baking helpers

It is hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone for another year. We had an interesting Christmas to say the least. As I was going through our pictures from the last week I had to share these of the girls helping us do a little baking last week.

Before we started Jennifer thought she needed a little treat. So she frosted her own cookie and then put on the sprinkles by herself!

Kind of hard to see in the picture but she used a lot of sprinkles!

Jennifer helped me for a few minutes but she was pretty sure that she just needed to help her dad. Even when it comes to baking she is a daddy's girl.

Of course one of the perks of helping in the kitchen is getting to lick the beaters! Mikayla was not about to be left out of this and Jennifer was ever so kind to help her out a little.

Can you see the mess that is coming?!

"Here Kayla have a little more!"

How cute is this messy face!?

I love this, even if it it means a mess! She is so darn happy with herself!

Jennifer wanted in on the picture too but of course she couldn't stop licking for the picture.

I love this messy face too!

The kitchen was a mess, the girls were a mess but there were lots of smiles so we can't complain! I love it when the girls "help" in the kitchen.

This was all before the lovely Christmas stomach bug hit our family...

sledding

Saturday morning Jennifer had a list of things she thought we should do for the day. One of the things on that list was sledding. We didn't have much snow on the ground but it was enough for us. So we got bundled up and headed outside.

Mikayla was very excited to get all bundled up because she knew she was going outside to play!

There is a small hill across the street from our house that was perfect for the girls! Jennifer thought she should try out Mikayla's sled, as you can see she is a little big for it!

And of course in turn, Mikayla tried out Jennifer's sled.

Jennifer thought this was great! Going down the hill on dad's back!

I wasn't sure if Mikayla would like sledding down the hill but she loved it! She had a smile on her face each time. If you look close enough you can see her silly face she makes whenever she see a camera.

Getting ready to go down at the same time!

Mikayla got a turn going down on dad's back too!

Jennifer pulling Mikayla up the hill.

Dad pulling and Jennifer pushing seemed like a better option.

We had a fun time on our first sledding outing of the winter. I'm sure there will be many more, although our snow is now all gone, for now.

Thanksgiving (finally)

It feels as though Thanksgiving was over a month ago, instead of just a few weeks ago. After spending Thanksgiving day with Bill's family we were off to celebrate with my family. We even got to celebrate an early Christmas, which was exciting for the girls and we got to go swimming which was just as exciting!

Mikayla girl was ham for the two days we were with my family! And she was walking to everyone, it was fun to watch her. I'm pretty sure she thought that was enough walking for a few days because once we got home she wasn't as into. She's getting there though, one of her therapists goals was that she would be walking all the time by Christmas, that may not happen but we are getting closer.

Mikayla checking our her stocking with a little help from Papa.

A new Hawkeye shirt, I love it!

Of course Jennifer couldn't show off her new shirt without a funny face.

Opening more presents, Mikayla was kind of into it, although she kind of takes her time, she isn't quiet into ripping it open like her sister just yet.

Reading a new book.

As always a picture of everyone!

Trying to get these four to take a picture together is always interesting! Gotta love them though, they are all pretty darn cute.

These two had a great Thanksgiving/early Christmas and were exhausted when we got home!

my little artist

Mikayla has a new found love of coloring. If she sees markers or crayons she wants to color. One morning her and I had been coloring, in a coloring book, at the coffee table in the living room. Silly me I left the crayons on the table when we were done and forgot about them. However, Mikayla did not forget about them and she thought it would be fun to color the stool! She took the crayons off the table and moved them over to the stool and colored away. We may have an artist on our hands!

Kind of hard to see but there is color all over the stool!

The little artist in action.

And then I realized maybe I should not have taken her picture, she was posing for the camera, as usual. I think she thought I was rewarding her for her great coloring!

getting ready

Today was one of those days when stuff needed to made for the up coming weekend. And Jennifer loves to help out in the kitchen. And what better to wear to cook in then a dress! Jennifer thought she should wear a dress this morning and her dad, yes her dad, gave in and let her put one on.

I kept trying to get Mikayla to come out and help us but she was too busy dancing to the music on the living room. She didn't really care to help us out.

Then the moment Jennifer had been waiting weeks for, it was time to start bringing up the Christmas tree! Our poor tree has seen better years and so Bill usually does a little work to the top and as you can see Jennifer thought she would help as well.

Mikayla just loved being in on the action.

We are a little worried that this sweet girl is going to get the best of the tree this year. She may surprise us but we may end with the ornaments on only the top half of our tree.

I was trying to get Jennifer to smile nicely for me, this is what I got.

The is up but the decorating will have to wait until after the busy weekend. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

sick girls

Monday was a sick day out our house. Both the girls were sick. But Mikayla was the worst of the two. She didn't want to do a thing. Here she is laying on the couch for a little bit.

Jennifer always thinks she needs to make Mikayla feel better, which is very sweet. However, on this day Mikayla wasn't much up for the extra love.

Both the girls went to the doctor and were put on medicine. It really is amazing what a little antibiotics will do! Less then 24 hours later my Mikayla was back to her normal, crazy self!