Snow Boots

It's winter which means it's time for snow....

...and even Emalyn has snow boots!

The boots kind of blend into the blanket, but look close and you'll see the cute little pink furry boots!

Showing off her smile.

Maddi and Cade have been spending a lot of time in the snow building snow forts. I haven't ventured out to get pictures of them in the snow yet. One of these days I'll get some pics of them too and maybe even Emalyn in her snowsuit.

Christmas Day

Cade woke up at 11:50 pm saying he couldn't go back to sleep, but he eventually did. He woke up for good at 5:30 and stayed in his room until 6:30 and then we let him wake up Maddi at 7:00. Maddi woke up at 3:00am and was still awake at 4:00am wanting to know if she could turn on her light and read but I said no and she eventually fell back asleep until she was woken up by Cade at 7:00. I love to see their faces as they come down the stairs to see what Santa brought.

Notice Cade is holding his Lego he built in the morning that Maddi and Emma gave him for Christmas. They were reading the letter from Elf Cody and seeing if the carrots and cookies were eaten.

Time to check the stockings...

Gum!

Money and a lottery ticket! According to Cade Santa gives them a movie in their stocking every year and he forgot this year. Maybe next year he'll remember...

Now it's time to sort the presents. Santa left a note to open the ones to just Maddi or Cade first and then the ones to both of them.

A magic set! The kids and their magic tricks make me laugh so hard. They've really got to practice their sneakiness.

A Wii! We finally joined the rest of America and have a Wii. They were very excited!

These were the gifts to both Maddi and Cade and it was all Wii stuff. They were so surprised.

Maddi trying out her new rollerblades in the house. It will be a long time before winter is over here and she can rollerblade outside. I still have my rollerblades I had before kids and I can't wait to rollerblade the bike trails with her. I remember Kim and I rollerblading back in the day...

Cade was making aliens with his Martian Matter set.

Bad picture, but the only one I got of Cocoa with her jingle bells on her feet and around her neck. She was really annoyed with it but she looked cute.

Emalyn slept through the present opening in the morning, but Maddi helped Emalyn open her presents later in the day.

Some of Emalyn's presents she got...

The girls enjoying some snuggle time.

Funny face from Emalyn, but she was all smiles when Maddi was talking to her and kissing on her. I hope the kids always love their little sister as much as they do now and I hope Emalyn loves them the same. It was a great Christmas day spent in our pjs opening presents, playing with presents and enjoying each others company. We are so blessed and even though we were away from our extended family, it was a wonderful day!

Christmas Eve

My sweet angels on Christmas Eve 2009. We spent the morning in our pjs and then got ready for lunch and church. We ate lunch/dinner at Olive Garden and the kids were some kind of crazy and Emalyn slept right through the whole thing. Then we went to 4:00 church. The kids were much better at church and even earned back the priveledge of opening some presents after church. Emalyn slept almost the whole service and then she woke up and I took her to the nursery to feed her and when we got back they were singing Silent Night with candles. I love that part of the Christmas service and I'm glad we got back in time to be part of it.

After church we told the kids they could open the presents from each other to each other and 2 from Omie. They talked us into opening more than that, but this was how it started.

Some fun games from mom and dad.

Maddi was trying out the new sketch book Cade and Emalyn got for her and Cade was very interested in it too.

Cade was very excited this year to get a new robe from Omie. Last year he was very upset but he had no idea how much he'd actually love it.

I never dreamed last year that we'd have a little Christmas baby this year! She's our little doll and we love her so much!

Cade with his new Snuggie!

The kids were saying goodbye to Cody, the elf, because he had to go back to the North Pole. He'll come back next Thanksgiving.

Cade was in tears that Cody had to leave. It was funny and sad that he was so upset about it.

Emalyn and Cody having a moment saying bye to each other.

Daddy with his baby girl. The kids left cookies for Santa but I forgot to put the pictures here. They were in bed and asleep by 8:30 so Santa made an early stop at our house.

6 weeks and Christmas #1

This is baby girl at 6 weeks wearing a dress that was Maddi's. Maddi's baby doll, Lisa, has been wearing this dress for many years and now we have a "real" baby doll to wear it again.

I'll have to find the pics of Maddi at this age wearing this dress and see how much they do/don't look alike.

Sunday we had Christmas #1 with Grampa and Texas Grammy. The kids were waiting patiently by the tree until it was time to open gifts. The pics of opening gifts didn't turn out well, but Cade loved his Legos and Maddi loved her American Girl gift card and they both are excited about getting their own Garmin GPS so they can go geocaching. I think Brett's excited about their fancy new GPS too! Monday after taking Grampa and Texas Grammy to the airport we went back to American Girl so Maddi could spend her gift cards. She bought the bitty baby twin girls. This was Emalyn's 3rd, yes 3rd, trip to AG in her short 6 weeks of life! I think we're done with AG for awhile, I hope :) I really hope Emalyn likes dolls as much as Maddi did/does because she will have more dolls than she knows what to do with.

The McDonald clan minus me and Emalyn. Emalyn slept through this round of gifts...

Cocoa all dressed up in the bows from the gifts. That poor dog is always being tortured by one on the kids.

Cade and Emalyn loving on each other.

Grampa getting some love from Emalyn and Cocoa before we left for the airport.

Cute!

Cade gets so excited about holidays and this year he is absolutely LOVING the elf! Last night Maddi and I were at a mother/daugher cookie exchange. We came home to find this cute little chair and table Cade made for Cody, our elf. He left some marshmallows to eat and water for him to drink.

This is where Cody was this morning. He seemed to enjoy his snack. So cute!

Grampa and Texas Grammy Visit

Grampa and Texas Grammy arrived Wednesday and everyone has enjoyed their visit. Maddi and TG got out Maddi's sewing machine (that hasn't been touched since Texas Grammy helped her with it 2 years ago) and made a pillow that they ended up turning into a tooth pillow since Cade lost his. Cade and Grampa were busy making airplanes.

Daddy and Grampa had fun shoveling snow!

Another day and more airplane building for the boys. Grampa says you don't fly them, you crash them and fix them. That seems to be very true.

Our house with lights and snow. It took Brett a very long time to get the lights on this year, but he didn't give up and it looks great.

The geese are flying like crazy. If they were smart they'd keep flying south but I think these geese are staying here from Canada.

Emalyn has not had a bm in a few days and was pretty gassy and fussy and Grampa had the magic touch and put her to sleep for a little while.

Grampa and Texas Grammy introduced the kids to Geocaching (spelling?) and this was their first treasure right down the street from us.

Maddi is finding a treasure here.

More treasures.

Emalyn and I went to Target and got things done at home while they were geocaching but I hear they had fun.