Merry Christmas 2012

We had a great Christmas this year with the girls getting lots and lots of presents and us getting to spend time with family and friends. We had some changes this year as this was the first year we didn't have Christmas Eve with my dad's side of the family.   We at least were able to Skype with them so they didn't seem so far away.  I suppose we now need to make our new Christmas Eve tradition.

The girls were great in helping me decorate the tree and house in getting ready for Christmas.  I actually took a whole day off to just do this!  Seeing the sparkle in the girls eyes makes it even more special!

Hayden loves pushing the chair up close to the tree to look at all the ornaments!

Christmas with the Brown's:
We first celebrated Christmas with Matt's immediate family where the girls were certainly spoiled!

Lyla's new bike from G and G Brown

The best family picture we got!

Hayden loves her train!

Christmas Eve Morning:
We told the girls Santa came a day early with presents since he knew they were going to be in IL for Christmas.  It took us 2 hours to open all their gifts!

The girls just before opening their presents

Ella's big bone!

Hayden's new baby

Our Little Rockers

Hayden loves walking around in momma's slippers!

Christmas Eve Night:
We then headed to my parents for Christmas Eve.  We got to spend time with close family friends, the Swinters, to go to church and then have a great dinner.

Christmas Day:
The girls got to open even more presents on Christmas Day morning!  Then we headed off to Joliet with my mom's side of the family.

Lyla loved her new flashlight!

Lyla and Keira playing trumpet

Following Day:
Lastly, we were able to spend some time with Auntie Kristi and Kevin.

It's been an exciting last couple of weeks but we are now happy to slow down a little and just relax!

Our Little Rockers

I just had to show a video of Lyla and Hayden dancing and singing to their favorite band, Mumford and Sons.  After getting guitars for Christmas, they like watching their music videos and dancing around for us!  I'm so glad my girls have such good taste in music!

Hayden's 15 month Appointment

Last week we had Hayden's 15 month appointment. Hayden weighs 22.2 lbs and is 30.25 ft long. She is in the 40 percentile for both height and weight and is a healthy little girl.

The last couple of weeks, we have really seen an increase in her vocabulary.. At 14 months she started to say "up" and "baby."  At 15 months, she started to say "puppy" and "stinky" along with 2 word sentences like "hi baby" while looking at herself in the mirror and "bye Ella."  Last week she started to finish Lyla's sentence, ready, set "go", along with "mine" and "Bailey" and "Buddy" for dogs she is around.

She loves to copy whatever Lyla is up to like dancing and twirling in the kitchen, playing babies and whatever Lyla doesn't want her to be doing.  They are good playmates and I'm looking forward to seeing how they get naughty together!

Hayden is such a happy little girl that is not afraid to tell you what she wants. We continue to look forward to seeing what kind of girl she will turn out to be!


I just had to include a picture of the girls with daddy.  This is their favorite time of night, having daddy carry them upstairs to get ready for bed!

Happy Belated Halloween

I forgot to share our Halloween pictures from this year.  Lyla ended up being Batgirl and Hayden was a Packer Cheerleader.  I even joined in and was an 80's girl.  My office always dresses up so I always need to try and be creative every year. My mom helped put together Lyla's costume by making the bat symbol and ironing it to her shirt.  I'm glad I had someone creative in my family!

Enjoy the pictures!

Packer Cheerleader

Batgirl

Pumpkin Patch Fun

We had a great time at the Pumpkin Patch last weekend!  This pumpkin patch reminds me of Edward's Apple Orchard where there is a lot for the kids to do instead of just doing the one thing you went there for.  We walked over tractor wheels, went down slides, went through tunnels, rode mini tractors, went on a hayride and picked out pumpkins.  Now this will be a yearly trip we go on in the Fall!  They even have kid and adult corn mazes so that might be something we do one of these years.

We carved our pumpkins this weekend.  Hayden didn't want anything to do with the pumpkin's insides but Lyla was digging right in, taking out all the seeds.  I'm excited to see the girls trick or treat this year, as I think Hayden will get a kick out of following Lyla around, getting candy at everyone's house.  I will keep you updated in the next post!

We continue to keep busy with many things to do and not long enough weekends.  This afternoon we are on our way to a pumpkin patch and corn maze so hopefully the girls have a good time!

Badger girls

The girls and I had fun last Friday making leaf piles to jump in.  Hayden wasn't too sure what we were up to but Lyla wasn't afraid to pick her up and have her jump in with her!

Action shot

Hayden cracks us up on where she decides to crawl into.  What a happy girl!

Hayden's new thing is this lovely smile!  I put the camera up and say smile and this is what I get!  Too funny.

I had to also show this picture of Hayden.  I was taking a picture of the girl's toys finally organized and Hayden turned around and gave me this smile! Gotta love it!

Devils Lake Weekend

We had another great weekend with family and friends at Devil's Lake this year. We missed a couple key players this trip, aka my cousin Jody and her family, but we still kept busy and had a great time. This year it was pretty cold but we managed to stay warm in our winter jackets, campfires and going on hikes!

Hiking with the Knox's, Heaton's and Brown's.

We had beautiful colors this year and I think we made it right at peak.

The kids also had a good time playing at the playground right in the campground.  The sisters loved going down the slide together!

This year with it being so cold, a family friend decided to rent a pavilion where we could play and stay warm during the day.  We have such a big group who comes and we are so spread out in the campground, it's hard to see everyone.  The kids played and did crafts and the adults played cards and we even had our potluck dinner.

Kristi Rae and me

All bundled up

The kids had a great time chasing each other and this was the best picture I managed to get to get at least 4 of them (Colin, Clay, Lyla and Bryce)

Leaf pile!

Sitting on daddy's shoulders...gotta love that smile

The crew

Way up high!

Best buddies...Lyla with cousin Colin

Matt, Lyla, Colin, Ella, Megan, Taylor (under the blanket), Brett and Hayden (sleeping away on his back)!

This weekend always goes by way to quickly but it's something all of us looks forward to every year.