Pre-Christmas fun with the Girls!

We had some pre-Christmas fun with some of Macy's cousins this year.  Georgia and Macy had their first sleepover 2 nights before Christmas Eve, and Georgia spent Christmas Eve-Eve with us.  We also invited Grandma, Lily, and Bella over for some Christmas crafts.  It was a ton of fun for all of the girls!

Had to throw in this random- my little book worm!

I let the girls open a Christmas present early for our sleepover- princess nightgowns!  This is the first nightgown Macy has ever owned and it blew her mind that she didn't have to wear pants!

Onto Christmas crafts- first up:  gingerbread man ornaments

Next up- ice cream cone Christmas trees (thanks Pinterest!)

Macy was much more into eating the sprinkles

...with passion

The girls with their finished trees

Onto the important part-eating their creations!

This is fun!

Christmas Cookies

When we were younger, my friend Megan used to always come over to bake Christmas cookies at our house.  We have managed to continue the tradition through college, weddings, and babies and still try to get together each year to make our Christmas cookies from my mom's same recipes that we have been following all of these years!  We got to carry on the tradition with a new junior baker, Baby Drew this year. 

The Junior Bakers

Drew was too small to actually help this year, but Macy was pretty into "helping" with eating dough and sprinkle duty!

 

A little kiss- so cute

 

We also headed to Bad Axe while Megan and Baby Drew were here to get pictures taken with Santa!

The whole kid crew:  Brynn, Macy, Drew and Laken (and Santa, of course!)

Macy was into Santa as long as he came bearing candy canes. =)

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Weather forecasters are telling us to prepare for our first significant snowfall of the year tonight and tomorrow.  This morning big beautiful snowflakes are falling and Macy (who LOVES the snow) begged to go outside after breakfast.  So we bundled up over our jammies and out we went!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

The Polegas sure have been busy this holiday season!  Here is a quick recap of some of our adventures over the past month.

 

Macy and I did some early Christmas shopping while Dada was away at deer camp in November.  We made a pit stop in Frankenmuth and Macy had her first Bronner's experience!  She was very good at being "gentle" with all of the breakables!

We got to see Santa at a Toys for Tots benefit dinner we attended.  We are planning another visit sometime in the next couple of weeks so I can get some pictures with my real camera (this was on my phone)

Macy is super into the show Team Umizoomi.  We made some Umi-Goggles with some old toilet paper rolls.  We painted them and added stickers (which you can't really see) but they were a huge hit!

This was the first dusting of snow we got this year.  Macy was soooo excited she insisted on going outside at 8 am to check it out!

We spent Thanksgiving day at my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Wade's house in Bay City.  Here's Uncle Wade showing the kids the turkey!

I think we need a bigger kids table!

We cut out Christmas tree down this past weekend!

Sorry Macy, that one's not quite big enough!

Helping Dada cut down the tree! (I love how TJ has a perfect dusty handprint on his hood from his gloves!)

Cheese!

Today we woke up to a solid inch or more of snow on the ground.  We got to break out the sled for the first time this year!

 

There will be more to come of our holiday fun soon!

Halloween and an Acceptable Form of Swearing

This week we had a couple of major celebrations.  Halloween, of course, and we found out last Monday that my brother, Mike, passed the bar exam and my dad swore him in on Thursday so we officially have another lawyer in the family!

We painted pumpkins and did some other fun fall crafts at the Port Austin Library last week.

Macy with her goodies (she painted the pumpkin and made the owl bag behind her)

 

Macy painted more pumpkins at home while Daddy and Mumma carved theirs

Our finished masterpieces (can you guess Macy's favorite color based on her pumpkin painting?)

 

Macy was the itsy bitsy spider for Halloween.  We chose it because it is one of her favorite library books and songs.  I took on the challenge of making Macy's costume this year, and with some creative support from Aunt Megan, I think it turned out pretty cute.  Thank goodness for hot glue and the tie-blanket technique, as I have virtually no sewing skills!

On the front porch on wet Halloween evening

This was at Grandma and Grandpa Polega's house right after she first put her costume on!

 

We didn't fully trick or treat but went in costume to the neighbor Dee and Bob's house, Grandma and Grandpa's, Boppy and Dzia Dzia's, and the Schwedler's house.  Macy got plenty of treats and was pretty good at performing her trick of singing the itsy bitsy spider song! 

 

 

Earlier on Halloween day was the swearing in ceremony. Here are some photos from that:

 

In Dzia Dzia's office, wearing his funny Halloween glasses

Taking the oath

We are very proud of you, Uncle Mikey!

 

Football and Cheeseheads

We have had an eventful fall as usual.  We have had the opportunity to go to several MSU football games.  Macy has come to some and not others.  She did attend the Purdue game with us a couple of weeks ago and actually made it through the whole game!

Tailgate Champion!

 

Last weekend we went to Wisconsin to visit the Epplers.  It was our first time meeting baby Drew, who was born in September.  We had lots of fun with Aunt Megan, Uncle "Kracker" (Kris), and Drew.  We went to a pumpkin patch, went shopping, and built Macy's Halloween costume!

New generation of BFFs

Rocking a Halloween cookie

They had a bouncing thing that Macy loved of course!

Feeding the goats

Sweet baby boy