chris.reese.girls1.2.3.4

Our Christmas plans changed suddenly last week and the girls and I are now safely cozied in at my parent's house in Salt Lake for the holiday. Chris drove us down and he will be doing a bit of flying back and forth to join us for Christmas and then later to drive us home.  We are enjoying the snow, BYU basketball games, siblings with new babies, extended family, and the noise around the house signaling the young cousins are together.    We hope you each enjoy this special time of year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Paige learned a song at preschool where they sing " Santa " to the tune of " Bingo." You know..." And Bingo was his name O. "  The girls were also belting out " You better watch out...you better not cry... " at Target today. Our fellow customers didn't realize they were going to get a performance while they shopped!  The girls are mostly singing to each other; they don't realize they are being watched.  It was too cute.   But whatever they're singing, it's so fun to see them enjoy the fun tradition of Santa. Brynn is picking up on it much faster (a la, a typical second child). Both girls wrote letters to Santa and are anxiously awaiting responses...they love talking about him.  I was a bit worried about their reactions to actually seeing him, but they did great!  These are my contraband photos. They don't allow personal cameras, but I took some pics anyway. They were not happy with me. Oh well.   What a CUTE Santa! He chat...

Snowflake Lane has been on my list for a few years, but this was our first experience. Not sure why we've missed it before...it's free! And it was PURE fun!! Before the performance the girls got to take pictures with the drummer helpers and meet the Snow Queen/King, Ice Princess, Frosty and Rudolph. My girls are really into the Christmas classics and adore  Frosty. Brynn was all eyes for the queen and the princess. It was a weekday and not at all crowded so we got a great experience!  For the performance, a HUGE group of drummers come out and seriously ROCK to the music piped through the speakers for a full 15 minutes. It's loud and fun and you can't help but dance and feel the Christmas spirit. Meeting one of the drummer helpers.  She would later dance with my girls down the sidewalk during the performance. We love Frosty!! The Snow Queen/King All the characters were friendly and so darling! My pic with the Ice Princess didn't turn out great...here is my cel...

Chris was in the office all weekend so we went to see him! He took a break and went ice skating with us at the Seattle Center. A contact of Chris' runs the rink on the weekends so he let us go for free.  The girls had a blast! We had to beg them to leave when mine and Chris' ankles finally gave out.  Chris and I rotated holding Brynn. She didn't like the walkers. She preferred to be carried...I would have preferred that, too! Aren't those tiny ice skates adorable!! The first time we said we were done, she threw a complete fit. So we sucked it up and did ten more minutes. She did NOT want to leave. Paige figuring it out... Eventually she got going so fast and crazy she had to shed the jacket. You can't see it, but she is soaked on her backside. The rink was really wet. But she loved every second.   Me trying to get Brynn to use the walker...she is just too dang cute!

Getting the perfect tree is a fun-filled family outing. It usually takes most of the day and this year we headed south to our favorite place and enjoyed the SUNSHINE!! My sister and I couldn't have coordinated better if we tried, but we arrived at the same time and got our trees together. It's fun to watch the kids romp through the trees and play. Here are the girls on the train...so cute! And these two little munchkins...who are both getting new munchkin siblings soon...I wish they could stay little forever! Like I said...lots of fun as we look for the perfect tree. And here is the tree. It's hard to see because it was right up next to a GIANT tree; one that left all of it's needles in MY tree (a fact I realized later at home as I vacuumed the branches for an hour and emptied my vacuum three times).  Good thing we have a man around the house. He's good for a few things! I was not liking our tree too much in the beginning.  The needles were one thing, but then...

Our first order of business following Thanksgiving was to decorate the house...CHECK! The girls were really into it this year and I love my beautiful cluttered house at this time of year. JOY! Our next order of business was to see the Garden D'Lights at the Bellevue   Botanical Garden . We made an evening of it by going out to dinner beforehand. Chris missed dinner, but met us at the gardens...yay! We loved having Matt and Dani join us. With it being early December we enjoyed a virtually empty garden. We took our time strolling and gazing while sipping hot cocoa (thanks, Matt!). It was a wonderful evening. The girls loved it!

Thanksgiving started with feelings of gratitude at the outset as I made my way solo with the girls to Yakima on Tuesday afternoon. I made it without any trouble. We had crazy snow in Seattle early in the week (the kind that shuts the city down and not a single road is paved and people abandon their cars carelessly in the middle of the street...people are clueless). But I left it all behind to get to town early for my girls to enjoy cousin time: Paige was so happy Joci and Holden made it safely too! They played nonstop for three days! Holden...the adorable "baby" that is growing so fast...he is a cute pie! More GIRL time! We were excited to have plenty of snow in Yakima as well...although it was too frozen to play with. The snowman came later in the week when daddy arrived and temperatures "warmed" into the 30's.   My favorite photo of the trip: And with Aunt Dani around, there is always fun hair stuff going on. One night it was braids, the other night i...