December! (Part 1)

December 1st, we had Hannah's birthday party for her friends. We had 15 wonderful little girls over to the house for lots of shrieking, sugar, games, and fun. It was a loud, chaotic, fun-filled party! The theme was Doc McStuffins and the girls made their own "Big Book of Boo-boos", played "Pin the Flower on Doc's Headband", had a treasure hunt, made ice cream sundaes, and even got to play outside (thankful for unseasonably warm weather!). Such a sweet group of girls.

Making their "Big book of Boo-boos"

A Doc Cake! She was so excited!

On a Treasure Hunt!

Presents!

Playing outside...it was in the high 50's! Wonderful day for Dec 1st.

Hannah was all dressed up like Doc for her party :)

Just a fun day at Hyvee :)

These pictures were from the Kids' Mall at Shoal Creek church. It's a tradition that the girls pick out presents for their grandparents and each other (and us) at the Kids' Mall. They go in and do all of the shopping and get to take home "secret" gifts for everyone on their list. It is a great event and they love it. This was Lauren's first year and she did great! So fun to see what they get for everyone :) I got nail polish and a nail file from Hannah this year and a little #1 Mom notebook from Lauren :)

Hannah and friends skating at her friend Olivia's party.

Christmas Tree hunting! We went to pick out a Christmas tree at a Christmas tree farm when John and Veena Voss were visting. It was a COLD adventure!  It wasn't a great year for Christmas trees, as they have suffered from the drought. But we managed to find a great tree anyway.

Decorating the tree...

And then decorating the gingerbread houses!

A few days later, we found ourselves in an evening trip to urgent care. Seems that Lauren and Hannah were "surfing" on a step stool and Lauren managed to get her finger crushed. It immediately turned dark blue and swelled twice its size. After a couple of hours and an xray, we were given the all clear that she was fine. She was a real trooper! This also was the night that Lauren took chewable ibuprofen for the first time ever and Greg and I reached a HUGE milestone of not having to shoot the liquid ibuprofen in her mouth whenever needed. She puts up a huge fuss when taking medicine, so whenever she has a fever or needs medicine of any sort, it is awful. We were so excited that she could chew the medicine!

Snow Day princesses :)

Making Gingerbread cookies for their teachers at church :)

Lauren playing doctor...maybe she thinks that doctors wear tool belts or something?? She insisted on putting all of her doctor tools in her waistband :)

Lauren concentrating hard on her computer game at the library :) Too cute not to take a picture with those giant earphones on!

This was an Evening with Santa at our church--a fun time for kids to sit on Santa's lap, eat cookies, and play games.