Christmas with the Liesers

We spent Christmas day with Jared's family. The girls were so excited to play with their cousins and to open more presents. We arrived the night before everyone was coming so the girls had lots of time to see the gifts under the tree. By the time we opened gifts Claire knew whos went to whom. Once cousins started arriving she would take them to the tree and tell them which ones were there's. She was so excited once the last of the family had arrived, it was finally time to open presents. The adults had a good time that night snacking and playing Mexican Train dominoes. One of my favorite games. This night in particular because I was winning. ;)I was winning the entire game but ended up losing on the last round to Jared's brother by two points!!! I write this only because I am still a little bitter about it. Fun times!! We are blessed with such great families and I think this is why I love Christmas so much...family time.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

I am a little behind on posts. You know what that means, right? A slew of them all at one time. Sorry.

We had such a wonderful Christmas season this year and with two little ones it was so much fun! Here is our Christmas in Tulsa. As I mentioned before, Claire asked for lots and lots of presents and Quinn asked for cookies and cake. They were very excited to wake up and find all of those things. Reminder from my last post: the girls did have lots and lots of presents but I wrapped everything that could be wrapped so it looked like they received a lot. Claire woke up about 6:30 but Quinn was still sleeping so we let her crawl in bed with us. She woke up again at 7:15 and Quinn was still sleeping. It was torture on Claire to have to stay in our room until Quinn woke up. Ok, maybe it was more torture on me. To be honest Claire didn't even remember about the presents under the tree until we told her. Jared wouldn't let me wake up Quinn so we FINALLY got to go look under the tree once Quinn woke up at 8:00. The look on the girls' faces was priceless. Claire started looking for her name right away and was tossing Quinn's her way. Claire was done opening before Quinn was. They seemed to really like all of their presents. Made me feel good!

Claire has been asking us what time it is for a long time so she got her first watch with her favorite Tinkerbell on it.

Quinn is going to be so mad at me one day when she sees the pictures I post of her but I just LOVE her bed head!!!

Relaxing after all the hard work of opening presents.

It has been a tradition to read the Christmas story every Christmas morning. We had been talking to the girls about it being Jesus' birthday and that is why we celebrate Christmas, we have not mentioned anything about Santa bringing gifts. The girls are not quite at the age where we needed to worry about it. We will see what next year brings.

So, since Quinn asked for cake I made a birthday cake for Jesus. It was so cute because we sang happy Birthday to Jesus and blew out candles. It was fun. After cake we loaded up to drive to Enid to have Christmas with the Liesers. Blog to follow.

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