Tis' The Season!

Hey Everybody!  We have been pretty busy around here with all of our Christmas Celebrations.

It started out with my church Christmas Program.  It was a pretty special event, all of the kids got to make a decoration and help build the manger scene.  I love getting to see all of the pretty Christmas decorations, and Mama really loves getting to sing all of her favorite Christmas Carols.

Next we had Christmas with Mama's family.  Unfortunately we were having so much fun hanging out that Mama didn't remember to take any pictures  :-(  Either way, it was fun to be with Heidi and Ronnie, Grandma Nancy, and Wendy, Missy and Tyler to celebrate.

 That night Santa surprised us with an early visit!!  He left a note saying that he heard Mama and Daddy say that we would be leaving for Alexandria Christmas Eve night, so he stopped by when he and Rudolph were taking a practice ride.  

This year I asked for an Art Kit, and Ellen asked for a Ball!  We also exchanged family presents and Mama and Daddy told us that we were going on vacation!

We had a great time in Alexandria.  It was so much fun getting to play with our cousin Mackenzie, and see Megan and Tommy, Grandma Carolyn, Papa Tim, and Great Grandma Joan!

The best part was the fresh snow and beautiful weather!  We had a great time sledding, tromping around, and playing with each other.

The best part of playing in the snow is HOT CHOCOLATE!!!!

Mama and Daddy were planning to take me skiing, but the weather didn't work out, so instead we went with Grandma and Papa to the bowling alley.  I don't know why we don't go bowling more often, it is a ton of fun!

Of course, all good things must come to an end, and nothing passes a long car ride better than a nice nap!  (Somebody needs to explain that to Ellen, I have tried, but she won't listen!!)

Happy New Year!

Linden

The Real Cinderella

As usual, I am playing makeup on the blog.  Maybe that should be my New Year Resolution? 

December 4th was a great day, I woke up and there was SNOW!  Mama decided to make snowy waffles with snowballs for breakfast to celebrate (in case you can't tell, there is powdered sugar on my waffle and white chocolate chips for the snowballs).

We had a packed day planned.  After Sunday School Daddy dropped me and Mama off at a friend's house and we headed to the cities to see Cinderella at the Children's Museum.

It was a great show with lots of laughs and fun characters!  And the best part, I got to hang out with one of my best friends, and so did Mama!  My favorite part of the show was the step sisters, they were played by boys!  They were really mean to Cinderella, but she chose to be kind anyways.

When we got back to Owatonna we went to Daddy's work party where we got to sing Christmas songs, eat a yummy meal, and meet Daddy's work friends.  We showed up at just the right time because Santa was just leaving!  It was so fun to see him, and we even got to hear him "Ho Ho Ho!" as he left.  I couldn't figure out where he left sleigh, I'll have to remember to look harder next year.

Have a great night and look forward to some Christmas posts coming soon!
Linden

My The Biggest!

Hey Everybody!  Ellen Here!

There is big news at my house, I got a Big Girl Bed!!  A couple weeks ago we spent a couple nights away from home, when we left home my crib was normal, but when we came back I went into my room and didn't know what to think!  At first I was really worried because I thought my bed was broken, but then Mama told me that I got a Big Girl Bed!

My first night started out pretty good...

But that didn't last very long.

Mama said I have been doing a great job staying in my bed.  She and Daddy got me a fun alarm clock that turns green when I can get up.  The rule is, if the light isn't green "we go BACK to Bed!"

I am VERY particular about how I want my blankies when I lay down to go to bed.  My favorite blankies are the muslin ones, I like to have one flatted out on my mattress (without any wrinkles, of course), and then another one covering me.  Mama started getting two matching pattern blankets out at the same time because otherwise I had a hard time trying to decide which pattern I wanted to lay on.  The past few nights have been colder so Mama has started covering me up with a Grandma Nancy blanket too which is so soft and cozy.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love my blankies???

When I stopped using diapers I knew I was a pretty big girl, but now that I am in a big girl bed it is unacceptable to call me a little girl.  I love it when Mama calls me a big girl, I always respond, "My the biggest!"

Have a great night!
Ellen

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey Everybody! Ellen here!

