Christmas Day

It was a big day for the girls on Christmas Day. They were exhausted from playing with their cousins on Christmas Eve, so Mommy and Daddy had to wake up Jillian and Bridget from their sound sleep at 7:00 am. It took a while to rouse them, but they eventually staggered out to the tree. Jillian was thrilled to see the new presents, stuffed stockings and missing cookies and milk. Then, she got down to business, opening up a present for Santa and finding a Unicorn DreamLite ... she was beaming and didn't want to put it down. Bridget needed a little help from Mommy to open presents since she was still sleepy, but once she got the Little People Princess Castle, she was also very excited and wanted to play with it right away.

Our next stop was Cindy and Scott's house, for a Christmas Day celebration with the Stephenson and Paul families. Mommy and Daddy filled up on coffee with Bailey's Irish Creme and some breakfast food, while the girls played around with Lindsey and McKenna. During present opening, Jillian would end up getting a Leapster Explorer gamepad from Cindy and Scott that we would soon find out would become her obsession in the days to come ... it rarely left her hands.

The final stop was at Grannie and Papa Woodruff's house for the gathering with cousins Cale, Ty, Brock, Ainsley and Tierney. Jillian and Bridget did a pretty good of handing out presents to everyone, with Daddy helping with the names, though Bridget decided that tossing or dropping presents was good enough. While opening presents, Bridget noticed that Jillian was receiving a couple new babies (Baby Belle and Baby Tiana), at which point she completely lost it, wailing "I want a baby!!!" over and over, with plenty of tears to go along. She got over it eventually, after everyone had a good chuckle watching the drama.

Christmas Eve

It was quite the wild night with all the Peterson cousins on Christmas Eve. We hosted the dinner at our house, and Mommy made a lot of great food. The kids all chowed down quickly so they could get back to playing. After everyone had their fill, we headed for the Christmas Eve service at Grace Lutheran. Jillian and Bridget made it a little while before getting too noisy, and then Daddy had to take them to the nursery ... they were followed close behind by Cousins Andy and Karlie. We did bring them back for the candle lighting, and Jillian was thrilled to have her own candle to hold.

We returned to our house for presents, and the kids were ready to go. It actually seemed a little more subdued compared to last year, but the kids still went through opening presents in record time. Bridget's first present was a Dora doll, and after opening it, we had a hard time getting her to stop playing with it so she could open her other presents. All of the cousins received new pajamas from Auntie Sheryl. This photo shows them posing together on the new sofa.

Christmas Photo

It took many attempts by Daddy and Grannie, but we finally managed to snag the annual Christmas photo of the girls. Jillian and Bridget were all dressed up in their Christmas dresses for Jillian's preschool program, and they did a good job of holding still and smiling for the camera(s).

Christmas Cookies

Mommy has been very busy getting ready for Christmas, and the girls have been right there to help her out. When Mommy spent the evening making Christmas cookies, Jillian and Bridget got up to the counter and gave a hand. Their preferred activity was to put sprinkles on the cookies ... and to eat them after they were baked, of course!

The Christmas Tree

Yes, this is a very late post. Daddy has not been keeping up lately (for the past year or so). And sadly, he also forgot to bring his cameras with him to the tree farm, so there are no photos for our trip to the Miller's this year. Anyways, here are some photos of the girls decorating the Christmas tree.

As is the tradition in our house, Jillian put the star on top of the tree after all of the lights and ornaments had been hung. Jillian knows this is her responsibility, and she always looks forward to it. We got lucky with the height of the tree, since the star barely fit under the ceiling.

Bridget was also a very good helper with the ornaments this year. Only a couple ornaments got broken this time. Bridget stayed busy, putting an ornament on the tree and then going back to Mommy for more. She's actually done pretty good leaving the ornaments on the tree this year. It helps that she has a big sister who is always there to remind her of what to do.

Christmas Program

Today was Jillian's pre-school Christmas program.  They did 4 songs for the audience.  This one was about a candy cane.  Jillian did a super job all during the performance.  It's amazing that they get all those 4 year old children to stand still in front of an audience.  After the program she couldn't wait to see Adam and open the present from the teachers.  Afterwards Adam and Jillian ran all over and enjoyed the cookies they had.



Close to Christmas

Jillian has been talking about making a gingerbread house since they made a little one in pre-school.  She was thrilled to make this one.  She let me decorate one side of the roof but she wanted to do the rest.  At first she was putting the candies on in neat rows but that took too long so it was handfuls later.  She handled the icing pretty well too.  I did add the icicles.


Then after naps it was on to the girls basketball game.  It was great as Rielee was there.  They all played with dolls most of the time.  After the game Jillian and Bridget got to run the floor with Rielee which is great exercise before the car ride home.  They are getting so excited for Christmas.

