Christmas Happenins According to miPhone

I had intentions of putting up a different Christmas picture depicting the cute decorations going on in our house this year, but that has {obviously} not happened.  Between leaving for my weekend in Philly {that I still need to blog about} and getting everything ready for Christmas, I have just not had the time or the energy.

But, that doesn't mean that we haven't been getting in the holiday spirit around here.  Here are a few things I have managed to capture so far this Christmas season:

Bunky has been traveling all over.  I haven't been super creative this year, but did find a box of Super Why Alphabits cereal and after spending 10 minutes trying to fish out the letters so Bunky could leave the girls a message, I realized that the girls couldn't read it anyway, so I threw a bunch of letters out on the paper and called it a night.

We had  our first set of carolers and after Olivia joined them for a song, she passed out our leftover Halloween candy!

My friend Tara's Pappaw made this snowman for me over 10 years ago and even though we haven't had snow in ages, I bring it out every year.

We took a walk from our house over to Nana and Poppy's to check out all the Christmas lights.  Olivia doesn't really care too much for the Santas or the reindeers.  But, she is obsessed with all the nativity scenes.  She always asks us to drive around and look for the mangers.

{She had to pee so bad....}

{...but that didn't stop her from checking out another nativity scene.}

Thanks, Dad, for putting up all of our lights this year!

That's not our house.

Olivia made Christmas cards for her friends.

Sydney is the BEST shopping companion!  The BEST!

We went to the annual golf cart parade again this year.  Only a small catastrophe in the line-up with Olivia accidentally stepping on the gas pedal, but we don't need to talk about that...

This one was pulling a float that blew sudsy bubbles that looked like snow!

Oh my gosh, this one had to be the winner!  The cart was a sleigh, pulled by a reindeer, driven by Santa and Mrs. Claus carrying a load of presents.  WOW.

And, we couldn't let Thanksgiving have all the fun, so we had our favorite crafting girls come over for some Christmas fun.  The girls decorated their own mini gingerbread houses, made ornaments and stickered up a picture frame.

I let her do whatever she wanted to on this one.  Including licking the frosting.

They had so much fun playing afterwards, I did not care one bit to clean up the mess in her room.

And, she's been a big help in the wrapping department.  Sure makes it a lot more fun.

And, Woo Hoo, our Christmas card wall is filling up!

Thanks for sticking with me through this iPhone dump!

Belated Birthday Post

Holy smokes, in only four short months, my spitfire of a girl is going to be FOUR years old.  How is that even possible?  Didn't we just celebrate her 3rd birthday at Disneyland?!

We have some moments in our days that are rough, but I could not love her anymore than I do. 

Happy 44 Months!

Teddy Bear Tea

Olivia's Grandma called me a couple of weeks ago asking if Olivia and I would like to attend the Teddy Bear Tea at the Ritz Carlton sometime before Christmas.  She said she wanted to give some "experience" gifts this year, and true to form, she outdid herself!

She reserved a table for Olivia, my mom and me for Friday, but unfortunately Olivia started getting feverish Thursday night and I had to reschedule.  I'm so grateful that they had an opening for us today because she was so upset that instead of the tea, she spent the afternoon at the doctor's office.

We got all dolled up and headed up to the Ritz Carlton in Phoenix and as I pulled in and saw the valet, I immediately wished I had cleaned out the back of the car.  OY.  Or even just the front.  #snacksshoesandtoyseverywhere  Olivia still isn't feeling 100% {but was fever free for over 24 hours} and really didn't want to pose for pictures before going in, so these few shots were the best I could get.

Headband lasted all of two minutes.  But, pobrecita, look at those eyes.

She loved the ornaments!

We had our own table by another Christmas tree and were served yummy finger sandwiches and tea.  Olivia dined on hot chocolate and a bowl of marshmallows!  The dessert tray was seriously twice the size of the sandwich tray and it did not disappoint.  Our server even gave my mom some extra raspberry jam to take home because she thought it was so good.  Olivia got to pick out her own teddy bear to take home, was greeted by Ted E. Bear and got to do a teddy bear parade to one of her favorite Peanuts song {Linus and Lucy}.  There was even a story time and Christmas caroling.  

Her facial expressions are too much.

After quite a few marshmallows....

Only Nana was the one brave enough to get close enough to Mr. Bear.

{Can you see his face behind the eye??!!}

So, Olivia loved these little chocolate cups that the dessert garnish came in.  

I've got a sugar lover for sure.

And, yeah, that's chocolate all over her mouth and teeth.  But, it's still probably one of the best pictures I have of the two of us together.

We all had a wonderful time and are so thankful to Irma for treating us to such a wonderful experience. We hope that next year she can join us...and maybe even Sydney too!

We went to see Nana sing afterwards and Olivia had to have a cheese roll-up from 

Taco Bell since she had only eaten sugar all afternoon!

{We aren't that fancy, apparently!}

Christmas Program

Olivia was in her first school program {and first Christmas program} last night.  It was so cute seeing her up on the stage with all of the other kids.  She sang Twinkle, Twinkle Special Star and Hosanna.  Well, she didn't actually sing Twinkle, Twinkle because the girl behind her was singing so loud that she turned around for most of it and then covered her ears with her hands.  You can take a look at that little ditty right here.  And, see her sing Hosanna here.

After the performance, Santa was waiting outside to greet the boys and girls.  My dad's friend volunteered to play Santa when her school was in need and he did such a great job.  Olivia was so amazed that Santa knew her name that she decided to sit on his lap twice.  Sydney did not even want to get close to him and cried if she was within six feet of him.  She has warmed up to our friend Rahma who is staying with us this week, so maybe Rahma can pass along Sydney's wish list!

We celebrated with FroYo and Olivia got the Peanuts Nativity scene.

It is currently her favorite Christmas program AND book.

  

Our {Gingerbread} House is a Very, Very Fine House

...with a snowman and gingerbread boy in the yard....

We made our gingerbread house today with Nana.  We think Olivia spent a little bit longer working on it this year than last, but I'm pretty sure she ate just as much of the candy as she did last year.  {Which was a lot!}

OLIVIA!  Keep Your Hands Off of Those MARSHMALLOWS!

Thanks, Nana, for letting us make a big mess at your house.  But, next year, if it's 75 degrees out like it was today, let's do it outside!

{See pictures of our gingerbread house from last year here.}