Merry Christmas from the girls!

The girls have been singing Christmas songs since Thanksgiving so I thought it would be fitting to record them singing them. Claire is singing what she knows of the chorus to Jesus is Alive by Josh Wilson and Quinn is singing Jingle Bells. Merry Christmas to you from Claire and Quinn!

I Love Christmas!

Tonight is our Christmas Eve. We will not be at our home on actual Christmas day so tomorrow is our Christmas day. The girls are pretty excited to open presents with toys in them (Claire) and also get cookies and cake (Quinn) in the morning. We put them to bed and have not heard a peep. I figure they will sleep like normal. Me, on the other hand, will have a hard time sleeping because I am so excited! I love this time of year and with kids it just makes it so much more fun. I can't wait to see their faces when they see gifts under the tree. Quinn has been saying she wants cake and cookies for Christmas so she will be ecstatic to know we are having birthday cake for Jesus AND I am pretty sure Santa will leave her some cookies in her stocking. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! Claire will be happy opening lots of presents. I basically individually wrapped everything just so she can have things to open. I can't wait to see her face when she opens a pair of tights and then batteries. Hehe! So when you see pictures of Christmas day don't be thinking we are bringing in the big bucks and spent a ton on gifts, though I would like to, it is just that everything that could be wrapped was. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

We have had a tradition since Claire was born to buy new pajamas to wear on Christmas Eve. The girls picked theirs out this year and totally not on purpose they match each other. That secretly made me happy so I didn't try to change either one of their minds to get something different. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

Ok, I think you get the point, I really do love Christmas and not just because of presents and cookies and cake. I love family, being together, the lights, the food, the music, and I love the reason we have Christmas...Jesus. Happy Birthday Jesus!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

The girls in their Christmas Pajamas

Aaron the Allergic Shepherd

Claire was in her very first musical at church this morning. For the last 6 or so weeks she has been going to "choir practice" ,as she called it, to learn her 3 songs that she and the rest of the 3 and 4 year olds would be singing. They were sheep! The cutest little sheep you have ever seen!! She has been singing the songs at home constantly (Claire sings Christmas). She is quite the performer at home and I was not quite sure if she would still be that way in front of all those people. She did great! The kids didn't practice with their sheep ears on or with a microphone in front of them during practice so it was cute to watch them play with them. At one point we thought Claire was going to grab the mic down, she reached for it. Claire took it upon herself to sing a one word solo. If you listen on the video (below) she sings the word round before everyone else. Love it!!! I am so proud and I know that it was just a short little musical at our church but I have loved singing my whole life and I love being on a stage so it made me very proud to see her up there. It made me happy to know that she enjoyed herself and had fun!

I tried to take pictures and have a video of one of their songs. They are all pretty blurry, we sat up higher and I had to zoom in a lot. You will at least get an idea.

You will have to turn the volume up. They are singing Silent Night acapella and it is not very loud.

New Haircut

Jared and I thought that Claire's hair was getting a little long and decided we would cut it. (Not us personally but professionally, there is no way either of us would or could do it.) I told her we were going to cut it and she immediately said she wanted it short. "I want it short like daddy's or Quinn's." I explained to her if she gets it that short she will not be able to wear it in ponytails anymore. Thankfully she agreed to not go that short. Whew!!! She was super excited about it on the day of the appointment and she reminded me again that she wanted it short. This time she said like her friend Rylee's at church. She said she has cute hair. I explained to her that her friends hair is super cute but that it was too short to put in a ponytail. So she opted for shorter hair that could still be put up. Oh my goodness...Girls!

Before

She was not in the mood for picture taking but I had to show how long her bangs were. What kind of mother lets her kids' bangs hang in their eyes like that?

The new do!

She loves her new cut and it goes up in a ponytail...barely.

I love her big eyes in this picture.

Favorite Things

Lately we have been asking the girls what their favorite color is. The answer changes every time for both of them. I decided to ask them a few questions about some of their favorite things. Here are the questions and their answers.

What is your favorite color?

C: In this order- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple

Q: Purple

What is your favorite number?

C: 3

Q: A purple one

What is your favorite song?

C: Twinkle Twinkle

Q: ABC's

What is your favorite thing to wear?

C: Dresses

Q. Purple ones

What is your favorite thing to eat?

C: Potatoes

Q: Soup

What is your favorite drink?

C: Milk

Q: Water

What is your favorite T.V. show?

