Christmas

Okay, here it is - FINALLY - Our December/Christmas post. I've had some major problems with both computer and camera lately and everything (hopefully) is now fixed.

December started out great. Brandon and I got to get dressed up and go to his work Christmas party at a local Mexican restaurant. Brandon was a little made fun of for dressing up too much, but hey, I thought he looked great! (Plus, we don't get out much, so it's nice to get dressed up!) They did a Dirty Santa gift exchange and I got a Pink Snuggie! Whoohoo!! It was a ton of fun. The food was great (and so were the margaritas!) Mom and Dad came into town and watched the girls for us. It was so nice to get out and have an "adult" night. :)

The girls really enjoyed having Brandon home. We got to do all kind of fun things we don't normally get to do with Daddy. We also got to do all kind of fun holiday things - like go look at Christmas lights. There's a country club neighborhood near us that prides itself on having AWESOME displays. This house (from the side view) was one of the winners. It was BEAUTIFUL.

Grandma and Grandpa Schrenk got here on the 22nd. So the girls got to open gifts then. This was the only time that Allison's dominos have actually resembled dominos. They keep becoming "food" for her animals. (By the way, Jordan is unwrapping a Count doll. Awesome.).

Grandma Schrenk hit up the Crocs warehouse sale again. The girls each got pairs of these red ones (Disney) and some purple ones that look like Mary Janes. Allison had to open both packages and figure out which were hers and which were Jordan's. We also ALL got Broncos Crocs.

The girls each got recorders (blue and orange - of course!)

This monkey was a gift for Allison but both girls LOVE it. You squeeze his hand and he starts to talk ("ooh ooh aah aah") and rolls around on the floor. It stops but then it's motion sensitive, so if you walk in front of it, it'll start up again. Jordan LOVES to walk right in its path and say, "Stop it monkey!" Too funny!!

Allison got a big girl bike from Aunt Mary and Uncle Mike. She was SO excited. She also got a new helmet and new pads. Jordan gets the Elmo bike now. Brandon can't wait until the weather gets better so we can work with them more on pedaling. (They don't QUITE get it yet).

Nana and Papa got here on the 23rd. On Christmas Eve, EVERYONE (minus Papa) went to the movies for the girls first movie - The Princess and the Frog.

They were SOO proud! Allison did GREAT and really enjoyed it. Jordan made it through about 2/3 of the movie before Brandon had to take her in the lobby. The movie was VERY cute. I liked it a lot better than I thought I would. And the scary part had such funny, upbeat music, that Allison didn't "get" that it was supposed to be scary. She called herself Tiana and called Monkey her frog for about a week afterwards.

Christmas morning - the girls woke up to this:

Allison LOVED her Barbie house and played with it immediately. It was hard to pull her away to open other gifts! Jordan wanted to play with each new gift she opened. It was hard to convince her to open more.

Nana got the girls animals and books from Kohl's. They're all from the "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" books. Of course, Jordan got the pig!!

I think the redheaded Barbie that Allison has in her left hand is her favorite. She calls her Ariel (even though Nana got her a Princess Barbie set that has Ariel in it).

Jordan's big gift from Uncle Mike and Aunt Mary was a soccer goal. This is Brandon's idea of being hilarious. ;)

We had to rearrange our playroom A LOT to get all the new stuff put away. The Barbie house got moved upstairs in a split second that Allison wasn't looking at it. She turned around and was HORRIFIED. "Where'd my house go?!" she screamed. (It was funny, I'm not going to lie). We had a daybed along this wall but that got moved to Allison's room. The day after Christmas, we went to Target and she got to pick out big girl bedding for it (she picked Princess). On Christmas Day, this is pretty much what happened ALL DAY LONG. (Mom played Barbies for 3 hours straight with Allison while we moved the bed and the new toys). The girls also got a vanity for all their dress up stuff so she has a renewed interest in her tutus. (Brandon calls this 'Allison and her tutu army').

She's even good about putting her Barbies away. (And apparently, all the Cinderellas have to stick together!)

She loves the Snow White Dress with the Snow White shoes. (It's even funnier when there's a tutu on OVER the dress).

Overall, the girls were VERY happy with Christmas. But it was nice when January came so we could start getting back into a groove!

And my best gift, you ask? My decals for my van. That's right folks, I'm officially a soccer mom. I have a Disney family on the back of my window. And I'm dang proud of it!