The night before I don't think the girls went to bed until nearly 10pm!! I had all the presents wrapped and hidden in my sewing room and Kim was busy in the garage putting together the swing set. Sometime around midnight we dragged the swing set out into the yard and I wrapped silver garland along the top with a huge silver bow in the center. We were planning this to be the last surprise of the morning! Kim and I got out of bed early this year to start preparing things for the Christmas Lunch we were hosting for Kim's fathers side of the family. Next was Lilah to wake up and I kept her with me avoiding any sight into the living room and around 8:30 Emmy woke up. Sadly we don't have many pictures this year as we were video taping it and since Kim was preparing food and I only have two hands! But we did get a few.The first thing we went to check was to see if Santa ate our cookies and the girls found a special letter just for them!
I forgot to get a picture of all the presents before the kids started ripping into them..oops!
Whoa...doesn't she look way older than 2 3/4 in this picture!!
Sharing their Learning Leappad.
Lilah really surprised me this year. Her opening style is MUCH different from Emmy's. She likes to rip into them as fast as she can and do them one after another. Emmy's style is to open them, look them over completely, then open the present, and play with it for a bit before moving on to the next one. This caused problems at the end when Emmy had 4 large presents left and Lilah had none.
My Brodie Noochies with his stocking. He got two different types of treats and a new squeaky chew bone that he hasn't played with much. I think Lilah likes it the most haha.
Here's a quick view of most of the bigger presents. They got tons of little stuff and I didn't want to bore you with all that crap so it's not listed.
Emmy got Baby Star Song: My Little Pony So Soft Newborn, Ponyville: Pinkie Pies Balloon House, iDance Buzz Lightyear and iPod, and a REAL Sewing Machine Toy.
Lilah got Star Song "
Style My Hair" : My little Pony, Little People Farm Yard, Little People Zoo, Learning Leappad by Leapfrog, and Baby Alive: Feel Good.
They also had some gifts that they each got the
same and some of them included the Bug Catching Set, Swords (they pretend to be Barbie in
Barbie and the 3 Musketeers), and Dress-up Cat Costumes made by me.
Gifts to
share were the Momma Piggie with her piglets made by me, a Crocodile and Frog Game, and the Swing Set!
Around the 25% of opened gifts Lilah disappeared and I couldn't find her. I knew where to look right away.....OUTSIDE. She loves to go out in the morning though the doggie door. Sure enough, she had stumbled upon what Santa had left and was happily playing away on it! haha So Kim and I opened up the curtains and called for Emmy to come outside and see what Lilah was doing and found. We pushed them on the swings and let them try out all the different things on it before returning inside to open the rest of the presents.
Daddy got a Chili Plant Kit from Emmy and Lilah gave him a new Leather Wallet. Santa was extra good to me this year and I got a Wii. I can't wait to get the old school Mario Brothers!! Emmy has already claimed it as hers, haha, she loves the Resort Sports and Disney Princess Enchanted Journey. We need to get her the child sized control so she can have better control of the game.
A tip for new parents that may have not thought about this yet is to pre open all presents and get them out of the twisty things and the difficult packaging. Make sure if it needs batteries that it has them and that the toys are out of demo mode and turned to ON mode. No matter what it is your child immediately wants to open the box and see, feel, smell, and sometimes taste haha their new toy and if they have to wait 5-6 minutes after each toy while you fight the packaging it makes it a little frustrating for them and very frustrating for you. So do yourself a favor and go the extra mile before you wrap them....you'll be very glad you did on Christmas morning!!
I'm not sure why a couple of these pictures came out on their sides....huummm!
This one is my favorite!
Big Kisses!
Here are a few of the felt doughnuts...
and I made laminated recipe cards with a real recipe for plain cake doughnuts and I used pictures for everything so little pre-readers can understand it too! It really works too. Right after I gave it to Emmy she was telling me, "Mommy, we need 2 cups flour!"
They also got pretty little frilly aprons and lots of felt iced sugar cookies with sprinkles. The aprons were made just a bit bigger that way they'll last a few years before I need to make them new ones.
