Decorating the Tree...

We decorated our house for Christmas the Monday after Thanksgiving, while Ben was at work. We did save some of our ornaments though so he could join in on the fun later that evening. Ben thought it was great that we did a big bulk of it without him... he's not really into that kind of stuff anyways. The girls and I enjoyed it though!

Abby loved the lights... and still does.

Tree box = hours of fun!

Happy Thanksgiving...

Happy Thanksgiving everybody, hope you all had a wonderful day enjoying family and friends. Our Thanksgiving day was pretty low key... which was nice, it was just the girls and us plus Heidi and Jake. Ben and I had grand plans to throw a big get together with a bunch of guys from Ben's work, since almost all of us moved away from our families and feel like orphans on holidays, but that completely fell apart at the last minute. Which was fine, we'll try to put something together next year and hope everyone's random schedules collide. With just us, our little get together was fairly stress free, which was wonderful. Most of the time everyone was sitting around watching Ben play through his recently released Ratchet game. I'm sure Heidi and Jake were bored out of their minds after a couple hours of watching it. At least the girls were there to keep them entertained while Ben was in another world.

Heidi and Jake the brought dessert and green bean casserole plus some spirited beverages, and Ben and I provided the rest. I actually ended up making a glazed ham for Thanksgiving... I know blasphemy right, but Ben absolutely hates turkey, or really any kind of roasted poultry. He's kinda weird like that and I really, really like him so a glazed ham it was. I did however roast a 3lb bone in turkey breast for Heidi and I, I like my turkey. I was really pleased with how everything turned out and I will forever brine my turkey now, so good, I'll just never buy generic store brand rolls ever again though... not so good. After our humongous early dinner Heidi and Jake fell asleep in the living room for a couple of hours and Ben and the girls and I went outside to play. After running around treasure hunting, we all took a little nap... so nice! Then it was time for dessert and coffee... mmm coffee. Thanks for coming over and joining us Heidi and Jake, hope you weren't too bored! ;)

This is what most of our afternoon looked like... Ben playing video games while Heidi and Jake were relaxing on the couch.

My one and only counter in my kitchen... I wish I would have taken pictures of everything all done or at least on the table, but I totally spaced, oh well.

Lizzie taking pictures of our finds on the treasure hunt.

Ben with the "list", we'll have to do this again sometime. It was a lot of fun.

Thanksgiving Song...

Here's some video of Lizzie's little song. I love her little shuffle - bouncy walk she does towards the end, definitely my little Lizzie. I obviously only recorded the very beginning... Abbers deiced she wanted to join in the fun too. So what I get for going to these things without Ben. I think I need to grow two more arms and then all might be okay...maybe, it still might not be enough though.

Preschool Thanksgiving Feast...

Today Lizzie's preschool class had a big Thanksgiving party... Lizzie kept calling it a feast and that it was. They cooked up a huge 24lb turkey with all the fixings and the kids even had an opportunity to help make part of the feast by making the cornbread muffins, Lizzie was super excited about that one. Ah, how nice it is to have a fully functional kitchen in your classroom. From what I heard, all of the boys were going crazy from smelling the food cooking all morning long... their little tummies were growling and couldn't wait to eat! I found it rather funny how it seemed to only effect the boys and not the girls. When everything was ready her class performed a little Thanksgiving themed song, then we all gathered around the tables, said what we were thankful for and ate a meal together. Good times!

Doing their little song. Lizzie's on the far right in the yellow.

Mmm... I think Abby ate most of Lizzie's too...
there's a reason why we call it Abbers Day around here!

The Reception...

After the ceremony we all headed down to the community center for the reception... that is after I had my major meltdown at the front of the sanctuary, with multiple witnesses to the ugly cry. For those of you who know me, I don't have episodes like these very often and rarely, if ever, in the presence of others... lets just say I was in rare from that day, but I had my reasons. I had completely missed the wedding, Abby was still really, really cranky, Lizzie was now whining at my side that she was hungry (and tired) and I was flustered that I even bothered with the dresses when one of them didn't even matter, etc, etc... By this time I was exhausted and just ready to call it quits, take the girls back to the house and let everyone else enjoy the after party while we all took a nap. Luckily, my wonderful husband (who knows me better than I do myself), convinced me to go at least for a little while with the option of a personal, early, emergency escort back to grandma's house if necessary. He was right, I would have hated everything about that weekend if I didn't go and the girls did great, once food and dancing was involved. It ended up being a great time catching up with family and old friends. Thanks Ben and thanks Steve and Shannon for letting us all be a part of your special day!

