Look What I Can Do!!

This was Mommy and Daddy's Christmas present!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Catching Up with Christmas Day

I have SO been enjoying my days off. We had a really nice Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we went to the candlelight service at church. I can't think of a better way to spend my evening, with my family and friends, worshiping our creator. We then went in search of any restaurant that was open since we had not had dinner. We found a Chinese restaurant open and had a really nice meal together. That is the first time we have gone out on Christmas Eve for dinner, but I must say it was nice not having to clean up any dishes. When we got home, the girls opened their one gift they get every Christmas Eve.......Jammies. They set out the eggnog and cookies and daddy read them "Twas the Night before Christmas".....as he as always does every year.

The girls woke up bright and early Christmas Day! In our house you have to wait for everyone before opening any presents, but you can get your stocking. They didn't waste anytime getting into their stockings and anxiously awaited opening presents. Mattie opened a few and then was pooped. So we decided to just let the older girls take turns opening their presents. Santa left both the girls big boxes that had a note attached to open last. Well.....Santa was a sneaky fellow and had his elves wrap the gift inside a box, wrapped in another box, and in another box, and so on.......Caroline was completely surprised with a new Nintendo DS and Abby a cell phone. I think she was mostly surprised by the fact the it actually had service. Here are a couple pictures of them.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve already......where has the time gone? We have been quite busy cooking and wrapping presents. Yesterday, we baked four more loaves of zucchini bread and made gingerbread cookies. What was I thinking? We were in the kitchen all day. The gingerbread cookies were a lot of work and decorating them was an absolute mess.....BUT we had a great time so it was well worth it. After cleaning up that mess, Caroline and Daddy went around the neighborhood delivering the rest of the bread. Today, we are going to make Daddy special cookies that he can eat.....low sugar kind. The children are getting so excited and can't wait for the big day. I really just want to savor the moments. It seems to come and go too fast.

Oh and I am so excited! Mattie sat up from the belly position this morning!! She is doing so well. She was beaming from ear to ear. She has had a lot of floor time lately........since I've been so busy cooking. I guess it has payed off!

Hoping that everyone has a blessed Christmas!

Baking Bread

Today we had to run a few errands but I think we are finally done. I was dreading having to go to Wal-mart. I just knew it would be awful, but actually aside from finding a parking place, it wasn't too bad. Caroline was such a great helper. She pushed Mattie so I could fill the cart with last minute gifts and groceries. We came home and went right to work on making Zucchini Bread (a family recipe). We then wrapped them and added ribbon. The girls took them to some of our neighbors. Tomorrow we will make round 2 and share them with more neighbors.

Zucchini Bread

3 eggs, 1 cup oil, 2 cups sugar, 2 tsp. vanilla, 2 cups shredded zucchini, 1 (8oz) crushed pineapple (drained), 3 cups flour, 2 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. baking powder, 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 3/4 tsp. nutmeg, 1 cup raisins, and 1 c. nuts.

Beat eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Add in other ingredients. Pour into 2 loaf pans (greased). Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees or until knife inserted comes out clean.

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Oh and speaking of ribbons and bows. Yesterday before church I went upstairs to finish getting ready. I put Mattie on her blanket in the middle of the living room floor. When I came downstairs, she was surrounded in bows. She had scooted all the way over to the fireplace and found the bow bag. She shook the bag till every last bow was out of the bag. It was too funny!

How will you spend your days?

I can't believe Christmas is less than a week away! Where did the time go? We finally wrapped a couple of presents and put them under the tree. Mattie spied them immediately and inched herself right over to pick hers out.

Last weekend, we took the girls....Mattie included to see Polar Express at the Imax. Oh my!!! It was wonderful. The whole movie is in 3D. It was the BEST 3D movie I have ever seen. If you get a chance, it is worth the money. You really feel like you are apart of the movie.

My goal is to relax and enjoy the rest of the week with the family....baking cookies, wrapping presents, watching Christmas specials, singing Christmas songs......

How will you spend your last few days before Christmas?

Special Exposure Wednesday

Christmas Photos

It feels so good to get some Christmas decorations out and pictures taken. Getting the girls to cooperate together......well let's say......is there a time they will never argue??? We finally settled for indivdual shots.

The girls pretty much decorated the tree themselves.... they enjoy each ornament and its meaning. I don't think they have much spatial visualization yet. You know...one ornament on top of the other and it seems all the balls have ended up in the middle of the tree. Aaaahhh.....Christmas memories. One day when the kids have grown and moved away....I will wish for my tree to look like that again.

I think we found Mattie's motivation for crawling because she is determined to take all the lights off the tree. She doesn't crawl yet, but she sure can find a way to scoot over to the tree just when you take your eyes off her! She is such a turkey!