Winter Break

It was so much fun having the girls home for Winter Break. I loved not having a schedule, as did the girls. We had many low key mornings, and had lots of fun playing with cousins & friends. We also went on a few fun outings! We didn't get any snow until Christmas morning, so we were able to go on walks and ride our bikes up until then. The girls love taking our dogs on walks, but I am pretty sure the dogs like it more!

I finally finished painting our dining room, and I think it turned out beautiful! I was very impressed by my painting skills. I painted everything: molding, ceiling, walls. The previous owner had heavy heavy texture on the walls, so I sanded those down to where they was just a slight texture to the walls. I think it looks really nice!

They love playing in the snow! As I type this, all the snow in our backyard has melted - but they had fun while it was here!

My parents have a really fun party every year where we have a fabulous dinner, watch a talent show by the kids, have a Nativity and open gifts. Every year the little girls fight over who gets to be Mary so put names on popsicle sticks and they each got to draw who they would be. Claire got to play Mary and she was SO excited! She was the most adorable little thing. She would hold the baby (someone's doll) and caress it's head, talk to it, and snuggle it. For a split second it made me sad she doesn't have a younger sibling. But, like I said, that lasted less than 5 seconds! 

Claire is huge into art. She loves it and could do it for hours on end. She had the paints out for two weeks solid and kept taping up her creations. I didn't have the heart to take them down, so they stayed up throughout the month!

Claire's "funny face" kills me. This picture is so typical of these two:

We have a great movie theater close by that shows movies for $3, and all concessions are $1. We love it! We met up with my sister and her kids to see The Boxtrolls. Weird movie, but the kids really enjoyed it!

We had to get some sledding in! The one benefit to having freezing cold weather was the snow was still pretty fluffy. It was packed down, but not pure ice like it was last year. The girls love going, and it is always entertaining to see them laugh and bounce along!

We had a ball over Christmas breaks. I was actually sad to have school start again. It was so fun to be with the girls. They were so sweet and so good during the whole break. Love those little squirts!!

One of the major highlights was seeing our dear dear friends the Larsens. They were in town for just a short amount of time, so we only got to see them once, but it was SO fun. We had them over for dinner (wings) and games...one of our favorite things to do with them. We love them and miss them, so it did our hearts good to see one another!