C: Bubble Guppies

Q: VegiTales

What is your favorite movie?

C: Princess

Q: Vegitales

What is your favorite toy?

C: Train

Q: Princess

Where is your favorite place to go?

C: Church and MOPS

Q: Bye Bye

The following question was Jared's question to the girls.

Do you like cats or dogs better?

C: Dogs

Q: Cats

Claire: 3 years
Quinn: 21 months

2 little monkeys!

Two little monkeys jumping on the bed...

I am not one of those fun moms that let the kids jump on the bed but we did let the girls jump on the crib mattress once it was out of the crib before putting it away. I am one cool mom now!

It's a big big girl bed!

Quinn got Claire's toddler bed which left Claire needing a bed. She got Jared's bed from when he was a kid. (I am seeing a trend here with furniture) She was super excited and kept calling it the Big Big girl bed because it was bigger than the one she just passed on to Quinn. Seeing her in an actual twin bed made me realize that she is becoming a big big girl!  

My little chipmunk is growing up!

Quinn now has a new nickname...chipmunk. I have posted before how she just loves to put everything in her mouth. She chews on everything! Her newest thing to chew on is her crib. I told her we don't chew on our bed so whenever I put her in her crib she would say. "Don't eat it mommy. It not food." as she points to the spot where she has been chewing.

I have also posted that the crib was Jared and his siblings when they were babies. So it has been around awhile and has seen a few babies in it's time. The poor thing is going to have to be retired especially after having Quinn sleep in it for the last 21 months. Quinn has been a lot rougher with it than Claire was. She likes to jump in it and bang it up against the wall. She has never tried to crawl out of it but I have been afraid one of these days she is going to just jump right out if it. So last night we officially put the crib in the attic and let Quinn sleep in her very own big girl bed!

She looks so tiny in that big bed!

She got to pick out her bedding. She wanted butterflies. She was beyond excited as Jared put her bed together and we got all the bedding on. She kept asking "I lay on it?". Night number one went awesome! She went down great and went right to sleep. I am so proud of her! I have to admit I am a little worried about nap time today. Hoping my little chipmunk surprises me and goes right to sleep.

Christmas Parade

This year we went to the Christmas Parade at Tulsa Hills. This was our first night time parade. Luckily the weather worked out and the wind wasn't blowing (shocking) so it was a very pleasant time.

Claire sings Christmas

Claire will be in the church's children's Christmas program this year. She will be singing 3 songs with the other little ones. She loves to sing and we sing these songs with her everyday. After supper she got out her stepping stool and gave a preview of the show. I hope she won't get nervous when she has to get up in front of everyone to sing. I know I will be. Thanks to Laura Williams and Jen Giles for teaching her the songs. Quinn is so cute in the background! Love my girls!    

   

Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you too.

Claire got a very special birthday present this year, a new baby cousin! Maddox Gabrielle was born on Claire's birthday, November 24th! (Thanksgiving Day) How cool is to share your birthday with your cousin?! How cool would it be if both of my girls shared their birthdays with cousins? They do!!! Quinn was born on her cousin Tolbyn's birthday. I wonder what the chances of that happening are? Pretty neat!

Happy Birthday Claire and Maddox!
11/24/08 & 11/24/11

Happy Birthday Tolbyn and Quinn!
03/09/06 & 03/09/10

Ornaments

Since Claire's 2nd Christmas, she would have just turned 1, I have let her pick out her own Christmas tree ornament. Last year she helped Quinn. This year we let the girls pick out a Kairos 10 ornament at church. By buying the ornament we helped purchase a mosquito net for a family in Ghana. It is such a wonderful ministry and what a great way to teach our children about helping others. The girls were so excited to put them on the tree. I love this tradition we have started and can't wait until the tree is full of fun ornaments that show the girls' personalities and what they liked at that time.

Mama's little helpers.

Fall Family Pictures 2011

We went out to Woodward Park in Tulsa a couple of weeks ago and took our family pictures for the Christmas card. Here are a few, ok more than few, pictures I took. I can't help it...I love my girls and I love taking pictures of them. I mean come on, scroll down and just look at how stinkin cute they are!!!! You will want to squeeze their little cheeks just like I do.

What What!
Sorry I had to do it!

Favorite.

Look at that little tounge. Favorite.

Favorite.

Awww!

This one is blurry but Claire was helping Quinn. So sweet!