Sugar Cookies

The kids really enjoyed decorating the sugar cookies that they made. Tyler isn't even interested in eating the cookies. He just likes decorating them. Daphne (Little Miss Sweet Tooth) ate the frosting and toppings faster than she decorated.

Tyler particularly liked decorating
the reindeer cookies as Rudolph

Yummmmm... frosting!

I finally get to eat one!

Christmas

The kids had a great Christmas and have more toys than they know what to do with.

Hurry up and let us open presents!

Santa brought Tyler a skateboard and mohawk helmet.

Daphne's big Santa gift was a plasma car.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

My dad drove in on Christmas Eve and the kids are excited to see him and his dog Jamie.

Running errands with PawPaw, who is wearing Tyler's sunglasses

Rolling out sugar cookies

Daphne has unique style

So hard to take turns but ultimately worth it!

We made the cookies kind of late and ate dinner late. Then we
drove around looking at Christmas lights. Daphne fell asleep
in the car and Tyler was exhausted. He frosted one cookie to
leave out for Santa. Tyler also left out baby carrots for all the
reindeer.       
 

Tree Skirt's Final 2014 Adventures

Tree Skirt is back at the North Pole until December 2015. He had a few last fun adventures this week before he left. And he did let Santa know that Tyler and Daphne deserved to be on the Nice List.

Sunday, December 21: Fighting evil

Monday, December 22: Roasting
marshmallows (LED fake candle)

Tuesday, December 23: Playing with
Tyler's new ninja turtle punching bag
and super-sized boxing hand



Wednesday, December 23: Oven mitt stowaway

Pre-Christmas Abuelito Santa Claus

We celebrated Christmas with Michael's parents this past weekend and Abuelito Santa Claus made his annual appearance.

Giggling with Abuelito Santa Claus

Mr. and Mrs. Claus

Lots of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle stuff

Lots of My Little Pony stuff

Snuggles

Daphne crawled into bed with Michael and me around 5:30 this morning. I felt lots of poking and prodding. At one point she was right up next to me and we were cheek-to-cheek facing the ceiling and Daphne said she was smooshing our faces together. After a while she moved over a little and I put my arm around her, which is something she usually loves and asks me to do. But this morning she declared, "Don't get so close to me!"

Dear Santa

Daphne brought this photo home from school today. It's a good thing that Santa's elves make toys and not pets! A few weeks ago when I asked Daphne what she wanted Santa to bring she said super hero butterfly wings. I'm not exactly sure what that even means. She already has 2 pairs of butterfly wings and she is constantly pretending to be a super hero, so I think we have that one covered. Tyler is pretty convinced that he is on Santa's Nice list and that Santa will be bringing him a skateboard. We shall see. We have definitely been making a point to bring up Santa's Naughty list whenever the kids aren't behaving as they should.

Tree Skirt's Adventures Continue

Monday, December 15: Stowaway!
Tree Skirt tried to go to school with Tyler.

Tuesday, December 16: Captured

Wednesday, December 17: Gone Fishing



Thursday, December 18: Silly Elf-
Trix are for kids!

Friday, December 19: Milk and cookies

Saturday, December 20: Popcorn and a movie

Trail of Lights

A few nights ago we went to the Trail of Lights in Zilker Park. The kids (and the adults) really enjoyed checking out all the light displays. This year there was even a ferris wheel to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Trail of Lights.

The Zilker Christmas Tree with the ferris wheel
lit up in the background

Abuelita, Daphne, and Michael on the ferris wheel

Renee, Tyler, and Abuelito on the ferris wheel

In the first tunnel of lights along the trail

Tyler was excited to see that the X
Games are coming back to Austin in 2015

Proof that Texas is the center of the universe

Family photo with Santa and Mrs. Claus

My little sugar queen was excited about Candyland

Potty Progress

After the few first really messy days, our big girl is now a potty pro! On Tuesday thru Friday she had maybe one accident per day and yesterday she was accident free. We are really surprised by how fast she has gotten the hang of it because Tyler took forever. We got tired of shuttling our potty seat between upstairs and downstairs and so Daphne and I bought a new potty seat for downstairs. I let her pick out the seat and she chose teenage mutant ninja turtles over princesses, Sesame Street, and Mickey and Minnie. She has been wearing training underwear that are thicker in the middle to absorb accidents. Daphne and I picked out big girl underwear for when she has been accident free for a few weeks. She picked out My Little Pony underwear and Jake the Pirate underwear. Technically the Jake underwear are boy underwear complete with the flap but Daphne really likes them.

Daphne wearing a teenage mutant ninja turtle mask
while sitting on her ninja turtle potty seat

Potty Training

Daphne's preschool teacher got us all pumped up to start potty training. I told Daphne a while ago that she's not a big girl until she is potty trained. Recently when Michael's dad told Daphne that she is such a big girl she told him that she is still a little girl because she is not yet potty trained. Daphne also knows the difference between her daytime and nighttime diapers. I think she is ready.

We took the plunge on Saturday with the hard core diaper-free approach (except for naps and nighttime). Let's just say that I did a lot of laundry this weekend and I'm not yet optimistic about potty success. Although Daphne does like rewards mini marshmallows. And Tyler can be bribed with marshmallows to keep Daphne company while she sits on the potty and to sing to her. Daphne did really well at school yesterday and today and only had 2 accidents each day while at school. Yesterday after school Daphne told me, "I'm a big girl now!"

Daphne waddled up to me at Lowe's on
Saturday with her pants all wet and said, "I need
to go potty." I made her pose in their bathroom.