Christmas Cookies at Grandma VM's....

Shelly, Mom, & I with the masterpieces Sam making Owen laugh

Owen is sick again but in on the action

All of the bakers

Cutting out those cookies

Mom & I

I packed up the kids and we headed down to spend a couple days at my parents house since I'm on Christmas break from work. It was also Mom's birthday. After taking the year off last year, my sister Shelly and kids came and we all made cut out Christmas cookies. The kids were much more interested this time than two years ago. Sam, Addie, and Ava stuck it out for a few batches of cutting the cookies out and then returned once it was time to frost. They all seemed to enjoy frosting the cookies and eating them! We felt that we made quite a few more cookies than what we ended up with at the end, but after we each confessed to eating our share, we could see where the lost numbers were! It was a great time and great tradition I look forward to doing next year!

Ava's Preschool Christmas Program...

By her preschool room before the program

Her usual look- she sees us in the audience as she's walking in with her class

Top Row

Ava's preschool, Little Lambs, put on a Christmas program entitled "Love Came Down at Christmas". Her class sang a couple songs with actions. She did really well and it was very fun to watch the kids perform. I have to hand it to the teachers for getting all those songs together and getting the kids to learn them. It was a 7:00 pm program, so Owen struggled to make it through as that's about his bedtime. Grandpa and Grandma Sieve came to watch her which Ava really enoyed. She really loves all her grandparents!

Little Brother, Big Sister...

Ava's all smiles...Owen has checked out!

The cheese grins- this one just makes me laugh!

More crazy giggling!

My attempt at getting a photo of the kids in their "Little Brother, Big Sister" shirts. Notice I used the word "attempt"....

Owen Gets A Taste of Outside Play....

I thought it would be spring before Owen would really get to play outside, but I was wrong. Due to our extremely nice weather, we played outside in December! This is the first time Owen really got to play outside since he's been walking well. To say he loved it may be an understatement. He literally sprinted up and down the driveway, just loving every moment of freedom in the sunshine. He got right on Ava's little riding toy and moved around a little on that. He also loved to push the lawn mower and car. We may have to rethink a fenced in yard because he's going to be hard to keep track of!!