Little elves

I have been informed that the twin fan club needs to see more pictures. Sorry for the less frequent postings. We've been so busy doing our holiday projects. (baking gingerbread houses, decorating the house, making top-secret presents). Just haven't had the time. Rest assured, Lily and Elsa are happy and healthy. They are really getting into Christmas this year.


Here's Lily decorating both the Christmas tree and herself. Lily found my holiday shirts in the box and insists on wearing them all the time (even my matching jingle bell socks which she wears on her hands). She told me she's a princess. They've been on a Cinderella kick lately.


Here's Elsa and her little Christmas tree. She has slept holding the Xmas tree every night for two weeks now. She lets Lily hold the stuffed ornaments at night. (Baby Jesus and a collection of little animals). The girls are getting quite attached. The other night Lily couldn't find one of the ornaments. She woke up in the middle of the night screaming "Baby Jesus! Baby Jesus!" Mark and I cracked up. Usually, she's yelling for mommy or daddy.


Two little girls with fuzzy bedheads brushing their teeth. (L,E). They are quite independent little girls. They insist on doing most things by themselves like brushing their teeth, picking out clothes, and getting dressed. They even like to eat on grownup plates with silverware.

They are so verbal that I can't believe it. They narrate the entire day. They like to keep me on track by telling me which things to do next. "Mommy, I want to eat." "I need a bib." "Where's my pink plate." "We need to clean up this mess." Lately if I don't do things to their satisfaction, Elsa says in a very serious voice. "Mommy, that's NOT good enough." I have no idea where she picked that up...hopefully, that's not something Mark and I have ever told them. We're still working on our pleases and thank you's. They are getting a lot more polite, but sometimes they forget. On that subject, every time Lily sneezes she says "God bless you, Lily." She says it to herself which I find so funny.

I keep forgetting to mention another funny thing they've been saying. They like to call Mark "Mark" instead of Daddy. I'd say they do this about 50% of the time. He'll go to work and they will say "Bye Mark, see you later" or "Thanks Mark." I found this quite funny until they started calling me "Emily." I think they're just really interested in names. They've figured out that everyone has one. The other day I told Elsa she was a little cutie-pie. She told me "I'm not a cutie-pie, mom, I'm Elsa Claire Panning." Priceless.


Lily and Elsa washing dishes. They wanted to clean up after we made cookies this morning. We've been trying to keep busy while Mark's away at a conference this week. Thus far, they've been going pretty easy on me. But, I know they miss their dad. They keep telling me that "dad's at work on a train." They kind of don't get the airplane, California, conference part. They take things very litterally. The last thing they remember is dropping Daddy off at the train station. Poor Elsa woke up crying for her Daddy last night. She kept sobbing Daddy's at work. I think they're ready to have him home. Me too!



Cute picture I took of the girls this morning. They had a blast stomping in puddles. In this picture Lily had just dipped her finger in a puddle and wiped it all over Elsa's face. Elsa thought it was hilarious.