NYE

We spent NYE with our friends the Bonfiglios and Stahls. We had so much fun chatting, catching up, eating and watching our kids play together.

Always a challenge getting 7 of our favorite kiddos to pose for a picture, thank goodness we have three cameras snapping away with hopes that one of us will get that picture that all of us can use.

This NYE get together was also special because in a few weeks the Stahls are leaving us to go somewhere warmer...Carrollton, TX! We will miss them terribly and cherish the times we have spent together. Thank goodness that Skype has been invented so that Lily and Lorelei can yell back and forth to each other and we look forward to OBX vacations in the years to come!

Yummy

We can now add Cheerios to Emma's list of snacks that she'll eat. Yum, Yum!

Elf and Advent Update

We definitely have a sad little girl in our house since we had to say good-bye to our wonderful little elf, Fern. She actually got to stay with us an extra day so she could open presents with us but that night Santa came and got her to take her home to the North Pole.

Lily did not want to say bye to her and continues to ask where she is when she gets up in the morning. Usually she says, 'Fern's gone, that's sad.' I told her that Santa allows her to come back for special things, so maybe for Lily's birthday she'll make an appearance, who knows?!?

But, Fern had fun playing in our house until she left Christmas night. She loved getting into food for some reason. She had a bowl of Kix cereal, some Cheerios and even spelled out Lily's name, she made a really small gingerbread house, enjoyed some of Emma's snacks, gave the girls special outfits for our Special Day and had some left over popcorn. Fern played in the laundry, had a puppet show behind a pillow, tried to go for a ride in a little sleigh, swung from the ceiling fan and helped Santa fill their stockings on Christmas Eve. Fern was a very busy little elf during her stay in our house and we really enjoyed the Christmas spirit she instilled in all of us. We look forward to her coming next year and we heard she has a sister and are wondering if she'll come too?

As for our Advent calendar house, it was just as fun and is missed just as much as our fun Fern. The way I did these activities seemed to work out great. I made a list, printed out picture icons and wrote the activities on the back but left them all in a baggie. The morning of, before Lily got up, I decided what we would do that day and put that paper into the house. This way, I could pick and choose according to what our day had in store and what we would have time for. I also made these activities realistic and family fun things too. The second half of the month entailed two nights of Christmas light trips, a Special Day, getting dressed up to get our pictures taken, making Christmas cards for friends, helping our bird friends stay warm (I saved lint from the dryer and Lily put it in our front yard so the birds could use it for their nests), shopping for sister gifts, watching a Christmas movie, having hot chocolate, going to the library for Christmas books, making cookies, opening ornaments and sissy gifts and then of course, Merry Christmas!

Loving these two traditions we began this year and

now the countdown begins for December 2011!

Emma's Friends

Today, since the roads were Terrible, Daddy took the Trailblazer to work. This meant that the girls were staying home. And, no there were absolutely NO requests to go outside to play in the snow :). Instead we played all day and I tried to clean up the house as much as these two sweet little girls would let me. Here they are in Emma's crib getting to know all of Emma's new friends she got for Christmas. Every time she sees her friends she lets out a squeal and tries to lunge out of our arms into her crib to see them.

Snow Bunnies?!?

We got up this morning prepared to go out and play in the snow. Sleeping in and getting dressed in a number of layers got us outside finally around 11.

First up, we took a walk down our street to see how bad the roads really were. We walked to the furthest stop sign and after Lily fell for the second time on the ice we turned around to go back and build a snowman family.

Before we did that, our little girls were snow angels, enjoyed laying in and eating the snow.

And, finally we plopped Emma into the stroller covered in every blanket (since the wind was up to 30mph) so she could watch the family take shape. Lily and I made a snowman base and Daddy worked on one as well. And, that's as far as we got! You can see the two mounds of snow that were going to be made into snowmen BUT Little Miss Lily wanted to go inside. She said, "I cold. Want to go inside." So we did.

From the time we stepped outside until we made it back into the kitchen was a whopping 52 minutes. Daddy even tried to keep Lily outside with him while he cleaned off the cars but not even that could keep her out in the cold, white stuff. She did watch him from the door while she yelled,"Be careful, Daddy. Be careful."

Our girls are definitely NOT Snow Bunnies...

And, if you want to see the difference a year makes...Click Here.

Snow, Snow and More Snow!

