FHE Last Night

Okay, I promise this will be my last talk of Christmas for awhile...I realize if I keep writing about it, I'll make it old for all of you :)

Last night for FHE, we made our traditional count-down chain to Christmas!! In the past, we have always made our chain on the 100 day countdown day. I know there's really just no excuse, but we had a lot of stuff going on that week so we didn't get to it until last night :( Oh well! We had a lot of fun making it...and we'll have even more fun counting down!!! YAHOO!

Also, Angela did her first somersault today! A fluke? Probably. But, I'm still celebrating it! She's always putting her head on the ground and sticking her bum way up in the air. Sometimes when she's doing this, I'll help her flip over and do a somersault. Well, today she was sticking that bum in the air and did a perfect somersault all by herself. She had the biggest grin on her face when she was done...as well as she should have :) She did it!

Maybe a Little Too Much Christmas Cheer?

Carolyn worked really hard on an art project of hers tonight for an hour and a half! And she’s still not done with it ….we agreed that I would leave all of her crayons, stickers, paper, etc. out over night so she could pick right back up from where she left off. When I walked over to see what she was working on, she told me it was a surprise…she was making me a book for Christmas! That’s my little girl…prepping for Christmas in Sept :) (Maybe this is bad?) Anyways, I feel so special that her little book for me is taking her so long to make…I’m not allowed to look at it until Christmas so I took these pictures and left her alone :) Carolyn now has a “Christmas Binder” where she is going to store all of her Christmas gifts she makes for people....
(And don't worry, even though we're a little obsessive about Christmas over here, we don't overlook the other holidays! Carolyn picked out what she wanted to be for Halloween and we got the costume last weekend (for $1! The Thrift Store by my apt. has a "Half Off" Sale every Saturday:) I got her little costume and cute dresses for her - each costing $1 - $2..yahoo! I love getting a great deal :)

Furthermore, we are also prepping for Thanksgiving right now by recording things we are thankful for on a regular basis....so, yeah, we aren't forgetting the other holidays :)

Anyways, on to a new topic :) Carolyn is such a sweety. After we read Family Scriptures, Carolyn likes have her personal study time to "read" the scriptures. I love hearing the stories she tells of Jesus (and of being nice, how to be happy, etc.) while she has the scriptures open! It truly strengthens my testimony every night to hear her sweet stories and testimony of Jesus.

And this is sweet Angela and me participating in one of Angela's FAVORITE things: brushing her teeth!! Whenever I want to distract Angela from something or make her happy, I say, "Brush teeth?" and she goes running to the bathroom.

Little Miss Creativity

I love how Carolyn has always been so creative. With her, everything comes to life. She loves making everything and anything become a “person” and then having the objects she created talk to each other. Her fingers, pencils, paper, rocks, food – you name it, it comes to life! She is always creating little stories with objects.

Here is Carolyn playing with pieces of felt. The blue piece is a princess and the red is a prince; they are escaping from an evil queen (a black piece of felt).

Kissy Monster

What's more adorable than having your one-year-old obsessed with giving out kisses?

To let you know that she wants a kiss, Angela will start puckering her lips and kissing the air over and over again until she gets a kiss. She is doing this all of the time. Really? Can my kids get any cuter? :)

...And here is our little Kissy Monster in the tub:

Thanks Grandpa, Grandma, and Nana!

All last week, Nana (Andrew's mom) was here visiting! Because we were so busy, I didn't get any pictures :( But, we had a lot of fun with her!

This morning, we got a lovely package from my parents. One thing they sent the girls was a 3D wooden alligator puzzle! Carolyn was so excited! She wasn't quite patient enough for us to finish it - she wanted to pull it all apart before the gator was finished :) I don't blame her, however, they do take some time to put together! Thanks, Mom and Dad!

My mom also sent me the Gospel Art Picture Kit! I've been wanting this for a long time! It has A TON of gospel art pictures - we will get sooo much use out of that for FHE, callings, preschool, etc. YAHOO!

I already posted about this on my preschool blog, but Carolyn is so excited about her books she makes that I had to post it here (she had me take a picture of her reading every page in one of her books). She is really motivated right now to learn how to read. She really wants to be able to read the signs at the zoo (the ones that tell you the animal names and information about them). Most times we go to the zoo, Carolyn will bring a book along with her so she can practice reading in between seeing the animals so she can work up to reading the signs.

Look at our little Angela's hand reading, too :) She's so cute. The other day we were out for a walk and whenever a car would pass us, she'd stop whatever she was doing and wave at the car. After the car would pass us, she'd blow kisses to the car. She's such a sweety. She blows kisses a lot of times when we are leaving a store, the park, etc....everything and everyone gets her sweet little kisses! Which, by the way, she's getting pretty good at kissing for real. She used to just open her mouth and move it in when we'd ask for a kiss (which was adorable), but now she's getting good at puckering when she kisses us. We love both our little girlies.