Hooray for snow!

Both Emily and Mya LOVE the snow! Emily was so excited to get to go and play outside, I didn't even have to ask her to get dressed. I had the gear out, and she was carrying it around until I could help her get it on. The hat she insisted on doing herself. I thought it was funny that she didn't seem to mind only having the use of one eye.
For some reason, Mya always makes her first round of "tracks" out to the fence and loops around. Here Emily is tagging along, trying to keep up the best she can.
Emily stops playing "follow-the-leader" so enjoy some snow. I was laughing at the way she didn't even try to grad it, just thought she's eat it right off the wood! Matt and I KNOW this girl has some very different "quirks". The list grows daily!
My snow angels. Mya LOVES making snow angels. Emily had to do it just because sister made it look like so much fun. You know the saying, "Monkey see, Monkey do."
Here is the long progression photos. Mya was doing a good job of taking care of sis, just didn't quite realize how much faster she was than Emily. She stops to wait for the smaller legs to catch up.....
Still waiting.....
Okay... ready now? Let's go!
It doesn't take but a few steps for the little one to fall behind.

The beginning stages of a mountain.... hopefully.
It's already fun to slide down!
A day or two ago we had rain for an entire day. It melted the few inches of snow we did have. Beginning Sunday afternoon, it has been snowing nearly non-stop. Sometimes, it is the smallest of flakes, so it doesn't really pile up. This morning... daddy's first day of work in a week... was a bit rough for the girls to take. I was thankful when I looked outside and saw several inches of fresh powder. I knew we could have some fun outside! Fun we had!!! I have a BUNCH of pictures to post, because I really enjoyed the progression of how the girls played together. Hooray for snow!!!! We love it!!!! Apparently, we will be having a week straight of snow fall. I'll be sure to post photos of how deep it gets. We've started a "snow mountain" as of today. Hoping to have a fun sled area just outside the house! Love, Jaime

Christmas Program

A few days after Mya got home from California, her preschool did a Christmas Program. Poor Mya missed every single practice, so she had no idea what was going on. We were told to bring her anyway, and she would be fine if all she did was smile. It was a huge group of kids! Mya was placed in the back..... about three rows back.... for ovbious reasons. Only bummer was that because of her size, we could only see here head now and then, and a tiny little hand waving every once in awhile. Oh well. Every parent wants to see their "little one"... sometimes it's just how it goes. She had fun just the same. The pictures aren't great because we were at the very back of a paced room. I did the best I could.

Christmas Eve

In a nutshell....

We took some family photos.

We opened the gifts we recieved from Grandma Brenda and Papa Joe via Webcam. That was fun! Thank you guys again for all the treats!

Watched "It's A Wonderful Life" ...what's Christmas without that?!

And the photos from the evening:

Mom, thank you again for the girls' matching dresses. I love them! So soft and warm for my babies.

Merry Christmas!

Please notice the bag of cheerios Emily has. Believe it or not, she would have preferred to eat first, then do gifts. The entire time of opening gifts, cheerios came first, then she would open (with one hand.... her bag was too precious to put down) a gift. It took some time.
Here is daddy feeding the girls their "treats" from Christmas. Yep. Candy. Yep. Before breakfast.
Mya was very excited to receive new PRINCESS snow boots!

Landon, thank you so much for the beautiful hair clips! I can't wait to try them in the girls' hair! Great job Casey! We love them!
The girls admire the doll from Grandma and Papa Warta.
Now it's time to see how it works!

Matt and I got some Princess stickers for Mya's walls in her room. She and daddy put them up together. At the end, Emily was allowed to come and see... and touch.
Emily gets a "Baby Alive" from Grandma and Papa Warta. She is in love! I never knew she was a baby-doll girl. Mya was only into stuffed animals, so we really never got babies. Well... Emily is all about this baby! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!
She wants to diaper the baby all by herself.
And feed the baby..... ALL BY HERSELF! And yes... the blue face is candy residue.

Both the girls got flashlights with a whistle. Mya's is green, Emily's is red. We had a BLAST playing with them after it got dark! Those pictures are still to come.

