Okay, I think this works now.

So, I shortened the video to 30 seconds. Here's a "snippet" (for Tracy).

That's our girl. :)

Extra Christmas Footage

Christmas wasn't quite over after going to bed that night. Not for the White House!

This past weekend we traveled to Adam's dad's to have "Christmas" with him and Eva. We had a great visit with them and took several pictures of the girls with their new "babies" they received that day.

Adam's dad and stepmom have birds. Big birds. Birds that talk and make you laugh because of the things they say - like yelling "Jerry!" (Adam's dad's name). Here are some pictures of Alaina and Casey.

After we spent the afternoon at the lake, we drove down to Ft. Wayne and went to the "Straub Christmas" party (Adam's mom's side of the family). We always have a great time at these parties - there are so many of us the same age range and all have kids the same age as well. It's pretty crazy, but so fun. I remember those days in Evansville as a little girl at holidays with my dad's side of the family so I'm very happy for my girls that they'll have all those memories too.

Here are some pictures of the evening.

Christmas is here!

Well, was here. I'm a bit late on posting, but better than never I guess! :)

We really had a nice, relaxing Christmas. We went over to Adam's brother's house for brunch on Christmas Eve with his mom and the girls had great fun with their cousin Vanessa! Especially after opening all the gifts - Adam got a grill for Christmas/Birthday and all three girls LOVED being on top of the box! Here's a picture I stole from Jenn's website. :)

That evening, the girls dressed up in their fancy Christmas dresses for our Christmas Eve church service. I remember getting a fancy dress to wear for that one special night and know that our girls will too - especially after this year, when they just LOVED their dresses!!! (It truly is next to impossible to get a good picture of the girls together now!!)

Alaina was very excited to get up on Christmas morning - which made Cami excited, though she didn't know why. :) Here are a few pictures of the girls opening gifts.

After our crazed morning, we quickly got dressed (the girls wanted to wear their fancy dresses again - yes, both wanted to wear them!). My parents and brother drove down for the day and we had a nice feast of ribs and other yummy foods and desserts! And of course, more unwrapping of gifts!

It really was a nice day. A great day to remember what we were celebrating - the birth of our savior, Jesus. Alaina got to put up the baby Jesus on the last day of our Advent calendar and it was a nice reminder of what this day is truly all about. What a thing to celebrate!!!

Alaina's Christmas Program

On Thursday, Dec. 20th, The Oaks Academy (Alaina's school) had their Christmas Program. I just had to give you a couple glimpses into our life with Alaina...

Well, I tried uploading the other one and it won't work because the file size is too big. If I could figure out how to shorten it, I'd upload it. It's priceless. :) Better than the one posted.

Let it snow!

The girls got to play out in the snow!

The first time we went out, it was for the first snow last week and the girls wanted to go out even though we didn't have snow "apparel" out yet. Alaina just adores the snow and the first day, Cami thought it was pretty cool too.

The second snow - well, Cami's just not so sure. She LOVES to look at it and hold little teeny balls of it in her hand, but beyond that - she just cries and tries to get to the sidewalk! :)

Here are some pictures of the fun.

Cami was excited to come inside after the fun and was playing peek-a-boo with the door.

I really think Alaina just likes to play in the snow because she thinks she gets hot chocolate when she comes inside every time! :)

I hate snow. Really. I hate being cold. Is it spring yet?!!!!!

Last week in review :)

So, last week was CRAZY! Alaina had Nutcracker rehearsal every night from 5:30 to 7:30 or later and then a 7pm performance Friday and a 2pm and 7pm performance on Saturday. It was a tiring week for Alaina, even though she loved it - being with the "big ballerinas" and wearing make-up and seeing all the beautiful costumes. But let me say again, it was a tiring week for Alaina. A week later, we're still recuperating!

It was well worth it! :)

We so enjoyed watching Alaina perform in the Nutcracker! She was so sweet - her little mouse head was so big (as seen below) and it didn't get pinned in very well, so it was falling off and she was trying so hard to not mess with it. She was just grinning from ear to ear and was really off in her own little world the whole performance.

As an angel, she was "squinting" (her word) into the crowd trying to find us. She's so dramatic. This was right up her alley.

I used to think she was ballet crazy before the Nutcracker - now I know! She told me (so dramatically and seriously) the other day on the way to school that she just can't think of anything else now and just keeps "remembering the Nutcracker in my head all the time! Mommy, I just keep dancing it in my head!"

What have we transformed her into?!?!?!

Advent

The girls opened a special early Christmas gift this weekend from their Great Aunt Laura and Great Uncle George. They actually received the gift over Thanksgiving, but couldn't open it until Dec. 1st.

It was a beautiful Advent calendar! The girls both love it. My Aunt Laura made it for the girls and it is so sweet! We've wanted to get an Advent calendar for a couple years now because Adam's mom has one that Alaina really enjoys. So when Aunt Laura asked if that would be a good gift, I said YES!!!

The first day Alaina got to chose a "marker" and place it on the calendar, and the next day Cami did. We'll alternate days until Christmas. Both of the girls are really excited and I'm looking forward to talking to them about Christmas and the birth of Jesus.

We have a crazy week coming up - Alaina's going to be in the Nutcracker this next weekend so she has rehearsal each night this week for 2+ hours in the evening. She will be a baby mouse and an angel in the Nutcracker. She's excited and so are we. She keeps pretending to be scared (truly, pretending in every sense of the word - the girl is SO dramatic!) and then laughs and then goes back to pretend crying and nervousness. She's a nut!

We also have been under some "renovation" in our home - a new kitchen! Adam and some friends (Brian Shaffer and Scott Rodgers) have been putting tons of time into our kitchen over the last 2+ weeks and we're almost done! Here are a few pictures of the progress...

Before:

After demo:

After fixing demo:

Getting closer:

I'll post a few pictures of the final results. It's truly amazing how different my kitchen in already! It's actually a kitchen with purpose now! I can USE it effectively and there's ROOM in it with cabinet space and counter tops!!! Thanks so much to Adam, Brian and Scott!!! Now you can all come to dinner and see my new kitchen. It's beautiful. :)