Aren't they cute?

I have a lot of random pictures of funny things that don't really fit into a big blog post, so here's the catch-all blog post.

There's our little tiny bitty Mari. She's 2 1/2 and the ittiest thing you'll ever see. Notice how the dress-ups are still huge on top of her clothes? The girls were so proud of dressing her up and she was so happy to be a part of the "big" girls!

I wouldn't help Bree make a fort so she took matters into her own hands. Her creativity is impressive.

This is usually how "Bree dresses herself" turns out.

Some "decorating the tree" love

Just another exciting day of dress-ups and pretend play at the Latham household

She really really does want to be Hannah Montana when she grows up.

First day of school. She's off to full day school and I'm off to surgery.

Ummm...this is what happens when you buy fruity scented markers.

Christmas 2010

Santa brought what the girls were begging for. The hard part for Santa was that the girls knew that American Girl Dolls are supposed to look JUST LIKE YOU, so trying to match their red hair at, say, a less expensive North Pole factory, just didn't work. So the real deal it was. Pillow pets and Barbie cars were also in high demand and were equally loved. It made me happy that as they were opening presents they were so excited for each other. They were thrilled that the reindeer ate their food, Santa ate the cookies, drank the chocolate milk and even left a note for them! Christmas is magical for these young ones and I'm so grateful to watch the magic play out.

And we ended the evening by stopping here for this magnificent scenery.

Christmas is Coming!

We had Christmas Eve with my extended family, nativity and all! That was a highlight of Christmas growing up and I've wanted our girls to experience it and have good memories like mine. I think it was a success!

"Mary" riding Austin the donkey

the wise guys

The girls got to open their Christmas jammies and made sure to show them off to everyone.

have tutu, will dance

Then it was cookies for Santa. Emma is such a sweetie, "Mom, since Santa does SO MUCH for us, we should do something nice for him. So I'm going to leave food for his reindeer TOO!"

Snow day

The girls LOVE to play in the snow. I could take it or leave it. Mostly leave it. I hate how long it takes to bundle them up, I hate that it's such an ordeal to come in and out of the house with all that gear and tracking in snow, I hate worrying that they're too cold and will get frostbite, I hate that after I spend all that time bundling them up they spend 5 minutes outside and want to come in...only to want to go out again 10 minutes later!

BUT...they have such fun and I love to hear them giggle and laugh when they are out enjoying the cold stuff. And they love love LOVE to eat snow. Good thing this stuff was fresh and clean. That's about where the "good" ends. I had to shovel the driveway. Now, I'm not complaining too much because we used to have to shovel THIS:

And that was just the front half of the driveway. But that was before I had surgery on my wrist (still not fully recovered) and I wasn't pregnant. So the combo didn't make for a happy lady. Dave works such long hours so I bit the bullet and shoveled. Two days later I couldn't understand why my body was so achy and my shoulders hurt so bad. I was reminded very quickly when I crunched over the pile of snow that had solidified into ice at the base of the driveway and worried that my tires were going to be punctured.
But, anyways. Here are the cute pictures of the munchkins enjoying the snow. At least someone at this house needs to enjoy it.

Bree turns 4!

When I asked what kind of birthday party she wanted she was quick to say BARBIE! She and Emma didn't really play with Barbies previous to this, but the party must have sparked something b/c they love to play Barbies now!

I had fun with the invitations and the little poster for pin the bow on the Barbie. I even put together a new birthday banner to match. Bree just wanted to have fun and play, so that's what we did! I painted their nails and they had a little lunch and cupcakes and CANDY, and we played musical chairs. Then it was BARBIE TIME in the basement! They just played and played. All the little girls got along so well even though some of them didn't know each other! Just goes to show that every little girl has one thing in common-BARBIES! For a party favor I made some Barbie silhouette t-shirts. They turned out pretty cute, and my girls love them!