Christmas Cuteness

This is the Madame Alexander doll my mom gave to Charlotte for Christmas. Charli likes to name her baby dolls, so we asked her what this new one would be called. After a moment of pause, she proclaimed her name to be "Happy And You Know It!" It, of course, came from one of our favorite songs :)

Christmas Day

Christmas Day started at my mom's house.

Ali gets very excited about new fleece sheets.
My husband is already tired of me snapping pictures at unannounced moments.
But he cannot hide his excitement over a new noisemaker. Joy!
I think Charli had just as much, if not more, fun passing around presents as opening them herself. She had a very happy day. Notice her Band-aid on the ankle - she loved her new doctor's set from grandma. Maybe she will be a nurse yet!
"Mikey" and Uncle Dave (frequently mistaken as Uncle Dan by Charli) open their gifts.
Oh I love him! It was a wonderful gift to spend a Christmas with my Micah. I thought often of the wives and girlfriends and fiances who were missing their loved ones due to deployments today.
Mmm, Coldstone ice-cream cake! Look out Auntie Ali, here she comes!

Pretty matching knit hats and sweaters for the little sisters. So cute!
Just as cute on grandma. That lady has style! My girls are so blessed to have a grandma like this, and I'm not just talking about the piles of presents waiting for them today. I hope they will always have the closeness with my mom that I had with her mom. Priceless!

After an attempt at naps this afternoon (Micah is sick and Charli too wired), we went to the Perkins' Parents for Christmas dinner with the Deline family.

Makayla was Charli's favorite - her similar energy level certainly had something to do with that!

Our Christmas Claire-bear. I love this kid - so happy!

Faith is such a sweetheart. Charli, like most young children in my opinion, has an excellent judge of character and is attracted to the kind-hearted. She loved Faith :)

Katie, who is Claire's age, was surprisingly fascinating to Charli. She loves babies, but isn't usually quite this enthralled with her own sister.

Trying on her auntie's pink hat...after living there all of last week she feels she has free reign of her aunt's bedrooms and pretty accessories.

Claire was quite content to sit with Uncle Steve and Stephanie and watch the action - and there was PLENTY of action with 5 cousins around!

After presents and dinner, Charli was happiest to sit and look at her new books with cousin Makayla.

The surprise last gift was for Mom Perkins - her "coveted" laptop. She was happy enough to cry. I enjoyed seeing her children at least as excited about giving the gift as she was about receiving it. Family love is beautiful.

Lovely Naomi modeling her scarf sent from Tim in Iraq.

Home For The Holidays: Week 2

On Saturday we made the move from one mom's home to the other's. We will be here at Perkins until Thursday afternoon. I would have to say the best thing about living here is the endless supply of people for the girls to play with and be passed around to. There is always someone available and eager to play games and otherwise entertain them better than usually can. It has been a nice break! Charli has taken a special liking to Christi's friend Jillian (or "Julia" as she calls her after a favorite baby doll at the other grandma's house). Micah is getting to know his new XBox360, a birthday present.

The only discomforts have been the inherent problems that come with moving around with young children of not being able to unpack in any coherent manner and having so much downtime when we are accustomed to being always on the go. Being with family for so much of every day has been even nicer than I expected though. I'd almost forgotten just how much I missed everyone until we got back home. I love Grand Rapids.

And my only concern for the near future is how in the world we could possibly manage to take home all our personal belongings in addition to the Christmas loot we have yet to receive. A good problem to have, no doubt, but a logistical challenge nevertheless.

Christmas Dresses

Happy Birthday Tyson!

Charli and I stopped by Toys R Us to kill some time before Tyson's party at Chuck E. Cheese.

She loved climbing in and out of all the "cars", especially the pink ones.

She and Kaylin put on quite the dance show on stage.

Tyson and Charli were peeking in at Chuck E. Cheese. We had lots of fun seeing our good old friends tonight!

Claire at 9 Months

Christmas Cookies

We spent the evening making Christmas wreath cookies with grandma. It had so many of Charli's favorite treats - marshmallows and candies and green goop! She sampled each ingredient several times over as we added them to the mix.

It's Rudolph's little sister, Charli the Green-Nosed Reindeer!
The sole redhot that made it from Charli's fingers onto a cookie.
I wonder if this redhot will make it onto a cookie...

All gone!

Green Wreath Cookies
Melt together 1 stick of butter and 24 large marshmallows. Remove from heat and stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons green food coloring. Add 4 cups corn flakes and gently combine. Form into wreath shapes on wax paper (butter your fingers to keep from sticking). Decorate with 3 cinnamon redhot candies per cookie and allow to set. Easy, festive, and delicious!

Just a note: We only had a bag of mini marshmallows to work with for this recipe (which calls for 24 large ones). My idea was to google the conversion ratio (which I did) and then count out the 13 small mallows for each large one. Not surprisingly, this good idea was quickly laughed out by well-meaning family members. Not enough people appreciate precision! I am a big fan of "doing things right" as well as a timid cook, so go figure. BUT, while the cookies turned out quite lovely, they WERE too gooey - a problem that could have been avoided with a proper marshmallow count. I rest my case.