Show girls/Harper's plane

 Rielee and Harper were in the playroom this morning for the longest time getting dressed to put on a show for us.  They were feeling pretty darned cool, and all three girls did lots of dancing today.

Harper with the airplane she got from Uncle Alan.  It was cute when he came over yesterday and saw that the girls were here, he said he had to go back home because Santa left something for them at his house.  Harper wondered what Alan had gotten her and said "I think he got me an airplane" and she was right!  She was planning on taking it home for the night but then forgot it.  Ava got a little pink car from him, but she wasn't in a picture taking mood today.

After we took the girls back, we went to watch some volleyball.  Auna's team was at MM, they had moved up and played in the 16's tournament, and played Lexi's team (without Lexi, she is skiing) for the consolation championship.   Although they played great and it went to 3 sets,  they lost.  Auna had some good hits, serves and several blocks.   Then we went to over to Monticello to watch Macee and Tierney's team play for the 18's championship, they won it, beating Nike, who they had lost to in their first match of the day.   They were happy.



Rielee Ava Harper sleepover

We had Rielee, Ava and Harper with us for most of the day, with a sleepover planned for the night.  They were so excited to have a sleepover, first they watched Despicable Me and then Cinderella and ate popcorn, pretzels, apple and cereal.  At bedtime, they decided that Rielee would sleep on her cot between Ava and Harper's beds.  That lasted about 2 minutes, then Harper wanted to sleep on the floor with Rielee so Ava tried the cot.  But then Harper wanted to be on the cot with Ava.  Finally, Harper bailed out and came out to sit and rock with me, but she couldn't stand the thought of Ava and Rielee sleeping together so she went back in for one last try, and met Ava in the hall, she was bailing out and going in to sleep with Papa.   Rielee and Harper tried sleeping on the cot and then the floor, but after a few minutes of that, Harper bailed completely so I moved Rielee to the couch and rocked Harper.  Put the twins back in their beds once they were out and they slept until 7:30 when Harper decided it was time for everyone to wake up.

Rielee Gangnam Style dance

She was dancing to the warm-up music before the start of the girls basketball game at Hockinson (Rockets won).

Christmas Day

Our Christmas morning started about 7:30, when Des, Gabe and the kids came over for breakfast.  Biscuits and gravy, a tradition.

Then it was on to the stockings and gifts.  Rielee was happy to get the All Glammed Up doll head she wanted.  Parker is holding the speed bag he asked for, Macee is wearing a new scarf while Gabe scratches a losing lotto ticket, which also seems to be a tradition, unfortunately...

Then, about 10, we jumped in the car to head to Camas to exchange gifts with Charb, Kelly, Lexi, Luke, Ava and Harper.  The twins both had colds, but were excited to open their gifts, with lots of trips to the Kleenex box in between.  The first thing Harper told me was that Santa had left a mess of cookie crumbs when he ate the cookies they had left out for him, and that the reindeer also left a mess outside when they ate the carrots.

Luke is working on removing the duct tape from a gift box,  Harper ripping into a gift and Ava going to Papa for a nose wiping.  Luke was happy to find a gift certificate in the box after all that work.

 

Harper liked the jewelry she got in her stocking, except that she didn't get rings with her jewelry, just bracelets. After awhile, Ava decided to share some of her rings with Harper though.

   Lexi playing with the Hulk Hands and mask that Charb got for Harper.   It was pretty funny when  Harper put the Hulk hands on and walked over to her baby that was sitting in a toy highchair and socked her right in the nose!  The kids were also excited for us to meet their newest family member, Dexter, he is really a cute little dog and so mellow.

In the evening we were invited over to the Gourde's for a piece of pie and a game of 31, it came down to Macee and Des and Macee won.
We had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Eve

 One of the highlights of the Christmas Eve party at Robin and Dan's was when Santa came.  We were so sure that Ava and Harper would want nothing at all to do with him, but Harper actually answered the door and greeted him.  She showed him the little teddy bear she had been packing around and then sat on his lap.  Ava was nervous so Auna held her.  She perked up though when she got a present

 and was thrilled that it was a pink Princess doll.

 Rielee was happy, she got the Dream Light she had asked for.

 Macee opened her Santa present, a wallet, and then cracked up when she noticed that Santa had left the price tag on it.

 It was a fun party!

We missed Lexi and Luke - but they were with their Dad.

 

Rielee recital/Parker & Papa cutting wood

 Thursday -Rielee had her Christmas piano recital.  She got to play first so that we could all make it to Macee's game.  She played a duet with her teacher "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" and did a great job.  She was so happy to wear her Christmas outfit because she got to wear pumps, her first pair of shoes with heels!

