On Saturday, Jeremy took Victoria and Bella to the Daddy Daughter Dance. Beforehand, we played Salon Day- I did their hair and put some pink nail polish on them. To be honest, they were not in the best of moods. Lately, they haven't been getting all their good night time sleep, either from special times that we have kept them up or because they've been waking up around 3 with bad dreams or they just can't sleep... so cue the melt downs. And what doesn't go better with a good tantrum then pretty dresses on beautiful girls :) But don't worry V&B I didn't take any pictures of that. I did however get some good shots of them in front of the fireplace.

They took the chariot (aka van) to pick up Dan, Kate, and Abby. Braelyn and her little friend were just getting back from an earlier dance when Jer arrived.

 Jer told me that they had a good time at the dance which was candy themed- think giant lollipops everywhere. He said that when they first got there Bella ran out to the dance floor and wouldn't stop dancing the whole night. Victoria got to see some of her friends there too- Marlee, Bentley, and Ava. Afterward they all went out to Macaroni Grill for dinner.  

Victoria rides a bike and other stuff

Victoria and Bella were playing dress up one day. I heard Victoria say, "Bella, did you know that you are my BFF (best friend forever) and I'll let you wear my white high heel shoes if you want to." Victoria dressed Bella up in her Sunday clothes and took pictures of her. These were the best.

Love Heart, the bear

Bella's "class pet" came to stay with us last weekend. His name is Love Heart. We were given a class journal where we were to record all of the things that Love Heart and his "weekend family" got to do together. We took many pictures and wrote of all the fun places that we went and things we did- library, Dunkin Donuts, park, trampoline, dancing around the house, reading books together. I actually took this picture without realizing what Bella was using as her pillow.

The next weekend we taught Victoria how to ride a bike with just two wheels.

We started on a hill at the Frisco Commons park and first let her get use to just gliding down and balancing.

Bella got to watch, since we had our first trampoline injury the night before, a sprained ankle. She's doing fine now (2 days later.) After an hour of just balancing the bike, we took a break and went to the playground. Victoria ran everywhere; Bella played on the swings.

Next Jer showed her how to petal the bike. Victoria mastered bike riding in under two hours- I'm very impressed. She is officially a two wheeled rider now. Getting her to stop may be a problem though.

Independence- a room of my own

After Christmas, Victoria started asking for her own room, since she saw that her cousins each had their own. We made the old playroom into Victoria's room and moved some stuff around. It has been great for the most part. It has really taught the girls about cleaning and taking care of their own things. Victoria now gets ready in the morning all by herself with an alarm clock and makes her own bed. (I still do her hair though.) Bella likes her room too. She too does a great job of making her own bed. The only down side of this independence has been the very occasional door slam. Ah, independence...

Our pets.

We also got a new fish tank this weekend with six fish- already minus one. This is the only type of pet I'm allowing at this time. Both girls and Jeremy have been begging for a dog, maybe a cat, but I'm just not ready at this time, (I know who's pet it will really be) so...

Girl Scout Cookies?

Christmas Vacation

We traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico this Christmas vacation to visit the Sadowski side of the family. One of the exciting things that I got to experience was seeing my brother Paul sing at mass. He was fantastic! My kids eyes lighted up watching him. 

On Monday we tried to go skiing in Santa Fe, but the roads there were too bad and we ended up skiing the mountain Sandia right beside Albuquerque. The kids loved it! They did pretty well, as did I. (We put Victoria, Bella, and me in ski classes.) Victoria even asked if she could go again the next day. However, trying to leave Sandia mountain was almost impossible. The 6 mile road up the mountain was shut down for hours due to snow, ice, and accidents. But we said our prayers, ventured down after a long wait, and made it back to my parents house alive.

 Jer took both girls individually up the bunny slope with him. Victoria and Jer came down after 20 minutes. I kept waiting for Bella and Jer to come down- finally, after some time, I see Jer skiing with Bella on his hip.

We celebrated the Sadowski family Christmas on Tuesday. Paul played photographer and did an amazing job.

Paul and Lauren made out like bandits- 3 gift cards to eat out- mainly Chipolte- Lauren's favorite restaurant :)

just enjoying life

We traveled from Albuquerque to Monument, Colorado on Wednesday to see Jer's side of the family. We made it just in the nick of time, a big snow storm began blowing as we were a half an hour away. They received about a foot of snow. The next day, the Lunn's celebrated Christmas together. Santa brought the kids a toy that they had asked for- Bella wanted a baby Bella doll, Victoria wanted a doll horse, Caleb, Chloe, and Keira each received a pillow pet.

Josh and Caleb read the true Christmas story to the kids before they opened their presents. each kid got to help push a button to create a certain sound to enhance the story- Joseph knocking, a creaky stable door...  (Victoria snuggled up to her cousin Keira.)

During one of our breaks to open presents, the kids were playing with their presents in Renae's kitchen.

goofing off

One of the toys that Victoria really wanted was a Monster High doll that sleeps in her own water chamber.

Bella got her wheelchair (dolly wheelchair) that she asked Santa for :)

Jeremy got a Marsh mellow Shooter from Bella and Victoria. Carol trusted him to shoot one in her mouth. If you look close, it hit her square in the eyes.

After presents we went sledding with all that snow. We had fun, but Victoria was the first to say that she had had enough with the cold and wanted to go home.

Chloe on a snowboard.

A couple of days later we went ice skating. Keira wanted nothing to do with it, but decided to cuddle with Grandma instead.

Both girls did very well.

At the ice skating place they had buckets for beginner ice skaters that you would turn up side down and push for balance. Bella got super fast on her bucket.

a near miss... (no one got hurt)

Lunn family Christmas photo

Caleb and Chloe read at Christmas mass the story of Jesus birth. Bella was allowed to go up and sing "Away in a Manger" with the other children. Victoria wanted to stay with the adults.

After mass, we went to a Mexican food restaurant and celebrated.

We took off the next morning for our trip back to Dallas. I drove, and it was decent weather until we came 30 minutes from Amarillo. Another blizzard decided it wanted to play chicken with me-it won. So I let Jer drive for an hour until we passed the front. All in all, it was a wonderful vacation! But I am happy to be home and have some sleep-in-and-wear-PJ-days ahead of me.

Christmas Lights

We went to go look at Christmas lights with our good friends Jay, Julie, and Braelyn. It has become our yearly tradition to have supper together, put the kids' jammies on, give them hot chocolate in a sippy cup and go for a drive to look at Christmas lights. By the way, if any one is looking for a good show, try downtown Frisco- you turn your radio to a station and thousands of colorful lights dance to the music.