First Snow

 A couple days after Christmas we went up to Greer, AZ and stayed in a cabin with Leonore and Greg's families.  It was the first time either of my girls have seen snow.  I think Chloe thought it was going to be fluffier than it actually was.  Snow is so deceiving.  Wouldn't it be great if snow was like warm cotton balls?  Then maybe I would actually want to go play in it.  We had a fantastic time just piddling around the cabin, but I was grateful to come back to the comparatively warm desert.  As much as I miss the 4 seasons living in the desert, I can't say I really miss winter or the snow.  I don't like being freezing.  then again, I hate being hot too. Basically I think my favorite temperature is 68 degrees.

 Macie loved this dog.  The dog loved my leg.  I don't know why, but dogs, really like me.

 The brothers carved out a pretty fantastic sledding hill.  Too bad we were so lazy and only used it one afternoon.

I think Macie did a lot of crying when we went out in the snow.

One night we left the kids at the cabin with the older cousins and went out to eat at a local popular restaurant, "Molly Butler's."  Dinner was a highlight of the trip.  After dinner was not a highlight of trip.  I seriously regretted all night, the chicken covered in mushroom gravy with the side of mashed potatoes.  It will take me awhile to look at mushrooms the same way again. 

Besides that unfortunate evening, we thoroughly enjoyed our winter vacation and I felt good that I finally exposed my children to something they will probably grow up not knowing much about: snow.

Christmas morning

 Christmas morning Chloe wandered into our room.  I made the mistake of saying, "did you look under the tree yet?"  and it wasn't until I said that, did she remember that it was Christmas.  She was so tired she must have sleep walked into our room and forgot that it was morning she had been anxiously counting down to.  As soon as I said that though, it was all over, and our Christmas began!

 She got her Silverlicious book....

 and let's be honest, that dress was a gift to myself.

 

 Don picked out a perfect gift for Macie, a fake hamster.  And by the way, I never, EVER want a real hamster.  Our other goldfish finally died, it lived 2 weeks.  and I actually felt a little sad when it died.  I felt like I had failed it.  On the other hand, I was a little relieved, because every morning I woke up and went to check to see if it had died yet.

 Macie loves her shopping cart.

 Chloe got some new school clothes...fancy school clothes of course.

 macie got a quiet book, she loves putting the animals in their correct homes.

 After we opened our presents, we prepared breakfast and my Dad and sisters and brother and girlfriend came over.  Which was perfect.  I love 2 unwrapping sessions.

 We really scored this Christmas...I always feel so incredibly blessed after Christmas.  I realize how incredibly blessed we are, in every way.  we have a wonderful support system of family and friends, all of our needs are met and many of our wants as well.  I feel humbled by how blessed we are.

 And I got my dishes, my Dad is the best!  Now, I just have to have someone over for dinner, because these will not be used for people under 12.

 My brother got us a DVD player which is super awesome.  Now we can watch DVDs on our tv, not our laptop. 

Christmas was spent lounging around and we went to bed like at 8:30 PM that night.  All the celebrating made us VERY tired.  Even Chloe put herself to bed at 8. 

Oh, and look at this advent stocking line I made for next year.  I got all these stockings at target the day after Christmas.  I am super excited to use it next year.  My friend gave me this idea.  You put a slip of paper in each stocking with some Christmas-y thing to do on the days leading up to Christmas.  And probably some chocolate too....

Great News! I found my camera!

(We've reached this stage with Macie, although I will say, Macie doesn't seem to make as many messes as Chloe did at this age.  Knock on wood)

I found our camera.  And thus, I got all my Christmas pictures back!  Hooray!  I decided a few days ago to tackle Chloe's room and all her toys that were banished out to the garage.  well I was out in the garage, I saw a duffle bag and I had the thought that I should look in there for the camera, well I padded it down and felt nothing.  then about an hour later I decided that I should probably look in the pockets, and voila! I found the camera!! It should be mentioned that we said a family prayer that morning that we would find our camera.  So there is my sermon for the day.  

 I spent way too much money on this dress from Target.  But I don't regret it at all.  Every time chloe puts it on, I smile on the inside.  And also on the outside.  I don't care that she says the top itches her.  She must learn now that you make sacrifices for fashion.  If I can teach her just one important life lesson, this would be it.
                     

