December 17

When Madelyn opened this note, she wanted to know right away what her dad got for her. Fortunately, I've learned that making her wait is a good way to make her tow the line, too. :)

When she got home from school, the first thing she said was, "What is it, Daddy?!"

 We love Llama Llama books, so it was an extra special treat to get a little Llama Llama doll, too!



And Christmas wouldn't be complete without a light-up necklace, but this one had Tinkerbell and some other fairies on it! Super cool!

 

December 16



After Madelyn's sleepover, Owen was hopeful that he could come back to our place to play with Madelyn for a while longer. We thought that was a great idea knowing what tonight's activity would be!

Owen read more Christmas stories to Madelyn on the way back to our house!

We love looking at Christmas lights, but having the cousins join us was great fun!

We packed up some hot cocoa and snacks, and hit the northwest valley to check out some of the best Christmas houses! (Thanks, Zona, for the link to the interactive map!) Chris entered all the addresses into his phone before we left and the we let the GPS do the rest! Fun, fun, fun!

We really loved the projection of Santa in the window here.
He was in and out of sight, ate cookies, etc. Very cute!

Here's a short video of one of the houses that had their lights set to music. (It was hard to pull ourselves away from this one):

 

 

Sleepover with the Cousins

Chris and I recently made a trade with Aunite Kristin and Uncle Rick... we'll watch your kiddos, and you watch ours. This really is the BEST kind of deal sisters can make when they have kids. :)

We were having some friends over for a relaxing evening together, and thought Madelyn would have much more fun if she was with her cousins. And no surprise to anyone, they had a great time together drinking hot cocoa and reading Christmas stories!

December 15

This was another activity that Madelyn was super excited to do! Fortunately, Grammy made us a special batch of Christmas cutouts to decorate! Thank you, Grammy!

This was one of Madelyn's "favorites." She added a little bit of everything. ;)

A special thanks goes out to Auntie Kim for saving our frosting. I need to learn to stop trying to improvise without a recipe. Fortunately, she was available instantly via text message and got us going in no time at all!

 

December 14

We love pedicures! But we've never had them specifically for Christmas. All of us (including Daddy!) went to kick our feet up and get pampered. Madelyn was so excited at the idea of getting some sort of Chrismas design on her toes. Every time I looked over at her she'd make this face...

 

But her toes sure did turn out cute! Chris and couldn't believe how perfect the lady made the little snowman on her tiny toe!

 

Daddy even let her get her finger nails painted as an extra treat!

 

And Madelyn insisted I get a design as well (this is not something I usually do). I'm pretty much a Plain Jane kind of gal when it comes to getting pedicures.