The snow began falling last night around 830 and didn't stop! It was still snowing when we got up and continued all day long. It was gorgeous to watch and a great excuse to stay longer in our jammies and play with all of our new toys.

The only family member that was brave, and out of necessity, to go out was Maci girl. Poor thing didn't think she needed her little coat but it kept her dry at least.

Every time we walked by a window or the back door we just would gasp at amazement at how much snow we were actually getting. It wasn't the huge, slow-falling snowflakes but they were small and looked like flurries...but a lot of flurries and it just kept coming!

We finally measured at one point and we were at 13 inches and some spots were higher due to the wind drifts.

After this trip Mike did go out to dig Maci a path to the grass and around the side of the house although I'm not sure she actually used it as much as we would have liked her to.

A Very Merry Christmas

This was a very bittersweet Christmas this year. We did not travel, which was absolutely grand, but that meant that we were not with our families whom, we missed dearly. But, it was such an awesome experience finally being a parent on Christmas Eve, Christmas morning and seeing pure joy on our girl's faces. It was so much fun and I'm sure that we'll never forget our first Christmas at home.

Santa came to our house! He ate all of our cookies, Rudolph enjoyed a huge bite of his apple and Santa even left a note! He allowed Fern, our elf, to stay Christmas Day to open gifts with us.

The girls actually woke up at the same time, 7am. Emma was standing in her crib right at the door waiting for us with a huge smile on her face (which is the norm) and Lily yelled from her bed "Santa...Santa".

Opening Stockings

Santa brought the movies Lily specifically asked for in her letter to Santa, Polar Express for her and a Santa movie for Emma which turned out to be Santa Paws. He also brought a Little People Santa Train that he had set up on the floor!

Daddy and his girls

Opening Gifts

It took us a good 3 hours to open all of our gifts! We also learned that Lily is an 'open all of my gifts then play' kind of girl which was great since it probably would have taken ALL day to open gifts if she wanted to play with everything as she opened them. Emma had a great time, opened and half-opened some presents but had fun just climbing on boxes, helping Lily and watching.

As this was our first Christmas at home, it was for Maci too! Every year Maci has had to go to a kennel (which always had a Christmas turkey dinner, so it wasn't that bad) for Christmas. This year she was able to open gifts with us and enjoy a nice bone which she completely finished in one sitting! This is why she's spread out on the kitchen floor; tired, full and happy.

Merry Christmas

from our

messy house

to yours!

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve began with getting our last packages full of gifts from Aunts and Uncles. Lily loved helping open the boxes and helping put the gifts under the tree. With each package that came she just kept saying she couldn't wait until Christmas and that it was so exciting. And, yes it is exciting to watch the amount of presents under your tree grow by the day.

Mike and I decided that we would wait until Christmas Eve night to put out the gifts we had gotten the girls to make it that much more exciting.

During lunch we suffered a loss. Our Cookies for Santa plate lost it's battle with the ceramic tile floor. Can you guess the grabby hands that did this?? It wasn't the guilty little girl you see in the picture was it?

Our morning continued with more cookie baking! Today, cut-out sugar cookies and thumbprint cookies. Lily did great today. She listened extremely well, was very patient and was so excited to finally bake more cookies. When it was time to ice the cookies and decorate them she did great too. But, she taste tested a lot of the toppings :).

While we were baking and getting ready to get the house ready for Santa, Emma did a lot of playing. Finally we were able to see if the pack-n-play doubled as a ball pit and it worked like a charm. The girls had a lot of fun.

We then were able to go to our church for the first time on Christmas Eve. They offered three services this evening 5, 8, and 11 but we opted for the 5pm service just due to scheduling. There were a lot of kids at this service for obvious reasons I'm sure but otherwise not too crowded. I think our most favorite part was at the end when we all held lit candles, the lights were turned off and we all sang Silent Night, without music. It was the most quiet, surreal experiences we've had and it was amazing. The girls were mesmerized by the candlelight and were absolutely silent which definitely helped.

After returning home, taking a few pictures and changing we ate dinner. Our dinner, another tradition continuing, consisted of the leftover stuffed peppers and homemade pizza. Yep, the pizza is from my side of the family. We never really traveled during the holidays so the four of us would always make pizza as a family. So, we have adopted this as well as our Christmas Eve tradition.

Next was opening of ornaments. This tradition is from my side of the family, where we each get a new ornament for the tree and a new family ornament. Mike and I are in awe of my parent's tree and can't wait to see what ours will look like after almost 40 years of marriage. But, it's already fun to look back at the ornaments we have collected on trips and from our years together.

