Rounding out December

Once we arrived back from our Dubai trip, the remainder of the month flew by. Madi had one more week of school remaining, including an afternoon where the twins attended to see if they are prepared to start in January (they are!). The rest of the month has been spent working on potty training, injuring my back right before Christmas, teething toddlers, and battling slight coughs and colds that are being tossed between everyone in our household. But we've balanced things out with lots of fun like crafts, cookies, gingerbread houses, and movies (we've now seen Moana an impressive amount of times this week).

1. We attended the BBG ball just after we returned from Dubai. It was a lot of fun and a great excuse for a night out!
2. Practicing selfies using table props at BBG ball. We are old. 
3. Evy bundled and jumping outside!
4. Liv lounging on her PB chair.
5. Enjoying the decorations and dinner at Port Baku Mall after the twins' afternoon at school.
6. Sleeping children are so dang precious. I snuck a kiss and a picture one evening.
7. Evy snuggling an exhausted Daddy after a night of waking between coughing and teething. Thankfully it's the final set of molars and we will be finished.
8. Madi's end of school Christmas program where she was the reindeer.
9. Madi enjoying her sisters after the Christmas program.

We spent on Saturday afternoon decorating gingerbread houses as a family. I had found a Wilton kit of miniature houses online that my mom was able to bring to us in November. They were a much more manageable size for our girls' ages and they loved getting to decorate two. I will definitely be ordering these for the next few years.

1. As soon as Madi's school break commenced we began potty training for the twins (it's required for them to start Montessori in January otherwise I'd have probable waited until the summer!). They did pretty good the first week, but being out and about over Christmas we didn't want to risk it and went back to pull ups. It was a slight step backwards, but they've leaped ahead this past week and we down to none or maybe one minor accident. 
2. Reindeer craft time. The girls each made two and loved picking their googly eyes.
3. I bought this mug in Dubai. I loved it and couldn't wait to use it. The first morning I set it on the coffee machine when we were back home..."Mommy! I love your new coffee mug. It says 'D for Daddy' ". 
4. Cotton candy at the Baku Christmas Markets in Fountain Square.
5. An attempt at a Santa picture. We weren't going to try and get everyone looking.
6. Madi loves to snuggle Zoey. Zoey is incredibly tolerant.
7. CeCe discovering a new nesting place on a basket of blankets.
8. It's no secret I am obsessed with the Marius pattern that originated in Norway. I tried to buy basically everything I could before we moved. One of my Norwegian friends picked this up on her visit home this summer and I love it!
9. We've been letting Madi stay up late during the break and practice her letters. I made dots for her to trace the S, but otherwise she's been doing the letters pretty much on her own. 

We hosted cookie decorating for our Friday playgroup and put these kids to work decorating over 80 egg free sugar cookies. We also used an egg free icing recipe (on both the cookies and our gingerbread houses above). They were absolutely delicious (think those bakery pink frosted sugar cookies consistency). Here are the recipes for both: Egg Free Sugar Cookies (I omitted the lemon zest) and Egg Free Royal Icing.

We are looking forward to a quiet New Year's Eve and excited to welcome 2018!