A few weeks ago the girls had a family day at their gymnastics lesson. Family was encouraged to attend and take as many pictures as they wanted. Of course, I went into mamarazzi mode and began snapping away as soon as we set foot on the property. The teachers made sure to have the girls work on each area in the gym, and I made sure to get PLENTY of pictures to share.

The girls always start out with a warm-up and stretching session. I’m so proud of my Strech Armstrongs (ha, who gets that?).

The girls work on their vault and flippy work. That’s a technical term, you know.

Then they move onto the floor and work on handstands, cartwheels, round-offs, back walkovers, and back extensions. I’m impressed with how well the girls are able to do these things now after only started the lessons a couple of months ago.

Onto the beam. They worked on walking with fancy kicks and jumps and also practiced cartwheels and handstands while being spotted. Notice how Annie sticks her tongue out when she’s concentrating. I keep hearing one of her teachers get on her about it and told her one time that she’s going to bite it off one of these days. That would be something to see, looking for Annie’s tongue in the foam pit…haha!

And last the bars. I think the girls treat this area more like a jungle gym.

At the end of the lesson they had all the girls sit in a line on the floor and demonstrate to the parents some of the moves they’ve been learning. Then they received their certificate showing they completed that session and what level(s) they are testing at.

The girls are really having a lot of fun. I’m amazed at how much they have learned in such little time. I can’t wait to see how much more they’ve progressed this time next year. Mike was reluctant at first to sign them up, but he’s really been supportive of them. He’s even the one who insisted we sign the girls up for a second class each week. The second class takes place in Watertown which is a much bigger and more equipped gym.

In other news our chickens finally started laying eggs this past weekend. The first batches of eggs, I’m told by Mike, are going to be of various sizes since the chickens are still getting used to the concept. They probably won’t be full size for a few more rounds. Mike even found a shell-less egg earlier this week. We are very excited to have eggs at last.

When the girls finally saw Grandma they were very excited. I can’t believe it’s been 2 years since the last time we saw her. Of course, Violet needed some time to get warmed up to her, but Annie and Mimi immediately were all over Grandma. Grandma had sent two big boxes of presents for the kids to open when she got there. It wasn’t always easy convincing the girls that the huge boxes in the laundry room were for Daddy’s work, but it managed to keep them at bay long enough. The girls were quite ecstatic when they realized that the boxes were full of LOTS of presents for them. They got a 2nd Christmas! Grandma showered the girls with p.j.’s for the big girls and matching ones for their AG dolls, blankets crocheted by Grandma (also matching ones for the AG dolls), wicker chairs for the AG dolls, and much more.

Even though Violet also was showered with lots of gifts it was the $3 tiara/jewelry set that bonded Grandma and Violet together forever.

The girls were very happy with all their gifts from Grandma! Thanks Grandma!

We surprised Grandma with a Kindle for her gift. She’s very excited but has no idea how to use it yet.

In other news, I’m following through on my promise to post pictures of the bunnies.

There are two chocolate brown bunnies named Chocolate (of course) and Jumper. They are both boys.

And the white bunnies are Skittles and Fritzy. These are the ladies.

Each bunny has to have its own cage because they will apparently attack each other. Yikes! However, the girls were letting a brown and white hop around on the floor, and the brown bunny started to “attack” the white bunny. The only difference with this attack is that there may be baby bunnies in the future as a result. We shall see. Mike built a shelf for the bunny cages to go on so that they are easy to access.

We got home last night around 10:00 and promptly scooted the girls off to bed. Then we got to work to get the rest of the presents wrapped and set up for the next morning. The girls woke up at a decent time, and Mike and I got up shortly afterward. Then the festivities began. The girls were very happy with the gifts they got this year including lots of clothes, Barbie stuff for the big girls, Squinkies for Violet (she has been obsessed with those things since getting them from a gumball machine months ago), some games, craft kits for the big girls, science posters for Annie (Annie has shown quite a passion for chemistry lately), and much more. The big gifts of 2011 were a gear bike for Annie, a shopping cart for Violet, and rabbits for Mimi (yes, 4 WABBITS). It’s been lots of excitement under our roof since this morning.

Before all the craziness began.

My Christmas presents are the cards we have been getting throughout December. It’s one of my favorite parts of the season!

It was indeed a HAPPY Christmas!

I knew Violet would love her shopping cart. Always a toddler fave.

Annie got to work right away on her bead loom bracelet and actually completed it this evening. I expect a bracelet to go with each of my outfits.

I haven’t gotten pictures of the bunnies yet because by the time we got out to the barn I realized I forgot the camera (it’s a long walk back to the house). Tomorrow I will snap some pictures of the little, fluffy creatures. They sure are cute though. Tomorrow we are also looking forward to the arrival of Grandma Florida. We haven’t seen her in over a year, and we are very excited to spend time with her again.

We hope everyone else has had a safe Christmas full of merriment!

He also came home with a huge fuel tank the other day. I asked him what it’s for, and he honestly didn’t have a response for me. I think getting a lot of land may have been a mistake because now we are going to end up on the t.v. show “Hoarders“.

The girls got the chance to ride in a neighbor’s (and church friend’s) Bobcat this weekend, and Mike has been drooling ever since. I can see those wheels turning in his head each day as he tries to think of a way to convince me that we absolutely need one. I have my prepared response though, “No, you can just use the Taylors’ Bobcat.” Ha, we’ll see how long that will hold him off.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9kBcqIGMsg

In other news, Lucy spotted some pheasants in our woods, and the girls were thrilled to help their daddy get one. We had some delicious cracker pheasant that night. Although Annie did declare that she likes cracker mallard better (we had that last week with the duck Mike got last weekend). Mike also made a huge pot of pheasant noodle soup that we’ve been eating the past couple of nights. Yum! I also told Mike to start saving those feathers since they seem to be the in thing for girls’ hair these days.

And one last one of the girls hanging out in their new playhouse. Daddy converted one of the farm rooms for them to use. Last night they even put up Xmas lights along the ceiling. So fun! The little girls with them is our new neighbor who is also their new BFF.