Matching Cousins

Brooke and Lydia had matching Christmas shirts last year.  This year Brooke was able to wear Lydia's and Ashley fit into Brooke's.

 

 Such cute girls!

Sledding

We went to Mendon for Christmas this year.  We were able to go there on Friday, December 21st once Justin got off of work.  It made it nice to be able to spend more than one and a half days there, which is what we usually get to do.  On Saturday, December 22nd we went sledding.  It was a lot of fun.  Lydia wasn't too interested in sledding, she wanted to just play in the snow, but Brooke and Nathan loved it (so did Justin and Dan)!  My mom stayed back at the house and watched Ashley and Xander (Brady and Jillian were on a date for Jillian's birthday). 

 Brooke loved going down the hill.  One time my dad sent her down the hill backwards and she ended up somersaulting and landing on her face.  She still wanted to go again thought!

 

 

 

 Lydia fell out both times she went.  She liked being pulled in it, but didn't want to get sent down the hill after that.  She loved being outside and just exploring and playing in the snow.

 Nathan loved it too!  He is at a good age because he didn't need to get pulled back up the hill, he could walk by himself.

 Brooke just looked like a big, puffy pink snowball.

It was a lot of fun sledding with the kids.  It is fun watching my dad and Justin turn into little kids again too and she push and pull the kids all around in the sleds.

Helping Paint

This is how you help Grandpa paint a house.

Christmas Dresses

I love having the girls in matching dresses at Christmas time.  I think it is so fun and I think that they look so cute!  They are getting really good at posing in front of the Christmas tree.

 

 

 Lydia is getting so big and grown up.  She is definitely not a little baby anymore.  The time has gone by too quickly.

 

 She didn't want to wear this dress.  I had to practically hold her down and force it on her.  She definitely likes pants and t-shirts better.  She looks so beautiful though.

 

 Brooke is getting so big and so independent.  She talks all the time.  She says mom, dad, Daisy, cheese, hello, hi, bye bye, night night, grandpa, and she will also repeat a lot of the words that we say.

 

 She didn't want to give us her great big cheesy grin today.  She was teething and not feeling very well because of it.

 

I really do have the greatest girls ever!!!

Christmas Pictures

Brady took some fun Christmas pictures for us.

 

 I love the little scene we created.  We used all of my mom's Christmas decorations for it.  It made it a lot of fun.

 

 I think Lydia looks so grown up in the picture.  I have to remind myself she is just two.

 

 Lydia had special instruction to not let go of Xander!  She did a great job.

The pictures turned out so fun and cute!  I love them.

Playing in the Snow with Ivy

Life doesn't get much better than this.  We had a big snow storm and got about a foot of snow.  Lydia loves playing in the snow and was so excited that Justin was home to play in it with her.  To make things better, we let Ivy out so she could play in the snow too!  Lydia loved it!  Brooke was running a fever so she was inside sleeping and missed out on all the fun.  Lydia loves Ivy so much!  It is funny watching how much Ivy likes being around Lydia too.

 And to make things even more fun, we add in the cute little Beagle!  We love Daisy!

 

 Justin pulled Lydia all around the backyard on her little sled.  Daisy loved this and was running around the yard all crazy like with Justin.

 

 

It was a great winter day!

Presents Under the Tree

The girls think it is so funny to go and lay underneath the Christmas tree!  They definitely do make the greatest presents we could have under our tree.

 However, when I went to get the camera to take their picture, they both stood up and went and posed by the Christmas tree.  Brooke is so funny because she will look at the camera and she says, "Cheese!"  It is pretty cute.

 They were both laughing in this picture.  I thought it was funny.

 More sisterly love! 

The Cast Comes Off

I decided to take some last pictures before Lydia had her blue cast taken off.  She was so excited to go to the doctor.  She loves going to the doctor.  She gets very excited every time she sees the doctor's office (which is in the hospital) and she asks if we are going there.

 

 

Lydia loves this blue cast!!  She knows that she is unique because she has it.  I am so lucky that she didn't just hate it the whole time she had it on.  What a cute little girl!  We didn't get any pictures at the doctor of them taking the cast off.  She was so good the whole time they were cutting it off.  She just held her arm out and didn't move.  I had been telling her that the doctor was going to take it off because I was worried she would be upset about it and still want the cast on.  She was great though.  The day she got the cast off her arm was really sore and she kept her fingers in a fist.  She would barely even move her arm.  I felt so bad for her.  The doctor said it would be really sore for a week or two.  The next morning she came into our room extremely happy.  She was wiggling her her fingers and moving her fist all around.  She said, "Look mom.  Me hand all better.  Doctor make me all better!"  She was so excited to have the use of her hand back.  It was such a cute thing.  It made me sad thinking that she must have thought she might never get to use her hand again!  But now is "All Better!" and she loves it!

Christmas Tree Pictures

This post is purely just because I have cute girls!

 

 Sometimes they can be the best of friends!

 

 

Signing the Cast

We started signing Lydia's cast on the Sunday before she got it off.  She thought it was so much fun!  She knows that her name starts with an L and she liked that we wrote her name on her cast.

 She had a lot of fun coloring on it once she knew that she could.

 

 Justin was able to sign his name.  She knows that D is for Dad she she could show you where he signed.

 

 Lydia knows M is for Mom she knew where I signed.  She also picked out what color she wanted us to write our names with.

 Brooke thought it was fun signing her name.  I helped her write her name.  B is for Brooke.  I love when Lydia sees the letters and points them out.  She does it as we are driving down the road or whenever she sees a letter she knows.

 Brooke then was able to color on the cast too.  Both the girls thought that was pretty fun!

Lydia loves her blue cast.  She is definitely very proud of it and has adapted so easily to having it on!