Elayna got her ears pierced!

Well Elayna made the decision this morning to get her ears pierced (we hadn't even been talking about this lately). So with her Mom and Oma for morale support (Chantel slept through it) she had it done. At one point, she changed her mind but when we started to walk out of the store without it done, she changed her mind again. She complained of them hurting at first but once we got home she announced that they didn't hurt anymore. She can't wait to pick out some fancier earrings once they're healed.

Christmas 2006

Wow - Christmas here already! The girls have had so much fun this year seeing Christmas lights, going to the mass Christmas concert to see their cousin Kristina sing, learning Christmas songs, going to a Christmas dinner and celebration at Opa & Oma's, and then having Grampa & Gramma and Uncle Rob come all the way from Alberta to spend the week with them. And to top it off, they've been SPOILED with Christmas gifts!

the Enchanted Garden

Tonight we took the girls to the Enchanted Garden (a christmas light display). We took the train ride through all the displays and the girls loved it. They were all bundled up with their "hot" chocolate and oohed and aahed over everything. So far Christmas lights have been their favorite thing about this time of year.

saw baby today!

We went to see baby at an ultrasound today and everything looks good. Baby didn't cooperate too much though - s/he was curled up in a tight ball with head to stomach so it was difficult to get the measurements and pictures of the head. The ultrasound tech prodded for quite a while until the baby stretched out his/her neck to get the view we needed. Baby was super low and head down which also didn't help. But it's done and we probably won't see baby again until birth. Here's some pics of the ultrasound althoug

h not the best quality. The first is a foot, the second is a pic of head (baby's looking up), and third is head again (looking up) with hand coming towards mouth. I'll be 20 weeks tomorrow - half way!

playing mommy and baby

Well the girls' favorite game lately has to be pretending to be mommy and baby. Chantel even calls Elayna "mommy" while they're playing, gets carried around, fed, and gets diaper changes - I have to watch out when that happens. It's great seeing that they have imaginations.

girls and their dolls

Well the girls wanted to get all dressed up today since it's Uncle Ryan's b-day party tonight and Christmas decorating at Oma and Opa's house. So I took the opportunity to get a pic of them with their dolls wearing the new outfits Grandma made for them. The girls favorite toys are definitely their "babies" and they go with them everywhere!

giant cookies

Today we went to my sister's bible study where I babysit and the girls get to play with all the kids. There are two homeschooled boys that help babysit and Elayna announced this morning "Wes and Eddie are my favorite boys!" It's great that they get down to the kids level and play with them while I mostly act as lifeguard and take care of the babies.

After nap time, the girls had fun decorating and eating giant cookies. They both seem to have neverending sweet tooths.

finally off bottles . . .

Well Chantel finally did it! Yesterday we went to the store and bought her some new "big girl" cups and she gave up the bottle. She cried a little bit but got over it pretty quick and is thrilled about her Winnie the Pooh cups. Even naptime went well today with milk in a cup which I was prepared to give in to bottles just for naps for awhile yet. So I guess I'll be packing them up for awhile now - I'm going to have a little more cupboard space again! Now if only I could get her to go #2 on the potty. . .

thought I'd try this . . .

Well after checking my sister's blogs so faithfully I thought I'd give it a try too. I honestly thought they were much more public than they are but after attempting to search for theirs from search engines, I found this one hard to find.

I love to take pics of my kids and thought this would be a fun way to keep some updated pics on the web and for our Neerlandia family to check up on once in awhile (hopefully this doesn't take too long to open each time for them).

Today is Tuesday so we went to bible study this morning where Chantel went to the nursery and did her favorite thing - play with babies! and Elayna went to story hour where they learned the story of John's birth. I love our Tuesday routine and so do my social butterflies. :)

I took this pic about ten minutes ago - Chantel's starting to get a little more photogenic lately but it still usually requires a few shots. Elayna's got it all figured by now and is a great little poser.

Only 20 days to Christmas!!