Zeke, Sarah and Kate: We did not take pictures of the gifts you gave. However, they are VERY much appreciated! We know a lot of thought went into each one. Thanks for helping to make Christmas special.

What a wonderful day! The girls were up around 7:30 this morning. We opened gifts right away. I was a bit amazed, but very happy that the girls were great at taking turns to open gifts, and not only that, but helped each other throughout the process. It's not like that all the time, so I really enjoy those times when they are thoughtful towards one another.

After gifts, I started on home-made cinnamon rolls while my wonderful hubby made yummy pumpkin pancakes for us all. Thanks to Matt and Ashlie, Joe and Sarah for the pumpkin pancake mix. We just finished it off and it was DELICIOUS!

We all spent the next portion of the morning playing with our gifts. The girls took an early nap, and then it was on to enjoying the rest of the day at home, just relaxing and enjoying one another. So nice! I wanted to get some pictures up on the blog so you could share in our fun.

The Begining of a Wonderful Week

The girls and I are pleased to announce that we will be having daddy home for 6 full days! Matt had to use some vacation days up before the end of the year. What a special time to have it all around Christmas! We are thrilled! Now, we're just praying that we can have some heavy snowfall in the next couple days. To be snowed in would be a dream come true! No where to go.... why not? We'll be taking pictures of our times together. I'll do my best to get them up in a timely manner. Still have photos to post from several months ago. It's a bit overwhelming when you have several hundred to go through.

I am hoping that everyone is enjoying the holiday season. I hope that everyone is remembering to breathe deeply and slow down. I was running a few errands today in town, and I was amazed and saddened at how crazy, fast and rude people are this time of year. Are they any happier? Do they really get any more done than if they were relaxed and courteous to others? I think not. Be different. I try my best to do the opposite of what everyone else does. Sometimes I stick out like a sore thumb. But.... how cool to be noticed for my lack of hurry. I try to live out putting others first. If I want to show my children how to live, I must live it myself. I hope they learn from my example.

Until I post more.... Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Love Dare

The Bible Study group that Matt and I are in started the Love Dare book from the movie FireProof. We are getting finished with our second week of "dares". There have been so many good and helpful things! Yes, there are painful reminders as well. The majority of those reminders are how selfishness ruins relationships. The following are things that I thought were good to share.

"Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves." Phillipians 2:3

"Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder." James 3:16
I like this version better: "For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there." Powerful stuff.

If you don't learn to be thoughtful, you end up regretting missed opportunities to demonstrate love. Thoughtlessness is a silent enemy to a loving relationship. Great marriages come from great thinking.

..things you have discovered about your husband or wife that have embedded themselves in your memory. When you think about these things, your appreciation for your spouse begins to increase. Let love lead your thoughts and your focus. Your spouse is a living, breathing endless book to be read. Dreams and hopes have yet to be realized. Talents and abilities may be discovered like hidden treasure. Learn to lead your heart to truly love your spouse.

If you don't diffuse your anger by learning to love others, you may eventually begin plotting against them. Love is not selfish and puts others first, it refuses to let jealousy in.

Love is a choice. Choose to love.

Family of Three

Here's a little bit of what we did when Mya was in California.

Watching Daddy fix the lights for the house.
She loves the gun!
Now to have fun in mommy's make-up bag.
LOVE this one!
Emily played in the rain with sissy's beloved princess umbrella. When Mya is home, that is highly off limits.We had the chance to go to work with Daddy for a little bit. Quite a treat! Those of you that know Emily know that she will eat just about anything. The hard, decorative Indian corn was no different. Emily ate almost half of the cob! She found great enjoyment going through our First Aid box. She loved wearing the gloves. We were pretty much home bound for a week and a half because she was so sick. Emily had fun to hiding inside a pillowcase and bumping into random things. These next few pictures are from the night of our anniversary. I was focused on getting ready. In the meantime, Emily took advantage of my lack of focus on her. She went NUTS with the lipstick. Her expression must be a copy of what my face looked like when I saw what she did!

The girls really enjoyed each other the first couple days of Mya's return. Then, the daily stuff set in. So much for my plans of shopping while Mya was gone. Oh well. Such is life.