Christmas 2011

Before we get to Christmas present, we've got a few pictures from Christmas past.

Here's Maddie, in 2005 and in 2006

 

 And sweet Marina in 2006.  And then both the big sisters again in 2007.  Time flies away, much too fast.


These days, we're three little angels, all dressed in pink.

And it's a good thing we're angels, because that means we clean up at Christmas!
Here we are Christmas morning in Brentwood. That's Taylor Swift looking on, from the television. 

The highlights at home this year were the kitchen (Jess), the guitar (Marina) and a big girl bike (Yours truly!). Marina also got an MP-3 player that was preloaded with all of our (Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez) favorites.  Such fun! And right on time too, since we loaded up in the car at noon for the 8 hour trip to North Carolina. We got to Chapel Hill in time for a good night's sleep.  The next day, we got to see all our Quinlan cousins! We had such a good time with the cousins.  We also found that you can take the girls out of Nashville, but you cannot take the Nashville out of the girls.  This is true even if you are very new to

Nashville, and it has barely had time to get the music in you. As you can see, a little time in Nashville is just time enough.

 

We stayed with Grandma Q until Wednesday, then got back in the car for the 10 hour trip to Florida to see the Masons!

We got in early enough to open presents!

That was a lot of excitement. So much that one of Marina's teeth popped right out of her mouth on Thursday night!

Well, how do you top that kind of excitement?  You can't! But you can go play at the ocean.

And then, we got back in time for one more night of presents.  It just does not stop around here! Aunt Rose and Cousin Wesley had lots of goodies for us too!

Next week, come back for the New Years festivities, which began in earnest today with Happy Noon Year's Eve party at the local bookstore.  Wow! Does it get any better?!?

Things have been winding down a little while we've been winding up!  Winter break means the end of swimming and breaks from school.  While I wrapped up fall swimming, the sisters hid in the locker room! I've been swimming since last June, so I am definitely ready to try a new sport.  I thought long and hard about my many choices, and settled on Irish Dance.  I like the jig, I think. 

Marina is excited to try the Irish Dance too, but since basketball just started, she'll have to wait until March. 

Marina is happy to wait, because she loves basketball.  It's hard work for her (on account of all those 6 year old boys she plays with!), but she says that is what makes it more important to her than an easy sport.  On Monday night the whole team went to Vanderbilt for a college basketball game.

 

We also took some time to enjoy the season. 

We've been super duper busy! We've been decorating and baking and eating!

We've seen the local lights and also some local Santas.

 And the sisters went to a party while I was in school Monday:

 


The weather has been pretty nice, so they road their bikes to the library, where the party was, and back.

 

 Since they got a party with Mom on Monday, I got her for my school party Tuesday.  It was a half day, and basically just a big party day from beginning to end.  Just how I like it.

 
And then today, we were all home, so Mom and some friends took all the kids to Dolphin Tale at the dollar movies- which was great for the bigs, but not so great for the littles.  Popcorn EVERYWHERE.  Oh well! Great news though- our Nashville Zoo membership is reciprocal with the Clearwater Aquarium- so we're probably going to get to see Winter- the dolphin for Dolphin Tale- when we're in Florida next week! Hope we can squeeze it in!

Broke down Durango and a little help from our friends.

Wednesday was a sad day for our dad.  His Durango, which he had longer than Mommy even, bit the dust once and for all.  It had lots of years and lots of miles, and it required frequent fill ups, but it was Dad's, and he really, really liked it! Mom did not want to drive Dad back and forth to Nashville two times a day with all of us kids, so she gave Dad her keys, and Laura's mom (Mrs. Abby) picked Mom and the sisters up from school and took them all to some playdates and took Mom to a Preschool Moms get together, and was an all around super duper very good friend. Mrs Abby is hard to beat, as far as new friends go.  On Fridays the little ones don't have school- but they still like to have fun! Mrs. Abby trucked them over to Mrs. Kate's for some cookie decorating!

What a super crazy team these two make!

After Kate's house, the kids made Pizza at Pie in the Sky.

We have had lots and lots of fun, like always. 
We also have had a lot of fun around our house.  Which is good, because when we were not with Mrs. Abby, we have been at home.  We sold the old yellow corner chair, and made way for the bean bags.  We also got a little cable going down there, so I can go somewhere else when my sister puts on Dora the Explorer!

Having a playroom means having some playdates.  Except we do not stay in the playroom.  We like to spread the mess lots of places.

 On the weekend, I got some cookie time, which I missed on Friday while I was in big girl school.  Dad was buying a car while we were icing cookies!

Daddy ended up buying a 2012 Hyundai Sonata on Saturday night. He likes it because it gets way, WAY better mileage than his Durango did, and also it can fit the three boosters/ car seats across the back.

Finally, Mom wanted you to see sweet Jessa reading some pictures from All Fall Down.  Overall, she is getting bigger than Mom likes.  But even Mom has to admit, Jessa only gets cuter with the months.

The playroom!



Big things are happening under the house in Brentwood!  Our Playroom, once a yuck, dark and dirty converted garage is now (da da da DUM!) the playroom!

Here are some before and afters.  Mom was very gung-ho to make this a do it yourself project, but neither she nor Dad could deal with the floor.  So they got Lumber Liquidators to install the laminate.  Much better, I think!



 Before

After

 


We are very happy for all our space to play! On play side, we have music, art and books.  On the living side we have a lounge and a dress up section. Luckily, we were able to pull most of the items in the room from other places in the house, except for the new toy storage, to help keep us tidy-- and the new TV, which Dad got at 12 AM from Target on Black Friday.
Inside is way more fun now, but we still like to play in the world a lot too!  This week, Mom took the sisters to the Frist Art Museum in Nashville with our friends Laura and Grant. They made lots of things- like papyrus bookmarks, paintings and scribbles! They brought me back a bookmark, since I have school on Mondays and the little kids don't.

Jess and Laura also got into the blocks and caused a little crazyness in the museum, as they are apt to due.

Over the weekend, we had a lot to do with Marina.  At 8am, she had her first basketball game! The Lightening won 12-4, which was very exciting.

After Basketball, we ran right over to the preschool for Marina's Christmas Pageant, which was very sweet!

Jess loved it, as you can see!