Not all fun and games

We all love to have family over for meals. The worst thing about it is having to do the dishes afterwards! With the amout of people we had to cook for, we had to do dishes as we went. And wouldn't you know it...Jilly helped out too. After Gran-ma's turn, Jilly would take the spounge and scrub the plates and bowls...she had an absolute blast! I love spending time in the kitchen, and it's even better when I get to do it with my Mom and girls!

big little helper

There was some prep work fro the appetizer dinner that could not be done in advance. Luckily, both Courtney and Jilly were ready, willing, and able to help. Jilly is working on the dry chipped beef wrapped cream cheese. She did a great job too...they were the first thing to be eaten!

Kitchen helpers

My girls love to help in the kitchen. As a reward for helping Courtney make single serving cheesecakes (and also for not trying to kill each other) I let the kids lick the beaters. It seems to me a rite of passage...who doesn't remember licking the beaters or the bowl as kids?!?




















I love the tongue!

Chocolate pretzels

Pop-pop received some chocolate pretzels from someone at work, and was nice enough to share with the girls. They both make very good chocolate monsters!

movie day fro Buddy

Christmas Eve, and poor Wyatt was stuck out in the living room watching Barbie movies! That is until Pop-pop saved him and put some sports on!

vocab

Here are a few more of the cute things the girls are saying these days.

Jilly "What the heck in the world?" Because Courtney says "what the heck" and I say "what in the world" so Jilly just put the two together and came up with her own.

pony show hair = Jilly would like two braids in her hair (the same way she has to wear her hair for a horse show)

The rest of these are all Cooper;

oww-si = outside. And yes she does understand what she is saying. She will go up to the door and point and say "oww-si"





dow = down


na-na = donought (no idea where it came from...)


Bubby = Buggy. Not sure where this came from, but now we all seem to call Courtney Bubby instead of Buggy. She seems to like it...we'll see if it sticks.





nie-nie = night night. It means "Excuse me people, have you not yet realised that it is time for me to get my cuteness sleep?!?"

pot-pot = Pop-pop. When ever we pull in the driveway of my parents house Cooper goes through a little roll call. "Pot-pot, Gra-ma, goggies, COOKIES". And this happens every time we go over!

cu = cup. 'nuff said.

new-nulls = noodles. My kids eat alot of noodles these days.

bean-bean = green beans

fi-fi's = fishies, or Goldfish. One of Cooper's favorite snacks.

peeeeeas = is her version of cocking her head to one side and with the eyelashes batting giving you a very cheesy "PLEAAAAAAAAASE?!?!"

rye = right, or all right

That's all I can thing of for now, but I have a slip of paper that I keep jotting these down on so I can remember.

Every Princess needs a castle

You would think I had learned my lesson at Halloween...but NOOOOOO! I had to get Jilly another foam project. We were walking through Michael's, and Jilly asked if she could have the castle, and I thought that since Courtney had the chance to put together a gingerbread house (which would have been above Jilly's head) Jilly could do this castle. NEVER AGAIN will I work with these foam kits! They did not have any instructions, and were next to impossible to figure out. As it was, the little bit of the castle we did figure out was enough to make Jilly happy. She was great, she didn't bug about her castle not looking like the box (which had circular towers that you were somehow supposed to assemble to the rest of the thing that we just could not figure out!) The only redeeming thing was the quality mommy/Jilly time we got to have. I love having the one-on-one attention to be able to give to my kids, but it's so hard when (so far) they like the same things!

Little bit sleepy...?!?

Poor Little Miss Cooper...after a long morning of cooking, she was very tired. I decided to try (and I stress the word try) to get Cooper to lay down in the play pen at Granma's house. To my surprise (and great pleasure...) with in 5 minutes she was OUT! Not only did she fall asleep, she stayed asleep for almost 2 hours while we were still cooking (that translates to making a BUNCH of noise in the kitchen not 5 feet from where she was sleeping). Now this is yet another case of Cooper and Jilly being polar opposites. Jilly will NOT sleep any where but her own bed. It would appear that as long as (for now) Cooper has her binky and her blankly, she will pass out (she gets that from me, I can fall asleep anywhere anytime!)

Pre-Christmas cooking

Jilly and Granma making meatballs for our "traditional" appitizer dinner durring "Chineese Firedrill" on Christmas Eve.















More meatball "smashing" as Jilly dubbed it.













One of my favorite things about Christmas growing up, was being able to see Grammy and Little Pop-pop at Christmas. Grammy has always made THE best almond cresent cookies I have ever eaten. I've tried in the past to make them, but thanks to my Mom, we pulled it off this year. It was so comforting to have that memory from my childhood to share with my girls. (...I say girls cause Wyatt doesn't eat cookies yet!)

Good chef in training...never leave a dirty kitchen!!!













Could rolling out cookies BE any more boring?!?

We told Jilly to roll the dough into snakes.

Dredging cookies in powdered sugar...the finishing touches.

Sledding after the blizzard

Once again we ventured across town to do some sledding. The girls were in heaven this time. They could not get enough!

Yes Cooper is actually standing...that's how much snow there was!

As long as Cooper had snow to eat, she was very patient to wait her turn. By the end of the day, her little face was almost as red as the sled!

To hear Jilly tell it "Daddy pushed mt too fast, and I tipped." She did tip over a few times, more from the leaning WAY over the side...but you can always blame the Daddy!

Courtney took turns with the little ones in her lap. I just love the full out smiles these two have!!

When it got to be too much for the kids to wait, Courtney would have one in her lap, and be "towing" the other behind her. I am just so glad that our girls can get along so well despite the age difference.