Back from my Christmas Sabbatical

I'm going to try and recap the last 2 weeks without boring you all to tears. The week before Christmas the girls both sang up in front of the church and did great. Mallory is a diva!!!!

I left this picture in b/c I almost peed my pants laughing. Can anyone tell me why it looks like Mallory is wearing blue sunglasses?

Maddy singing Happy Birthday Jesus

This next set of photos are of our Thomas family Christmas. My Uncle Phil, Aunt Diane and Ashley drove down from Lansing MI the weekend before Christmas.

Me and my cousin Ashley

Me and my Momma

Uncle Phil and my Dad (brothers)

On Christmas the girls wake up at our house and open gifts, then we head over to my parents for brunch and presents with them.

Maddy and Mal letting Aiden listen to some music

My parents with the grandkids

Me and my sister Rebekah

The day after Chrismas we drove to Columbia Missouri to see the Laughlin crew. We had lots of fun and the girls especially enjoyed seeing Uncle Mike in uniform and taking a tour of the police station.

Mal "cuffed" to the wall

Maddy reading the Christmas story before we opened gifts.

Kasey and I

Maddy especially enjoyed the fake eyelashes she got as a white elephant gift. I took a pic of Dan wearing them too, but he told me I had better not post it on the blog. Ahhh but he didn't mention Facebook!!!!

The children's museum

Warning: Lots of pictures ahead! I was excited to take the girls to the Children's Museum today. Now that Maddy is in school, we just haven't been able to go like we use to. We had a great time and so did the million other children and parents that were there! :-)Baking cookies in the Cookie Cafe'

There was an amazing comic book exhibit that the girls didn't really enjoy. They did like trying on the Superman and Batman capes though.

Maddy was thrilled to find a pink and purple Superman cape!

Warmin' up her Dino egg

Water play

Mallory riding the carousel...without crying!

Ice fishing

A little blurry, but it's Maddy sliding down the Yule slide

Mallory went by herself...another 1st!

We don't need snow...ice will do

The girls are going stir crazy being inside so much. So after school today I had them put on their snow pants and sent them out to play...on the ice. Our driveway has just enough of a slope that they had a blast "sledding." More ice is expected tonight so we may be doing this a lot!

Sunday

So I really wanted to get a few good Christmas shots of the girls this morning before church in their matching dresses. They would not cooperate!!!! I took about 10 pictures and none of them really turned out. So here are the ones that "will have to do." Maddy with very squinty eyes and Mallory with a very fake smile:

Another painfully fake smile from Mal

This is what they kept doing when I would get ready to take a picture...funny now, irritating at the time.

Me leaning to the right??? and Maddy with squinty eyes

I took this at our small group tonight. We had a wonderful Christmas party and lots of yummy food! This is Amelia, Emily, Mallory, Hayley and Parker

Nothing to blog about

It's been pretty slow around the Laughlin house. Nothing exciting to blog about, but I just saw a preview for the movie Marley and Me and I'm soooo excited to see it. Comes out on Christmas day. If you haven't read the book...READ IT!!!!! It's an easy read and absolutely hilarious. It's a true story about the Grogan family and their neurotic dog. John Grogan is the author and he's fantastic! This book was passed around my family a few years ago and I've been recommending it to everyone since. Anyone read it??? What did you think? Do I have anyone who actually reads my boring blog anyway? :-)

A reward for Madison

Here's Madison on black Friday GETTING HER EARS PIERCED!!!! She's wanted this done for over a year now. I've been reluctant since I wasn't allowed to get mine done until I was 16. But, Dan convinced me we weren't committing some terrible sin by allowing it. :-) So after keeping her side of the bargain, ( she asked me not to mention it on the blog) we rewarded her with the ear piercing. The pics aren't that great. Once we got there our camera's batteries were dead so these were taken with Dan's cell phone.Before

During

After
Her smile looks a little forced. She teared up for just a second after they were finished and then was fine. Good job, Maddy!

We asked Mallory when she would like her's done and she replied, "NEVER EVER!!!!"

Playing catch up!

Well let's see... We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my parent's house. I think I counted about 30 people who were there throughout the day. And ohhhh the food...can I just say how grateful I am that I come from a family of amazing cooks!!! I was so busy grazing, I mean eating, that I only took 2 pictures the whole day! Ooops. Here are girls and their cousins from Chicago. Maddy and Jake and Mallory and Jordan.
On Black Friday we braved a trip out to do something special for Maddy. (More on that later) It was way too crazy for me!!! Maybe if I was without the girls... (and dan)
Sunday we woke up to a beautiful snowfall and after church we braved the sloppy weather and took the girls out to the Evans Christmas tree farm to find a tree. We spent the afternoon listening to Christmas music and decorating our tree. (after the Colts game)