The Crams are Here!

My Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Kenny (my girls call him "Uncle Funny"), Sarah, and Rebecca came to visit this week. We've had lots of fun together these last 5 days!

Here's Sarah and Becca opening their Christmas gifts.

Everyone helped with decorating the ginger bread house.

Aunt Jennifer read Maddie one of her new books. Daddy helped with one of the voices.

We went out for a brisk walk one afternoon.

We dressed all warm.

Becca brought back t-shirts for the girls from the zoo.

The girls have Cinderella dolls, PJ's, and then watched the movie with their cousins and aunts.

We watched it snow and ate waffles one morning.

Maddie ate snow!

Our yard looks so different with a white ground.

Thanks for coming Crams! We'll miss you.

Game Time!

Maddie and Aunt Dottie had an afternoon of games. CandyLand, Shuttes and Landers, and...

Cat in the Hat, Can You Do That? 

The girls dressed up and pushed their babies around.
We've had lots of fun playing with Aunt Dottie.

Christmas Day!

 

It was super exciting to celebrate Christmas for the first time in our Virginia home. We were especially happy to have Aunt Dottie with us this year. 

  

The girls got Mini Mouse mugs for hot chocolate.
 We started a new tradition of making monkey bread for breakfast...yum!

 Savannah's bunny and Maddie's dog each had a little stocking. Their lovies got a bottle :)

 Stockings!

 Aunt Dottie was happy about the truffles.

The matching princess scooters were a huge hit!

Maddie loves her camera. The girls were showered with gifts from friends and family!!

 That evening we had a wonderful dinner at the Holley's house. We're so thankful for friends that feel like family already.

 Family photo!!

 The next morning we woke up to a little bit of snow!!

We had to brake in our new sled!

Christmas Eve

 Here are my cuties ready for our Christmas Eve service!

 I love them, just saying.

 And they LOVE Aunt Dottie. She's here with us for a couple weeks and we're loving it. They hug her, take care of her, and play with her so sweetly!

 Maddie and Savannah got to be angels in the Christmas Eve family hour service.

So did these cuties!

 

After the practice, and during the service, my littlest angel fell asleep! We had to take her out to wake her!! She was so sleepy!!

All the kids did a great job!

 

My angels were very serious!!

 Jesse gave a message on the ways in which Jesus was an unusual gift.

    At the end of the service, we had glow sticks and sang Silent Night.

After the service, the girls, Aunt Dottie, and I went to the Drums house for dinner. We had a wonderful time with friends. Jesse enjoyed preaching at two more Christmas Eve services.

Yummy sugar cookies!

Bluemont Park

We love Mondays when Jesse stays home. It's our "Daddy Day". Sometimes we go for an outing, other days we stay at home and get things done. Last Monday we went to Bluemont Park for a little walk and playground fun.

 I love this man for so many reasons! 

 The girls loved throwing rocks in the stream and exploring.

 After our walk, we found this great park! The girls could have stayed for a long time pretending. This train was going to Africa (according to Maddie :).

 All aboard! 

Last week a friend and I sewed our burlap tree skirt. I love how it turned out! 

I also took the glass and brass door off the fireplace and filled it with candles. We can't used this fireplace because this chimney has something wrong with it, so the candles are the alternative. I think I like it. Our wood burning stove has been pumping out the heat from the basement. If we keep the fire going, our heat barely turns on!

It's Almost Christmas in DC

We've had fun going to a few Christmas events here in D.C. Here's some of what we've done..

We went to Robinson High School to watch their orchestra play Christmas music. The girls had fun with their friends from church and bouncing to the songs!

 Our family ventured out one evening to see the "National Holiday" tree. The girls were excited in the backseat all bundled up!

 The White House looks so beautiful at night!

  With the Washington Monument in the background, we listened to the Redskins marching band play Christmas carols!

The girls loved the music!

Busy, Busy

We've been keeping pretty busy lately! Between skating birthday parties, Christmas baking, and parties; we're having lots of fun.

Maddie's first time out on a roller rink. 

 

My little helpers.

We've baked/made some Christmas cookies for our neighbors. We invited them to come to our church Christmas concert and come back for cookies. I think they enjoyed it!

We also hosted another Christmas party here last week with over 50 people in our house! It was a blast!

Since the girls weren't too excited about going to sleep while the house was full of people, I let BOTH of them sleep in Savannah's crib. They were pretty excited about their Christmas PJ's and the slumber party. I had to take sleeping pics :)

 I got another funny picture of Savannah earlier this week...her last night with a paci!!

(I'm not sure why she has a shoe on her tummy?)

   Maddie sleeping and looking a little pensive! Do you think she has enough stuffed animals?!

Today we went to a Tiny Tots Christmas concert at a local high school...the girls loved the music!