January Tidbits

There is pretty much one word that sum up January: COLD! Our month has been bitterly cold, forcing us to stay inside a bunch and also forcing the girls to miss some school days. It has been cold and sunny, cold and rainy and just recently cold and snowy but all together cold. We are ready for spring and warmer temps, that is for sure! I know much of the Northeast have been much colder and snowier so can't complain too much but come, we live in North Carolina! Ok, it is supposed to be in the 60's this weekend, I will take that.

Now, onto what we have done this month:

On, January 2nd, Mike's parents and parents stopped by for the night on the way down to Florida. It was also his Mom's birthday so we baked her a cake and my little sous chef loved decorating the cake for Grandma.

 Mike's grandparents really wanted a picture with the girls but I don't know, for some reason, I don't think Maddie was too pleased here!

 Oh, the pose! Not sure when over the holidays this started but our little comedian, Maddie Grace loves to make people laugh and she did this one time and got the biggest and best reaction from everyone so now it's her "thing." We will say hands on your hips or do you pose and she does this and every time, everyone laughs and tells her how adorable she is and she eats it up and does it some more. She is definitely a little ham and will do anything for a reaction. On this night, they would run around the house and then freeze in the doorway and pose for about 10 seconds and then run some more. Never a dull moment in our house!

 Cold temps means lots of playing inside and just recently, these two have really started playing together. They will play in the kitchen together or read books and it's so much fun watching them play together all on their own!

 In January, she started dance class, ballet and tap. She has done dance camps and asked for awhile to do dance but Mike and I grew up playing sports, I don't know anything about dance. After resisting it for a long time, I finally caved and signed her up and she absolutely LOVES it. The outfit, the bun in her hair, the entire thing she eats it up and can't wait for Friday mornings.

 When the sun does come out, so do we. It is cold but we bundle up and head outside for fresh air. On this day, these two were leading our walk, very scary!

 We love our Carolina Panthers and they did awesome this season and made the playoffs but unfortunately came up a little short. She may be in dance class but her Daddy is still dressing her in her jersey on gameday!

 Monday mornings usually look like this, drop off Ella off at school, head to the gym to work out and then run errands at Target. Someone doesn't like to ride in cart the normal way anymore, she has to ride in the big part, surrounded by groceries.

 On the bike! She has been hesitant with the bike for a little while but lately she has a lot more confidence in riding and asks to ride a lot. Now if we just go without the training wheels...

 My birthday this year fell on a Thursday. It was pretty low key, both girls were in preschool in the morning so I worked out and then met Mike for an early lunch. After picking up the kids from school, we put MG down for a nap and Ella and I snuggled and read books together in her room. I love when I have some special one on one time with my big girl!

 Oh, the pose again...

 Uncle Court got E this beautiful coat for Christmas and she wore it to church. It is still a little big and she has to grow into it but she calls it her princess coat and I have to agree, she does look pretty special in it.

 Last Saturday, Ella and I had a special Mommy/Daughter day where we did some shopping, had lunch and then went to a gymnastics birthday party. I was wearing my sunglasses so she insisted she wears her also.

 I mean, when did she get so big?? Can't believe she will be 4 1/2 soon.

 You all know how much I love and adore the girls preschool, it has been the best! One thing they do is every other week they attend chapel once they are three and bring in a food item each time for the offering. Well, her class was in charge of a mini field trip to deliver the items to the local food pantry and I got to go along and drive some of her friends. It was such a great experience and so important to teach them young to give back to others. I just love her sweet little class.

 Packing up the food...

 And finally, the snow...

The forecasters had been calling for it, the grocery stores were sold out of everything and the kids could NOT wait for the snow to come. It started Tuesday afternoon and fell (very slowly) that night. We maybe got between 1-2 inches but of course the city shut down. On Wednesday, school was closed and Mike worked from home so we played in snow all day.

 Sledding fun...

 After all the work, it is more to refuel with hot cocoa and smores!

 Her first smore and she loved it, mainly the graham cracker!

Thanks DeeDee and Papa for the awesome sweaters, they kept us very warm!

 This morning we woke up to all the snow gone but school still cancelled (that's right, no snow but southerners freak out!) so we had to get out of the house so we went to Monkey Joe's to run around and play. We met some old neighbors there and then went and had lunch, just had to get out.

So, January is coming to a close and February is already starting to look better with warmer weather. 

Plus, a certain little one is turning two this month...more to come on that later!

Christmas and NYE Finale

Whew! It is January 3rd and we have made it through the holiday season. We had such a fun and busy holiday that I am really looking forward to a little down time and back to our normal schedule (aka - the kids going back to preschool next week.) 

