Missing Christmas...

I couldn't bare to take these down quite yet.. especially since I just finished Renna's

I'm sad to see these things go

It was too short of a time...

Oh.. and cheap oranges...

I was ready in a way to take down our decorations.. but not at the same time. I've never felt like a Christmas season has gone by as quickly as this one. Usually, I'm ready to take everything down the week after Christmas, but this year I only took stuff down because the tree was so dry that it would lose needles if you looked at it and Lily's birthday is on Sunday (got to decorate with everything princess!) So everything is taken down except the Christmas pictures that I just couldn't take down quite yet...

Our first Christmas.. the good old days..

Pregnant with Lily feeling really heavy..

Lily's first Christmas where we went a visiting all of Youssef's side.

Last year looking forward to the baby sister (but I didn't want to be in the shot this time... and anyway, Lily was too cute by herself!)

This year! Renna's first Christmas and all of us together.

I think I'll do a group picture every few years or so and the ones in the middle will be just the girls. Mainly because they change a lot quicker than we do. :)

Christmas happenings...

I let Renna try some candy cane... She has a sweet tooth now that she has FOUR teeth, and she just got her two front teeth in time for Christmas... how ironic!

Renna thought her newest cousin was pretty interesting. I got the fun job of waking Sophie up so she could eat.. hence the playing with the toes. ;)

Lily is standing in front of her new doll house holding her Tinkerbell doll, wearing her new Tinkerbell nighty, and holding her baby doll with the new matching Tinkerbell outfit. She was flipping out with all the fun Tinkerbell things and kept saying "For me" over and over as she opened the presents. :)

She had chocolate for breakfast on our own family Christmas (which was before the big family Christmas which was before the BiggEr family Christmas.)

This was within the past week before we got at least another foot of snow! Lily and Jonathan have been enjoying the snow a LOT. Tomorrow might be a good snow fort making day since it is starting to warm up. It's going to be really nasty if it warms up and ALL the snow starts to melt.. we are talking over two feet at least!

Well, it was a fun Christmas! And now that I'm mostly done with the Christmas projects (except our letter which is usually a newyears letter anyway.. and mailing presents to Youssef's side.. we were a bit late) I'll be needing to get ready for Lily's birthday in one week! *A moment of panic* It will be fun though and a princess theme (Christmas was all Tinkerbell.. and her birthday will be all Princesses.) :) She's going to love it! I'm not sure when I want to invite people for a party though... hmm....

Christmas Pictures

Happy family!

Giggles!

Whoops, one is slipping down!

Renna has been feeling her bottom teeth a lot... it looks kind of funny. ;)

A few days ago when I got our Christmas stuff out the girls had lots of fun with the nativity! They've been playing with it a lot and Lily's been talking about Jesus and the wisemen and everything. It's really fun. We haven't read many of the Christmas books yet, but we had our Fondue tradition today (that starts in December and keeps going through Christmas.)

Decorating!

Renna really liked her ornaments. I think she was confused though as to why I kept taking them away to hang on the tree.

Lily picked out her ornament this year and she wanted a Tinkerbell ball one. The picture above is of her hugging it when I first gave it to her! It was really cute. She is really into Tinkerbell and princesses and sparkly girly dress-up things. ;) (*shh* She's getting a Tinkerbell doll for christmas AND a nighty with Tinkerbell on it too!)

The girls were watching Rudolph this afternoon after I finally finished straightening and rearranging the living room (this was before we put the ornaments on the tree)

Youssef had fun outside rolling a snowball. Lily was with him for a while but then came in because she was wet and cold (her snow stuff isn't the greatest).

I made a really tasty quiche this morning. I didn't use a recipe, but it turned out really good! A guy that Youssef interviewed for a story in the paper (who was a buffalo farmer) gave him some buffalo sausage and I put some in the quiche. It was really good. Youssef thought it smelled like bacon. I thought it smelled like jerky, but which ever way it tasted (though it did have it's own taste) was really really good. And nice to know that it is so much better for us than the store bought meat that is mainly fat and junk that they inject the animals with.

If anyone would be interested in going in with us to buy some buffalo meat let us know! Youssef is going to find out how much it is and I'm guessing the more people the merrier as far as splitting a side of buffalo. It's organic in case you are wondering. :)

Renna sees her first snow fall.

Lily feeds the nutcracker some breakfast meat. It is so funny how much she loves the nutcracker. I think we'll have to take her to a showing of the nutcracker next year. Every other year she was always fascinated with it, but afraid to touch it. This year she's been carrying it all around and treating it like her own special nutcracker. She really does need her own because this one is mine! I got it the second year we were married because we couldn't aford it the first year... and the first year we were married we went to the nutcracker together.

Random playing..

Lily was playing peek-a-boo with Renna and making her giggle!
I love it when they play together!

