Christmas

This will be a super long post so be forewarned! This year was Christmas with the Hadden family.  And we decided that we would do a fun family trip for Christmas this year.  So way back in May, Leslie (D's sister) did lots of work to find a place for us to ski that was within driving distance of all of us and a house to rent that would accommodate 14 people. We were all set!

So of course this year there has been NO SNOW.  Zip. Totally mild winter. So mild that they could not even make much snow.  So we were in a panic about what to do.  We were going to West Virginia and there really is NOTHING to do other than ski.  So options - pay the rental and go and be stuck inside a house with no toys or pay and just not go and go to Atlanta to Leslie's house or hope that the guy who owned the house would give us a refund and go to Atlanta. 

After delaying the start of the trip by one day with the hopes that the last option would happen, we were THRILLED to hear from the guy that he was giving us a refund cause the slopes were going to be awful!  Hooray!  So the 4 of us loaded up the car and made the 620 mile pilgrimage to Atlanta.  Everyone else lives with in 3 hours so the change of venue worked for all of us.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera - shocking! but Leslie had an old one that she lent me for the visit.  So here are some pics of our trip:

A pic of all 4 cousins wearing their matching Christmas pj's and their little headbands, of course with their little Christmas beanie babies (Thanks all to Aunt Connie!!)

 Lots of fun driving the little jeep gator!  While this is a picture of Audrey driving, Brooke actually spent more time behind the wheel....and honestly was much better at it than Audrey.

 Hanging out with Papa and Weecie

The girls in their 'clubhouse'....all four kids were hilarious helping stack up the load of firewood that got delivered while we were there.  This is where the girls would go when Paul would dump out a load to be stacked.

 Tracking Santa on the IPad....so funny to see how excited Brooke would get.  She would run around yelling "Santa's in Whales!!" with such glee and excitement, though clearly she had no idea where that actually was or how it was possibly related to where she was in Atlanta.

 Our slightly crazy daughter Audrey who insisted on sleeping in a ball pit....every night.  Why fight it?

 Loot from Santa.  As an aside, we discovered that Audrey LOVES Tootsie Rolls and they both adore eating Horseshoe Kisses (aka Hershey so funny!)

 Obligatory Christmas morning family PJ photo.  The girls are showing off their stuffed horse and stuffed flower that they requested from Santa.  Good job big guy!

Audrey playing with her presents from Brooke.  The girls were so cute this year.  They asked me if they could have special alone time with me to go shopping for each other and the other one would stay home with Daddy and have special alone time with him.  Melts your heart!  I took the girls to a place called 5 below which as the name suggests, only has stuff that is $5 and below.  Each girl could get two items for their sister.  Audrey bought Brooke an elephant stuffed animal and a hula hippo game.  Brooke got Audrey the kitty and wienie dog pictured above.

 Brooke delivering presents during the Christmas-morning-present-opening-melee 

Audrey relaxing on one of her favorite presents - her giant pink flower pillow - as Papa rubbed her feet. She clearly has a very hard life.

All 4 cousins with their Shoulder Buddies in their cute Christmas outfits.

 Brooke getting some love from Papa too!

Me and the girls on Christmas

The four of us Haddens went to the Georgia Aquarium the day after Christmas.  All I can say is WOW!  We loved it. 

The close up of the penguin after crawling through a tiny tube and popping up in a bubble while holding Brooke.  She was very interested in the fact that the penguins were all wearing bracelets!

Shockingly I actually have a couple of other pics on my phone, but the transfer process is not working right now....and as this is a giant post anyway I will just call it a day.

Cute Picture

Not too long ago, the girls wanted to get a haircut.  And they always talk about the big elephant at the cartoon cuts.  However, whenever I have suggested that they can get their hair washed under the elephants they both said no.  But this time, Brooke was all over it.  And she was so cute getting it done.  Audrey watched for a while and then said she was ready for her haircut – with no washing.

Thanksgiving Part 2

I love to take photos so here is what we did over Thanksgiving:

Playing their favorite card game - go fish!

Thanksgiving would not be complete without a little football

Cute cousin picture!

Family traditions - working on the topping for the sweet potatoes

 Photo shoot with Granddaddy

The Hadden family photo

 I love these pictures of me with my sweet nephew Will!

Brooke loved this mask and put it on CONSTANTLY!

Not sure me and my sister are actually related, but clearly that's my dad!

Thanksgiving - part 1

This year for Thanksgiving we went to see my family in MS.  The girls and I flew down the Saturday before Thanksgiving and then D joined us on late Tuesday night and then all 4 of us flew home on the Sunday after.  All in all, it was a great family trip.  Here are a few pictures of some of the activities we did while there.  I will do a separate post with a focus on all of the family.

 Max the cat provides plenty of entertainment...and that is the calmest cat I have ever been around

 Fun at the zoo - lots of time was spent analyzing the map and determining where we should go by the girls

 At the zoo with Gramma - way in the back you can maybe see the zebras.  At this point in time, Audrey was obsessed with a little stuffed zebra that she bought with some money from her birthday.

 Their first time fishing...unfortunately it was not successful at all.  Not even a bite.  Though super cute photo ops with their Granddaddy!

 Fun at the Children's Museum.  Putting on the velcro suit to jump and stick to the wall

 Audrey stuck on the wall!  She was very good at it.

 

A little words with friends!

Practicing their dribble with Granddaddy.  Amy was obviously taking notes as she schooled us all in a game of Horse later that day.

 Playing on the playground at the local elementary school...which we think was ok cause the gate wasn't totally locked.  I love this picture cause I think that Brooke looks so tall and old!

 Enjoying driving the lawnmower around the yard with Gary...I mean it is MS after all.  This counts as entertainment!

Birthday Parties

I am trying to finish up all of my 2011 posts so I can buy my annual blog book.  So here are a couple of pictures from some very girly and adorable birthday parties that the girls went to back in November.

First they had a ballet party for Keira.  Audrey decided that she was NOT going to wear a leotard or ballet shoes and it was all I could do to get her to put on a tu-tu over her jeans.  But they both had a great time dancing and twirling around.

 

Here they are with their friend Lorelei

 

 Keira was right behind them - she was extra fancy as the birthday girl

 

Here are all the tiny dancers.  Precious!

Then they had a princess party to go to for their friend Molly.  Cinderella was the special guest for this party.  Unfortunately, Audrey started to get a cold/sick while we were at the party so we left before it was over.  Thus only one picture of Audrey - though she was excited to be wearing her Cinderella outfit just like the "real" Cinderella.

 

The little princesses posing with Cinderella

Brooke - as Snow White - with her face painted as a butterfly