Christmas Chaos (2013)

Hard to believe Christmas was almost a month ago, time flies! Our Christmas was crazy busy, as usual (I think one year I would like to actually stay home the ENTIRE time and relax…someday…).

On Christmas Eve, we went bowling with a few family members on Papa’s side of the family. The girls like bowling, but the interest usually only lasts about half a game :-)

That night, we went to Grammy and Grandad's house, and Grammy read "The Night Before Christmas..."

 Christmas day came bright and early at the Hartig house. The girls were so excited to come down the stairs and open presents. Papa came by in the morning as well, so we had a full house. It’s safe to say that the girls are PRINCESSES!

Wide awake!

 

Santa brought "princess shoes," which were a HUGE hit!

 

After that, we went to Grammy and Grandad’s house for breakfast and a few more presents. Unfortunately, I started to feel sick (sinus infection/sore throat). After breakfast, we all went home for naps (much needed).

Grammy bought Cinderella dresses!

For dinner, we went to visit Papa, Great-Grandpa Harold, Unlce James, and Tess…more presents and a spaghetti dinner. Overall the day was pretty great, but I’m glad things are back to normal! ;-)

 

 Merry Christmas from the Hartig clan!

Sweet Treats for Christmas

In our family, we are suckers for chocolate. I found a "recipe" for Rolo and M&M treats on-line, and figured it would be the perfect gift for the girls' pre-school teachers! They were SUPER simple to put together, and the girls loved helping me.

First, they unwrapped all the Rolos

Second, they picked out all the red M&Ms

Assembly time! Pretzels, Rolos, and M&Ms

In the oven for 3-5 min...

Yum!

Gift bags for school!

This won't be the last time we make these! 

Lily meets the ER

Today started out like a typical Sunday. We got ready for church, drove through a little snow, and even managed to get there a little early today. Lily was running around her classroom like crazy, and ran into a table. She was fine, and I even joked that as long as she wasn't bleeding I wasn't worried. I went into the auditorium area, and got ready for the service to start. I wasn't in there two minutes before my friend ran and got me. She said Lily had fallen, and I better check it out...

Madison before church, showing off her braids

Lily before church (and the busted lip)

I was taken aback when I walked in. Her teachers were holding her, she was crying, and her mouth was covered in blood. She had hit her face on a chair, and busted her lip open in the corner. It looked pretty bad, and was also bleeding pretty heavily. I was scared to death, but tried to keep calm for her. We decided that she probably needed an ER trip, in case stitches were needed. There was no way I was taking Madison up there, so Nate took her with him. Lily went to the ER with me and our friend Niccole (she's a nurse, so it was nice to have her with us).

We got to the ER about an  hour after her accident. I was SO impressed with them, we went right in and they treated with faboulous care! The poor kiddo had to sit with gauze in her mouth while they let a numbing agent work. After that, they put one disolvable stitch in. She handled the whole thing like a CHAMP! I was so impressed with how well she did, and I think the staff was, too. They even gave her a bottle of bubbles to take home, which she thought was pretty awesome.

The craziest part about this whole thing is that Lily has never been to the doctor before for anything other than a check-up. I guess she decided to make her first trip memorable!

Waiting on her stitches :-(

After it was all done. Showing off how strong she is!

Back to being fabulous!

Santa SUCCESS at Crown Center

Every year we go to Crown Center at Christmas time. It’s funny, I only went a couple of times as a kid, but we’ve taken the girls there quite a few times. They always seem to be having some sort of activity for the kiddos to do. Anyway, the first thing we did was head to see Santa. Every year, the girls completely freak out about Santa. They usually won’t go near him without crying. This year was different, though. They had very specific present requests (princess shoes), and wanted to tell the big guy themselves. Santa was very sweet, and we only had to wait a couple of minutes. Our Santa picture turned out PERFECTLY, and they even gave him a fist bump!

Lily

Madi

SANTA!!

After Santa, we headed across the street to see the lights. Looking at all those lights never gets old! The weather was pretty nice, so the girls played on all of the wooden cars before we went back in.

Before we left, we had to get our yearly ornament from Hallmark. Last year they each picked a different Tinkerbell ornament, but it was Cinderella this year (for both of them). They love those princesses!

The Christmas countdown has begun!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving this year seemed to be extra busy, but I guess it always is! Originally, we were going to go out to dinner, but when I found out there'd be a one to two hour wait, we decided to cook at home (for this year, at least). We ended up with Thanksgiving lunch at our house with Grammy, Grandad, Uncle Caleb, Uncle James, and Papa. Everyone chipped in, so it went pretty smoothly. After dinner and dessert, we went to look at Christmas lights (one of the girls' favorite things to do)! We stopped by The Legends to check out their Christmas tree, which was lit up beautifully.

Turkeys made at school

 

Friday was spent decorating the house. This is the first year we actually put ornaments on the tree. I wasn't sure how the girls would do, but so far so good.  They really loved putting the ornaments on, and liked picking out which ones were their favorites (Dora and Tinkerbell at this point). 

On Saturday, we watched the new movie "Frozen" at the theater. It was a very cute movie, with two sisters, and the girls really liked it!

 Saturday night, we went to visit the Christmas Princess (a tradition for us)!

The Princess is right next door to Build-a-Bear. We'd never been there before, and decided to check it out. The girls picked out princess bears, and LOVED putting them together. They each picked out a dress for their bear; Madi picked Rapunzel's dress and Lily picked Aurora's dress. When we got home, they dressed up to match their bears! :-)

Our weekend seemed beyond busy, but it was full of some really great memories!