the girls and the trees

here's the yearly under the tree shot taken today. yes, those wide-open mouths were emitting various high-pitched squeals.

here is the photo from last year (which was taken on the 30th as well, pretty nifty). both remarkably snugglyish. isabel was yikes big-eyed from the camera flash here though. 

this is amalea decorating the little tree on the day after thanksgiving. she's really wrapped up in the work as you can see. does the tree or amalea have more garland on it? speaking of trees, amalea saw a tree farm during our travels on thanksgiving where the trees were all within a fenced off area. her voice had a hint of sympathy in it as she said, "those trees are captured."

now, here is isabel and her famous "cheese" pose while lending a hand in the entire tree building process. she always says cheese when you pull out a camera. how appropriate that she has a slice of cheese in her hands. 

the fully decorated little tree. amalea wanted to see mom's doll collection, and then came across her own set of porcelain dolls for a themed christmas tree. so she immediately had to go about getting this tree to become a reality. dad took her out to pick out the perfect little tree (and the golden garland as seen above). here is amalea's masterpiece set up in her room. she ecstatically exclaimed, "now i don't need my night light!"

happy halloween (finally coming to you on veteran's day)

to celebrate halloween this year dad took the day off and spent it at home with the girls. we were all outside promptly at 4 o'clock to kick off the afternoon of trick-or-treating. the girls delayed the collection of candy for just a bit to pose next to our spider and tangled web.

since halloween was on friday, it was quite all right if the sugar, from the excessive amounts of candy both amalea and isabel consumed, continued coursing through their tiny little bodies and didn't wear off until the wee hours of the night. naturally, amalea was able to keep going strong. we tried to slow her down by diminishing her eyesight with these horrendous glasses.
our littlest morning person fell sooner than her big sister, so we had to wait until the next morning to slap the glasses onto her.

jason proudly boasted of his "this is what i do when i babysit the girls" trick. swaddle them tightly so that they are physically unable to move about and cause mischief. see, don't they look angelic, they are smiling and look quite content.

and then further incapacitate them by putting on those glasses. yet they're still all smiles!