Happy Birthday, Jesus!

It gets harder and harder to try and get our extended families together for the holidays. So this year was a little different. We got together with Jared's family the weekend before Christmas and with my family the weekend after. So that left Christmas day for just the four of us. Jared and I have never had Christmas day to ourselves....ever. We have always been at one of our parents house or traveling on the day. So I was so excited and was looking forward to making a big meal and just relaxing with my family. It was so fun. We woke up and opened gifts, Jared read the Christmas story, had breakfast, and then the girls and I started in on making Jesus' birthday cake. That was too much fun! I then started on dinner...we had ham, broccoli rice casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls, marshmallow salad, and birthday cake. It was delicious and I felt very Susie homemaker! So thankful for Jesus and for his sacrifice. It was such a blessing to celebrate Him with my family. Happy Birthday, Jesus!

 

Our birthday party for Jesus was awesome. The girls picked out what type of cake. Claire was convinced that Jesus would love chocolate cake with chocolate icing and of course, sprinkles. And she would be right!!

(no matter how hard I tried to fix it the first two pics are out of order.uggg)

                                                                                                                                                                        

 

That's my girl!!

Happy Birthday Jesus! We're so glad it's Christmas...

Singing Happy Birthday!



Dance observation day

In December Claire had a dance observation day for her dance class. We were able to go into the classroom and watch them dance and take pictures. They had a Christmas party with gift exchange as well. I will warn you there will be a lot of pictures with this one. Also, I am not all that good taking photos indoors so they are not the best but still so cute because quite frankly, my daughter is a very cute little dancer. See for yourselves.

 

Some of her dancing friends.

Claire's best friend Rachel. (This is who Claire thinks is the coolest person she knows. Seee Claire is 4 post.)

LOVE THIS ONE!!



Potty Training...again.

Well, we started potty training Quinn...again. It has been 5 months since the last time and she took the lead on it again. This time she was ready! She has done so good!! We still have accidents when we go out of the house because she is scared to go on another potty...me too, honey! Plus we are not sleep trained but we are headed in the right direction. I was ready this time as well. The day she told me she wanted to go on the big potty was the last time she wore a diaper. (January 8th to be exact) ;) She wears her princess panties most of the time but for some reason prefers pull ups. Maybe one day I will not have to buy a diaper like item again!! Like I said we are headed in the right direction.

Beautiful day in the neighborhood.

It really is hard to believe that I am sitting outside in January blogging and watching my sweet babies play. I am a 74 degree kind of girl and could live at that temp forever. It is 73 right now and is wonderful. It is a little breezy and I am sure the three of us will end up sick but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to be outside.

 

 

By the way...the girls dressed themselves today and I kinda love what they picked.



Rhema Lights

We try to take the girls to see the lights at Rhema every year. This year was the best by far...it was in the 70's!! I wasn't freezing my buns off and wishing I had brought cash with me to buy hot chocolate. We walked a little longer and enjoyed it a little more. Thank the Lord for nice weather.

 



Just Quinn

~35~

On December 1st I turned 35 and I thought it was going to be tough but when I think about 36...that one makes me feel old. It will be official that I am closer to 40 than 30. Blah! So I am going to enjoy 35!

My girls both gave me a gift. Claire gave me a go-fish game, which we play often. Quinn gave me a baby doll that she "takes care of" for me, all the time. :) Blessed!

 



Christmas Ornaments and tree decorating.

I love Christmas! I love everything about it. I love the decorations, I love the music, I love the feel of Christmas. I love the real reason for Christmas, Jesus, and I love that we get to celebrate him.

I like to put decorations and the tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving and I take them down the weekend after new years. I would leave them year round if I could.

This year I had the girls make ornaments for the tree. We did the snowmen out of their hand prints. So 2011 but so what, we are a little behind. We also made reindeer ornaments out of their fingerprints but they didn't turn out so well. The girls got to tell me how they wanted their snowmen decorated. I am too much of a control freak to let them color all willy nilly on their precious hand prints. I may have a problem. :)

We started a tradition where the girls get to pick an ornament to put on the tree. I actually let them pick, the control freak may guide them just a little, and then I date them and put their names on them. We started this when Claire was 1 because we were in an apartment her first Christmas and we didn't even have a tree. We do not have a first Christmas ornament for her and it just seemed silly to buy one after the fact. Anyway, here are the ones the girls picked this year.

Claire

Quinn





Hobby Lobby ran their Christmas trees on sale for 50% off. I decided the girls were going to get their very own trees and they can decorate them however they want. They are cute little 3 foot trees and they have a stand and everything. The girls loved the idea. Claire did her tree in purple and Quinn did hers in pink. How stinking cute!!So they decorated their trees while their control freak mama decorated the family tree. Win, Win!!

 

 

Merry Christmas!



Claire is 4!

Goodness gracious I can not believe that my baby girl is 4. She is no longer a baby...she isn't even a toddler any more!! (enter tears here) Where has the time gone?

We were able to celebrate her birthday on her birthday, just the 4 of us. We had cake, opened presents , and went to Chuck E Cheese. We only played games then we were off to Mazzios to have real pizza. For her birthday she got Princess Yahtzee Jr. (a favorite game of us all), Tinker Toys (did you know they make them in pink? Claire loves to build things.) and a big girl bible with her name on it.

A little about Claire Bear. She loves to sing and perform. She makes up songs all the time and she loves to have us listen to them. Then she asks "Was that a good song?". She enjoys playing mommy and baby with Quinn and you guessed it she likes to be the mommy. She LOVES to draw or color. She is really good at drawing and painting. I wish I could save everything she makes but I get 4-5 drawings a day and there just isn't enough room. She is still a very picky eater. I was hoping this would have changed in the last year but instead it is the same if not worse. Now she tells me she isn't eating what I made even before it is on the table. Uggg! She occasionally will make decisions based on what she is wearing. If I ask what color sucker do you want, she will look down and see what she is wearing. If she is wearing blue then that is the color sucker she wants. Make sense to me, does it you? She loves her friends and she loves church. She knows what days we go and she looks forward with great anticipation. This makes me so happy and I will surely remind her of these times when I am dragging her to church when she is older. "remember when you would cry if you missed church?'.

 

Here are a few questions I asked her and her answers.

 

Favorite Color?- Pink and Purple

Favorite food?- Broccoli and noodles

Favorite drink?- Water and Chocolate milk

Favorite T.V. show? Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Favorite Princess? Aurora and Rapunzel (her favorite colored princess because they are pink and purple)

Favorite song? Jingle Bells

Favorite person in the Bible? Jesus

Favorite Bible story? Moses

Coolest person you know? Rachel (I just knew she would say me.)

One wish? All my friends could come to my house again

When I grow up I want to be... Cupcake maker

 

Claire, I love you something fierce! You have changed my life and I am so blessed to be called your mama. I pray for you every night as I kiss you while you sleep. I pray you will accept the Lord as your Saviour first and foremost. I pray you will be a girl/woman of faith and strength. I pray you will light this world on fire for the Lord...girl, you can do it!! I pray I can be a loving, encouraging, and godly mama to you. I love you, Claire Bear! Happy Birthday!!

 

This picture cracks me up. This is will be Jared again in 12 years! Ack!!