Snow!

See those white spots? It's snowing!!!!

Christmas Time

Christmas Eve 2010

As Santa starts to pack his sleigh I've gotten all of our gifts wrapped and ready, the tree and "fireplace" are cozy and the stockings are hung.

Tomorrow we'll be going to a party with our kid friends for a present swap then home to bake Christmas cookies for Santa Claus! It's hard to believe Christmas is here already.

Meeting Santa 2010

The girls were really into Santa this year which is wonderful. They haven’t really had any liking for the big red guy before.

On our want through the mall to visit Santa they literally broke out into an all out sprint. They were knocking old ladies down and merchandise was flying! (Well, at least that’s what it seemed like to me as I desperately tried to calm them down.)

As we got closer to Santa’s magical area they slowed to a crawl and snuck their heads around to get a peek as we waited in line.

They were so excited and yet so nervous. They kept asking me “Mama, what do I say?” or “Mama, does he know my name already?”

Merry Christmas

We had a fantastic Christmas day. The girls woke up at their usual 7:45am and I had the camera waiting for them!

They were amazed to see that Santa had left them presents. They were a little worried that he wouldn't be able to find us since we moved but their fears were squelched once they saw everyones gifts.

Hailey ran over to see if Santa had eaten the cookies we baked for him the night before and he had! Not only that but he drank nearly all of his milk. They both agree that since Santa finished his food he will grow up big and strong. Lol!

They opened their gift from Santa first. He brought them exactly what they had asked for; a new Barbie doll. She is a fairy with removable wings that you can decorate! They just had to have her opened right then and there.

After opening all their gifts (Barbies, two little drawing tables from Doodle, new bedding from Poppy) they put on their new outfit from Santa and had a small snack.

All the mornings excitement nearly wore Hailey out. She sat down next to Doodle and after some back rubs from Poppy was nearly out for the count! She perked right up though when she learned we had more fun Christmas day plans.

Our New Home!

We have officially moved to our new place. We moved the majority of our stuff Wednesday and are nearly all set up. The only things left to move are a few stray clothes and the dressers to put them in. I just have a ton of organization at the new house and cleaning at the old to do now. Just remind me it'll all be over soon.

Our first night was a bit rough on the girls. They would wake up not knowing where they were and would scream bloody murder. They kept going back and forth with which one would wake up so Mommy got all of about 30 minutes of sleep. Our second night was much better. We all got relatively decent sleep.

We've never had adjoining neighbors before so it's a huge adjustment for the girls. We have to really work hard on keeping our inside voices on especially at night and not running because with the hardwood floors each step is echoed. That's all easier said then done with two very excitable three year olds.  

Birds Nest

Playing In The Leaves

Tangled

I took the girls to see Tangled. I was a little worried that they wouldn't air through it, would be too loud or that I wouldn't be able to handle them alone but it turned out to be a fantastic outing. We got our tickets and handed them to the nice young man at the entrance. The girls were pumped up to say the least and nearly clobbered each other to try and be first in the door. Grabbing a drink and popcorn to share we headed into the theater. I tried to time it as to where we'd get there after the five million previews but before the movie began and we ended up having perfect timing. The only downside was that the theater had the seats you have to fold down to sit in and my tiny children barely weighted enough to keep then down. Once they figured it out we were ready to go. Hailey sat mostly still and quite and just watched in awe while scarfing popcorn at an alarming rate while Hannah on the other hand was (whispering) a million and one questions my way the entire time. All in all they did great and really proved how much they are growing up. After the movie the told everyone and their brother all about the movie. I am still amazed at how much they understood and how the parts I was worried I'd have to explain to them they picked up on.

Sushi!

Meeting Santa

No Internet Makes Me Sad

The internet is out, yet again, at the house so I am unable to post photos. We've been having a heck of a time with the phone lines. There has been three different people here to work on it and after each person it will work extremely well for all of a day or two and then it will get worse than it has been. Now its not working at all. Very frustrating.

Oh Christmas Tree–Oh Christmas Tree!

We put up the Christmas tree when the girls the came home from their Dad’s house Saturday afternoon. We have a fake tree because I’m allergic to real trees and prefer not to spend the entire season of advent. I popped our new 6 1/2 foot pre-lit Colorado pine tree out of the box, put it together, plugged in the lights and let the girls pull out the ornament. I did my best to try and keep them from reeking havoc on the ornaments especially since a few of the older ones are ceramic and breakable. We pulled out the ornaments one-by-one and the girls sorted them all out by type and if they needed hangers on them. I call the hangers “hooks” which may or may not have been a good idea because the girls started calling them “hookers”. Yes, that’s right there was a lot of “Mommy, this Barbie is missing her hooker.” “Santa has a big hooker!” “Mommy, where do you buy the hookers?” “That’s a whole lotta hookers in that box!”  It took every once of strength for Stephen and I not to die laughing.

