A week or so ago, I took Greta to a donut shop for a little date while Holly was at joyschool. Holly's poor little heart just about broke when we discussed our days at dinner and I talked happily about my donut date with Greta. To make it up to her, I made muffins with her and let her be more invovled in the measuring and mixing process than I usually allow. I'm a bit of a control freak in the kitchen. We had a ton of fun together and even though Holly didn't like the muffins very much (dunno why - they were delicious!), we had fun together. And I took some cute photos of her - bonus! Recipe can be found here.

After 10 quiet minutes in their bedroom, Holly and Greta emerged with Greta dressed as such. Holly was beaming and Greta was initially a little stunned. This is was sisterhood is really about! We'll be laughing about this for a long time. Glad I pulled my camera out!

Sometimes, I don't pick up my camera very much. And while I'm sure my hard drive is thankful and I do have more spare time, I miss taking photos (truth: I have 4679 photos represeting 2012, and 3278 representing 2011 so I take lots of photos!). The other day, I brought my camera to the park just to try to immortalize my sweet daughters the way they are. Wearing what they wear everyday and doing what they do. Themselves. 

I know, I know. Little late on the posting here. But, I just had to! This was a really fun little outing the girls and I did one morning, and, I did Holly's hair and she wore a dress I had just given her. Triumph! Christmas in the Park is done each year in downtown San Jose (about 10 minutes from where we live). This is the first time we went. There's lots of performances and Santa Claus, but because we went there on a quiet morning mid-week there was nothing happening. There's a ton of different Christmas displays and who knows how many hundreds of trees decorated by all sorts of local groups (scouts, schools, we even saw one done by a Relief Society). There's false snow on the ground and a station that periodically blows fake snow. Hilarious, but the kids were crazy about it! We're a touch snow obsessed at our house. I'm sure Christmas in the park is gorgeous lit up at night. There was also a winter carnival on a cross street, so we walked up and down that. I let Holly have one ride (for $3.50 - ouch!), and she chose the tea cups. And then, at the end we bought a bag of popcorn. It was a really lovely morning spent with my girls! I'm always grateful when we have a day where I feel like we've done something special and solidified some memories. 

Every now and then I get to see my friend, Julie, who I know from Denver. We've been friends for over 5 years and we had babies 6 weeks apart. Julie and her family have since lived in 2 different states, but fortunately, we now live very close to where Julie's parents live and even more fortunate for us, Julie's family was gracious enough to share her and Leila with us for a day this month! Leila and Holly got along so great and I love adding to the collection of photos I have of those two. We had such a great day and I'm so grateful for friends who last.