Merry Christmas Babies!!

We started Christmas morning off with a breakfast of cinnamon rolls and orange juice which the girls though was a GREAT treat (after finally getting Miss Alyssa to try a roll and finding out that she "loved it") ... duh, it is a cinnamon roll with frosting!!

After breakfast, the girls found their stockings that had been mysteriously filled overnight with lots of little goodies. We loaded up the car and headed over for our "B" Family Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa B's home. Granny M, Aunt Carrie, Uncle Kory, Cousin Joshua, Cousin Kaylynn, Uncle Clayton and Cousin Alexia were all there. We enjoyed our traditional lunch/dinner/entire day finger food buffet ... yummy!!

We opened gifts early afternoon and then spent the rest of the day eating, socializing and playing with toys ... umm make that un-packaging toys ... ugg!!

The girls loved everything they received including the V-Motion and snap dolls from Grandma and Grandpa, cool PJ's and game from Aunt Carrie and Uncle Kory and especially the set of eight Disney Princess barbies from Granny M and the princess carriages and pink glitter horses from Uncle Clayton ... talk about princess heaven!!!

We took a few group pictures and here are the kids with their great-grandma and then another one with Grandma and Grandpa.

We had hoped to keep the girls up later this year, but by the time bedtime started creeping up on us, it was definitely time for little princesses to head to bed, so we ended up heading home around 7:00 p.m.

Definitely a wonderful Christmas for everyone!!!

Love & Hugs -

Amy

Christmas Eve 2008

We started the morning out bright and early and, as is our family tradition, we drove into Minneapolis to meet Grandma B, Grandpa B, Uncle Clayton, Cousin Alexia and a couple of family friends for our annual Christmas Eve breakfast at the Uptown Bar & Grill. The Uptown is a dingy little hole in the wall bar known for its great bands at night and equally great hangover breakfasts every morning with full bar included!! After a few rounds of liquid fruits and vegetables with Bloody Mary's and Screwdrivers along with a side of traditional breakfast fare, we were officially ready to start the holiday!!

We all went our separate ways for the remainder of the morning with the plan to meet up again at our home for the afternoon/evening festivities. After a quick stop by Super Target and Starbucks, we arrived at home ready for naps and food preparations.

Our family arrived late afternoon and we were in full holiday swing by early evening with the food preparation almost done and holiday drinks in hand. The food was slower cooking than anticipated and so the family headed out for a Christmas Eve drive around our neighborhood to see the local light displays. When we arrived back home, to our surprise not only was the food ready to eat, but SANTA had snuck in while we were gone and after helping himself to the cookies the girls had left for him, he left a gift for each child in front of the tree with Merry Christmas wishes and a thank you note for the cookies!! The kids were super excited!!

Alyssa was jumping up and down with excitement saying "Santa got me a pink computer!! Santa got me a pink computer!! I must have been good!!" Madison was equally excited about her Little Einstein laptop that she received. Cousin Alexia was also super pleased with her gift from Santa ... some sort of a Barbie Girl MP3 player ... I definitely need to get with these new toy items ... LOL

After opening their Santa gifts, we all hit the food while it was good and hot. Our neighbor, "S", came over to join our family for the evening and she was a very nice addition to a great evening. When we were all sufficiently full, the girls attacked the rest of their gifts from Farmor, "S" and mommy and daddy. They absolutely loved everything, especially the "princesses" cloaks and crowns that Farmor had sent "Princess Alyssa" and "Princess Maddie".

The last gift they opened was their "big" gift from mommy and daddy, a dollhouse, which had been inconspicuously hidden behind a large piece of cardboard next the Christmas tree all afternoon without even a question asked about it. The girls sat down in front of it with their eyes closed and mommy pulled the cardboard away and stepped to the side telling the girls to look ... simultaneously they both turn their heads to mommy's voice and look at the cardboard and immediately Miss Madison stood up and sat inside of it, happy as a clam!! About 30 seconds later, Miss Alyssa turned back to the dollhouse and saw it for the first time and then we redirected Miss Madison to the actual gift ... they LOVED it!!

