Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas!

We spent Christmas Eve together as a family...and it was pretty low key.. Charlee wasn't feeling the best so she did a lot of snuggling which isn't that normal for Charlee but it was wonderful and by the end of the night she was feeling pretty good.

So the rest of the family went to Christmas Eve service and Charlee and mom stayed home to make sure Charlee was feeling okay and to get everything cooking:)

Then we had dinner Mimi, grandpa, papa John, grandma Mary, Dad, Charlee Zoey and I.. it was wonderful!! Then we opened up one gift and it was new Christmas jams and they were so cute and the girls hurried to put them on get cookies out for Santa and get to bed.. so Santa could come! Grandma Mary and Papa John spent the night and it is so fun to spend time with them!

And boy did he come.. we had so many present under our tree on Christmas morning.. it was wonderful! Zoey woke up about 7 AM and she was shocked that Santa had eat the cookies drank the milk and the reindeers had even had the carrots!

We then got busy opening presents. Every present that Charlee would open she would look at you and and say.. "its a box" and then I would say.. whats in it Charlee and she would say.. "I don't know Mama".. it was wonderful!

She had a great time opening presents but didn't want to take turns. Then about half was through the present opening, Charlee got hungry and didn't like anything else that she got.. so we had to take a break and have some breakfast. It was a wonderful morning of opening present and playing, playing and playing!

Charlee loved the Rody that Santa brought her!

Checking out the goods in the stocking!

Getting in the swing of things!

more time with Rody!

Charlee took a nap and then we headed to Vinton to see both sets of the great grandparents and then did some night sledding at Mimi and Grandpa's. It was a wonderful Christmas day!

The magic of the season

I know this picture is a little hard to see but this is what Christmas is all about a happy little gal standing by tree loving Christmas!

Charlee is doing great and having lots of fun!

She is still working on the potty training but it is so cute. She now calls her little potty the little frog and the big normal potty is called the big frog. It is just to cute! Other then a lot of talk we aren't showing a ton of progress on the potty front but it will come.

Say Cheese

We have had a busy Holiday season but have made it a point to slow down and appreciate the little stuff as well... this afternoon at snack I though this was a perfect example of having fun with the little stuff!

Charlee wants nothing to do with Santa but she has had plenty of fun with Ellfy our elf and she knows.. Don't touch Ellfy!

Picking out the tree

It is an Austin family tradition that the day after Thanksgiving we go and pick out our Christmas tree! This year was no different. We went out to lunch at the family favorite Peppers and then headed to Waverly to pick out the tree.

We didn't have to argue with the girls about who's turn it was to pick out the tree.. Char feel asleep:)

The drive to Waverly is a little long and with a full tummy this is what happened to Charlee....












After we got the tree up and the house was starting to look a little bit like Christmas we head down town to Holiday Hoopla and it was FUN!! We got to see Santa, and then the fireworks were great! Charlee loved them!!

After the fireworks we headed to get some hot chocolate and then home to bed after a long fun day!

I did it!!!

Last night was a big deal for Char! She told us that she had to go potty so we took her to her frog potty and she went.. she really did it.. she pooped on the potty!!

We of course had to celebrate so we headed to scratch for cupcakes, gelato and slushy.. which of course was right up Char's ally and she loved every  minute of it, and all night she kept saying.. "I did it".

First time

This weekend was Charlee's first time at Teddy Bear tea and she had a great time!!

Getting ready to go out the door.. of course Charlee didn't want to sit next to anyone else.. she wanted to do it her way.

Char Mar and Z.. .Char is finally starting to get the hang of this picture thing

This is where the dancers danced so of course Char thought she should dance her as well!

Char being Char while we wait for Santa

Tell me one person that couldn't love this face!

Teddy Bear Tea this year was at UNI and another first... MIMI joined us, it was perfect!!!

a little bit country

OMG!! That was the best smore I have ever had and I am going to need more of it right now!!

Getting ready to roll her pumpkin! She did a great job!

Doing a little jumping on Saturday morning in the jumper, the girls had a great time jumping all weekend!

Cheering for her pumpkin.. she had a little one so it kept getting stuck but she had a great time!

Sharing a smore with Grandpa!

That was so good!

Enjoying all of the yummy marsh-mellowly meltyness.

A little bit of lately..

We have been busy the last couple of days.. here are some pictures to show you what we have been up to...

Thursday night we had a nice evening at home and the girls were busy on a little arts and crafts project. They had a great time and took their kitties to school today for show and tell.

Charlee and Colton were going to trick or treat in the wagon.. to save the little legs, that lasted about 2 minutes!

Charlee had her preschool program where she was a frog and they sang Jesus loves the little children, Charlee didn't really sing.. but she did a great job of swaying!!

Trick or Treating with Great FRIENDS!! This is Charlee and Colton getting ready to head out.. they did a great job. Charlee was an Owl and she had the whoo whoo down and colton was a spider man.

More painting!

Look at her.. Like a pro!!

Pumpkin farm

tradition at the pumpkin farm.. of course dad was with as well... but someone  had to take the picture.

