1st half of January 2017

1/2--Feeling crappy and puking on the twins' last day of Christmas break. Guess we won't be taking them to a movie, like I wanted to. 😭 Praying hard that at least they won't get it!

1/3--THANK YOU to whoever in my neighborhood shoveled the sidewalks! I was dreading going out to the bus stop to get the girls and I put on boots, expecting to have to trudge through the snow, but it was nice and cleared.

We had yellow snow with dinner, ha ha! They've wanted to make it again since they had it at Grandpa's this past weekend. :)

1/4--Jared suddenly remembered today about the presents my mom had left here and hid down in the guest room closet the last time they were here, ha ha!

1/6--My girls have to go out and catch the bus in a few minutes!

This little girl is SO excited for several (13!) cousins to get here! She had to put on the right outfit and all of the accessories. :) All of those cousins, plus 5 aunts/uncles, plus Grandpa, are staying the weekend with us! 😀🎉🎊🎈🎲🃏❄☃🎪🎢🍦🍿🤗😜

1/6-1/8--That time we had 13 nieces and nephews, 3 of Jared's sisters and two of their husbands, plus his dad, stay the weekend at our house! We played Tripoly, Jelly Bean Boozled, Pie Face, and various games on the Wii, went to the Bean Museum and to Jason and Mikan's wedding reception, had lots of treats (including "yellow snow") and had fun hanging out. Most of them went to church with us on Sunday, then the four of us all took a nap together after everyone left Sunday late afternoon. It took me a couple of days to recuperate, ha ha!

Playing Tripoly Friday night:

Jelly Bean Boozled:

Bean Museum Saturday afternoon:

Jason and Mikan's reception Sat. night:

Yellow snow with all the kids after the reception:

Pie Face fun:

Sunday after church: Makenna loves holding her baby cousin; she's so sweet with him.

1/9--The twins snuck upstairs while I was teaching piano lessons and did this in their room. Kids are funny.

1/9--Poor Whiskers. Oreo is at the vet for two nights, getting neutered; Whiskers is walking around meowing a sad meow, which I'm positive is because he misses Oreo. The girls and I miss him, too, especially Avery.

1/10--Mom fail morning: Last night was a rough sleep night for me because I went to bed too late, of course, then Makenna and Jared were taking up my whole bed so I went and got in Makenna's bed, then Avery got down from the top bunk and got in bed with me. Then, I had to wake Jared up at 5 a.m. so Avery and I went and got in my bed with Makenna. Either I didn't plug my phone in or it got unplugged, so it went dead and my alarm didn't go off this morning. The girls had gotten out of bed and went downstairs to play, so I didn't hear them and kept on sleeping, so I didn't wake up until school was just about to start. So we rushed and got ready and they were 30 minutes late for school. First time they've missed the bus and have been late for school. Oops!

Avery asked me if they were punished for missing the bus because, if they ever miss the bus because they are goofing around or not cooperating, they'll get punished from TV for the rest of the day when they get home from school. I told her no because it was my fault. I guess I should punish myself, ha ha.

1/12--Definitely not thrilled about going down to the bus stop to get the girls off the bus today! :P

I was headed down the front steps as the bus pulled around the corner and the bus driver stopped right in front of the house so I didn't have to walk down the sidewalk. Yay!

Hot cocoa after playing out in the snow for over two hours. They are also already planning a pool party for the summer, ha ha! They've already discussed the invites (Avery said I need to add that everyone needs to bring a towel, sunglass, and a beach ball), who they're inviting, what activities they want to do (water fight, swim, water slide), and the snacks they want (pizza, popsicles, lemonade, ice cream). Oh, and we need balloons. 😃

1/13--Playdate with Elsie, a little girl that Makenna always plays with during Avery's gymnastics class. They made the cutest snowgirl. :)

Ha ha, so true! They either ask where we're going or who's coming over. 😂

The twins were playing "bunny and leopard" and Avery had to dress the part. Oh, and her name was Snowball.

Yep!:

1/14--We took the twins to a movie for the first time ever. I was reminded why I prefer to watch movies at home. But we loved "Trolls" and enjoyed lots of snacks! :D

Bwahahahahaaaaa, this is Avery!!!

Last week+ of December 2016

12/22--The girls are crafting together right now and Avery just said, "Please stop breathing in my face." Like mother, like daughter, ha ha!

Trying to be Cajun ;)

12/23--Decorating ornaments Friday afternoon, their first day of Christmas break

Whew! Well, that took forever! "Peppermint Candy Cane" finally wrapped all of the Christmas presents!

Nothing like over $500 worth of car repairs (water pump) 2 days before Christmas!

