December fun with friends

We've had fun with friends the past couple of weeks. On Thursday, we made a long-awaited visit to Juliana's home, where we had a great time reconnecting. Juliana and the girls were away visiting her family in Brazil for over a month, and with holidays and sickness and life getting in the way, we hadn't seen each other for a few months. Maya and Cora had lots of fun...

...as did Violet and Natalia, who turned 1 in October. Violet liked playing with Maya's shoes.

On Friday evening, we had Marley and Alexyss over for dinner so the girls could play and their parents could get out for a date. It was fun chaos having four little girls here!

 Cora and Alexyss love playing together. Marley is three days younger than Violet, but about three inches and probably five pounds bigger. And that hair! She looks six months older than Violet. They played together pretty well, too, surprisingly. 

 A couple of weeks ago, I helped Jaimie (center) ring in her 30th birthday at Wolf Creek, one of my favorite restaurants. Michelle and her husband Rob came too, and we had a nice evening catching up.

And earlier this month, I met up again with Melanie and baby Heather at the Burbank mall. Heather seemed to have grown several months in the month we hadn't seen each other. She's five months now and such a sweetheart! She succeeded in making Violet look big and grownup, too. Violet wasn't interested in posing for a photo until I let her show Heather the photo I'd tried to take of them. Vi loves looking at our cameras!

Ice Skating

My friend Jaimie organized a group ice-skating event for us Tuesday afternoon, and Cora and I had a fantastic time. I loved rollerskating when I was younger, so I am capable of ice-skating, but haven't been in probably six years. This was Cora's first time on any sort of skate.

She was nervous at first, but soon grew confident.

I loved spending a fun couple of hours with my girl! We don't do that sort of thing, just the two of us, very often. That should change in 2012!

Look, Ma, no hands! Cora managed to skate without holding the bar, after a while.

Well-deserved cookies and hot chocolate to warm us up.

Thanks, Jaimie, for planning this! I think we have a new mother-daughter activity, or at least a new reward for good behavior!

December fun!

Our church hosted a free movie night, showing the Christmas flick "Elf." 

We hadn't seen this one before, but Cora thought it was very funny and asked if we could have it at home. Violet liked it too, though she enjoyed walking up and down the aisles just as much.

Another joy of the season - Christmas drinks like peppermint hot cocoa! Especially when your Auntie Melly makes them!

Cora's school outfit the other day - yes, she wore the Santa hat into the classroom.

The children sang for us at our Mom2Mom meeting Tuesday. Here's Cora with her favorite M2M friend, Alexyss.

Fun at Home

Here are some "normal life" photos that have been accumulating in the computer over the last couple of weeks. 

While entertaining Violet in a restaurant, I played "hide the drink cup." The next morning at breakfast, she remembered the game and played it on her own with the cloth I used to wipe her face.

 

 Fun with play-doh!

 Meanwhile, little sister was bean scooping!

I read this activity tip online to entertain small children, and I wasn't sure if Violet was old enough for it. But she did very well, and scooping the dry beans kept her busy for a while when I was making dinner. Yes, there were beans on the floor to clean up, but it wasn't too bad. She understood enough to not dump the beans out onto the floor.

 The cardboard house, which lasted an amazing six months, finally died after we had our friends over for Thanksgiving. Here, Stace and the girls play with it on one of its last days.

Ave and Cora collected rocks at the park and wanted to paint them. I got Violet some water and a large paint brush so she could paint the ground. And then, I lost my mind. I left the area for a few minutes. Yep.  Smart mommy here.

Thankfully, it was children's washable paint, and all "came out in the wash" and with a bit of spray from the garden hose.

Tree lighting

We love the annual Christmas tree lighting at the hospital.
Last year, we missed it because it was raining and I think one or more of us had a cold.

This year, as usual, we walked down with Genia, John and their kids.

We didn't get there in time to do any of the activities at the booths, but the children made their own fun once the tree was lit and the crowd thinned out. (See leaf photos.)

Some of Grandma's friends from Magic Mountain were there, too, to pose for photos.

It was a fun evening, followed by dinner at the Habit. Can't beat that!

Santa Breakfast

On Saturday morning we visited with Santa Claus at a breakfast with my Mom2Mom friends at Valencia United Methodist.

Cora was a bit shy with Santa, twirling her hair and speaking softly.

She repeated the short list she's been asking for this year: a computer (toy laptop style, not a real one!), a Barbie, a dollhouse and a Peter Pan doll.

Violet loved playing with Lucas and eating blueberries by the handful.

She was not pleased to see Father Christmas at all, though.

Even with Mummy holding her, she wouldn't stop crying. Obviously I couldn't pass her over for the shot of both girls on Santa's knee, which turned out so cute last year.

Cora also was scared her second Christmas, and Stace and I are both in the photo with Santa that year.

Violet cheered up as soon as we stepped away from the red-suited man.

Christmas in the house

December is upon us!

This week we've put away our autumn decor and started spreading the Christmas cheer, at least in our living room.

The girls were excited to open up the first and second nights' treats in their Advent calendars. Thanks, Nan and Pop, for sending them!

Violet opened up a little toddler granola bar for her first treat Thursday night. On Friday morning, she brought me over another, from another pocket. I've caught her going through other pockets and chewing on a foil-wrapped Santa.

This is going to be a little tricky this year!

On Friday night, Stace set up the Christmas tree and he and Cora decorated it.

This year, we're forgoing most of our pretty ornaments since I wouldn't be surprised if the cats bring the tree down. I hope not, and I do hope they don't eat fake pine needles/Christmas lights/ornaments/ribbon and get sick.

Violet helped get things out, and liked clinking the breakable glass baubles together. Cheers! She also enjoyed looking at the little book of recipes that you can hang on the tree.

Cora helped hang the wooden bell-shaped Nativity scene I brought back from Bethlehem when I was 20.

Somehow, that special ornament had never made it out of its package. It was always in the wrong drawer and not with the Christmas ornaments.

Cora is thrilled to have our tree up and living room decorated.

I know this year will be a memorable one, with Cora old enough to appreciate more of the holy mystery and joy surrounding our Savior's birth.

Violet, for her part, will love all the lights, wrapping paper, treats, singing and happiness!

Garage door, cat hotel

After some serious Black Friday shopping and the Muppet Movie (watching a movie in the theater was a first for both girls), we tackled some home improvements this weekend.

Our 20-year-old garage door was falling apart, so the friendly folks from Mesa Garage Doors came out and installed a new door on Saturday.

It's so much better than our old door, which you see the installer removing in the top photo.

It's fully insulated, with weather-stripping and molding around the outside edge. We chose to go with the same color and the same window style as our old door, but we went with long panels instead of short panels to change it up a little bit.

I hope the insulation helps in the summer heat since our house faces west and bakes in the afternoon.

The second project started with one of those moments Stace often has, when he sees something and says, "I could make that, easy!"

We were looking at cat trees at PetSmart on Friday (where we snagged a fancy automatic cat box at half-off) when Stace was inspired to build Spencer and Sebastian their own fancy cat hotel, as Cora calls it.

Stace already had most of the supplies in the garage - recognize the carpet, anyone? - and after a day's work Sunday, the boys were happily playing in their new hotel.

The top level has a hole, for crawling through and playing, and the middle level is for sleeping. Stace bought some sisal rope, and we'll wrap that around the legs.