We had a fairly quiet New Year’s Eve this year. Sarah was still very weak and sick so we weren’t going anywhere. We had junk food galore to munch on: cookies, muddy buddies, Peanut Butter Balls and I know I am forgetting something yummy too. What else are you suppose to do to ring in the new year but eat yummy sugary fattening foods? NOTHING!!
We also rented a movie and watched a movie together while enjoying our snacks and unfortunately had to put Sarah to bed very early but she was kind of a downer of the party. I had bought tiaras for us girls and some streamers to throw and some poppers to pop. So after the movie we had an early count down to the new year for Rachel and celebrated with our streamers and poppers. Rachel loved it and kept throwing the streamers in the air and tried to get them to land on my hear or hers. It became a fun game of throwing streamers at one another. We did save a couple of poppers for New Year’s Day so that Sarah could share in some of the fun. The girls just loved it and we had streamers strung all over my house for a couple of days (then I couldn’t take it anymore and had to clean them up). What a fun way to ring in the new year with our small children!!
Rachel and Grandma in their Tiaras
wearing her streamers
The only reason that we were able to survive not going home over Christmas was that both my mom and Josh’s mom came to visit us over the month of December. My mom came the first week and Josh’s mom came after Christmas. So much fun to have Grandmas come to our house and play with the girls.
Here are some pictures of the girls celebrating Christmas and opening presents with Grandma Leckbee.
Sarah opening her 'Toodles' from Grandma
Rachel with the blanket Grandma made her, Abby has a matching one too!
Sarah with her Mickey Mouse blanket grandma made
You can’t really tell that Sarah was sick in the pictures but about 15 minutes after she was done opening presents she started throwing up and was very sick for several days of Grandma’s visit. It was really sad because Grandma was looking forward to seeing Sarah and playing with her (she just changes so much between each visit) and then she was so sick for days. It was so sad and Grandma was afraid that Sarah would associate being sick with Grandma coming, but thank goodness that was not the case. After Sarah finally got better (it took a good 3-4 days) she loved having Grandma around and wanted to play with her.
Reading with Grandma right before bed
Rachel LOVES having visitors at our house and the best kinds are her Grandmas!! Before Grandma Leckbee got here Rachel made a list of all the things she wanted to do with her. I am not sure that they accomplished all the stuff but then once they opened presents priorities did change. Grandma got a big box of bendaroos for the girls and they loved them!! Rachel and Grandma played with them daily for hours at a time, it was a huge hit. I actually can’t believe that I don’t have a picture of them playing with the Bendaroos, that was almost all they did. I guess I was too busy dealing with a very sick Sarah. One of the other things that Rachel wanted to do with Grandma was bake something special with her Easy Bake Oven. I thought that would be a great idea since Grandma Leckbee is such an awesome baker. I think by the end Grandma thought the Easy Bake was more work than making cinnamon rolls from scratch! Here are some pictures of the girls ‘baking’ with Grandma.
The last thing we did with Grandma before she left was celebrated her birthday. Grandma flew home the day before her birthday and the girls wanted to celebrate with her so we made a yummy Red Cake. I figured that Grandma normally doesn’t get cake unless she makes it so I thought this would be a nice change. Rachel just loves celebrating anything and Birthdays are a big deal!
Happy Birthday to Grandma, Happy Birthday to you!!
So Rachel got a (knock off) American Girl Doll from Santa for Christmas and I was surprised how much the doll looked like her. If the doll had green eyes they could be twins!! Rachel named the doll Abby and has enjoyed playing with her and dressing her up.
Rachel has wanted to grow her bangs out for a while and we told her that after Christmas we would let her grow them out. Well when she got Abby and Abby looked just like her but without bangs we had to do Rachel’s hair to match Abby’s that day.
Rachel and Abby
Dressed alike
I love the excitement of Children on Christmas morning. They just get so excited and make you realize that the past months agony of shopping and finding the perfect gifts was totally worth it. Sarah was so excited to wake up and find presents under the tree from Santa.
Rachel with her stack of presents from Santa
Sarah with her presents from Santa
wearing their new jammies that mom and dad gave them on Christmas Eve
Rachel with her 'American Girl Doll' (she doesn't know it is a knock off)
Rachel with her Easy Bake oven
Rachel with her Santa loot
Sarah with her Santa loot
Sarah feeding her Panda Bear she got from Aunt Jody and family
puppy love
Hot Dog Dancing Mickey!
This year was a special year because we stayed home in Albuquerque for Christmas. We normally spend Christmas time racing from one family member’s house to the others. I was really worried that it might be upsetting for the girls (and me) to have such a quiet Christmas but it was wonderful! December was spent running around like Chickens with our heads cut off that it was nice to slow down and just enjoy each other.
