Merry Christmas!

Hi Family and Friends,

We had a wonderful time with all of our Christmas parties. Sydney and I were pretty tuckered out from the busy week. Everything kicked off with Christmas at home with Mommy and Daddy. Friday night at some point, all the presents made it into the house and our stockings were filled. When we woke up on Saturday, it was so much fun to see everything under the tree. After that we packed up the car and made our way to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the week.

We had a smooth drive all the way there. Every day we had something going on. It kept us pretty busy.  We had a shopping day, 4 Christmas parties and lots of presents!! Grandma even let us open some presents early! I'm not sure that I can even pick my favorite present. They're all so wonderful. We're so lucky to be able to spend a lot of time with our family. We don't always get to have such quality time.

Here's a few highlights from Christmas!

Until next time,
Love Adelaide and Sydney (Trav & Tiff too)

Opening Stockings at our house!

Christmas morning '13

Look Mom, I can do my chapstick all by myself!

Our tree and presents!

Snow Angels…aka just laying in the snow.

My Gingerbread house!

Matching jammies!

Playing on the landing, we were watching a front loader move the snow in the cul de sac.

Sleeping "bears" in the bear cave

Granny Splitt showing us all how to play with the van.

Cousins!

Adelaide and her stocking

Hey, my stocking is almost as big as me!

All of us and Uncle Floyd!

Sydney and her bitty baby all dressed for Christmas!

Sydney opening presents!

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's

Concentrating hard to help Granny play Bingo

No Sydney, the fishes aren't in the pond any more.

Enjoying walking around in the winter weather

Grandpa pulling the girls around in sled, Sydney was trying to bail

Playing in the snow!

Hanging out with Granny Bus

Some new Pictures & Update

Hello all,

I am supposed to be taking my afternoon nap right now, but I figure it is Sunday so I will be sneaky and update you all on what has been happening lately. I think there are two big developments happening. I have been potty training for a little while now, but as of late I have decided to just to go the bathroom on my own and then call for help if I need it! The other exciting thing that has been happening is that my sister is getting really good at walking! I am so proud of her and I try to teach her how to walk better. Pretty soon she will be running right by my side and we can make mommy and daddy chase us all around the house!

I am also getting really excited for Christmas because mommy and daddy have got the house all decorated. We have our tree up in the living room, daddy put up lights outside, and I have even seen some presents wrapped up! Mommy was really thankful that daddy has warm clothes for hunting because last weekend he put them on and went outside to work when it was -8 degrees! We thought he was a little crazy, so we just stayed inside and watched.

Well I better get back to taking my nap now before I get caught on the computer. Hopefully this week will go by fast because I am excited to go to Ripon and see everyone for Christmas.

Love,

Adelaide & Sydney (Mommy & Daddy say hi to everyone as well!)

Mommy & I at Busch Gardens.

Sydney Playing with a baby doll bed.

It was cool to watch cars drive under us at the Oasis in IL.

Having fun on the slides with my cousins!

Just being silly

Meeting Santa. Sydney was not very happy. 

I made my own candles at Yankee Candle. I choose purple & yellow!

And the kick is good! Sydney likes to sleep like this in her carseat.

It was a long drive to Williamsburg, so I took some naps in the car.

Daddy hung the lights on the house. He added more colored ones to the tree this week when it was warmer.

Our first Christmas tree in our new house!

Being silly with Auntie Nicole and our cousins! I think Auntie Nicole got the lighter load!

Going on rides at Busch Gardens.

A little blurry mommy! It was a fun ride!

Mommy & I at Busch Gardens! It was cold out, so Sydney stayed at the condo with Daddy.

A shoulder ride from Uncle David.

A huge thank you to Grandma & Grandpa for letting us take their van to Williamsburg. We loved watching movies during the ride.

Our stockings hung on the stair railing.

I like to help daddy shovel! 

Williamsburg

Hi Family and Friends,

We had a wonderful time preparing and heading out to Williamsburg, VA for our Raimo family Thanksgiving and Christmas. The trip started with a 5 hour drive to Ripon. We spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa and most importantly swapped vehicles. =) It was so nice to have the minivan for the week. The girls had more space and room to ride for the remaining 16 hours to Williamsburg.

The girls were wonderful troopers. Sydney unfortunately had the one day flu. She threw up the entire time after any bite of food or drink of milk. The poor little girl felt just awful but you would have never known it. She was as happy as could be. She even tried to catch/trap her throw up so it wouldn't get all over. Eventually the following day, Sydney started to feel better and was able to keep food and juice down. Thankfully none us on got sick. We were in the car for 13 hours with the time change on that Friday. We made it as far as Charleston, WV.

The following morning we met up with parents and Uncle Sean. We had the remaining 5.5 hours to drive that day. We made it to Williamsburg that day and had a smooth drive. Auntie Nicole, Gwen and Evie made it there later that night. Uncle David and Jess arrived the following morning.

Our week was full of lots of activities. We went swimming every day, sometimes even twice a day. Adelaide was so excited to go swimming every day. She was such a brave little girl. She wore her puddle jumper and started to swim all on her own. She would swim the entire length of the pool doggy style and kicking her legs. Sydney even enjoyed being in the pool because she still had a little residual fever. We went to Busch Gardens one day. It's open for their Christmas town. It was a little too cold for Sydney to come. She was still recouping from her flu day so Trav and her stayed back at the plantation and had a great evening. The rest of us braved the cold and went to look at the lights and displays. We also went to a Christmas store. The girls loved looking at all the trees and all the displays. One of the last great places we went to was the Yankee Candle Factory. The girls got to have their picture taken with Santa. Adelaide was happy to see him but Sydney had the typical response of fear and crying. The best part of that adventure was that Adelaide got to dip her own candles.

The drive home was uneventful. The split the trip back up into the 3 sections. We drove Friday night, all day saturday and then home on Sunday. We'll have lots of memories from it, good and bad. =)

Until next time,
Love Trav, Tiff, Adelaide and Sydney

(We'll get some pictures up tomorrow - night all)