Christmas Fun!

Christmas Day was full of family and fun.  Ahead of our traditional Christmas tree-shaped fruit tart, we went ahead and let the girls open their stockings.

They were excited to get "real" yo-yos.  They've had a handful of yo-yos here and there, but never ones that were very stable.  These held much more promise...and it didn't take any time for the girls to master them...at least far beyond any skills their mommy ever dreamed of.

In addition to their yo-yos, the girls got balsa wood airplanes, a little wooden fish craft kit, some sweets...and...MUCH to their surprise: WALKIE-TALKIES!!!  They were giddy!!!

Our precious girls were as tickled as anything to give us the goodies they'd made.  The very best gifts of all were the heartfelt notes they wrote, proclaiming why Mommy is the best mommy ever...Daddy is the best daddy ever...Miki and Alex are the best black kitties.  What precious hearts these girls have!

The girls got some plenty of books, and their *big* gift was a fort building kit.  We made a fort right away in the den.  Draped with a couple of sheets, it made the perfect place for them to cuddle their walkie-talkies and read their new books.

We experimented the day after Christmas with building a tent-shaped fort.  It's super cool (for all of us!)!

And Christmas morning was made all the better by seeing our fur babies enjoy the hoopla.  They enjoyed their new toys, of course...but equally as much, they enjoyed the stockings and wrapping paper.

Miki on his stocking :)

Alex with his new monkey :)

A Merry Christmas was had by all!

December to Remember

Wow...I knew it had been a long time since I blogged.  I winced to see it's been THREE MONTHS.  Wowza.  I missed it, for sure...and I know I'm going to kick myself one day, too.

I guess there's no time like the present to try to catch up a bit...so I'm going with a few snapshots to try to recapture some of what I missed.

December was, of course, full of holiday cheer.  And woven in and around the festivities, we had our usual fun, too...

Easy Bake Oven fun!  Watching anxiously!

Baby B...give her a book and a warm fire...she's set!

Baby A made herself at home on a blanket...and Miki was quick to join her!

Black cats are hard to photograph, I'm often reminded...but I got a good one of Miki in the sunlight.  Meow!

We had some fun school adventures, too...

The girls did "money posters" for their math class...Susan B. Anthony and the two-dollar bill.  They did a great job!

Roller skating field trip!  Thankfully, no casualties this time!

And then there's our countdown calendar, which held many fun activities...

Decorating the tree!

Making gingerbread houses (thanks to my most amazing friend for hosting!!!)!

New fuzzy Christmas pajamas!

Painting a canvas...Baby A chose a reindeer!

Baby B painted a snowman!

This holiday will stand out for me in a few sweet ways...ones that I hope I always remember...

The girls were so helpful in the kitchen this year!  In particular, they did a great job of making sand tarts and sugar cookies...rolling the dough into little balls.  Be still my heart...it was so much fun for all of us.

The girls surprised me with a countdown calendar of my own!  Each day had a treat of some sort, usually a chocolate they'd pack in my lunch bag.  What precious little hearts these girls have!

And the girls' countdown calendar ended with their very favorite activity, one they look forward to all year, it seems!  The now-famous candy cane hunt!

They did a great job taking turns with the clues, too!

It was a whirlwind month, packed full of fun!

The Sweetest Thing This Christmas

This was such a sweet Christmas.  It warms my heart how the girls have been excited over the dearest things.

…their Candy Cane Hunt.  They’ve been asking about it since Day 1 of their Advent calendar.  They were SO excited to finally get the nod on Christmas Eve.  And they were so good about taking turns reading the clues.

…Mommy’s Christmas breakfast.  I didn’t realize this made such an impression on the girls, but my A has been talking about Christmas breakfast for days.  The girls think it’s a huge treat to eat Mommy’s fruit tart – in the shape of a Christmas tree – and from holiday plates, too!  On Christmas morning, I was buzzing around early and I heard the girls upstairs over the monitor.  B: "I hear Mommy making Christmas breakfast!"  A: "I know! That's my favorite thing!"

