Let it Snow!

We got about 2.5 or 3 inches of snow on Sunday!  The girls and I went out Sunday late afternoon to play and then again on Monday after Makayla got home from school!  They both just love the snow!  I was kind of dreading going out in the cold, but once I got all bundled up, it really was pretty nice out and I had fun!

Here are the girls in the sled.  I pulled them around a little bit, but they liked the small hill along the side of our house better! 

Here's Makayla going down the small hill on the side of our house! 

Makayla making a snow angel! 

Lydia had to try out a snow angel too! 

Lydia reminds me of the little brother, Randy, from the movie, "A Christmas Story" when he gets all bundled up to walk to school!

Lydia liked pulling the sled up the hill for Makayla!  Good deal for Makayla! 

These are the snowmen we made the night before.  Me, the girls, and the neighbor girls made the one on the left and Makayla rolled the snowballs for the one on the right all by herself.  I just set them on top of each other for her! 

The mini snowman is one that the neighbor girls made!

Ho, Ho, Ho, Time to Visit Santa

Santa stopped by a local restaurant in Freedom today, so we took the girls to visit! It was the shortest I've EVER waited in line to see Santa...all of about 30 seconds! Perhaps the snow storm kept folks from visiting, but it was perfect for our girls! Makayla was not shy at all, but Lydia wouldn't get too close to Santa.  We had to take them to see Santa soon because we are celebrating Christmas with our immediate family (me, Chad, and the girls) next weekend!  I figured it'd be easier to celebrate early here than to try to bring all the gifts to Michigan with us!  So next weekend is our last weekend in town before Christmas and it's sneaking up on me WAY too fast!  All of my shopping is done, but I still have wrapping to do this week!  And I had to confirm that the girls asked Santa for what they've been talking about...otherwise I would be making a last minute trip to the store!

Makayla was not shy at all and she hopped right up on Santa's lap! 

She got a bit nervous and started fidgeting with her sleeve and she forgot what she wanted to ask Santa for, so I had to remind her! She asked for some squinkies, some lip gloss, and a baby doll!

This is the absolute closest Lydia got to Santa and that was only because he gave her a small present...a bendable Santa Claus toy! She would not talk to him!

As we were ready to leave, Lydia all of the sudden was concerned because she didn't tell Santa what she wanted...so we headed back to let her tell him. She still wouldn't go sit near him, but she did speak up and tell him she wanted a baby doll! She must have realized she might not get a present!  She was also with me when I purchased the baby dolls for her and Makayla and she knows there's a pink doll stashed away for her for Christmas!  So perhaps she panicked that she might not get her doll if she didn't speak up!  She also told me a few days ago that she was going to tell Santa she wanted lip gloss...which is how Makayla also decided she wanted lip gloss.  Then a few days later she told Chad that she was going to ask Santa for diapers because she didn't want to potty train!  That gave us a good laugh!

Here's Makayla the 2nd time around...she tried to get Lydia to sit next to her, but no luck! You can see she got a bendable reindeer toy from Santa for her gift!  What a fun visit!  And on the way home, I got 20 questions about Santa...where's his reindeer, where's his sleigh, what do reindeer eat, where is the north pole, where is Santa going after he's done visiting the children in Freedom, etc!

Lydia's Little Secret

So she's a little grumpy about getting her photo taken, but here's Lydia wearing Makayla's ballet slippers from her dance class!  When Makayla is at school, Lydia loves to wear these "dancing shoes" to play in!  She dances around and pretends she's a princess!  She likes to use her pom-poms too!  And we always make sure to put the shoes away before Makayla gets home!   It's a fun little secret that Lydia and I share!

St. Nick Visited our House Today

The girls were super excited for St. Nick to leave some gifts in their shoes! Makayla was awake at 5am wanting to see if St. Nick left something in her shoes! Jeez! Mental note NOT to tell them when Santa is coming! LOL!!  I wouldn't let her out of her bed until I heard Lydia stirring at about 6am (which was probably because Makayla kept yelling from her room to see if she could get up!)

Here's what St. Nick left us!  Even Chad and I got a little treat! Makayla said, "wow, I was expecting that you and Dad would only get 1 treat, but you got 3!"  She was pretty jealous of our candy, which was different than hers!  I was quite resourceful and re-gifted Halloween candy!  Even the M&M guys were re-used from last year!  Wonder how long I'll be able to get away with that!

