Christmas 2009

Abbie is delighted that she got 2 new babies-one even has a paci!

Sophie loves her new doll house that Santa brought her!

most of our crew on Christmas morning

Sophie with her cousins, Layton and Luke

On Christmas morning, the girls were up by 6:30! So much for sleeping in at all. We stalled them until 7:00 giving us time to wake up a little, get cameras ready, and call my parents to tell them to head over soon. At 7:00, we headed downstairs and the girls got to see all of the surprises that Santa brought. Then, Paula's parents, sister, Martha, her fiance (Matt R.) and brother, Phil all arrived shortly thereafter till the living room was almost full of gifts to open. The girls opened their gifts from us and we traded gifts with each other. After that, we enjoyed a nice breakfast together with a lot of good food. Then, shortly after, we headed over to Paula's aunt and uncle's house nearby where we had lunch and spent the afternoon with family. Paula's cousin, Amy, was such a good sport because she let Sophie "paint" her nails, etc with her new play make-up kit. Sophie was somehow using the curling iron to fix her nails too. =) Abbie got a nap while we were there so that was great! It was very cold outside with a few snow flurries but none of it stayed around. We all had a great Christmas!

Abbie got a couple of baby dolls, a play stroller and vacuum, the Mickey Mouse clubhouse and some other things. Sophie got the big dollhouse (shown above), a Barbie doctor set with twin babies (perfect for her), a Leapster like she wanted, Legos and more. Matt got me a Wii for Christmas but wasn't able to surprise me. I sort of found about it. I think he got it as much for himself as for me but that's OK. We've both had some fun with it. I also got the Wii Fit for Christmas. Since I knew about the Wii, Matt also got some Wii games and accessories for Christmas alongwith some other things. We were very blessed this Christmas!

On the day after Christmas, Matt's cousin, Mark, his wife, Ashley and their boys (Luke and Layton) came over for a visit since they were in town anyway. Their boys are close in age to our girls so it was great to be able to get together!

Breakfast with Santa

Cheese! Come on, hurry up! I'm squinting and smiling as much as I can. I've even got my hands fisted!

This past Saturday, we went to breakfast with Santa at our church. It was our 1st time to go and so we were excited. So far this year, Sophie's been excited about Santa but then won't have anything to do with him up close. Anyways, we sang Christmas carols as a large group, had a light breakfast, and then the kids had lots of crafts to keep them entertained while we waited to have our picture made with Santa. It was pretty wild because there were about 500 people total! Kids, their parents, and a few grandparents. Sophie sat with her Mama for the picture with Santa & Mrs. Claus but she didn't cry or anything. Our picture just turned out OK. Of our family, Matt's the only one really smiling. We took the above picture of Sophie as we waited. She started out with a normal smile and then she just keep cheesing and squinting more and more! =)
This week, her cough and runny nose have returned so she's not feeling well.