Christmas pictures

All I wanted was a cute picture of Bridget in a Santa hat.  And this is the drama from a 2 year old.  First she didn't want to put on the hat.  I did finally get a picture but it wasn't easy.  Jillian was much easier!



Tree Farm

The girls got to go to the Christmas Tree Farm to help us pick out a Christmas tree.  Jillian didn't seem to like any I found but we finally settled on a good tree.  (That's Jillian's stuffed dog peeking out from her coat. It needed to keep warm.)

Jillian's job was to push the tree over to help Papa.  Then after Papa got the tree set up at home, Bridget and mostly Jillian helped decorate the tree.  Jillian was delighted to unwrap each ornament to see what it was and I tried to tell her the story behind each one.  Many of the ornaments were from my former students and Jillian still doesn't seem to make that association.  Bridget would carry around one ornament for a long time, play with it, and finally put it on the tree.

They didn't have naps so they slept the whole way to White Salmon for the boys basketball game-boys won.  I set up a blanket in the corner and corralled them there, so they played with toys the whole time.  It worked better than the bleachers.



Beach Trip

We headed to Ilwaco Thursday for the girls basketball game.  Rielee was there so they had a lot of fun playing.  Every toy managed to fall below the bleachers so they had fun running underneath to retrieve them.  Then it was on to the cabin in Ocean Park.  It was late, so after snacks the girls crashed.  They slept in a little and upon awakening it was on to playing with the toys.  First Jillian put together a puzzle.  Then Bridget did her best to put it together too.

It was funny because they played a lot with the trucks, scooping up the poker chips and moving them around.  Then they explored all over, going upstairs and making beds in the closet, and of course, jumping from bed to bed.  There are 4 twin beds lined up on one wall.  Just keeping up with their boy cousins who did that every time.

Jillian insisted that she did not like blueberry pancakes which are a tradition at the beach.  But I made blueberry pancakes for breakfast and she ate them and said they were good???
For lunch we went to the Full Circle Cafe.  They were both very good but Bridget wouldn't stop talking or singing and she has a loud voice.  Then when she had food it was much better.
After a long nap it was time to head to another basketball game-the boys game.  We stopped at McDonald's for dinner and they had a big play area.  Jillian was a little apprehensive at first, telling me to watch for her in the windows in case she couldn't find her way out.  She only went a little way at first but then got braver and went to the top and came down the long slide.
They were good at the game but no Rielee.  They again kept dropping toys and the JV boys would go under the bleachers and pick them up and I think they thought that was the game.  We took home some tired girls.


Christmas Parade

We picked up Jillian, since Bridget was napping, and headed for the Christmas Parade in Longview.  We saw Auna and Aunt Laury there so watched with them.  It was a little rainy so Auna held the umbrella for Jillian for awhile until they started throwing candy from the parade and Jillian moved closer to the action.  At first she was bringing the candy to me to put in my pocket.  Then a nice lady gave her a plastic sack to use, and she was thrilled whenever someone came along and dropped candy in her sack.  We watched for a long time before the Castle Rock float came by with the Castle Rock volleyball team on it.  It was a really long parade and finally Jillian said she was cold and wanted to go home.  That was fine because we couldn't even see the end of the parade down the street so she missed Santa.  She even got two stuffed animals and I think she wanted to take her loot home.  She was excited when she got home and saw that Mommy and Daddy had put up the Christmas tree, so she was eager to start decorating.

Inside Days

This is the best picture I could get of Ava, Harper, and Bridget playing so well together.  I said smile and they did, but not at the camera.  Notice they all have to have their own set of dolls or animals.  Jillian was playing at the counter with her own set of dolls.  The twins are getting more comfortable with Bridget and Jillian.

After the twins left Jillian worked some more on her reading and writing.  She loves to write her letters now and spell and write some simple words.  Today it was Dan and Dad.  She could relate to those two names.

After naps it was off to Vancouver for Tierney's basketball game.  They were so good at the game.  Jillian and Rielee sat together and colored most of the game and Bridget sat by me and colored and played with the sticker book.  It was a busy fun day!

Play Date

This photo shows Jillian and her friend Emma leaving preschool for the day, wearing the new hats that they made. Jillian looks like she's about to jump out of her skin, because she's so excited to finally have a play date with Emma. She'd been asking for quite some time to do it, and then Mommy surprised her in the morning with news about it. At first Jillian was a little unsure about Mommy not being there with her, but she quickly got over it. Mommy learned that Jillian and Emma pretty much spent their entire time dressing up in Emma's princess clothes. When Sweetie-Pie returned home, she was wiped out and fell asleep on the sofa.

