WORDS....LAUNDRY....DOGS

At bedtime the other night Greg was spending some time with the children...girls AND boys. He and Emma practiced writing words. He would write a word, erase it, and she would copy it. I thought that she did a pretty great job! :)


(HAND) (FROG)

Sophie had FUN just sitting in her laundry basket. Sometimes it is a car and other times a boat. :)

Jack is 8 years old now.

Mikey is six years old...the boys are middle aged!

Santa & Ponies

There is a great place in Wichita called C-Arrow Stables. They put together a WONDERFUL Christmas program that we took the girls to tonight. They had a live Nativity Scene, a hayride, a donkey, camel, goats, pony rides and SANTA CLAUS! The employees were very, very nice and the girls had a lot of fun. Unfortunately my camera stinks and many of the shots that I took were too dark or blurry to post. Too bad because I had snapped one of the camel biting Sophie's hat (all animals just LOVE her...) and Emma trying to touch Mary in the Nativity Scene. :) Oh well. Below are the salvageable pictures...

Sophie on her first (and last?!) Pony ride. She was yelling at the top of her lungs "Ohhh WHOA! Ohhh WHOAAAA! All done"! ;)
Emma of course LOVED riding the pony. She has ALWAYS loved horses as far back as I can remember. She is completely at ease and happy. Well, that is until the ride is over. ;)

Sophie eyeing Santa; I am not sure that she said a word to him, but she wanted to get in on things.

This would have been a CUTE picture if I had centered it. I was getting frazzled at this point. :0
Emma asking Santa to come to our house...

The girls waiting for their soft pepermint treats.

PS: I wanted to add that the girls had an EXTRA special day today. Before heading off to visit Santa Claus we attended our friend Mandy Rose Wenzel's 4th Birthday party. Mandy Rose is a cutie and my girls just love her...her folks are not too bad either. ;) Happy Birthday Mandy Rose and thank you for inviting us to your party...we had fun!

Merry Christmas from Our family to Yours...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

THE GRINCH!!!!

Emma and Sophie's Lao Lao called all the way from Michigan yesterday afternoon to remind me that "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" was going to be on television that evening. I recorded it, but I also let the girls stay up to watch it in our bedroom. Aside from the fact that they did not like the commercials interrupting the movie, they had a wonderful time watching it. :)

THANK YOU LAO LAO!!!!

Thankful

Our Thanksgiving was quiet this year, it was just the 4 of us celebrating. We missed spending it with our extended family. It was also RELAXING and COMFORTABLE because we spent it in our pajamas! :)

-Our Dinner!-

-The girls EATING....-

-And, eating some more......-

-Sophie was THRILLED to eat leftovers the next day. She sat here for an hour!-

-Greg and Emma took the dogs for a walk to the park.-

-They burned off some calories from the weekend while I stayed at home with a napping Sophie.-

-Yesterday morning I caught Emma "reading" to Sophie, how cute!!-

----- Saturday's Surprise -----

After breakfast this morning I announced to Emma and Sophie that I had a *surprise* in store for them. I guess that was kind of mean because the *surprise* was a visit to the zoo...which is nothing special to them. I just wanted to present our morning plans to them in a more enticing manner hoping to make it all the more fun. When we arrived Emma asked "Where is the 'prize Mom"? Ha-Ha. :)

It was a bit cool (although it reached 60 by the time that we left!!) & we were incredibly lucky that it was not crowded. Emma had an easier time holding herself together. We had a very nice time and even caught the elephant show!