Tutus and New Year's resolutions

I don't have any pictures from this past week where the girls aren't in their tutus! They love wearing them and as soon as one girl puts it on, the other one has to go get theirs. Good thing I made two of them! They love watching themselves dance around on TV with their Playskool Dance Cam they got for Christmas and also watching old home videos of themselves as babies. Little narcissists, aren't they!

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In other news, we had a great New Year's Eve with some friends and stayed up late watching movies and talking while eating homemade Cafe Rio salad, apple pie, and drinking sparkling apple juice, Woo Hoo! Then we spent the rest of the weekend sleeping in, playing with the kids, going to movies, taking the kids on little outings to McDonalds and other play areas, going shopping, eating out, and just relaxing at home.

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Now it's time to get back to real life and get working on our New Year's resolutions which are to go to bed earlier, eat less, exercise more, spend less, and spend more time playing with the kids. So far we've only been good with one of these, hmmm...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Christmas is finally here! Abbie and Leah had the best time opening presents, playing in their tutus, and eating candy all day. We had fun watching them be excited and remembering our own excitement from Christmases growing up. I won't bore you with the details, the pictures explain it all:

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Dear Santa...

I finally got around to helping the girls write their letters to Santa and Abbie loved the idea, even though I don't think she really understands what the whole Santa thing is about. She knows that he is a man that lives at the North Pole that brings presents to kids in books and movies but I don't think she understands that SHE is going to get presents too. I'm sure after tomorrow she'll get it. Here's her letter...

And Leah's letter...

Going to put it in the mailbox, just in time for Christmas!

It was kind of convenient writing the letters this late in the game, I just helped them write things that they wanted that I knew they were getting and then they got a letter back from "Santa" the next day. The North Pole has quick postal service!

Leah's 2nd birthday

Leah turned two today and she was so excited to sing the Happy Birthday song, eat cake, and open her presents. We kept it simple since Christmas is in just two days and she's not old enough to expect more yet. Here are some pictures of our little "party".

I'm two!

I like cake!

I really like cake!

Opening a present from Grandma Butler. She loves listening to the songs on the CD that goes with this book!

Leah's first Cabbage Patch doll! Now, how do I open this thing?

That's more like it! Dancing with her new dolly to the music from Grandma!

Happy Birthday, Leah! You are such a happy girl, always smiling and bringing us joy. We are glad you are in our family and can't believe you are two already. We love you!

How many cookies can you count?

Jared did a cookie exchange at work and here's what we got after a night of baking. How many cookies do you think we made total? Whoever guesses the closest in the comments gets a free hand-signed copy of the Butler Family Christmas Letter 2008! Whoo-hoo!

Abbie had a lot of fun helping Daddy out

And here we are at our church Christmas party last week, it was a Hawaiian Luau, which was fun and guess what we had for dinner, Robyn and Paul? You'll never guess...

Have a great Christmas, everyone!

Two tutus, y tu?

I found this idea online for making no-sew tutus out of tulle and elastic and decided to try to make some for the girls for Christmas. They were so easy to do and really didn't take as much time as I thought. I can't wait to see the girls faces on Christmas morning when they are dancing around in them. If you want to try to make one yourself, here are two different websites for a tutu tutorial. http://plumtickled.typepad.com/plumtickled/2007/08/tutu-tutorial-t.html or
http://mamasdoodles.blogspot.com/2007/08/tutu-tutorial-tuturial.html. Have fun!

0h, the joys of playdough!

Who knew something so simple could bring so much joy? Playdough is God's gift to moms everywhere, this stuff bought me an hour to myself the other day! The kids love it, it's like they can't get enough of this squishy, colorful, moldable stuff! Now that it's winter, we'll be looking for more things to do indoors. Any suggestions?