both got on his lap, but Cora didn't last very long as you can tell. Kayley wanted to cry, but we reminded her she needed to tell Santa what she wanted him to bring her, so she stopped her frowny face and told him she wanted a Pocahontas doll. (Thanks ebay!) Then Santa gives each child a toy out of his sack. Cora got a Winnie the Pooh that had Baby's First Christmas written on it. Kayley got a Woodstock from Charlie Brown. She thought Santa was going to give her Pocahontas right then and there, but we had to remind her that if she was good he would bring it to her Christmas morning, then we had to teach her who Woodstock was. Then we were lucky enough to watch Snoopy Come Home on tv the next day...what are the odds of that one! :) The girls loved all of it and kept telling everyone that Santa came to see them and carried their toys around all day like they were trophies! It was a neat experience and great memory for them to have! Thanks Santa! :) Oh and have we mentioned that we like Grain Valley?!?

Jesus Has "Maggots"

Ok...I'm not trying to be sac-religious (sp?)...but this is how it was said to her Daddy. Kayley was helping me put out our Christmas decorations the other day and I had my nativity scenes out on our buffet table. Of course the girls were beside themselves and kept trying to get Jesus down to play with Him, but they were really good at listening and leaving Baby Jesus in His bed. Anyway, as I started on other decorations, Kayley mentioned to me that Jesus was cold, so she went and got her magnet set of Book of Mormon stories and got two fire magnets to put in front of Jesus to keep Him warm. But, instead of calling them magnets, Kayley pronounces them as "maggots"...so when Daddy came home, Kayley told him Jesus had maggots. It was pretty cute and very sweet and thoughtful of Kayley to think of Jesus being warm.

"Ralphie!!"

Ok...a couple of weeks ago when we started to finally have cold weather, we put on our winter coats for the first time this season. When I put on Cora's coat the other day, she was so cute because it was so big on her that she kept falling over, so it reminded me of the movie "A Christmas Story" when Randy and Ralphie are on their way to school and their mom gets them all bundled up in their winter attire. Someone pushes Randy over and he can't get up and continues to yell Ralphie's name and saying, "I can't get up, I can't get up!" Cora actually couldn't get up on her own either...so it was pretty funny to me!