…giving presents to Mommy and Daddy.  The girls have been working for weeks on presents for us.  They’ve asked for gift bags, which we discovered this morning were filled with special drawings and messages from them to us.  They wanted us to open our gifts the very first thing, long before they opened anything themselves.

Excited to give Daddy the mug they picked out themselves!  B spied this Superman mug and said, "It's Daddy!"

My heart is very full at these girls’ hearts…such sweet blessings we have at Christmas, and every day.

Reality Strikes This Holiday Season

(This post is not nearly as ominous as the title might lead one to believe...but I'm still chuckling over this "stark" exchange!)

Since the girls were small, they’ve desperately wanted to help decorate the Christmas tree.  Each year, I’ve devised some age-appropriate (and finite) task for them to do.  Certainly their involvement has progressed over time, but it’s always been very orchestrated.

This year, the girls just shy of seven, I was ready to turn over more reigns to them.  Hubby pulled the high boxes out of the storage closet in the basement.  I pulled out the lower boxes and began to unpack specific things from them.  I told the girls they could make trips upstairs, carrying small loads.  Baby B helped kick things off, and Baby A was in for the long haul.

Once everything was upstairs, Hubby and I assembled the tree and put the lights on.  The girls watched with rapt enthusiasm…although B was not sold that the lights would be “pretty” until we finally plugged them in.

After a quick vacuuming session, it was time for the girls to start the real fun!

While I unwrapped one box of ornaments, I told them they could take others from their boxes.  I directed them to make a pile of empty boxes and a pile of ornaments.  They were so cute, looking at each one…talking about which ornament belonged to whom, and when they’d made some of their crafty ones.

When everything was out, it was time to decorate the tree.  “Have at it!” I told the girls.  I encouraged them to hang a variety of types…our collectible silver bells interspersed with our handmade creations.  We had a small stepstool to help us reach heights, and Baby A, in particular, was great about asking for help here and there to reach just the right branch.

(B is on the stepstool here, and A is doing her best to reach just the right branch.)

It didn’t take long for the girls’ enthusiasm to wane, though. 

“I’m tired!”  “This is hard work!”  “Can I go do something else?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself.  It IS hard work! 

My precious little ones…this is an early glimpse for you that grown-up things are not always full of “fun”.  Enjoy being a kiddo while it lasts!!!  Hee hee! 

The Day Before "The Very Crazy Day"

The day before “The Very Crazy Day” was supposed to be a fun one.  I was [mostly] off work, and the girls had their first field trip AND their school Christmas party.

The girls were SO excited about their field trip to the skating rink.  I don’t think they quite knew what to expect from skating, but they were ECSTATIC to be riding the school bus.

I met the kiddos at the skating rink.  I had full intentions of skating myself…until I saw how hard it was to keep a small child afloat on skates for the first time.  The kindergarten students were supposed to be matched with a fifth grader to help them.  Baby A took off with her “friend K” (as she calls her).  She wanted zero help from her mommy.  [Baby A also took the buddy system VERY literally.  She followed K everywhere.  Thank goodness for the grace of this sweet fifth grader!  She was so kind to A.]

Baby B, meanwhile, had a very tight grip on my arm.  I coaxed B as best I could, and she finally opened up a little bit when her teacher offered to take her around the rink.  Baby A was “skating” by the end of the two hours.  She wasn’t whizzing around, exactly, but she could get where she needed to go.  Baby B was still pretty tentative, but she was making it, too.

Baby A, going it alone!

Baby A and Mrs. Mc!

Both girls were EXHAUSTED at the end of the two hours.  Baby A took off her skates (and followed K to the canteen area to sit with her fifth grade friends…HA!).  Baby B started crying a little bit.  That was really out of character, but I chalked it up to her being tired and very overstimulated.  Not only were these kiddos trying to balance themselves on skates, there were all sorts of crazy lights (and no lights, at one point!), and the music was LOUD.  [Skating rinks haven’t changed much in the past 25 years.]