So on Christmas Eve, we were finally able to make and decorate cut out cookies for Santa. It is a family tradition on my side of the family that we make and decorate cookies together as a family for Santa. I have done it every year of my life that I can remember and I want to keep it going with my girls. They just love decorating cookies for Santa and each year they get better at it and more creative. Josh even enjoys decorating the cookies with his girls, and I have to say he makes some of the best ones! Sarah still thinks eating all the icing and sprinkles is the best part, but this year she did actually decorate several cookies on her own. Rachel has been a pro for years now!!
Sarah decorating a tree cookie with sprinkles
Rachel hard at work
Sarah's Creations
So while most of the country has had more snow than they can handle we have had very little. We had one day right before Christmas. We woke up to almost 2 inches of snow and knew that we had to get out fast and play in it before it melted away. We were all dressed and ready to play by 9am and played for about an hour. I was amazed at how fast the snow had melted. Our street was completely clear by about 9:30 and then the snow on the rocks in our back yard was quickly disappearing. By 11:30 most all of the snow was gone. The girls did have a great time playing in it. Sarah decided that she was going to go sliding down her slide that was covered in snow. Rachel tried really hard to make a snowman but the snow was too powdery and would not stick for anything. Instead Rachel made lots of snow angels. Sarah ran all over the yard and had to make sure that there was NOT a single spot of snow in the backyard that she had not ran threw.
standing in the snow
Sarah going down her slide
Rachel with her 'snowman'
We decided this year that we would try to take some pictures in front of our tree and then pick one and send it out as our Christmas Card. I know we did this last year too but I ran out of time this Christmas for originality.
I didn’t think that it would be a hard thing to do but our girls were just in a silly mood both days we tried to take pictures. I love that they love each other but, I just wanted them to sit still and smile for just a couple of pictures. We tried family pictures, individual pictures, and pictures of just the girls and we finally found one that was decent. What silly, crazy girls.
Rachel
The family
Crazy girls take 1
Crazy Girls take 2
Ok, so now that I look at the pictures it is more Crazy Sarah than crazy girls but I do have some pretty silly ones of Rachel too!
The winner, this is the picture we sent in our cards!
My favorite Nativity that I own is my Little People Nativity! I love it because the girls can play with it and they learn about Jesus’ birth at the same time. It is so cute and kid friendly and it even sings Away in a Manger when you push the Angel on top down. I just love it!! Well last year after a playdate at our house I noticed that the baby Jesus was missing, we tore the entire house apart trying to find him and never did. So this year I was very sad to put up my Nativity set because baby Jesus was still missing and of course it isn’t a nativity without the baby Jesus. After many weeks of pouting I mentioned the sad story of the missing baby Jesus to a friend who suggested I look at eBay to see if they had a replacement. And Guess What? They did!!! So I got a new baby Jesus for my nativity for $6.25 (including shipping) and now my nativity is complete again!! I was smiling from ear to ear the day He came in the mail! Thanks Amber for the idea to find a new one!
I guess that the girls missed their box/fort after I decided it was time to throw it away because Rachel started making boxes out of her Princess Hop Scotch set. The only bad part was that she kept making boxes for her sister to climb into and Sarah did so without complaint. Then Sarah then started making boxes for her stuffed animals out of her smaller foam hop scotch set, what crazy girls I have.
So this is Sarah sitting in her homemade ‘carseat’ that Rachel made for her and if you look on her lap you will see that Minnie is sitting in a smaller version of the same thing. I was just happy Rachel made a box for her sister without a lid on it!
Santa came to visit the children at our Ward Christmas party. It was kind of funny because Sarah was so excited when she saw Santa and she couldn’t stop smiling and saying that Santa came but she wouldn’t go sit on the floor by him while he read the kids a story. Instead, she dragged Mommy over to sit with her that way she was safe. Then as soon as Santa was ready to have kids come and sit on his lap Sarah ran to the line and was so anxious. When it was her turn to sit on his lap it was a different story, she did sit there but looked like she was going to hyperventilate. She wouldn’t talk to him or even look at him, but afterwards she was so happy and couldn’t stop talking about how she sat on Santa’s lap. 
Rachel on the other hand cracked me up. She was so excited to sit on Santa’s lap and told him everything she wanted but once she got off his lap she asked me if it was OK that she told him she was GOOD. Earlier that day Josh was watching the girls while I got my hair cut and they were fighting so bad that he ended up sending both of them to their rooms. She must have felt guilty because she wasn’t sure if she should have told Santa that she was good. I asked her if she thought she was a good girl. She said yes, I agreed but told her she should try to fight less with Sarah. She truly is an amazing little girl, I am so blessed!
