It was a pretty calm day around here. Laundry and cleaning. The girls both fell asleep while I was doing some work. They looked so sweet asleep on the couch. They had gymnastics this evening. I am so surprised at the strength Abby has gained. I am so proud of how hard she works at it. Mckenzie too, although tonight she was a little hard to reign in.

Another Monday... Abby did great when I dropped her off today. I am glad she was in a good mood to go to school today. Mckenzie and I hung out at the house. We did a little cleaning and a little Care Bears watching. She loves them! I did a little more online Christmas shopping today. I am trying to avoid buying all toys this year. I want to get them things they can use for a long time. Scott was done with work early today so I went to pick Abby up by myself. We took the girls to the park this afternoon. The girls and I played while Scott went for a run around the track. Abby wanted to run too, so we all did a lap together. She is quite the little runner. Barely winded after running over a half mile! This evening we worked on the tree mural for Mckenzie's bedroom. It is almost finished! I am so excited to see the finished product! Mckenzie must have liked it too because she hugged the wall!

Today we got up early and went to church. It is the first time we have been to church here. It was a very friendly church and the message was good too. The pastor talked about making the most of each day, asking yourself at the end of the day if you made a difference in anyone's life and living through God everyday. He was able to keep the message short without skimping on the message. Very enjoyable! And the kids behaved! I mean, no tantrums, no loud talking. It was amazing!!! I think next week we will check out the contemporary service a little later in the morning. Our kids were the only ones at the early service and I would like for them to have some interaction too. We did breakfast at a nearby diner which was pretty good too. We have eaten dinner there before, but not breakfast. We came home and hung out the rest of the day, watching football and playing with the kids. I ended up taking both girls with me to the grocery store since the Vikings game was on and the kids didn't want to stay home. I should have left them at home. It was not a fun trip. Mckenzie fell asleep in the cart and Abby complained the entire time that she couldn't walk anymore. Scott finished painting Mckenzie's bed frame today so now we just need to get it together. I am hoping by this weekend, her big girl room will be ready! I can't wait for it to all come together!

We put up the rest of the Christmas decorations today. I can't find Mckenzie's stocking anywhere! I am going to have to order her another one. I hope I can find one to match ours. We ran out to get a few more decorations for the house. I think it looks ok now. We ate dinner out tonight. I was sick of turkey. I am not sure I can stand more more turkey sandwich! When we got home, the girls played together so nicely. They were having races and playing with dolls together. I love the moments they get along so like that and the little laughs I hear coming from them. Warms my heart! Both girls are fighting bedtime yet again. I don't know what is going on with them! I would love to go to bed early if it meant someone else was going to stay up to get the house in order!

We decorated the Christmas tree today. It was so much fun this year. Both Abby and Mckenzie got into helping put the ornaments on the tree (especially Abby). I had a hard time at first because all the decorations were on the bottom of the tree, but as soon as I looked at the girls' faces, I realized it didn't matter where they put the ornaments. It only mattered that they had a good time decorating. We didn't get around to putting up all the other decorations. It is our first year in this house and I don't know where to put things. We plan to do it tomorrow. I went out to do a little shopping in the afternoon and got everything I had planned on getting but one thing. I then got my hair cut and highlighted for the first time in over a year! It felt so nice to get it done. It isn't exactly what I wanted but it is exactly what the stylist said she was going to do. I just couldn't picture it when she was describing her plan to me. Scott took the girls out to Target to get some candy canes for the tree and then stopped over at Chick fil A for dinner. The girls had so much fun playing and Mckenzie made it to the top of the steps all by herself. The girls got to pick out a movie to watch for movie night and stayed up late to watch it. It was fun, but both girls didn't want to go to bed afterwards and made for a long night of trying to get them to sleep!

Happy Thanksgiving! I have so much to be thankful for this year~two amazing little girls, a husband that I adore with my whole heart, great family, friends.  We are so blessed I could spend a very long time listing all I am thankful for! The day was pretty relaxed. I cooked a turkey and it turned out pretty darn good if I may say so myself! The kids helped me make cranberry sauce which neither of them liked. Scott doesn't like cranberries either so I have plenty of leftovers for myself! The girls didn't like the pumpkin cheesecake I made either, but I anticipated that and had ice cream for them! We got a little snow this morning, but it melted by the time it landed. It was beautiful and we took the girls outside for a couple of minutes before it got too wet! Abby was sad there wasn't enough to play in! Mckenzie wasn't to sure what to think. The girls are in bed for now. Both struggled with going to bed and each lost a favorite toy because they weren't settling down. I feel like such a nag but if they don't learn consequences now, I can't imagine how unruly they will be when they are teenagers!

Tasting the snow.

Asleep on Daddy!

Today Abby had her Thanksgiving Feast at school. Mckenzie and I headed back to celebrate with her. It was very sweet. The kids were all wearing feather hats and pilgrim shirts made from brown paper bags that they had made. They also sang a cute song. Leaves are falling, Leaves are falling. On the ground, on the ground. Rake them in a pile, rake them in a pile. Then jump in. Then jump in. Very cute! Abby said break instead of rake. Reminds me of how little she still is. I sometimes forget that she is still very young when I compare her to Mckenzie. Abby was kind enough to share her feast with her sister and got glowing praise from her teacher for doing it without being asked. It was so nice to see her sharing so easily. It isn't always like that at home! At the end of class Mckenzie joined Abby on the circle rug where the kids wait to be excused from class. Mckenzie and I headed back home and I put Mckenzie down for a quick nap. After class, the girls and I made some sugar cookies. I traced around their hands to make turkeys and then we frosted them and put candy corn on them. I think both girls ate more candy corn and raw cookie dough than actual baked cookies! Abby wouldn't eat the one she frosted because she likes her cookies plain. They both had so much fun. We did bath time and played around for awhile before dinner. I was hoping Scott would make it home in time to have dinner with us, but the kids couldn't hold out any longer. But he did make it home in time to play with the girls a little bit and read them a bedtime story. That is what matters. Abby was so excited to see him. Mckenzie too.

