Lydia finally did it!

Well,

Lydia announced that she was ready to get her ears pierced. And she didn't back out this time! She was so brave. She just got tears in her eyes and said that it hurt just a tiny tiny bit. *grin*

She even got a certificate of bravery.

She chose "pink circle diamonds." She has been so cute telling everyone...even strangers in the store! =)

Bump Beds

Lydia stood up under Rebekah's bed and bumped her head.

Rebekah said, "That's why they call them BUMP beds!"

Merry Christmas!

Here's a picture of everyone from this morning. (They always put up with me wanting my group photos!!)

And here are the girls right before we opened presents.

And here, right before they opened their stocking stuff. Rebekah announced "I wonder what kind of underwear I'm going to get!"

She's hilarious!

I TOLD you!

So this morning, as we're getting ready to open presents, Lydia says to Jack:

"Today is Christmas.

That means we get to open presents.

You get to open presents too!

We got you something RED!"

I said, "Lydia! You're not supposed to tell people what we got them for Christmas!"

And said, "I didn't tell him it was a TIE!"

That girl! Just couldn't make it one more minute!

Getting the hang of it...

Here are the girls getting the hang of their new bikes. We are especially proud of Lydia because this was her first time riding a bike - Period.
She's done really well learning to pedal (and stop).

She started down a hill from Aunt Judi's house and David said, "Ride your brake." as Lydia headed down.

I said, "Honey! You have to run beside her."

So David chased after her as she flew down the hill (and into the grass). He saved her just in time before she crashed. It was hilarious. I'm sure she was loving every minute of this terrifying experience! Ha!

Bekah's school Christmas party

David was rushing from Nashville when he went to Lydia's class Christmas party, so he didn't bring te camera, so no pictures. =( (I'm sure other parents will share with me!!)

But I got to go to Bekah's Christmas party the next day.

First the kindergarten through second grades had a Christmas sing-a-long that they parents could join. Bekah was singing her heart out.

Then she went back to her class for Christmas activities.

This is a really cool bird feeder she made out of a pine cone, peanut butter and bird seed.

Then they played some games, had a snack and did their book exchange. Ms. Gildemeister had a really great way of mixing up the book. Each child had one and as she read a story, they had to pass the books to the right or left every time she said "right" or "left" in the story. "Mama Right, Daddy Right, and Billy Right left to go to the store. Oops, said Billy Right, we left our money at home. So Daddy Right left to go get it." It was really cute.

Our family Christmas

We had our family Christmas last Thursday night where we exchanged gifts with the girls.

Poor Bear. He has a spot on his tail that he messed with and now he's on antibiotics and looks like a space cadet. (David got onto me for taking this picture. He said, "You wouldn't want someone taking your picture if you looked like that!" But I don't think Bear really minds.)
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The girls were really cute opening their presents. This is Bekah opening her scrapbook.
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And Lydia opening her tatoos. 500 tatoos! (I'm not sure what we were thinking...)
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The girls each made us something and then we let them take a picture of us with what they gave us.
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The most hilarious part of the night was when we gave the girls their "group" present.
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It was a Barbie Rapunzel movie. Do you see Lydia's face here? The audio to go with that...
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Rapunzel.
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Again.
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Thank you.
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They already have it! Oops! We goofed. They were sweet about it. *grin*

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And their big present this year was their bikes. Lydia fell off of hers right away, but hopped right back on! They did really great. We bundled up and went right outside to try them out (even though it was rainy, cold, and dark). They girls had a blast!

Christmas with the Yoders

We had Christmas with the Maizes before they left and last Monday we headed to the Yoders' to have Christmas with them. The girls were so cute exchanging gifts. And Darren and Kaleena got us perfect gifts and I think they liked what we got them too. It was really fun. (They even got our joke when we gave them a gift certificate to the jelly-of-the-month club!)

New Song Family Christmas

Our church has a "family Christmas" each year where families in the church do skits, sing songs, or share their favorite Christmas memories. It's always a lot of fun. Here are some pics from our day last Sunday.

This is the Hicks family (he's our music minister).

This is Stacey and Jon being crazy. They were hilarious!

This is the Yoder/Richie family: Darren, Kaleena, Bethany, Becky & Joe. They were so great!

And here's us. *grin*

Lydia with a Christmas doughnut!

Decorating the tree

With school and everything else, I didn't get these posted like I wanted to...but FINALLY, here are the pictures from when we decorated our Christmas tree.




The girls had a blast and were so cute.

Here's Lydia with her hand print from her first Christmas.


It was Bekah's turn to put the star on this year. =)



And I got these shots and thought they were pretty cool, too.

So BORing!

So earlier this week, on the way to school, Lydia announces:

I don't want to go to school anymore. School is so BORing!

I've already learned everything. I know my ABC's!

Places

Rebekah came home with this yesterday and I thought it was so cute (click on the image to see it larger). Rebekah is on a kick with “silent y’s.” I told her there were no silent y’s at the end of words, but she still adds them sometimes. What I think is really funny is that she spelled “Missouri” correctly, but misspelled “want” and “her” – both of which she got right on her spelling tests!

What it says:
Georgia: My grandma is in Georgia and I want to see her!
Missouri: My GG is in Missouri and I want to see her!
Mexico: I like Mexico because I read a story about it.
Florida: I like Florida because it has Disney World.

How she wrote it:
george my grammoy is in george and I wunt too see hre!
Missouri my GiGi is in Missouri and I wunt too see hre!
Mexsucko I like Mexsucko because I rede a storey aboot it.
Florduy I like Florduy because it has disne werel.