Christmas vacation excitement continues..

I had a coupon for both the aquatic center and the pottery painting place so I let Gallie pick which she would like to do for our "special date" (she picked the movies for her and Caleb's date).  She quickly picked pottery painting so that's what we did!  She chose to paint a little puppy figure and I chose a tiny seashell dish.  The story of her puppy is that he got into the paint shed and made a mess :)

Tomorrow night is New Year's Eve... we had a fancy family dinner planned for just the three of us, but Caleb had to unexpectedly go out of town tonight.  So it will just be us girls - we have a bottle of sparkling apple cider and are ready to party!

2011 has really been a great year - best of all, we got to spend it with our sweet Gallie.  She told me today she doesn't care what we ever do as long as it's together and I feel the exact same way.  She turns 5 in just a couple months and I can't believe it!  We love her so much!

2011 has welcomed two new sweet baby cousins.  Gallie really loves each of her cousins so much - she has four now!

2011, well today actually, is when we signed the final papers for our new house!  We love our condo, but we are so excited to have a bit more space and a yard to play in.  We are having it built and construction should start in a couple weeks!

2012 has each day to look forward to.

A HAPPY, SAFE, AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!!!

Daddy Day

So yesterday Caleb took Callie to the movies and today he got her a Happy Meal for lunch. I guess that's what happens when he's off for the week and I'm stuck at work! Oh, and they also played Legos :)

At the movies!

Alvin and the Chipmunks 3 was a big hit with this 4 year old! But I think the bag of licorice was a bigger hit - Caleb, I told you not to get her candy!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Love Lacey, Caleb, and Callie

Christmas Eve 2011

Elliot

Caleb just showed me this picture of Elliot and I had to put it on here - he's riding on the bus :)  I love the jacket... and the hair!  He always looks so handsome with it pulled to the side like that.

Also, a quick message from Gallie (and us too):

Merry Christmas Elliot!  I miss you!

Santa Claus is coming to town!!!

Since we always get home so late on Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve Eve is our night to set out everything for Santa - we figure we can probably get away with telling Gallie this one more year... she catches onto things pretty quick :)  So today was very busy with preparing for the big visit.

She colored cards and pictures for Santa, Rudolph, and Clarice and left them all around the house :)

We took a break and watched the first Alvin & the Chipmunks movie while we ate dinner (Caleb is taking Gallie to see the new one next week - she loved the first one by the way!).  Then we got to work with Santa's cookies and milk...

...which slowly turned into a full blown meal!

She had to add fruits & veggies - my hard work is paying off!

She even set out all of her Christmas "guys"... Santa, she's been a good girl this year and she's ready for ya!!!

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And can't write a post these days without throwing in a cute baby picture!  Gram Jennie with Baby Ayden, 1 day old (Gram Jennie, not the baby).

Ayden & Callie

Here are a few pictures of Gallie holding her 2 day old "baby brother" Ayden :)  The little shirt he has on says "my dad's tattoos are sick" - haha.

Ayden Christopher Lange

Congratulations to Summer and Cody!  Ayden was born around 9:30 tonight - 7 lb. 9 oz. and 21 in.  I got to see him for a couple minutes and he's so cute - and he looks so tiny compared to Luca!  Gallie won't be able to see him in the hospital (only siblings are allowed) but I'm going to stop by again and then we will all go see them at home on Monday.

Here are a couple pictures of new baby Ayden!

Our Little Lamb

Today was Gallie's Christmas program and she played the part of the lamb!  She was so excited - she originally had the part of Mary, but her teacher told me she was so disappointed to not be the lamb that she decided to change it - we are proud of her no matter which part she plays :)  It was a very cute program and Gallie is so happy to be on Christmas vacation!

Singing Christmas songs!

A special gift she made for us :)

We've still been busy baking and making!  Yesterday Gallie helped me make Russian Tea Cakes and Mock Almond Roca - both my favorite holiday treats!

This is her favorite cooking spot!

And today Gallie made all natural bath fizzies to give to her friends.  They turned out great and were super easy!  We just used rubber ice cube trays as molds.

Tomorrow we are heading to Seattle to deliver some of these treats we've been working so hard on all week!  We are getting together with some friends and then some of Caleb's family that we won't see for Christmas.  I can't believe it's only about a week away!