Just Let It Ride

It has been a busy month around here! I didn't intend to wait until the end of the month to upload pictures, but time just got away from me. That and the fact that our computer wouldn't let me upload any new pictures until I made space on the hard drive. :/ We had to back up thousands of pictures before deleting them, and the process took about a week. Whew! We learned our lesson--back up photo files regularly! Here is our month in review; I'll let the pictures do most of the talking!

Andrew's birthday celebration:

Rocketman!

Ryder found these pink flamingo glasses that Grann had. I can't remember the story behind why she even has them, but when Ryder put them on all I could think of was Elton John. :)

the birthday pose...

Elton John style! (yikes!!)

working on a foam gingerbread house

Harper's 2 year well visit:
height: 34 1/4 inches (55th percentile)
weight: 29 pounds (75th percentile)
clothing size: 3T

I would say Harper is 90% potty-trained now! When we are at home, she wears her big girl undies and has only had a couple of accidents. She wears a pull-up if we are out running errands (just in case!) and at nap time, even though she usually wakes up dry. I'm hoping that we will be diaper free when she heads back to preschool in a little over a week.

Baking Christmas cookies with Grann:
Both kids got some one-on-one time with Grann this past week to do some baking. I know they made some great memories, and it was also a great chance for me to have quality time with them individually. A new Christmas tradition, perhaps?

Christmas 2014
Ryder and Harper were both super excited about Christmas this year. They loved the decorations, the lights, the music, and the countdown to Christmas morning. I think it helped that they were in preschool this year because they made lots of holiday crafts and learned some songs for their school program. They also were adorable little sheep in the Christmas program at church. They enjoyed picking out gifts for each other and of course seeing what Santa brought them on Christmas morning!

Harper was looking at pictures on my phone and decided to take selfies!

Harper stood like this instead of singing with her classmates. At least she looked adorable!

Ryder proudly sang "Jingle Bells" and "Let it Snow" with his class.

At school Ryder made this Christmas gift for Andrew and me...

and Harper gave us this adorable ornament for our tree. :)

my little sheep

Harper gave Ryder a wooden pirate ship kit to build and his very own hammer.

Harper is slightly obsessed with Frozen right now, so Ryder thought she would love a musical Elsa snow globe wand. Isn't he thoughtful?

being silly while Andrew got the camera ready Christmas morning

quite the pile!

my little fashionista--ha!

the aftermath

watching Frozen after opening gifts

Christmas breakfast!

Face Time with Ali and Maisie :)

A trip to the zoo:
Part of our Christmas gift from Pops and Grann was a family trip to the Tampa zoo. We headed out first thing Friday morning, and the kids were excited to see all of the animals. We spent most of our time in the children's section where Ryder was old enough to ride all of the rides--twice. Even though Harper wasn't old enough to do some of the "big kid" rides, she still had fun seeing everything there was to see.