Christmas Day

"Christmas is here! Finally!" Hannah yelled at the top of her lungs when I woke her up for a pancake breakfast this morning. It has been a non-stop whirlwind of activities this month, including going to Dovewood Court to watch Christmas lights, shopping for presents, seeing Santa at the mall, shopping for more presents, Christmas parties, MORE shopping for presents, cookie decorating parties, and even MORE shopping for presents. Whew! Who would have known Christmas with kids would be this exhausting! So, by the time we got to Christmas morning, we were all exhausted, and nursing a cold. But, that didn't stop us from having a good time opening presents!

Here's Andrew opening his big boy sippy cup with his name on it.

Hannah waving her Fairy wand around. It's amazing all the cool stuff you can find at the 99 cents store! :)
Andrew opening more presents. For some reason, all the pictures we took of him, he had his tongue sticking out. LOL! :)
Our little princess Hannah looking at herself in her new mirror. Oooh-la-la, what fancy earrings you have on, Princess Hannah.
After Hannah was all done opening her presents, she turns to me and says, "Mommy, I LOOOOVE opening presents." Isn't that the truth? :) Now all I have to teach her is it's better to give than it is to receive.
Here's a content Hannah playing with her new stamp collection--still wearing her new clip-on fancy earrings...I have a feeling she will be taking a nap in these...

Merry Christmas everyone! May you have a good finish to the year 2009!

Christmas Eve

Christmas this year consisted of Christmas Eve-Eve dinner (the 23rd), Christmas Eve church service, and Christmas Day lounging at home opening presents.
For dinner we had 4 guests show up. The new worship leader at our church is newly married, so we invited him and his wife over. They don't have family in the area (just like us!). My friend Rheina, whom I have stayed good friends with from EMF Broadcasting, came over. We had more than enough food prepared, so last minute, the morning of the dinner I invited our across the street neighbor Shaun over who is a massage therapist. We had a fabulous time of good food, and great fellowship!
Our Christmas meal consisted of pomegranate chicken, garlic-herb roasted potatoes, lemon-dijon green beans, herb biscuits, spinach salad with goat cheese and cranberries, and to top it off pecan-date pie with whipped cream. We were STUFFED by the end. It was all SOOO good!
Unfortunately, I was so busy preparing for the occasion, that I TOTALLY forgot to take pictures. But it was all very pretty! :) You can just imagine how it was in your head. Use that imagination!
Here are some pictures of Hannah on Christmas Eve. The funny thing, most of the other little girls around her age at the church were dressed just like her! Velvet black dress with red trim. :) Apparently that was popular this year.
We decided to volunteer on the greeting team for one of the Christmas Eve services at our church this year. It was so much fun! Definitely something we want to do again next year.
Hannah snuggling with the little angel baby that sits on our tree. She loves that thing!
Look at that beautiful smile! :)
At the church there was this cute little elf lady that Hannah loved, so we took a picture of them together. :)

Aunt Lisa & Cousin Cami come for a visit

Aunt Lisa & Cousin Cami came for a 3 day visit. We all had so much fun. They played candyland with Hannah.
Read lot's, and lot's, and lot's of books to Hannah.
And just hung out with the kiddos a lot. :) It was so much fun having family here for the holidays.

Kids FINALLY playing more together

So, I gotta say...I love this stage! The kids are finally playing well together. Hannah usually makes up a game (like this one...going shopping with baskets) and Andrew follows suit. It's AWESOME! This is Hannah's "Miss America" wave. Can't you see her as our future president? :)
I absolutely adore this look of Hannah's. It's one of her signature smiles. :)
Andrew saying "Cheese." He's been doing more poses for the camera too, whenever he can stand still that is.
YEY, both kids smiling and looking at the camera at the same time. Very rare, very rare!

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

It sure has rained a lot this year! Here's Hannah sporting her new dora umbrella, rain jacket, and boots.
These two sure love jumping in the puddles. Andrew's boots are only 3 sizes too big for him, but he's still able to jump in them.
Here Hannah is singing, " Rain, Rain Go away, come again some other day." Andrew didn't know the words but he danced to her singing.

Oh, the joys of having a big sister

The kiddos have been "LOVING" playing dress-up together. Of course, Andrew doesn't really have any "manly" dress-up clothes yet, but he doesn't mind sporting a dress now and then.

All he needs is some earrings to go with this dress.

These will be "great" pictures to threaten Andrew with when he gets older. I can just show them to his "latest" girlfriend if he doesn't listen to his mom or do what she says. :)
Say "cheese." Awww...aren't they cute?

We are using our fireplace!

We finally have a nice, clean fireplace to enjoy! So exciting. Here's the kiddos warming their "heinys" by the fire. Bring on the cold weather!

Reading Buddies

Hannah and Andrew have become "reading buddies". It just warms my heart to see them both enjoy books so much. Those are two of their favorite books as well. Andrew LOOOVES Elmo and Hannah loves ladybugs. :)

Snow in Orangevale!!!!

Here is proof that "YES" it does snow in the Sacramento area. Granted it's it's not enough to make a snow man, but we did get a sprinkling. :)