Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas!  The girls had so much fun, and it made us get into the season more.  Before Christmas, we opened gifts at our house.  Sydney was very excited. 

The car toy is fun...

but the box is really fun too!

We spent about a week in San Angelo, so we had plenty of time to hang out with all of our family.

This outfit is so cute!  It was Sydney's.  Jenna had a lot of Christmas clothes between the hand me downs and new ones.

For some reason, Sydney always sits on top of Josh like this.

I caved and got a couple of kids games on my phone.  It's amazing how quickly Sydney picked it up!  She only plays occasionally, and she doesn't bug me too much about it.

Poor Sydney had a virus, and she had fever for a few days before Christmas.
 

Sydney is such a sweet big sister!

Jenna is very uncooperative for photos right now.  She looks like this most times I try to take a picture. 

And every now and then we get a silly one

The kids got sock monkey hats from Neeme and Papa, so here are the three little monkeys jumping on the bed!  Too cute.

Uncle James helped Sydney and Aaron build lincoln log buildings, which they loved

This is what an attempt at a cousin picture looks like after gifts on Christmas Eve!

Jenna is kind of picky about who she hangs out with, but she always sits with Mamma, her great great grandmother

Christmas morning!  The girls got dolls, doll furniture and balls from Santa.  Sydney surprisingly asked Santa for a ball when she visited him. 

Rocking fake mustaches from BJ's stocking

Sydney opened everything for Jenna and showed it to her

Feeding her baby a hamburger!

Jenna started making this face, like "ooooohhhhh what is it?"  Too funny.

One of the favorite gifts was this doll stroller for Jenna from Granny.  You can see Sydney in the background, really sad because Jenna got to play with it first!
 

All smiles now that it is her turn!

Jenna's mood changes so quickly.  These three pictures were taken within a couple of minutes.  First grumpy...

Then super happy...

Then the "oooohhhh" face!
 

These wooden nesting dolls are always a favorite toy at Neeme and Papa's house

Plenty of helpers for opening gifts

Puzzle fun!

And Happy New Year!!!!  Cheers to 2012!

Pre Christmas

As usual, we are a little behind!  We had a wonderful Christmas, and we enjoyed some much needed time off.  More to come on that later!  First up is Thanksgiving and pre- Christmas fun. 

We had Thanksgiving lunch at BJ's aunt and uncle's home, Sally and Ralph.

They have an old horse ride that the girls really enjoyed, after a little initial uncertainty.

The kids always have so much fun together! 

 More fun with cousins!  Josh is always really nice about playing games with Sydney.  And Sydney always loves hanging out with Liza!

 

We went to see Santa at our church, which was a nice low-key atmosphere (ie no 2 hour wait in line!).  Sydney was not a fan of Santa last year, but this year she was super excited... until it was our turn.  Then she decided she would sit as far away from Santa as possible on the bench.  

BJ just picked Sydney up and put her on Santa's lap, and she was just fine.  Jenna was not happy, so we didn't leave her there long.

We finally put a tree up this year, after taking a break for the last couple of years.  The girls loved it.  

 

Silly girls!!!

Sydney and I made Christmas cookies.  She loves to "cook".  

Poor Jenna... always trying to keep up with Sydney, but she is not a good helper in the kitchen!

Kid ornaments!  I love them.  Sydney's is on the left, and Jenna's is on the right.

Sick Day

Jenna has been sick this week. Here are a few pics of the day at home. Next week I'll do a real post. I'm having too much fun with Instagram!

1. Big helper "organizing" the sippy cups
2. Think Daddy's hat fits?
3. Not feeling so well
4. It's all good when you have a ball to play with

Early!!!

Sydney woke up at 5 am this morning, which woke up Jenna as well. The long morning gave me a chance to play with Instagram on my new iPhone, so here is a collage.

1. Up for two hours already
2. J loves the stool
3. Christmas window sticker fun
4. J also loves climbing on S