Mckenzie was up way too early for me this morning! We came downstairs and I put in the Wiggles for her to watch and gave her a yogurt to eat. That girl loves her yogurt, especially the squeezable ones. She eats at least three a day and would eat more if I let her! She fell asleep for a little bit and I did too! We didn't do much this morning. Abby said her tooth doesn't hurt anymore! I am glad for that. We ran a couple of errands this afternoon and played outside when we got back home. We were playing in the backyard and I glanced at something on the ground. I thought it was just a chewed up dog toy until I looked closer and realized it was the beautiful red cardinal that lives in our backyard. Guess that should say lived. I'm hoping some animal other than our dog was responsible for that one! We had gymnastics tonight. Abby is getting so much stronger. She is able to hold herself up on the bar now whereas before, she couldn't even get herself up! Mckenzie is such a little dare devil. She likes to walk on the high beams. I can't imagine she realizes how high up she is. I thought bedtime would be pretty easy tonight since Mckenzie didn't nap, but I was very wrong. I think her problem tonight was she was over tired. She got upset because I wouldn't let her take Scotch tape to bed and started screaming and crying so loudly! I ended up laying with her because she wasn't able to console herself. Abby couldn't fall asleep because of all the noise and now she is procrastinating going to bed herself. Every few minutes she comes out of her room to ask me another question. I hope this doesn't last long or else tomorrow will be a very long day for her at school!

I didn't get around to posting yesterday. It was a very dull day and we didn't even get to the park. Today, Abby had school again. She was in a good mood when we left the house, but when I wouldn't let her greet her teacher at the same time as her little friend, she got upset and started clinging to me, saying she didn't want me to leave. (The teacher likes to greet each child individually and look at his/her homework.) Her teacher reported she settled down pretty quickly. I'm not sure what is going on with her lately. It seems like she is easily upset. Mckenzie and I ran a couple of errands this morning. I am so happy I managed to find clothes for all of us to wear when we get our photos taken the beginning of December! I think the girls will wear their outfit for Christmas as well. Mckenzie was styling today when she was riding in the car. She found a pair of sunglasses and wore them upside down. She looked so cute! We picked Abby up from school and headed over to the park. Abby told me her front tooth hurt so I took a look at it. There was a little blood around the top of her tooth, so I asked her what happened. She told me her tooth and another child's head collided at school. I called her teacher to find out what happened, but unfortunately, the teacher didn't see and Abby never said anything to her in class when it happened. At least it is a baby tooth so if it falls out, no big deal I guess! The girls played for about an hour before we decided to go to the grocery store. I needed to buy a turkey (let's hope Scott makes it home in time) for Thanksgiving. On the drive back home, Abby was begging to decorate the house for Christmas. I told her we could look in the garage for the Christmas decorations when we got home and if we could get to them, we could put a few decorations up. Well, turns out, everything is buried in the back corner behind a boatload of stuff (sure would be nice to have a basement to store stuff!). I explained we would have to wait until Scott got home, but that really upset her. So, I loaded both girls into the car after dinner and ran to the store to pick up a couple of decorations. She was very excited to get a Santa hat and walked around the store saying ho, ho, ho. When we got home, she couldn't have cared less about the decorations I put up. She was too busy playing with Mckenzie. When I let them know it was time for bed, Abby informed me they couldn't go to bed yet because they were having a 'median' in the dining room. I told her it better be a quick meeting and she replied that it was going to be a long meeting! Not sure what she and Mckenzie needed to discuss, but it must have been important! I think Abby was trying to be like me. Whenever I host the school board meeting, we use the dining room. She even had a piece of paper in front of her like I do at the meetings! Both girls are finally in bed. Mckenzie has been in and out of her bed having to use the potty a million times! Let's just hope this means she will wake up dry again in the morning! Oh, talking about morning, Abby slept on top of her covers last night with all her pillows and animals in place too. When I asked her why, she said it was so she didn't have to make her bed again! I would post some pictures, but I seem to have misplaced my usb cord for my camera...

Well, I was hopeful the girls would sleep in since they went to bed later, but they decided to get up like normal. It was a very quiet day around here. We skyped with Scott this morning which was a lot of fun. Mckenzie kept trying to tell daddy she can rhyme words. She says "rhyme rhyme" and then tries to say dog, log, and frog. It doesn't come out the clearest, but she tries! I guess NickJr isn't so bad after all;) Abby sang a song for Scott and then was back to playing. We went to the park this afternoon and Abby found a little boy to play with. He showed her how to go down a pole and she was so excited to learn how to do it. Just last week at school, I was trying to help her do the same thing and she wouldn't have anything to do with it. Whenever I would try to make her do it without my help, she would cry and say she was scared. Today, she just grabbed onto the pole like she had been doing it forever and down she went with a big smile on her face. I think she did it at least 25 times before she got tired of it! Mckenzie played hide and seek with me. It was so cute to listen to her count and then see her run to find me. We ran to the store after the park and then picked up some pizza on the way home. I let the girls watch some tv while I picked up the house. I taught Abby where the volume control is on the remote and she is putting it to good use. I could clearly hear NickJr as I was vacuuming a different room from where they were watching tv! Both girls went to bed pretty easily tonight. Thank goodness! I am debating waking Mckenzie up before I go to bed and making her use the potty. When she woke up this morning, she had wet the bed, but she apparently slept right through it. Not a good sign for the potty training. I thought she was doing so much better but it feels like we are back at square one! I took some pictures at the park today, but I will add them tomorrow!