Christmas Day

We loved our Christmas morning. The girls were so patient with us. We woke up at 8:00, let the girls SEE all the presents, and then had breakfast BEFORE we opened everything up. I know, cruel but they didn't complain. Santa also left a note by the cookies that Abby was thrilled to see that she kissed and hugged the letter.

We probably could have stopped after the stockings because all the girls wanted to do was play their harmonicas and little games they got inside.

Love the joy!

Hung out in her exesaucer with her new doll during all the excitement.

The big family gift was that we finally got a Wii! The following conversation took place between Todd and Kaitlyn after the girls asked Todd to set the Wii up:

T: "Do you know what a Wii is?
K: "Yeah"
T: "You know what a Wii is?"
K: "Yeah!"
T: "What?"
K: "You play games!"
We honestly didn't think she knew what it was. So told us!

And for those of you wondering, yes, I did get a necklace. Abby gave me a heart necklace with a key attached and Kaitlyn gave me some earrings. I feel like such a bad mom because I really wasn't fond of the key necklace, so Abby and I went back to the store and exchanged it for a similar one, minus the key part.


After all the presents were unwrapped we sent the girls back outside for more snow fun.

Olivia's big gift:

And finally before I forget, at the end of the day we let the girls sleep under the tree one last time. Around 10:00 Abby came upstairs to where Todd and I were watching TV and said:

"Is it morning yet? I'm tired of sleeping."

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

And we got one! My family has lived in Dallas for 20 years and this was the first white Christmas! Just the day before we were hanging out outside in 75 degree weather! We were afraid the snow was going to be gone by Christmas morning but it kept falling and blowing!

Watching the snow fall late morning and wanting to make a snowball.

Crying because she's cold. The wind was really blowing!

Pouty lips

Making a snow angel

Ahhh...Hot chocolate

11 Months

This year is flying by and this 3rd baby is growing way too fast!

Random facts of Miss Olivia at 11 months: She is working on standing alone still but is a speedy fast crawler. Look out if you take something away from her that she wants. She loves to cover eyes with her hands and play peek-a-boo, watch herself in a mirror, look through books, tear things up, put everything and anything in her mouth, and has some major mom-separation anxiety. She is currently weighing in at 22 pounds and holding steady. Olivia prefers to feed herself and pushes the spoon away from her if we try to feed her any baby food. Favorite foods are crackers, pears, cheese and yogurt. he is also getting her third bottom tooth. We just love having her in our family is she is such a sweetie!

I love this picture of her and Todd.

Indoor snow storm

Being a little jealous of all the fabulous snow our friends in VA have had, we had a little blizzard of our own. Today the girls got a package from their cousins. This package was full of packing peanuts so what are we to do!? Throw them around the living room, roll in them like snow, make snow peanut angels, toss them around, and just make a BIG mess and have fun while doing it.

Can you keep a secret??

On Saturday Todd wanted to give me some alone time. While Olivia was napping, he took Kaitlyn and Abby to the "pet store". He's done this the past two years, leaves with the girls the Saturday before Christmas and I know it's off the buy my present. After a couple hours the girls come home and are happy and excited because, yes, Todd did take them to the pet store. Two in fact. Abby had a notebook in the car and wrote down all the animals they saw. Here's the conversation:

Mom: "What animals did you see?"

Abby: "We saw turtles, parrots, fish, cats, pigs,"

Mom: "Pigs?"

Dad: "Guinea pigs."

Abby: continuing with the list, "guinea pigs, hamsters, and I won't tell you about the necklaces."

Mom: "Necklaces?!"

Dad: "We only went to the pet store right Abby? Just the pet store."

Todd and I were laughing so hard as she was telling us this. Todd later told me that maybe he had Abby say that to try and throw me off the trail. We'll just see. And it didn't phase Abby one bit that she slipped on the secret.

Overheard

Mom, while driving in the car: "Kaitlyn are you asleep?" (she was very quiet)

Kaitlyn: "Look, my eyes are open."

Abby playing church: "Nephi chose the right. Laman and Lemuel chose the left." (want to know more what this means, click here)

Kaitlyn: "I'm pretty funny!"

Abby: "Liar! No you're not!"

Kaitlyn: "Am too!"

Peek-A-Boo

"

It's snowing!

WE WOKE UP THIS MORNING TO THIS:

The girls quickly got ready so they could play before school and before it all melted.

It was fun while it lasted and we're hoping for more to play in in the near future.

Now the sun is out and shining and no there's no trace of any snow.

Fall Soccer

We finished up our first real season of soccer. I can't really count the Spring since Abby was out most of the games with a broken arm. Crazy that we started and ended the year with broken arms. It's a dangerous sport. Too bad she got hurt just being with the team and not playing.

This was a good season for Abby though. She finally felt the taste of getting a goal and then she hungered after it and was successful in many games. I felt bad that Todd missed her two best games which were during the week and at night. Here's hoping that in the Spring she'll improve even more and have no more injuries!

A Tale of 3 Girls

This is long so I don't forget this years down the road. Don't feel like you need to read the whole thing. Here are the highlights:

-Abby broke her other arm

-Kaitlyn had a back surgery

-Olivia turned 10 months

All this in less than 24 hours!

ABBY:

Thursday was going to be a busy but a good day. After school, we enjoyed the beautiful Fall weather and played in the backyard for a couple of hours then headed off to Abby's gymnastics class. We just signed her up again because soccer was now over for awhile. After gymnastics it was a quick run home for a change and grab the cake for our soccer party at Chuck E Cheese. The girls were so excited to go - it had been awhile since we had been there.