 Also, look!  I bought this real pine needle wreathe from Fry's for 5 dollars.  5 dollars!  It filled me with such glee, I still have it hanging on my door.  We have a fake tree so it was so nice to have that fresh pine tree smell every time I opened my door.  And the bells jingled too! And it was 5 dollars!

 Just a lousy picture of me, but a cute one of my Macie.

 Chloe styled my hair for this picture, and gave me very specific instrucions for how to pose and smile for this picture.

 

This is the gingerbread house Chloe decorated with Amy Paun.  she looks sad because this is right before I threw it away.  As you can see in the background, we put up our valentine decorations pretty much the day after Christmas (all Chloe's doing), and the only way I could get her to part with her gingerbread house, was to tell her that we could take a picture of it.  We took about 20 pictures of it as to get all the angles and perspectives of the gingerbread house.  alas, I think the gingerbread house warrants only 1 picture on the blog, not 20.

 

 

 My favorite part of the holiday season is our Christmas party.  This years was probably my favorite. 

 Our favorite chinese joint "catered" the event.  

 Don put together a Couples catch phrase competition that was hilarious.

 and the white elephant gift exchange is always the highlight of the night,

 oh and some Chloe pictures that sneaked in here...

Lauren sporting her white elephant gift, the bumpit hair piece.

How to make a Valentine: Part 2

Many of you I know wanted more complete directions on how to make a Valentine.  Chloe wanted to make sure that she made a better video to help you with this.  Robyn, this is especially for you.
By the way, Chloe talks about Valentines crafts and parties pretty much around the clock.  And I will admit, at one point, I needed a break, so I said, "How about you watch a movie."  This is the only time during my motherhood career that I have resorted to the television. cough cough.

Chloe Tutorial: How to make a Valentine

I found this on my phone the other day.  It made my day.  This video explains why I love being Chloe's Mom. 
The best parts of the video are:
The beginning up to after she draws her heart.
And 2:03-2:52

Chloe shows her ballet skills

As you can see, Chloe doesn't need any more ballet lessons. She has told me that she already knows all the moves...clearly she is right on the money. 

Macie sings jingle bells

So here are some pictures from Christmas Eve.  I am feeling a little sad because a certain someone seems to have lost our camera and therefor our videos and pictures of Christmas.  : (   That certain someone was not me, in case you think I was implicating myself.  Also, I can't upload any videos.  I just spent an hour on the phone with t-mobile technical support and they don't know why my videos won't upload either.  Apparently all those commercials that make smart phones look so user friendly, only apply to those with degrees in computer programming. Seriously though, why is it impossible to upload a 30 second video? 

Macie might be the only (almost) 2 year old I have ever met that is not afraid of Santa Clause.  This is probably because he has candy.  She was the first kid up there and ready to sit on his lap.  And then she went up later and stole another candy cane from his sack.

Chloe asked for the "Silverlicious" book.  Which she got...I am glad she still has rather low expectations for Santa.  Although she still refuses to believe that unicorns aren't real, and they can't fly.  And I feel kind of bad telling her the truth about that.  So how come I feel the need to tell her the truth about unicorns, but not about Santa? 

I am still not giving up hope that somehow, someday, my camera will show up. 

In other news,
We were gifted 2 goldfish last week.  One died the very next day which was exactly what I had expected to happen.  Chloe was rather disturbed.  And I imagine so was the other fish, as I was too grossed out to fish it out, so it got to swim around its dead friend for an entire day.  I sure hope fish are all like Dori in "Finding Nemo."  Because swimming around a very small container for your entire life sounds like a recipe for depression.  But maybe they do all have short term memory loss, so swimming around that corner, is new and exciting to them every time. 

Don has been suffering from vertigo for almost 5 days now.  Not bad enough to put him out of commission, just bad enough for me to call him Dizzy Don.  I feel bad for him.  But it seems to be getting better. 

Chloe started indoor swimming lessons, and loves it. 
Oh and she had 3 cavities filled over Christmas, did I mention that already.  One of them was like a kid root canal. 
On the bright side, she now knows why she must brush her teeth.
Chloe also got perfect scores for her behavior at school.
But I was told we need to work on her understanding of fiction and non-fiction.
Yesterday I told her a story about unicorns and asked whether it was fiction or non fiction.
She told me non-fiction.
And that is when I told her unicorns were not real.
And she cried.
Perhaps I will have to come up with some different topics for my fictional stories.