Merry Christmas!

Here's a wrap up of our holidays. I spent everyday leading up to Christmas doing something fun and holiday-ish with the girls. I had so much fun doing all these fun things with them. Since we knew we'd be busy Christmas Eve we made cookies for Santa they day before. They both loved decorating them!

They woke up Christmas Eve morning excited as ever!

We started out the day going to Grandma and Grandma Liebes. Here they are all dressed up and ready to go!

They got the cutest dolls from Grandma and Grandpa! They are like the old paper dress up dolls but they come in a little tin and all the clothes are magnetic. They've spent hours playing with them!

That night we went to my Mom and Dad's for dinner. We always open one gift there on Christmas Eve, which is always pajamas. My mom and dad have done this since we were kids and it's so fun to have our kids there carrying on the tradition together.

Impatiently waiting...

The girls lounged around in their new pj's and watched some Christmas shows.

Me and my brothers gave everyone a good laugh...

Then it was off to bed so Santa could come! At about 11 that night I went to check that the girls were asleep and Kenzie was still wide awake. I asked her what she was doing awake still and she told me that's she kept getting up to check out the window for Santa.

Christmas has always been one of my favorite holidays but I have to admit that it just doesn't get any better than when you have kids to spend Christmas morning with!

For the whole month - probably even before that - if you aksed Brooklyn what she wanted for Christmas all she would say is a Barbie. Does she look happy or what?

Kenzie was excited about everything! Especially her new miniature washing machine so she can wash all the laundry she has for her babies!

Me and my princesses.

Look how cute those tutus turned out!

Christmas day was such a nice day. We spent the day at home. The girls loved being able to enjoy all their new toys.

They loved being able to watch their new Monsters vs. Aliens movie in Kenzie's room on our new portable dvd player!

They looked so adorable in their new Christmas dresses!

Then my family came out for dinner and we exchanged more gifts! I was like Christmas morning all over again!

We even got a family picture!

I'm so lucky to have such a great family that I love to be with and get to be with so much! We are so lucky to have been able to spend so much time with both our familys over the holidays! We hope you all had a great holiday season too!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We have been having so much fun getting ready for Christmas this year. I can't believe Christmas Eve is only a week from today! Our tree is up and the presents are wrapped. We have just been trying to keep busy until Christmas comes.

Last year after Christmas we got stuff to let the girls have their own little trees in their rooms. This is Kenzie's...

...this is Brooklyns..

The little tiny ones to the side...those are for their babies. Kenzie thought they needed one too. I tried for days to convince her that one tree in her room was enough but she just would not give it up. Finally she asked if she could use her own money to buy them and said she would get one for Brooklyn too. This girl and her babies! They have to be tucked in at night and buckled in when we get in the car. She's just too funny!

Brooklyn had more fun getting into everything than actually helping :)

Kenzie got a bead set for her birthday this summer and she's been making bracelets that she can give away as gifts.

We have read lots of Christmas stories and watched lots of Christmas movies, decorated some Christmas trees (made from sugar cones, frosting and little candies)...

...we cut out lots of paper snowflakes and used them to decorate...

...we made Rice Krispie treats houses and such (instead of gingerbread which just get all the candy picked off them and never eaten)

...and we decorated a new set of ornaments to add to our tree...

We got lots of snow to play in last weekend. They girls had so much fun with Dad pulling them around the yard in the sled.

We also had Grandma come and take some pictures of us in front of our tree. Here's a few of our favorites.

We hope you all are enjoying the holiday season too!

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

I have been good. So has Brooklyn. Please bring me a washing machine. Brooklyn wants a Barbie. We will leave cookies. Thanks.
McKenzie Liebes

Kenzie wrote this letter the other day at Grandma's house. She wrote the entire thing out all by herself, Grandma just had to spell some of the words out for her. All the a's are backwards (she's been working on it and is back to writing them correctly) and at the end of every sentence - and sometimes in the middle :) - she's using puncuation which they are learning in school. How did my little girl get big enough to write her own letter to Santa already?

Finally...November

I finally made it! I'm all caught up! I must have been feeling overwhelmed with how much I still had to blog because now that I'm ready to blog for November I realize I really didn't take very many pictures! The first weekend in November my cousin's daughter celebarated her 4th birthday. They rented a jump house for all the kids and they had so much fun!

Happy Birthday Rialy!

Brooklyn got her first major haircut! All those curls make it hard to get a brush through and it's just torture for her and me too! This is before...

...And after.

We got our first snow, which the kids loved playing in, too bad it was gone after a couple days!

My cousin Kandace welcomed a new little girl to her family on November 12th. Meet Morgan Kiley Buchanan.

Grandma got a new puppy. She's a Morkie (a mixed breed of a maltese and a yorkie) that she chose to name Muffit. Kenzie absolutely loves her!

Grandma brought Muffit over to visit the other day and Kenzie decided she was just the right size to fit in her doll stroller.

With the weather getting colder the girls have rediscovered all their dress up stuff. You never know what they'll come up with next!

Brookyln is always doing the funniest things in the morning when it's just me and her. One morning I was putting laundry away and when I emptied the basket she found a new use for it. She was just sitting there watching Dora like this.

My friend Jackie found a really cute craft idea. We took the fake pumpkins from the craft store and some scrapbook paper cut in 3 X 3 inch squares and used modge pogde to stick them to the pumpkin. They turned out very cute! It's hard to see but the paper on the big pumpkin says turkey and cranberries...pumpkin pie...apple pie etc. It worked perfectly for my Thanksgiving centerpiece!

For Thanksgiving we gathered with my Dad's family at my Grandma Jean's. We don't see them very often and I always get too busy visiting and don't take many pictures. It's fun to get together with them because there are so many little girls between us all. Kenzie loved playing with Emrie.

And doing puzzles with Zach and Caden.

Savanah had fun jumping on the bed with Emrie & Maddie while Ella watched.

Brookyln loved visiting with everyone. Both girls loved singing with Aunt Marcia too. They loved this little duck song she sang with them! We play this game and ask Brooklyn how she got so cute. Usually she replies from my mom and dad. Well this time we asked her and she said my mom and dad and you and you and you... and she pointed to my mom and dad and my aunt Marcia. It was so cute! To finish off the party we got visited by Santa who handed out all of Grandma's presents for her. This is my cousin Brady and this was the Halloween costume my grandma made for him! It was so cute!