Rice Crispy Treat Houses

We got together with my mom to create our second annual rice crispy treat houses.  We tried it for the first time last year, and found out that we made the treats too soft and having them hollow inside made it hard for it too keep shape. So this year, we learned from our mistakes and made solid bases and we made sure the rice crispy treats were harder.
As usual, Chloe showed us all up with her creative house. She made the whole thing by herself and it looked awesome.  Abby had fun putting the candy on wherever she wanted and she was proud of her work too! Tawna and I worked on one together while Mom and Dad created one together too.

 Concentrating hard on making her house.

 Abby and Grandma

 Chloe's house

 Yum Yum!

 Our completed houses. Can you guess who did which one?

Happy New Year 2014

We spent this New Year's Eve with the Cummings and had a nice, low key evening.  We met up for dinner, saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, and then came back to our house to ring in the new year with cider and sparklers.  Heather got a cotton candy machine for Christmas, so she brought that over and we tried it out as well. You can tell how much Chloe liked it because her teeth are blue in all the pictures from the cotton candy! Abby fell asleep during the movie and went straight to bed when we got home so she isn't in any of our pictures.

Here's to a great 2014, cause lets be honest, it cant get much worse than 2013 was!

Abby's Three!

I can't believe that Abby is already three!  It seem's like yesterday that we were bringing her home, and now she is a big girl!  
We knew that we were going to be having her family birthday party the next day but we still wanted to make her birthday day special.  So, that night we went out for pizza (one of Abby's favorite food) and watched Disney's new movie  'Frozen'.  Abby and Chloe loved it  and so did we!
    

 Abby kept asking me if she could go to a park for her birthday, and so we did.  Since we were going to be getting all bundled up anyways, we decided to go sledding as well while we were there. We met up with my dad and some other family members and had a great time sledding.  

 On Saturday, we invited our families to join us at 'Jump on It' which is a huge trampoline park.  Abby had been asking to go there forever and so we thought it would be a perfect place to have her party. Abby loved it and it was so fun to have family there to celebrate with us. 
We had originally planned on going back to my mom's house for cake and ice cream but so many people had been sick that we canceled it. We ended up having our own mini party at home. 

Abby is finally old enough to start doing the annual birthday questionnaire.  Enjoy!
How old are you? 3 (but first she told me 8)

What is your favorite color? pink

What is your favorite food?  oranges and pizza

What is your favorite movie?  Mulan

What is your favorite TV show? My Little Ponies

What is your favorite activity? play blocks

Who is your best friend?  Gavin, Macy, Daddy and Vienna

If you had $100 what would you buy?  new gum

If you could go anywhere where would you go?  to the mall

How are you like mommy? (no answer)

How are you like daddy? (no answer)

When you grow up what do you want to be? like mom

Christmas!

The girls must have been good this year cause come Christmas morning, there were tons of presents under our tree!  The first thing the girls saw when they came down was a new bike for Chloe and a new scooter for Abby.  These were two of the things that the girls asked Santa for. Chloe also asked for a giant stuffed cat or unicorn and "anything art". She ended up with a huge unicorn that is as big as she is and a backpack that you get to color yourself. Abby asked for bubble tape gum and a cookie mixer (a.k.a. toy stand mixer). She got both as well as a giant stuffed bear.

Waiting to come down stairs.

Mom and dad got them some cool toys as well and of course some new clothes. They also got an awesome present from Grandma and Grandpa Searle- a WII! They were so excited and wanted to set up right away.

As usual, Aaron out did himself and surprised me by getting me a IPad mini.  I LOVE it! The kids were excited for it too because it meant that my kindle now became theirs!

After we finished opening presents at our house we headed over to my mom's for brunch and more presents.

The aftermath! 

 Melinda had Aaron's name for Christmas this year and the only thing he told her that he wanted was a new Jeep.  Well I guess next time he needs to be more specific as to what kind of Jeep cause she bought him a remote control one! 

Booties ornament for Max

Christmas Eve

Growing up, Christmas Eve consisted of hanging out with family, eating finger foods, playing games, and playing the present game.  We still keep those traditions alive and I love it!  It was so fun to have so many extended family members there with us and it was even more fun because Melinda and her boyfriend Dustin flew in for Christmas as well.

 The girls and I figured why sit at home and wait for Aaron to get home before we headed to my mom's house, so we went up early and spent the day. The girls really wanted to go sledding in Grandma's backyard, but I forgot their snow clothes. However, did that stop them-no! Tawna put Chloe in her jacket and Abby borrowed Kiara's snow clothes. Chloe looked so cute it this huge coat, I couldn't help but snap a picture.
After they were done sledding, everyone started to arrive and the party got started.

 I love my family so much and it was such a fun night hanging out with all of them. It also didn't hurt that I scored a super cute frame for one of the girls room in the present game. It was an all around great night. Before we knew it, it was time to head home so that Santa could come! That got the girls out the door in a flash and they searched for Rudolph's nose the whole way home.

 Nice hat Tawna!