Christmas

I am slow at posting this years Christmas pictures. I am lame, I know! We had a great Christmas full of Disney Princess paraphernalia and pink. Poor Rob. These two cute girls have been playing for days so Santa did a good job, if I do say so myself.

They got matching Dora pj's on Christmas Eve.

Moments after this super cute photo was taken there was a horrible cracking sound. You know the kind that makes you think the earth was opening up to swallow you. The cracking was this:

Our sliding glass door must have been hit by a bird or something. We were looking at our cute kids so we have no idea what caused it. Of course it happend at almost 6PM on Christmas Eve but we were able to find a company that is 24/7 glass repair. Merry Christmas to us!

Charlotte got up at 4:45AM on Christmas morning which of course I loved(no way). I kept her away from the tree until a little after 7AM when I decided Elaine needed to get up and get the day started. When Elaine got to the tree her eyes went right to this beauty

All she wanted was a bike and Santa made a good choice. It took her several minutes to even want to open any other toys because she was just sitting on the bike. She did not know how to ride it yet but she loved just sitting there. When she finally realized the room was full of other stuff the craziness got started. Elaine wanted to open every present no matter who it was for. Charlotte was happy to watch Elaine tear through the paper as long as she got a chance to see what was inside.

 

We had a great day and hope you did too!

That's My Girl

On Sunday morning when Elaine got up she wanted to go right outside. She had Rob set up this lounge chair for her. Then she asked for a cup of water with ice and a blanket. When asked what are you doing, this was her reply: "I am waiting for the sunshine to come out so I can get a tan." It didn't matter that it was 7:30AM, in the 40's and overcast, she was prepared to wait as long as it took. She is mine!

Santa, I've got your number

I would like to thank the genius who created the naughty list. They have made my life a little easier while making my 4 year old much more eager to help out. Today Elaine was struggling with listening/cleaning up/helping. My threats of the naughty list were not enough to get her back on track so I had to break out the big guns. I called Santa Claus himself. I told him that she did not need any gifts because she was being bad. She very quickly started trying to make for her bad behavior and when she was done doing everything I needed her to do she first asked if she was off the list and then wanted to know how I knew Santa's phone number. I gave the standard answer, "all mom's know his number" and we went on with our day. I am one of those parents now. I feel like I have joined a new club.

Oh Christmas Tree

This is a girl who loves Christmas. She especially loves the tree. She loves it so much that it is common for us (Charlotte and I) to get up a little after 5AM so we can sit and stare at the lights. Her idea, not mine.

The girls have their own little tree which they meticulously decorate almost every day.

She has the expectation that the lights will be on the tree all day. If I turn it off she will say "tree please" which is so cute that I turn it off sometimes just to hear her say it.

Must be Santa

The hospital where I had both the girls has an active group for all families of NICU babies. We had a chance yesterday to attend the event starring Santa Claus. Elaine was very excited. Charlotte was excited until we got there and saw Santa Claus. They crafted and played games. Elaine sat on Santa's lap while Charlotte would not even look at him despite his best efforts of winning her over. Because Charlotte was so opposed to the idea of sitting on his lap Santa invited me to sit down. After yesterday I can say that I am not a fan of sitting on the Big Guy's lap. Awkward is my description of that moment.

Thankful

I think Elaine and I both have Preschool at the top of our lists of things to be thankful for. She loves to go and I love that she goes. Win Win! It has been interesting in the last few months to listen to her little conversations and questions she suddenly asks. Because it is a religious school she has her eyes opened to a whole new form of worship than she is used to. She is still a little perplexed by why they talk about God and not Heavenly Father and will show the different ways you hold your hands to pray at school or at church. It is good for her.

For Thanksgiving they had a "feast" of chicken nuggets and applesauce. They made their own placemats and centerpieces for decorations. On Elaine's placemat she had leaves saying what she is thankful for. Her items were Aunt Becky, Grandpa and Mom. (This was the week that Becky came to stay for a couple days. She picked the right week so that she could make the cut!)

This is a picture of her class and the hats they made depicting the Mayflower.

Elaine was lucky enough to have the Share bag that day. She was supposed to take 3 things she wanted to share with the class. She had it stuffed with probably 12 little knick knack things. Directions are not her strong suit.

They also gave us a paper on which they asked "How do you make a turkey".  Here is Elaine's response:

1: Buy it at the market
2: Put it in a pot.
3: Put syrup on top
4: Mommy puts circle things inside.
5: Cook it for a few seconds
6: Eat it!

We all know what kind of cook I am so this could be accurate.

Wanna Be Cowboys

This weekend we got to ride horses. By "we rode" I mean Rob and Elaine were in heaven while Charlotte could not get off fast enough and I am not about to get on to begin with. If you ask Elaine about it she will clarify that she got to ride a pony and a horse. It was fun to see how much Elaine loved it and of course many of us know that Rob wishes he was a cowboy so he did not want to climb down off his horse.

Charlotte made her own fun as usual.

Peas in a Pod

There have been many days in the last two years that have started and finished with me wondering "what was I thinking". These girls give me a run for my money but are mostly darling and more importanly best friends. The play and laugh all day long with a little bit of fighting mixed in. Elaine told me today that she "loves to take care of her baby sisiter because that is her job." That makes the lack of sleep and messy house worth it in my book.

2 is Too Cute

It was a great day with lots of Dora, presents and of course cake. Leading up to the big day is we even mentioned the word birthday Charlotte would yell D-d-d(Dora) and pretend to blow out the candles. She saw the picture of Elaine's Dora cake for her third birthday. Since then Charlotte has let it be known that seh would also be celebrating with a Dora cake. She is a girls who knows what she wants. They both loved the cake and thought it was so funny to put as much as possible in their mouths. We just love our girls!

Finally Fall!

The temperature is finally lower than 90 so we call it Fall. It actually is a little chilly if you go outside in the backyard, wearing pajamas at 6:30 in the morning. Then you might need to have a blanket wrapped around you. Running around a screaming will also help warm you up. I am sure our neighbors love us.

 

We have been lucky enough to have a couple visitors this month.

My favorite brother, Mark, spent an evening with us. Elaine was pretty devastated when she woke up the next morning and he was gone. She told me" I can't have any fun because Uncle Mark is gone." Charlotte also walked around the house saying "Mark" for several days.

The devastation did not last long since Uncle Matt came a few days later to win them over.

This is my sister Jessica's husband and the only man besides her dad that Charlotte wants to talk to on the phone everyday. What a lucky guy to be loved by such cute girls!

Of course the fall brings much birthday cake and ice cream to our house and Charlotte can never get enough. She climbed up on the table to scrape the left behind frosting from Elaine's cake.

Elaine was really excited about carving or what she calls "craving" pumpkins. I am not a huge fan. We did a couple small ones and a big one. They lasted about 2 days before the grew some disgusting mold and we had to throw them out but it was fun while they lasted.

Our last fall activity was planting winter grass. That is right, AZ gives us a chance for green grass year round. I do not participate in the planting. It is smelly and dirty which makes it perfect for a the 4 and under crowd and their Dad.

Happy Birhtday Elaine!

The celebration has been going on for days and we still aren't done. So far she thinks four is pretty awesome.