The Holiday Season

Hello Everyone!
Boy, it's been a long time! I was looking through our pictures and realized I have hardly any pictures from November, perhaps because we were sick throughout most of the month. We've discovered that having two children means that they pass illnesses back and forth so that the family is never entirely healthy. :) The picture above is from the beginning of December. The girls are having so much fun together, Jorie says all the time how much she loves her sister and how much fun it is to have a little sister. We took down Terra's crib today and set up her big girl bed and as I took down the crib Jorie said, "Make sure you put it somewhere safe because I've been wanting a baby brother." This is such a huge and wonderful change from those first two months after bringing Terra home when Jorie kept asking us to bring Terra back and said she didn't like being a big sister.

This is a picture of Terra in her Christening gown. We had her Baptism planned for December 7th (we took this picture as she was trying on the gown) and we were all set for the party until Jorie and I came down with fifth disease three days before the big event. We knew we weren't contagious, but we were worried that Terra might have caught it and we didn't want to take any chances, so we ended up postponing the Christening. It ended up being a very good thing that we did because Terra came down with fifth disease on December 8th. We're all feeling much better now, though slightly itchy. :)

When Jorie saw Terra in her Christening gown, she insisted on putting on her fancy dress too. They both look so beautiful and so very grown up!

Here are our girls having more fun together. They were dancing in the kitchen and having such a wonderful time, I had to snap a few photos. The funniest times were when Terra tried to twirl Jorie - what a hysterical sight as they ended up in a knotted mess on the floor!

The girls had a lot of fun trimming the Christmas tree. Jorie asked questions about every ornament and Terra just wanted to be a part of the fun. She can definitely feel the excitement in the air and is thrilled to be a part of it, but she doesn't really have any idea what's going on. She loves the lights on the tree and the ornaments are very tempting, but she's been wonderful about looking without touching. We've only found one ornament on the floor and one hidden in the couch - we'll see what happens in the weeks ahead. :)

Is this the most ridiculous Christmas picture ever? They both look so silly, but I guess that means we really captured the essence of our girls - silliness and all. We can't wait to see the expressions when they come down the stairs on Christmas morning!

We took the girls to see Santa Claus this weekend. Jorie was so excited to see him, she was determined to tell him exactly what she wanted. In order to fully understand, you have to know the story of last year's Christmas. Jorie was very disappointed Chirstmas morning because she asked Santa for a computer. Santa brought her a computer that hooks up to the TV, figuring that would be sufficient for a not quite 3-year-old. Jorie was in tears because she wanted a laptop. We ended up mailing the computer back to the north pole and Santa mailed Jorie a laptop. It was quite a disaster and Jorie has talked all year about how she would "have to be more specific with Santa this year." So, what did she ask for? Here are her words, "Hi Santa, I want a dollhouse this year. The one with four floors, an elevator, a pool and pool chairs. But there won't be room in the dollhouse for the pool, so I'll have to put that in the backyard. Oh, and don't forget the furniture and dolls to go in the house." Santa laughed at her and said, "Really, is that all?"

Terra was not nearly as impressed with Santa as her big sister. She was okay with him being near us, but once he reached out to shake her hand, she was done with him. I can only imagine what she must have been thinking about this strange man dressed in red! Jorie put in an order for her little sister and let Santa know that Terra would really like a doll.

Here we are, all dressed for the incredibly cold weather and wondering where we can find the closest cup of hot chocolate. We don't have too many pictures of the four of us, so we took advantage of my mom being with us on our Santa trip and asked her to snap a quick photo.

I'll be sure to post some pictures of Terra's first Christmas and Jorie's fourth birthday after the holidays. We hope that all of you have a joyous and safe holiday season!