Happy Holidays

I have been seriously behind in my blogging. The reason is that the website I use to host my images has been having some issues. I don't know if they were upgrading (which we all know when you try to improve something that doesn't seem to have problems you end up breaking something that didn't need fixing) or if their server is having problems or what, but I have not been able to upload images until recently. So, I guess I'll break this post into parts so that it makes a little bit of sense.


Setting up the tree

The weekend after Thanksgiving was quite busy. We brought out all of the Christmas decorations and the house transformed from normal everyday blah to wonderful Christmas splendor. This year I decided to set the tree up in the Dining Room in the front of the house because I know how curious Abby is and wanted to keep the tree out of her curiosities. This worked out wonderfully and actually we only broke a handful of ornaments this year.

Here Lexi helps Daddy string the lights on the tree



Abby decides to lend a "helping hand"






Polar Express Day

The last Friday of school before the break was Polar Express Day at Lexi's school. This meant that the kids should go to school in their pajamas and wear slippers and whatnot. A couple of nights before Lexi picked the pajamas she would wear but I was concerned because I didn't think she'd be warm enough. I suggested that we go shopping for a bathrobe to keep her warm and that's just what we did only she would call it a "bath rib" for awhile then it become a "bath rob" which is what she still calls it to this day.

She was so funny when she woke up that morning. She insisted that I put some curlers in her hair because her teacher had told her that they should come looking like they just got out of bed. This was funny to me because Lexi doesn't normally wear curlers at night but insisted that this was how she would look if she were awoken suddenly.

Here's our little sleepy head on her way to the bus stop.





That same morning Abby was a little sluggish and it seemed that she thought it should be Polar Express Day at home because she did not want to get out of her jammies and (totally out of character) she actually stopped running around the house and vegged out on the couch watching TV in her jammies cuddling with her favorite Care Bear blanket.



She came to her senses a little later in the day and went on with her regular antagonizing antics with the pups. She evicted Cassi from her crate so she herself could occupy the crate next to Lou.



A Visit with Santa

Since Lexi was teeny tiny I have not had a good picture of her with Santa. Her first Christmas in the hospital was probably the last decent picture I had and that is kind of morbid with an oxygen tube in her nose. I've tried--Lord knows I've tried--taking her to the mall and the local Micheal's that Santa visits every year but it's always the same. She'll be excited the whole time while standing in line telling us what she's going to tell Santa but when she gets to the front of the line she becomes unglued and we get a terrible picture of her crying or nothing at all. This year was no different in that regard. She did come unglued which freaked Abby out. We decided to let the family behind us go and we'd try again after them. This time Abby was not having it and Santa had a hard time keeping a good grip on her as she tried to lunge out of his arms. Lexi was distracted from the commotion and we got this picture.



We quickly rescued Abby from the struggling Santa and began to proceed to wait for the pictures to print when I noticed Lexi and Santa were deep in conversation. I thought this too cute and told Stefan who was close to the photographer to snap a shot. Apparently, the photog didn't understand that I wanted the impromptu conversation and not a cheesecake posed pic because she called Lexi's name and snapped Lexi back to reality in an instant. We were able to capture this picture though and it is the best we've ever had of her with Santa.




Celebrating Hanukkah late

Circumstances did not allow for us as an entire family together with Stefan's parents and brother to celebrate Hanukkah during the actual holiday. He finally got together the weekend before Christmas and exchanged gifts followed by going out to lunch. It was a great day. Stefan and I received a date night from his parents and the girls got plenty of wonderful gifts including clothes, books, and a small trampoline which Uncle Faron was gracious enough to assemble while Stefan was at work.

Here's a pic of Uncle Faron showing Abby one of her new books



Christmas Eve

I spent the morning of Christmas Eve preparing our traditional snacks. Lexi and I made reindeer food (oatmeal and glitter)to sprinkle on the front lawn so Rudolph would be able to see our home from the sky. We also made fudge, cookies, and coffee cake. It was fun. I enjoy baking with her and you can tell that the feeling is mutual.

Later, we went to my parents' house for dinner. Mom always serves a spread of filling finger food and this year was no exception. After dinner, we all migrated to the basement where my sister and her family, my parents, and our little family played lots of ping pong and pool. Watching the kids try to play was hysterical--especially Lexi who was burning up a year's worth of energy chasing ping pong balls all over the basement.

When we came home Lexi and I went outside to spread the reindeer food. While we were doing so, we hear a jolly "Ho, ho, ho!" and Lexi's attention snapped to the sky saying, "I hear him! I heard Santa!" Too cute. Here she is sprinkling the food.




Christmas Day

Christmas Day Lexi came in our room at 6 a.m. She came to my side of the bed saying, "Mommy, I want to see if Santa came." I told her to return to bed that we would a little bit later, but 15 minutes later Abby woke up. So, we decided it was going to continue like this until we gave in anyway. So we were up inspecting Santa's leavings before the sun could rise. Later, my parents and Faron joined us for dinner. It was overall a very nice day together.





My mom got Abby a trike which Faron assembled for her. Abby, of course, had to help. Here they are making progress.



Stefan and I got her a kitchen complete with a little dress up chef outfit. Here she is one morning playing with it.



Well, I guess that catches us up a bit. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and that you all have a safe and happy New Year!

Lexism of the week

Today, I was checking my email and responding to one while Lexi was trying to read Cinderella. She got stuck on a word and was trying to get my help but I was in La La Land. All of a sudden she asks, "Are your ears working today?" Silly girl!

The jury is in...

For those of you that actually care...final grades were due today and although it was a tough semester with a lot of writing and projects I came out on top with A's in both my classes. This is great considering one of my classes counts twice as much as a regular class toward my GPA, so getting an A in it is a nice little boost. Yippee!!!!

