Wrapping up the Advent

If there is one thing to be learned this year it is that Anna Kate is not much of a morning person.  Her hair is a little wild but with a positive spin it is full of body when it wants to be so there is hope.

They have loved the advent calendar every morning and it helped so much with counting down the days to Christmas.  Aunt Cindy does a wonderful job putting together all the treats and collecting through the year.

So on to the last few days.

We started alternating who opens each day and the grumpiness of the child not opening coupled with general not being a morning person makes for great photos.

I forget what they got but Elizabeth is thrilled!

Day 21, getting closer...

This is a wonderful example of Anna's crazy hair in the morning.

She never fails to be happy for the present of the day

Day 22, they must have slept in because they are both smiles!

haha, Elizabeth's disgust at a note and not being able to read it !!!

"oh noooooo, a note! I don't even know what it says!"

it was pretty funny

Day 23

They get pretty good at taking these photos by the end

Yummmm, more candy...these are always well received.

Day 24, Christmas Eve, the last day...sad for them, but you can see the

sisterly love at this point.

Nail polish!!  They are loving this nail polish stuff.

The great thing about this nail polish, it's clear with glitter so it doesn't have to be perfect and they can do it on their own.

Here is an example of how proficient Anna Kate is getting.

Aunt Cindy (and her elf Kate) is so awesome for having done the advent calendar again this year.

I actually just sent it home with Kate to be refilled for the next year.  At that time, Elizabeth will be in the middle of 1st grade and Anna Kate will be 4 years old. 

Oh how time flies

All the Christmas photos are next to be posted and I hope to get that done by tomorrow! 

Happy Birthday to Lewis!!!

The best daddy ever!!! We do love him!

Anna Kate Christmas time

Cutest little Christmas show ever!!

Anna Kate's class at school did three numbers, all reindeer inspired.  The last one was "Run, Run, Rudolph" but the music was so hard to hear in the auditorium you can't hear it while they perform.  My suggestion is to put the song on your cd player/ipod/itunes whatever and then watch the video with it.  It makes for a much better experience.

My dear child continues to sleep on the stairs.  We take pictures of here in all the different poses but this is by far my favorite.  She just looks like a little angel.

We continue to take our Advent calendar pictures.  I am going to admit right now that these are all out of order.  My main goal was to just get them posted.

Love the happiness on their faces.

Julie joined again for another opening.

 The 14th...

I'm pretty sure I missed a day but we've been a little out of the routine since Lizzy is out of school this week.  I hope I'm forgiven and by the end of the week all the pockets will have been opened and I'll show the last of the pictures. 

I hope everyone has all their presents wrapped and are just relaxing next to a fire....ummm yeah that's not what is happening here.  It's crazy hectic to till December 25th!

Countdown continues

We have had TV/internet problems since last Thursday!  I'm not a happy girl when I need to get online and nothing works.  So here I am Monday morning waiting for Brighthouse.  The good news is that our TV and internet now work, the bad news is we can't get to anything on our DVR.  Oh well, it's not the end of the world but dissapointing none the less.

On to our most important business.  The Advent calendar!

Here is the proof of how tired one child can be at 6:45am, not even the idea of what's behind curtain number 5 can't make her pick her head up.  I so wanted to just pick her up and take her back to bed.  Oh well, we have a nice long 2 week break coming up, she can sleep then.

I love these anticipation pictures...no matter what they find in the pockets the excitement builds.

Candy tree ring pops!! Can you tell how excited Anna Kate is to have hers!! She actually rolled over a little to inspect her candy.

This is one of those rare days when they forgot in the morning to open up that days pocket.

So after bath time they came out to open it up.  I scrubbed and scrubbed Elizabeth's face and could not remove the lovely kool aid mustache.

Yay necklaces!!!  They did love them but I didn't do a good job of capturing them being happy.

Day number 7!  Early morning time again.  Can you tell Anna Kate is not much of a morning person?

Those eyes are hardly open.

Yay!  Puzzles from Cancun!  These were pretty cool.  I had a good time showing them how to take them apart and put them back together. 

Day number 8, we had help from Julie! 

Yay!  More PEZ candy!  To not be mean I just took the candy away until later.  There was a little bit of sadness but I figure it would save us from bickering later on.

Anna Kate sure is getting into this opening up the pockets! 

It's wonderful when they have fine motor skills, haha

Ahhhh Silly putty!! Anna Kate is so excited and really has no idea what it is.

I had fun playing with the silly putty and showing them all of the fun stuff I used to do with it when I was a kid.

Day number 10!

So sad I don't have an after shot.  I think this is the day Daddy took the picture.

At least he got a before shot, I shouldn't be picky.

Day number 11!

Sunday morning and everyone slept in (that's my present)

Mmmmmm, chapstick!!!  I fan favorite with these girls!

The countdown continues, can you believe we only have about 13 more days?

This year is flying by for me but maybe it's because this is the most fun to see them so excited every morning.

I hope everyone else is enjoying their traditions as much as we are.

Early mornings stop no one

December 1st, 2011 I was greeted at 6:45am with a "can we open number 1?"

The one big difference is the lighting.  Last year we had the most beautiful light coming in at about 8:30am making for great photos.  This year because Elizabeth starts school at 7:45am, we open about 6:45am, it's very dark at that time of the day.  But as I said earlier, they don't care about the time...

I hope you can tell by Anna Kate's face, the first day of lip gloss is a big hit.

They get their lip pucker going on right away.

Day number two!  Friday morning, again ready for an early morning treat.

the anticipation on Anna Kate's face!

Ohhhhh it's a ring!!!!

Day number three!!! Can you tell it's Saturday, it's quite a bit lighter.  Just how I like it.

This particular day happened to have a note inside directing them to my bed for their treat.

Elizabeth is so close to reading and she got about half the words.  I had to help out and get her moving in the right direction for the treat.

It's PEZ today!!

Ohhh how Anna Kate loves PEZ!  (so do I)

I was trying to teach her how to do the whole candy transfer from the wrapper into the dispenser but it was hard enough for me to do it.  I think I'll be the official PEZ filler for some time.

mmmm, I love some pez...

I had to stick this photo in just to show the chillin out pose for Elizabeth....

it's like a glimpse into her adult future.

On Saturday we went to a princess tea party for a friend of Elizabeth's.  It was so darn adorable.  I see myself totally stealing this idea and running with it.  Although I'm afraid I won't out do what was done here.

There was coloring on a cardboard playhouse, nail painting, makeup and crown creating.  The girls had a wonderful time and it was a picture taking dream.

LOVE the purse

This girl needs a jeep super bad...

The entire group of princesses who attended the party...so cute.

So Sunday morning they actually let me sleep till about 8:30 and as I stumbled out for coffee I was told to get my camera!! we need to open number four!

Today was a special day, I told Elizabeth to move her booty to the side and let her sister open a day up.

So she did but I don't think she was thrilled to give up her rightful spot.

Hair Bows!!!!  They love them.

Although I don't record it after each opening I make them say thank you to Aunt Cindy.

I hope everyone else's December is off to a wonderful start and there is something to look forward to each and everyday as we get closer to Christmas.