Only the beginning...

Picture that speaks for itself....

Unwrapping the presents

Kate has never been known as a "squealer" until Christmas morning at Queenie and Grandad's. A few of the presents, apparently, were so exciting that she had to squeal.

Squeal #1 New chairs for both girls

The negotiation for placement begins...

Squeal #2-A new beepee from Aunt Julie-yea!!(another squeal came when she saw the apron Aunt Julie sent her...)

Lauren LOVES her new beepee too!

Squeal #3-Barbie makeup-knew just how to apply it right out of the box!

But later that day-all pink car, all the time...

"This way..."

Two people waiting patiently for a ride in the pink car...

Not a chance...

What did Santa bring??

Kate had been telling us for weeks that Santa was going to bring her a wagon and a car. I guess she was pretty good this year because both showed up at our house Christmas morning. Kate's reaction "Oh my god!"(sadly I think I know where she picked up that phrase and it probably wasn't at her church preschool...). Pics from Christmas morning at our house:

Santa's Cookies

The "loot"

Kate's pick for Toy of the Year(not sure she has gotten out of it since...)

The wagon

Checking out the stocking

"Toy of the Year" TMX Elmo(had their attention for maybe 2 minutes)

"Don't even think about touching the car..."

Icky bug

We can home from Children's Hospital with a gift we did not expect. A nasty bug that bundled flu and fever with nose/head cold stuff took all of us out and Queenie too. No pictures but multiple visits to the doctor and a lot of gatorade/saltines later, we are all better. Never before has an illness caused us to miss a whole week of life but we were lucky to have been well for Christmas ( :

Christmas Eve

Found pics from the great Christmas Eve dinner that Queenie made(despite being only a day out of the illness from hell). Of course, there are no pictures of the chef since she was slaving over the stove all day...

A girl must wear her beads at Christmas

Sous Chef Kate

Going to cut Tom(once a roaming free vegetarian)

The table

There is some pie coming right?

Ate all of hers too!

Post dinner ice cream with Elmo

Benzon Visit

Kate and Lauren's Nana and Bieboo came for a visit this weekend. We had no idea what a wild weekend it would turn out to be! Here are some pics (taken Saturday afternoon):

The gang

Opening presents

New puzzles-yea!!

The wildness of the weekend began late Saturday night. I had taken Kate to the doctor on Friday and he diagnosed her with a double ear infection. She acted fine all day Friday but Saturday after her nap, she seemed a little clingy and not herself. Saturday night she began coughing like crazy (and coughing up yuck stuff) so I took her to Children's Hospital ER. Seven hours later we were home, relieved that after all their tests, she probably just has a bad virus.

Granny's in town!

My Granny came to visit this week. There was a lot of good eating and laughs. Here are some pics of the visit:

Granny and her great grand-girls

Lauren smiling(something new)

Lauren ALMOST crawling...

Kate and her Granny

New Aprons

New aprons = New excuse to bake cookies....ho ho ho

Queenie and her apprentice

I like when Queenie and Kate get new aprons!

Trail of Lights

We took the kids out to the Trail of Lights. What a great event and Kate just loved seeing all the lights! I could not get over the majesty of the trees in Zilker Park. It will definitely be on our calendar next year!

Kate was all bundled up.

Lauren too!

Waving to Santa(on top of his crane)

My camera did not capture the best pics of the lights so here are some slides of it from another web site Zilker Park Trail of Lights

Gingerbread House Day

Today Kate helped make her first Gingerbread house. We joined some friends at the Children's Museum and made some beautiful creations. Not sure who got more candy, the house or Kate's tummy... (Lauren was partial to the animal crackers)

Pre-assembly

The Foreman

The Finished Product

Dinner at Queenie's

What would dinner at Queenie's not be without "feed dogs" and a singing frog. Here are some cute pics of Kate...

"Get down Bailey"

Grandad and Kate all bundled up

Feeding the singing frog one of her "creations"(What a wonderful world)