december #2

 some quick family pics at my parents. this is the best one we got. shocker.

 olivia is so excited to be taking MORE pictures!!

 i love this one of violet. "yes? how much cuter can i be?!"

 olivia at her school christmas party..i forgot about taking pics so this is the only one i got

 we went to a nutcracker performance downtown with my parents. olivia wanted to be front and center until the way too loud music (even for me) started playing. forget about it.

 diaper girls breaking ornaments

 violet ripped her dress on christmas sunday

 visiting a crazily lit house that is nearby...

violet with my sisters

 family shot. horrible pic.

 only pic i took on christmas eve at adam's parents... not sure how that happened? O went with a princess leia look...

 oh, one more. olivia and violet with our friend vicki.

CHRISTMAS!

violet loved her shopping cart and stuffed fruits and veggies

olivia checking out her magna-forms

(yes i know she slept in a dress and not PJs..it was the first thing i grabbed when we got home late christmas eve and i was trying to transfer them to their beds. it is lame that on christmas morning, i was bummed that i had not been with it enough to put them in something festive?!? ugh.)

 (shaker eggs from band in a box...the whole thing was a great, noisemaking hit with both of them.)

vi on the tambourine!

opening one of her favs...baby alive

she had it clutched under her arm for so long..too cute.

still got that baby...

ice cream cone set....

and little mom & me dolls from her stocking

on the way to my parents...with baby, of course!

vi taking a bottle break with her great-granddaddy

vi taking a graham cracker break with my dad

hanging with her great-grandma

she gave a little hug all on her own. sweet baby.

went to lunch with some of my HS friends who are rarely in town. apparently i'm the only one who chose to come back to the old stomping grounds.

december #1

here we go. december was pretty packed so i will probably do a couple posts.

ADVENT DINNER

adam's mom hosts an advent dinner every year to kick the holidays off. we dressed up in some fancies (kind of?) and had a great dinner. topped it off with some family photos which always goes great with lots of kids under 5. 

 olivia and violet were not the slightest bit interested in pictures.

 olivia going to town on her baggie of pretzel and violet falling asleep in adam's arms.

 not much better. i think we have like 20 shots and only in like 5 are they both looking. but they are blurry because all my photos are on my phone these days. annoying.

 i hated that i didn't get this shot with a decent camera. olivia was loving dancing with her dad. so cute.

 blurry daddy/daughter

 vi being sneaky

 big trouble messing with gigi's breakables

 still eating those pretzels!

 just some post-dinner discussion

 sleepy girl

CHRISTMAS TREE LOT

 violet & adam at the lot

 yes. another bag of pretzels. she is a snacker.

 waiting in the car while the tree guy and adam put it on top of the car. of course olivia was in heaven with her pretzels and dad's soda. crocs with a winter coat? we keep it stylish in FL.

 "what? i'm not doing anything."

 happy little reindeer!

 ....aaaaand goodnight

CHURCH CHRISTMAS PARTY

 we unfortunately had to miss breakfast with santa at olivia's preschool this year so our church party was the first run at a visit with mr. claus himself. last year olivia totally freaked, of course, so i expected the same this year. much to my surprise she was so nonchalant about it and just sat there for a second and just jumped down and walked away. ha! violet was the one who freaked out. i was kind of surprised because she is so easy going usually. not so much here.

 CHRISTMAS PARADE

 we braved the cold morning to go to our city's xmas parade. of course we got there too late and were not in an ideal spot but i just wanted to go for a few minutes anyway. i was being a total mom and demanding that we have some fun by checking a "fun" activity off the list. does anyone else do that? haha. we were all ready to go after like 10 minutes.

 TWINS. love this profile shot of the brown eyed people

 olivia liked it at first but started to get a little alarmed at the giant moose head or something that was on the john deer float. lol.

 these little gap christmas shirts got many uses this year. cousin mckinley had one too. matchy matchy times 3!

 i really should've used this for our christmas card. violet attacking olivia is a common occurrence around here.

the tree all lit up!

....on to the next.