Birthday and Christmas Pictures - '09

Quite a few pictures to get out here from the birthdays and from Christmas.....took a couple weeks for things to settle down long enough to work on this!

Grace took this picture of Alison and me on our birthdays.

Getting a hug from the birthday girl!

We took Alison to Panera for breakfast...she picked out a chocolate chip muffin top!

Getting ready to open birthday presents!!

This is one of the trains that goes with her new Thomas the Train set....

Eating some giant birthday cookie from Mrs. Fields....it was really good!

Opening up some Christmas presents and Papa & Nana's.....

Posing with her Dora bubble bath....she loves Dora....it's one of the few TV shows she'll watch.....

Alison LOVES to clean.....so Aunt Vicki got Alison her very own cleaning cart.....

Cleaning the coffee table....she called her sponge "my cheese"...cuz it looks like a brick of cheese to her.....

Nana made Alison (& Grace) matching jammies to go with their Cabbage Patch dolls....

Alison cleaning........AGAIN!

Hey, there's Grace! Brian, Tracy, and Kiera came for a visit when we got home from MI.....the girls are ready to go play in the snow......

Alison joins The Fray.......

Little Snowman, Big World.....tonight on TLC.

Alison opening up a present from Uncle Brian, Tracy, and Kiera....

Grace got the Junior edition of Apples to Apples, and she loves it!

Alison showing off a new dress she got for her birthday from her Great Aunt Anne - and her favorite tights!

Trip to Portrait

There's a ton of Alison's birthday and Christmas photos that I need to get out here, but, in the meantime, we hit Portrait Innovations today to get Alison's 3-year pictures done. We also had Grace jump in a few to get some pictures of the two girls together. The pictures below are ones we either got individual sheets of, or shots that we had put in a collage. Again, these aren't the "finished product" so the actual sheets look better that what you see here.

Ashley likes to get the girls to pose on the number blocks.....
I like how she's got her feet crossed in this one.....it's like a senior picture.

The girl really got her laughing today.....

I call this one, "Please don't put me to bed yet"

This one is really colorful when you get it zoomed in.

The girls got matching big/little sister shirts for Christmas this year.
When they were having them pose like this, the photographer told Alison to look at "your sister's nose"....Alison ended up tilting her head up to try to look up her "sister's nose"......
All the little ladies, all the little ladies.......
Big hugs.....

Grace and friends sing for Chapel

Grace and the rest of the Kindergarteners sang in Chapel today.....they sang Happy Birthday to the Lord. They sounded great!!

Pre-Christmas Randoms

Last week, Santa Claus came to work on a Saturday to hand out toys to little kids and pose for pictures.....sniff, sniff, this is Grace's last year for the Santa Visit....next year, she's old enough to go to a Holiday party instead. Here are a few pictures (we saved the "good ones" for the Christmas card).

Grace patiently waiting in line for Santa....
We told Alison that what Santa brings her is based on naughty or nice, and she said, "What, me worry?"

The girls sitting on Santa and Mrs. Claus' laps - Alison called her "Mommy Santa".....

Grace and Mom at the hot cocoa table.....

The girls showing off some new comfy winter PJ's they have gotten recently....

During the month of November, Grace's teacher asked us to save toilet paper rolls for a craft project in December....we didn't know exactly what for....Grace brought home the finished product yesterday - A Nativity Set! You've got your 3 Wise Men, Jesus-Mary-and-Joseph, a shepherd, an angel, and a coupld of sheep....too cute!

Baby Jesus is a peanut!!!

Turkey Holiday Weekend

The Family Truckster headed up to MI for a few days over the T'giving weekend....a few photos:


Aunt Vicki with her two nieces....
The Happy Family...........

Nana and her Little Alison......

This photo is an optical illusion....Alison is holding Nana upside down....j/k!

Nana and Grace (with a giant bow in her hair)

Group photo.............

A short discussion on how old Alison is going to be in December.... Nana, Aunt Vicki, and the girls......

Grace loves to hang out at the built-in desk to work on bills and create small story books.....

I think she must be signaling Touchdown for Green Bay....couldn't be for the Lions....

Alison's holiday tradition......cards, poker chips, and stogies....

Papa's asking Grace, "what the heck is a 'frush'?"

When we got home it was time to put up the Christmas tree.....

Grace is getting a lot better about spreading out the ornaments.....and getting them farther up the tree....

Alison is helping with the lower parts......

We got our Christmas present from my parents early this year....a new TV cabinet that my dad made!!