It's the Hap-Happiest Season of All!

I LOVE DECEMBER!  I love the holidays!  I love lights and Christmas trees and carols, stockings and hot cocoa and snowmen, beautiful decorations, grinning and laughing children (of all ages).  I love having Michelle's birthday and our wedding anniversary too!  I love seeing family!  And visiting Santa and holiday parties and Christmas stories and opening presents and visiting with neighbors and days off work!  There is so much to love this time of year, and this year we are enjoying it unlike any other!  As always, I have a few pics to share to demonstrate all the good times our family is having together!

Michelle very specifically asked for a chocolate cake with pink frosting and coconut.  She had a ballet theme, so that all fit nicely.  This is her cake, with 4 ballerinas too!

She got lots of wonderful goodies for her 3rd birthday!  Here she is opening a backpack and  preschool activities from Grandma Jackson.  This gift keeps on giving, as Grandma sends more activities every month!

Michelle loves blowing out candles . . . The problem is she can't actually blow!  I have been trying to teach her to stick out her lips and blow, and that is what she was attempting here.  It worked a little better, and was SO ADORABLE!

Lena cheeses it up for the camera with her gingerbread house!

Grandma and Grandpa Thompson came for Michelle's birthday, and Grandma brought everything to put together a graham cracker house with the girls.  It was a blast!

Lena was so darn cute in her snow gear, it was the first picture we had to get when we set out to cut down our Christmas tree in Island Park.  It was the first time any of us had done that, and it was a fun experience . . . we will definitely do it again.

Here I am after we cut down the tree.  The girls were starting to get cold, and Micki was crying to go back to the truck, but up until that point it was a lot of fun!

My muscle man is hauling the tree back to the truck . . . to be fair it wasn't really very heavy, but he IS still my muscle man!

Here it is, right before we load it in the truck.  It fits beautifully in our living room, by the way!  It really is gorgeous!

Back at the cabin that night the girls were playing with Lena's sled indoors, pulling it around on the carpet.  Here, Lena is tackling Micki in the sled.  She does that a lot lately . . .tackles her sister.  I wonder where she learned that?

The next day we went out to play in the snow.  Lena ate it up, being pulled around in her sled.  She even laughed when Daddy went fast and dumped her out of it!

Jim decided he wanted to sled down the hill too.

Micki was also cute in Lena's winter gear . . . that is her coat, at least.  We left her coat in the other car, so we separated Lena's (which was Micki's first, to be fair) and gave each girl half.  It worked out okay, even if it was a little tight.

Micki also loved being towed around in Lena's sled.

The snow was quite deep and soft, so Lena couldn't really move around in it, but she didn't mind sitting, waiting for someone to come pick her up.

The snow was much to soft to build a snowman.  Fortunately, someone left one standing practically in our backyard.  The snow around it was packed and hard, so the girls could walk and pretend to build a snowman.

Lena is trying not to fall down!

Mommy is helping add eyes and nose and hat to Frosty Snowman, as Michelle calls him.

Anyway, we had a fun weekend in Island Park.  As you can see they have quite a bit of snow, but the weather was clear the whole time we were there.  Every time we go to the cabin without my mom and dad Michelle gets a little upset, she looks for them all over before settling that they aren't there too.  She talks about them the entire time.  It is cute, and a little sad.  We miss them!