First Christmas (the non-white one in Virginia)

We got to celebrate Christmas early this year with Grandma, Papa, and Uncle Aaron before they headed to Oregon (go Ducks, btw!!!) and we headed to Ohio (Go Bucks too, but they're not playing in a bowl as I type this year.... :() We had such a great day with them, heading over to their house as soon as the girls woke up and finishing up the day at Busch Garden's Christmas Town. Between feasting, stockings, presents, games, naps, and laughter, it was quite the full day! Can you tell who is excited??

Stockings came first, much to Evie's delight. Surveying the loot before diving in :)
Ohhhh Grandma! These look yummy! (she has since learned that they taste yummy as well :))
Playing with Uncle Aaron and her socking loot :)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand our girls have officially entered the world of American Girl (much to my secret delight ;)).

Evie is quite taken with Baby Ruthie. When Grandma asked if she could hold her, Evie hesitated and told her "maybe when you bigger" (I wonder where she's heard that before ;)). She did eventually let Grandma hold her but said "just two minutes..." and about 2 seconds later asked if she could have her back. ;)
Gracie got a bear (Honey Bear) which she was quite pleased with and continues to love to hug. :)
Thanks for the fun day, Mom and Dad!!!
Christmas Town pics to come later.... :)

Little Bear and Baby Strawberry Shortcake

Every year the Youth Group has a progressive dinner Christmas party and each year there is a theme. This year it was cartoon/animated characters. Evie went as Little Bear and Gracie went as Baby Strawberry Shortcake. :) Little Bear didn't want her picture take, but here is Baby Strawberry Shortcake.

All my creativity was used up on the girls so Nathan and I just went as generic elves from a generic Christmas movie. I know, lame, but like I said, my creativity juices ran dry. ;) The kids did an amazing job with their costumes (you'll see some below) and the three host families were incredible with the food. Thanks Ickes, Mortiers (senior ;)), and Clearys for hosting!
(Elastigirl's costume may have been my fav ;))
Tinkerbell and Peter Pan
 
Evie's friend Timothy's parents hosted the appetizers. Timothy was excited when he saw Evelyn dressed up that he wanted to go put on his bear costume too! They were too cute together. :)
Such a flattering picture, girls...
Gracie with Puss in Boots who also actually made the hat that Grace is wearing. :)
Oh no! Someone stole Mickey's ears!!

Such a fun night, and to top it off, bed time stories with daddy!!

Jessie and James come to visit!

Earlier this month my friend Jessie and her son, James, came to visit. We missed Josh and are praying for him while he's deployed!! Josh and Jessie were stationed here when James was born so Jessie and I got to go through the end of pregnancy and first year and a half of motherhood together. :) We hadn't seen them in almost a year and it was so fun to catch up and watch James and Evelyn reconnect and enjoy playing together. :) James is all boy - he moves twice as much and twice as fast as Evie (which is saying something :)), eats three times as much, laughs easily, does everything with 110% energy and is just as sweet and delightful as can be. We loved our time with him! :)
The first evening they were here we raked a big leaf pile for the kids. Evelyn hadn't been that interested in leaf piles before. I think she didn't know what to do with them. Thanks, James, for teaching her the joys of leaf piles! :) Oh and the bears had to of course play in the leaves as well. :)

Gracie, wishing she could join in the fun. Don't worry, little girl, you will be right out there with them next year! :)

Watching George together to wind down while we made dinner.
Trader Joes is way more fun with a friend :)
James' special blue bear and Evie's bears were quite popular during the visit. This picture was very hard to get with two squirmy two year olds, but here are James and Evie sharing their most special bears with each other. They were so sweet in agreeing to share with each other!
Eating breakfast on the floor together in their jammies.
On the day Jessie and James left we went to the Richmond Children's Museum with our friend Amy and her kids. Joshua, James and Evie had a blast! These pictures aren't the greatest, but trying to get three two year olds to look and smile at the same time is pretty much impossible, but these pictures give you an idea of how much fun they had. :)
Love this picture of James "rowing" Jessie in the boat :)

Ambulence drivers...

Don't worry Katie Ruth and Gracie Grace, you'll be able to run around soon too :) 
Running around the infamous cave, shortly before Evie's fall. :(

Christmas Train!

Thanks for coming to visit, Jessie and James! Come again soon! :)

Oh the Weather Outside is Delightful...

On one of those 70 and sunny days this week that I referred to before, Molly and her girls came over for a play date. The weather was too nice to stay inside so we decided to take the girls for a wagon ride around the neighborhood and to the neighborhood swing set. Don't worry little Gracie, you'll be able to join them in here before too long!
Admiring (??) the giant blow up nativity down the street. ;)
It was during school so we had the swing set to ourselves. :)
Yes, it is December is my baby is out barefoot. I love Virginia!
Heading back for naps...

Come again soon, Margaret and Caroline!

December is here!

While it's beginning to feel like Christmas with all the decorations, parties, baking, shopping, and Christmas events, we've been enjoying amazing weather. If I can't have snow, I'll definitely go with the sunny and 60/70 degree days we've been having! :) Last weekend in the morning it was only sunny and 50s, but that turned out to be perfect weather for the annual Williamsburg Christmas parade! :) Grandma came with us and we ran into the junior high girls group and their families and sat with them as well.

Evie LOVED the parade. We made the mistake of trying to take a family picture after the parade started. Evelyn was very worried because Grandma was blocking her view and we were all missing the fire truck to take a picture! :p
"Hi firetrucks!!"

The parade was great and we enjoyed it, but it was looooong. We all felt like this by the end. ;)
After the parade our friends the Williams and Muellers, in town from Alaska and DC, came over for lunch. They're Ticket to Ride fans so once the girls went down we got a game in before they had to head back to DC. Feel free to ask who won this game. ;)
To close out the first weekend in December we went to Williamsburg's Grand Illumination. There is always a big party with our church friends and we usually hang out there until the fireworks. These were Grace's first fireworks and she loved them! She was mesmerized and flapped her arms and kicked her legs the whole time. :) (sorry for the blurry pic, this was the best phone picture we could get)

Such a fun weekend to start off our December!