Thanksgiving Program

Jillian's pre-school had a special Thanksgiving program.  The children did several Thanksgiving poems with hand motions.  Jillian had the motions all down and even managed to smile at Mom and Dad, Papa Ken, and Papa Bob and Grannie.  The boys on each side of her watched the parents or the girls, not really into the program.  The parents and grandparents were seated at tables and after the program the children joined them, and sat where they had made special place mats.  We had soup, juice, and then a cake that the children had helped make.  It was all very nice.

Little Turkeys

After their naps Jillian and Bridget made these hand print turkeys.  Thank goodness Rick was there to help with Bridget as they would do one color with their hand and then need to wash their hand, which Jillian could do on her own but Bridget needed help.  They were happy with their turkeys.

These little turkeys are getting wiser every day.  Just recently they have figured out how to delay their naps.  Usually right after lunch it's nap time but Jillian will ask if they can play for 5 more minutes.  Then they go to the dollhouse and play together like little angels, no arguing or fighting, just two sweet girls playing so nice.  Since they are being so-o-o good I hate to break it up so consequently they get to stay up longer.  They did the same thing the other day when it was time for bed at night.  Maybe Grannie is getting soft?

Writing and Playmates



Since Jillian is interested now in writing letters to make words I decided to try writing on school lined paper.  She did real well on learning to start at the top and finish at the bottom.  She was proud when I would star a letter that she did very well.  She improved a lot from the first line to the second line.

Ava and Harper got to come this morning to play.  Ava and Bridget played so well at the counter with the doll set and Jillian and Harper had the horses and the play house.  We have to keep Mocha in the bedroom when they come because I think it's Mocha's size that scares them. 

After lunch and naps, Rielee got to come play.  They had a great time with the tea set, Play-Doh, Moon Dough, and horses.  Rielee was the teacher for awhile and had Jillian spelling words. 

The day went by fast.

Rocket Volleyball

This was the girls when they were cheering on the VB team on the way to state.  Rielee, Ava, Harper, Bridget and Jillian.  The girls had pom-poms and pictures of the girls on the team.  Harper held Macee's picture and Jillian had Tierney's picture.  Bridget also had one but it was upside down.  Maybe someday they will all be playing too.

Jillian Artwork and Writing

Jillian has suddenly become very focused on both drawing and writing. She has been working very hard at both, and doing pretty well.

The artwork she made all by herself is of a rainbow, with flowers and grass, and some writing down in the lower left (the wiggly lines are Jillian's version of story-writing). Jillian has been asking us often about the correct order of the colors of the rainbow, and it looks like she was listening. This piece of art was given to Mommy as a gift.

The writing is of the word "HAT". Jillian first sounded out the letters in hat, and confirmed with us whether she was right. Then she wrote the word out herself. The order isn't quite right, but she knows that she needs those letters to spell the word. She wrote many of these small notes for different people. The next day, she wrote the word "HAT" for Grannie, so now Grannie is thinking that it's about time for some reading lessons.

State Champ

Here's a photo of Jillian and Bridget with the volleyball state champion, Tierney. The Castle Rock team had just won the championship game in a thrilling game against Lakeside at the Sun Dome in Yakima, and Tierney played awesome. Jillian and Bridget had a great time, mostly playing with Rielee and some other girls. It was very late when the championship game ended, so the girls had their pajamas put on for the long trip home.

Picking Apples

First thing this morning Jillian made "Muddy Buddies".  I picked that recipe because all of the kids like them.  She did all the measuring and mixing and working hard at it, as this picture shows.  After we poured the chocolate-peanut butter over the chex, her and Bridget got to shake it in the bags with powdered sugar.  They did a great job on that too.  Jillian licked all the bowls and spoons afterwards, but when I said to try the "Muddy Buddies", she wouldn't even taste them.  Bridget loved them though.  When the other kids came later they enjoyed Jillian's snack.

After naps the girls wanted to play outside.  They rode scooters and the jeep for awhile.  Then when we were walking they saw the apple tree and wanted baskets to pick apples.  Jillian would pick the apples and I would polish them.  Soon she had a full basket and decided to take some up to Julie's family.  She left them 5 apples because that is how many are in their family.  Then she went to Robin's house and gave them 3 apples, one for Uncle Dan, Aunt Robin, and Tierney.  Bridget didn't pick much but enjoyed eating the Delicious apples, two in fact.  Even baby Ariel got tossed aside in favor of the apples. 

A Mermaid and Candy Corn

The girls were so excited to begin their trick-or-treating last night.  Jillian was surprised to see the little pumpkin when she awoke from her nap.

Mommy, Bridget, and Sophie all dressed in their orange costumes waiting for Daddy. 


Pumpkin Carvers

Jillian and Bridget picked out their pumpkins yesterday at the Willow Grove patch. All of us drove out there in the afternoon, and slogged through the thick mud and pouring rain in searching for the just-right-pumpkin. Jillian found hers quickly, and then went to work helping Bridget find hers, as well as a tiny one for the new baby. It was a quick trip, thankfully, because the girls were a bit cold and miserable by the time it was over.