Everyone wanted to try Emmy's cookies!
How cute are those cookies!?! I love them!
Lilah is feeding her "my pal: violet" some doughnuts. Yummy!!
I asked her if she loved her doggie and she said yes and then showed me by hugging her, haha,
Sitting on the job while her doughnuts are being cooked in the microwave.
I forgot to get a picture of all the presents before the kids started ripping into them..oops!
Whoa...doesn't she look way older than 2 3/4 in this picture!!
Sharing their Learning Leappad.
Lilah really surprised me this year. Her opening style is MUCH different from Emmy's. She likes to rip into them as fast as she can and do them one after another. Emmy's style is to open them, look them over completely, then open the present, and play with it for a bit before moving on to the next one. This caused problems at the end when Emmy had 4 large presents left and Lilah had none.
My Brodie Noochies with his stocking. He got two different types of treats and a new squeaky chew bone that he hasn't played with much. I think Lilah likes it the most haha.
Here's the front.....
and here's the back!
Emmy felt sorry for Lilah, who was crying AGAIN for no reason!
If you click on the above photo it should come up larger to view it better. They had a Clown and face painter at the BBQ. This was Emmy's first full face paint and of course she sat still and loved every second of it. Anything remotely close to make up she loves!!
We all thought it was pretty. Next time I'd like to see it done in pinks and purples though :) I'd also LOVE to do a quickie course in face painting and get a nice set of paints then I'll be able to do it for the girl's birthday parties.
Lilah and I both got holly on our cheeks.
I was trying to get Lilah to model the cross stitched Christmas Bib that Grandma Betsy made and this was the best shot I could get. I think it looks so cute and festive. Thanks mom!
A perfectly cute picture! Too bad there's a beer bottle in it. I might have to photoshop that out so somdeay when I can get around to scrapbooking it'll be there waiting for me!
aawwww
She's been doing this since she was 22 months old. I have no idea what upper body strength is normal for this age, but she seems to have quite a bit......
and no fear.... she's a little dare devil!
Usually it's too hot at Christmas for this little red velvet dress Grandma Betsy sent out, but on this day it was sooooo cold and it was just perfect! Had it been any colder I would have had to put hats on the kids to keep the wind out of there ears. This is totally odd weather for this time of year.
This was Lilah's favorite thing to ride at the playground!
A true monkey!
Emmy running with the big dogs.
Hang on honey!!
Is this a grumpy face or just his normal disposition? You pick!
Emmy was eager for her turn to pop onto Santa's lap and claim her present!
She ripped into full force....
Yay! A Tinker Bell Vet Kit! The only difference from the one pictured and the one she got is instead of the lighting bug she got the Mouse named Cheese from the show. She was very happy with what she got!
Lilah looks a bit bewildered, haha, but at least she didn't cry this year! I have to remind you that we have back our normal Santa this year, and last year we had a super junkie version of Santa and I too wanted to cry....lol.
She didn't need any coaching with unwrapping her present!
At first I thought this toy might be too young for her, but after I read all the stuff on the box about it's features I thought we'd give it a try. You hook it up to the internet and download into it her Name, favorite songs, colors, animal, and food. She absolutely LOVES her doggie!! I would have never picked this out for her, so we're lucky and grateful that she got it!
We're all ready for cooking class! 
But first we need some Sister Love!
When you join class you get an Apron and Chef's Hat! How cool is that!!
Here's our class. Lilah looks so teeny tiny watching the big kids!
Hardly ever smiling. That's my sour puss! She's wearing one of mommy's Aprons. If you'd like to order one for your princess please drop by Sewing By Sari and let me know!
Even though Emmy didn't attend the entire class and only came in on the last one she got to have a Christmas present too. They even handed out letters, envelops, and stickers for the kiddo's to write to Santa! For Australia, if you address your letter to Santa, North Pole post code 9999 a few weeks before Christmas your child will get a letter back!
Now she's smiling! Miss Fiona didn't forget about little sister Lilah and she got a special present too. So Kind!!
Uummm yummy! The best part of class is the treats at the end! 