I gave the girls hugs and told them I’d see her at their party that afternoon.

I had such a fun time at the girls’ school.  I got to help orchestrate the dividing of the gifts.  (While I have strongly mixed emotions about that…to be detailed in another post), I loved seeing the kiddos' faces.  And I got to see the kiddos eat waaaay too much sugar.  (Again, mixed emotions, but) it was pretty cute.

I spent time first in A’s class, before I headed next door to see B.  [Their teachers are fantastic, helping me float between the two classes.]  I gave B hugs, and the first thing she said was, “Mommy, my arm hurts.”

I asked her to move it this way, that way, every way, and she did.  I told her she probably just bruised it skating, and that she’d feel better the next day.  [The next day was, of course, The Very Crazy Day.  To be continued.]

After the girls’ parties, I got to carry home two sweaty, sticky, exhausted, but very happy kiddos.  The first field trip and holiday parties were in the books!

So Much Super Stuff!!!

I have been absolutely terrible about carving out time to write over the past few months.  I won’t lament that [here]…but I am very thankful to have jotted down a few gems over the past few weeks.  Super stuff, for sure!

1)    When GG was here for Thanksgiving, we surprised her by having uploaded her picture to JibJab, the video making site.  We were all in hysterics, seeing her dance online to Feliz Navidad, the girls along beside her.  She had never seen anything like it, and just couldn’t quit laughing.

2)    In the fall, a children’s author came to visit the girls’ school.  They were so impressed, and they told me all about what he said.  When we brought out our Christmas books for the season, my A noticed he illustrated one of their books.  “HENRY COLE!!!!!  Mommy, HENRY COLE!!!!!  He came to our school!!!!!  HENRY COLE!!!!!”  I LOVE her enthusiasm…AND that she would read the name of the illustrator by herself!!!!!

3)    One of our first Christmas activities was to make snowflakes.  I got out some coffee filters and showed the girls how to fold and cut them.  The girls were intrigued.  And when B finished hers, she must have said five times, in awe, “Mommy!  It’s just so beautiful!!!”

4)    I took the girls to see Rudolph the Musical at our local performing arts center.  It was our first time to go to a show there, and the girls were in awe.  What a pleasure it was for me to take them...to introduce them to one of my childhood favorites, at that!  And My A, in particular, was sitting on the edge of her seat!  I’d prepped the girls that the Abominable Snow Monster would be a part of the show.  They were nervous, but they both did great, keeping it in perspective.  My A later said that was her favorite part of the program.  HA!

5)    The girls learned (maybe from school? as we didn’t focus much on it during our reading at home?) to name the 8 reindeer.  They are fiercely passionate about doing so, any time they see a drawing of Santa and his reindeer…and then they interrupt whatever story or situation to break into song about “the most famous reindeer of all”.  Hee hee!

An elf and a reindeer...my loves!!!

6)    We had a really crazy day on Friday before Christmas.  It’s a post (or two) in itself, involving numerous X-rays and a potentially broken arm.  When the day finally closed on a high note (with the option for us to just watch B for any signs of distress), I told her we should celebrate at the Dairy Queen.  That baby girl looked like she had a new lease on life…that was definite cause for a celebration!

7)    During our Crazy Day on Friday, I told B at one point (before it was all over), “It’s been a crazy day.”  She tearfully replied, “And I don’t like it!”  Me, either, Baby Girl!!!

8)    On the first weekend of Christmas break, we were having a pretty ordinary day.  We were doing laundry, coloring, cleaning up a bit.  Out of the blue, my precious B said, “Mommy, I just love days like this!”  Me, too!!!  Oh, how I miss our unstructured time!!!