There were squeals of excitement from Abby's teammates and Abby as they ran off to have a good time. I ordered our pizza, grabbed the girl's drinks and was just joining the group when we hear a piercing scream. Abby is up and her arm is droopy. This time Abby has broken her left arm at a soccer party as opposed to her right at a soccer practice earlier this year.

I grab Abby's arm and push the bone back up and hear a snap. It's not so droopy anymore. I quickly turn the stroller around and tell Kaitlyn we're going. There was confusion on her part because we had just got there and she wanted to stay and play. Abby's coaches helped me load the kids and get out the door. We flew to the ER close to our house. There were no red lights and not a lot of traffic (and thankfully, no cops either).

On the drive up Abby was doing well for what had just happened. She was crying and sobbing but I think there was some shock in there too. She was saying things like: "I WANT JESUS!!! I WANT JESUS!!!" and "I want to play at Chuck E Cheese" and "I don't want to go to the doctor and get a shot." Gee, she just broke her arm and that's what she is worried about a shot!

We get to the ER and Olivia is crying because she's just tired, Kaitlyn's upset because we didn't stay at CEC and Abby is shaking for shock. Todd was still in the air coming home not knowing what was going on. Luckily, Grandma lives close by and came to the rescue by taking Kaitlyn and Olivia home. Abby and I were done shortly thereafter. What a trooper Abby was. She was most upset that she didn't get her soccer trophy, to play with her friends, or to eat cake. The medicine kicked in and she really hasn't missed a beat since.

Showing off her new splint

Abby made a sign that reads "Abby has tow brokn ams"

KAITLYN:

Friday morning I already knew was going to be rough. Kaitlyn has had a growth on her back that we noticed a couple years ago but were watching. We finally saw a specialist and made the decision to have it surgically removed. We left the house at 6:00am (Grandma saved us again by watching Abby and Olivia this time.) and Kaitlyn was surprisingly happy. She did great with the Dr. marking her back and was brave as they wheeled her away. She did say, "mom come with me" but was comforted by her stuffed dog instead. Todd and I waited for about an hour and then she was done. The growth ended up not being what we thought it was (lipoma) instead it was a cluster of blood vessels that would grow with her and could cause problems later (it had already grown a little in the last couple of months). I can't spell the correct name but the Dr. also said it's common with those of German descent - Todd and I looked at each other and knew it came from my side of the family. Kaitlyn did great through the surgery, woke up a little woozy but has done well until around 6:00 when everything starting hurting again. Fortunately, the next couple days she'll have some good medicine to take care of the pain. She will be back to her old self in no time at all.

After the surgery

Bandages to cover about an inch and a half cut.

They had to go a little deeper than they first thought.

OLIVIA:
Good news here. Olivia turned 10 months today and won't sit still for me to take a decent picture. This little girl is always on the move. She stands well holding on to something and can stand on her own for a couple of seconds. Her little personality is coming out and she just loves being with mom, swinging, playing peek-a-boo, and prefers to eat real people food (anything she can pick up with her hands) as opposed to the baby jar food. She currently weighing in at 21 lbs, has 4 teeth - two on the top and two on the bottom, and can crawl up the stairs.

Abby on Medicine

The other night Abby wanted to play a game of chase so we did. It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt and this time it was Abby. While running through the kitchen, she ran right by my recipe binder that was open and a corner was sticking over the counter tops. It happened to be the same height as Abby's eye. It gave her a good scratch on her eyelid - we were lucky it wasn't the eyeball. After a cold washcloth we told her she'd be fine. She didn't buy that and wanted medicine because her eye still hurt. So Todd gave her medicine - a little bit of corn syrup, some water, and blue dye (maybe a little too much blue) in a medicine cup.

Abby drinking it down: "mmmm, that tastes good."

Todd: "Does your eye feel better?"

Abby: "YES!"

Todd: "Did you like that medicine?"

Abby: "yes"

Todd: "It's called placebo."

Abby: "I like placebo. Can I have some more?"

Pumpkin Carving

I know this is past Halloween but I like how these pictures show the contrast of personalities of these two sisters.

Todd cutting Kaitlyn's pumpkin holds over the top and tells her to act like she's eating it. She thinks it's yucky and refuses.

After much convincing, she opens her mouth and actually tried to bite the "guts".

Won't stick her hand in the pumpkin - "ewwww, gross!"

Our little girls who doesn't like to get her hands dirty. Classic Kaitlyn.

And here's Abby, can't wait to dig in and get all dirty!

Abby's pumpkin

Kaitlyn's pumpkin

(It's a scary tree but I accidentally cut off two of the arms)

Halloween Crafting

With just about every holiday, Abby wants to go all out. And by all out, it means decorations (kid made) on EVERYTHING! Halloween is no exception and her excitement was very contagious so we did a lot. I think next year I'll do an "advent" to Halloween. Here are a few of our creations:

One sick day Abby and Kaitlyn made crazy face bags. They were set out on Halloween along our sidewalk welcoming Trick-or-treaters.

This idea came from Family Fun.

Halloween morning greeted us with pumpkin and ghost pancakes.

We made Haunted Houses.

This idea came from makeandtakes.com

Glue Ghosts were hung to scare.

Family Fun idea

Painted pumpkins

Kaitlyn started off as a Mummy and as she started to add eyes, it then just became a big swirl of pink, blue, and white.