Christmas Post #2

I didn't quite have it in me to get all of the pictures onto that last post. So, behold, a ton more pictures -- some with captions for your reading pleasure:

One of the few Christmas light adventures we did. I'd love to make this more of a priority next year.

"Aunt Kako" and soon-to-be "Uncle Josh" got the girls a princess tent. They were a tad excited; especially when Mama said that they could have a picnic in it.

We got about an inch and a half of snow about a week before Christmas. It may have started raining by 11:00, but we squeezed in a snowman, snowball fight,  and snow angels before then. We Seattlelites know how to capitalize on sun and snow in a short time frame.

We spent Christmas Eve at Aunt Stacey's place. Grandma Bonnie gave the girls these light-up Rudolph noses. Guess who ate that up? The girls had a good time, and got some fun gifts. Grandma made some special homemade things that I know the girls will treasure.

Sweet Jacoby. We got to spend the evening with him before he headed off for time with his mama. He's such a sweetheart, and girls love that they have a cousin. :)

This cracks me up. Both of the girls loved playing Santa this year. Austen takes any job very seriously, and was doing some heavy lifting here.

Beautiful girl :)

Santa's cookies (and carrots for the reindeer. Kaitlyn counted very carefully, and wanted to be sure NOT to leave Rudolph out)

Santa filled the stockings (well, the ones that matter)

This scene makes it into my top three favorite things about Christmas right now. I have a hard time going to sleep on Christmas Eve, because I know that this will disappear in the morning. The glow of the tree, the perfectly-placed gifts...magic.

Christmas morning was a blast, and a blur. :) The girls were SO excited. Kaitlyn came into our room a little before 6, and we managed to hold her off for about 40 minutes to give Austen more sleep. She was so patient, then just couldn't wait any longer...and frankly, neither could I!

K asked Santa for a Rudolph doll, and Austen asked for a crib and a new doll with jammies. He delivered. They also got a lot of art supplies, "real" snow gloves, puzzles, and other little goodies. They were happy!

We headed to my parents' for Christmas afternoon/early dinner.

Daddy and KK playing "Shut the Box"

(Don't know how this one made it down here...)

Please excuse my father's behind, but I like this of K

Aust got a dolly Ergo - love it!

Hands-free present opening ;)

Tuckered out with her Rudolph doll...

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I'm outta control. "Some" phone pics to end this overload:

Head banging to "Twinkle Twinkle"

One of my many favorites of being a mom -- witnessing the progression/development of drawings. I have LOVED watching K's people evolve.

This is old. It's the lyrics to The Cowboy Song from the girls' last preschool graduation. It was time to take it down from the fridge, and I didn't want to keep the physical paper :)

I caught Aust making faces at her reflection in the toilet paper holder. This kid...

Austen modeling my third crochet hat. This one turned out better, and it's getting faster. I like making hats!

We went to the McManus' for a solstice party, and Caroline was giving Jeff helpful hints for making Lefse.

Megs reading with the girls. Love these relationships being passed down...

My parents inherited this awesome doll house from my Great Aunt Kathy and Uncle Hal. I have treasured memories of standing on a step stool to peer into the different rooms. We weren't allowed to touch this one, but just looking was enough to set imaginations wild....

Uncle Rob was in town! The girls could not love him more.

A well-used gift from Grandma and Grandpa.

Christmas Magic, Round Two

This was Kaitlyn's fifth Christmas, but it's really only the second one where she was really into it. The second one where we were in charge of creating and maintaining the magic. Last year was amazing (yes, I know that this word is "out" for 2013, but my internal thesaurus seems to be missing this evening); this year was even better!

Both of the girls enjoyed the Christmas season, activities, and anticipation, but Kaitlyn was truly our little Christmas Girl this year. For some reason, her asking for over a month when Santa would be here was much more enjoyable than irritating. ;) I think, even after four years, that it still hasn't sunk in that I am a mama. I have my own kids, and I am creating and managing their childhoods.

Although Kaitlyn was more into the crafts, Santa, and Mr. Elf, Austen didn't disappoint with her Christmas caroling starting in November. In fact, she was caught by several smiling customers today (January) at Michaels singing Holly Jolly Christmas...her favorite. Santa Claus is Coming to Town is a close second.

Here's a video (whether it will work is currently questionable -- fingers crossed):

We have a fake tree. There...I put it in writing. Add this to the list of  "I'll nevers" that turned into "Well, okays" when we had kids. We had one year where our live tree started dying days after we got it, and I was fed up enough with the constant needles (and Riley drinking the water...wait, maybe that's why it died? Ding ding!) to run and and buy a fake. I have nothing against other people having fake trees (why would I care?), but this year I really noticed the absence of a tree outing and especially the tree smell. I missed it. And let's be honest, even the best fake trees (which ours is not), look fake. How many times can one use the word fake in one paragraph?

Anyway...Jeff, I know you are reading this, and we'll talk later. Love you!

Well, that was an unplanned tangent. Here are a zillion, really similar pictures (oh, and even though it's fake...the girls are in love with decorating it -- saved by childhood innocence):

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Next up: The second part of this post because I'm spent.

Fall Photo Shoot

Lately, I have been trying to reduce the amount of pictures I take of the girls. Yep, reduce. I had gotten into the habit of taking our "big" camera everywhere we went, because I didn't want to miss a single moment.

As I'm sure it's not hard to guess, I realized that I was, in fact, missing the real moments because I was always behind the camera. Yes, those pictures will be treasures to look back on, but not if I don't remember actually being in the moment. I'd rather have the memories, and I know my girls would, too.

I'm trying to achieve a balance. I still take too many pictures with my phone...I'm working on that in more ways than one. And, I still have that "I gotta get this on camera!" twitch more often than not. For now, I'm not taking the big camera as much, and weaning myself from the habit by relying on phone pictures for a lot of outings. ;)

That being said, the girls and I went for a walk back in November, before the fall leaves disappeared, and I allowed myself to bring the camera and call it a "photo shoot." In my world, that doesn't mean that professional pics are being taken; it simply means that I'm allowed to spend a big chunk of time behind the lens. Oh, and that I'm allowed to bribe my kids. As often as needed. Shamelessly.

We had fun, and I got some pictures that I'll treasure (I made their hats. Kaitlyn's was my first-ever crochet hat attempt. It's a little big, a little lopsided...but K loves it):

 

Imaginations...

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I've obviously got some catching up to do. My intent was to post all pictures and some words from 2012 before the 1st in order to get them into the newest blog book, but life just didn't want to let me do that. Oh, well! I'm hoping to get it all done this week, then officially move into 2013.