Maple Creek Blog

New years eve = family and friends

Girls open a gift from Aunt Jackie

Wishing everyone a safe New Year’s Eve!

For us today was about family. We spent most of day with family. Aunt Jackie even came to visit from MD and we had dinner with her and Gram and Pap. She gave the girls a copy of Merry Christmas Curious George. What a cute book!

Autumn and cousin Stephanie

After dinner, Stephanie and Aunt Phyllis stopped by to see Jackie. Autumn just loves her cousin Stephanie. We have to watch her around Stephanie right now because she is pregnant with twins. A little boy and girl. I think she knows she has to becareful and that Stephanie can’t pick her up but that doesn’t stop her from asking. Wonder how the girls are going to behave with new babies at family functions… I mean they aren’t going to be the center of attention much longer…

Afterwards we drove Jackie back to her friends house and got to take a ride down Candy Cane Lane. It was the first chance we got to see the Christmas lights (and our last chance). The girls enjoyed all the lights and all the different Santa’s and Frosty’s they saw.

On our way home we stopped at Bill and Sue’s house for a New Year’s Eve party. Not so much a party as it was a get together and since the girls were pretty tired we only stayed about an hour. But they had a blast. Carter, Bill and Sue’s son, also called “little boy” by the girls, was such a good kid when the girls wanted to play with his stuff. He even showed them how to go up and down a short flight of steps by themselves, of course they did it on their butts… hahahaha… We knew Autumn could do it but Haley has NO respect for gravity… and it was the first time the girls went peepee in a toilet without their potty seats at someone else’s house other than gram’s. YEEHAW!

The girls are growing up so fast… and soon they will be 3… and 2009 will be here soon too! Can I stay awake?

Lite Bright

Lite Bright pegs

The girls got their first Lite Brights this year from cousin Stephanie and Bill. Mommy instantly thought oh no… these pieces are going to be EVERYWHERE and how are we going to keep them from putting them in their mouths… hahahaha

Of course once they wrapped the gift they wanted to play with it… we did get home with it unopened and Autumn got to play with it last night alone with daddy while Haley and I were playing the living room. Not often you can keep each busy alone for more than a few minutes but last night we were able.

Today daddy showed Haley how to make pretty pictures.

Daddy helps Haley with her Lite Bright

After one night of playing with the Lite Bright Autumn was a master!

Autumn plays with her Lite Bright

The girls did have fun and I’m happy to say there were only a few times I had to say… don’t put that in your mouth…

Here are a few more pictures…

Autumn shows mommy a green peg

Haley concentrating

Through the eyes of Autumn…

I’m pretty sure these pictures were taken by Autumn. Autumn likes to take picture of things and people. I wonder what the pictures will look like as the days go by.

Through the eyes of Haley..

I believe all these were taken by Haley. She has a thing about taking a picture of her feet. There were SEVERAL pictures of her feet… HAHAHAHA… and I know this wasn’t a mistake because I watched her look at her feet through the camera and snap the picture… giggle… she also took lots of self protraits.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Wow! I’m having a hard time believing Christmas is here already! Time really does fly by when you have kids.

Well first of all… MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! It was fun making all the gifts for family and friends and I hope everyone likes what they got. I still have a few things I wanted to get done but unfortunately time just went to fast. The girls had a great Christmas and I believe have enjoyed all their toys!

Here is a short video of Christmas morning. If you look closely you will notice that I was right about the Doddle Pro… the girls HAD to take that to bed with them.

If you want to see a better quailty video please click Christmas Morning.

The girls LOVED their train table. They played with just that for almost an hour Christmas morning. Didn’t EVEN look at what was under the tree or the Doddle Pro. I’m sure it’s going to get hours and hours of use.

Let me say that I wasn’t sure which pictures to add from Christmas day so I’m going to try to keep the number down… but no promises…

Future aviation expert?

Haley flying the plane

 Chugga-chugga-choo-choo…

Autumn driving her train backwards and up a hill

Daddy shows the girls the finer art of using a crane.

Daddy explains how to work the crane

Each of the girls got their own PINK VTech Camera for Christmas. Now mommy’s camera should be safer.

It goes beep too

A DINOSAUR book!!! It’s a pop-up with sound!!! Hours of fun!

Haley loves dinosaurs

 I love my penguin!

A new penguin from Auntie Jessica

Haley already making a birthday gift list. hahahaha

New toy spawns more gift lists

DVD!!! Brother Bear… okay they don’t know what it is but it’s got a BEAR on it!

Brother Bear DVD

And this has GOT to be Haley’s new favorite toy. She didn’t want to leave the store once she saw this and played with a few minutes. CRY! Man that was the first time she has ever thrown a fit in a store. It’s her new best friend…

Surge the Frilled Raptor

I don’t think Autumn knows what to make of this new dinosaur. However, I’m sure she will need to have it since Haley loves it. 

Autumn and Surge

 After we opened all our presents and played with everything all morning it was time to go have our family dinner with everyone.

The girls playing with cousin Michael

As I suspected Haley LOVES her dinosaur and it came to dinner with us along with both the cameras and our hungry bellies. Also as I predicted… Autumn is constantly trying to take the dinosaur away from Haley. We are TRYING to share… but it’s hard when you are only 2 1/2 years old.

After dinner what else is there to do but read the ads

After eating all the shoppers sat around the table with the desserts and the “After Christmas Sales Flyers”. Another fun Christmas tradition… although with everyone sick we are not going out shopping. The girls still have runny noses and slight coughs and Mike’s getting a pretty bad cough.

All in all… Christmas was a grand slam for the girls, EVERYONE had a lot of fun playing with the girls and dinner was YUMMY!