Bella's Third Birthday

Yesterday was Bella's third birthday and her first BIG birthday celebration. Bella talked about her birthday all week - wanting to know everyday who was coming to her party and then swearing up and down, that no, Cole (a friend from school) was coming. "Yes he is mommy. He told me he was coming." Cole's mommy never RSVP'ed and did not show up. :( But lots of other friends did. We had 18 kiddos, friends from school and church. We had the party at ASI gym, and the girls, Bridgette and Sam, who helped with party, were great. Todd made the cakes, one Diego and one Dora. He baked the cakes early in the week, made the frosting and decorated the cake.  I helped this time, but in the whole grand scheme of things my contribution was minimal. I dyed the frosting and did some decorating on Diego, but the victory goes to Todd.  Bella never stopped smiling at her party, and the only whining I remember hearing was when we got to the party room. She didn't care much for the nuggets. All she cared about was the cake; the cake that she had already sampled prior to the party, so I guess she knew it was good. Thanks again to Todd for "fixing" the cake.  And while she is not one for sharing with her sister, she was concerned about her sister not having any presents or not being able to wear a tutu or crown. However, it didn't take long and it wasn't a hard concept for Bella to get that the day was all about her. 

Christmas time was here

At Willowbrook Mall in line to see Santa. They do a Polar Express themed display.

Christmas eve before we went to Grammy and Popo's party with all the family. 

Christmas time with the girls was a lot of fun.  We did breakfast with Santa, pancakes with Santa, and pictures with Santa. We went to Christmas parties; We went looking at lights at night; We went to Christmas Eve service (all of us in one pew); We went to the Nutcracker. I drank A LOT of hot chocolate; Bella & Becca ate A LOT of little chocolates with the advent calendar. Heck, we even had a white Christmas. We had Todd's work party at our house, but this year the girls were at the party. It was nice of his co-workers that they didn't mind, and they certainly tried to charm everyone.  And this year we learned about all the houses in the metroplex that have light shows in their front yards. It got to be an evening ritual as we tried to hit several of them up, and with the girls bedtime being 8:00, we would only wind up seeing one of them a night. The Christmas eve service was the first time that either girl had been in the sanctuary. I wound up taking Becca out because she has a problem with being confined. She is at that stage where she thinks she can go and do and doesn't want to be directed or corralled or held. It would sometimes cause a problem when we would go looking at lights, too, because we would get out of our cars, but we could not just let her wonder into the street.