Christmas Eve 2014

We were supposed to go to Grandma Flora's house for dinner but she ended up coming to us because Elsie was sick! I mentioned it before but she had a sore tummy, had not eaten any thing for a few days and had just been feeling yucky and sleeping a lot. She had a fever off and on too. So Elsie laid on the couch while we ate. We were able to rouse her to open a present though. Catherine opened her present from Elsie and Elsie opened her present from Catherine. Elsie bought presents for her sister, dad and all three grandmas with her own money. She also bought mom a present but had to get help from daddy to pay for it! It was great to see her do this and enjoy watching the people open their gifts. Elsie got Catherine a purple ball which Catherine loves and threw right away. This is what Elsie told us she knew Catherine would do when she opened the ball. Adah and Catherine picked out a my little pony head with long hair for Elsie to braid and play with. They both loved their gifts. Elsie liked it so much that the next day while we went around the table telling our favorite gift of all time she picked the my little pony head. Elsie also picked the purple ball as the present she liked giving the best.

Decorating the tree

We decorated the tree just a few days before Christmas. We waited so long to avoid all the time and effort it would take to keep Catherine away from it. As it turned out she took a lot of the ornaments off on the bottom but the novelty wore off pretty quick. So she has not been bothering it much. That does not mean she has left everyone else trees alone however...she broke a glass ornament at grandpa's tree and broke a bit off grandma's tree too. But we only had unbreakable ornaments within her reach on ours. Overall I think she did pretty well.

December 2014

We had a great month in December. Catherine was getting over being sick at the beginning of the month so Adah and Elsie went to our ward Christmas party alone. We got to dress up as people from biblical times and go to "Bethlehem' to pay our taxes. It was a fun night. We were able to enjoy the Christmas lights a few times this year with grandma and family. Will's sister and her family came into town and her son and Catherine really had fun together! It was so cute to watch them play together. Elsie loved playing with him too. We had a great Christmas too but that is for another post. It finally snowed and we got out in it and got some cute photos of the girls playing. Catherine liked it but kept taking her mittens off so we had to go inside...plus it was cold out.

Catherine is loving to talk and try new things. She likes sunglasses and knows how to put them on herself now. She has started climbing on things a bit more. She can now climb up on the rocking chair in her room and then climb on top of the changing table from there. She is still in love with the Frozen song "Let It Go" as well. 

Elsie is loving having time off from school. But unfortunately she caught a stomach flue and fever before getting out of school. It ran its course but it meant she still had a tummy ache for Christmas so she was pretty subdued still. But we have had several play dates this week and so have made up for getting a slow start. Back to school next week.

Family photo shoot

Here we are in our backyard! We had a friend come over and take these I think they turned out nice.

November 2014

We had a mild November this year. It was a fun month. We spent more time outside raking and playing in the leaves. We spent time watching football and hanging out all together and with family. Catherine was sick twice in November with colds and since she has asthma it makes it much harder for her. But we are hoping to stay healthy now. Catherine has started talking a lot more. Most of the words are only understood by family. There is a lot of mimicking sounds too. She loves to run away from us and try to hide from us behind her hands. It is so cute. One fun thing from the past is Sock Monsters. Will started this when Elsie was little and is still doing it. This time it was with Will's new "girly" (determined to be girly by Elsie) socks. You put the socks on the girls hands and arms and then call them a sock monster! Catherine got out Elsie's ear muffs and tried them on by herself and then there are the pictures of her and the blocks. She is so cute and has so much personality. Elsie is beautiful and continues to do good in school too. Both girls are happy and that is more then we can ask for. 

Halloween 2014

Halloween 2014 was great! As you can see Elsie was Elsa the snow queen from the movie Frozen. She was so excited to go as Elsa. The only problem was when I finally got around to looking for a costume it was a bit late, since everyone wanted to be Elsa this year! They were all sold out in her size. We had already been toying with the idea that Will's, amazing cousin, who went to school for costume design could make her the costume and so that is just what we did. I wish I had taken a picture of the night she came to show us the fabric samples. She brought lots of blue, green, teal, and aqua fabric of all different kinds for Elsie to pick from. Elsie got to pick the exact fabrics and so help design what it would look like. It was a really fun experience and I would love to do it again if we can. As you can see it turned out fabulous. In the second picture you can see Will's cousin Lyndi the sewing creator extraordinaire. Catherine was a giraffe just like Elsie was for her second Halloween simple but soooooo cute. 

It was a busy day but good. We started out by going to Elsie's school to see her costume parade. Then one of Adah's friends took Catherine so she could help run Elsie's class party. After that we relaxed a bit and Catherine had a nap. When we got Elsie home from school it was crazy again. We needed to carve the pumpkins and get ready to trick or treat. As it turned out we took a long to time to carve the pumpkins (which had not been done before hand because of Will not being available and us being busy on the weekends) so we started out late on our trick or treating. It was warm out and a fun night though. After trick or treating we went to our friend's house in our neighborhood for a little party she was having. It was a fun but long night.