Abbyism of the week (and introducing Mylee)

Abby's personality is truly shining through. She has a good start to a vocabulary as well as smarts that just astound me. Within the last few weeks she has started to identify body parts. I taught her where her bubba (belly button) is and she'll lift her shirt and point to it when prompted. Recently she learned her nose but there is a glich there. When you ask where her nose is she sticks her finger up it! One day I'll get a pic of it.

She also has grown to love having her teeth brushed. I keep her toothbrush and paste in my bathroom and whenever she can sneak in there she points at them and says "this?" until you finally oblige her. I think one day she may be a dentist....who knows. ::shrug::

Another possible career path for her is that of a veterinarian. This girl loves animals! Especially dogs. We'll be in a store shopping and she will see a picture of one and yell "Gog, gog! Woof woof!!" It's too cute. My mom recently got a 8 1/2 week Shih Tzu named Mylee that tips the scales at one pound on the nose (envision Abby with her finger in her nostril here-that's what I do when I hear the word nose anymore). She is about the size of a guinea pig and Abby is in love with her which shouldn't surprise me given her dog infatuation.

Anyway, here are pics of Abby's latest object of affection:




And here she is standing (yes she is standing) next to a Coke can just to give you some perspective of her size.

Tis the Season

Last night I dropped Abby at my mom and dad's to sleepover so I could hopefully clean house this morning. When I woke up I decided that my time without the kiddos would be better spent wrapping the gifts that would rest under the tree. Well, 4 1/2 hours later I am finally done. It seemed that whenever I thought I was finished I would think of other gifts stuffed in corners throughout the house whether for our immediate family or friends. Then when I really thought I was done Lexi comes home with her gifts purchased at her very first visit to Santa's Workshop at school. I told her to give my gift to Daddy and he would help her wrap it later. As for her gifts for him and Abby all I can say right now (because Daddy reads this) is that they were obviously very well thought out.

I remember my first trip to the workshop when I was her age. My mom was working in the workshop that year and when it was my class's turn to shop she had to vacate the premises. Someone helped me shop and I thoughtfully picked out a medium sized pink teddy bear for my mom, a small purple bear for my oldest sister since purple was her favorite color at the time, a small blue bear for my older sister, and a large green bear for my dad (for obvious reasons). I was so proud of my purchases and thought I had truly chosen the perfect gift for each person. I couldn't figure out why all the adults were giggling at the time but it all makes sense now.

My Chanukah blunder

Okay, I'm not Jewish. But Stefan and his family are and we are raising the girls with the knowledge of both religions. Since most of the Jewish holidays start at sundown, Stefan misses out on lighting the menorah with the girls and whatnot. I often feel like the blind leading the blind as I don't know Hebrew and thus do not know by memory the prayer your supposed to say when you light the candles. Well, according to my calendar, Chanukah was yesterday. So I brought out the menorahs and tried to located my sheet that had the prayer on it. I couldn't locate it, so I called Barbara and Dennis to bail me out of this one. Dennis answered the phone and I asked if he would like to lead Lexi through the lighting of the candles. He obliged. He started with telling Lexi over speaker phone how to set up the menorah and kept mentioning that she needed a helper candle and two others. "Why?" I was thinking to myself since there's only supposed to be one candle for each day. Apparently, what my trusty calendar didn't tell me was that yesterday was the first FULL day of Chanukah and that it actually began the night before. I felt like a big dufus and was apologizing to my in-laws profusely who claimed that it was okay and that they were just glad that I was doing this with the girls on my own while Stefan was at work. I still felt terrible.

Anyway, Happy Chanukah everyone!!!!

Catching up

I hadn't realized it had been so long since my last post. Not that you all are interested as to why my presence has been lacking, but I'll explain. Thanksgiving was great. This year we spent the holiday with Stefan's family. His mom organized a family reunion which brought in Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and Grandma Roz from all corners of the country. It was so nice to be able to see everyone together. I think the last time we all were was at mine and Stefan's wedding seven years ago. We came close last year when we attended Stefan's cousin's wedding in Texas, but Faron was unable to attend.

As always Thanksgiving coincides with the end of the semester for me. I didn't have any finals per say, but I had a ton of projects to do one of which was a non-traditional research paper on Henry VIII for my "Teaching Writing to Adolescents" class. I had to enlist the help of my longtime friend of 15 years, Jen, to help me with that one as she is a scrapbooking genius and I was able to put the project together like it was a scrapbook/compilation of Henry's history written from His son's, Edward VI, perspective. It turned out great and I'm very proud of it.

I also got my Christmas present early so I'd be able to enjoy it while I'm on break. Okay, so maybe my normal time for blogging has been eaten up with trying to figure this thing out. Speaking of Christmas, I found a great advent calendar for the girls this year which has Lexi super excited. Then, one day she comes home from school asking why she doesn't have an elf that visits her from the North Pole. This apparently came up on the playground with one of her classmates who has one. I went to the store and got one to start the tradition on Dec. 1. It came with a book explaining how everything is supposed to work and she named her elf, Bill. She is so cute about this.

I've been falling apart lately. Well, okay...it's my left hand mostly. I sprained my pinky somehow and as if that wasn't bad enough, I blistered my thumb on a pizza pan when I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing removing it from the oven. I then got a rash on my ring finger from water getting trapped under my wedding ring which was only made worse when I tried to remove the ring to take a better look. So then I was down to only two fingers on that hand that were undamaged. Well, this morning I was coming down the stairs and whacked my hand on the top in between my thumb and pointer finger and it has been in agonizing pain since. So now I'm down to only my middle finger that isn't hurting. Imagine that!