her little ways

There are somethings that are soooo Mia. Needing four mini marshmallows in her hot chocolate every morning...because she's four years old. Napping with her mama on days she's not in school and always stealing her mama's pillow :) Having to climb up and jump into the tub. When her hoodie is on, it must be zipped up. Every school morning, while I'm getting Lily into the car, Mia runs around a tree over and over again until she's breathing hard. She stops and says, 'I've run around my tree. Now I'm ready for school'. We LOVE her little ways.

4 Shots

Another day without daddy, and we didn't know what to do with ourselves. Bonnie to the RESCUE! We met their family down at Waterloo for breakfast....a yummy yummy yummy breakfast.

Before they got there, Mia and I had a few moments alone. I took four shots...the one of the tree was Mia's idea. While sipping her lemonade, she looked way up then asked if I'd brought her camera. Nope. She paused and then asked if I would take a picture of the tree...it's beautiful, she said.

Tree Trimming & Cookie Baking

This year, Mia is a BIG help. She wants to be right in the middle of everything. She's enjoyed laying under the tree while I was putting all the lights up. Daryl topped it very nicely with our star...it's only fallen on me once. Mia was soooo cute trying to hang ornaments on the tree. Her first one, a red apple, she hung on the tippy tip of a light bulb. Then she moved on to attaching ornaments to the wires of the lights instead of the tree branches. Oh, and ALL the snowmen and to be together...like a centimeter apart! Mia's totally into my snow globe collection. She'll sit on the floor with one for a loooong time just turning it over and watching the snow slowing fall...the ones with a music box in the base are her favorites. She's only broken one...now they are up on the counter and will be moved down per her request...one at at time while supervised :)

Then we baked many many many sugar cookies in the shapes of snowflakes, candy canes and christmas trees. I'm waiting for a peaceful block of time this week to sit down with her and decorate away. She had her own little rolling pin, but I LOVED when she used mine that my mom gave to me....it's what she used while I was growing up...very sentimental.

p.s. anytime we do anything christmassy, Mia wants to wear her elf helper hat. I sometimes don my santa hat, but it's a little itchy