Great Wolf Lodge

We were talking about Christmas gifts for the girls when we came across a great deal for Great Wolf Lodge, which is a hotel/water park in Kansas City (3 hours away.)  Since we are always up for an adventure, we booked the trip, then surprised the girls a couple of days before Christmas!  It was so much fun spending time together without any distractions.  Milan spent most of her time on fun water slides, while Eden and Cora loved to be caught at the end of the smaller slide.  We also ran into some Omaha friends with three little girls, which made the second day at the hotel even more fun.  I raced Milan and Kylee down the water slides, which was a blast!  Dave and I even got to go on the big water slide together.  When the girls were too tired for any more fun, we headed home just in time for Christmas Eve!

Children's Museum, Gingerbread Houses, Baking Fun

We recently got a Children's Museum pass and liked it so much we took Milan back the same week.  

 And this is where Cora wanted to sit all day, the other kids didn't think that was a good idea.

 Seriously, this smile.  Doesn't she just look like she's having a blast!

 Face Painting was a big fat hit!

 When we took Milan back, we went to visit Santa Claus and Elsa was an unexpected surprise.  When she came out, she asked the kids to twinkle their fingers for some snow, and it even snowed inside! Cora was so excited; she danced around in the snow and cut in front of everyone to give Elsa a humongous hug!  Unfortunately, her excitement petered out while we were waiting in line, then she realized that she didn't have Anna hair (two braids) that day and it was an all-out meltdown.  Milan and Eden chatted with both Elsa and Santa for a while.  Milan asked Santa for a Barbie Clothes Kit from Hobby Lobby, Eden asked for a diary, and Milan told Santa that Cora would like an Elsa doll.

 We made some very festive sugar cookies this year with lots of icing, sprinkles, and yummy decorations.  See our sad tree leaning against the corner?  It just fell over in the middle of the night.  I thought for sure that Cora had something to do with it, but she was asleep, so I guess it just got tired of rotating.  We got a new stand ordered and we're up and running again!  

Cora didn't want any sprinkles to be wasted. 

We also had a gingerbread house party with Milan's friends (Maame and Maddie).  It was a great way to use up some old Halloween candy and they had a great time.  Who doesn't love tons of sugar??!?

Anna and Elsa

Cora is so in love with Anna and Elsa {from Frozen} that I just had to document it.  She loves to wear her hair like Anna and will patiently sit down for me to do braids.  Any other hairstyle usually gets yanked right out.  Her favorite outfit is an Elsa dress she is borrowing from her BFF Tori.  When she puts it on, she comes out into the living room and says "Queen Elsa of Arandale" until someone acknowledges her.  The other morning, after sleeping in her Elsa dress, she came into our room and said, "I wake up, I queen Elsa."  She took off her dress later in the day and told us, "I Cora now."  When she asks me to play with her, I just can't resist and we almost always play Barbies and/or Polly Pockets.  Cora says, "you be mommy Elsa," Cora is baby Elsa and we hug a lot.  It's pretty great!  

Showing Anna and Elsa the Christmas Tree.  One of my favorite pictures.

Sometimes it's hard to be 2 and not even Elsa can make it all better.  Don't worry, she usually snaps out of it pretty quickly.

Family Pictures

One of the first things I did in Omaha was find a photographer for family pictures.  I am pretty picky and reedited all of our pictures, but it is fun to have family photos that are a different style than I normally shoot.   I'm also very happy to have some pictures of Dave and I.  Of course, I took some pictures of my girls in their cute outfits and added those at the end :)