Christmas 2011

Ok so I am a little behind on blogging, but I have a fancy new camera so there are lots of pics!! I believe I will tell about Christmas by using my pictures.....

Christmas eve is always spent at my mom's house. We always have tons of fun there opening presents and eating the awesome food! I don't have any pictures from there because I still needed to buy a memory card for my new camera.

After my mom's house, FH, the girls, and I went to the house to open our presents for each other. It's so nice to have a family of four. We would be lost if we didn't have FH with us!! Please excuse the girls clothes, they were suppose to be getting in the bath and putting on PJs but somehow they were so excited that they got confused and put their PJs on (even though Alex still had her dress on) so their outfits look a little crazy....

After the girls opened up their presents to each other, they got in the bath and then were allowed to open the rest. The girls HATE, absolutely hate, bathtime so anytime that I have a reason to bribe then to take a bath, I use it! Please notice their towel wraps for their hair. They got these for Christmas and we use them every night, I LOVE THEM!

The girls got new little fish tanks for their fish, and a few other things. I noticed they were being pretty quiet which is NOT THE NORM for them AT ALL. They finally told me that they were really hoping that we had gotten them iPod touches, which is what they really wanted. There were no gifts left so they thought they didn't get them.

FH was pretty excited about his new tennis shoes........

Isn't he the cutest?! (I'm not biased at all.)

So, then when we were all done, I told the girls to go look in their stockings because I forgot about one more present that they had. It was an iPod touch for each of them. They freaked out!!! The pictures don't do the freak out justice. They literally went nuts. The pictures are a little bit blurry because they were jumping up and down....

These were definately the highlight of their entire night, and they haven't put them down much since. The rest of the night was spent looking at all the good presents we got.

We also made cookies for Santa and popcorn for the elves, of course. FH ran to the store to get carrots for the reindeer, but the store was closed. Kate just HAD to feed everyone so we cut up some cookies for the reindeer to nibble on. The girls had lots of fun with this....please excuse Alex, she doesn't like to wear clothes.....

Pretty soon, it was time for bed! The girls warned me that I should hurry up and get in bed too or Santa wouldn't come! I was a little worried about how quickly the girls would fall asleep. It was tradition when I was growing up that my brother, sister, and I all slept in the same bed when Santa was coming. My mom has pictures of us doing this. The girls don't fall asleep too quickly when they sleep together, but I at least wanted to try. They fell asleep immediately! And look how cute they looked snuggled up together in Alex's bed!

The girls woke up at 3AM. yes, you heard that right. Or wait, maybe it was 4AM. Yeah, I think it was 4. Either way it was WAY too early. But they claimed they had to go to the bathroom and they couldn't come out of their room without seeing surprises. They had to go to their dad's house around 9 so I figured I would go ahead and let them get up and have time to play (and nap) before time to go. And do you know what that silly Bella the elf did? Well, she trapped them in their rooms!!

It was fun and the girls got to run through it on their way to see their Santa stuff. (Thanks pinterest!)

That little elf wasn't the only one busy all night at our house, Santa came too!!

Kate's stuff was on the recliner, Alex's stuff was on the couch, and the shared stuff was over to the side. ***Please ignore the TN pillows. I'm pretty sure Santa delivered those to the wrong houses!***

Kate absolutely freaked out when she saw her electric scooter (she walked like a zombie towards it), and Alex couldn't believe it when she saw her new keyboard!!

                                                  Santa was good to them this year!! And they still had lots more places to go. They went to spend time with their Dad and his family next. When we got them back,we headed to FH's sister's house for some fun. The girls got great gifts and helped keep everyone entertained by forcing them to play Truth or Dare. It was great fun and everyone was crying laughing while playing the game.

It was a great, great day. I am so grateful for our families, we are lucky to have so many loved ones.

The next day, the girls were up SUPER early ready to try out their new toys outside since it was raining on Christmas day.

       Merry Merry Christmas everyone! Now, bring on 2012. The year of the wedding!! I can't wait! Pin It Now!

RIP Nibbles

Yesterday was a sad day at our house. Kate's fish died. This is especially sad because the twin fish is still alive and there to remind Kate of her missing fish. Well, the empty fish bowl kinda reminds her too.....Kate has had one other pet in her life, her bunny rabbit. It died too while Alex's bunny survived. I am not an animal lover, but I teared up when I heard Kate say "I just shouldn't have any pets cause all my pets die."
We are going to the store this weekend to replace the fish so all will be well. Truth be told I was going to replace it without her knowing (awful, i know) but I just didn't have time to do it yesterday.
Our family will survive, even after this tragic loss of a member.
RIP Nibbles, RIP. (I'm pretty sure that's the right name......) Pin It Now!

