We received some steaks packed in dry ice, so we experimented with it. Alyssa and Ava enjoyed pouring hot water on it and making volcanoes for a couple of hours. Ashlyn had fun too, but she didn't keep at it as long.
Trying out their new skates on Christmas afternoon
Alyssa was so worried she wouldn't get skates. She kept asking everyone to go look for skates and buy some before they ran out. I kept telling her there weren't any at the store and there weren't. I had to order them. 
Ashlyn with her new big baby doll from Grandma and Grandpa.
Grammy and Ava enjoying Ava's new biggest pet, a stuffed caterpillar from Berne's family. She gave Blaine her pillow pet and said, "I don't want!" as soon as she found her caterpillar.
Alyssa and Ashlyn got fancy skirts from grandma. They would wear them every day if they had enough clean shirts to match.
Caterpillar or pillow pet?
Ashlyn with her jewelry box. We ordered each girl a jewelry box. Alyssa's Barbie jewelry box ended up not having a ballerina. It just played the music. She was sad, and Ashlyn offered to trade. Then they were both happy.
Alyssa opening the long anticipated roller skates. She couldn't stop squealing. Ashlyn couldn't stop squealing about her pillow pet. Blaine and I had so much fun watching our girls this Christmas. We were excited because they were so excited about their presents.
It's the small things that matter. I think the girls were most excited about getting 2 packs of bubble gum (you know the huge bubble blowing pieces) in their stockings. This is Ava's version of blowing bubbles, sticking her gum out of her mouth and hitting herself in the face to pop it. I think this picture is hilarious because the gum looks like a tongue. 
My girls don't get up early on Christmas, yet. It was almost 9 before they rolled out of bed. Then we had to wake Ava up. She was happy when she saw her horse though. For the past month if you asked her what she wanted from Santa, she would say, "horse". After a couple of weeks her answer became kind of forlorn sounding like she had given up hope. This is Ava riding her "horse" with her unicorn pillow pet stuffed underneath probably chewing her 3rd piece of bubble gum in under 30 minutes completely happy!!!
Enlarged portions of my mom's painting
My girls love their little cousin, Morgan.
Alyssa watching her nano bugs. Ashlyn, Alyssa, and Blaine got nano bugs and their "habitat" from my parents.
Ava playing with her remote control car.
We opened presents from my parents on Christmas Eve before we headed back to Amarillo for Christmas Eve at my Mema's. The girls loved their toys.
Ava kicking back
My Dad got a full head of hair for his birthday from Helen and Sam. He also got a new grand baby. And I got a new namesake. Adam and Robin had their first baby girl on the 23rd and named her Emily Noel. 
This is a photo of the painting the girls and I did for my mom for Christmas. We call it a fairy tale story picture. I thought it turned out pretty cool.
Blaine's brother and family came to visit the week of Thanksgiving. This is us at the Discovery Center playing cowboy and painting faces. We never got to see my family because we ended up getting sick. We sure missed visiting with them.
My little tough girl
Ashlyn grabbed a hand full of snow to eat on the way back up.
Snow down the pants, burr.
Friday morning we woke up to this beautiful seen. Clumps of snow looked like feathers falling. We planned ahead this year so we already had sleds. This really was the first good sledding we got to do as a family. Blaine was off work and school wasn't cancelled so we were the first ones out at medi park. Ashlyn had fun but was a little whiny. Alyssa is a trooper. She loved sledding. She giggled each time down and ran back to the top as fast as she could. Ava doesn't like the cold, or sledding, or coats yet, so she rode down once with me then I held her and took pictures. 
My girls really enjoyed their Halloween treats. My cousin gave them fake nails which they wore for a whole 5 minutes. They couldn't do anything in them. It was pretty funny to watch.
Ashlyn and Alyssa both wanted to Barbie Island Princesses which made it easy for me. Ava didn't want to dress up at all until we told her she couldn't trick-or-treat. She ended up being a "doctor" with stitches. She had stitches because she drew on herself with my eyeliner right before we left. Saturday was a perfect night for the trunk-or-treat at church we didn't even need jackets. 
Sunday evening we met up with Coralynn and Adelie (our cousins). We treat-or-tricked at their neighbors. The first person we saw at the trunk-or-treat Saturday was our neighbor, Darla. Ava loves Darla, but not when she's dressed up like a witch with full makeup on. Ava screamed when she saw her and shook all over. Then Sunday at the first house (on of two) she treat-or-treated at, a man opened the door with a mask and cape on. She screamed again. The man took off the mask as fast as he could. She decided it was worth going up to get the treat after that. Her doctor bag got full. 
