Christmas Progression

Wow.

What a weekend.

I had an official "Mom" moment while traveling this weekend when I had to remind Ally to "quit touching your sister!" To recap, this year, we decided not to fly anywhere for Christmas. We had initially planned to spend Christmas at home with just the four of us, but Nathan and Natalie invited us to spend Christmas with her family, so we made the four hour drive to Iowa. Their family celebrates with a non-traditional seafood dinner Christmas eve which was delicious, and an interactive Nativity play for the kids. I managed to keep away from work for an entire weekend, play a little Killer Bunnies & Qwirkle. Santa found us (phew) and the girls were very happy with their presents. A little picture recap:

Snow Bunnies - (we made snow angels, but we still haven't made the snow family that Ally wants to make yet. She wants to make a Snow Mommy and Daddy and Ally and Lily. That seems like a lot of work with not a lot of pay-off. We'll see...they sure are cute in their snow-duds though).







Mary and Jack the Donkey




A Shepherd and His Sheep -



Little Sheep -





New Sleeping Bags (where Ally snuggled in and insisted all following presents be brought to her in).





Stocking Loot -




One of Lily's New Outfits -

Merry Christmas

I have failed!!!

Two years ago I sent out our very first Christmas letter. Oh the anticipation and pressure at living up to the level of excellence set by father many Christmases before me! But I tried. I even sent out a second one last year as well. I don't remember if they were funny, or clever, or even interesting, but I sent out love and well wishes to family and friends.

This year I started a letter and ordered pictures to continue the tradition. Maybe not well in advance, but with some time to spare. However, when Matt picked up the pictures from Costco today and to my horror, we all looked a little like demons. I forgot to remove the red eye!!



So now I'm faced with a moral dilemma...do I send out these embarrassing photos just to show that I care? Order more with no guarantee that they'll reach you all in time for Christmas? Or cop out with the latest stamp-free trend and just blog my letter? Well, clearly you know by know that I'm going with option 3. I'm lame. And cheap. So sue me.

Matt:
Was recently accepted to the UW-Platteville and will be starting in January in the Construction Management program. We are relieved/scared to be starting this next chapter...it will be quite the adventure! Still works with the youth group at church and plays basketball once a week.

Sarah:
Still working at Epic full-time. Recently referred her brother Nathan to work there as well, so Nat-Nat (and bun-in-oven) will be moving to Wisconsin soon. Can't wait to play. In her spare time, she reads and stresses and pretends to be crafty.

Ally:
Mom just registered this little gal for Kindergarten. She attends pre-school three days a week, likes to do crafts with mom, loves "Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer" and all things "Christmas Time." She also likes secrets and talking to herself at night.

Lily:
Is crazy. She climbs onto and into everything and also enjoys unloading toyboxes. She loves to snuggle and read stories and give hugs.

Both girls love to Skype and miss their Grandmas and Grandpas.

And we all send our love to friends far and near, we're grateful for your friendship and for the sacrifice of our Lord. Merry Christmas!

Allyisms

Some of my new favorite Allyisms:

Ally: "Mom, what's your name?"
Mom: "My name is Sarah."
Ally: "Your name is Sarah-Tops???"

Ally: "Mom, are you OK? Did you hurt your foot?"
Mom: "No, I hurt my hip-bone."
Ally: "You hurt your hippopotamus bone?"

Dad: "Ally! I just picked up all those blankets!"
Ally: "Dad, just relax."

Grandma: "Ally, do you want to come visit me at my house?"
Ally: "Grandma, I can't. I can't find your house."