After leaving Duluth, we headed to Alexandria for Thanksgiving dinner with Grandma Carolyn, Papa Tim, Aunite Megan, Uncle Tommy, and Cousin Mackenzie.  It was a ton of fun getting to play with Mackenzie and teach her all sorts of big girl things.

It was super fun getting to play outside in the snow.  We have had a LOT of rain which is no fun, but snow is great!!  Sissy and Daddy took turns pulling us around the yard, and pushing us down the hill.

Grandma Carolyn made a huge meal and it was delicious, but as usual, all good things must come to an end and we headed home.

Because we came home on Friday it gave us a couple days to hang out at home and have some fun.  We got our trees setup, and lots of decorations out.  We also listened to a LOT of Christmas music!

 Mama surprised Linden and me with matching jammies, and a Christmas sleepover in the living room.  We watched a movie, but neither Linden nor I could fall asleep so the sleepover ended and we all went to our own rooms for bed.

Two of our favorite Christmas toys came out of hiding, our Little People Nativity, and Jingle and Bell!  I love our nativity because it looks almost like Mama's but I get to play with it.  Jingle and Bell are great, they love to listen to their books and even bark and sing!

Daddy got out little mini trees for Linden and me to decorate and have in our room.  Our trees are so small and cute!

I also wanted to share a picture of one of our recent projects that we did.  A couple weeks ago Linden and Mama went to a craft show and saw a really fun snowman/scarecrow sign.  The signs were really big, but Mama decided that we could make them for ourselves and much smaller!  It was really fun getting to do a project with the big girls, can you guess which one is mine?  Mama said that mine will never fall apart, probably because I poured half a bottle of glue on it while she wasn't looking.

Merry Christmas! 

Ellen

Lots to be Thankful For

As usual, we are playing catch-up, but I have to tell you about the fun that we had for Thanksgiving Weekend.We didn't have school the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so Mama and Daddy took the day off work and we headed to Duluth for a mini vacation.

The vacation started off pretty rocky.  Ellen decided that she did NOT want to go to sleep.  I'm not just talking about in the car on the way up there...she REFUSED to go to sleep even once we got to the hotel at 10:00.  Mama and Daddy were not happy.  She finally fell asleep around Midnight so it made for a very short night.  

The next day we woke up and it was raining, but we decided to make the best of it and headed out anyways.  We started the day off by checking out some running stores for Mama, and then we headed down to the canal to wait for a boat to come in.  We stopped into Duluth Pack for Daddy to look around and found these cute little chairs, but Daddy said we didn't need them.

After doing some looking we headed to the museum by the bridge.  There were lots of fun ship models to look at, but Ellen and I decided that watching the movie would be the most fun.  Boy were we wrong!  That lasted about 30 seconds and then we agreed to move on.

After playing some more Daddy checked the boat report only to find that it was running behind and we had to wait a couple more hours.

We headed over to an indoor play area with arcade games and bounce houses to kill some time.  After another phone check the boat was now arriving early so we rushed back to the bridge and got there just in time!  The horn was so loud, but it was really fun getting to wave at the worker.  Ellen did not like standing under the bridge when it was coming down, she thought we were going to get squished.

The main reason we went to Duluth was to check out the Bentleyville Tour of lights!

There were Millions of lights!  It was so beautiful.  It was still a bit rainy, but it was warm so it was pretty nice.

We got to see Santa and tell him what we wanted for Christmas.  He must be pretty forgetful because I have had to remind him that I want an Art Kit a LOT this year.

Our hotel, Pier B, was pretty great, we got to walk over to the lights, this was the view from our room!  Ellen was pretty grumpy by 6:30 so we headed back to Mama could put her to bed.  Daddy and I tried to roast Marshmallows but they didn't have the real fires going so we pretty much just burned them all before coming back inside.  Mama was waiting for us and had our swimsuits ready so we could hit the pool one more time for the day.

Speaking of pools, this place was amazing, they had an outdoor hot tub that overlooked the bridge!  It was pretty cold getting to the hot tub but once you were in it, it was great!

To make the pool even better, I found a mermaid friend with a matching tail!!!

Thursday morning we drove to Grandma Carolyn's, look forward to that update soon (I hope!)

Have a great week,
Linden