Brynlee's 5th Birthday

 Little Miss Bryn turned 5 on December 30th and she sure had a fun birthday. We spent the morning sledding (I think I'll post those pictures separately) and then Bryn got ready for her annual birthday date with Dad. She had been looking forward to it for so long and she was pretty giddy about it....that's why I couldn't get a normal picture out of her!

 As per tradition, Josh and Bryn went to the local bookstore and Bryn got to pick out a book to buy. She chose a cute chapter book this year and has had fun reading it at home.

 The plan was to walk down the street from the bookstore and get gelato, but the gelato shop was closed for the holidays. Josh took her to Dunkin Donuts instead and Bryn was thrilled.

After their date we opened presents. I think her favorite gift was the "My Father's Dragon" trilogy. It's a darling chapter book that she loves and she hadn't read the 2nd and 3rd books yet, so she was really excited to get them. 

 She got really gourmet and chose homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner, with green grapes and green peas. 

 I made a really basic cake with "Anna" on it from Frozen. 

Happy Birthday Bryn!

Brynlee is such a sweet daughter and a great little helper and friend to me throughout the day. I love laughing with her, reading with her, and watching her grow. She is always buzzing with curiosity and creativity and it's so fun to see the clever and elaborate projects and performances that she comes up with. I'm lucky to be her mom and I'm excited for all the good times we have ahead!

New Years

One of Josh's favorite Tuck professors knew that we were home from the holidays and away from family, so he invited us to join his family for New Years Eve. I didn't really know how it would go with the girls and everything, but it turned out to be so fun! Their teenage kids entertained the girls, Josh spent the night talking finance with the professor and another Tuck professor who was there, and I spent the night chatting about art with his wife who is also an artist. Great night! Mustaches and party hats were also involved.

We left around 8 pm and did a New Years Eve countdown with the girls before bed. 

 The next morning we had a New Years brunch with our good friends the McKenzies. I should have taken a picture of Steph's beautifully set table because that girl really knows how to do it right! Hostess with the mostest!

Happy New Year!

Sledding at Occum Pond

 Brynlee really wanted to go sledding on her birthday and lucky for her- it snowed the night before. We usually go sledding on a little hill on our street, but this time we drove a few minutes to the hills behind Occum Pond. The girls only lasted an hour before their poor little faces got frozen, but it was such a fun time.

Bryn used the sled at first, but I think she preferred "tobogganing" down the hill (pretending to be one of the tobogganing penguins from Mr. Popper's Penguins).

Mya went on a sled once or twice with Josh, but she mostly just sat in this little laundry basket at the top of the hill. Each time one of us fell off of our sled - which was quite often - Mya yelled out "Uh oh!" and just laughed and laughed.

Bryn also used the laundry basket as a sled a few times and she had fun with it, but of course it was cracked by the end of the morning.

Love this guy. 

 This was also Mya's first time in the snow! We normally play in the snow while Mya is napping and warm inside, but she had fun being outside with us this time.

I don't know if we'll always live in a place with snowy winters, so we're trying to have fun this winter and create some fun, snowy memories for the girls :)

Christmas Activities

We had such a fun Christmas season this year and we tried to fill it with fun, simple Christmas activities. Here are a few last pics of the Christmas season...

Mya was enamored with the Christmas tree and loved petting it.

Bryn was enamored with the mistletoe and spent much of the month puckered up underneath it, trying to entice any of us to give her a smooch.

Bryn and I had fun making these Christmas snacks for her preschool class. Bryn she was the only one who liked the celery and cucumber, so it was kind of a bust ....but at least it looked cute :)

Watching the Polar Express

We tried to fit in a few little Christmas crafts after school

 Mya loved the Christmas card wall and the cutest part was how she patted and kissed the pictures of her grandparents, saying "Gaga" (grandma) and "Papa" (grandpa).

 This year in our advent calendar we had "puzzle pieces" to this nativity scene and a scripture about Christ. I found the scripture advent on Pinterest and then just added the nativity puzzle because Bryn is a visual person :)

Along with the scripture advent we did a Christmas book advent this year for the first time. It was so fun! Most of the books I found on clearance last year after clearance, and I was so excited all year long thinking about getting them out and doing the advent! Here are the 25 books we did, with my favorites noted...