Left to Right:
New Baby, Bridget, Jillian

After some naps on Sunday, we got going on the pumpkin carving on Sunday evening. Daddy opened up and scraped all the pumpkins, and Jillian was brave enough to reach in and pull out the insides of her pumpkin. Bridget wasn't so thrilled with touching the insides, preferring to just turn her pumpkin upside-down and shake the stuff out. Jillian then took charge and drew faces on both hers and Bridget's pumpkins. Mommy and Daddy worked on their own, as well as making one for the new baby. The girls were both very proud and excited about their jack-o-lanterns.

Sophie's Missing

This is a picture from earlier in the day when Jillian was at pre-school.  Sophie likes to sit by Bridget but then Bridget will get her in a strangling choke hold and I have to rescue Sophie.  But Sophie just keeps coming back.  She and Bridget think it's playing I believe.

About a half hour after the girls had gone down for their naps we noticed Sophie was missing.  First we crawled around Jillian's bedroom in the dark calling for Sophie since she may have gone to sleep under the covers.  We searched under the bed and in the closets-nothing.  Then we did the same in Bridget's bedroom.  Then we searched the whole house, in every nook and cranny. We wondered if she jumped the fence (almost impossible) so started searching the neighborhood.  Julie and Brock started looking in the woods and Bob went around asking the neighbors and walking along the road.  After about an hour and half of this Rick came and started searching too.  All the while I was hoping Jillian wouldn't wake up to bad news.  About a half hour later Jillian woke up and came in the kitchen and said, "Sophie is stuck."  We looked and sure enough Sophie had gotten in the small space in the hide-a-bed where the mattress is stored and couldn't get out.  Jillian saw her head peeking out of a crack.  Still can't figure out how she got in there.  We were sure happy Sophie was here and it was a happy ending. 

Visiting

I borrowed another picture from Dianne because hers were better than mine.  The girls went to visit the twins and Dianne had made cupcakes so the girls could frost them and decorate with sprinkles.  Bridget wasn't sure what to do at first but then picked it right up.  They made some yummy tasty cupcakes. 
Then they played with the Play-Doh for a long time.  Jillian and Harper played with the horses together for quite awhile while Bridget and Ava went their separate ways to play.
After we got home I put the girls down for a nap and shortly after Tierney, Cale, Ty, and Brock came so Jillian got to get up to see them.  When she finally had her nap she was definitely ready.
Then they got to go see Cousins Andy and Adam at Meagan's Senior Night.  After all that running around they had a very good night's sleep.

Pumpkins!

It has been awhile since they were able to ride the toys outside so today that's all they wanted to do.  They wanted to carry that plastic pumpkin around in the jeep pretending to deliver it but couldn't figure out how to do that.  Jillian thought of the wagon, so hooked it up and off they went.

I thought they were very clever about this chalk drawing.  Jillian used a hula hoop to draw large circles.  Then I put a stem on the circle and she made a jack-o-lantern.  Sort of a crazy jack-o-lantern with blue eyes.  She then decided to color it orange but that was taking way too long.  Meanwhile Bridget was doing credible job on her pumpkin.  I guess it was supposed to be a jack-o-lantern.

Senior Night

The cousins, Ty, Jillian, Bridget, and Brock, came to watch Senior night as Tierney and Macee played their last scheduled home game at CRHS.  (Cale was there also but left after the presentations.) Jillian and Bridget got to watch the festivities and then they got in line to slap hands with all the players.  It was a quick game so they got to run around afterwards to try some volleyball and see Tierney for a picture.  Today I asked Jillian what she wanted to be when she grew up and she said, "A volleyball player".  Good answer.

A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

They rode the bus to the pumpkin patch and Jillian was thrilled to sit with her friends.  They sang the Wheels on the Bus song on the way to Willow Grove. 

The first thing the kids did was to see the baby bunnies.  I think this was the highlight of Jillian's trip.  She has wanted a baby bunny for a long time.  They showed them how to approach the bunny slowly and then they could pet it.  She followed directions very well while some kids just chased the bunnies. They also got to feed the goats and see the baby pigs.

It was rainy and cold so by the time they got to pick out their pumpkin, they were ready to go home.  She was very proud of the pumpkin she picked and was excited to take it home.

Pirates

On Thursday, one of the few nice days, Jillian found Brock and convinced him to play Pirates with her.  They went back and forth on the two zip lines chasing each other.  Jillian was the boss Pirate.  And Brock didn't let Bridget try the zip line this time. 

Bridget saw Jillian spinning on the swing so she decided she could do that while Brock and Jillian were playing Pirates.  She barely reached the ground so it was pretty hard.