Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Valentine's Day Happenings

The girls were super excited to celebrate Valentine's Day this year.  They both had parties at school, and Alice really enjoyed making her "minion" valentines for her friends, which was totally her idea.  She is a true "Despicable Me" fan.  Here are some shots I took of the girls during the Valentine's Day festivities.


Alice worked very hard on her minion valentines for her classmates.  I found a printable on Pinterest, and we wrapped the "clothes" around Twinkies and then personalized them with heart-shaped tags that Alice helped to decorate.
 
 
 
We also went to the Valentine's Day crafts event at our library.   Alice worked diligently on cutting out her paper hearts while Eleanor licked the scissors... 
 
 
 
The girls wore their new outfits sent to them from Mimi for the big day.  I tried hard to get a shot with them both looking at me, but it just wasn't in the cards :-(


 
 
 
Jeff was off work that day, so we both got to attend the girl's school parties.  Alice is so excited about these holiday events that she can barely eat and spends most of her time grinning or waving at us. 
 
 
 
We peeked out in the hall just in time to see Eleanor's class riding the wagon back to their classroom. This picture is a little blurry, but seeing this wagon with all of the kiddos on it was the cutest thing!

 
 
 
Alice wore the necklace we made together during the "craft" segment of the party 
 
 
 
Later, we went to Eleanor's classroom party, which mostly just consisted of watching babies eat snacks.  When we arrived, we noticed El was sitting alone and not at the group table.  When we asked, it was explained to us that she likes to steal the other children's food. 
 
 
 
When she was done with her snacks, we had to see if this was true, so we sat her at the group table.

 
 
Pretty much immediately, she spotted the other girls snacks and went in for the kill.

 
Afterwards, the little girl kept her hands on her cup, and her eyes on Eleanor! 
 
 
 
Here is an illustration by Alice of she and Eleanor on Valentine's Day 

Monday, February 10, 2014

A trip to the Discovery Center

     The weather here in Amarillo has been very cold and we haven't been able to get out and do much lately.  Last week we had high temperatures around 8 degrees. (Seriously!)  We decided to take the girls to the Don Harrington Discovery Center to help beat the winter blahs.  If you have never been to the Discovery center, it is packed with science related activities, play and discovery areas, and programs for children.  Our girls both ran and played until they were completely out of steam.  Here are some pictures from our trip:


 
Alice the construction worker
 
 
Eleanor the "pint-sized" explorer
 
 
 
 
 
 
Playing with new friends
 
 
 
The girls climbed and played so hard!  I think we were all ready for them to burn off some of the extra energy saved up from being trapped indoors during the most recent arctic blast.
 
 
 
 
Hopefully there will be warmer weather in store for the rest of February.  Otherwise I think we will find ourselves frequenting the Discovery Center every weekend ;-)

Monday, December 30, 2013

A Merrell Family Christmas 2013

     The holidays seemed to fly by here at the Merrell household.  Before we knew it, Christmas had come and gone, but the girls had a blast.  Alice enjoyed unwrapping her gifts, and Eleanor was more keen on just the wrapping itself.  Both kiddos made out like bandits.



To kick off the season, we went to visit Santa at the Home Depot.  (That is where he always hangs out, right?!)  Alice asked for a computer game and a new box of crayons.  Eleanor mostly just eyed him suspiciously...


 

 

 
 Here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve.  Nana, Pops, Andrea, Kaizer, and "Uncle" Keith came over and we enjoyed some holiday snacks and a gift exchange. 


Here are the girls looking festive in their holiday dresses 
 
 
Eleanor loved the wrapping paper...and helping others unwrap their gifts...
 
Some cute shots of the cousins 
 

 

 
 
Daddy hanging out with his girls 


I enjoyed a good snuggle with my babies
 
 
Alice fell in love with her Barbie cash register
 
Eleanor enjoyed her "Uncle" Keith.  She is simply "mad" about this guy! 
 
Christmas morning highlights
 
The girls really enjoyed their gifts from Santa.  Alice was distraught about "Holly the Elf on the Shelf" leaving and heading back to the North Pole for the next year, but her new Leap Pad 2 took the edge off.
 
 
 
 
And then we opened more gifts... 

 
 
Eleanor enjoyed hearing her sister play the guitar! 


Later in the week we got to visit with cousin Kendall and enjoy some more gift opening.  These two are such a hoot when they get together!
Here we go, headed in to a new year.  Hard to believe 2014 is already on the cusp.  May we all enjoy many blessings in the upcoming year!


Catching Up- Some pictures from fall

     I have fallen victim to the chaos of the holidays and failed to update my blog for 2 months.  Here is my attempt to "catch up" with some of my favorite pictures from the season and the month of November...

 
 
Sisters playing in their jammies
 
 
 
A little fall foliage fun 
 
 
 
Eleanor's "funny face".  I love it!  She does this when prompted now... 
 
 
 
All bundled up.  I wonder how long I have to buy them matching apparel before they start complaining about it?! 
 
 
 
 
Alice learned to write her name!  She is so proud. 
 
 
 
 
The girls were intrigued by the fire Daddy built 
 
 
 
 
A family photo at Thanksgiving 
 
 
 
 
Here we go onward and upward to the Christmas holiday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eleanor walks to Alice



We took about 50 videos of Eleanor learning to walk in November, but this is my favorite.  These girls have my heart!