Last Day

I can't believe that this is the last day of 2010!

The year went by way too fast. I hope that everyone stays safe tonight while bringing in the new year. We have Andy's family in town so we are planning on hanging out here - eating lots of good food, celebrating Andy's brother's birthday, and playing games while waiting on the ball to drop. The girls can't wait to stay up until midnight! :) Maybe they will actually sleep in tomorrow...that would be a great way for me to start the year!

A lot of firsts have happened this year and it will be exciting to see what next year brings! Have a Happy New Year!!

Random Christmas Events

We have been involved in several Christmas activities during the past couple of weeks.

1) Emily and Eliana went rollerskating for a friend's birthday party. It was the first time they had ever been on skates. I also skated and it was a lot of fun! Emily had a hard time with it and kept falling down, but Eliana was really getting the hang of it by the time the party was over. They have these walkers made from PVC pipe and wheels to help kids skate. We just had to fall down and try again when we were kids!



2) Eliana and I participated in the local parade with the Girl Scouts.



3) Emily, Eliana, and I went caroling at a local nursing home with the Girl Scouts.

4) Emily had a Christmas concert at Barnes and Noble a couple of weeks ago. They sang a variety of Christmas songs.



5) Eliana went to a tea party for a friend's birthday. They dressed up, made Christmas ornaments, played games, and had tea. Snow White even showed up to play!



6) All of the girls have been counting down the days until Christmas. They are excited about the Christmas Eve service at church because they will get to light candles to hold during the last song.

It has been an exciting month and we are looking forward to what the new year will bring.

Happy 6th Birthday!

Today, Eliana is turning 6 years old! She is growing up so fast! She has a sparkling smile and an infectious laugh. She loves to give us hugs and kisses. She plays with Sarah every afternoon after school. She has a dramatic flair and knows what she wants. She loves reading and gymnastics. She has a beautiful singing voice. She is a wonderful person and we are thankful that she is in our family!

She has been telling us that this is the best day ever! She had a Christmas brunch this morning at school. We went to McDonalds for lunch. Tonight, we are celebrating tonight with chili fries, strawberry cake with strawberry icing, and strawberry ice cream. :)

Here's a picture of her from this afternoon wearing her new dress:

Gymnastics Routine

Eliana was practicing her gymnastics routine for the balance beam so I decided to film it:

Christmas Tree Finished

As previously mentioned, we shopped for a Christmas tree on Saturday. We told the girls that we were doing option #3 and they begged for us to do option #1. We told them that we did not want to hear any whining or complaining about the rain, mud or cold. They promised so they grabbed umbrellas and we started off. It wasn't raining when we got there, but we had to sit on wet hay:



As soon as the hay ride stopped in the field, I saw a couple of trees that looked good to me. Andy wanted to keep looking for a slightly taller one. We walked on back in the field and it started pouring rain. At that point, we decided that the first two that we had seen would work great and we went back to pick one:



It actually wasn't really cold out there so that was nice because I didn't really worry about us all getting sick. We got home and left the tree in the garage to dry out a little bit. After baths and showers, we ate some soup and hot chocolate before starting the decorating. Here is the finished product:



We still have to do some more decorating around the house and outside, but it is a start.

No Christmas Decorations...Yet.

It is now two weeks until Christmas and our house still has Thanksgiving decorations up! We were supposed to go pick out a tree today at the Merry Christmas Tree Farm and then spend the day decorating the house and tree. Well, we woke up this morning to pouring rain...and it's supposed to rain all day. Now we are trying to decide our options:

1) We should just go when there is a small break in the weather, walk around in the muddy field, and bring home a Christmas tree that is wet.
2) Wait until another day to get a tree with the selection getting more sparse and Christmas Day getting closer. The next day we would be able to go would be a week from today.
3) Go to Home Depot or Lowes today and pick out one of their precut trees.

We are leaning toward option 3, although I hate missing out on the experience of cutting down a tree. I do think the girls would be less likely to complain though. It wouldn't be enjoyable trying to pick out a tree while listening to complaints of being wet, cold, and muddy. Now that I think about it, option 3 is looking better all the time! I guess I need to get everyone ready to head out for some tree hunting at the store. I'll post pics of our finished tree later.

Wordless Wednesday: Being Silly