A Christmas Story

Even though it took mommy until the 19th to get the Christmas tree up and decorated, the girls still managed to fully enjoy each and every day that it has graced our very cramped living room (boy mommy cannot wait until the basement renovation is completed so we are re-organized our life). Mommy and the girls decorated the tree in the afternoon and the girls got to see their very special ornaments for the tree to remember 2007 by ... two Miss Spiders carrying packages and two lovely glass ornament ladybugs ... our girls absolute favorites for the year! I think they really loved them, especially since they repeatedly kept going to the tree to give Miss Spider kisses.

The Christmas cards started rolling in this week and it was nice to get updates from family and friends and lots of new pictures of all the kiddos!!

This year our big family celebration was on Christmas Eve. Mommy, daddy and the girls met up with Grandma & Grandpa B, Aunt Carrie, Uncle Kory & Uncle Clayton for our traditional Christmas Eve breakfast at the Uptown in Minneapolis. Breakfast was great and we left with our traditional Uptown drinking glass to add to our collection.

After breakfast, we were off to finish up some last minute (literally) gift shopping and then home to let mommy get appetizers ready to that evening and the egg bake ready for the Christmas morning brunch at our house. After the girls awoke from their nap, we then headed to Grandma & Grandpa B's house where Granny M, Aunt Carrie, Uncle Kory, Joshua, Kaylynn, Uncle Clayton and Alexia were all waiting for us to begin the official festivities.

We opened up our "fun" stockings and ate Round #1 from the Christmas Eve buffet. The food was excellent!!!

With full bellies, we proceeded to opening gifts ... much of which mommy missed as the girls kept me busy trying to keep up the gifts they were opening on their own. The girls were absolutely great this year with gifts. They thought each and every thing they opened was amazing and worth a great big verbal "WOW" ... even mommy's new foot massager (thank you Granny), was worthy of exclamations of joy from the girls. Here is the Christmas Tree before the gift opening at Grandma & Grandpa B's:

The girls got lots of nice things but one of their favorites were inflatable Miss Spider Ready Beds. Even though we are yet to "sleep" in them, they feel pretty important laying in them and both settled in for a while during a viewing of Shrek. Another big hit of the night came from Aunt Carrie with glow in the dark star wands ($1 at the Dollar Store) ... who would have thought!!??!!

After a very full day and evening, we headed for home and got ready to start all over again in the morning at our own home.

Christmas morning arrived and the girls got up and had breakfast and then we settled in to open up their gifts from Farmor. They loved all their new clothes and had lots of fun with the wrapping paper and ribbons. Here they are modeling one of the new outfits:

Next it was time for the gifts from mommy and daddy (Miss Spider's Singing Buggy Bunch and Little People's Sarah Lynn & Maggie Camper Set & two Miss Spider Books).

Last but not least, the gifts from Santa ... Pat Pat Rockets!!!!! WOW!!!

Granny M and Grandma & Grandpa B joined us mid morning on Christmas Day for brunch and spent a lazy day with us and the girls. It was a wonderful holiday and a special time shared with family.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Love & Hugs -

Amy

Christmas with Christian 2007

Last night daddy, mommy and the girls' headed over to Aunt Tammy's house to celebrate an early Christmas for the kiddos. The girls had lots of fun playing with Christian's toys. Aunt Tammy made chicken parmigiana for dinner and it was wonderful. We actually had an "adult" table with mommy, daddy, Aunt Tammy and Uncle Chris while the kiddos had their own little table in the kitchen. It went well except for some table sliding shenanigans out in the kitchen.

After we got dinner cleaned up, the girls and Christian opened up their Christmas presents. Christian got the Little Peoples Race & Park Garage and the Little Peoples Airplane while the girls each got very warm, soft robes and the Little Peoples Nativity/Manger Set. They were all excited about the new toys, but thanks to the kind folks at Fisher Price, it took mommy and Aunt Tammy a long time to free the new toys and by the time they were out of the packages and assembled, the kids were back to old favorites. I understand Christian likes his new toys and settled down to play with them after we left. The girls are enjoying their Nativity set and Madison even took the little dog to bed with her last night.


