Winter Fun aka Mommy is going to lose her mind if the sun doesn't come back soon.

Neiv got some play makeup for her birthday. Makes the girls
really happy and Mommy really paranoid.

No, that is not snot pouring out of Abra's nose, it is
beautiful lip gloss action.

On snowy days, Abra is allowed to dress herself. See why
getting dressed is a daily battle in this house?

The elder telling the younger how to paint, why to paint,
and what to paint. It is fun to be the boss.

This is a very cute reading ritual that has resulted in the destruction
of one very useful book basket. Oh well, I am trying to come to
terms with the fact that things wear out quickly with 3 little kiddos.

This is the latest favorite -Neiv as passenger. A few months ago, I
would not have let them do this but alas, they have worn me down.

Abra asked the other day when we were going to go swimming again.
Amen to that sista.

Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. The girls are finally at that age where they feel the excitement and are so fun to watch. The only problem is that I asked Abra a few weeks beforehand why we celebrate Christmas and after thinking about it for a minute said, "to get Christmas presents?" Oh well, there's always next year to straighten them out. With all of the Christmas story books they got this year along with Mom's commitment to drilling them about it on a regular basis, there should be no confusion come next December.

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with just our little family (which includes Uncle Greg these days) and headed toward grandparents awhile after it started snowing Christmas afternoon. It was the first time I ever remember seeing snow on Christmas (despite 3 yrs in Illinois). Fun times!

emerging

He slept through the fun part but it's going to be crazy next year...

There was a gorgeous sunrise.
Here is my $2.50 thrift store find.

It's been a huge hit.

hambone

Ready to open presents.

I mixed two family traditions - the Johnson strawberry
bread and the Mullenix sausage egg quiche.
(the technical, very southern, term is "sausage pie" which
kind of grosses me out - tastes great of course)

Already playing dress up...


This morning Abra says, "Mommy, I'm ready for Christmas again."
I think this year was the first year that I was ready to be done with the festivities
by New Years. As much fun as it is, it is quite a bit of work for Mom. I now see why my mom
was so ready to take the decorations down a few days after the fact. :-)

Handprint snowman ornaments

My friend Mary brought the goods over to make these when we hung out right before Christmas. It is an easy, quick, and fun craft which is the only kind this Momma of 3 little ones can handle these days. All you need is blue ball ornaments , white craft paint, and a good set of paint pens. You could really doll them up with ribbon, sequins, buttons or whatnot of course but then who has that kind of time and energy? We did the bare bones version and they came out great. Maybe I'll upgrade to sequins next year if I'm getting more sleep or Alan finally gets me that nanny I've been asking for.

All you do is paint the kiddo's hands and get them to grip the ball by putting it in the palm of their hand and wrapping their fingers around it. Even Oliver could do it which was challenging but worked out just fine. Gotta love those pudgy little fingers.

I went in search of blue ornament balls for next year when we hit the mall's 75% Christmas clearance this week and found every color EXCEPT blue. I'm going to keep my eye out so I can do the ornaments early next year.