The Adventures of Bella the Elf

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Too Cute Not to Remember

My kids always say things that blow my mind. They act so grown up when I am with them individually. Alex loves to have me in the bathroom while she is in the bathtub. I sometimes, on the weekend when we have extra time, will go in there and read a book while she is playing in the tub. She just likes to have me in there, Kate does too. Alex likes for me to put my book down. She'll say "Let's chat Mom.". lol So, last night, I was helping her dry off when she got out of the bath, and she said "One day, I will be too big for you to do this for me. One day, I'll move out and have my own place." (How sad!!) I asked her if I would ever see her then.......she said "Oh yeah, I'll call you all the time. Like when some boy dumps me or if I just need to talk."

I love those girls! And I sure do dread the day that it is no longer cool for them to have their Mom as their best friend! Pin It Now!

Gingerbread House

Last night, we made a gingerbread house. Not very well. I'm pretty sure the pictures can speak for themselves! We had fun even though it gradually started falling and didn't last long! FH also made chex mix. Chex Mix that smelled delicious. Did I mention that I'm on a diet?!








































Hopefully we never have to live off of our house building skills!
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Night and Day

I often tell people that my girls are as different as night and day. FH already knows this as he spends lots of time with the three of us. He summed it up pretty well last night when he was telling me all about his day. He spent the majority part of yesterday shopping individually with the girls. He first took Kate shopping alone and then he came back to the house and swapped out and took Alex shopping. (Yet another reason why I love this man!) He said shopping with Kate was no problem. She walked into the store, browsed a little, and then made a decision on what she wanted to buy. Alex, on the other hand, was a whole other story! He said "I just hope that girl marries rich!". She was so in her element shopping. She wanted to look at everything and had a hard time deciding on just one thing. She loves to shop and more importantly, loves to spend money. Of course this is the child that just the other day said to me "Mom, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be famous one day. I'll let you live in my mansion.". And she is dead serious. This is her world and we just live in it!
The girls had so much fun picking out each other's Christmas presents then coming home to wrap them. They both try so hard to guess what their gifts are, and they share hints to keep the guessing game going.
Poor FH had a hard day. He said that he shopped all day and had been waiting for just a glimpse of football. Then when he finally got a chance to sit down and watch, it was halftime!
He described life with three women to me last night and he had me dying laughing. He said that all three of us always want to know exactly what he is doing and when he is doing it and when we will see him again. But when we are doing something he isn't allowed to ask for details. lol
All I have to say about that is..........just wait until they are teenagers!! Pin It Now!

The Hwy 14 Ride

When we moved to Memphis, I knew that we would have a 30 minute drive to and from school every day. This didn't intimidate me at all since I use to live an hour away from my work. I thought, no problem, at least work and school are in the same direction. What I didn't realize was that when I drove an hour to work, I was in the car all that time ALONE. I listened to the radio, daydreamed, did whatever to pass the time on a long drive and I got use to it. Kate and Alex are NOT use to the drive and they GO NUTS.

Every day that I pick them up from school they ask me where we are going because they don't want to drive "all the way home because it takes forever" and so starts the whining. It never really fails. After a long day at work, I am greeted by two whining kids at after school care who are starving.

They do what they can to pass the time in the car. If they have their DS then it works great, as long as they are interested in playing them. Sometimes they will fall asleep, which is not good because then they don't want to sleep at bedtime. Mainly they just argue and whine. I know, I know, you are so jealous of our car ride home. We listen to music and sing along, that always helps.

The girls most recent thing to do, since it has gotten so cold, is to place their hand on the window and see who can keep it there the longest. Once they got really good at doing that, they decided to put their cheek on the window and hold it there until we made it home. Let me tell you, those girls have some will power!! They will be almost in tears because their face is so cold but they won't take it off because neither of them wants to give in. Then they laugh forever when they finally get to take it off and feel each other's cheek and it is almost frozen. Yesterday, they decided they would put their tongues on the window and see who could do it the longest. Don't worry, I drew the line with that one so it was back to cheeks.

I love those girls so much, silly as can be! I am dying for the day that we move closer to school and don't have to endure our hour of travel each day, but I know I will miss the time that I spent with them on that "Hwy 14 ride". Pin It Now!