Christmas in Oklahoma

Jeff and Caroline blow out the candles on their Dora birthday cake. Caroline is 4 and Jeff will be 34 in January!

It snowed for like 10 minutes, so the girls had to get all bundled up and go outside to play in the snow!

The kids were getting a little restless in waiting for presents opening time, so we had a little production of the Christmas story. I was the narrator (Luke 2), Zach, the only boy, was Joseph, Caroline was Mary, riding on the donkey, Kallie (hey, she chose it!) and Bennette was the beautiful angel. Lilly was supposed to be a shepherd so she crawled along the floor behind the donkey!

Homa Grammy making Christmas cookies with the girls.

Lilly thinks she's getting the hang of opening presents now, we've been doing it for three days straight!

Caroline is so excited about everything she opens!

Bennette and Caroline playing with their new Princess Barbie dolls. Bennette got Ariel and Caroline got Jasmine. They're running around (hehe!) and singing "Under the Sea!"

19 Months old tomorrow

My little Lilly. I can't believe she's so big now. I was holding her last night, telling her how little she used to be (8 lb 9 oz, haha!) And now, at her 18 month old appointment, she was 32 inches tall and 25 pounds & 3 ounces! I really love, love, love her at this age. She's such entertainment...always learning something new and doing something funny. She likes to color with crayons, markers, pens, anything. Her babies probably her favorite though. She holds them, loves on them, gives them bottles and pacifiers and covers them with blankets. She has two blankets of her own that she calls "mamie". I think she's copying her sister who has a lambie! She loves to play outside and requests to swing almost every day. It's not uncommon to see her wear several different pairs of shoes in one day. She especially likes sneaking into Caroline's closet to get out some of her princess shoes to clip-clop around in. Food... she's not a big fan of anything healthy I'm making or trying to get her to eat. But she's never seen a cookie or cracker she didn't like. Cheese and watermelon are probably her most favorite foods though if given a choice. This girl talks all the time, although you may not know it if she doesn't know you very well. She can be very serious and clingy to momma if there's strangers around. Here's a list of all her words (the ones I can remember!)...bath, walk, shoes, sock, poo-poo, please, thank you, cereal, yummy, bowl, shooey, no, mine, see, Chloe (for both of our dogs), milk, cookie, cracker, teeth, eyes, why (this is my favorite because I don't think she should know what it means yet but she always uses it in the right context!), yeah, yah!, baby, mommy, daddy, Elmo, bubbles, hi, nose, toe, hold me, uh-oh, whoah, sorry, & ball

Christmas Jammies

I've always wanted the girls to have matching jammies for Christmas. I say always...it's only their 2nd Christmas together! They indulged me by trying them on and even smiling for a picture by the fireplace!

Family Christmas Picture

Caroline posing in Santa's chair at Cook Children's, where I work. We thought that would be a good indoors place to get a family picture to use for Christmas cards. The family picture is always an adventure because, for the third year in a row, we've taken the picture ourselves! We try to get the girls to smile at the camera with no person behind it to get their attention. Then, you never really know if you got a good shot until you get home and upload the pictures!

Sweet Lilly is hard to get to sit or even stand still for a picture, much less smile. She's a pretty independent little thing. I love this picture because you can see the reflection of her and the whole atrium of the hospital (which looks like a castle) in the shiny ball next to her on the tree.

Outdoors, the girls ran wild while we sat and waited to try to get a picture. With the slow shutter speed, Caroline appears translucent and has no legs!