Christmas whirlwind - it's done already??

the king
Claire, Reagan and Piper were having a lot of fun smelling markers

Clay cuddled up with Sophie

This cash register was for both of the girls but Reagan has taken it over and Piper hasn't been allowed near it.

Reagan and Aunt Randi

Christmas morning at our house, Piper was so moved by getting a DoddleBops dvd that she wept, seriously just choked up and started crying. It was so sweet.

Piper enjoying her pile of presents

Reagan enjoying hers

Now we've moved on the the Kocina's in Glencoe

she's opening a baby

Christmas Kocina style - how many Kocina's can you fit into an room? There are some behind the camera too.

Momma's boy?? (oh boy am I going to be in trouble for that comment)

Now on to Dad and Jill's. Brecken's hands were going so fast they were a blur.

This was a tough picture to get, I have 4 of all the girls smiling and Dad looking down or to the side. This actually is pretty creepy, there is a ghost behind Piper and Brecken. It didn't show up in any of the other pictures I had taken just seconds before.

Bill and baby B were pretty tired out!

We had a wonderful Christmas, we have such a great routine down, we spend Christmas Eve at the Cowmeadow's and usually make it to church. This year due to the snow Jeff cancelled church. Christmas morning Robin, Lonny, Claire and Clay come over for breakfast, we make a big mess and then head out to Glencoe for lunch and there is always laughter. Then we trek back to Dad's house for dinner and to wind down for the day. It sounds busy and stressful but it isn't, we get to visit with almost our entire family all in 24 hours, it's really a special time!

Full Christmas Spirit

Brecken with a pony tail, Niki and I were laughing so hard
We had the pleasure of watching Piper sing at her Preschool Christmas program on Friday morning. This year I really tried to get her excited to sing and do her hand motions as last year she was too shy. Actually Sunday in Church she was too shy too. I kept telling her to sing loud and proud and she told me "Mom, I don't agree with that". hmmm. Houston, we've got attitude! I can totally sympathize with her though, I hated standing up and singing in programs and remember getting into trouble for goofing off.

Brecken is just too cute not to photograph

Today we went over to Bill and Niki's to celebrate Christmas with Mom and Tim. Poor little Reagan has had a pretty hefty fever all day but she is such a trooper and tried to remain happy and even managed to get some playing done. Below she is playing dress up with some of her new dress up clothes. Niki and Bill are great gift buyers for little girls.

Brecken really opened up presents, pretty exciting for her 1st Christmas.

Rea resting

Brecken enjoying some of her new toys, Piper and Reagan donated some of their old toys for her to play with. Brecken doesn't care if they are hand me downs, she loved having new noisy toys.

A fun Sunday

We went with the Salmos family down to the Macy's auditorium to see A Day in the Life of an Elf. The line was enormous but we moved through pretty quickly. After the show we went down to secure a spot on the very cold street to watch the Holidazzle. After about 20 minutes of freezing we moved up into a skyway to watch the remainder of the parade. Much nicer being warm but unfortunately Piper took a tumble onto her face and has a big red mark next to her eye.
Kyle, Konnor and Piper by a candy cane light

Reagan wanted to take a solo picture by the Nutcracker but Piper decided to join her.

Geof and I snuck to the treat counter as everyone was in line so we could keep everyone happy while waiting with some sugar.

Piper's Christmas program at Church. As per her history in performances she came out and was shy, barely moving her mouth and turning to the side. She's so darn cute and I think it's so odd how she's shy at these things as usually she's so outgoing. Oh well, I hated performing, I'm sure Mom and Dad can remember me acting up during some shows.

Macy's lets you take your own pictures with Santa, both girls talked to him and really enjoyed the visit.

Randoms

The girls have had a fun week, they got to spend time with Grandma Mary on Thursday, went to Mops with me on Friday and played with their friends, stayed up late on Friday night with Papa Miller and Jill and then topped it all off with a movie date with Grandma Robin this afternoon. They came home with this slushy and were way too cute sharing it to skip out on a photo op.
Usually when Reagan's awake she perches herself right up on the couch on top of Layla. They just looked too cute all snuggled up together.

I made a barbie cake for Ruby's 3rd Birthday. I could have kept going with the decorations but seeing as I'm a less is more type of girl I liked it plain. I did add Ruby's name in the front after I took the pictures though.

I really have to get better at keeping up with the blog, these days I have to share my computer with Piper. She has several "dot.com's" that she likes to visit whenever she can get to my computer without having to put in the "secret password" to get it on. She is learning how to play games and spending some time learning letters and words. Tonight at dinner she was eating a pea and said "hey, I know what letter pea starts with, P" and then proceeded to name other letters that started other words she knows. She's going to just take off in kindergarten.

Other things; my favorite quote from the past week was Piper saying "I smell stinkies" and Reagan without missing a beat said "it's my butt, Piper". I still can't stop laughing. I really need to jot these things down so I don't forget them.

Tomorrow Piper is singing in front of Church and then we are going to visit the Macy's auditorium show and see the Holidazzle parade tomorrow night. On Friday Piper has her preschool Christmas program too. It's going to be a fun week!

Christmas is coming

We're getting in the Christmas spirit around here. We made wreaths at Niki's, celebrated a very nice Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa's (Brecken's 1st Thanksgiving) and then took part in our 2nd year (and hopefully a new tradition) of tagging along with the Salmos family to cut down our tree. It was another beautiful day, Reagan's wearing a hat but it was so warm, especially considering it was November 28th.

I think this is one of my new favorite pictures - they are both so darn cute! This is our tree before being chopped.
The girls had a great time trying to stand on the stumps.

huh?? I crack up when I look at her expression in this photo.

Superstar!

Wreath making, Grandma Mary was being silly. Someone has to be!

We were trying to get the kids all together but Alicia and I decided we should hold Reagan and Kayden in place.

Jason and Reagan took a little hike to the portables. Sometimes I miss the convenience of diapers.

My stud at it again! Can you hear the manly grunts? Oh, that's right it's only a small tree.

Now, when we get around to actually decorating the tree I will try to remember to take pictures. Hopefully tomorrow evening we will get it started.