Our Year in Pictures- 2010

                                                                                                           
                             

                                                                                  

                                                                      
                                                              Happy New Year!

Nieve

Christmas 2010

We had had a wonderful Christmas with the girls this year.  We went to Christmas Eve service at church, then home for pictures and dinner. 

Christmas Eve

We open our gifts on Christmas morning, but Rachel pleaded with me to be able to open one gift on Christmas Eve and I gave in. It was fun to watch Rebecca opening her gifts- she kept looking at Rachel to see what to do. She still doesn't quite understand it all, but had a fun time anyways!

Rebecca woke up early on Christmas morning, so I made her breakfast and we waited for Rachel to wake up and then the present opening began!

Rachel also found the pickle hidden in the tree.

The girls got tons of presents this year- thanks to the grandparents!

We took it easy all day- the girls played and I looked through my new cookbooks.

I tried my best to get a decent picture of both of the girls together- no luck! It is SO hard to take a picture of an almost two year old-ha!

Rebecca got JoJo the rabbit- she "plays" hide-and-seek with you.  Rebecca takes the carrot and hides. Then JoJo counts to ten and starts moving around looking for the carrot. It is pretty cute and so far has worked really well.  Rebecca has a hard time hiding and sitting still, but Rachel LOVES it.

Later we went to our friends house for Christmas dinner and had tons of good food. The big girls played and Rebecca kept the adults entertained.

Daddy's girl!

The husbands.

Rachel playing with Catie's DSI- she would LOVE to have one!

While we were there, it had started to snow and it was coming down pretty good by the time we headed home.  The kids were really excited.

Miss Catie

Miss Rachel

Home sweet home.

Christmas Vacation

Rachel is out of school for the next two weeks with Christmas vacation and we are loving it!  It is so nice to be able to sleep in and stay in our pjs all day if we want to.  I have been trying to keep the girls busy and do a few Christmas-time activities.  So here are a few pics of what we have been up to this week!

Arts & Crafts

Having a "sleep over" by our tree

Spending an afternoon at Imaginations at Play

Rebecca LOVED the sand- of course she spilled more on the floor

than she did into her cup!

Making lots of snowflakes

Making sugar cookies

Rebecca doing her best to frost that cookie. I think she ate more frosting

than she got on the cookie! But it was so cute to watch her.

Her first cookie!

Time to eat!

And that is what we have been up to so far! Looking forward to Christmas Eve service at church tomorrow night!

Nutcracker Tea

I have to start out this post with a BIG HUGE THANK YOU!!!!! to my wonderful Naomi!  Rachel and I had planned a special afternoon out. I had a babysitter all lined up and she cancelled at the VERY last minute!  That did not make for a happy six year old or a happy mama.  So I called my friend Naomi and she had the perfect sitter for me!!! So Rachel and I were able to have a wonderful afternoon together.

Earlier this fall, I looked into getting tickets for us to go see the Nutcracker Ballet. But the tickets were kind of spendy, I wasn't too sure if Rachel would even like the ballet or make it through the entire thing, so I decided against it.  Later I saw that a hotel in Atlanta has an afternoon tea party with many of the dancers from the ballet and I thought that might be fun for Rachel. We went to the party today and had a great time!

The party was in a huge ballroom that they had beautifully decorated.  There were tons of mothers and daughters attending.  I didn't realize how many people would  be there. Everyone had their own table, which I liked. I am not very good at making "chit-chat" with complete strangers.

We went to the cookie decorating station and fixed up a gingerbread man.

Then carolers came out and sang a few songs.  They had great voices, but the ladies had these weird pointsetta headbands on and it kind of made me laugh. Not too sure what those were all about?

The dancers came through the room and chatted with everyone.  These girls were really sweet!

Then the dancing started up.

Enjoying some hot chocolate. 

 All the kids were served hot cocoa and the adults had hot tea and water.  Everyone received a plate full of cute little sandwiches and then a dessert plate.

Dessert- how cute is that Nutcracker!

Mrs. Claus came out and talked with all the kids and then Santa came and said hello. After the party, Santa and his wife were in the hallway and ready for pictures.

The hotel was decorated so pretty. After the party, we took a little tour and checked it all out.

This village with a train was incredible!

Last stop was in front of the tree. 

 I heard if you stay at the hotel, that for a small fee, Santa will come to your room and tuck your kids into bed at night- fun idea!  Maybe next year?