9)    One morning during Christmas, my A asked, “Are we going out today?”  I originally told her no, to which she exclaimed, “YES!!!  I can wear my pajamas ALL DAY LONG!!!”  I later remembered we had an errand to run.  She reluctantly got dressed…but she came home and put her PJs back on!

10) WE GOT KITTENS!!!  The girls have been looking forward to this for months and months…and so have we.  They are the sweet big sisters to those furry babies!

11) We got our kittens on December 21, and of course we had to make stockings for them.  We decided to use the stockings the girls brought home from kindergarten…we cut out the kittens’ initials from felt and glued them on.  The girls were so excited to hang them over the fireplace!

12) A couple of days after we got the kittens, A asked to spend Quiet Time in the basement with them and her daddy.  She “napped” on the couch with them (I CANNOT believe she slept…but she was quiet for a good while!).  Afterwards she said, “This was the best quiet time EVER!”

13) We went to a sandwich shop over the holiday break, one we hadn’t been too in a long time.  I could not believe that B walked in and immediately remembered that her daddy spilled a cup of water the last time we were there – a year ago!  These girlies don’t forget anything!!!

14) Before Christmas, B was taking guesses at what Daddy bought for Mommy.  When she realized she was right, she said, “That’s what you got her for her birthday, and for Mother’s Day!”  (Yes, I love dark chocolate…but Hubby is not very original.)  B’s horror and her accusation just made me laugh!

15) On the topic of presents, A worked hard to wrap up a piece of her artwork for each of us.  I overheard her ask B, “Do you have your gifts made for Mommy and Daddy yet?”  B said, “I don’t need to make anything…they already have the best gifts ever,” referring to herself and her sister.  Hahaha!!!

16) On Christmas Eve, we were buzzing around…doing the last few preparations for the big day.  During Quiet Time, I told the girls that Mommy needed a nap.  My A asked if she could snuggle with me and nap, too.  I’m so thankful I took her up on that…we piled on the love seat, stretched out, and that precious baby slept in my arms.  Merry Christmas to me!!!

17) Baby A has been so affectionate lately (not that that’s a new thing).  One of her favorite things to say is, “I wish I could snuggle with you every single minute of every single day.”  Me, too, Baby Girl!!!

18) I usually go up to check on the girls in their beds before I go to sleep.  As I pulled up the covers around A, she stirred ever so slightly…and then she whispered, “Thank you, Mommy.”  Heart. Melts.

Super Stuff, for sure!!!

Pictures from Our Christmas Morn

After a marathon trip to Sweet Home Alabama, we were thankful to have such a wonderful, low-key, family-centered Christmas Day at home.

The girls love the toys they got...they've played and played and played.  It's been simply blissful for us all!

Here is the story of our Christmas Day, as told [mostly] in pictures.

The girls got up to find a very complex marble run!

Moments later, it was in a pile...but that just prompted the girls to come up with their own design.

One of the huge highlights was giving Sasha her gifts...

She LOVES her catnip banana!!!

Sweet sissies, watching their furry sister Sasha playing.

The girls were ecstatic to open their stockings!  New art supplies were a big hit!

And then it was time for a big, yummy breakfast.

My Christmas tree tart and bacon-wrapped smokies...yum!

Opening gifts!

Mommy and her little penguins...LOVE.

My favorite picture of the day!

Sasha loves her new bed, put in her favorite dining room chair, in the sun.

And the rest of our day, and the couple of days since, have looked a lot like this...bliss!

So thankful for a wonderful {continued!} holiday with my loves.

SUPER STUFF!!!

At LONG last, here is my SUPER STUFF {sorta-kinda} catch-up post.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, the girls asked me if they could have a Daddy-Daughter day.  I told them to ask their daddy…and apparently he’d already told them to ask me.  The girls were THRILLED to see Mommy off to go grocery shopping in Daddy’s car, while they prepared to go out to lunch.  I’m told they had a great lunch AND made a stop by Walmart to pick up some cat food.  (My hat is off to the husband for braving Walmart with the girls on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, too!!!)

