A Jolly Good Time

My sister Diana and my niece Taylor came to see us!!! It is always a treat to have family come and see us.  We've never had visitors at Christmas, so this was a treat! From the time they arrived, we hit the ground running with Christmas fun!  We slept in and then enjoyed some Swedish pancakes.  The girls made gingerbread houses and we relaxed and visited.  In the evening, we headed to a local light show that has over 1 million lights.  The landscape and scenes are amazing!  It was rainy and cold, but we braved the weather anyways.

Taylor is very creative, organized and thoughtful.  She's gonna run "the show" when she grows up!

Time for a break . . .

Time for a kiss . . .

We attended a night-time performance of "The Nutcracker Suite" in downtown Seattle.

Taylor is a competitive dancer and I think she enjoyed the show.  Liliah has been watching the performance at home and knows the story.  Her favorite is the peacock and the dance of the ballerinas in the snow.  She was enamored and sat on the edge or her seat, laid on her stomach like she was watching a movie or sat in my lap and snuggled. 

She danced away during the intermission.  It was really sweet how much she enjoyed herself. I even have a video of her dancing on a mini stage.  She received applause :)

Girl's night out!

Cousin love . . .Taylor is so sweet and just loves on Liliah!  She is such a blessing to her.  Taylor also loved ALOT on our doggie, Maddy.  She kept her well exercised.

Viewing the beautiful Christmas lighted scenes.  (I can't figure out how to turn this photo around that I took from my phone)

 

We made sugar cookies and chocolate crinkles.  Liliah helped with the ingredients and Taylor did the mixing!

We helped the girls with their technique (like not too much floor or too thin)

They decorated their cookies in the morning just before they had to fly home.

We even went roller skating!  This was the girls first time and I hadn't been in 30 years.  I am happy to report that I can still roller skate (it was a little shaky at first).  My sister line skates so she was up pretty quickly.  It was a lot of fun and the girls had a blast.

 

 

This is Taylor's pretty house.  It is the only one that survived.  Our lab Maddy is a foodie and she got to Liliah's and ate it all except for the roof.  Luckily, she has a iron clad stomach and it didn't seem to bother her.  She's on the naughty list with Santa though, I told her :)

DIANA & TAYLOR, THANK, YOU, THANK YOU FOR COMING.  IT WAS VERY SPECIAL TO HAVE YOU VISIT!

Visiting Santa

Our sweet little princess elf with her Santa!

I love how these pictures capture her visit . . .

Telling Santa what she wants for Christmas (we had to help a little as she forgot)

Huh, Santa looking to us for some help.  I suppose having gum in her mouth didn't help, oops~

A scooter, you say . . . .

Ah, okay. . . Santa relieved he understands, Liliah happy that Santa understands~

Thank you, Santa

Goodbye, and see you next year!

It is Liliah's tradition to play in the many fountains during our Christmas visit and toss the pennies . . .

Okay, so she fishes for her own pennies!

It's the FIRST thing she does right after visiting with Santa

I love that she still enjoys the simple things of life

On our way to get Kringle

Tea time . .

Petting the winter animals

Looking at the ornaments . . . she found a Santa she wanted

Our blooper Christmas picture . . . .we did have a good one captured, though.

All I Want From Santa . . .

I made out my Christmas list for Santa and Daddy & Mommy!!! Mommy wrote the words and I did the artwork.  I am asking for:

• a pair of unicorn stampeez slippers (you stomp your feet and the ears and eyes flop open)
• a light up pillow (it puts stars on your ceiling)
• a three wheel scooter (one that has long handle bars and tassels for my hands to hold on to)
• a pretty ballet dress

When I asked her if there was anything else she might want?  She thought and giggled and said, I will be happy with whatever I get!  Liliah, you are precious and just melt my heart, sweet girl.

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S A T U R D A Y   N I G H T   F U N

 

R  U  N  N  I  N  G     T  H  E    H  A  L  L  W  A  Y  S

You are wearing your crown with your lacing card strings you have tied together because you are Rapunzel.  You love to go to the top of the staircase and let down your hair. 

Working on your Christmas tree project.

My other silly pose . . .

Catching up!

I love this picture of you!  I was trying to figure out what we were going to make for your preschool class party and I hear you say . . . (for the 1,000 time) Mommy, what's this?  I turn around and you have the colander on your head with a big grin.  You knew just what you were doing to get a laugh out of me! You are turning into quite a ham-bone! I wonder where you get that from (smile).

November has been quite the medical month.  We visited the Craniofacial team at Children's Hospital for follow-up care and to chart your progress.  They haven't seen you since you were 2.5 years old.  It is a 6 hour event.  Well, we didn't get the news that I wanted to hear.  You still have a hole in your ear drum that was operated on in March of this year. Next week, we will go see the surgeon to find out options.  They also told us that you have what they think is a benign heart murmur.  We went in for a cardiogram the day after Thanksgiving.  We are very thankful to find out this week that it is very minimal and there is no need to do anything.  Your total workup shows that you are very healthy.  It also shows that you are one tiny peanut! At 5  years old,  you are in the 2-5 percentile for height (39") and weight (31.6lbs).  You are wearing 3T and your shoe size is 8.  You are one amazing patient through all of the tests and prods.  No tears for you and you don't panic.  It makes it very easy on this mama (who was a drama queen with doctors-Nana can attest to this!)

H A L L O W E E N

  
Liliah 
chose 
her 
costume
this year 
and was super excited. 

She will tell you that. . .
lady 
bugs 
are 
the 
good 
bugs~

 Liliah drew the faces and cleaned out the gunk. 

Mama did the carving

 

We made the cookie dough and then tinted the canned frosting orange.  We used black icing to make pumpkin faces and spider webs.  She had good technique on swirling the frosting on top of the cookies.

Liliah, I always enjoy all of the time we spend together working on projects.  You are a good and thorough little helper~  You never poop out too early  and always finish.  We get to have lots of time for conversation!

Dance, Swimming and More!

Liliah joined a ballet, tap and jazz dance class.  She is so excited to be going to "dance school" just like Angelina Ballerina.  Every Monday night she is one happy dancer for an hour!  

You are learning the free-style stroke. 

You are remembering to get those arms out for a stroke and kick at the same time!

You love it so much that we are going to enroll you for another month Oct-to early November.  You are excited that you are going to be "pumped up" (bumped up) to the next group.  We are going to have to pack our warmies!

 

You got to ride "Lolipop" a barrel racer at a harvest party.  You were the first to ride her and were very excited!  I love how you and the horsey matched

In September, you and I picked blackberries for the first time.  We had a ball and got a boatload of them.  We made 8 jars of yummy jam.  We will be enjoying them over the winter.