And, a new tradition that we've added...sister gifts. Lily and Emma shopped for each other and tonight they were able to give them to one another. Emma didn't know what was going on but absolutely loves the Ariel doll Lily picked out for her. And, Lily was so excited to not only get her sissy gift (a learn to dress doll) but to give Emma hers. It was so sweet to watch them be genuinely excited for each other and sharing their dolls.

The final stop of Christmas Eve was leaving cookies for Santa, an apple for Rudolph and a letter for Santa. This year, Lily wanted to ask Santa if Fern could stay with us to open all of our gifts instead of going back to the North Pole with him. She loves Santa and has like the 'Polar Express' girl has, a lot of Christmas Spirit.

L.C.P.

Lights. Last night we went to see Holiday Lights at the Beach at the oceanfront. It wasn't as grand as the Botanical Gardens but we're glad we went. Lily sat on my lap while Emma slept through the entire thing. Not sure we'll make this a yearly tradition or not but it was neat to see all of the lights on sand and watching the waves.

Cookies. This was the first opportunity, since Daddy could occupy Emma, that Lily and I could begin some baking. We did peanut butter kiss cookies. Working with a preschooler is definitely a lot of fun but it also makes you adjust your cookie making procedures :).

For example:

1. Had Lily cover pb balls with sugar, pick them up to place them on cookie sheet next to her.

~Lily was completely flattening the balls when transferring to the cookie sheet..Had to adjust~

2. Moved coookie sheet so I would transfer from the bowl of sugar.

~But Lily was still destroying the small pb balls in the bowl..Had to adjust~

3. I made the pb balls, dropped in bowl of sugar and this is when Lily took handfuls (huge handfuls of sugar) to dump on the cookie (and the table, the chair, the floor, her lap...) which then I took to put on the cookie sheet.

While the cookies were in the oven we unwrapped a whole bag of chocolate kisses and she helped push them into the baked cookies when they were done. Can you guess which one she did first??

Peppers. Mike and I have decided to incorporate both of our families traditions to make our own. This of course means food too. There are certain dishes that we have on Thanksgiving, a special meal on New Year's Day, and this year we get to start our Christmas meal tradition.

Today, the 23rd, I made Grammy's (Mike's mom) Stuffed Peppers. I had a recipe but as we all know, recipes are only as good as what you know about them. I knew a little but not enough so we called :). I spent a good amount of time on the phone and she talked me through the whole thing. I also made enough so that we had left overs for Christmas Eve, and both nights they were absolutely delicious!

You can see that Lily and Emma found other activities to keep them busy through the whole thing even if they were ready on time and I did much of it during their nap.

Loving all of our traditions.

'Tis The Season

for some shopping. No, this picture was not from today we are done with Christmas shopping but had to share how much they love their trips to Target and Sam's Club and the mall and Walmart and Kohl's and well pretty much anywhere. Mike is a little worried how much my girls have become my shopping partners already :).

Growing So Fast

Yesterday we took a trip to the library to get some Christmas books and we met our friends Miss Melissa, Chase, Kira and Leah there too. Melissa and I got to chat some but were more busy reading or chasing our kids around the children's section. (Hint: I didn't sit down)

Miss Emma was the one I had to chase. After finding the book, Polar Express, for Lily she was content. Emma on the other hand had different plans for this joint. She was everywhere. She is crazy. At one point I took my eyes off of her to say bye to our friends and I turned around and she had completely cleared an entire shelf of board books. Well, not an entire shelf but it seemed like it since I had to put them back...in order. She looks so tall and not like a baby baby anymore that I want her to stop growing, period.

And, this evening when Daddy got home they played soccer like they do most nights. Lily is in love with a baby jingle ball at the moment so that's what they're playing with but that's not really the point. The point is, well that Lily looks really grown-up in these pictures. She looks really tall, really skinny, with long hair (that was just cut a month and a half ago) and if you saw her kicking the ball it would make you shake your head even more.

I'm not sure how or when these two girls started really growing but they are and even though I'm really, really enjoying them... I'm not too excited of how fast it's all happening.

Happy Birthday Maci!

