december iphone dump

Vivienne was slightly obsessed with the Shanes Christmas card. I found it in lots of places.

It's like she's trying to fulfill as many stereotypes as possible.

"Take a picture so I can remember what my castles looked like before Vivienne knocks it down." Serious about Uno. Viv is family undefeated, really.

Milkshakes!!!

Relaxy Cassie. My unused India visa. I'm about 90% sure the Iten's house won't fall down.

Love this picture. Double pajammy days. Online instruction manuals. The cutest cart valet. 2 seconds after Auntie Sarah arrived.

Avery's first field trip and ride on a school bus. She dressed herself. Playing together. It's surprising that there are any pink clothes left for the other girls.

Foosball tourney. Until he learns how to actually play chess, he does this. At least he's consistent. Mario Kart ramp of doom.

Sleeping on the sofa with her entourage. Sleeping in the car. Sleeping in her backpack. Hannah sleeping in our bed.

Annual Hanukkah party. Kalamazoo Grandma's ceramic Christmas tree. Candy canes. Stocking love.

When you have a boy and a girl. Her majesty. Nikki sent me this text because Erin scared the shit out of her when she was cleaning up breakfast. They play together a lot these days.

One of my favorites. Floating heads.

A little Vivi.

Snow. Just your average night. DON'T TAKE MY PICTURE!!! No idea why I have a post-it that says 'soup'

beaver creek

Mountain kids

Snow babies

Enjoying the sledding

She liked it too

Here comes Binsky!

Snow angle Vivienne

Getting ready to hit the hot tub. I will add that doing anything with 4 kids is a monumental effort.

After last year's skating debacle, I was skeptical, but Avery actually figured out how to skate around a bit!

A late night movie

A late night book club

Part of our holiday tradition involves a trip to the mountains. This year, Scott got us a phenomenal condo at Beaver Creek. It was on mountain, huge and amazing. The excitement of the trip was tempered due to an untimely snow storm in Chicago which caused Sarah to miss the mountain adventure - she came later that week. The Wassermans however, did make it and we had a truly memorable holiday vacation. Stacy and I even got to go out for birthday drinks. I love this tradition!

stockings

Stockings are my favorite part of Christmas and even though Scott and I are still fine tuning how we celebrate this major non-Jewish holiday, I have been adamant that stockings are a  part of our new traditions. I have a hand knitted stocking with my name on it that someone made when I was very little and I have always wanted to have some made for the kids. Well this year, I got my stuff together in August and emailed the mom of some of my high school friends who is an accomplished knitter and craftswoman. She was happy to make the beautiful stockings for the kids and I am eternally grateful to have the beautiful stockings as a part of our holiday tradition. Thank you, Mrs. Feldt!

christmas

Stockings followed by "Follow the String"

Avery was very interested in Vivienne's candy necklace

Times have changed. Vivienne's My Little Pony came with a DVD.

auntie sarah love

my favorite

"How can something so cute be so evil?" Sarah Turbow

the recital | before the show

The bow is as big as her head

Thanks to this costume, there is a fine layer of glitter covering our house

I learned today that Vivi's hair does not like to curl. What you see took several go-rounds with the curling iron and hair spray

The full hair style

I love these pictures. At one point during the day, I asked Avery if he needed some more attention (Sister was the star of the day after all) and he quickly said, nope. I appreciate how even he is about such things. I've never seen him jealous.

the recital | the lion sleeps tonight

This day finally arrived - Vivienne's first ballet recital and it did not disappoint. I have been waiting for this moment for years, even before she was a twinkle in my eye. Viv was so excited to get dressed up, have her hair done and put on a 'little pink makeup.' Of course, I ran through every scenario in my head about her crying at drop-off, crying on stage, just standing there like a deer in headlights, but none of that happened. She easily walked into the dressing room and said goodbye. Surprisingly, I didn't cry as much as I expected to. It was nothing but pure emotion to see my little girl on stage during her first dance, and even though she was waaaaaayyyyyy at the end, my heart delighted in watching her. She took her performance VERY seriously as you can tell by the funny facial expressions she's making but seemed to really enjoy it. So did her family. You can hear us laughing on the video because it was so stinking cute. That girl loves ballet.