Care for a spot of tea?

We had a Valentine's Tea Party today-just for fun. I found some tea cups and a tea pot at the Goodwill to use. Charlotte has been practicing her serving skills.

Mmmm, the treats were tasty!

The sugar cookies were perfection, thanks to Scott's masterful technique. I did the decorating with a little help from some expert "sprinklers".

Here we are before the guests arrived.

Holding treats in both hands isn't exactly proper tea party etiquette.

This is Charlotte Fancy Nancy dress- a hand-me-down from a girl in the Ward. Isn't she cute!

We had three little friends over. The kids ate their sweets and made some cute crafts. It was a lovely party.

Dino love

The girls have been sick, so I made them these dinos to cheer them up!

I think they like them.

Ahh, snuggles.

I've had this pattern for a long time, it was about time I put them together. It is supposed to be a t-rex, but it looks more like a dragon or lizard to me. Charlotte requested a spinosaurus. so I fashioned a quick spine-it kind of worked.

Dress up time!

I got Olivia this purple dress for the spring-but once she spotted it there is no getting it off of her now! She felt so pretty in her necklace and high heels.

Charlotte taught her how to "TA-DA"!

pop beads

Grandma Sherrie got Charlotte these cool beads for Christmas. They come in the funkiest shapes and colors-we've had so much fun exploring the possibilities. Even Finn gets to wear our creations sometimes.

Charlotte came up with this creative use all on her own.

Christmas

Christmas morning was filled with joy as we watched our girls open their gifts. Olivia was thrilled with everything she opened. Who knew a Minnie movie would be so exciting!

Charlotte adores the new dino Santa brought.

Thanks for the Barbies Grandma and Grandpa Hoth-we love them!


Olivia and "Punzel" are best pals already
(I secretly bought Rapunzel so I could play with her-she is too cute).

Charlotte has had her eye on this Pony set for a while.

She spent about 3 hours playing with it today.

The girls looked darling in thier Christmas attire.

While Olivia napped Charlotte was busy playing with toys, puzzles and new craft kits.

Did your house look like this Christmas afternoon?

After a lovely turkey dinner we had Rudolph cake.

It was difficult, but we finally separated the girls form their new toys and into bed. Olivia made sure Rapunzel was comfy and Charlotte snuggled in tight with her t-rex.

The girls couldn't have been any cuter today. We feel so blessed to have such sweet and beautiful daughters. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we decided to head south and warm up a bit in Sedona. The girls had a great time on a short hike.

Cool cactus.

Charlotte brought along a case for catching lizards-but we didn't see a single one. I told her they were too busy wrapping Christmas presents to play outside; I think she believed me!



That evening we watched a great Church DVD about the brith of Jesus and then we let the
girls un-wrap their new PJ's.

Someone was really excited!

Around 8:00pm Charlotte volunteered to go to bed.

She even said we could skip stories.

Later that night, we spied on the girls and found Olivia teasing Charlotte about being on the naughty list.

Winter Wonderland

We've been enjoying 18 inches of snowfall in Flagstaff. Saturday finally gave us a chance to get out and have some snow fun. Charlotte surprised us by going down the hills all on her own this year; only if Mommy "tested" them first.

Olivia was not as impressed.

She had more fun hanging back and watching sister slide down the slopes. For some reason she thought it was really funny and laughed each time.

Cute little snow bunnies.

For craft time we made some homemade snow globes-thanks for the idea Martha. I found these round ones at the craft store. The girls thought it was the coolest thing to pick out their little figures and colored glitter. Charlotte went with a deer and pink glitter.

Olivia picked a snowman and a Santa and blue glitter.

Pickle, baby food, or jam jars also make unique snow globes.

It is fun to have snow for Christmas. As far as I am concerned it can all go away after Christmas.

Christmas cuteness

I thought it was time to get some Christmas photos up since December is half over. I made the girls these Christmas aprons. We put them to the test the next day and made some pizelles.

The girls had fun playing with these pretend cookies
I made from the extra scraps of Christmas fabric.

Finn looks like he ate one too many cookies.

Olivia likes to pretend the tree is "eating " her.
The poor tree is getting used and abused.