Mimi Comes Home

My mom arrived home from Kazakhstan lastnight after being gone for 7 months. We are all so excited to have her back. My dad will be getting here Jan. 20th. Averi wasn't even walking yet (she started the week after they left) when they went back to Kaz., so of course my mom couldn't believe how much she had changed. And no surprise at all that Averi took right to her. Mia has been asking for weeks when she was getting back, so she is thrilled to have her home too.

Here are a few pictures of the girls painting a sign for her.



"uh-oh paint"

Picking up mom at the airport

Hanging out with Mimi

Adorable dress up outfits my mom brought back for them...

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday Jon

Today is Jon's birthday and I took him out to celebrate lastnight. We went to Fleming's steakhouse at the Summit. We received a gift card there from some of our soccer family. The restaurant was VERY pricey but absolutely delicious:) Definitely somewhere we couldn't afford to go to on our own, but we enjoyed it as a special treat.

The steak was awesome!

Here is our dessert that we shared. Choclate lava cake with ice cream (pistachios on top) and chocolate covered strawberries with whip cream. It was SO good and we were stuffed when we left.


Tonight we are all going out with his mom to the Fish Market. She and I went in together and got him a mini laptop for his birthday. He opened it lastnight and was SO excited. He was like a little kid with a new toy...So funny but glad he likes it and proud of myself for pulling off the surprise!

A Few Christmas Day Pics

Opening Stockings

Averi was completely happy with her Smarties and lipstick...

Averi in her new Pooh shades

My FAVORITE picture of Mia of the day. She was so cute in her new princess dress we got her.

And she was ecstatic about her new Belle doll and has taken it everywhere since she got it. She even sleeps with it.

Averi was so excited about her new baby doll cradle

Here's the girls playing with the cradle. They had like 4 dolls in there by the end of it...


Mia riding her new princess scooter. She is doing great on it!


We got them a little broom and dustpan and of course Mia wants to actually use it the right way. Averi pretty much just wants to swing it around:)

Santa Claus Comes To Town

Every year the fire dept. sends a fire truck around our neighborhood on Christmas Eve with Santa Claus. My girls LOVE it and are getting to the age where they look forward to it. Mia could not wait for it this year. So here's a few pictures of us waiting for Santa Claus to come around on the fire truck.

Averi was very comfortable with her crackers and sitting in her wagon.

Mia waved with Daddy on the sidewalk...

Curiosity Gets the Best of Her

So a couple weeks ago I got Averi out of the bath (forgetting to pull the plug as I pick her up) and go into her room and get her all dressed and warm in her PJ's. When she's dressed, I stand her up and go walking down the hall into the living room thinking that she is right behind me. All of the sudden Jon & I hear a huge splash with a giggle followed by it and we of course all go running in the bathroom only to find that our mischievous little Averi decided she wanted to get back in the bath. She had totally climbed back in the bath, clothes and all. The funniest part about it was that she was splashing around playing, and pouring water all over her head like there was nothing weird about it at all:) We were cracking up!

And of course Mia was having a panick attack and saying "oh no, her clothes are all wet". She would never even think of getting in water with her clothes on (unless of course it's a swimsuit). And unfortunately we totally failed to grab the camera and get a picture of it. But it was truly a very funny moment.

Christmas Outfits

Here's what the girls wore for church today. Mia has been asking to wear this dress since I bought it several months ago.

Here's Mia & her friend Ella dancing and spinning around in their dresses at church.

I couldn't get Averi to be still for a picture. She is always in motion...I wonder who she gets that from:)

Sweet Averi asked me to hold her hand on the way home from church. She's been doing that a lot lately and it of course melts my heart.

The girls together after church.

And she's gone again:)

Swinging Together

It was around 70 degrees on Thursday (yes, it's the week before Christmas and in the 70's...I'm thinking we're not getting snow for Christmas this year...lol). Anyways, we went to the park with our friends Rachel & Ali and had a good time. I forgot my camera believe it or not, but here's a sweet picture she took of the girls swinging together...

Brunch with Santa

They had a brunch with Santa at our local library (the same place we made the gingerbread house). Mia did great. Averi wanted to see Santa but did not want to sit on his lap...

Telling Santa (bashfully) what she wants for Christmas...

So here I am sitting with her since she wouldn't do it alone...

She sure did love the donuts though...

Here's Averi keeping her eye on Santa:)

Working on her Christmas tree craft...

Mia enjoying her warm cocoa and donut...

Wordless Wednesday

Quick Summary

*Pretty much done with Christmas shopping and have almost all my presents wrapped. I got tons done when Jon was off last week.

*Jon went back to work day and it was a hard day for all of us. Ten days with daddy around is nice, but we were definitely back to reality today. Kids were fussy and it was a hard day for mommy for sure:)

*Trying to figure out when to take Averi's paci away. She only gets it for bedtime, but we took Mia's away at 18 mos. For some reason I'm having a little harder time taking it away from Averi. Probably because with Mia I knew we had to take it away because I was due with Av in a few mos. It's gotta be at a time when we have nothing going on for a few days as I'm sure we're gonna have some not-so-great naps days. I'm thinking maybe we'll wait until after Christmas. We'll see...Totally dreading that week, whenever it is!

*Started baking Christmas cookies today. I have 2 more kinds to make this week. Averi definitely approved of the peanut butter with chocolate kisses ones that I made today. She didn't get to help make them (like Mia did), but she got to test them out when she woke up from her nap...

Cubbies Christmas Party

They sang some Christmas songs for the parents. So cute!



Listening to the Christmas story...