Lily helped me make pumpkin pies and cracked me up when she got a spoon and kept asking if the pumpkin pies were ready to eat. She was ready... she had a spoon. ;)

Renna knows how to climb onto the little trampoline now. She's been all over the place crawling and pulling herself up and walking along things. She holds her balance even when I'm moving the object that she's holding onto! She probably could try to walk without holding on, but she's a careful little girl and is very sensitive to hurting herself so she takes it slow. It's funny because Lily was always nurvous about outside things or noises.. like the vacuum or strangers and Renna will go to almost anyone and she follows me when I vacuum trying to get at it! Lily though was so terribly daring with learning to walk and just taking off over things. I can't count how many times Lily fell off the bed! Yet, Renna is really cautious about things like that. Not about things though, about doing. It's really fascinating to see what they are like. :)

This picture cracked me up. Both girls in their matching jammies and with their favorite toys. Lily is feeding her pig from a dolls sippy cup and I the next pictures that I took (I didn't post them because our connection is slow) Renna of course was wanting Lily's toys. Why is it that the other kids toys are always better? Renna does love her little elmo doll and book though. It's hard to tell what Renna will like for Christmas since she really has pretty much everything since Lily had so many toys to pass on. I've decided to get her books. They have some really neat interactive ones now and I've showed her some in the store and she really likes them. Lily does too, so it's nice to be getting something that will last a few years and both girls like. :)

My "puffed sleeves"

Ok.. so since you asked... I set the camera on a timer and got this shot... I hardly recognize myself! Like... what am I doing wearing someone ELSE'S cute clothes? Youssef thought it looked very "New York-ish" or something to that effect. I've come such a long way in my post pregnancy state. After Lily I didn't actually have any pants that fit (except some black stretchy ones) and I always wore this jean skirt that I'd put together from my too small jeans and tank tops that showed off my belly chub. I was telling someone once that you know you need new clothes after having a baby when you remember your maternity clothes with a sigh and fondness. Anyway, I never felt very pretty post kids untill now! Which is amazing in itself when you considar that the Wii fit keeps telling me how many lbs I gain and lose in a day and how I still need to lose over 20 lbs to get to my ideal body mass. Which, insidently, is still 10 lbs more than I was before being pregnant with Lily... I didn't have much muscle then though so that's probably why I was lighter than my "ideal" body mass. Now that I've been carrying two little turkeys around for the last almost three years I no longer need help putting the real 20 lb turkey into the oven on Thanksgiving! Ha, ha.. ;)

The cutie

I saw this outfit at Shopko and showed it to Renna...

Well she took on look and felt it! And grinned away and held it and felt it again!

She was so cute with it that I wanted to get it for her.

There was another one that was purple and a 4T (Lily's size) that I wanted to get for Lily so they could "match" .. Lily wasn't as interested though so I didn't get it for her (I think she would have liked it.. she was just tired and not paying attention) I DID get them another set of outfits to match though! Both with a little pink furry jacket and dress-like top with leggings. It was a bit trendy for my taste, but I think they'll really like it. Renna liked how that one felt too. Lily has been so into dresses this entire year that I think she'll have fun dressing up in it. I'm going to save them for Christmas though! So.. no pictures till then. I got myself a pair of jeans that actually fit really well and are super comfortable AND look good (unheard of)! I also got a purple hoody and a jean jacket for myself. It's really funny though because when I see the jacket on the back of one of our chairs I keep pictureing it on one (or all) of my fashionable friends and I keep thinking how it couldn't be mine because I don't normally get to own fashionable things like that! For some reason I've just always wanted one and never had one and always loved how they look on other people. I sort of feel like Anne of Green Gables with her puffed sleeves. Like I finally have something that makes me look in style and pretty like the other girls.

I never know what other people consider "in style" though, so if jean jackets aren't the thing anymore and I'm behind the times please DON'T tell me. I want to enjoy my "puffed sleeves" now that I have them! I usually pick what I like more than what other people think are in style anyway. And... I reeeally like.. AND it was on sale which makes me much happier too. Now I need to run to town (the little one) and do a tiny bit of shopping. I needed to do that anyway, but it's a fun excuse to wear the new clothes. I'll have to stop by where Youssef works so he can see us all snazzed up. ;) This might be the first time after having kids that I actually feel like I look pretty (and am comfortable!) in clothes that actually fit. So weird. I didn't even have to do any seamstressing magic on any of them!?!

First real hair-cut!

Before...

After!

I did cut her hair twice before when she was still under a year old and then some time after she was a year old. Just straight across in the back like this time. Only THIS time there's actually enough to keep! The longest part was at least 3 inches. The other two times I cut her hair I barely took off an inch and it was just to even out the very back (she's always had shorter hairs in the front as they grew in and the back of her head was always thicker.) I can still put it in a pony tail, but hopefully it won't get as tangled now! She got a cookie for holding still and sitting up straight. ;)

Renna's new things!

She's been crawling on hands and knees (really well) for a few weeks now, and more recently she's been much more interested in pulling herself up as much as she can!

She likes to explore...

.. and pull herself up on toys.. because they are so spiffy..

.. and even at this young age enjoys Wii fit. ;)

Dressing up!!!

Is she a flower fairy princess with a pet snow bunny?

We got a good smile from Lily after she ate some candy. ;)

I liked making Renna match both Lily and my costumes!

Many people took a second and third and sometimes more looks at Youssef. He was really hard to see in the dark.... except his smile. Very awesomely freaky. ;)

Lily's dress is supposed to look like an upside down flower...

Renna is an English lop in case you are thinking her ears are a little large for her size... that's how they are. ;)

"The Snow Queen" is one of my favorite fairy tales.... so of course...
here I am making some snow!

Night crawler shows how he can stand on one foot before teleporting to work.


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