Friday & Saturday -  Papa and Parker got to work cutting up Alan's downed trees.  Papa might have waited for drier weather to cut them up, but Parker talked about it so much that he finally got Papa going on it.  

Friday night

Playing a game on my Kindle

 The twins slept in and woke up in really good moods.  We didn't do much, just PlayDoh, since they were entertaining themselves so well,  I did take  them for a crazy ride in the red car over to visit the Dolans and pick up the mail.  

We went to the boys game against Woodland tonight.  Will was honored at the start for his membership in the 1,000 pt. club.  Auna held the plaque since I knew Will wouldn't want me taking his picture.   The boys won the game by 1 point.

Ava & Harper singing dancing

Video from yesterday, they put on a show for me and sang songs about loving Tinkerbell, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, and each other.

Snow/cookie decorating party

The girls helped me make cinnamon rolls early this morning so they would be ready in time for the party.  Rielee had a late start because of the snow, so as soon as she came over, we went right out to play in it.  They made snow angels, then built a little snowman and had a snowball fight, too.

 At 9:00, we had a cookie decorating party.  Auna got out of school for an hour of school so she could come, and Macee, Emmy and Jason and Alan came over also. 

 The kids had a good time decorating, and Ava and Harper entertained all of us with their liberal use of frosting and sprinkles.

Some of the finished product.  Harper's best cookie is the one on the bottom, the unrecognizable one because of all the frosting, plus I think she nibbled on it as she worked.  Ava took a few bites of her candy cane, too.  

Monday/Christmas pix, big tree

 

 I had the same experience as Cathy did when I tried to get a picture of the girls in front of the tree.   First, I couldn't find the other Santa hat, so we just had the one, then they were just being silly.  Ava wasn't interested in having her picture taken at all, Harper was trying, and we did get a couple that weren't too bad.

After Rielee got home from school, I took her out in the woods to see the big tree that fell on Alan's property.  It took down the two maple trees beside it also.  Papa heard it crash at 3:00 in the morning.  Parker is looking forward to some quality time with Papa cutting it up for firewood.

Auna club v'ball/Em ref

Emmy waiting for the coach to finish instructing his team so she could start the game

Auna had her first club volleyball tournament in Rainier this afternoon.  Emmy was there to watch and was asked to referee.  Auna's team did well, winning 2 of 3 matches. 

Basketball at White Salmon

 Macee wiping off the sweat at the end of the first quarter in White Salmon tonight.  They were ahead 15-4.

Tierney and Macee sat out the 4th quarter as did the rest of the starters since they were up by 30 points.  Macee ended up with 12 points, Tierney had 13. 

Painting star ornaments

 Harper with the star ornament she painted today.

Miss Meticulous Ava finishing the edges of hers.  Painting is definitely one of their favorite activities, with the second being frosting anything.

I  made cinnamon rolls this morning, it has been a couple of weeks since I've baked and they were so anxious to have those rolls.

They frosted and ate theirs, then we delivered some to Alan, Vera, Will, Jason and Macee.  When we got home, they asked for another roll, but Papa had also ate one, and there was only one left, so I cut it in half for them.  They weren't very happy about that, but settled for one of the dinner rolls I had made with the other half of the dough.

Company!

Emmy, Jason and Will came over this morning to see Ava and Harper. I thought the girls might be a little shy around Jason, but Harper immediately showed him the tree, pointing out several ornaments that she likes, and then showed him their kitchen.  They put on a very long "show" for everybody, getting extra silly, spinning and spinning and falling down a lot.  Emmy and Jason took  them into the playroom where they danced to one of their toddler CDs,  they shut the door, but I heard the Hokey Pokey and BINGO being performed quite loudly.  Later, after Emmy and Jason left, I asked Ava if Emmy was a good dancer, she said Emmy had "good wiggles" and "Big Jason" did his "Jason dance", whatever that means.  Both girls took nearly 3 hour naps, worn out from all that intense entertaining!  Harper said she was going to call Emmy tomorrow morning and ask her to come over again.

Harper's imaginary friends

Harper has been making a lot of phone calls lately.  She is always very serious when she is talking, and wanders the house while she is on the phone.  The last couple of weeks, she kept calling a police officer or a "cop", who kept told her that Luke or Lexi's leg was hurt, but they were okay?  Then yesterday, she said she was talking to her friend "Eesa", she even had Alan talk to Eesa, and later Eesa called back and said she had a little boy who was named Alan.  Today Harper called and said she was talking to her friend "Daisy".  I asked her if she had talked to Eesa today and she told me "no, Eesa wears a red shirt, Daisy wears a blue one and I like her better."

