Addison and Caroline turn 4!!!!

On December 8th, Addison and Caroline turned 4!  Here are some pictures from the night before and the morning of their birthday.

This year I made cupcakes to shape them into an A and C for their birthday party.  They loved decorating them!

Coming down the stairs in the morning on their birthday.

"Four!!"

Lucia!

The Lucia breakfast, program and boutique is something that I look forward to every year!  This year was the first time Addison and Caroline came and took part in the festivities.  I love teaching them about their Swedish heritage and hope that Lucia will be something that they look forward to for years to come!

Over the past few years I have been selling my caramel at the boutique.  I usually make all of it only a few days beforehand so that it is as fresh as possible for those who buy it for Christmas gifts.  Here is my set-up:

Me and Renee :)

Min Svenska Flickor

My dad plays in the band during the breakfast.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving weekend has turned into this busy and fun family time with some traditions.  It starts with Thanksgiving dinner with either my family or Scott's.  The following day we all go together and pick out our Christmas tree.  This year we added a new thing that I am sure will become part of the Thanksgiving weekend tradition since the girls keep talking about even months later.  They made gingerbread cookies using the recipe on the back of their Gingerbread Man book.  Then we spend the rest of the weekend decorating the tree and the rest of the house.  This year they were really able to help me and enjoyed it.  It was fun to decorate our new place and to have them more involved.  Thanksgiving weekend is always so much fun and makes everyone happy for the start of the holiday season!

Thanksgiving hats!

Addison - Renee - Caroline

Scott making gingerbread cookies with Addison (right) and Caroline (left).

Addison helping with the lights.

Caroline helping with the lights now!

Hanging ornaments

A job well done!  High five!!!

ooooopppssss, miss!

They are super excited!!!!!

First Haircut!!!!!

Yup, just shy of their 4th birthday, Addison and Caroline finally got their first haircut!  I had been thinking of having them get a trim somewhere and then suddenly decided to just save the money and do it myself when Renee was taking a nap.  Fortunately, they were both up to it.  So I gathered the supplies, turned a movie on and started.

Addison - Caroline
Here is the before shot.

Caroline went first.  This definitely brought back memories from when my mom used to trim our hair as little kids.

Caroline all done!

Addison all done!  They both did a great job sitting.  Well, the movie really helped.

Addison was done with all the pictures

Addison - Caroline
Then I decided after bath time that I wanted to make it a little shorter so this is the final product.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  They immediately looked so much older which often happens with haircuts.  Just little girls!

First Half of November

We moved into our new place in October and we have slowly been getting settled and putting it together.  I will post pictures as we get more projects done so I can do before and after shots.

Here are some of our first half of November happenings...

Our new place is constantly filled with birds and I love it!  Especially during the cold winter months, it has been great to hear the birds bringing life to an otherwise dreary time of the year.  There are telephone wires over the alley that has birds perched on it all the time.  Here is a dove with a tree that's leaves were just starting to turn colors.

Addison (left) and Caroline (right) helping me clean up the back yard.  After a year of living in other people's homes they would tell us that the thing they were looking forward to most was having their very own grass.  Ha, random but cute.  I too have been very excited to have our very own grass :)

They LOVE olives (yuck!).  Here is Addison doing her favorite thing with olives, besides eating them of course :)

Caroline wanted a silly shot too.

Caroline - Renee - Addison
Here are the 3 pictures we used for our Christmas card this year.  It was an impromptu photo shoot when I noticed how coordinated they look.

And later that day, olives on pizza!  Notice how they arranged them.  They are very organized!

Addison and Caroline love to help us feed Renee.  Here is Caroline feeding her and she does a good job.  Such a good helper :)