Merry Christmas!

(It seems quite silly to be blogging about Christmas when it's now March. But I do want to have all the big things written down somewhere.)

Christmas is so much fun with kids! And they are so much fun at their ages. Chuck & Nancy didn't come down this year, so it was just the 4 of us on Christmas morning. Butch started the casserole before we came downstairs so it would be done when we finished with gifts. (More on the casserole later!)

Lacey & Leah were amazed to see all the gifts under the tree! (What kid wouldn't be?!)
They immediately started digging in. Santa had wrapped the really big gifts and it took them a bit to realize there was something BIG to open. I'm glad they didn't realize it right away since Lacey was so into her new bike that I'm not sure she would have kept unwrapping right away!

And, yes...Santa brought them bikes. Lacey's is a big girl one with training wheels. Leah's is a Radio Flyer trike that has a handle on it that we can push until she learns how to peddle on her own.

At some point, the timer went off and Butch checked the casserole. He thought it still needed to cook more, so we put it back in. Checked it a bit later and it still wasn't done....I then checked the recipe & realized he had set the timer for 30 min.....instead of 1 hour. Huh. No wonder it wasn't done!

Somewhere around noon, we headed to Rick & Kristina's house. I love holidays with my family. I know what a lucky person I am, too....to have a family that I really like to spend time with.

We had a fabulous dinner! I usually try to take a picture of the food & somehow didn't get that done this year. We had roast beef, stuffed ham, sweet potatoes, broccoli casserole, salad....and I know I missing things!

And, then the cousins opened up all of their gifts, while the rest of us watched
Every year....or most years....for a long time, we get a picture of the cousins. The past several times, there have been serious pictures with everyone smiling, then the less serious....silly face picture.

I love those "kids".

Christmas Eve 2009

The holidays are always so hectic. And, Christmas Eve is one of those days where I feel like we run around a bit much. But it seems worth it all in the end.

I had to work (from home, luckily) until 12:00 and daycare closed at 1:00. Aunt Marilyn had invited us to an open house for the girls to see Santa. (She has a connection to him through her brother!) He is amazing! So, we picked the girls up & drove to Indian Head. For those that don't know, it's about a 30-40 minute drive. The girls got changed into their Christmas dresses, then sat with Santa and posed for pictures.
We had planned to only be there for an hour or so to allow time to pick up pizza before church (at 5:00). That didn't work out!

We ended up visiting longer than we had planned. It's just too hard to leave when you don't see someone often enough. By the time we left, we knew we'd be late for church (40 minutes back toward home). While Butch was in Ledo's picking up our pizza (in La Plata), it dawned on me that there is a Methodist Church right in La Plata that we could go to. So, that's what we did. It was okay. The 5:00 is supposed to be the "children's service" or "family service". At Mt. Zion, our regular church, this means that the service is really done for the kids. It incorporates them and makes it more fun for them. However, at the La Plata church, I felt like it was just a regular service that was more tolerant of noise. Live and learn, right? Next year we will be at Mt. Zion, I think.

After church, we headed home for pizza. In case you don't know, Christmas Eve is also Butch's birthday. We had birthday cake for him after the pizza and he opened his gifts. I had gotten him an iPod....finally he decided he wanted one!

Then, we switched back to Christmas mode. :-) The girls get to open 2 gifts each year. One is usually PJs and the other is an ornament. We got them new robes this year, too.

Something new happened this year! Lacey was able to write a note to Santa!

I can't believe she's old enough to do that! I love it!

Daycare Christmas Party

The Daycare Party was Tuesday, the 22nd. Miss Lisa's daughter had written a play about the animals in the forest taking care of a little tree that was lonely. Sort of a Charlie Brown tree. Lacey's best buddy went out for her part before Lacey (with her sister) and "froze". Lacey & Leah went out and Lacey refused to do her speaking part, too! Oh well, they were cute! And, when the time came for singing, everyone participated.
Santa came - arriving on a fire truck! No surprise to me that Leah was the first one to run up to him. That girl has no fear.

It was a bit surprising that Lacey went up right after Leah! She sat on his lap for a few minutes and talked.The kids had picked names a few weeks before for a gift exchange. Miss Lisa had also gotten them gifts. And, Miss Lisa had helped them to make gifts for us. They were little bags that had been decorated with fingerprint painting and it said a hug was inside. Inside the bag was a piece of yarn that was as long as their arms are wide. It was a very sweet gift that we'll be keeping.

December 2009 (Pre-Christmas)

Lacey & Leah headed to the dentist in late November & I was amazed at how well they both did! Lacey did fairly well last time, too, so I shouldn't have been surprised. Leah sat by herself in the chair & let them do what they needed to. They told us that Lacey's bottom teeth (middle) were both loose, so she got quite excited about the tooth fairy coming at some point.

Leah had a cold at the end of November and by the first week in December her sleep had deteriorated enough that I took her to see Dr. Jill. She'd had the cold for nearly 2 weeks by that point. As it turned out, she had a double ear infection - both ear drums were bulging. Dr. Jill called her a tough cookie, considering she wasn't complaining. Poor baby.

We started with winter early here this year! It was really just a dusting, but we don't normally get snow so early. This was December 5th. It was just enough for the kids to explore, but not to cause issues with driving.



Just wait until the pictures from future snow storms! Yikes!

Butch & I had taken off on December 18th to take the girls to see Sesame Street Live. For anyone that doesn't know, Leah is a huge fan of Elmo. She loved it! Lacey enjoyed it, too, but not nearly as much.
We had planned to go see the Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes on Saturday, the 19th. Dee, Kristin, Lacey and I were going. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans for us....a blizzard. We got 16 inches at our house. It snowed for 24 hours straight. Unbelievable.
Saturday morning, we knew we weren't going to the show. They didn't cancel it, but they did give refunds to those that couldn't make it, so at least we got our money back.