It's hard to believe that Maci and I have been together for 9 years (this Feb since I got her when she was 8 wks old). I was in college when I adopted her from the SPCA and when I saw her, I knew she would be my girl. We traveled to Richmond, from Salisbury, MD, where we lived for a few years and moved a few times and we ended up here in Va Beach and now you have a house with a huge backyard.

You are a great girl Maci even if you have become grumpy in your older age. I'm not sure why you get grumpy living with two girls who are absolutely infatuated with you, your tail, your bed, your food, letting you outside, really anything that you may be doing interests them. For you birthday present and early Christmas present we got you this really great bed that you LOVE. It's actually an orthopedic bed which has been helping with your bad back legs. Happy Birthday Maci!

Maci as an adorable, perfect little puppy

Fun Sunday

Despite having no naps yesterday and getting home rather late last night Lily still got up by 730 this morning. The first thing she did was grab her Princess program and settle on the couch to do some reading. She loves having something to look at to remind her of the show.

Then, this morning Daddy played with the girls while I made Emma her blanket she has been wanting. Yes, she actually picked out fabric while we were at the fabric store and wouldn't let go of it. So, I made her one and she really has good taste.

While I was falling in love with my new sewing machine Daddy, Lily and Emma were building forts. Or, I thought they were forts until I was politely informed, by Lily, that they were not forts it was a tunnel. You crawled through their little house and into the tunnel that was created by the couch cushions. See, we went through the HRBT twice yesterday which has then created a tunnel obsession once again.

Looks as though they had just as much fun tearing it down for Daddy to build again than they did crawling through it. Just thankful that the red couch has a lot of cushions to make a great "tunnel".

Surprise Day!

A few months ago Mike and I began planning today.

We didn't mention anything to Lily, which was really, really difficult.

But, it definitely paid off.

When Lily woke up this morning she did everything she usually does. She went to her "Christmas House" but today she found a special paper instead that read "A Surprise Day". She then found Fern, who was on the couch with surprise presents for both Lil and Emma. Lily had fun opening her Princess outfit and taking Emma her present and helping her open it.

We told Lily that we were going to a mall to have lunch. But, this mall was in Richmond. So by 1015 we were all in the car headed to Virginia Center Commons to have lunch. We got there and had time to play in the play area before sitting down to a food court lunch. What was great was that Lily thought that this was her surprise and she was happy with it.

After making a trip to the restroom at the mall and getting our coats on, we told her that we were now going to her real surprise. She didn't really get it until the show started but the excitement started as soon as she saw...

Princesses!

We went to Disney Princesses On Ice!

We had terrific seats, only the third row off of the ice and right in the middle of the action. The show started off strong with a huge number from Aladdin, with the Genie who Lily doesn't like, and she started screaming. She screamed really loud. We finally got her to stop and cover her eyes and she spent the first ten minutes that way. Mike and I were definitely sweating and hoping that it would end so she could enjoy the show and finally she did. Once the Genie left. She did cover her eyes during all of the villains, but I don't blame her.

Tinkerbell, Mickey and Minnie were the MC's and they had performances from all the Princess movies, most of them anyways. We saw Jasmine, Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Mulan, Snow White and Cinderella. The show was a solid 2 hours with about a fifteen minute intermission and both Lily and Emma did great. Emma took an hour or so nap through it and Lily watched in awe.

It was a wonderful family surprise day.

Foto Friday...

...better late than never.

And, here's to the best kind of afternoon a mom could want.

Letter from Santa

Today, Lily got a letter in the mail and it was from Santa. I wanted to open it as soon as I saw the return address but I had to wait until Lily got up from her nap and Daddy got home from work.

According to Santa's letter, Lily and Emma have been very good little girls this year and he plans on stopping by our house on Christmas Eve. He also said that he was planning on bringing Rudolph!

So Exciting!

NBG-Christmas Lights

We took our first trip to the Norfolk Botanical Garden's, Garden of Lights. And, we are soooo glad that we did. We had no idea how extravagant they were and how much Mike and I would like them too!

We left as soon as Mike got home and had dinner while we drove around the gardens looking at all of the lights.

I'm not the best photographer by any means nor do I try to be but this is the best one I took the entire time. But, I did have Emma on my lap, in a moving car, eating my sandwich while trying to enjoy the lights at the same time. At least we'll remember the fish.

Lily helped Daddy drive and Emma enjoyed climbing all over me.

There were lots of ooh's and aah's from Lil and lots of bouncing and dancing from Emma so I'm sure that this will become another yearly event that we will enjoy going to.