Grace saying her colors
Ava and Grace saying words - da da da dora
Ava dancing to TV with no sound
Grace talking and Ava dancing
Grace - DA DA DA DORA

The girls went to Mrs. Mary's on Christmas Eve. We picked them up around 3pm and headed over to Mom's house. The girls ran to the tree and had to check out all the packages. The girls left cookies for Santa and ate some too. Then they went to bed early so Santa could come.





Christmas Day was a blast this year! The girls were up early like always so they could eat breakfast and watch some DORA! We got the rest of the crew up so we could start opening stockings. The girls opened their stockings first and by the time that was over it was nap time. So they went down for a nap so we could open our stockings and presents.







More photos of the girls opening presents. They got a kitchen from Grandma and Grandpa. Auntie Em bought them the tunnels and clothes. Derek and I got them some toys, including Elmo Live. We had to change them into their Christmas outfits. Aren't they cute!!!





Here are the family photos we took with all of our Iowa gear on!! Enjoy! Merry Christmas to everyone!

Emi and I took the girls to Stonebriar Mall to get their picture taken with Santa. We got to the mall at 4:15pm and they had closed the line off because Santa takes his break from 5pm-6pm. So we asked the lady if she would add more to the line if it wasn't 5pm yet. She said yes so we waited in the waiting line. haha!
Ava sat on Santa's lap no big deal. Grace, on the other hand, didn't want to leave Emi's arms. So Emi gave Grace to me and she wrapped her legs around my waist. haha! I am so mean to my children. I sat her on Santa and got out of the picture. Here is what we got....priceless!!! It's exactly what I was expecting so I got what I wanted.
Check out Ava signing "more" in the photo!!!

Woke the girls up today and this is what I came in the room to see....WHOA! I said "Grace, are you getting hair tips from Ludacris?!" She just smiled back and laughed. She is so dang cute even with her hair standing 6 inches in the air. hahaha! Gotta love it. Looking at the pictures together...they do look similar!

Here is a pic of Ava from this morning too. She is cute too but doesn't have as much hair.

The girls love "da da dora" yogurt! I stick a straw in it so they can just sip it instead of drinking it. They don't know how a cup works yet. They can do straws. They love yogurt time! I get the yogurts ready and tell them to go sit down. They run to the living room and sit in front of the ottoman, legs and feet out, ready for YOGURT!! I tell them "hold it with both hands". Of course, they have to pull the straw out but they're getting the hang of it.

Derek has been out of town the entire past week. When he came in the door on Saturday morning the girls were so excited. They went down for a nap a little late so they could see him. After they were down, I went to take a shower. This is what I saw when I was done getting ready. Ava snuggling with Daddy taking a nice long nap. Too fricken cute. She gets away with anything when he is here. Grace was still sleeping in her crib.

That monkey would be AVA!!! Yesterday morning, I got up at 8am and no one else was awake so I turned on the tv and folded some clothes. I heard the girls moving around and it started to get louder like the door was open. Then I see this 3 ft tall body peek around the stairs. I about crapped my pants! When I got up to see where Derek was, Ava ran back to the bedroom. Don't worry Derek was snoring away. I am still in shock that she can get out of the crib. I'm not sure why since she can get out of the pack n play but I just thought this doesn't happen til like 2 yrs or something. I thought I had time to think about this...nope!
Needless to say this Sunday we'll be babyproofing the girls room big time. We put a baby proofing lock on their door knob so at least she can't get out of her room if she gets out of her crib. I'm more scared that she'll fall and hurt herself.
If you have ideas...send them my way. Lord help me!

They are getting so big and really on the move now. They can climb on ALL furniture now and there is no stopping them. They can reach high things too and grab stuff off the counters. We finally baby proofed our kitchen cabinets and the doors downstairs. Since their tube surgery they are talking so much more. It's just babble but their tongue is just going and going. haha! We respond like we know what they said. ha! Grace mimics everything you say. She says "ABA" for Ava, "Geecee" for Gracie, "Botball" for Football and Uh oh is still "Uh oh". Ava talks too but she doesn't say each word you say like Grace does. Grace is always wondering what "ABA" is doing so she can copy cat. It's so cute. They both can throw things away if you hand them the diaper and say "la basura" (trash in spanish). Then they're running to the trash to throw it away. Now that is cute.

We left Wednesday afternoon to head to the lake and we picked up Charles on the way. We had a FULL house! Wednesday and Thursday we had 7 adults and 2 munchkins and on Friday and Saturday, Clint and Carla joined us so we were up to 9 adults. I know you can't believe we can sleep 9 in that small house but we can! We just all have to go to bed at the same time. hahaha!
Thanksgiving Day was great!! We ate really good and had some healthier choices on the menu! The guys were cussing Weight Watchers that day! hahaha! Don't feel too bad for them because they rolled away from the table happy and gut full. The girls took a nap while we ate our big meal. Then we fed them their first Thanksgiving meal at dinner time. They LOVED it!! Emi made outfits for the girls. They were TURKEYS!! They were the cutest turkeys ever! Emi of course came out as Pocahontas, the rest of us were indians and pilgrims. Gotta love Thanksgiving!






Derek raked leaves and the girls helped. Ava was scared of the leaves and just stood to the side holding her rake. Not Grace...she jumped right in! That was a lot of fun to play in the leaves.




Friday, Clint and Carla got there in time to make breakfast! YUM! Carla got in some good play time with the girls while Clint cooked breakfast.


Derek and Chris headed to Walmart to see if they could get some deals. I told them the deals were at 4am, not 9am. haha! They came back with $2 movies. We were going to cut down a Christmas tree at the tree farm but it was rainy and yucky outside so we stayed home.
We watched movies and played with the girls. That night we played Apples to Apples since there was 9 of us. That was a lot of fun!
Saturday, the weather was a lot nicer. We took the girls outside and they ran up and down the road. It was cute cause they would look at each other and scream then run really fast the other way. haha!





Grace was the first to fall and landed on her face. We didn't notice how bad it was til we got inside and saw it was puffy and red on her left side of her face. She got bruised and banged up - poor baby.

Ava fell a couple times too but no injuries. The guys were outside throwing the football and the girls helped run the ball too! We headed home after dinner since Sunday was 35% off day at JCPenney.
Derek and I are so thankful we can spend our holiday with our families and share it with the girls. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and enjoyed their long weekend with family and friends.