The evening wound down with a few drinks, some toy playing and good conversation with family and friends ... definitely a Christmas Eve to remember ... just wait until the girls realize there are many more gifts to be had tomorrow at Grandma and Grandpa's house!!

Merry Christmas Eve!!

Amy

A Million Lights for 37 Nights

Tonight mommy, daddy and the girls jumped in the car and headed to St. Paul to drive through Phalen Park to see the "Lights in the Park" aka "A Million Lights for 37 Nights". It is a new display to the area this year and all proceeds collected from it go to homeless shelters in the area, missions and the food shelf.

We started out the evening with dinner at the Macaroni Grill and we had a great time. The girls loved their spaghetti and Madison got a huge kick out of the giant meatball that arrived on the top of hers!! They got a surprise ice cream sundae from the server and after that we packed back into the car and headed to the park. It didn't matter that it is so cold around here, because this park was made to drive through it.

The girls LOVED all the lighted displays along the 1/2 mile drive through the park. Their favorite unanimously was the "princess" castle!! There were plenty of ooohs and ahhhs as we drove along the route, definitely will add this new highlight to the holiday season to our annual outings!!

We didn't get them to bed until 9:00 p.m. and our normal bedtime is 7:30 p.m., so we will see how jolly we are in the morning ... maybe that mid morning Target run will keep our moods up??!!

Happy Holidays!!

Amy

Christmas with Christian & "Baby Heath" 2008 Edition

Well, it is that time of year again when we get together with so special people in our lives and this weekend it was our annual Christmas with Christian with the new addition of his baby brother "Baby Heath" as the girls affectionately call him.

Christian and Heath braved the cold temperatures on Sunday and brought mommy and daddy H along with them for a visit to our house for brunch, playtime and presents!! The kids had a great time playing and listening to Aunt Tammy read the new Christmas story that they gave to the girls. We even played our very first game of Candyland ... well, sort of ... our very first half game of Candyland as it ended up being!

The girls loved their new princess zip up hoodies with the special effect LED lighted crowns embroidered on them!! Christian loved his Diego submarine and Baby Heath enjoyed his Sesame Street pop up toy, when he got the chance to enjoy it in between the older kids.

It was a fun morning and we were sorry it went so quickly ... we are looking forward to our next playdate after the holidays!! Happy Holidays to the "H" Family ... we love you!!

Quite the Little Artists ... at least with candy and gingerbread!!

This morning the weather was actually what we here in Minnesota consider warm for a winter day and the girls headed outside with daddy to finish shoveling out the driveway after the big snow fall the other day. They had a blast helping daddy and then spent some time "fishing" with their "mermaids" at the end of the driveway in a puddle!!

After playing outside for quite a while, it was in for naptime ... which mommy and daddy enjoyed immensely!! After naps, the girls got up to find that mommy had assembled the gingerbread train and it was ready to be decorated along with eight giant gingerbread men!!

We all got our hands dirty with frosting and candy, even daddy helped out on the project. Madison enjoyed eating the frosting the most while Alyssa was busy helping herself to candy pieces!!!

Later in the evening we made a stop by at Grandma and Grandpa's annual Christmas party to say hi to some old friends and so everyone could see the girls (this is their 4th annual appearance at the party and somewhat of a tradition now)! We had fun visiting and then it was home to bed for the girls ... sort of, as I can still hear them "sleeping" ... I mean playing ...

Love & Hugs -

Amy

A Day In The Life Of An Elf & A Visit With Santa!!

This morning after Alyssa's speech therapy, we all packed into the car and headed into downtown Minneapolis to see "A Day In The Life of An Elf" which is this year's 8th floor auditorium display at Macy's. Macy's bought out Marshall Fields and this 8th floor display has been a longstanding holiday tradition in Minneapolis with this year being the 46th annual animated Christmas Show (the display is changed yearly and takes an entire year to create).

The kids thought the animated display was a fun surprise in their day. As we walked through the display areas were were treated to different parts of an elf's day from waking up in the morning, attending reindeer flight school, visiting Santa's mail room, the bakery, the toy workshop and the incredible singing Christmas trees!!