Trick or Treat

Love

Ahhh...love. Five years ago I made the best decision of my life (albeit rashly and OK I should have invited my parents to the wedding), but I decided to marry this guy named Matt (who opened doors for me and tried to buy me a microwave) and we've been ridiculously happy ever since. Matt surprised me with flowers at work today and I surprised him with this:



Five years later and we finally got a wedding cake :)

Tickets, Please

In a recent need/panic/anxiety to "turn off the TV and spend time with the family", I convinced Matt to turn an old box into a ticket booth. So we spent time after dinner last Sunday exchanging tickets through the window until bedtime:

Halloween Crafts

Here are the pumpkins Ally and I decorated:



She did the one on the left all by herself.

Climber Part 2

Another favorite climbing spot...the bookshelf. Where she gets stuck at least twice a day. Silly Lily.

Climber

Ally was never much of a climber. In fact, she never ventured out of her crib. We only ever got her a big girl bed because we needed the crib for Lily, not because she ever made the leap out on her own. But that's Ally's personality. She's content to be where she is.

Lily is my climber. She climbs on EVERYTHING! For the longest time, we had a barricade from the living room to the kitchen to keep her out of the cat food and away from the stairs, but we had to take it down when she started throwing herself over it. The other day I left a storage bin next to her high chair and when I turned around, she had climbed up INTO the high chair. I have this fear in the back of my mind that she'll end up in a body cast like my little brother (also a climber, who fell out of a tree when he was 4 and broke his femur).


Here she is, 15 months, climbing inside our boxes of winter gloves.

Fall

Ally was assigned to give the opening prayer in primary today. A first for us. I wasn't sure if she would get a case of stage fright at the podium or if anyone would be able to understand her. Turns out I think she thought she was assigned to sing a solo as she sweetly SANG her little prayer into the microphone without any help from me.

Pumpkin Patch

I never knew the joy of pumpkin patches as a child (did they not exist in Katy, TX??) Anyway, they pop-up like weeds in Wisconsin autumn-time. It's great fun for everyone, especially the ones that go all out with hay mazes, petting zoos, play houses...and it's mostly free! You only pay for the pumpkins.

Unwanted Guest

We found this guy on our back porch. Don't worry. He has since been eradicated.

To Nauvoo We Go

To my 3000+ employee friends, a trip to small town Nauvoo, Illinois just doesn't really strike an interest. Well add 7 saucy redheads, 3 hot brunnettes, and 2 cuter-n-pie little cow-girls and get ready for some good times. No one was injured, although many people were shot, we learned a lot about church history, cried a lot, captured frogs, practiced life-saving skills, and cried some more.

An update on ME

Truth be told, this blog is about my girls. It's written for my family and friends who care to know the feats of potty training and what-not. But every now and then I go through a break through and you get to enjoy that update as well.

I've been kind of struggling to know my place in life. I feel like I've been in "survival mode" for so long, I don't know how to just relax, turn off the anxiety, stop worrying that the kids will drown or get hit by cars, or kidnapped, or turn into teenagers and drive away and never come home. Ahhh. such are my bedtime stories.

So Matt and I have really been making a conscience effort to be true to our values. I've started to attend a Bible Study group on Wednesday nights and he goes with me when he has a night off from Young Men's. We've been making a real improvement in our daily scripture study and finding our identity as a couple. It feels nice to share that. I mean, he's always been my best friend, but it's nice to be able to share the emotional and religious growth moments with him as well. Can't wait to see him again on Saturday!!

Updates

One of my favorite things about Ally right now is that everything is a secret. And "I need to tell you a secret" gets shortened in Ally-speak to "I need a secret." So all day long, she's constantly pulling on your arm, "Mommy, I need a secret. I see light-bugs." "Daddy, I need a secret. I hear rain."

Lily turned one last month and she is walking! She cruises around like a drunk old lady, crashes into everything, and jumps back up again for more. She's cut one of her top front teeth and shakes her head no with a big grin on her face.

Both of these girls are growing up too fast!

Victory is Mine!

Check out this little scairdy cat (who once couldn't even walk by a pool of water without cover her eyes and shrieking) and she's actually.in.the.water!
And check out this cute baby who will be 1 this month, can you believe it?