Story Time

Well, this isn't more Christmas break pictures but I have been wanting to do this post for a few days so what the heck.  There are a lot of doosies out there when it comes to children's books from the library, if  you know what I mean, but when you find a really good one it is such a joy so here is a list of our favorites for you to check out at your next visit to the library:


What Color Is Your Underwear?  This one is funny.


The Wizard, the Fairy, and the Magic Chicken  This one is also funny, good story.


The Magical Life of Mr. Renny  This one has wonderful pictures and a very fun story.  We just checked it out last week and the girls have wanted to read it everyday more than once. 


Go Away, Big Green Monster!  This one my daughters loved and quoted for a while but it has some issues with color going on in it. 


Smile  Very clever book, a bit sassy.  Because of this book, instead of getting frustrated or mad when the kids won't stop whining and such, we just start looking for their smile and it works every time. 


One  Awesome book!


Foggy Foggy Forest  Awesome book.  My favorite picture book so far.  Not so much a story as a picture book. 


The Gruffalo  Probably our favorite story yet so far.  I love this story so much.  There is a short movie that is so well done.


The Gruffalo's Child  This is the sequel and it is cute too, as is the movie.  If you have young kids, you should have these two books and movies.  There is also lots of other Gruffalo stuff out there, coloring books, stuffed characters, etc.  Just check out Amazon.com. 


When we come across more we really like I will share them too!

Christmas 2012

We have so many pictures on two different cameras of our trip to Oregon for Christmas and New Years that we might be posting Christmas picks for the next few months as Matt gets them developed! It was such an awesome trip. We got to enjoy beautiful Oregon and Matt's amazing family for two weeks. It was a seriously good time folks. 

Granny and Grandpa waited to put up their live tree until we got there on the 23rd.  We got to go to the Christmas tree farm right next to their house and pick out a  tree to cut down.  I have pictures on the other camera of the huge tree Carlee picked out.  We had to go with a much smaller one but the girls were so thrilled to get to decorate it all by themselves after a delicious cup of hot chocolate (which Carlee informed me was much better than the hot chocolate I make).  I already posted on Facebook this story but when we found the tree above, just before Matt cut it down he asked Carlee what you say before a tree falls down.  Carlee thought for a minute and then said: "Uh oh."  Matt was looking for the word TIMBERRRR!  (The uh oh may have come from the event in the previous post because when our Christmas tree fell, there were lots of uh ohs said.)  

We acted out the nativity on Christmas Eve with their cousins.  Carlee and Dani made some darn cute Shepards... 

and Matt made a darn cute Samuel the Lamanite. 

The girls got new jams from their Aunt Natalie and Uncle Jared to wear to bed on Christmas Eve.  Oh ya baby!  Thanks guys!

 The big day started out with Merida Barbie and Brave for Dani and Rapunzel Barbie and Tangled for Carlee.

They were pleased as punch.

My mom made them these adorable jackets.  Ya, amazing.   

Funny story.  So Carlee has been way into dressing up for a while now but Dani just wasn't interested in that at all.  So naturally we bought her other things besides a dress up dress for Christmas.  Well, by the time Christmas arrived, she suddenly decided dressing up was her thing now too.  So come Christmas day after all the gifts were open, she was REALLY wanting to dress up like Carlee.  I felt bad.  So, the next day I ran to the Disney store to get Dani a Merida dress but of course, they didn't have any.  They did have some night gowns though so I took her home one of those.  Can I just say, she has literally worn that thing every single day since the day after Christmas.  She walks around as Merida with this high pitched princess voice and if you call her Dani, she says, "No, I'm Merdida."  The first thing she does whenever we get home from somewhere is bring me her "dress" to put on her.  Good thing it is a comfy night gown!  

Grandpa painted their nails with the Strawberry Shortcake fruity scented nail polish they got in their stockings.

 

By mid morning after custard french toast, they were worn out, along with their Aunt Molly! 

After their naps we spent the rest of the day and evening at Matt's brother Ben's home enjoying family and food.  The highlight for me was meeting Vallie, an older lady who worked with Matt's dad for man years and hearing her tell her story.  What an incredible story and incredible woman.

There was no snow in West Linn on Christmas (to Carlee's dismay), but shortly after we got to drive up to the majestic Mt. Hood and play in it's view in the deep deep snow. 

Funny stories while drinking hot chocolate and warming frosty limbs by automobile heaters after playing in the snow, does it get much better than that?  Nope.

The fog cleared by afternoon and being up at the base of that mountain with the blue sky and trees so heavily laden with snow was a beautiful thing. 

Many more pictures yet to come, stay tuned.