Pre Christmas Festivities

Bella loves to sit up on the counter while I'm working on something in the kitchen. We were making some gingerbread cookie dough this day.

Making cookies...flour everywhere!
Sampling cookies- the best part!
Sugar induced super smile from Bella as she decorates the gingerbread house.

We hurried to get to church early every Sunday in December to see the lighting of the Advent wreath. This Sunday was also the day that Bella got to go see The Nutcracker with Daddy and Grandma. she loved it and was dancing right along with the Nutcracker dancers!
Getting our Christmas tree...


Decorating the Christmas tree... Lucy quickly grew tired of decorating the tree, and just wanted to sing along to "My Two Front Teeth" song. We have heard A LOT of that song this year.

Bella has gotten to put the star on top the last couple of years, but soon Lucy will realize she needs a turn too. Hmmm, maybe we'll have 2 stars on top?

Dancing with Daddy. Oh what fun!

Santa Guy

Lucy was definitely not a fan of Santa this year. As you can see, she wouldn't even look at him. She clung to me as tight as possible and would only look towards the door that would lead her away from Santa! Bella just needed me to hold her hand.
Before we even saw Santa, Bella wanted to have her picture taken with some of the big wooden nutcrakers. As Bella headed over to one of them, I asked Lucy if she wanted to go stand by the "guy" too. Well, no, she didn't because they scared her too. The funny thing is that "guy" stuck, and now all nutcrakers and Santas are "guys." If you point out a Santa and ask her who it is, she says "GUY!" with the same enthusiasm as most children would say "SANTA!"
We took some other fun pictures that day, trying to get the perfect one for the Christmas card. It is nearly impossible to get them both looking the same way and smiling at the same time. I didn't even end up using any of these, but there are some cute ones!



Daddy was being so funny


Raise your hand if you like lollipops!

Thanksgiving

Bella's favorite Thanksgiving food? Probably cool whip! :)
We spent Thanksgiving in town with Brian's parents and his sisters' families. In the morning at home, we watched the Thanksgiving Day parade on tv. The girls had fun seeing all of the big floats, and especially enjoyed trying to dance like the Rockettes! After a yummy lunch at Aunt Lisa's house, the girls had fun playing with their cousins. Bella mostly just tries to keep up with 5 year old Jake. She wants to do whatever he is doing, eat what he is eating, and go where he is going. Lucy always enjoys all of the attention from the older cousins who are always willing to play with her.

Our little Rockettes:
(Bella insisted on wearing one of my shirts to bed the night before)


Can you tell that Lucy likes to do everything Bella does?

Fun with cousins!

Bella's Dance & Lucy's 1/2 Birthday

A couple of weeks ago Bella got to perform with her dance class on the Riverwalk stage. She loves that stage and performs by herself everytime we go there! Her class danced to "All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth," and I think she did as much singing along to it as she did dancing. Lucy now loves that song too, and the other day said to Brian, "more...teeth...please" (really more like "mo tees peas"). :)
Bella's friend Raigen got TONS of flowers from all of her family members that came, and (oops!) we didn't bring any for Bella. Raigon's mom came to the rescue, though, and gave Bella one of Raigen's bouquets!

Although we had to wait through 14 other performances and it was freezing, Lucy did so well- here she is all bundled up and sitting with Grandma.

That night after dinner with Grandma and Grandpa, we got a special dessert to celebrate Lucy's 1 1/2 birthday. She loved it, and we all loved sharing with her!

Bella loves to play the "raise your hand if you like..." game. This night, we said "raise your hand if you like chocolate?!"

I think Lucy may even love chocolate just as much as her mom and big sister!

Halloween (finally!)

We tried to get Bella to pose with Lucy and the pumpkin in the above picture, but she was done with the pumpkin by then. She did like the carving and goofing around with goo with Daddy though.
The girls were both fairies this year. Bella wants everything to be purple these days, so she was the purple (and pink) fairy and Lucy was the pink (and green) fairy. They had so much fun getting dressed up and trick or treating to a few neighbors. Momo and Papa came over to see them too.

I think this is my favorite picture of the girls together ever! Papa was standing behind me making the girls laugh and I just love how Bella is looking at Lucy wanting to see her reaction! It would be our Christmas card picture if I could photoshop out the pumpkins! :)
They laughed and laughed!
With funny Papa and Momo:
Trick-or-treating at Judy's house (longtime family friend and now next- door neighbor!)
Then we headed out to Brian's Uncle Steve and Aunt Mary's house for dinner, games, and more trick or treating. Lucy fell asleep on the way there.
Bella went on to the games. Here, she is hitting at a Pinata, and making what my parents referred to as the "pinching face." It's the face my brother and I would make in the middle of our pinching fights in the back seat of the car.
Lucy finally woke up!
And was ready for more trick-or-treating!
But first, a picture of all the fairies (cousin Bailey was Tinkerbell)

Okay, here we go!
Tinkerbell helped little pink and green fairy:

Bella with OSU football star, Jake:

Daddy helped the little fairy too!
Lucy taking a peek!
Aunt Mary showed helped her get started with the goodies:
Cousins Abby and Noah (aka Pistol Pete) were SO helpful with Lucy. They wanted to help her with all of the games and crafts.