 I grew up reading "Biolosky's Christmas" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Shines Again", so it was fun to read them with Bryn and Mya now. (I found them both at a thrift store a few years ago).

 I only had 21 books, so these four are from the library. Bryn really loved "Gingerbread Pirates" and "Christmas in the Barn" is really cute, too. 

Bryn and Mya were crazy about these sing-along books and we sure heard those Christmas songs over and over!

 We had a handful of board books in the mix, for Mya's sake. I especially love "Room for a Little One" and "Snowballs".

 "This is the Stable" has gorgeous illustrations and "Who is Coming to our House?" is a cute, rhyming nativity book that Josh grew up with. 

 "Snowmen at Christmas" is so clever and has fun illustrations and "The Christmas Train" is a neat Christmas story about President Monson.

We had such a fun Christmas! We tried to do lots of fun things and make the most of our long winter break and we really had a great few weeks!

Mya 18 Months

Today Mya is officially 18 months old, and seeming older and older each day! I love this stage. Mya is getting more curious and busy, but she's still really manageable and mellow. Here are a few random snapshots of Mya at a year and a half...

She loves brushing her teeth and stealing her toothbrush throughout the day to brush, brush, brush. 

 She looooooves to flip through books and babble to herself. Her favorite books are animal books because she does the little animal noises that she knows. 

We find Mya all over the house in the funniest reading positions. It's the cutest thing. I think she started doing it to mimic Bryn but now she does it even if Bryn's not home. 

Mya has wild, straight, blond hair that always cracks us up.

 Mya has a bit of a shoe fetish and her favorites are her gold boots and her mismatched high-heels. She loves to put on her puffy coat and boots throughout the day because she think it'll convince me to take her outside :)

 Fresh out of the bath and ready for bed

 She gets caught multiple times each day rummaging through the food cupboards. This time she hit the jackpot and found Bryn's old stash of Halloween candy.

She keeps Josh company while he studies

 Mya's first time with pig-tails :)

Mya loves to color and she scribbles on any paper she sees...as well as other surfaces around the house. 

 Mya is pretty shy and timid in public, but she is such a silly, giggly girl at home. One of the funniest things to her is doing somersaults with Bryn. She gets in this position, then we gently flip her legs over and she just laughs and laughs. 

 She's getting more and more curious and has figured out the magic of a stool

When Bryn doesn't want Mya to play with something she puts it up on the table or kitchen counter. That worked until about a week ago when Mya figured out how to climb onto the table and play with the "off-limit" toys. Oops.

Miss Mya, you are the sweetest little thing around and we sure love you!

Christmas

 Christmas was wonderful! The girls woke up at their usual time of 7 am and took a few pictures before going downstairs to see their presents. 

Sorry, one more picture - because Bryn's crossed leg is cracking me up.

 We had blocked off the stairway with wrapping paper because I was nervous Bryn might sneak downstairs too early. She was thrilled to bust through the paper and race downstairs to her gifts. 

 The girls looking over the goods

We played with the Santa presents for a while and had breakfast (Josh's special breakfast casserole and spinach smoothies), and then we opened up the other presents under the tree. 

Bryn picked out this doll for Mya for their "sisters gift exchange". She was so excited for Bryn to open it and luckily Mya loved it! 

Never has there been a more feminine Ken doll, but Bryn was pretty excited about him ....despite his skin tight gray pants/tights?

Bryn's reactions were a little dramatic

Mya's reactions were not so dramatic :)

 We skyped a lot with my family off and on all day, and wished my dad a happy birthday!

Mya really loves facetime-ing. She says "Gaga" for grandma, "Papa" for grandpa, and she just started saying "Lolo" when she sees Logan. It's so cute!

 We spent the afternoon playing with new toys and watching Newsies (one of our top Christmas gifts of 2013). I had a big Christmas dinner planned, but we ended up just making homemade pizza instead.

 We got together with the Loomis family in the evening for games and dessert. It was so fun to be with good friends. The girls went nuts for their friends' new plasma car. They rode it around all night ....and made me wish I would have gotten them one of their own for Christmas! Maybe next year!

Merry Christmas!