Yes, Sweet Maycie is 4

As parents we are always amazed at how fast our children grow up. Maycie had her 4th birthday and wants everyone to know that she is no longer 3. We let her open up some of her birthday gifts before Brilynn went to school. She wanted to have her birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, so she invited her friends from Joy School and Playgroup as well as a few others. I try to make her birthday special because I don't ever want her to think that it just gets tied into Christmas.

Class Dance Recitals

Brilynn and Maycie had little dance recitals during their dance class. It was just a chance for parents to see what the girls have been working on. This was the first time for Maycie to perform so we were a little nervous for her but she was very brave and did a great job. We enjoyed watching both of them perform.

The Diving Board

We went swimming with some friends for their daughter Kate's birthday. Brilynn went with her friends and decided she wanted to go off the diving board with them. She had never done this before and was a little nervous at first. However, it didn't take her long to gain her confidence and she was doing all kinds of silly tricks. Brilynn and Maycie have ever been afraid of the water and jump at any chance to go swimming. The other day Brilynn asked if we could please go stay in a hotel so that she could swim. I told her that that would be a pretty expensive swimming trip. She was rather disappointed.

10th memory of Christmas

The 10th memory of Christmas was new hot chocolate mugs. We love to drink hot chocolate at night so I decided that new mugs would be something that the girls would like. That night we made French Vanilla hot chocolate and added some junior mints to it as well. It was very tasty!!!

9th memory of Christmas

The 9th memory of Christmas, the girls each got a dollar. We took them to the dollar store and let them buy gifts for each other. Brilynn kept showing things to Maycie and saying "Oh, I hope this is what you get me!" After a LONG time trying to make a decision, we were finally able to check out and the girls gave the clerk their money. They loved being able to do this for each other and we hope they felt the joy of giving to each other.

6th memory of Christmas

The 6th memory of Christmas was a brand new box of crayons and new Christmas coloring books. John and I sat and colored pictures with them and then we cut them out as well. It was a very simple gift but something that we all were able to do together.

7th memory of Christmas

The 7th memory of Christmas was making Chocolate Christmas Suckers. Making the suckers was a little tricky and we had to do help the girls quite a bit. I think next year we will try to do the hard suckers instead of the chocolate. The girls had a great time anyway.

8th Memory of Christmas

The 8th memory of Chrismtas was a trip to see the Christmas lights. We did one night at Temple Square and one night at Layton park. The night we went to Temple square, it was an absolute blizzard. We parked at the Gateway and then took Trax down to Temple Square. Brilynn is very sensitive to the cold and needless to say she did not last very long. Before I knew it, she was wearing my coat, my gloves, and I was carrying her. We went into the Visitors Center to warm up and she just sat there frozen. We finally got warmed up enough to make the trek back to the car. This might not have been their favorite memory but it is one we won't forget. The next night we just went do to Layton park. Brilynn's first reaction when we told them where we were going was "Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!" I told her that it would only be a few minutes and it wasn't near as cold. This was a much better experience of seeing the Christmas lights.

5th memory of christmas

The 5th memory of Christmas was new Christmas books. They each got a book with fun Christmas things to make and then the other book was a puzzle book. They liked their puzzle books, but the project books were their favorite. I started to question myself about giving them the activity books because they begged and begged to make everything in the book. We finally setteled on 1 project from each book.

I don't like my hat!!!

Preslee wasn't to keen on having a red Santa cap placed on her head. After playing with it for a few minutes we tried once again and were able to get a quick shot of them together. My aunt Linda is always bringing things to the kids when she comes to visit. She has the famous treasure box that she keeps in her car and everytime she visits the first thing the kids say is "Where is the treasure box." I used to get upset at them for being rude and I tried to teach them that it is rude to ask what people brought, but I have learned that Linda loves for them to be excited about the treasure box and they get so excited when they are able to rumage through the box to find their own treasure!

Bluffridge Elementry Christmas Concert

Besides it being very crowded and lots and lots of little kids, we really enjoyed listening to the kids perform their Christmas songs that they had learned. At the end they brought out all of the children to do the finale. The boys behind Brilynn told her that she needed to sit down (but she was really supposed to be standing) so she sat down and so we weren't able to see her at all. Oh we.. It was fun to see them perform on stage. I only took a picture before we left for the school because I wasn't able to get any other pictures due to trying to video and manage the twins.

4th memory of Christmas

The 4th memory of Christmas was a Christmas blanket for the girls to use while watching one of our favorite Christmas movies, "Home Alone." We popped popcorn and drank Sparkiling cider (applejuice and squirt soda). So far our Memories of Chrismtas has been a huge success and has helped us spend quality time together as a family.

John' First Outdoor Christmas Lights

I must admit, John did a fabulous job hanging the lights outside. He was pretty proud himself:)

3rd Memory of Christmas

The 3rd memory of Chrismtas was a trip to the mall to see Santa Claus. The funny thing was the girl who was taking pictures came over to me and said, you may want to bring them back later because this Santa isn't very good. Most of the kids cry when they see him. I thought that was pretty random that she would just out of the blue walk over and tell me that. Anyway, while the girls were telling Santa what they wanted, I had John snap a picture. The girl then looked at him and said, "Sir, no pictures!!!!) I had to laugh that I got John in trouble. Needless to say, we didn't get very good pictures of this memory.

The 2nd memory of Christmas

The 2nd memory of christmas were pillow cases and things to decorate them with including bells, christmas pom poms, fabric markers, and Christmas stencils. Brilynn and Maycie loved using the stencils to decorate their very own Christmas pillow case. The best part about this memory was that they didn't even complain when it was time to go to bed! So far this has been a wonderful tradition for our family and hopefully it will be something the girls remember.

Yeah!!! Payge is finally sitting up.

Preslee was sitting up 4 weeks earlier than Payge. We were very excited once Payge was able to sit on her own and play with toys. I can't believe how different they are. When they were born they weighed exactly the same. Now Preslee weighs about 2 lbs more than Payge. Payge is lucky enough to have olive skin where as Preslee is pastey white. Payge is very laid back and it takes her a little bit longer to hit her milestones. Preslee is doing the actual crawl and Payge is still steam rolling to get around. John and I really love to watch how they interact with each other. The other day Payge was playing with a little worm that was attached to a book. Preslee crawled over and took it away from her. As soon as Payge started crying Preslee gave it back for a few seconds and then took it away again. We are both really excited that they are now holding their own bottles instead of propping it up for them.