We went on a great family walk the weekend after Thanksgiving, too.  The girls get SO excited when Daddy comes with us.  Without both my hands occupied, Mommy took along the camera and snapped a few (or a hundred) pictures.

We joked with A that she has a "nest" in that tree...she calls it 'her' tree now!

My reflection in B's glasses.  Love.

Showing off their mittens!

The girls crack me up with a handful of continued mispronunciations.  Baby A calls kiwi, ‘kew-ee’.  She can say it correctly, but seems to choose not to.  “But it’s kew-ee to me!” she insisted recently.

Baby B still says interesting as ‘inch-resting’.  She doesn’t seem to be able to say it correctly, despite her stellar pronunciation of virtually every other word in the dictionary.  That makes it so sweet to this mama’s ears…hearing her talking so seriously, so grown-up about something, and proclaiming how “inch-resting” it is to her.

B was talking to A about something Christmas-related.  “Sissy [A] Elf,” she called her in the sweetest voice.  Melt.

B cracked me up when she commented – of her own accord – on A’s choice of red-and-white striped reindeer socks with her pink tennis shoes.  “A’s shoes look good with those reindeer socks!” she declared.  Hahaha!

The girls were chatting in the back seat of the car one day on the way to school.  “When we grow up, there will be two mommies in the kitchen, not just one, like you.  That way we can cook faster, and Daddy will be happy, because he is always hungry.”

Another funny quote, from that same conversation…”Daddy goes to work so we have money on the days when he is off.”  I guess we don’t need money on the days he works???

The girls have been practicing dribbling a ball, off and on, for a year or so.  It finally clicked with Baby A last week.  She counted 35 times that she dribbled!  And I know she’s done even more at once…it’s pretty amazing!

Both girls love to come show me how sweaty they get, running around in the basement.  It’s such a badge of honor for them.  HA!

B was sitting by the fireplace a couple of days ago.  She called A over and said, “Kiss me, Sissy!”  I guess A came in close enough for B to plant a kiss, and then she said, “You have to kiss me back!!!”  HA!

We recently let the girls start using placemats, and they think they are SUCH big kids!!!  So far they’ve done a pretty good job at keeping them clean.  It’s one more step towards a normal table setting…hooray, and sniff-sniff.

I asked Baby A to go upstairs and get two ponytail holders from her bathroom (as they tend to migrate upstairs by the end of the week).  She brought down a handful to last us the week, without me asking her.  I just thought it was so neat to see her thought process.  The next day she picked up both sets of pajamas and put them in the laundry basket, without me asking her.  It doesn’t always happen, but she can be such a responsible baby girl.

On a whim a couple of weeks ago, I started teaching the girls some volleyball moves.  They LOVE it!!!  They will hit balls (or try to hit balls) back and forth for ages.  This mama loves it, too.  I can’t wait until we’re more reliably able to pass to each other…so fun!!!

Last Friday Daddy had an unexpected snow day from school.  Since the weather wasn’t supposed to come until later that day, we went out for a family breakfast.  We hadn’t been in quite a while, so it was a big treat.  The girls cleaned their plates…and then part of mine!

This dates back a few weeks, but I didn’t want to forget, as I laugh every time I think about it.  We had gone down to Nashville for a little shopping and then lunch.  The three of us were in the bathroom stall together (a big one, thank goodness), when “The Thrill is Gone” came over the sound system.  The girls have never heard that song, to my knowledge, but Baby B started strumming her imaginary air guitar and swaying slowly to the rhythm…all while Mommy was going potty.  I could have just fallen over, it struck me as so funny.

Also going back a few weeks, Baby A called me in the middle of the night.  I went up to her room and found her sitting in the middle of the floor, between the beds.  “Mommy!  I can’t find my blanket!” she cried.  I chuckled and told her her blanket was on her bed.  I tucked her back in, and she went to sleep.  It wasn’t until a week or so later that it dawned on me, I think she fell out of bed.  Poor kiddo!  She’s one tough cookie, though.

