Christmas Part II

I am very grateful for my dear family this Christmas.

Christmas Day

We had a wonderful Christmas! The last few weeks have been busy, as they have been for everyone. We've had very little time to connect as a whole family. Today made up for that.

We woke up after 7 a.m. (A Christmas miracle), read the Biblical account of Christ's birth, opened gifts with Jeff's parents and his younger sister, had a yummy breakfast of Costco cinnamon rolls, eggs and bacon, and then just chilled. We spent the entire rest of the day just hanging out as a family. Yes, we put together the train set and the Zhu-Zhu pet toys, but we also had an amazing time connecting with our girls and Jeff's family. I felt like I had sweet time with each of my girls and Jeff. It was the best gift of the day.

Here are some pics from the day:


The Lee tree (not too many low ornaments due to Eliana)

Pre-present Cheerios. She needed energy for the unwrapping to come.

Love my new stacker.

Who would have thought that one of Avery & Carys' fav gifts would be the $2.50 Nutcracker from Cambria. :-)

Unwrapping fun.

Snuggies made by Yen-Yen. She is very talented.

A precious moment with Yea-Yea. This moment melted my heart.

An amazing gift. Cambria REALLY wanted an American Girl Doll, and God provided a way for us to buy one second hand. She was SO excited.

Pillow pet from Aunt Katie -- Home Run!

I love that I moved the play kitchen from the playroom to the family room. The next thing you know they are playing with it all the time. Go figure.

The best family gift -- a full-size keyboard piano from the grandparents. I am rediscovering my love for playing the piano and the girls will have an opportunity to learn to play. We are incredibly grateful.

Our attempt at a family Christmas photo...

Here was our very quick attempt at a Christmas photo on Christmas Eve at NHPC. Unfortunately, the only decent photo had Eliana's eyes closed. We'll try again another day. :-)

House under the table

A week of no school and 4 girls to entertain led me to tell my girls about our "houses" under the dining room table when I was a kid. They took to the idea and started a home under our dining room table...they even decorations the edges with my wrapping ribbon. The "house" kept them busy for hours and I even fed them lunch under there.

New hair cuts

Earlier this week I took my girls for much-needed haircuts. I had been trimming Carys and Avery's bangs but wasn't doing a great job. :-) They both had trims that day, but Cambria had 3-4 inches cut off. Her hair is thin and gets tangled easily, so the haircut helped immensely. She looks so great with it.

A snowy morning

This morning we woke up to unexpected snow -- at least there was nothing about it on weather.com. Below are some pics around our house.

Jeff & Cambria going out to the bus. You can see our neighbors' homes with their crazy driveways. We have a small sloped driveway, but NOTHING like the driveways across from us.

Beautiful snow in the woods out back.

A glance at our backyard.

The front yard.

Family Movie Night

We had a movie night on Friday night. The movie of choice was Muppets Christmas Carol. As you can see in the picture, the girls made beds on the floor, Eliana was asleep and we made lots of popcorn. Carys is sitting down in these pics, but she was actually rearranging the beds during the entire movie.

JrK Thanksgiving

This morning Avery's preschool had a Thanksgiving program. Her JrK class performed about 4-5 songs. Avery has come so far in the last couple of years. Two years ago, she would burst into tears in front of a crowd. Now, she gives herself pep talks when she feels nervous about performing. It's so sweet. We are very proud of our 5 year old.

Wacky Hair Day

Last week Cambria had Wacky Hair Day at school. She knew exactly what she wanted to do -- three different hair colors on three pony tails. I searched several stores before finding lots of hair spray at Party City (it washes out with shampoo). Here are some pics.

Visit to UVA

We've had family/friends visiting or church events the past 5 weekends. When we realized that there was nothing on the schedule this past Saturday, we guarded it for our family. Jeff had the great idea of taking our kids to Charlottesville to visit UVA. It was a perfect day -- not too hot, definitely not too cold.

Our goals for the day were 1) visit Bodo's Bagels and 2) visit The Lawn. Our goals were met and we had a blast. The girls LOVED the bagels and had so much fun running around The Lawn with the soccer ball.

Below are some pictures of our day. I've purposely left out our family photo. We're saving that for our Christmas card. :-)

Mommy and 10 1/2 month Eliana

Running, running and more running.

Our 5 year old.

The two Cs.

Go Hoos!

The girls loved the Amphitheater until tour groups showed up.

Four Kitty Cats

Our first Halloween back in Virginia and with four girls. Cambria decided that she wanted to be a cat, so of course, the other girls had to be cats, as well. I thought they turned out adorable. It's difficult to tell but even Eliana had a cat outfit on (though it was a little small on her and she wouldn't keep the ears on). Also, difficult to tell was Carys is very sick. Her fever was only around 99 all day, but was back up to 102 after we went around the cul-de-sac and evening hit. Such a sad, but sweet, little kitty.

Krispy Kreme

Last weekend we introduced our kids to Krispy Kreme. They loved seeing the doughnut creation process. We may have to make Krispy Kreme a monthly tradition.

Jeff was not too happy with the coffee, but the doughnuts were great!