Christmas 2009

(what? it's almost March? oops!)
Christmas Eve was a little bit different around here due to all of the snow. I really missed our normal traditions, but we still managed to gather some unique and fun memories!

Bella's choir got to sing in front of the church for the first time. I'm so glad we got to do that just before the snow started getting bad! Choir robes instantly turn children into little angels, don't they?
We came home, and realized we didn't have much in the way of dinner. We hadn't planned on eating at home, and about all we had was some frozen ground beef. Brian came up with the idea to cook out hamburgers in the snow! The girls watched him for a while...
But they couldn't just watch for long...they played, still in their church dresses (+ coats and boots, at least)...why not, right?

'Twas the Night Before Christmas...
side note: Bella always has to accessorize her hair before bedtime. She comes up with some interesting combinations.
Santa visited...
...and made a couple of little girls very happy (but especially this one, who was VERY specific about wanting an American Girl doll!).
Opening those crazy Zhu Zhu hamsters. For some reason, the hamsters say "moo," so Lucy calls them "moosters."

We braved the snow (well, Brian did, I'm not ever brave about snow), and drove to Momo and Papa's house. Bella was so happy to receive another one of her must-haves...a ballerina jewelry box.

Grandma B was there too!
We had a wonderful lunch, and then, with all of the dessert choices in the world (cookies, pies, candies), the girls requested popsicles. Popsicles and Momo and Papa's house just go together, apparently. Never mind that there were much better options, and that it was freezing outside.
After a rest a home, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner. The gift opening took place at lightening speed, so I missed getting pictures. Bella and Lucy got a guitar and keyboard and putting on shows all of the time now.
All of the cousins...
Finally, we had our postponed Christmas Eve celebration with Brian's extended family a couple of days late. Lucy and cousin Jadyn were so cute playing with all of the boy toys in Jake's room.
One more picture of all the pretty (immediate) girl cousins...

Before Christmas...

Going back to November...Bella had her annual Christmas dance performance.
Her class tap danced to Rocking Around the Christmas Tree. When the saxophone plays in the song they pretended to play it too, and I think that was Bella's favorite part! We had lots of fake saxophone playing going on at our house.
These pictures were from when we decorated our tree. Our tree ornaments are a mixture of all kinds of different things. It's nothing formal at all, which works very well with a 5 and 3 year old's decorating philosophies!



Here the girls were after visiting Santa. Lucy still wouldn't talk or look at him, but at least she sat on his lap. He hands out some very yummy cookies, so maybe she realized it's worth it just for that.


They were really interested in seeing all of the Nutcracker story displays.

We got together with my brother's family to exchange gifts. The kids were a little giddy here as you can probably tell!


Finally, a couple of days before Christmas, we decorated cookies.

Coming soon...Christmas Eve and Day

Guess What? Time for Lucyisms!

"Hey Mommy, guess what?"....I took off my shoes, Bella took off her shoes, Santa is coming to our house, My dolly is taking a nap...

Pretty much, Lucy starts most of her sentences with "GUESS WHAT?"
Apparently I say that a lot, but I didn't realize that until she started saying it all of the time!
Here are some other ones:

After hearing Bella tell us new Spanish words that she is learning at preschool, Lucy decided to chime in too. She had just watched the Ni Hao Kai-Lan show (kind of like a Chinese version of Dora) and she said:
"I know how to say baby in Chinese...you say CHINESE BABY!"
LUCY'S LOGIC:
"I want a cookie because... I really want a cookie"

"I don't want to take a nap because... I just don't want to."

"I want to watch a movie because... you are NOT going to say NO."
(my favorite, but not always in the moment)

LUCY ON ANATOMY:
"My tummies hurt." (there are 2 arms, 2 hands, 2 legs, 2 feet, and apparently, 2 tummies!)

"My nose is naughty." or "There is naughty in my nose." (naughty instead of snotty)

Me: "Lucy, what happened to your candy cane?"
Lucy: "It's in there (pointing to her mouth), with my tinkles."
(Eww, I know, but she doesn't realize there is a digestive process yet!)

This little 2 1/2 year old, who often likes to say she is 5 (like Bella), is so much fun. I love to see and hear how her mind is working. She has her 2 YEAR OLD moments, but she also has lots of very sweet moments too.
***And for the record, I don't usually allow the girls to eat cupcakes on their beds! Honestly, it was all about bribery and trying to good Christmas card picture!***

Halloween and Thanksgiving

For Halloween, Bella was a butterfly and Lucy was a ladybug...a very grouchy ladybug, I must add. Lucy ran a fever most of the week between Bella's birthday and Halloween. I was so glad her fever was gone by Halloween, but apparently she still wasn't up for trick-or-treating. We made it to our next door neighbor's house (above), and then it went downhill from there!
She wanted me to hold her from that moment on. It was a bit of a challenge to carry her the whole way and try to get some pictures of Bella at the same time. Brian was at the OSU-Texas game on Halloween night, and oh how I wished he hadn't gone (he did too!).
We trick-or-treated with Brian's side of the family.
Lucy did let Aunt Lisa hold her for about 2 minutes!
I think it's safe to say that Bella DID have a great time though!
With cousins AJ and Jake:
On Thanksgiving, we went to my mom's cousin's house to be with several members of that side of our family. Michael, Stephanie, Sarah (my mom's cousin's college aged kids) and Michael's fiance Leah sat at the table with the little kids and just let them be the center of attention. The little kids loved that!

Lucy made a meal of pickles and mashed potatoes!
We ate, played a game of football, and then ate some more. Bella and Jack even got guitar lessons!
This is my sweet and sometimes spunky 90-year-old Grannie. I reminded Bella that Grannie made the Raggedy Ann and Andy (originally for me) that she now plays with all of the time.

Continuing with the Fancy

I'll just pick up where I left off...this (above) is how Bella went to bed the night of her birthday party. She put on as many of her new birthday gifts as she could to wear to bed.
Below is the next night. Notice a pattern? She likes those accessories!
We had planned to go to the zoo as family (per tradition) on her actual birthday, but Lucy wasn't feeling well enough. We weren't about to leave her behind, so we did what we could to make the day fun anyway.
We started at the doughnut shop- yum! Then we walked over to a nail salon that has special pedicure chairs for little girls. We left with 20 purple toes! Bella's big toes even had a special Halloween design on them.

Poor Luc! She did liven up quite a bit after a while and decided to get her toes done too!
The FIVE year old's toes:

And sweet little 2 year old toes:

While Lucy was having a much needed long afternoon nap, Bella and I baked her cake. Then she got to decorate it. She did not take the role of decorating lightly! I think Fancy Nancy would be proud.

After Bella's soccer practice that evening, she chose to eat at "Tin Stars," her favorite restaurant. Finally, Bella got to open her gifts. Brian thought to get a little something for Lucy too. Good idea, Daddy!
Bella's main gift from our family was (so shocking, I know) a Fancy Nancy doll. I think she liked it! :)

Happy Birthday to our wonderful, sweet, beautiful, fancy 5 year old!