Christmas dinner party and another visit from Santa!

This past Friday we had our family over for a Christmas dinner party. The girls helped to get ready for it all day and were so excited to share their spirit with Noni, KPaw, Auntie K, & Brinan. Early in the day they helped me prepare the fish, green beans almondine, our Olive Garden salad, appetizers, and make the fudge. They also helped to set the table and clean their room. It was a special day getting ready. Everyone arrived around 6:00. Soon after, we were all blessed by a visit from Santa Clause. This would be the girls second personal visit this season. Pretty special I'd say!! After Santa came we all sang Christmas carols, took some pictures, and then Santa handed out presents. Once he left us, we enjoyed a great dinner followed by the movie Elf. Mom brought banana pudding and an old fashioned yule log. It was a very cozy night spent with family. Every Christmas season I am reminded about how special family is and how blessed we are to have such an amazing one. The love for the girls shines through from our family and friends so beautifully we are so thankful for everyone! Merry Christmas from the Colliers!

adding ornaments to the tree

Here comes Santa Clause...

Naughty or Nice list?

after party

Christmas 2012 Kick Off

To kick off Christmas 2012 our family headed out to Tim's Trees in Wheelock Tx to pick out our Christmas tree. The girls had so much fun helping us pick the tree and watching their daddy cut it down. After some shaking & wrapping it was ready to go! That evening we went over to my sister and brother in law's house for "Christmas in Porter" and had a wonderful night. Hanging out with family & friends is what this season is all about second of course to celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ!!! We have a nativity scene in our house and every morning the girls go and tell baby Jesus good morning & Happy Birthday. It's pretty special! Before dinner the girls had a special visit from Santa Clause. It was Pryscilla's first time to work up the courage to join Eden on his lap. That was a proud parent moment. You could see in her eyes how proud she was of herself too. Dinner at her house was amazing followed by our yearly tradition of watching my all time favorite movie Christmas Vacation. That movie brings so much joy every year!! Here are a few pictures from our two kick off events. Enjoy!

Thank You So Much Nonni!!!

Just wanted to say thank you to Nonni on behalf of E&P! They got a wonderful surprise in the mail on Saturday and it's been keeping them entertained ever since. :)

The gilrs enjoy playing lots of things, but their newset love is "painiting faces" aka putting on play-makeup. They've got a little collection of play make up but didn't have anything big enough that zipped to put it all in. Mom came down one day and we set out to look for play-makeup sets. It was so much harder than I would have thought. We went to Wal Mart and Toys R Us and ended up finding 1 set at ToyRUS. Everything else was real makeup, and I was seriously trying to avoid anything sticky or real. We ended up finding 1 really cute set but it needed a case. So Nonni took care of that and sent them these adorable little zebra (they both are in love with zebras) cases filled with brushes, empty bottles, and more play-makeup. They loved the cases and all of the goodies, so thank you so much mom!! Great idea!!

The girls are also growing up. Since there's a new baby on the way I'm trying to "finish" up the baby stages with them. I've got a few things on my check list that have to be accomplished well before this baby gets here. Honestly, I baby my girls and have been in no rush for them to become "little girls" as opposed to my babies. That is until I found out about our newset addition, now I'm in a mad rush so that I can have a lil' "break" before lil' baby C arrives.

Here's our checklist.

1. Be COMPLETELY potty trained - I don't know if it's just me but PT is no joke. Ahhh I'll be glad when this is over.
2. Sleep well in their new big girl beds (last night was successful night #1)
3. Be able to put on their own shoes, load up in their car seats, and buckle in. All I want to have to do is check that they are buckled properly.

That's about it on the must do, have to do, asap list.

They've got their 3 year old birthday coming up on Nov. 21st. I'm trying to plan what I want to do for them and hope to be celebrating the completion of this list. I'm getting my butt to work!!

Guess What!!!

This was a moment filled with high anxiety!!! :) 

Guess what! The girls are going to have a baby brother or sister!! Our family is expanding from 4 to 5, and we are so excited!! It took a while to get use to the idea but the reality has settled. Late night cravings and those feel bad pregnancy days have made me realize that Yes the Lord's unexpected plan is indeed true. I think for a while there was a subconscious worry that there may be two bundles of joy again; however, with our recent ultrasound we were given the exciting news that we only have 1 baby on the way. I'm thrilled that my "1" is coming after my 2 girls! I am experienced and am ready for this little peanut to be a breeze. :)

If you read the t-shirts in the pic above you noticed the very exciting news that there are 2 babies on the way! My sister is thankfully carrying the other baby though. :) We are due within a few weeks of each other, I'm at the beginning of March she's at the end. It's exciting to be traveling this journey with her and I am so very happy for both my sister and brother in law to welcome baby #1.

I'm a little over 14 weeks and feeling okay. I have great days and not so great but that's the norm. Just the fact that at this point anyway we are not considered high-risk and it is a normal pregnancy gives me a sense of peace that I did not have with the girls. Brian the girls, and Preemie Prints are keeping me really busy! This blog has been suffering. I'll try to start posting some new pictures and stories. Eden & Pryscilla have grown so much it is incredible. We are still working on potty training and of course learning new things every day. They are loads of fun talking non stop, and, along with their new sibling, are our greatest joy in life.

Hope all is well with you guys! Love, Amber