White Christmas!

Another Christmas has come and gone but not without excitement. This was a white Christmas here in Tulsa, complete with 6-8 inches of snow. It started coming down mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve and stopped sometime during the middle of the night. While a white Christmas is pretty and in theory sounds great, it makes the logistics of Christmas difficult. We didn't get to participate in Christmas Eve dinner at Uncle Stan and Aunt Marci's and Christmas Eve church services were cancelled. We ended up ordering out for dinner and watching Charlie Brown's Christmas before opening our Christmas Eve gifts of pjs and books, setting out Santa's cookies and milk and heading off to bed. Kate was sad to miss Aunt Marci's party (the girl loves to dress up and go to parties!) but I think she ended up having fun at home. Oh and before bed Kate did get the opportunity to test out her new snow boots and shovel while helping daddy shovel the sidewalk and porch.

On Christmas morning, the girls were super excited to see their gifts from Santa and evidently they were on the "nice" list because both girls got what they asked for! Kate is thrilled with her Snow White costume and cape and Maggie could care less about her Dora doll!:) After we played for awhile, (while Ryan spent a good 2 hours shoveling and trying to get our car out of the driveway) Glammy, Papaw, Uncle Brett, Nanny and Bumps came over for breakfast and to see what the girls got. We then all loaded up and headed out to Glammy and Papaw's to open gifts and have a late lunch. Kate loved her Barbie sleeping bag and talked us into using it a nap time and Mags really loved her Hot Tot princess car. After quick naps, emphasis on quick, we met up with the extended family at Nanny and Bumps' house for more gift opening and dinner. Favorite gifts from Nanny and Bumps were the microphone for Kate and the doll swing for Maggie. When we made it safely home around 8:00, we were exhausted but had had such a fun day!

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! What a great year we've had...hope 2010 is just as good or even better!

Chilren's Party at Southern Hills

Needed her apron on to help mommy

make chocolate covered pretzels

for the neighbors

Let the shoveling begin!

Merry Christmas Eve - with new pjs and a book

Anxious to see what Santa brought

Explaining to Maggie that it's a Dora doll

Already in costume, opening

presents from mommy and daddy

Maggie had fun ripping the paper

Snuggled in her new sleeping bag

Mags and her Hot Tot

Nanny and Bumps got each girl a

princess costume

The great-grandkids enjoyed a dinner of grilled

cheese sandwiches and fruit...yummy!

Christmas programs

Last week the girls both had Christmas programs at school. Kate's was a bigger to do this year than in the previous years. There were 6 classes performing, 3 and 4 year olds, and they got to stand up on a stage which was big time! Kate's class sang two songs - "Must Be Santa" and "Children Go Where I Send You." A couple of things you'll notice from the video - 1) Kate and Caroline opted not to wear their snowman sweatshirts that matched their classmates because they were wearing "pretty dresses" and 2) Kate Duffy is standing to Kate's right and is a loud singer thus drowning Kate's voice out!:) Either way it was still super cute and the parents and grandparents loved it!

Maggie's program was in her classroom and was just as I remembered Kate's programs from her Toddler Class years...Miss Alma and Miss Veronica do all the singing and the kids may or may not participate. Maggie chose not to participate! She instead decided to stand right in between my legs making it very difficult to take pictures or video. I did happen to catch "Jingle Bells" before she melted down but she still wasn't feeling it!

Enjoy the videos!

Christmas morning dress rehearsal

Mimi and PopPop came a few weekends ago to visit. The bonus was that Kate and Maggie were able to open some early Christmas gifts. Kate had asked Mimi and PopPop for a Belle costume with a cape and Maggie didn't know to ask for anything so she got an art easel. Kate was pretty good at opening her gifts and Mags wasn't so good so Kate helped her out. However, they are both really good at playing with their gifts, so I think Christmas morning should work out just fine!:)

Waiting patiently

Kate and her new toiletry bag

Helping Mags out

Kate aka Belle

Oh Christmas Tree

We spent the day a few weeks ago decorating our house for Christmas. Kate remembered from last year that she got to enjoy a Starbucks hot chocolate in a cup "like mommy's" and requested the same this year. She also sweet-talked daddy into donuts, so I guess that will be remembered and requested next year.

Yummy donuts and hot chocolate

Enjoying donuts and milk - Mags didn't

like her hot chocolate

Kate and Maggie have their own tree this year - a little 4 foot tree that they can decorate however they please, well really however Kate pleases! Let's just say that the tree has been knocked over twice, once by each girl, and about half of the ornaments have been broken at least once. We've glued Ariel back together 3 times and she's still missing part of her fin and poor Alice in Wonderland is armless. I'm going to have to do some ornament buying after Christmas for next year's tree!

Needless to say, Kate had a very small part in decorating the big tree. She worked hard at being careful and her job was to decorate the back of the tree. (And since you won't see a picture of it, you'll just have to trust me that it looks good!) She sort of lost interest in helping but did make sure that the Wicked Witch from Oz found a prime spot right in the front...looks great with all of the Radko ornaments!:) And Maggie was in on the fun too, but mostly in a mischievous way and so daddy was given the job of keeping her out of the way. Maybe she'll be better help next year!

So proud of her tree - and this was

before the witch was snuck on!

After the tree was completed, Ryan and Kate moved it outside to put up our lights and Frosty. Kate sort of helped, but mostly just enjoyed playing in the front yard and asking daddy every few minutes when Frosty would be up. Maggie stood at the front door, watching from inside, and was none too happy about it. Again, maybe she'll be better help next year!

Kate loves Frosty

Longing to be outside!

The house looks festive and Christmasy and Kate loves to come down each morning and turn on both trees. I'm sad to think that in a week, it will all be over and taken down. Until then, we'll savor the season and celebrate Jesus' birth...and look forward to Santa's visit too!

Pictures with Santa

That's right...pictures plural! Our first go round (during Thanksgiving in Ft. Worth) wasn't a huge success as you will see. It ended up being the Butler family with Santa. I would have been fine with that, however, the picture wouldn't work for our Santa frame so we had to do a re-take. The second round was much better. Kate was brave and sat on Santa's lap for about 5 minutes and when it was time for the picture, I placed Maggie on his lap for some quick picture taking. She wasn't sure, but this picture was tons better than Kate's picture with Santa when she was Maggie's age.

Christmas wishes for the Butler girls - Kate asked for a Snow White costume with a cape and she asked Santa to bring Maggie a Dora doll. Hopefully they are on the "nice" list and will get just what they wish for!:)

My Raggedy Doll

Kate's ballet class performed their winter dance for us today. Each of the "raggedy dolls" were precious and they all did a great job. I love Kate's big raggedy doll bow!!

Sucking her thumb while patiently
waiting for the music to start!

The raggedy doll is never too loud...
unlike Kate!:)

Enjoying a post-performance cookie party

Maggie couldn't be left out!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We did have a happy Thanksgiving celebrating with Mimi and PopPop and all of the Waggoners last week. In all, there were about 30 at our Thanksgiving festivities and we had a full 3 days of playing and eating.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kate with baby Elizabeth

Kamryn was giving Kate, Mags, and Carson
a ride...nice wagon!


Mags with Great-Grandma Waggoner

Maggie and Great-Grandpa Waggoner

Kate slowed down long enough to get her
picture taken with her great grandma and
grandpa

Kate with Kamryn and her 2nd cousins Eryka
and Elyse

It was so fun to see everyone and visit. See you all again in 2 years!