fishy fishy in the brook

Jamie took Olivia and Violet ice fishing a few days ago, and they caught some monster crappies. Jamie hooked them, but he said Olivia and Violet reeled them in. The girls were pretty proud of themselves, and had a blast! Jamie even taught them that, if anyone at the lake asked, they should say they weren't having any luck. And not to tell people which lake they were on. :)

Their biggest crappies

Daddy and Violet

Daddy and Olivia

light of the world

This past Sunday, Olivia and Violet were angels in their Sunday School Christmas program, called "Jesus: Light of the World." They did a great job and were very proud to be a part of the program. The kids all did a great job of telling the Christmas story!!

Angels Violet and Olivia

Angels Olivia and Violet with Mary, Baby Jesus and the Shepherds

The girls are VERY excited for Christmas this year. They've been counting the days! I think they are most excited to spend time with their cousins. Violet told me the other day that she has the best cousins, and she loves them so much. :)

giving thanks

We had a fun and relaxing Thanksgiving weekend. The girls didn't have school on Wednesday, so we spent the day running errands and getting things done, such as their annual doctor appointment. We are thankful that both of our daughters are healthy and developing normally! On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we spent the day home as a family. Olivia and Violet stayed in their pajamas all day, which they thought was pretty cool! We had a pretty traditional Thanksgiving meal, Olivia ate the most mashed potatoes and gravy, and Violet by far ate the most cranberries. We were thankful that we could all spend the day together, happy and healthy.

On Friday, Olivia and Violet turned six. We took them to see the new Disney movie "Frozen," which was excellent. Jamie even liked it, which says a lot. :) The girls loved it and have already been asking to see it again! After the movie, we went out for hamburgers and hot dogs, then we had some chocolate cake at home. The past six years have gone SO fast, and it's amazing how many ways they both have changed my life. I can't remember my life before them, because now I can't imagine my life without them!

On Saturday, we went to downtown Minneapolis and visited Macy's Santaland. It had the same theme as the past several years, "A Day in the Life of an Elf." There weren't many people there, so we walked through the display twice, taking our time and noticing different things each time we passed through. The display showed different scenes depicting an elf's day, such as sleeping, eating breakfast, attending school, tending to the reindeer, baking sweets and sorting mail. At the end, we had a nice visit with Santa. The girls were so excited to see him! The girls even picked out their own "fancy" outfits that they thought Santa would like. They climbed up on his lap right away and talked to him. Violet told him she wants a bracelet maker, and Olivia some Calico Critters. After that, we spent some time at Terri and Aaron's house; the girls were so excited to see their cousins William and Noelle! After a very nice visit, we left their house and then set out to by a Christmas tree. The girls had their heart set on a white one, because they had seen them previously. We came up empty on our first stop, but found white trees on our second stop. The girls picked out a really nice tree, probably the most full one we've ever had. We had fun decorating it together!

Violet & Olivia with Santa

Our Christmas Tree