A Little Catch Up, Thanksgiving, & Deck the Halls

In the weeks that I have been away from my blog, I have been subbing at my girls' school.  There was a vacant position I was filling in for until a permanent replacement was found.  I became quite attached to the kids I worked with in the short amount of time I was there.  I also did not mind bumping into my own children.  As a matter of fact I learned a little something about Madeleine and Audrey during my time at their school.  For example, while Madeleine loved having me there and went out of her way to get my attention (like raising her hand in the lunch room while I did lunch duty to have me open something I knew she could open herself) Audrey had more of a tendency to become embarrassed.  While she did smile and offer me a hug on occasion, she did not appreciate it when I encouraged her to eat all of her lunch and drink her juice while she sat with her friends in the lunch room.  I have no idea why that would be embarrassing.  I just wanted to make sure my punkin' ate her food all gone. 

Some other things that happened during my absence from my blog was Audrey's first play date without me present.  I dropped her off at the home of a little girl she met at school.  The play date was a huge success and I am so grateful that she is making good friends.  Additionally, there was a daddy-daughter date night at Wednesday night church club that Madeleine and Steven attended.  All of the girls sang for their dads, they did crafts together, drank tea and ate cookies.  There was also a speaker present who spoke of the importance of dads.  Steven later told me that while the speaker spoke about the qualities of a good dad  Madeleine leaned over, tapped him on the shoulder and said, "you have all of those, daddy".  She also told him that was a night she would always remember.  I am so thankful that my girls have a daddy that possesses all of the qualities a good dad should and that they look up to him with such love and admiration. 

Okay, I veered off and got a little corny and sentimental (even though I meant every single word).  Now back to the subject at hand which is getting caught up.  We enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving at the home of Steven's parents this year.  We enjoyed visiting with Steven's parents, aunt and uncle.  The girls loved being able to play outside since it was freakishly warm that day.  Steven teased me for taking the following pictures because they are so staged, but it was my way of documenting Thanksgiving 2011.

 I don't know what he's talking about. What's so staged about holding a turkey?  Anyway, at his parent's house we also enjoyed some friendly competition on the Wii.  Wii bowling to be exact. 

That's my "I got a spare" stance.

Madeleine was the first one to get a strike.

After a lesson from dad, Audrey also got a strike (or a "stripe" as she called it).

Just as we do every year, we decked the halls the day after Thanksgiving.  Nikki was right in the middle of it as we did.

Something else we do every year is decorate the girls in tinsel for a picture.  This year Audrey was more than happy to oblige while Madeleine was not (it was too itchy). 

Our attempt at trying to get a cute picture of the girls with Nikki (her's is the squished head in the middle).

 

The girls found perfect places for their ornaments (although we often had to go around their backs and balance them out a little).

 Shortly after putting the last ornament on the tree, it fell over.  Unfortunately the base broke.  Thankfully my mom has two Christmas trees and let us borrow one.  After taking down the broken one, I ran over to her house, grabbed it, and brought it home to begin round 2 of tree decorating. 

This year it was Audrey's turn to put the angel on top.

Shortly after Nikki claimed her spot under the tree.  Doesn't she look royal?

I am looking forward to this Christmas season and spending it with the ones I love.  Here's hoping the same for all of you.