Christmas among other stuff...

We have a had a really fun week! Chris' grandma, Gran, has been here since the 21st. There has been lots of shopping, eating, and enjoying family time! Here are a few pictures from the last week....
Chris always picks up Parker and holds her like a baby (no, he doesn't love his dog at all). Gran thought it was pretty funny!
Chris being silly with the girls.

The girls on Christmas Eve before we headed to church. They looked awfully cute!

Every Christmas Eve the girls get to open one present. It has always been our family tradition (starting back with Aunt Sissy and me when we were younger) to get jammies for the Christmas Eve present. I found these great jammies on sale at Carters and the girls LOVE them! They are so cute!

Chris got online and had the girls "track Santa" before bed. When Santa got to the United States they rushed off to bed! Ireland thought this was really cool... it showed exactly what country and city Santa was in and told little facts about the country. It was really neat.

Pouring Santa some chocolate milk. Chloe asked if we could give him chocolate milk because, "he probably gets tired of drinking regular milk all night... 'cause I would."

They both asked for Pillow pets from Santa... Chloe wanted the dolphin and Ireland wanted the whale. Needless to say they were very pleased when they woke up on Christmas morning and those were exactly what was waiting for them!

Later on Christmas day Chloe decided Parker needed to share her Pillow Pet. Parker was taking a nap and Chloe ran upstairs to get her pillow and bring it down to share with Parker... pretty awesome if you ask me!

Tonight is Gran's last night here. We decided to go do something fun and enjoy our last night together for awhile. So we went bowling!
The girls both really love bowling!

Every time after Chloe threw her ball she wanted to sit on Chris' knee... it was pretty cute!

They both did really good! We played 2 games and by the middle of the second game they were starting to loose interest.... here's the proof...

All in all it has been a pretty good week! We will really miss Gran when she leaves! We are already looking forward to our next visit!

Rice Crispy Houses

This year, instead of decorating ginger bread houses we opted for Rice Crispy houses. I figured we can totally eat the rice crispy house so it's a better deal! The girls were all for it.

They both had a really good time! They both really enjoyed it and took a lot of time getting them done. It was fun to see them both plan out their houses and bring them to life!

The finished products!

Tomorrow we will bake and decorate cookies for Santa so I will try to get some good pictures of that!

Tree Lighting

About a week ago we went to the post tree lighting. It was pretty close to the house so we just walked over there. It wasn't too horribly cold and it wasn't raining! So we were happy to get some time outside (even thought it was pretty dark).

The girls really had no idea what a tree lighting was, but they were excited all the same! They knew that after the tree lighting we got to go see Santa and have some cookies, so I think that helped play up the excitement!

For those of you who don't live on a military base (or never have), every night at 5:00pm they set off a cannon and lower the flag. The tree lighting just happen to be right in front of the flag. So by the time it was ready to be lit, it was 5:00pm and the cannon was going to be set off.
Chloe isn't a big fan of loud noises, so Chris warned her that they were going to set the cannon off and she spent the rest of the time with her fingers in her ears... but she didn't seem to mind and actually hardly noticed when the cannon did go off!

After the tree was lit Santa came by and gave all the kids candy canes (when Santa was handing out candy canes was when the cannon went off).

After the tree lighting there was a reception with free Santa pictures, cookies, games, crafts, and face painting. It went until 8:00pm so we decided to go home and eat dinner then go back. Sounded like a good idea... miss the big crowd and have more time to do everything.
Well, by the time we got there (it was only 6:30pm) everyone was packing up to go home! Santa was already gone! The girls barely got a picture with Ms. Claus! Most of the games were packed up and all the cookies where gone!

They did get to make an ornament, and get some stuff from the fire department, and a sucker from the police department.

Then we waited in line for FOREVER to get their faces painted! Seriously like an hour... but since they missed out on Santa we decided to stay and wait it out. While we were in line I tried to get a cute picture of them together... to say they were a little antsy would be an understatement!

(Chloe isn't throwing up a peace sign... she is being Pascal... and little chameleon from the new Rapunzel movie)

Finally it was their turn... and it was worth the wait! The best face painting ever! And it was free! Ireland got a candy cane.

Chloe got a Christmas dolphin

By the time we got home it was almost bed time so we let them sleep with their face paint on...
It was a really fun night!

A whole new kid!

There is an ongoing battle in our house. I call it "Operation Chloe's hair" or OCH.
You see, this child has the thickest hair I have ever seen on a 4 year old. I am not kidding when I say her pony tail is as thick as mine... and I have pretty thick hair.
The main problem is it is still baby fine hair. So it doesn't stay tight and out of her face very well (which we all know drives me nuts).
Another problem... she has constant new growth on her head... meaning it is still getting thicker. But the worst thing about the new growth is she has these little baby hairs that hang down along her hairline and in her eyes. She hates her baby hairs. Always asking me to "get them out of the way of her eyes."
Solution? Bangs!
It took be a bit to convince Chris... she thinks her hair is so pretty all one length (that's because he doesn't deal with it everyday). But after she asked him enough he said yes!

And now Mommy and Chloe couldn't be happier! If I do say so myself, it makes her little face look even cuter! Her eyes just pop!

The best part? She LOVES them! The other night in the bath when I was wetting her hair she got panicked when her bangs "went away" and she couldn't feel them anymore!

I would say this battle has been won!

YEAH!!!

Decorations!

I just want to start off by saying sorry. I didn't take any pictures of Thanksgiving or any pictures while my parents were here... so you will all have to miss out on those moments. But I did get some pictures of the girls decorating the Christmas tree (Nana and Papaw were still here when we did it, but they managed to not get in any pictures!).

Decorating was so fun this year! The girls were so excited about it! I think it is the first year that they have both been just down right giddy to get the tree put up and start the Christmas holiday!

They both did really really great and we didn't have any broken anything!!!

Our tree topper is kind of sad. We got it for our first tree that was really small and we have never bought a new one... But the girls loved helping Daddy put it on!

We had such a good time and are so excited for the Christmas season! We listen to Christmas music everyday and watch Christmas movies a lot! I love this time of year!!!