And from the second night (I think) we were in the house…the guy was here from the gas company, working on our fireplace.  Hubby went outside with him to look at the gas grill.  Baby A followed them on the inside of the house, looking through the windows.  “Mommy!!!  Why is Daddy going to the edge of darkness???”  She was so alarmed, and it cracked me up how she characterized it.  She’s been using “darkness” a lot recently, instead of “dark”.  That just seems so foreboding!  

Lots of SUPER I don't want to forget!!!

Super Stuff from a Sunday

Sunday was a really busy…but really good…day.

I think this is the first time I remember the girls waking up early, talking about something exciting.  Their clock usually turns green at 6:30, and it’s very rare I hear from them beforehand.  Sunday morning, though, it was in the neighborhood of 5:40 when I heard B “talking”.  It wasn’t long before A called me to take her to the potty.  When I went in their room, B said, “Mommy!  Tomorrow we get to start our countdown calendar!”  It dawned on me that’s what had them so excited.

I made cinnamon rolls (not homemade) for breakfast, and then the girls watched me get a chicken dish in the crockpot and a cake in the oven.

The girls played a little bit while I cleaned up the kitchen, and then they joined me at the kitchen table.  While I addressed holiday cards, they did some Christmas drawings.  We just got our Christmas books out on Friday, and that was clearly their inspiration.  They kept drawing manger scenes…they were there, as were different animals…and there was always a Baby Jesus.  Except sometimes Jesus looked like a cat.  (It’s the thought that counts, right?)

The girls made a Christmas collage for Daddy to take to work with him, and then they supervised while I put the garland on the mantle.

We turned on some Christmas music to keep us focused.  The girls weren’t too keen on *my* music (a collection of Top 40 hits through the years), but they were grooving strong to a kids’ sing-along CD.

Daddy came home and we had lunch, and then the girls watched me make icing for my cake.  They kept saying, “It looks like a wedding cake, Mommy!”  That’s gotta make a mama feel good.  :)  I made a couple of cupcakes for them, and they had a great time trying their hand at decorating.  I was impressed they both managed a letter “S” [for Sasha, of course].

While the girls enjoyed some “quiet time” with Daddy in the basement – watching a show on Animal Planet – Mommy ran a couple of quick errands.  When I got home, the girls were playing a made-up game of Duck-Duck-Goose.  Since they only had two players, they enlisted a big exercise ball…when the ball was the “goose”, they had to work together to push the ball around the imaginary circle…which drove them into hysterics.  I was in hysterics, too, watching them playing together.

At last it was time to put up the Christmas tree, and the girls were ecstatic.

They were on Carpet Watch, picking up any of the “needles” that fell from the tree as Daddy and I assembled it.  They were pretty patient through us putting on the lights.  At last it was time to decorate!   

They got each ornament out of its box, and rang every bell that we had.  They kept wondering which bell Sasha would like on the bottom of the tree, to ring with her tail.  They laid out a couple for her to examine, and she graced us with her presence and sniffed the bells, which thrilled the girls.

The girls did a really good job of hanging the ornaments.  Baby A kept asking me to pick her up so she could reach a higher branch.  I did that once…before discovering she’s too heavy for me to hold like that for very long!  Gulp.  That then became Daddy’s job.

It was so cute to hear the girls say, “Oh, I remember this one!”  and, “I remember making this in the three-year old class!”

This year, for afternoon snack, the girls got to have the cupcake they’d iced.  I couldn’t believe they remembered their snack from December 1 LAST YEAR, when we put up our tree.  “We had popcorn last year, Mommy.  We sat in the foyer and ate while you and Daddy put up the tree.”  Wow!

Even on such a busy day, we’re creating memories, alright…and I love it.