A toddler Christmas

We had so much fun with Christmas this year, because our twins are finally able to "get" the concept of Santa. We loved telling the stories about Santa and the reindeer, and how they would get presents in the morning, etc. They were very into it, and even loved reciting all of the names of the reindeer. We left cookies out for Santa to eat overnight, and of course, had the fun of showing that only crumbs were left in the morning!

The fun is about to begin here...

Hailey gets new princess shoes with shiny silver stars on them...

Oh, and another pair of princess shoes.... these are bright silver

Drew gets his first set of golf clubs!

Daddy gets a fun new game we just learned about from our friends, the Durrs. (Very fun, if you like word games!)

Hails gets yet another kitty cat stuffed animal! This one is from our dear neighbor, Nana Sue.

Greta isn't quite sure what to make of it all, but she is having fun with all of the sparkling bows and ribbons...

A new princess dress! Complete with "angel wings," as Hailey calls them...

Isn't this the most perfect picture? One of my favorites. Our sweet little princess... golfing! this totally sums up her adventuresome, yet girly personality!!!

We have had beautiful weather, and so we enjoyed a long walk on Xmas. Greg's mom Judy is with us for the week as well, and we are loving both her company and her help!

Nana Sue joined us for the walk ... she is just like part of our family!

New Cousin Raleigh

Our kids have a new cousin... Raleigh Dollarhide! She is the new daughter of Julie and Taylor (Julie is Greg's sister). We are lucky enough to have them visiting us from Denver for the Xmas week. We have had a delightful time, and our kids have enjoyed getting to know little Raleigh! Here is a pic of Greta with her new buddy Raleigh. (Greta at 5 mos, Raleigh at 2 mos.)



Here is a pic of Greg, Taylor, Julie, and Baby Raleigh under the blankie.



On a walk on Xmas day... Yes, the sun does shine in Seattle in December! Here is the view of the Seattle skyline from our neighborhood playground area...

Off to Christmas Eve church...

We love our church; we go to First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue, and it is wonderful. We have developed fantastic friendships there in the last four years, and we really enjoy the pastor. Here we are on Christmas Eve, about to head off to the service. The kids were wonderful and the Christmas Eve service was beautiful... the choir, singing, and candles were delightful. Merry Christmas, all!

First time ice skating..

Hailey is so darn adventurous. There is nothing that she will not try. In fact, she jumps wholeheartedly into things she has never tried before. So, we had a great time taking her ice skating today. She put on these toddler ice skates that strapped to the bottom of her boots, and then we pushed her around the frozen pond for 15 minutes. She loved it! She kept saying "more!!!" And now she wants to do it every day this week while we are at Whistler.

Drew, on the other hand, is NOT very daring. We took a short walk on a frozen lake yesterday, and he cried the whole time! He did not like the ice, and he was certainly not interested in trying on ice skates today!

Here are two quick videos to document the beginning of Hailey's professional ice skating career..

5 months old...

Little Greta is 5 months old today! I cannot believe it! She is now rolling over from front-to-back, as well as back-to-front. She is also scooting across the floor when we lay her down. It won't be long before she is crawling.

Here is a quick video of her, as we are in Whistler this week...

Giggles from Greta

Here are two videos I snapped today showing sweet lil Greta's giggles. She is such a happy baby!!

A Puppet Theatre!!

My dad Kirby and my stepmom Katie have been in town from Minnesota for the last several days. We always celebrate Christmas with them in early December, and we had a great time this year, like usual. The highlight of the weekend is, of course, opening all of the gifts! The twins kept saying "open presents" every few hours for several days. Well, the wait was worth it, because their best gift from Grandpa and Mimi Kate was a new Puppet Theatre! Check out how beautiful these puppets are! All day today the kids played with it, and even went to bed tonight saying "more puppet show!! after Mommy and Daddy (and Nanny) had performed all day.

For any of you who are planning to visit us over Xmas, be prepared with your own Puppet Show script, because you will be drafted into a performance. (I promise!!)

p.s. this set is from Restoration Hardware for anyone looking for an xmas gift idea! The puppets are absolutely beautiful, and the theater has a black curtain. Very cute!