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This past weekend we celebrated our niece's 1st birthday! We flew down to Birmingham for the occasion. Leah did really well on her first flights (as seen in this video). She slept on both flights and was generally happy when awake.

Emmie's birthday party was Saturday (though she didn't actully turn 1 until Sunday). Molly, of course, helped Emmie open her presents.

Despite all the excitement, Leah was unphased. She slept for the first hour or so of the party.

Opening presents took a long time, so Emmie took a break to hang out with me for a bit.

Then it was time for cake! It took Emmie a couple minutes to warm up to it, but once she got going she realized how great it was.

Leah did eventually wake up and join the party. Here she is spending some time with her Great Grandmother Dot.

After the party, Molly got some late Christmas presents from her Great Aunt Roxanne, including this rocking horse that she really had fun with. I have a feeling it will be a big hit with our playgroup!

On Sunday, we were finally able to get a picture of all three girls wearing their dresses that G'Mom made them.

There was a lot of music going on during our stay (as seen in this video), including piano, guitar, and these lovely percussionists.

We had a great time visiting with lots of family. The girls did great the entire weekend, even sleeping in the same room! There are a lot more pictures from our trip here.

We had a great Christmas. My parents were here to celebrate with us and Chad's family. Molly was so excited about Santa and all the presents. She liked passing out gifts, helping to open them, and then immediately wanting to play with her toys. Leah slept through most of it, but had a wonderful 1st Christmas.

My mom smocked the girls' Christmas dresses this year (including a matching one for my niece too!).

My mother-in-law hosted a Christmas Eve Soup and Sandwich dinner. Here is a family photo. There was also 4 family friends there too!

Grammy (the girls' great-grandmother) gave Molly a Baby Huggums for her Christmas Eve gift. Molly has hardly put it down since getting it, and it has been added to Lambie and Bunny in the group of things she needs to go to sleep.

Leah has started to play with small stuffed animals a lot lately. So, Santa brought Leah her own baby Elmo, which she likes a lot. It's soft and furry and light enough for her to handle.

Molly and Leah got a wagon from Grams and Pop. Molly hopped in immediately, put on her seatbelt, and got comfortable.

Chad caught this picture of Molly after naptime. It's one of my favorites from the day.

Another great picture. Leah is having fun with her Grams.

The homemade sugar cookies were a huge hit with Molly. Here she is looking at herself in the mirror while eating cookie number three. Perhaps the one with the green sprinkles was a poor choice. No big deal though, it only took about 24 hours for it to come off.

There are a lot more pictures of our Christmas. And Chad captured a lot of our day on video too.

Download: Normal Quality | iPhone Quality

We had a very merry Christmas here and wanted to share a bit of it with all of you. Molly was especially excited about everything this year and had a blast. As a warning, this is not in the typical style of short and fun, but is rather more like a typical home movie. It's almost 16 minutes long, so it may take a while to load if you don't have a very fast Internet connection.

Many people who have sent gifts for Leah have also sent gifts for Molly. Chad's Aunt and Uncle recently gave Molly a gingerbread house kit. Due to our major snowstorm, Sunday afternoon was a great time for an indoor activity, so Molly and I got to work.

Molly loved decorating the house and placing the candies in just the right spot.

As we finished she said, "It's fun to decorate with Mommy!" She also enjoyed a celebratory gingerbread cookie.

Last weekend we got our Christmas tree (which was early for us since the last few years we've gone just days before Christmas!). Molly picked it out, so she was very excited to decorate it. She started out by helping Daddy make sure all our lights were working.

After the lights were on, Molly put the first ornament on the tree.

She kept asking Chad to put the ornaments up high, but would occasionally put one on by herself.

Leah may not have been quite as into it as Molly, but I made sure she was involved as well.

Chad also captured some of our decorating on video.

Download: Normal Quality | iPhone Quality

We finally got ourselves a Christmas tree after our adventures in potty training calmed down a little. Molly enjoyed helping out decorating it.

Molly has had so much fun wearing her butterfly fairy costume. On Friday, I took the girls to Harmony Hall (an assisted living community) for a costume parade. She was in good company with Nemo, Elmo, The Cat in the Hat, and a Hershey Kiss.

She then donned the costume again when we went Trick-or-Treating on Halloween. Though before we even left the house we had a costume malfunction, which set us back 45 minutes! We finally got ourselves together and headed to Grams and Pop's house. Molly was happy to get some candy as well as a book.

We then headed to Molly's friend Simon's house to go trick or treating with our playgroup friends, each with a 2 year old and a less-than-one year old. We managed to get a picture of them all (and me). Left to right you've got Maya, Molly, Simon, Matilda, Leah, and Keira.

Of course, that shot was a miracle to get, as most of the time the picture looked more like this.

The rain held off (mostly) and the kids did great trick-or-treating. They hit a lot of houses, leading to acquiring a lot of candy for a 2 year old.

After everyone dug into their new-found loot, and Molly finished off 3 pieces of candy in less than 2 minutes, there was much fun and enjoyment while on the sugar high.

We all had a great time! You can see the rest of the pictures here.

Our church had their annual Halloween party on Sunday. Molly has been so excited to dress up in her butterfly fairy costume. She asked me one night if she could have a magic wand to go with her costume because Dora on her toothbrush is dressed as a fairy and she has a wand. So, we made a trip to Target and found a butterfly wand. Leah was dressed as a sweet strawberry.

The party had a lot of things going on including Donut Swing, where you were supposed to catch a swinging donut with only your mouth. Here's what Molly immediately did...

Molly also tried to toss ping-pong balls into goldfish bowls, and decorated a bag, but the highlight was the Trunk-or-Treat. We kept asking Molly if she could say "Trick-or-Treat" and she'd enthusiastically say "Yes" but never say those three words!

Happy early Halloween from a butterfly fairy, a strawberry, and a scarecrow!

You can see all the pictures here.

Today we helped Allison celebrate her 2nd birthday. The girls (and mommies) have been friends since Molly was 3 months old!

As always, Molly loves cake. Molly's reflection does as well.

I made Allison a ribbon shirt and bow. Allison loved the bow and sported a double-bow look the rest of the party!

Here's a close-up of the ribbon shirt.

And although Molly has already modeled her shirt at Aunt Caroline's party, here's a close-up of her ribbon shirt.

Friday night we celebrated Caroline's graduation/18th birthday with a very large party (mostly teenagers, only a few of us old fogies).

We spent much of our time on the back porch, where Chad and I got a break as Molly was entertained by Aunt EA and lots of jumping.

Molly was happy to see Aunt Caroline, but she of course didn't stop eating cake. Nothing's better than cake.

Molly made sure that she was at the center of attention, and the circle, as much as possible.

Another fun activity was to run around the house with Aunt EA.