Madison really liked the singing trees, while Alyssa tried to steal a piece of Santa's mail!

After visiting the display, we took our place in a short line to wait for our visit with Santa and to place our request for that "special" gift for under the tree. Alyssa has been looking forward to this years visit in the hopes of redeeming herself after being too afraid to even look Santa in the face last year. Although a bit hesitant at first, it only took a few seconds before both girls ran to Santa and gave him a great big hug and then promptly took their spots, one on each knee. Santa asked what they wanted for Christmas and in "stereo" they both promptly asked for "an Einstein computer". After a short chat with Santa and a few tries at a picture with smiles, we took our best shot and thanked Santa for the visit. Daddy settled up with Santa's elves and our picture was delivered for us to take home.

It was now past lunchtime, so we stopped off for lunch at Baja Sol and had some tasty Mexican style treats. On our way back to the parking ramp, we stopped by the big Christmas tree in the IDS Center.

It was a fun morning, but with missed naps and sick children, we are paying the price in these last few hours before bedtime ... still, we did have fun!!

Love & Hugs -

Amy

Channeling Miss Piggy ... Humpf

Somehow, some way, the girls turned three and the very next day found that 3-year-old attitude. I always knew in my mind that age three would be way worse than two, no matter what "they" say about the "terrible twos". Twins are a lot of work and while I understand that siblings of other ages and even those families who have "polish twins" (apparently that means two children within 10 months or so of each other as I have been told by moms in that situation) have these same issues, it is not the same thing as having two the exact same age. As often as a parent of any 3-year-old child would like to run and hide from the onslaught of new found verbal freedom, personality and attitude by the truckloads, multiply that times x 2 and then tell me again that it is the same.

Trust me, I am mentally drained by the girls' bedtime (7:30) most days. Lately the cuteness factor is not even coming close to making up for their overly opinionated responses and just their complete lack of response at the most inopportune times. At least, at this point, I can feel fairly comfortable that absolutely no one will be able to make them do a darn thing that they do not want to ... at least within the requested time frame.

Lately, Miss Alyssa has started channeling Miss Piggy with a lot of her responses. I tried to find a sound bite to insert here, but didn't get lucky on the web. Basically though, Miss Alyssa often sounds like this:

Mommy: Alyssa, it is time for lunch.

Alyssa: I don't want to eat.

Mommy: I understand you don't want to, but you still need to sit at the table.

Alyssa: I don't want to sit at the table ... humpf

Mommy: It is too cold out today to just wear a leotard.

Alyssa: But I want to be cold ... humpf

Alyssa: Mommy, Madison is not sharing ... humpf (while crossing her arms over her chest)

I could go on and on, but most conversations have that "humpf" placed precisely right where it should be, if you actually found it acceptable at all ... good grief.

Miss Madison gives us grief as well, but her biggest response at this time is actually no response at all ... absolutely no acknowledgement that you are talking to her.

Mommy: Madison, come here please.

Mommy: Madison, come here please, now.

Mommy: MADISON, get over here NOW!

Madison: I'm coming ... 10 minutes later and a couple of princess twirls along the way, her highness arrives.

Don't get me wrong though, they are truly great kids and we are blessed to be their parents, but we are certainly counting the days until this "phase" passes and the next one begins, which however welcomed it is, will likely be a challenge too.

Decorating Grandma & Grandpa's Christmas Tree

Last weekend, Sunday, we made the very short venture to Grandma and Grandpa's to both watch football as well as help decorate their Christmas tree. The girls, Alexia, Alyssa and Madison, had a good time putting all the ornaments on the tree. Grandma and Grandpa like tall, fat trees and boy did they get a good one this year!! The tree looked great when the kids were done and Grandma still had ribbon to put in place after we were all out of the way.

Today, mommy and the girls attempt our first try at capturing a photo for our Christmas card (which we are running out of time to get out) ... needless to say, we will be trying for a second session tomorrow ...

We are hoping to maybe see Santa this next week and maybe we will get lucky then, at least I can be hopeful right??!!

Love & Hugs -

Amy