The Little Rascals

They look like they are both thinking "really Papa?"

Papa bought a video for the girls "The Little Rascals", the old TV series from the 1930's and 40's.  He was so excited but when he showed the box to them last week and asked if they wanted to watch it, both looked at the black and white picture on the cover and said "no".   Today he talked them into sitting down and trying it...they lasted all of maybe 2 minutes before they bolted.  Even he admitted it was pretty slow, not at all like he remembered from his childhood.   

Parker's backboard/Festival of Lights

 Parker was excited to show off his new backboard this morning.  He and Dad had just put it up with some help from Will.

 Tonight was the Castle Rock Festival of Lights.  We took Rielee to see Santa at the Visitor's Center first and then met up with Emmy, Jason, Auna and Macee for the lighting of the tree and town.  Santa came in a parade of lighted and decorated fire trucks.  There were 

Christmas carols by the Men's Ensemble and CRHS band, and the volleyball team was acknowledged.  Rielee liked that there were lots of characters walking around handing out candy canes, like the Grinch, Frosty the Snowman, and Mrs. Claus.  The town looks very festive.

Snowglobe/socks like Auna

 Both girls slept all night in their beds, waking up just as Rielee got here.  They were eager to get dressed, eat, and play with Play-Doh.  Lately they've been cutting out pretend cookies, then "baking" them in their kitchen and serving them to us.  Every day they want to get the musical snow globe down and have me shake it up a few times so they can watch the snow come down and the train go around.

Ava with the mis-matched socks she put on today so she could be "just like Auna".  

3 busy cousins

 The girls had a very busy day.   They slept in - Harper until 7:30, Ava woke up at 9:15, then it was go, go, go.  Harper noticed it was "really, really sunny" outside, so we went for a walk and they got some playfort time.  Then they painted and decorated Christmas ornaments.  Rielee had early release, so we skipped naptime so they could play together, as soon as she got here the dresses came out and it was party time.  Rielee put the Kidz Only music on and they danced to that, then she played a couple of Christmas songs on the keyboard for us. 

Ava was so proud of the unique place she thought of to keep her lip gloss.

 

 They played beauty shop, Rielee did Ava's hair, Harper did Rielee's but didn't want her own fixed.  Next, they set up the "Three Cousins Restaurant" in the playroom,  Rielee made a sign for the door, Papa and I were their customers.  Ava was lying on her bed, she said she was the dishwasher and there weren't any dirty dishes yet.  Harper was the cook and Rielee was the waitress.  They wanted to serve us real coffee but we said no to that idea.   After a snack of toast and apple (the only time they all sat still), they played with the wild animal set.

Christmas Parade

Tonight we went to the Christmas parade in Longview, the volleyball team was asked to ride

 on the Castle Rock Festival of Lights float. 

Luke on ESPN3

Kind of a mix-up whether the game would be televised or not, but it was on ESPN3.  It was an exciting game, they were tied 20 all in the 3rd quarter, but unfortunately, the Bulldogs ended up losing it.  Luke played hard.  Now they play a consolation game on Tuesday.

Luke's picture in the Columbian

Luke's picture was in the Columbian this morning, he is in the bright blue jersey in the middle.  This was taken at their practice on Wednesday at Union High School.  The Evergreen Bulldogs play their first game in Florida tomorrow, vs. the Loveland Titans out of Colorado.
Charb and Luke flew out of Seattle early today, Luke was one excited kid! 

Aunt Cathy's

 The girls got to play with Jillian and Bridget at Aunt Cathy's house this morning.  They all got along very well, playing with the Polly Pocket sets, kitchen, and Cathy's lighthouse Christmas display.

Harper woke up from her nap as Papa and I were getting ready to watch Emmy's match from Hawaii.  I think she could actually see Emmy, too, it was a very clear video.  Unfortunately, the Wildcats lost in 5.  They had a great season though! 
We took the girls back and met Kelly and Luke at Grandma Barb's.  We stayed to visit for a few minutes and when we left Papa said of the Ava and Harper, "well, they just have their own little world there, too, just like at our house!"  The power of three year old twins!

Cupcake

"This one is all mine!" Harper said.  She frosted a couple for Alan first, one with about 1/4 cup of sprinkles on it, and then dove into her own special one.  We took the girls to watch Auna's basketball game this afternoon.   In the evening we took some cupcakes to the Dolan's and then went to see Rielee.  Des made some yummy popcorn with melted white chocolate and sprinkles on it.  Harper really liked it.  Ava was too busy checking out Rielee's princess dresses to try any.  Rielee came back home with us for a little while and they all played "restaurant", Papa and I were the customers.