Grandma Elaine with Abbers. It was so good to see them again!

I love this picture of all the brothers. How come Steve looks like he's the oldest though?! :P

Abby was so tired she fell asleep on Ben's shoulder for a good chunk of the night.

Making it official!

Steve and Shannon picked out an awesome cake... so awesome we had leftovers late that evening!

Time to get down on the dance floor.

Ted and Heidi

The Wedding...

Saturday was a busy, busy day. Good thing I found a dress the day before... yes, you read it right, in all my craziness of getting everything ready while Ben was at work, I forgot to pack the dress that I was going to wear to the wedding... it was still hanging on my bedroom door right where it was so sadly forgotten! The wedding was not until 3 that afternoon, but we all had to be there a couple hours early for pictures. Somehow between getting everyone ready and having a quick lunch Abby completely missed her nap... what a huge mistake that was! Despite all her cuteness, she was a total disaster. Lizzie ended up walking down the aisle by herself last minute, which from what I hear was absolutely adorable... if anybody has any video I would love to see it, as I missed most of (well all of) the actual ceremony due to a screaming, overly tired toddler. We did hangout in the back for a little while, but unfortunately Abby wouldn't stop yelling daddy, daddy, since Ben was up at the front, which was really cute at first, but not so much after a little while, so to the church's nursery we went. It worked out alright... I had a chance to talk with my mom and brother for a little bit while we were in there. At least Ben and Lizzie were able to enjoy the afternoon's events !

Are they not the cutest things ever?! I'm so happy with how their dresses turned out. Somehow I don't think I'll be making any more apparel in the near future... it was a lot to figure out on my limited sewing skills.

Hooray for the sunshine... even if it was for only a couple minutes.

Daddy and the girls practicing...

Shannon with her flower girls

I think somebody's a little tired...

My Grandma Virginia, it was her very first time ever seeing either of her great-grand kids... it was pretty neat.

Abby and I hanging out in the nursey during the ceremony (sigh)... how come when you become a mom you miss out on so much fun stuff?!

The Rehearsal Dinner...

This past weekend we traveled up to Seattle to witness Ben's brother, Steve and his Shannon get married. Ben and the girls were all a part of the wedding party as well as Uncle Brian, Aunt Heidi and Grandpa Ted, who was the officiant... it was a total family affair to say the least. We were only up for a couple of days, late Thursday night to Sunday afternoon... those darn boys who had to go back to work. I think we were all a little sad that it was such a short and furious trip but it was completely unavoidable, besides there is absolutely no way we would have missed Steve and Shannon's wedding, so a quick weekend it was. We had the rehearsal dinner that Friday night, with Heidi making enough lasagna to feed a small army. She did a great job taking care of everything that night and I'm more than sure it saved Grandma Jean from a potential weekend ruining migraine.

The wedding party in all their right places.

Mmm... whip cream and sprinkles with a humongous glass of milk!

I really wish we somehow got Lizzie on video opening her gift, of Littlest Pet Shop stuff of course. To say she was excited would be a HUGE understatement... the girl started to turn purple because she forgot to breathe!

Abby and daddy with her new doggie.

Heidi and her boyfriend Jake

Abby Face Pumpkin...

Here's some video of Abbers admiring her pumpkin and being the goof ball she is!

Trick or Treat...

Here's us on Halloween night... all dressed up and ready to hit the streets. Lizzie even magically let Ben put makeup on her face (she's been adamantly against it all week long). We went to a couple of our neighbors that we wanted to stop and say hi, but other than that our townhouse complex was a ghost town (no pun intended). So we ended up going to the development across the street where there were actually people and houses. The girls lasted about 2 blocks, Lizzie wanted to go longer, but Abby was more than done... note to self - time trick-or-treating is age in years = number of blocks traveled before serious meltdown! It was a lot of fun and the girls got more than enough candy. On our way back home we took a little detour and stopped by Heidi's place so she could have at least 2 little visitors for the night.

My two cute little doggies!