Christmas 2008

We had a fabulous 2-week vacation from the real world in the form of the Christmas holiday. As always, the time went by too fast! Here are some of my favorite pictures of all the fun!

OK, this picture has nothing to do with the holidays. Lily just insisted on wearing her tobogan in the house and we thought it was hilarious!

Cassidy and Daddy making pizza dough for Christmas Eve dinner. Instead of the traditional holiday fare, we made gourmet pizzas including spinach and pesto, BBQ chicken, steak and blue cheese, Buffalo shrimp and blue cheese, italian sausage with mushrooms, bacon and onion, and pepperoni and green pepper. We totally made WAY too much pizza, but it sure was tasty!

Cassidy and one of the Flying J's (Aunt Jennifer)

Cassidy and Aunt Heather

Happy and Full

Jennifer and Mom

Lily - all smiles on Christmas morning

One of the highlights of Christmas morning were the "Bear in the Big Blue House" stuffed animals the girls received. They have recently fallen in love with this old Disney show. It's no longer on the air, so finding books, stuffed animals, etc. is a challenge. Joey had mentioned this in passing to a colleague at school and on the Friday before Christmas break she brought him a bag of "Bear in the Big Blue House" stuffed animals. She used to work at the Disney Store and would buy things on clearance when they were discontinuing merchandise. She said these toys had been sitting in her closet for about 5 years and she wanted to give them to our girls. What an amazing blessing and what a wonderful friend! The girls were beside themselves when they saw their "Bear" toys...and they are sleeping with them at night as well as dragging them all over the house during the day. (Cassidy is pictured above with Bear.)

Lily with Ojo and Snowbear (Ojo just happens to be her favorite character.)
The other highlight of the day...dress-up clothes. The girls got dress-up shoes as well as some costumes.

Cassidy in her Cinderella dress
OK, why did Joey think these PJs were a good choice? If we ignore for just a moment that they are in no way flattering (note the wide horizontal lines), let's ponder what will happen when I wake up in the night and need to pee. There is no trap door in the rear, so my only option is to frantically undo about 20 buttons in a race against my bladder! (Needless to say, these have already been returned, but everyone got a good laugh at my expense Christmas morning.)
Our nephew, Jeremy, and Joey - we gave Jeremy the coast guard dog tag around his neck. He was so excited...he LOVES the coast guard.

The Cousins (minus Jamie)

Front Row: Kimmie, Jon-Jon, Whitney, Jarrett, Jeremy

Back Row: Brittany, Lily, Hunter, Connor, Cassidy, Katy, Adrien, Katie

We spent a few days after Christmas in BSL with Grandma and Grandpa, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Aunt Shirley and Uncle Dick were visiting from Texas so it was a special treat to see them too...they immediately bonded with the girls and it was like having an extra set of grandparents in the house. :) (Cassidy is pictured here making play-doh with Grandma.)

In other news, Lily and Cassidy are both in new beds. We moved Cassidy's toddler bed into Lily's room and she has been sleeping in it for the past two weeks. Although initially she seemed to prefer sleeping on the floor beside her door, she is now very comfortable in her big girl bed. Cassidy is now sleeping in the "Super Duper Big Girl Bed," her daybed. Lily has peed and pooped on the potty several times and we play to go through the 3-day potty training process with her in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned - we're about to be a diaper-free household for the first time in 3 1/2 years! :)