12/24--We got up and made and decorated Christmas cut-out sugar cookies; we went to Kiki's for a Christmas lunch (pizza, veggie tray, Christmas cookies) and gift exchange with them--Kiki had some left-over seafood gumbo from a party the previous night, woohoo!; we came home and decorated more cookies, watched movies and church Christmas videos, the girls opened two presents (another set of new pajamas, underwear, socks and mini light-up pillow pets, which they are in love with), they put out cookies and milk for Santa, and we watched a few minutes of "Elf" before they went to bed. Then, I enjoyed more seafood gumbo that Kiki sent home with me. :D

Cutting sugar cookies before their bath, before going to Kiki's house:

Decorating the sugar cookies after their bath, before going to Kiki's house

The girls decorated the cookies we brought to Kiki's house

 Christmas Eve lunch at Kiki's (pizza, veggie tray, Christmas cookies):

 Opening presents after lunch:

Playing games that we gave to Kiki's family:

Decorating the 2nd half of the cookies after we got home from Kiki's:

 I decorated some this time:

Opening a couple of presents--jammies, underwear, socks, and mini light-up pillow pets

 Christmas jammies

 Peppermint Candy Cane's good-bye letter:

Christmas Day:
Woke up to a White Christmas! Merry Christmas, y'all!!!

The girls and Jared started coughing really bad the night before so I had to go to church by myself on Christmas and the girls didn't get to wear their Christmas dresses. I was asked to go up and share my favorite church Christmas song "Mary's Lullaby" and why it's my favorite in sacrament meeting.  We met at 11 and only had a short sacrament meeting, mostly singing. The girls did enjoy unwrapping presents, through the coughs, that morning before I went to church.  We missed Christmas night at Jared's grandpa's because of all the coughing .:( After church, we watched some TV and all took naps. Avery asked me about 100 times to go play outside but I didn't want them to because of their colds. After they napped for two hours, I caved and let them play outside for 15 min. so they could use their new snowball makers--we bundled them up really good and put two pairs of socks on them. When they came in, they went right into a warm bath, then had dinner and hot cocoa, after which we watched their new "Finding Dory" DVD. I think they had good Christmas, despite being a little sick and missing church and fun at Grandpa's.

Seeing their Santa presents for the first time

Santa present--the snow disc

Santa present--hula hoop

 

Toothpasted dispenser so I don't have to put their toothpaste on every time or they don't get it everywhere if they do it!

Plush dinosaurs that came in a volcano carrying case

 

She asked for a LSU nightgown for Christmas :D

She actually asked for a plush elf--I gave her a boy and a girl

 

Camera stuff :)

The cats just had fun playing with wrapping paper and gift bags

Since Makenna got two plush elves, she gave the girl one to Avery

 Playing with their new snowball makers!

Watching "Finding Dory" after bathtime and dinner

12/26--I probably shouldn't have let them but they played with friends out in the snow today and Avery is out there sledding again (on the little "hill" in the empty lot next door) with friends--Makenna was only out for a little bit but she started coughing a lot, so she came back in.

Makenna wants me to make hot cocoa right now! They got Boogie Boards for Christmas and have been continuously writing notes (phonetically spelled, ha ha).

[lease do it right now! Please please I'm begging you]

[Please do it right now! I'm begging. This is my tenth time. Please please please please....]

 After I started making it:

[Yay I'm so glad you are doing it right now!]

12/27--Our handprint snowman ornaments:

The twins drew and painted these in school and gave them to us on Christmas. They were framed, wrapped, and came with cards they signed. So cute! Their teacher is amazing!

I should have asked Santa for a maid for the week after Christmas--wrecked house! 😮

12/26--Ever since Kiki gave them these, they want to eat every meal they can on the couch now. 🙄

12/30--He's too small for the box but is trying to make it work, anyway, ha ha!

12/31--Jared and I had eye dr. appts. at 10am, then we stopped at Walgreens to replenish our cold meds supply that we blew through this past week. The LSU bowl game started at 9am but I waited until after we got home and were eating lunch to watch it. We all just vegged all afternoon. I watched LSU spank Louisville, then I watched the Peach Bowl. While I was watching football, they wanted to watch a show, so they watched one on my tablet. I offered to put one on the TV in my craft room for them but heaven forbid they not be in the same room as me! 😏

The girls and I made pizza for dinner:

we had Black Magic for dessert (courtesy of Grandma):

We went outside and did some fireworks and sparklers:

We played a couple of games (Hello Kitty Pop-up and Hello Kitty Bingo, which they got for Christmas from Grandma):

We enjoyed some snacks:

We watched the "Luna Petunia" countdown on Netflix, and gave New Year's kisses:

The girls got to bed just before 9:00, then I went and worked on stuff in my craft room. Me waiting for midnight:

I asked Avery to do something for me earlier that day as she was playing with Oreo and she said, "Not right now. Makenna's helpful!"
Cruisin' for a bruisin'! If she weren't so cute! 😏

Happy New Year!!!