Pre-Christmas Festivities

The month leading up to Christmas was super busy. We had multiple visits with Santa, snowstorms, birthdays, school parties and cookie making among many other things.

The beginning/middle of the month there was quite a bit of snow and the girls took advantage. This was Tenley's first real time playing in the snow and she seemed to enjoy it.  By enjoy, I mean she liked eating snow.

Next up we had Rylee's Christmas party at school.  I was able to go with her, which was nice.  I was sad that I had to miss Morgan's party.  Rylee wouldn't get real close to Santa, but she did get closer than I thought she would.

That Saturday, Santa visited us on the firetruck.  I love that our local Fire Department does this for the kids.  They were so super excited when they saw the firetruck!

The day after that we headed to the mall (FINALLY!) to see Santa. I was a bit nervous how the middle two would react but it went much better than expected. Tenley stood right by big tub of candy canes and wouldn't take her eyes off them to look at the camera until we gave her one.

That afternoon we came home to do some baking!

Tenley didn't so much bake as she did eat all of the sprinkles.

Fun times in the Stoicoiu household!

Santa, Cookies, Snow!

December was a whirlwind month for us with the holidays, birthdays and winter fun.  No December is complete without Santa, cookies and snow!  We managed to fit all three in before the month was over and the girls loved every minute.

Our first activity was cookies.  I bought these cute aprons from PBK a few Valentine's Day(s) ago and relish the opportunity to take pictures make cookies with them.  The girls really enjoyed eating making all of our sweets this year.  It's so neat to watch them get older and really start to get into doing these sorts of things.

That same day Santa made a surprise visit on his firetruck with some special presents for the girls.  I have to say we are truly lucky to live in the community we do. Besides the wonderful Chief Oliver and staff of the BPD, the BFD does a fabulous job delivering presents to all the kids in the community on the firetruck at Christmas time.  Our kids love it every single year.  Watching their little eyes get big when they see the firetruck come down the street with the lights going and Santa getting out is just awesome.

Later that day the girls were dying to play in the snow.  We had finally gotten our first big snow of the year and they just couldn't wait!  After we spent what seemed liked hours getting them all suited up, I sent them outside with Dad.

This picture could not be any cuter. It just couldn't.

Afterwards, when they finally got cold, they came inside to warm up by the fire with some hot cocoa.  It didn't last that long since Rylee spilled hers not long after sitting down but nonetheless, they thought they were super cool.

12/18/11: Cookies and Birthday Celebration

This morning the girls made Christmas cookies with Daddy while I took care of Tenley. I think they had more fun eating sprinkles and making a mess than actually making cookies but they still tasted delicious!

Later that night we celebrated my Dad's birthday (which was yesterday actually) at our house with some pizza and pie. Now that he's getting old he has to take lots of naps. Happy Birthday Dad!!