Christmas!

2008 was the most fun Christmas of my memory. Kyla was old enough to really enjoy gifts, especially unwrapping them. I got to dress up my girls in their Christmas dresses and try to get them to bed before midnight. (I failed.) And for the first time in years, we all spent the night at "home" Christmas Eve to wake up to stockings on Christmas Day. I know that Dec. 25 is supposed to be about Christ's birth, but I love the family and friends part of the holiday.

The Dresses

What could it be?

Piper with Uncle Brian

Uncle Keith and Aunt Julie with Kyla

Opening Cheryl's new umbrella

Piper got a special toy!

Kyla loves "helping" Papa!

Christmas Breakfast

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Daddy and Kyla

Doing some last minute Christmas shopping, Kyla and Dwayne take a minute to pose for Mama.

More at Molbak's

Molbaks has been our indoor playgroup during the cold weather, and Christmas is especially fun. Kyla & Piper met Isaac and Aubrey there one more time after we all dug ourselves out of the snowdrifts.

The kids pause for a snack of Kringle.Finally, Jen, Susanne, and I actually get our picture taken, leaving the kids to run amok.

Piper is a star!

Piper got to play Jesus in one of Curt Cloninger's Christmas vignette's. She was adorable, pulling his beard, smiling at the audience, searching for Mama in the crowd.

Curt and Piper posing for after show pictures.

Piper relaxes from the stress of the stage with some shoe chewing and crib gnawing.

Elves in the Kitchen

Yesterday, I worked my butt off to clean the three bedrooms and two bathrooms. That meant I neglected the kitchen all day. That meant I was cleaning it until 10 last night. Luckily, Piper was there to help (un)load the dishwasher!

Kyla was actually mildly useful and ever so charming as we made spritz together during Piper's morning nap. She helped me measure and pour in the flour and sugar. She also did her best to add a cup of water and a 1/4 cup paprika. (No, those last two ingredients aren't called for in the recipe.) We both had a great time deciding how red to make the dough and what designs to shoot through the cookie gun. Kyla also enjoyed taste testing.

Woodinville Winter Light Festival

We met up with friends from playgroup at Woodinville's annual Light Festival on December 5th. Isaac's mommy and daddy had the only camera (and they take great pictures), so they officially recorded the evening for us.

First, dinner at Ruby's with Isaac, Tom, and Suzanne. Isaac and Kyla find the food is better at the other table.

I'll have what he's having. (Yes, in the grand tradition of clothes swapping, Isaac is wearing Kyla's strawberry hat, and Kyla has on Piper's Santa hat.)

Frosty was willing to meet with his fans at the Festival.

Kyla was Very Unwilling.

Santa Baby!

Of course Piper has a pink Santa hat!

Holiday Fun at Mobak's

We met up with Kyla's friend, Aubrey, at Mobak's this morning.

The girls posed in front of the famous poinsettia tree.

We sampled the I'll-start-my-diet-tomorrow kringles. They were soooo good.

Piper, as always, was a great sport about the whole thing.

We all like the exotic stuffed animal collection.

It doesn't matter how many pictures you take of three kids in a photo cutout. None of them will turn out with all the kids smiling, or even looking through the holes. Here's our best shot.

Hug the Lion, Kyla!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Keith!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Brian! Take 1. Take 2. Forget it.

Do you like it? I call it.....

Kyla very deliberately scribbled all over a corner of the whiteboard this morning. I asked her what she was drawing and she said it was pine needles. I confirmed with her that this was the name of her piece and we decided that a picture should be taken of the titled work.

And, without further ado, I give you....

PINE NEEDLES, an original by Kyla Paige Need

Piper Really is the cutest Baby...

..and her little bottom is darling (coos her mother).

Big Girls

Kyla spends quite a lot of time at bedtime stalling by getting for Dolly: a binky, bottle, blanket, pillow, and sometimes a diaper. Today, she gave Dolly a piggyback ride to her bedroom.

Kyla insisted we take a picture of Dolly.

Piper enjoys sitting in the big girl chair eating a book.

Rub a dub,

Three men in a tub.

Inconceivable. Two little girls barely fit in the tub; 3 grown men would be impossible!

Our Literate Genius

If you squint just right, and try to imagine the scribble before Kyla wiped her fingers through it, you can see that she drew her first letter: P. To give her credit, she actually said she was drawing a "P" so it was intentional.

Piper is not so convinced that Kyla just wrote the first letter to her name.

By the way, did you notice her new teeth? They are now big enough to see, but they first broke through when she was 6 months old. She's 9 months now!

These boots were made for walking...

(...stumbling, falling, tripping) And that's just what they'll do!

You'll notice I stopped filming right before Kyla pushed Piper out of the car. However, to give The Toddler due credit, she really wanted Piper to ride with her; it was not Mama's idea.

Why it takes all day to put laundry away...

Kyla's first use of a laundry basket to get forbidden items. (Usually it is her potty, a chair, or an overturned garbage can. The curses of having Dwayne's evil genius genes.)

Singing in the Rain

Kyla has begun singing. Her favorite is

Rain, rain, go away,

Come again some other day.

Little Kyla wants to play,

So rain, rain go away!

Juxaposed with this is her usual two-year-old self. It was a typical evening; I was trying to cook dinner, Kyla was doing her best to prevent me, Piper just watched and grinned at our ritual. As I kneeled down one more time to clean up yet another mess, I hear Kyla sing-song

Clean, clean, go away...

You sing it, girl!

The Fam

We celebrated my dad's birthday and his mother and sister came up to celebrate. We always love getting pictures of the girls with their great-grandma. She had her 90th birthday last August and we are pleased she was able to make the trip.

Great-Grandma with both Kyla and Piper

Grandma and Piper amuse each other greatly

Sharon get her giggles in with Piper, too

Mama Braids Gone. Daddy Help.

...is what Kyla said for several days after I finally removed the braids exactly 4 weeks after I had them in. It looks a little funny after a month of cornrows. Poodle is too kind an adjective.

My braids can be seen in the Halloween picture (following). I miss the ease of doing, well, nothing with my hair every morning.