Here are the girls modeling their new bath robes:

After the gift opening, it was cookie time which was a bit hit ... thank you Aunt Tammy for all the baking you did!! The kids enjoyed playing for a while and before we knew it, it was time to head home and get ready for bed. The girls wore their bath robes home in the car and didn't want to take them off when we got home. It was a great evening with great friends ... exactly what the holidays are all about ...

Oh, going through the pictures, I started thinking about how the same activity witnessed from different angles can certainly give a different impression. For example, you decide, was this a hug or a burping session:

Aunt Tammy's View:

Mommy's View:

For those of you who chose Hug, you got it right!!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Amy

A Visit With Granny B

We have had a busy, busy weekend!! Between all the potty trips in our household lately, we managed to squeeze in a short visit with Granny B in Wisconsin. We headed over Friday morning and arrived about lunch time. We took Granny out to do some shopping, had fun playing at her apartment and made a nice dinner before settling down to a slightly restless night for Miss Madison and mommy.

Saturday morning we took Granny out to breakfast and met up with Grandma and Grandpa B who were coming over for a visit with Granny too. The girls spent some time with daddy and Grandpa B while mommy, Granny and Grandma B went shopping. We all got to visit with the girls' Great Aunt Debbie, Great Uncle Gale and Great Uncle Willard before we packed everything up and headed back home.

We hope to return for a longer visit after the holidays to see Granny B again.

Love & Hugs -
Amy

Yes, I'm Going To A Potty Party ...

Okay, so this definitely wasn't my BIG idea, but rather Miss Madison's ... Potty training has officially begun around here at her insistence. Peepee and Poop have become regular words in our vocabulary around here and Prudence has become a favorite little girl to watch on the Potty Time Video. Alyssa is a reluctant participate at this time and mostly just observes and carries her empty potty insert to dump along with her sisters, but she is slowly coming around and we have gotten her to peepee a couple of times on her potty and on the big potty.

Madison on the other hand, has become a champion pooper and prefers the big potty. We have had only one diaper accident in the last week for poop. Peepee however is hit and miss, but we have had a lot of hits on the potties and I think it is coming along nicely. Madison has decided that everything that comes out and goes into the potty is poop, even the peepee is yellow poop, hey whatever works I guess.

The down side to all of this ... is a constant announcement of "poop" from Miss Madison and this has extended our bedtime later and later and later. I hear Madison's voice in the crib at night and during naps ... "Mama, please, poop" ... "Mama, please, poop." So, I get her up, she usually goes, return her to bed to find her copy-cat sister claiming she now needs to as well ... so I start again with Alyssa and typically that produces nothing, we exclaim "good try" and then back off to bed. Never thought I would be spending so much of my day and evening sitting on the floor next to potty chairs without it being my own doing, if you know what I mean ...

Love & Hugs -
Amy

Daddy + Snow = Fun!!

The girls are completely in love with the snow and being outside. Daddy took advantage of slightly warmer weather and he and girls headed outdoors for some fun winter style!

Not only did they have fun going for a sled ride, but they discovered their little riding cars still worked on the ice and snow in the driveway. Before heading in, they both decided to check out the snow that had settled on the trees by the front door.

Finally, nice and warm after some warm cocoa made by daddy!

Ahh, to be a kid again ...

Love & Hugs -

Amy

Holiday Brunch with Santa

Today was mommy's annual Holiday Brunch for her work. We had a lot of fun and had a very special visitor stop by the party to see the kids. Yup, you guessed it, the man in red!!! Our girls reactions to Santa Claus were as different as each of their personalities ... one loved him and one not so much so ...

Madison Meeting Santa Claus:

Alyssa Meeting Santa Claus:

I will leave it to your own imaginations to decide who wasn't exactly enamored with good old Santa Claus; although she did opt to take the gift home with her.

Finally, just for old times sake here are the girls with the same Santa for their first and second Christmas', my how they have changed!! You can also see that Santa's beard and mustache have improved over the years too!

1st Christmas:

2nd Christmas:

Love & Ho, Ho, Ho Hugs -

Amy