Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Christmas Crafts

What started off as a fun Christmas Eve craft project building a cool Cinderella carriage while Santa's elves were busy preparing for the big day turned into a 5 hour ordeal.  While Holly had a lot lot lot of fun and stayed totally engaged participating for at least the first two hours pour Tanta Kat was tormented by confusing instructions, backwards facing pieces and a puzzle of sorts where the pieces all fell apart as soon as they got put together.  If we end up salvaging and keeping the project Daddy will have to shop for some type of spray on adhesive glue that would dry and keep the whole thing together and maybe the paint would help too.  Regardless it was suoer fun having Kat spend the day today, lasagna for dinner and Christmas anticipation.  Looking forward to Santa coming tonight!





















Monday, December 23, 2013

Playmate play date


Now that Lyra is three weeks old and awake a little more then usual we decided to try out her playmat.  Holly said Lyra was an under the sea mermaid :-) we didn't have all the regular dangly toys so holly decided to improvise with tree ornaments - Lyra liked that as she enjoys looking at the tree and liked the jingle bells.  Holly also said she was on a special play date with Lyra.

Lyra actually really enjoyed her tummy time, something Holly hated as a baby.  Lyra was content to lay on her belly and do pre crawling leg movements while her big duster gave her kisses and cuddles.  They had fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB_ZN6Ppo9s























Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Decorating the Tree

We had so much fun decorating the tree
But first out of the box was Holly's Nutcracker. 
She had just come home from seeing the show and was in the Chtistmas Spirit
Dancing around like she was Clara 
But after going through the box we started with the lights
Holly helped by further digging through the box finding a bell necklace 
We decided to go with blue and white lights so here is stage 1
Then we started with the beads
Instead of tinsel we use these multi colored necklaces
Holly loves them.  At first they look messy
But by the end of it they are very pretty and colorful 
The ornaments were so fun this year.  We have so many that we had to pick and choose.
The year holly was three we got a ton of non breakable foam and plastic ones 
But this year we skipped all of those for the more special delicate ones 
Holly was so careful in her placement and decoration.
But I had to remind her each time to place the hoop strings deep on the branch so they wouldn't fall.
Sadly she did drop her Cinderella but the grannies glued her back together.
Holly enjoyed picking out which ones to use 
Handing them off to Daddy, Granny, or Nana if she decided they needed to go up high
She was super involved and basically did the whole tree
Mommy watched with Baby Lyra
And provided done direction and pointed out gaps.
There are lots of princesses on our tree 
Soon it was time for the star, we have had this star since college
Holly wanted to place it on her own 
She tried 
Then she got on her chair and tried 
Then she had daddy support her and tried
But alas she could not reach
She was very determined 
But alas she needed another strategy
So she climbed down and thought about a new approach 
Asking her trusty nutcracker for advice she had an idea 
She would climb up on daddies shoulders
But alas she was still not tall enough
She kept telling daddy to get closer 
And closer
Daddy joked that he would eat the tree as a snack
Chomp chomp
But in the end it was a three person operation 
With grannies helping arms she was able to reach just far enough 
Then up onto the top the star went
Sucess!
I love how the blue glows and reflects on the ceiling
Then it was time to enjoy the fruits of all her labor
And together with Baby sister Lyra, Holly sat and enjoyed the tree 
My two girls did a great job posing 
Holly is so sweet and loves her little sister so much
She likes to hold her, give her kisses and hugs and lots of cuddles.
Decorating this year was super fast
Having four helpers makes a big difference 
I'm sure putting it all away on our own will be less fun
Holly was already asking when Santa was coming.
This might be the earliest in December that we have ever gotten our tree up!
I think baby Lyra like the lights
I know her Big sister did!