Makayla checking things out...you can see Lydia running to catch up!

Makayla liked to check out Lydia's stuff as well as her own! She took the stuff out of Lydia's shoe first! Makayla was very excited for Lydia, "Look Lydia, you got a cute penguin shirt!"  (A few seconds later, Makayla realized she got the same shirt...how exciting!)  Good thing Lydia didn't remember helping me buy the shirts at Kohls a few weeks ago!

Lydia said, "I love it" to every gift that she opened!

 Makayla squealed in surprise and delight with every gift that she opened!

Life is good...all gifts are unwrapped and Makayla is eating candy!

Each of them got a cute pair of Christmas PJ's!

Christmas Countdown

We've been trying to do something special each day in December in order to get in the Christmas spirit!  Here are pix of some of the things we've done!  We also had fun putting up the tree and decorating the house together the weekend of Thanksgiving!  The girls LOVE outside Christmas lights, especially visiting a local house that has an amazing light show set to music!  We lit our advent wreath for the first Sunday of Advent.  We've also played and sang Christmas songs together on the piano!  I think I enjoyed this more than the girls did!  LOL!!

Here's a photo of the girls painting some pictures!  Makayla painted a picture for each of her 14 cousins plus some for grandparents and our family too...the next day she wrapped almost all of the gifts...with a little help from me!  This was all her idea...I never would have expected her to be this ambitious!

One day we made gum drop Christmas trees!  This was another hit!  Even Lydia did great with this activity  I have another set of foam trees and gum drops so we can do this one again!

Makayla is very proud of her tree!

Lydia did not want to be in the picture with her tree...she was off to do something else!

We are putting our cookie cutters to good use...we have had star, snowman, gingerbread man, and Christmas tree shaped sandwiches and toast!

Here's our version of an advent calendar!  Makayla removes a link each day until Christmas gets here!

We wrapped gifts for cousins one day.  Makayla was a very good helper!  Lydia had more fun cutting than wrapping, as you can see below!  Both girls LOVE tape and I realized that I will need way more tape than normal this year!!

 

Here's Makayla next to our tree!  You can see the gifts we wrapped for cousins in the front and you can see the red, dark green, and light green gifts on the right side of the tree...those are her 14+ paintings that she made and wrapped a few days prior to this photo being taken!  Makayla enjoys putting the gifts under the tree and surprisingly, both kids have left them alone!

Gift wrapping morphed into using the ribbon as a ski rope!  (I guess I'll need extra ribbon this year too!)

Here's Lydia skiing!

Here's Makayla holding the ski ropes to pull Lydia and a few stuffed animals!

Lydia's baby is getting a turn skiing!

We spent a day focusing on baby Jesus and the manger!  It definitely helped that Makayla had just learned about this at school, so we pulled out our nativity set and Makayla had fun playing with all the figures!

Here was another fun activity!  We each made a gingerbread man for the Christmas tree!  Makayla did awesome with this activity and Lydia did really well too!

Well, that's what we've been up to so far!  I have a few more activities up my sleeve!  We also plan to do our immediate family Christmas early this year, so the girls will get a surprise early visit from Santa!

Visiting Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Evers

Unfortunately, we are missing the Evers extended family Christmas party this year, so we stopped by early to  visit Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Evers!  Grandpa gave the girls a ride on his scooter!  What fun!

It snowed!

We had our first snow on 11/25/12.  It was only about an inch, but the kids were so excited, especially Makayla!  Luckily, we happened to have gone to church the night before, so the kids headed out to play first thing in the morning!

Here are the girls shoveling! 

Makayla shoveling! 

Lydia shoveling! 

Here's Makayla's little snow man!

Splish Splash

November was a busy month!  We also spent a weekend at the Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells!  This is another November Evers Family tradition!

Here we are playing Bingo!  Lydia got a Bingo and won a little prize! 

Here's Makayla making a splash at the end of one of her favorite slides! 

Here's me, Lydia, Addison, and Makayla!

Over the River and Through the Woods....

We took our annual Evers Family Hayride in November!  As always, the kids had a blast!

Here's Makayla, Alexa, Addison, and Erik 

 All the grandkids (except baby Erin) with Nana!

The girls with Aunt Rheann and Uncle Kevin 

The horses that pulled our hay wagon!