Christmas Eve is probably one of my most favorite days of the year. I just love the anticipation and Christmas Day can sometimes bring that let down feeling where Christmas Eve to me is magical. We spent the day at home making cookies for Santa. I had an expert cookie maker helper to assist me in the process.

Her motto: You can never have enough frosting or sprinkles.

Just take a wild guess at which ones she decorated...

Before we headed off to church in the afternoon, the girls spent much of the morning playing in their pjs. They were pretending that the tray was Santa's sleigh and they were getting ready to fly and deliver presents.

We went to church at 4:30 for the children's service at our church. Although we knew it would be crazy with Maddie and she is not an ideal age for church, it was important for us to still go to church as a family on Christmas Eve. Luckily almost everyone there had very small children so Maddie blended in nicely with the other wandering ones. And Ella loved the children's choir and especially lighting the candle at the end of the service. We came home from church and attempted some pictures in their cute Christmas dresses.

We probably took 40 pictures of these two monkeys. They were laughing and cracking each other up the entire time. I love that they are actually playing and interacting with each other these days, it truly melts my heart.

Our neighborhood puts out luminaries on Christmas Eve and they looked so pretty lining the entire neighborhood. While we waited for our dinner to cook, our next door neighbor did some fireworks. Ella loved them and MG was terrified.

After dinner, we let the girls open the box of presents my aunt sent. Sometimes they can get very overwhelmed Christmas morning so we spaced out the presents a little bit this year and it worked out so much better. Maddie loved her doll and Ella loved her tent.

Of course right before bed we had to write Santa a note and leave him the milk and cookies and carrots for reindeer. Then Mommy and Daddy enjoyed the fire after the kids went to sleep. 

Christmas morning was such a blast! Ella actually stayed in her room until her clock turned green at 7:45 (we may have told her that Santa only comes if you stay in your bed!) She asked first to check outside if the reindeer came and ate the carrots and then ran to check the presents! She can read everyone's name so she "sorted" all the gifts into piles. Such the little organizer!

Getting ready to open, love the look on her face. Pure Joy!

Christmas hugs for our furry baby also

This picture pretty much summed up the morning, Ella opening fast and furious and MG just loved carrying around the gifts and holding them!

A new princess watch

After opening the Santa gifts and playing with them for a little bit, we hit the road for Seabrook. It was nice spending the morning with just our little family but we were ready to head for the beach and see DeeDee, Papa and Uncle Court.

Showing Papa her most prized present from Santa, her American Girl doll. 

More clothes for her doll, Marie Grace. It was all things American Girl doll this Christmas.

After watching all day, she finally got into the hang of opening presents.

Good thing Uncle Court remembered Dakota. She opened this bone all by herself.

Ella opening up her annual bear from papa, so glad my girls are continuing this tradition my Dad started with me.

Uncle Court spoils her nieces rotten. In addition to several other presents, including a salon chair for E's american girl doll and a giant princess tent, he got both girls Patagonia jackets. Ella's is beautiful, I don't even think I have a coat this nice.

And Maddie and I both got Patagonia vests from him. Don't you wish you had an Uncle Court?!?!

After all the presents were opened, we relaxed out on the deck, taking in the views and sunsets.

Opening presents sure is tiring

The next couple of days spent at the beach were pretty low key. The guys golfed a bunch, Mom and I shopped and the girls loved spending time with family. I love when I am able to capture these sweet moments between them.

Ella and Papa

MG with Uncle Court

Checking out another sunset

Although the weather was not ideal, we did manage to spend some time on the beach and run around

Saying goodbye on Sunday was hard but we had such a fun visit to Seabrook, as always.

There was not much time to relax as we came back to Charlotte Sunday evening, did some laundry, unpacked and packed again because we left Monday morning for Blowing Rock. Some friends of ours from preschool invited us there for NYE. We had never been before and the town was so adorable and the views were amazing.

The mountains were chilly so it was the perfect opportunity to try out the new sweaters that DeeDee and Papa got on their Scandinavian cruise.

Ella has been talking about seeing snow for awhile now so the Dads took the girls to the close by ski slope so they could play in the snow for a little bit.

The girls favorite part was getting hot cocoa and warming up after the ski slope.

These two buddies celebrated NYE with their favorite cocktail, hot chocolate! Cheers to 2013!

That night, the adults got to go out and have a kid free night to ring in the new year.

Me, Perrin, Lynn

We should have known it was going to be a wild night for the guys when they did this even before we had dinner!

Happy New Year!

So, yes it was a fantastic Christmas and New Years and now we are back home and trying to take down all the decorations until next year. Mike's parents and grandparents actually came yesterday on their way down to Florida for another belated Christmas but that will have to wait until another post.