Friday, December 31, 2010

SANTA!!! I *KNOW* HIM!!!

*****Bonus points to anyone who can name that movie :D*****

On Christmas morning, I woke up bright and early and was just brimming with excitement!  The girlies, of course, slept in :P  WHO SLEEPS IN ON CHRISTMAS MORNING?????  Trying to be patient, Michael and I finished getting everything squared away for our trip (to visit my parents), made some coffee, and prepared the cinnamon rolls for the oven.  It finally became obvious that they would not wake on their own, so we ever so gently woke them with exclamations of the excitement that awaited them in the living room.  Did you know that SANTA came to our HOUSE???  And brought PRESENTS???  I know.  Once Maya realized what was happening, she woke quickly, did her morning thing, and went out to find her stocking.

Now let me stop for a minute here and say that the stockings *might* just be the favorite part of Christmas for both girls.  Charlotte could have been done with the whole shindig after finding her new toothbrush.  As soon as she pulled it out of the stocking she handed it to me and said "help!"  After I explained that she needed to leave it in the box so that she could look at the rest of her gifts, she pretended to brush her teeth with it still in the package.  Silly girl :)  And of all the gifts Maya received, the one she chose to take with her on our trip to Grandma's house was a single "Toy Story" band-aid :P

So as you can see, the stockings were a huge hit.  After that they each opened a few gifts from Mommy and Daddy, and then discovered that Santa had brought them something else!  Maya tried to peek under the blanket, and then Michael removed it (carefully!) and she exclaimed, "A train table!  For me!  And Charlotte!"  So it appears that Santa did a good job :)  By the time we were ready to sit down to breakfast, the dinosaurs had destroyed some of the train track (which really should have been expected ~ I mean, dinosaurs are pretty destructive!), but fortunately it goes right back together!  

Michael is finding that the train table brings out a little bit of OCD in him (maybe now he knows how I feel, just a little bit, about every.single.toy. we have in the house!).  After one day with the it, he wanted to glue the track pieces together, lol :)  Also, the table was a craigslist find, so while it was a steal and is in excellent condition, there are a few minor quirks.  It's been funny to see Michael's engineer brain try to figure out a way to help the engine make it up the hill (which will just not happen).  We almost bought a new engine at Target because the problem became so distressing for him (he even put electrical tape around the wheels to give them more grip :)), but decided that rather than spending as much as we did on the table for a new engine, we'd just put the thing in the drawer!  The girls would rather let the engine drive around on the ground, anyway, so it works out :)

Finally, here are some pictures from our morning!







A gift from preschool!



Oh my goodness!  Just what I always wanted!  Can you tell she's been learning how to act surprised? :)








Dinosaurs, water bottle and band-aids.  All essential accessories for a train table :)


The many "Cheese"s of Charlotte:



My favorite, even though she looks a bit like a gremlin! :)



Night!  Next time, Christmas with Grandma!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Things 1 and 2

I know I promised Christmas pictures, and I'm working on it :)  There are a LOT of pictures to sort, though!  So a little something different today!

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Since Charlotte was born, Michael has referred to the girlies as "Thing 1" and "Thing 2".  I've always found it pretty adorable (because really, what nickname given by a daddy is *not* adorable? :)), so I was thrilled when one of the guys Michael works with got the girls these for Christmas:


As an aside, I didn't realize that Maya could roll her tongue until I was reviewing these photos tonight!  Who knew! :D



Sortof related, the other day I was talking to Maya:

me: You're my big girl!
Maya: No I'm not!  I'm Daddy's big girl!
me: Well then who are you to me?
Maya: I'm your stinker bean!

I had to laugh ~ apparently I call her that a lot!

Unrelated pictures of Charlotte being cute in her leggings and snowboots:







Today we went bridesmaid dress shopping with my sister, Katie, who is getting married in July (yay!).  After maybe 15 minutes the girls pretty much fell apart, but before that they were being cute and trying on flower girl dresses (Maya will be in the wedding, too!).




Charlotte was being hilarious and *had* to carry her tights around.  I tried to leave the dressing room without them and boys howdy!

You'll also notice that this dress is quite a bit too big for my tiny little thing ~ apparently David's Bridal doesn't make flower girl dresses any smaller than 18 month :P





Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Christmas ~ Part 4 (and a little bit extra :))

This week and weekend were amazing.  Lots of family, friends, food and fun.  We drove to Lancaster on Thursday to celebrate Christmas with Larry and Steph (my father-in-law and his wife), then drove back to Kent on Friday to go to the Christmas Eve service at our church.  After the service we came home to our tradition of "snack dinner" and a Christmas movie ("Elf"), the girlies got new Christmas jammies, and we did the bedtime thing.  After the girls were all nestled, Michael and I went about our "Santa" duties.  

And now, pictures of Thursday/Friday:

Before we left for Lancaster, I met with Sierra at the library with the kids for "Crafternoons".  They were supposed to make sleds out of popsicle sticks.  Charlotte did a good job of getting glue everywhere *but* the popsicle sticks!

Isaac sat there looking adorable, as always!


When we got to Lancaster, Laura was researching laptops.  Of course Michael had to help!


Apparently "Dominoes" is *the* thing to do at Grandpa's house.



I think we could have had twice as many potatoes and they still would have all been eaten!  Maya had *at least* 3 servings!

Yum!  Much better than our sugar cookie disaster (which showed me that our heating element in our oven is not functioning properly :P).

Can't remember what she was watching, but I do remember that she was ENTHRALLED!

Grandpa and the girlies looking for reindeer tracks.  From then until Christmas morning Maya had her eye out for more!

"Cheese!"


Cousins

Unai





Chris thought he was pretty funny putting Larry's gift in a VS box :)

Charlotte and her Elmo camera

Maya and her "Leap Pad Drawing Thing" which I am pretty sure has been used constantly in the car since she got it.








Charlotte and Unai, making mischief!





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Christmas jammies!

Snack dinner

Apparently Maya has never had Pizza Rolls before, because she thought these were muffins :)

Of course we had to have healthy food, too!

Yum!  Blowfish!  You don't want to know what is in it, for real.

Next time, Christmas morning!

Night all!