So very ready!

I don't think these little women could be more ready for Christmas! They are so excited that tomorrow is the day that we get to go see Grammy and go to Nene's house. Not to mention that they are DYING to see their Dogolin Dwight, Baby Cuz, and Mr. Tyler. And, of course, that Santa will visit them tomorrow night.

They're quite busy today with a bunch of projects: they painted Nene's jewelry box earlier this morning, and are excited to put on the decorations after it dries, they have a few more necklaces/bracelets to put together, and of course they're both dying to make Santa's cookies this afternoon.

Christmas was so much fun last year, and I didn't think any year could ever top it. But, I think this one will be so much fun with them a year older, a year funnier, and another year more appreciative of everything that they have. I wish they would never grow up because Christmas right now is awesome with them being so little. Their eyes light up at everything!

Busy playing

Toilet paper "train!"

Cranster and Beebster

'Dee and Dis' Continued

Well, I would have guessed that the little ladies would be passed out within minutes of their 6:45pm bedtime tonight. 

Wrong. 

It's now 7:30pm, and they've only just now fallen asleep. They came to the crack of their door three times (Maddie of course as the leader of this duo, with a smiling Beebster standing right behind her and waving to me!) asking for "stuff for our camp." I guess they now think they are campers. They went into Faith's room and confiscated Floppity, Hoppity, Hippity, and Hippie the Beanie Baby bunnies, the bin of instruments, and Faith's van full of Pets. I could hear them carrying on and playing the flute and harmonica (with Faith belting out a few tunes on the kazoo) and I couldn't help but laugh out loud. They really are too funny. And, the best of friends.

The afternoon was fun. They were all excited to go out earlier this morning and wait for Dan to get home at lunch time. I was so aggravated to get out and notice it was raining after I had spent a good 30 minutes getting them ready with all their 'gear.' Ugh. The lovely winters here! But, we were able to get out this afternoon after Faith's nap and they had a blast. Faith INSISTED on taking two pancakes and a bottle of maple syrup (pretend of course) as an offering to the "swamp creature." She is obsessed! Maddie thought her Beebster was funny, and decided to also take along some bacon. They were probably the sight as we took our walk with them each holding breakfast items in their hands.

After our walk, Maddie wanted to go snow tubing again and Faith wanted to be pulled in her little sled. I took them out to the big hill in the front, and it was awesome. The ice from last night mixed with the snow made it perfect for a little more speed. Maddie would wait at the very top of the hill while I took Faith down in her sled to the bottom (giggling hysterically the entire way) and then I'd shout for Maddie to jump on and come down to us. She'd do a running jump and launch herself onto the snow tube. She had a blast! Faith finally worked up enough nerve to also go down on her 'pansa' on the snow tube. I went down to the bottom of the hill and when I gave Maddie the cue, she pushed Faith just enough to get her going. Faith loved it!

It has definitely been a nice change of pace to at least have a little snow to play in outside. These winters are definitely not my favorite, but we'll take what we get and they have really enjoyed their first snow tubing and sledding of this season. 

Mischievous late-night prowl of Dee and Dis

Faith cracks me up with her names of 'Dee' and 'Dis' for herself and her Maddie. It's so neat to know that she's at an age now where she is coming up with nicknames for the two of them as Maddie used to do when she was little and Faith was the baby. Faith is constantly over at the fridge looking at the family portrait that Maddie wanted me to draw weeks ago. It is purely stick figures of myself, Dan, Maddie, Faith, and Gordo (but, Faith today insisted on adding the swamp creature in the background of our family portrait as well!), but she loves it. She took it from the fridge today and put it on the couch where she would periodically go up to it this morning and point out, "Da-Da, Momma, Dee, Dis!" It's even funnier that she refers to herself as 'Dis' (or, 'this' in Beebsterness). 

Dee and Dis were up to no good last night though! It was quite amusing. Maddie had gotten up at about 9pm crying and crying that her ear hurt from the inside. Dan and I rolled our eyes and thought, "oh great here we go again... when will this ongoing sickness finally leave us all?!" It must have just been water though in her ear from her bath because after a short while, she was totally fine. Of course, she became quite talkative and animated and lost all sense of sleepiness. This in turn woke up the Beebster after Maddie was in a fit of giggles. I put them both in our bed after Dan went to work, and told them they could read a few books and then it was time for bed. They are so darn cute at this late hour and always put on the charm, so it's awfully hard to ignore their funny ways when I know I should so that they can go back to bed. Eventually though I went back out to the living room.

I ended up falling asleep for a little bit while watching "Forensic Files" as I do almost every night. I woke up and thought I heard voices. I was right. I got up to turn off the Christmas tree, and noticed none other than Dee and Dis sitting by the cottage playing. Not only were they playing, they had gotten three bins of toys out and had made a block city with ponies and pets as the citizens. It was actually quite an elaborate block city. But, this was at 11:37pm! I asked them what in the world they were doing, and Maddie's response was as follows: "Sorry Momma, but we were having a camp fire with a cookout." Haha. Needless to say, Dee and Dis helped clean up and went straight to bed after that, although Faith was still singing and reading past 1am!

'Science Lesson'

Maddie loves her 'science lessons' which usually include an episode of either "Planet Earth" or "Blue Planet." It just so happens that Faith also loves this part with the ducks falling out of the trees in the seasonal forests part of "Planet Earth." Maddie's laugh in this is pretty fake, but still funny. They always laugh hysterically at the plight of the poor little ducks!