Dear Aunt Roberta,
Thank you for the fun package. I LOVED it all. My mommy took some video of me after I opened it. I wanted to eat all the candy right away. I also carry around the "lipstick" (chapstick) all day and put it on every 5 seconds. My mom LOVES that. You must know me well because it had everything I love in that cute little purse. I love and miss you.
Love, McKenna
Here I am just before I did a fabulous triple salchow. (I wish.)
I love to see smiles like this. So genuine, you know she's having a great time!
I thought this was pretty funny. Maya with her gloves and short sleeves. The girl definitely does her own thing ALL THE TIME!
Can't wait to go again next year.
I never liked science when I was in school and I can say the feeling hasn't changed. Alexa had to do her first science project so we made sure to do one that I could understand and help with. So here it is. We made bread and tested how the temperature of the water made the yeast react.
Pretty exciting stuff. Here is Alexa with her bread. We had to do 5 experiments. 4 Loaves of bread per experiment which means 20 loaves of bread were made. We did it all after we got back from our trip, during new years and all before she had to go back to school. The upside, we ate yummy homemade bread for a month and shared it with our neighbors.
The day after we returned home from our trip was New Year's Eve. We had a great time. The girls all stayed up until midnight and we filled our time with lots of fun togetherness.
And we ate ice cream sundaes while we watched the ball drop. Yummy!
I can hardly believe that we have been married for 14 years now. Are we really that old? I know I have shared on this blog how great I think Tim is, but I can't post this without sharing a little more. Family and friends that knew Tim growing up have always shared funny and not so funny stories about Tim. It always helped me get to know who he was. I say was because now that I have known him and know him better than anyone, I think he is so much more and better than all those stories. He is the most supportive husband I know. I truly am spoiled. Not only is he ok with anything I decide to do, he knows that he will be the one watching the girls and never complains about being Mr. Mom over and over. Every Saturday we get up and clean the house. We get the girls going and then Tim instantly says, what do you need done? Pretty much anytime I feel anxious that the house isn't clean and I want to straighten up he is right there helping and getting the girls to clean up after themselves. When I am gone for the evening at a meeting, dinner is ready and warming in the oven, the kitchen is clean and the girls are all in bed asleep. EVERY TIME! Any day I can't make dinner or just don't feel like it, he comes home and makes dinner. If I want to do a project he is always there to help me. When he's not doing these things, he is working hard so I can stay home with our girls and building me up with kind words and encouragement of my capabilities. I must say my life is sweet.
The next day we went to this little French Cafe for breakfast. It was so yummy. I secretly would love to live in a city like this or Charleston, SC where you can walk all over and it has tons of old buildings. I love it.
The Capitol
It was a little creepy seeing this guy. We didn't want to make any false moves. They were all over the capitol.
A Christmas tree on the lawn with a view of the Washington Monument.
We went over to the Air and Space museum but it was sooooo crowded. I figured people wouldn't be out with such cold weather but I was wrong - they were everywhere.
We didn't get to take any pictures in the Holocaust Museum but let me say, if you ever get over there, make sure to check it out. It is amazing. I have such a new respect for all those that
I finally downloaded our pictures so I can post about Christmas. We had a quiet Christmas Eve. Just our family. We did our little traditions of having Mexican food, reading the Christmas Story and opening one gift each (at least the girls did) The highlight of the night was after we read we asked the girls what part of the story stuck out to them the most - what meant the most. We all shared and it was so tender to hear them share their ever growing testimonies of Jesus Christ.
2 of my sweet girls.
As usual they opened up pj's. (They tease me that every year I wrap them the same way. I roll them up and tie the ends like candy. Here they are in their jams along with a new game to play (after McKenna goes to bed, of course.)
These jammies were crazy. They were little tops with tight sleeves and the pants were giant. Here's Maya and Livie modeling how they truly fit. Notice how high the waist is. (What can you expect for $5 jams at Walmart.)
Christmas morning
Tim opening his gift from the girls. They all pitched in and got him a Red Sox tie. It's red with the red sox logo in the corner. They were so excited to give it to him. I thought they were going to ruin the surprise. He's sporting the new apron I made him also.
McKenna with her new ironing board. She new exactly what to do with it. Can't wait until she can use a real one.
My mom made her this blanket and this was her reaction. She loved it.
Maya
We spent Christmas day playing the Alexa decided a while back that she wanted to grow her hair out to give to Locks of Love. It has been a LONG year with lots of ponytails. It was finally long enough so over Christmas break we decided to cut it. Here are some pics with the old and new Alexa.
Just before the cut. Doesn't she look a little nervous?
