Michigan Snow

Ironic, but for the second year in a row, we were in Michigan while North Carolina got a record snow storm. Last year, we missed a storm that caused our house to be without power for five days, and this year, we got over 9 inches of snow at our house. I guess we are just lucky that we missed out. We'll have to see what next year brings.

I got a new DSLR camera for Christmas so I had fun playing around with it.

Christmas 2010

We celebrated Christmas a few times, once at our house in North Carolina, once in Holland, Michigan with my family, once in Muskegon, Michigan with Jerry's family, and also Christmas morning with just our girls. We had such a great time and it was wonderful to see all our family and friends back in Michigan too. Here are just a few of the many pictures from the past month (I had a difficult time choosing which pics to post).

Decorating our tree

Sisters working hard

The Perez cousins

(we got to meet our new nephew, Ian. He was born

in February, but we hadn't been able to see him yet).

Ashlyn's First Christmas

Marcie, my sister-in-law, meeting Ashlyn for the first time

The Perez Family

Up to Muskegon to visit the DePoy's

Christmas morning

Mariah loved to sweep by the fireplaces. She was up at

4:45am on Christmas morning and decided

that besides checking under the Christmas tree,

she thought she should sweep too.

Ashlyn found a baby doll in her stocking

ALL the DePoy cousins

(now this was a difficult picture to take)

Baby Rant #2

Here is the second chapter of my baby rant and a follow-up to Baby Rant #1 from back in August.

For the most part, the comments from strangers thinking that Ashlyn is a boy (despite the color PINK everywhere on and around her) have faded. I still hear an "it" every now and then, but I just politely smile and move on or answer the bystander's question with "SHE is five months old."

UNTIL yesterday.

We had a fantastic family day out and about and the girls were all dressed up in Christmas dresses. I went into the restroom to change Ashlyn's diaper and a lady was swooning over us while I changed Ashlyn. The lady says, "Oh, how handsome! What a precious baby boy!"
BOY?! Are you kidding me?! Ashlyn has EARRINGS and has on a DRESS and has a BOW in her hair and since you are looking, lady, her diaper is OFF and I only see girl parts here.
I just smiled and didn't comment.

To this stranger's defense, maybe the black and white and red dress threw her off and maybe she was TRYING to give Ashlyn some privacy and not look while I changed her diaper and maybe she didn't see the earrings and/or the bow. BUT STILL...UGH!

Oh well, life goes on.

My three girls in their pretty dresses

Making Christmas Cookies

I decided to try making Christmas cookie cut-outs with the girls this year. This is the first year that I have made Christmas cookies without my mom, so it was a bit of an experiment. Well, they turned out great and we had a lot of fun making them. The girls really enjoyed using the cookie cutters and they had fun frosting and decorating them too.

Not only was this a baking experiment, but it was also a challenge for me not to freak out over a messy kitchen. I am a bit OCD. I really just tried to enjoy making memories with the girls and kept reminding myself that I can clean the kitchen later. I did ok with this task.

Getting started

The MESS

A MESSY little baker


Ta-da! The finished product

The First Snow

We got a light dusting of snow yesterday but then the snow picked up a little in the evening. Yup, you guessed it, our first snow day! We have about 4 inches on the ground and the girls are more than excited.

These pictures were taken when the ground was barely covered, but the girls didn't care.