Best French Braid Yet

S loves her hair french braided, but I struggle. Her hair slips out of my hand. I have to brag about this one. I never get it this tight. My friend suggested I start lower and it was so much easier!

"Star and Cookie"

New Stockings and Plates

My mom did an amazing job on these stockings!

Christmas Day 2011

K woke up before 6:00. What a buggar! I sent Jason in to wake up S, who was not at all ready to wake up.

S had that ball mastered by the end of the night. I wanted to get her one last year, but she still wasn't quite tall enough.

Even though there were presents to open, S still wanted to take out the doll playhouse from her G & G.

My mom made new stockings for Jason and I. It was so hard to keep it a secret from Jason. So Santa put the new ones under the old ones. For once Jason was surprised. He really thought my mom would never make him one because I told him that he had to ask, but he refused.

I made the three of them plated this year.

This Rudolph sang it's song when you pressed on the ear. It was her favorite present. She ran around playing with it all day. She got it from friends of ours.

I got Jason this "Cootees" cd he begged for. I could only find it on Amazon. He loved it. Too bad it was blank! ARG!

S's sunbeam teacher Sister Carter made the girls snow hats.

Jason modeled S's.

This is what I got! Jason had our neighbor draw it with charcoal. The eagle represents my dad. The flag is my uncle. They are flying out of the storm of this life into the next brighter life. As soon as I opened it, I said I wouldn't cry, but I did. I love that it's all done in charcoal!

Christmas Eve

Debbie and I took the girls up to SLC in the morning to get our German food and rolls. Later that evening, we headed down to Nephi to Grandma Bateman's. We had her traditional clam chowder. Yummy!

K opening her pee wee pillow pet from G & G Parkin.

Little tares...it's gonna be a long night!

G & G also got them a dollhouse. I didn't let them open it there for fear of losing the pieces. They actually didn't ask much to open it. I was so proud of them.

We gave Grandma Bateman a book. She gave us a ham. I sliced, cubed and froze it. Awesome!

It was late, but the girls were so good. I took the house out of the box and let them play till nearly 10.

Opeing her Christmas pj pants I sewed. K got a matching pair.

S said to take a picture because her pillow pets were a family now with the babies. I love how that girl is so into the concept of family. She cracks me up!

I love this one! We had a carrot and pb/chocolate cheerios for the reindeer and two cookies for Santa.

Gingerbread Cookies

Didn't K do a great job?! S and I did the rest.

They were full of flour from head to toe when were finished!

She's eating the extra sugar crystals we dusted off the counter.

I love this one! She's got such gorgeous eyes!

Tada! I don't know if I'll ever make this recipe again. It was made with applesauce, but still asked for sugar and the sticky dough was hard to work with. We even refrigerated it overnight.

Wanted to be like Big Sis

K is so not ready to potty train yet, but she wants to be like S. So I brought out the potty seat to make her happy. She even sat on the big one.

She even tried to put on big sis' underwear.