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We flew to Birmingham to celebrate Emmie's 3rd birthday. It didn't take long upon our arrival before the girls all headed to the play room. Nice shoes, Leah!

Emmie is so intent on using her computer that she has no idea Molly is about to give her a trim.

Grampa was appointed head book reader at bed time.

Emmie was insistent on having a flower party, so Aunt 'Chelle got creative with the flower theme.

Naturally, Molly and Leah were eager to assist with the present opening.

Time for cake!

It was finger lick in' good!

Leah took a quick break from the party festivities to assemble the alphabet with G'mom.

Emmie also got a kite, which was then of course flown. Apparently it's just as much fun to run after someone flying a kite as it is to fly it yourself.

Molly flying with Tate chasing. An image of timeless childhood.

Leah thought the flower balloons needed a bit of love.

The girls were finally all together to wear the Christmas jammies I made them. It was like Christmas Eve in January.

Emmie may be one of the few kids her age that knows what a chalkboard is. For those who don't, it's an upright display you write on with chalk while you stick out your tongue.

Baby rings can turn into steering wheels when you get older.

And the post the baby ring comes from can become a microphone.

We transitioned Leah into her big girl bed this weekend. She keeps saying "I love my bed!"

My aunt made Leah's new quilt. Molly noticed that the fabric matched the valance I made a few months ago. Nice observation kiddo!

Like I did for Molly, I painted Leah's letters to match her new room.

Here's the completed room, using Chad's new ultra-wide lens to capture all four walls.

I kept thinking that we were transitioning Leah much earlier this time. Turns out, Molly was actually 1 day younger when we transitioned her.

The first night went great, except that Chad accidentally set the alarm when resetting the clock and it went off at midnight! Thankfully she went right back to sleep.

And both girls are sticklers when it comes to routine, so we've had to work through a few issues like the new step stool at the end of Leah's bed and the new lamp on her dresser. Funny enough, the new bed has been welcomed with lots of smiles and bouncing fun.

In Sellers tradition, we opened one gift each on Christmas Eve. Leah got this Tinkerbell doll from Grammy, which she's slept with every night since receiving it. She also decided this ribbon from one of the presents would make a great pirate headband.

On Christmas morning, Chad took video of the girls opening their stockings. The girls also enjoyed playing with their new toys.

When wearing one particular pair of jammies, Leah always calls herself Dr. Leah. So, when I saw this doctor kit at a consignment sale, she knew it'd be perfect!

Whenever Leah was opening a present and Molly wanted to open it, Molly would tell Leah they should use teamwork. She figured out this was a way to get to open someone else's present without being told to back off since it was someone else's turn.

Here's Molly opening some books from G'Mom and Grampa while sitting on her new floor cushion.

Over at Grams and Pop's, Molly was nice enough to push Leah in the rocking chair before they did a little dancing around. Watch that video here.

Leah got some wings and a tutu of her own from Aunt Caroline, which she of course loves. And we love that the girls are no longer fighting over the one set we had before.

Molly, Leah, and Aunt Caroline had fun playing with some fairies (specifically Tinkerbell, Vidia, Rosetta, and Silvermist).

We had Christmas crackers before lunch, a tradition Chad's family picked up when living in England. As always, they include crowns which we all don for the meal.

Aunt Caroline and Aunt EA played Mario Kart with Molly for the first time (as well as some other Wii games). She did ok, though Molly does much better with the Kinect as she's not used to the abstraction of the controller.

The girls had fun playing with their Aunts all day. Here Aunt EA and Leah had to wake up the sleeping (not really) Molly. On the count of 3, say cock-a-doodle-do!

With all the ballet going on around here, the girls have really gotten into dancing. They love listening to music and just dancing around (usually doing something approximating ballet). Here are the two of them just having fun dancing around on Christmas morning before and after breakfast.

Here's a bit of Christmas morning this year. I'm not sure why Molly was confused when she came out as to whether she was allowed to go over to her stocking or not. Silly girl. My favorite part is definitely Leah at the very end.

This was our first Christmas Eve service without Molly by our side. This was because she and the rest of her Cherub Choir were very involved in the service. This video is of the song they sang towards the beginning, Mary Had a Baby. Note that Molly appears to be the only one doing the hand motions they were taught. Later in there service they briefly appeared again as reindeer and then appeared as angels singing Gloria toward the end.

While the performances may be over, there's still a lot of The Nutcracker in our house. The girls frequently want to listen to the soundtrack and dance (usually the Waltz of the Flowers). Here's Leah being a little ballerina. Note the tutu, the medal around her neck, the headband across her eyes (which makes her a superhero, of course), the wand in her hand (because she's a fairy), and the lifted left leg.

Not to be outdone by her little sister, Molly insisted that Chad get a picture of her dancing as well.

Molly's last Nutcracker performance was in the Great Room in Historic Savage Mill. It was a much fancier venue than the first 6, as it is typically used for weddings and receptions. Molly's ready to go for the Children's March with her two compadres.

Promenade two by two.

One smiley mouse ready for the battle between the Nutcracker and the Mouse Queen.

One small victory…

followed by a bit of rest...

and a different mode of transportation.

Molly smiles so much during her performances. She really enjoys it.

It was another great show,

followed by flowers for all the ballerinas. Molly was thrilled!

Molly kept up her regular ballet class in addition to her Nutcracker rehearsals and performances. The last class before Christmas was Visitor's Day, so Grams, Pop, Aunt EA, and Aunt Caroline joined Chad and I to see what they did in a typical class. I believe this was their Superman stretch.

They definitely work on balance and posture. Here Molly is balancing a bean bag on her head while standing on one foot.

Molly loves ballet and has fun at every lesson.