Santa? NOOOOO!

What would Christmas be without a fun picture like this:

 While this next picture might look unsuspecting, this is the best we could do because this is the absolute closest Audra would get to Santa. She was so incredibly scared, even though just the other day she was telling us how she "missed Santa." Luckily, he had candy canes and was able to bribe her just to get this close:

We tried to get a picture of the cuties together. This is how it turned out:

The best picture I got of Audra all night:

 Lest you think bad pictures are only taken at ward Christmas parties, here we are trying to get a picture of the girls in their new pajamas:

 Is this better?

Setting It Up

Every year, we wonder why on earth we do it. But, every year we pull out the decorations and decorate/torture ourselves for what will certainly be another wonderful Christmas.

Seriously- it is A LOT of work! And, we didn't even put up half the decorations- the half that scream, "Claire- come break me!" we left in the boxes.

I am glad they are up. I am glad we are done putting them up. I am not looking forward to putting them back away. Or to putting them back up next year.

The girls, however, loved helping us.

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But, Claire eventually got banished (don't worry, as you can see- she had a roll, so she was perfectly happy):

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Both girls are completely enthralled by the train:

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A note on this train: I bought it my freshman year of college- 1997. Every year, we say, "this is the last year for this poor train. Next year we will get a new one." But, every year we push it to it's limits again. The engine can no longer pull any cars except the one with the batteries. It can not go around the entire track even once without falling off. But, it's still chugging along like the Little Engine That Could, so we continue to use it. And, the girls continue to LOVE it.

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Ben is proud of his accomplishments:

The finished product:

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-We have much to be grateful for this Christmas season, and we look forward to all the merriness of the holidays. Merry holiday season to all!!!!

How Can I Not Be Grateful

“So once in every year we throng

Upon a day apart,

To praise the Lord with feast and song

In thankfulness of heart.”

- Arthur Guiterman, The First Thanksgiving

This year I will not attempt to list all of the million things I am grateful for- it would be too long. So I will simply list my top two: My Saviour and my family. The first gave me purpose in life, the second gave me the opportunity to enjoy it.

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Here are some pictures of our fantastic day:

YUMMY Soup

My husband has a deep love affair with soup. I am not such a huge fan. I enjoy an occasional bowl, but it is not something I would ever order at a restaurant- I will go for the salad 100% of the time.
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Being the wonderful wife that I am, however, on occasion I will indulge his cravings and cook up some soup. He happened to order a cheddar cheese potato soup at The Corner Bakery on Saturday night and it looked good. So tonight I decided to give it a try.
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I found a recipe that I had all the ingredients for and whipped up what is sure to become a winter staple! It was DELICIOUS!!! With homemade rolls, it was incredibly filling as well. It's a very healthy, hearty, easy to make soup so I thought I would share:

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Cheddar Potato Soup Recipe
1/3 c chopped onion
1/3 c chopped celery
2 T butter
4 cups diced peeled potatoes
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups shredded cheese
2 c milk
pepper, paprika, salt

Saute onion and celery in butter. Add potatoes and broth; bring to a boil. Simmer covered 10-15 min. Puree in the blender. Return to pan, stir in cheese, milk, and seasonings. Cook over low heat until cheese is melted.

This is from Taste of Home.
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Let me know if you try it and how it turns out!

In The End, I Suppose Kids Are Worth It

There Is a Monster Among Us AKA Claire Update

Things have been rough with Claire AKA Little Monster lately.
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She is definitely our adventurous one! She climbs into, onto, over, and through everything. Perhaps she is just learning her prepositions? I think not.
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At this point, I am a little at my wits ends. I can not keep up! Thankfully we have Audra who will yell, "Claire is on top of the table!" so we can go and resuce Claire.
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Also, she has a favorite activity: when you give her food, she will give you a disdainful look and forcefully throw her food on the floor. Thank goodness for the hardwood is all I can say about that.

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The expression on her face pretty much sums this nightmare time up: "Look mom, I am up here and I LOVE it!"

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-And here she is after she ATE a marker. Yes, the actual marker point was nowhere to be found- except, presumably- her tummy. Can you guess the color?

Hopefully this stage will be over soon, so we can enter the tantrum stage. Oh, kids are sure fun!

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Then, on Wednesday I was thinking to myself how grateful I am that she will at least stay in her exersaucer while I shower-WHEW! What a blessing, because how else am I going to shower if I can't keep her tied down?

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Guess what she learned to do Thursday? Yup, you guessed it. She climbed right on out of that exersaucer.

NOW WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?????

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Claire Update from previous update:

Well, I guess there are some good points about this Little Monster.

Tonight while putting her to bed she dropped her toothbrush. I said, "where's your toothbrush?" As clear as day she said, "Uh-oh, where'd it go?" and kept repeating it. I guess I can't stay too mad at her for long.

Matching Matching Green Squared

Anyone recognize the movie reference? My college roommates should!
The girls were wearing almost matching outfits today so we did an impromptu photo shoot. What can I say- they're cute.
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This is Audra "smiling" for the picture. But look at Claire's face- how can this not be one of my favorites?

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-This is a picture of me and the girls last night. They like to crawl up and tackle me, and admittedly I don't mind so much.

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Then, here's a couple fun things they have both said:

Claire: yesterday she picked up the camera and said, "CHEESE" as clear as day

Audra: On the ride home from Ben's parents house Ben cut across a parking lot. Audra asked us why and he said it was because he wanted to get home faster. Audra said, "Why? Because you have to go potty?"