Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve, we went over to Grammy and Pa's house. Great-Grandma Dorothy, my Uncle Steve, Katie, Ken, Joshua, and Janae were all there. My sister's family had gotten a Nintendo Wii for an early Christmas present. They brought it with them and we all were able to participate. After our dinner here are some of the fun things we did:

Reagan was fascinated with the Wii. Here she is attempting to play the Boxing game. While waiting for her "turn," she would cheer everyone on. Luke would tell everyone, "I turn, too!" Uncle Ken was very patient "showing them how to do it!

Here are all the grandkids and Uncle Ken waiting for Pa to sing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." When all of us girls were really young, my dad started singing this song to us on Christmas Eve. This version is not anything like the version we are all familiar with. When my dad was 12 or 13, he and a buddy heard this version of it on the radio. It has sound effects and he has since added hand motions. It always has us doubled-over laughing! The tradition lasted even when we were all teenagers and yong adults until grandkids were added. We all look forward to it, even thought I think my dad wishes we would forget about it!

Caroline, Joshua and Janae laughing at Pa singing!

I love this picture of Luke! He is laughing so hard that he is leaning forward!

Christmas Lights at Hudson Gardens

Janae, Luke, Reagan, Joshua, and Caroline

My sister and her family came into town for Christmas. The first night they were here we went to Hudson Gardens where they have these beautiful light displays. Since the twins have fallen in love with the lights, we bundled everyone up and enjoyed the lights!

This house was part of the light show. The lights flickered on and off to the beat of the Christmas songs. The twins were mesmerized! They loved that they could see Santa on the roof. Luke could easily say Santa, but Reagan said it more like "Canca."

This blue tree with the white gazebo was beautiful! It was right along the creek that had frozen over. This was the best picture I could get of it.

By the end of the evening, this is how the twins were feeling! Reagan has an aversion to big puffy coats, heavy snowboots, and mittens. She finds that they aren't quite stylish enough! Every few minutes we would find a trail of mittens behind the stroller. My sister finally was tired of us stopping to put them back on Reagan, so she stuffed them into the pocket on my diaper bag. Once that was settled, Reagan decided to take off her boots with her socks coming off as well. At this point, I decided it was time for us to go! You can only fight that battle so long in a crowd in the cold! It really was a lovely evening!

Nutcracker 2009

Great-Grandma Dorothy Sutherlin, Grammy (PamVoorhees), and Caroline, 7

This was our second year to see the Nutcracker. My grandma, mom, Caroline, and I all went down to a matinee showing on Dec. 5th. We went down early to eat lunch before the ballet. We ate at a restaraunt called The Corner Office. It is quite trendy. Caroline loved the restaraunt because there was a disco ball in the bathroom!

I felt tacky for taking a picture in a public bathroom, but Caroline insisted. She even danced under it. There were sticky notes to write notes on the wall with. This was definitely a highlight for her!

Great-Grandma Dorothy, Jen, and Caroline

Mother/Daughter Book Club

A couple of my friends organized a mother/daughter book club for our 1st and 2nd grade daughters. This was a brilliant idea! Caroline was so excited. She even told me that now we would be able to spend even more time together! We will meet once a month. When it is our turn to host, Caroline gets to choose the book the group will read. We are signed up for September, but have yet to select the book we will be reading. For this first meeting, the girls were asked to bring 2-3 of their favorite books to share with the other girls. Caroline chose Grimms' Fairy Tales, Skippyjohn Jones, and Chrysanthemum.

Caroline has loved Fairy Tales for as long as I can remember. In our Maple Valley Library, she knew exactly where to find them and we checked them out repeatedly. She told the girls the reason she likes "Skippyjohn Jones" is because her mom reads them to her with a Spanish accent. Chrysanthemum is written by one of our favorite authors, Kevin Henkes. We had a great time and look forward to next month. We are going to be reading " The Boxcar Children." A first for both of us!

Second Annual Voorhees Family Hike

Brandon, Lisa, Uncle Steve, Caroline, Pa (my dad)

To start off the Thanksgiving weekend, we went on a hike with my family out to Roxburough Park. My dad, Uncle Steve, my sister Lisa and her husband Brandon, Caroline and I headed out to the park while Grammy stayed home with the twins. Last Thanksgiving my dad took a bunch of the family out hiking and Caroline decided that this needed to be a tradition. While on our hike, my dad used his portable cooking stove to boil hot water for cider and hot cocoa. What a treat, since I was freezing! Caroline had a ball and didn't complain about the 2.2 mile hike! Here are pictures from our Second Annual Voorhees Family Hike:

Lisa and Brandon

Caroline is always ready for her close-up.

Here is Caroline and I in front of one of the many gorgeous cliffs in the park.

Twin Tidbits

Tonight, Reagan started picking up the toys in the family room. Luke observed her doing this and joined in helping her. They picked up almost the entire room! I was so pleased. They are not even quite 22 months old! Caroline never did this! Maybe there is hope for these 2!

Last week Gram, Caroline, and I went shopping for Sunday shoes for the girls. Caroline wanted some sparkly flats, but her feet were too narrow for them. I wandered over to the little girls section and found some red patten leather Mary-Jane's for Reagan. (They are more of a Ruby red, than red-red.) I thought they would be darling with her Holiday dresses. I pulled them out of the bag and Reagan knew they were just for her. She had to have them on immediately! She was to tickled! She had to wear them the rest of the afternoon! When I went to change her diaper, she thought I was going to them off; she started to fuss, but I told her she could keep them on. Tonight, she brought the shoes to me and wanted to wear them around the house with nothing on but her diaper! I will have to post pictures of her ! She is too young to have a shoe fetish, isn't she?

Monster Mash and Halloween

A week before Halloween, Caroline's school had a Monster Mash which is a Trunk-or-Treat. All of the trunks were decorated quite elaborately. Rich's parents were in town, so they were able to go with us. Gram and I took Caroline around to the cars while Rich and Grandad chased the twins around on the playground. It was a beautiful, cool fall evening. We all had a blast!

Here is our little cowgirl! It was a low-maintenance costume and she loved wearing it!

Luke tolerated his cowboy costume. He wanted to run around on the playground rather than get his picture taken!

Caroline was our little 50's girl. My Mom was so good to make the poodle skirt for her. She was darling. She loved to spin around and around in it to see how far it would flair out!

Isn't Rich cute as a cowboy?

Here is the gang on the way back to the car! Gram is carrying Reagan back to the car.

Halloween was a busy day for us. Caroline and I went to see "Wicked" with my mom and grandma. It was a dream come true for me to finally see it! Caroline also lost her 2 top middle teeth. I teased her that she looked like a cute little jack-o-lantern. (She was a little self-conscience, so she wouldn't let me take a picture.) That night I took Caroline around the neighborhood while Rich answered the door. The twins had more fun answering the door and seeing the kids in their costumes. Both, Reagan and Luke learned to say "Trick-or-Treat." Next year we will take the twins around to a few houses.