Z and char sitting on the hay bails at the pumpkin farm

Look how tall these two little gals are.

 Char had a great time at the pumpkin farm and it didn't take her long to figure out that she was suppossed to pick up pumpkins and put them in our wagon so she went to town doing just that! What a great way to spend some of her second birthday!

two year old birthday party!

 Charlee's birthday started out great. We snuck in her room on Friday night and covered the floor with balloons. She loved waking up to them all over her floor and then we came in and put them all in her bed with her as we sung her happy birthday. That is when she decided this birthday thing wasn't going to be so bad. After we got up we went for Pancakes a favorite meal of Charlee's and she had a great time!

We then headed to Mimi and Grandpa's for the annual trip to the pumpkin farm. I will post about that next.

After the trip we headed home and Charlee took a quick nap, its like she knew that fun stuff was about to happen. She woke up to a new bouncy house for her to jump in for her birthday and she loved it. We jumped in it several times and it was a big hit at the birthday party with Austin and Colton as well.

Charlee had a Dora party and did a great job with the candles.

Birthday morning fun!

ballons do a number on your hair!

Charlee got this hat from Grandma Mary, its so cute!

Charlee and her buddy colton. She had a great time at her party and when everyone went to leave she stood at the door and cried. She didn't want the fun to end.

Charlee got a purple sponge ball that she loved to sit on and bounce on. 

First and last

Lately Charlee has been starting the day out with this question..

"Where is Sisi"

and at night when you put her to bed she ends the day with this question...

"Where is Sisi"

Love how much these two little ladies love each other!

California Girl

It stinks to be short.. it seems like everything was just a little to tall for char so she spent most of the day in someone arms.. of course she didn't mind getting carried as long as we were going right where she wanted to go:)

Z and char checking out the helicopter in an exhibit at the zoo.

Z was the flower girl and char loved the flowers. They did a great job of sharing the flowers.

We went to California this weekend for Andrea's wedding. Char has been to the beach one other time but she was much younger so really this was her first time.. she wasn't real sure what to do but once she learned that you can wash the sand off in the ocean.. she LOVED it! She loved building sand castles and playing in the sand and she even enjoyed the waves if someone was holding her of course! She did have a hard time figuring out why they were called waves.. wave is something you do when you say good bye:)

We were in San Diego so of course we had to go to the zoo!!! This is us on the sky ride.. So much fun and of course char wasn't scared all.. she wanted to sit on the top safety rail.. of course I wasn't having that!

Z, Char and Jake all buried me in the sand.. do you see that yellow bucket by char.. she was busy with that dumping sand time and time again.. she loved the sand!

Apple Orchard

Char and Ayden being silly at the central apple orchard by Ames.. we had a great time playing in the mother goose village!

Char at the park one morning! She loves playing with the big kids!

Char and Jake going down the big slide at the apple orchard.. Char had a great time and wasn't scared at all!

Little pig little pig let me in.. char had so much fun running from house to house.. they were just her size!

I wanted to take a picture of char and Z and of course Char really didn't like that idea.. so she wouldn't look at me:)

After the apple orchard we went to Hickory Park (a restaurant) for dinner, so it was late on the way home. The other kids fell asleep but not Char. She was busy singing songs and saying "ready, set..... GO" over and over and over again. I love her spunk!

the battle of the broccoli

So last night for dinner we had broccoli, normally the girls love it, it really is one of the vegetables I can serve with out any anxiety.

Well last night Charlee decided that she didn't want to eat hers. Zoe had done a great job of eating and was ready for desert so I was giving her a chocolate chip cookie for desert. Of course Charlee also wanted a cookie but I told her that she needed to eat her broccoli if she wanted her cookie. At first she acted like she didn't understand and that it was to complex for her, but then she started turning on the cute factor, which I started laughing at and Zoey gave me "the look" and once that didn't work she simply put her head down. Well I almost caved.. ALMOST but then I decided "no she does understand and she can do this" so I packed up the cookies and at that exact same moment Charlee decided to shovel as much broccoli as possible into her mouth so that she also could have a cookie.. What a stinker!!

She ate every last bite of that cookie and LOVED it!

Picture and random stories...

This weekend char got to go Zoe's soccer practice and she played with her own ball and had a great time! She did watch a little bit! Also she loves to play with Z's back pack for soccer so she put her ball away and put her back pack on, she loved it!

The other day Char and Zoey were on a jeep ride and the entire ride which lasted about ten minutes Char just sat next to Zoey sticking her tongue out  at her. It of course stressed Zoe out but I couldn't stop laughing to do anything about it.

Little bit of this and that!

This weekend the weather was perfect and we spent lots of time playing out side with friends! At one point the ice cream truck made a visit to the hood. This was Charlee's first run in with the ice cream man and she of course loved it! and she made quick work of the bomb pop!

Her enjoying it again!

We found this dress in charlee's closet and she loved wearing it and we got some new shoes out and for a minute or so she left her pony tail in. She is very woow woow!