Grandpa's

We felt extra lucky to have both of our grandpa's come visit, even if it was a short visit.

We're so lucky!

We felt so lucky to have BOTH of our grandma's come and help us out after Caitlyn was born. Madisen loved having a constant playmate and mom loved the help!

Gingerbread Cookies

Another of my favorite childhood memories from December was making gingerbread cookies. I thought Madisen and I should try it this year. I made the dough and then thought she could help me roll and cut the little gingerbread men. Well, right as we got the first bit of dough rolled out, Caitlyn woke up to eat so we had to stop. Madisen kept sneaking over to the table to taste the dough, so there wasn't much left by the time Caitlyn was done. I decided to roll the rest out by myself while she was napping and then she could help me decorate them. When she woke up I got out her new favorite book, "Mr. Finnigan's Chest", or as she calls it "The Santa Claus Book". The pictures are captivating and that's the only book that she's let me read to her for naps and bedtime for the last 3 weeks. There are some gingerbread cookies on the Christmas tree in Mr. Finnigan's shop, so we looked at them and I pointed out how they had eyes and buttons and explained that our cookies needed these things, too. I poured some red hots, chocolate chips, and marshmallows in some bowls. She thought that was GREAT! I put the frosting on and she'd place the candy on top. Of course it was 2 for her and 1 for the cookie. But they turned out pretty cute. Caitlyn obviously couldn't help, so she sat in her vibrating chair wearing her festive onesie- with gingerbread cookies on it- and was the cheerleader!

Gingerbread House

When I was a little girl, we always made gingerbread houses on the first Monday of December for FHE. This year Bill happened to be home b/c he was sick and his mom was in town, too. So we decided to try a gingerbread house with Madisen. Since she's only 2 we opted to go for the pre-assembled house that we could purchase. It came with frosting and some candy. Madisen had a great time putting the candy on the house- one for her then one for the house. She's concentrating very hard- note the tongue!

A Test

This is a practice run for me to figure out how 'blogging' works.