Hannah was a complete ham when the camera came out. She wanted to pose with each and every ornament. (Please don’t mind her crazy hair. She had her hair in a ponytail but she started wallering around and got it all goobered up right before we started pictures.) She had to pose by the house ornament in, then the snowman, then one of the Barbie ornaments and then pretended to be surprised at the the lights. She cracks me up. I got all of one photo of Hailey but it’s of the back of her head as she ran from me because she, for once, was being camera shy.

Each year I get an ornament for the girls the same that my Mom did for me. Their first Christmas they got the obligatory “Baby’s 1st Christmas” ornament and the second they received the Hallmark edition 2nd Christmas bear. This year I wanted to get them something that represented their likes and dislikes instead of something cutesy. They have been obsessed with Disney princesses and fairys lately so the Cinderella and Tinkerbell ornaments were an obvious choice. They got to open up the box, but on the hangers and place them at the front of the tree.

Now it’s time for Mommy to start getting those presents wrapped! Wish me luck.

Tangled

As soon as the previews began playing the girls were begging me to go see Tangled. So, we hit the theater one Tuesday morning with a giant popcorn bag and a drink with three straws and sat down for movie magic.

The girls had gone to see a movie in the theater with their Dad and Nana but this was my first rodeo and I was nervous. Would they be quite? Would they sit still? Would they enjoy it? Lucky for me I was able to answer yes to all of the above!

Let’s Save Some Energy (and some money)!

This evening as I wandered around my living room in my “sinus congestion filled loopy/can’t sleep because my head feels like it’s going to explode-ness” I started to notice all of the tiny red and green dots of lights around the house. As I began to realize how many standby lights were on my wallet made a little sigh. Now, I am a penny pincher due to necessity but there are a ton of things that I miss that really add up when it comes to paying the bills. So, where are just a few simple tasks to help you keep some money in your wallet and maybe help put a little more presents under the tree this year.

* Unplug your standby power. Did you know that a studies by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was able to show that standby power eats up 5 to 10 percent of the energy in your bill each month! That’s an insane number when you think that all it power is going to light up one tiny LED bulb.

* Don’t use your clothes dryer as often. It costs 34 cents per load and if you are like most families you are doing at least seven loads per week (if not more). This really adds up at the end of the month.

*Set your refrigerator temperature at 38 to 42 degrees. Most people overlook the fridge because we assume that colder is better but in reality the more your fridge is working, the more it costs and for no positive result.

*Don’t use a screen saver. Many people believe that screen savers on your computer save energy when you are not using the machine and this is not true. A screen saver uses just as much power so instead try using the sleep setting between long periods of inactivity.

*Use Compact florescent lamps (CFLs) instead of regular light bulbs. They will last you several years and use 75% less energy.

*Use low flow shower heads. They can save you at least $500 a year! Many people are skeptical about using them because they worry about water pressure but they are make to sustain regular water pressure but use 2 to 5 gallons of water per minute versus the regular head using 5 to 10 gallons.

*Check your windows and doors. Every little bit of air that is going in and out of the house after being either cooled or heated is a huge waste. Most of the time filling these gaps is a simple and cheap fix.

*Program your thermostat and keeping the temperatures a little lower in winter or a little higher in summer can save you 3% on your energy bill.

Happy Turkey Day

Although I was not able to have the Thanksgiving that we had planned for we still had a good one. Most of the family and friends we invited to come over and who accepted ended up not coming after all. Of the fifteen people who had said they would be there we had six but we enjoyed every minute of it and everyone who couldn’t come was greatly missed.

The girls helped me pick out leaves that had fallen from one of the Bartlett pear trees in my Mom’s neighborhood. I wrote everyone’s names on them to use as place cards. Both of the girls were very proud of their leaves and couldn’t wait till Nana Susan and Papa David came over to see them.

Mom and I cooked enough food for an army (well, for fifteen people) and it was all absolutely delicious. We had a roasted and smoked turkey, sweet potato casserole, collard greens, corn, green bean casserole, dressing, gravy, cranberries, rolls and deviled eggs. Ontop of that we had apple, blueberry and pumpkin pie along with cheesecake. Needless to say we had too much food for six people and after we all ate it didn’t look like a thing was touched.

 

After we filled our bellies we went outside to the back porch to talk and enjoy the night air. I absolutely loved having Stephen’s parents with us this year and am glad to know that turkey freezes so well.

A Preview of the Yum to Come!

With the Thanksgiving countdown quickly moving along we are prepping all our goodies for tomorrow. The girls have been great helpers with Hannah making the collard greens and Hailey making the corn casserole!