We stayed inside that day since it was so windy and cold, but made it out to play on Sunday.

Lacey isn't much of a daredevil, so she wouldn't go sledding in the backyard (big hill). Instead, she liked the mound of snow made from Butch's shoveling work.
The snow wasn't packing very well (too powdery), but it worked okay for a snow castle.
And, Leah didn't like going into the snow since it was so deep. But she had fun with her sandbox toys.

We had lots of fun throwing a tennis ball for Brady into the snow. She'd hop through the snow & see the hole where the ball went....then dig for it. Made for a tired dog that night.
I have some great videos from that day, but have never had luck uploading them to blogger for some reason. I'm really not sure why, but I try to do it an 2 hours later, it's still trying to upload. So, I'm giving up. Maybe I'll put them on Facebookor email them out.

Catching Up

Okay, okay....I know. Way behind. Not sure how that happens. And now I have so much to catch up on. I'm trying not to skip through things because I'm thinking about having this put into a book for the kids to be able to keep. So, just know that you are going to see a lot of posts here & many of them are old!

Princess Tea

There is a little place in La Plata called The Royal Tea Room. I went last weekend with friends for lunch. I'd heard from friends that they will do a "princess tea", which seemed like a great idea. I thought about doing it for both girls, but Leah is just a little too toddler-ish to be expected to sit through something like that. So, when I made the reservations, I just included Lacey. It was Dee, Kristin, Kristina, Jessica, Grandma, Lacey & me.

Grandma had bought Lacey & Leah play jewelry sets, but the earrings kept breaking. Lacey has wanted earrings for a while and I've been telling her when she turns 5 she can have them. Well....I decided yesterday was a special day and thought she could get them to show off at the tea. Grandma, Lacey & I headed to the mall. On the day after Thanksgiving. Amazingly, the parking wasn't too bad. And, the crowd wasn't too bad.

Lacey picked pretty pink earrings. Here she is getting ready to get it done. (Yes, she wore her Snow White dress for the Princess Tea.)
She was crying after, so I don't have an "after" shot for you. But, she really recovered quickly & was happy with them.

Here is Lacey smiling at her special Princess Tea snacks. They did a great job for a little girl. The owner came out before hand to ask what she liked & didn't like so we could make sure Lacey would be happy with her treats. There was a star shaped turkey sandwich, a heart shaped peanut butter sandwich, a little hotdog, grilled cheese, etc. Yum-o.

The whole gang.....Jessica wearing Lacey's special tiara....

Lunch with Santa

It seems that I am always saying "I can't believe how long it's been"....when I post. But, I think I have new motivation. I found out that I can have my blog put into a nice book. That will be awesome to have done for the kids. Motivation.

Today we went to Lunch with Santa through the 22nd Annual Hospice Festival of Trees. We apparently went in the wrong way because we almost missed lunch! We spent a lot of time in the room with Santa and a very cool train set up.....and the lunch was down the hall! But, we got to eat even thought they had already put the food away.

The girls were great with Santa. I was amazed that neither one was scared or nervous.



Lacey told Santa that she wants a bike for Christmas. He made sure to talk to her about not riding in the streets. ;-) Leah wasn't very talkative with him, but has said "Elmo" anytime someone asks her what she wants.

The girls got their faces painted....and Grandma joined in the fun as well!
We walked through the hall where all of the amazing trees were. Wow. They are beautiful.

Almost Heaven....West Virginia....

….Blue Ridge Mountains…Shenandoah River…

I remember listening to that song on the drive to WV long, long ago when I was maybe 4 or 5. We all piled in the station wagon to go visit Mom’s family. No car seats. Just kids all over the back of the station wagon.

Aunt Annie – Mom’s sister – had lived in Houston for years. I know if I try to guess, I’ll be wrong. 25 years, maybe? Anyway, she & Steve retired and moved to West by God Virginia January 1st.

Dee & I have been trying to coordinate a visit for quite some time. We finally went the last weekend in September. We drove one route and Dee/Buck took a different route. They had left about 20 minutes earlier than us….and we made it to Annie’s about an hour earlier than them. Even with stops for kids.

The girls were good on the drive. And, we were driving through beautiful scenery after only about 2 hours into the drive. Butch said the drive was easy & good….until the mountains. It was still pretty and all….but was more stressful.

This was the first time Annie had met Lacey & Leah. As we were pulling into the driveway, Lacey --- who used to be so shy --- said “Aunt Annie’s gonna love me”! And, as soon as she got out, ran over to give Annie a big hug.

That evening, we just relaxed on their front porch. They have a feeding station for the deer, so the girls “helped” with filling that up. Then we waited (not for long) for the deer to show. The girls stayed fairly quiet, but even when they made a loud noise, the deer just looked up to check things out.

Unfortunately, it rained the entire next day. That was our only full day & we were supposed to go to the park. I’d made a trip to Michael’s and picked up crafts to entertain the kids, so they were set. And, later….we let them put on their rain boots & coats to go splash in puddles (although, I don’t think they really splashed much).

We had spaghetti with Aunt Annie’s homemade sauce on Saturday night. Yum-o! She uses brown sugar in her sauce. I do, too, but obviously not as much. I think I’ll add more next time I make it.

Sunday morning we had a big breakfast before packing the car up and heading out. I’m so glad we went. I asked Lacey what her favorite part of the visit was. She said “everything at Aunt Annie’s was my favorite part”. Sweet girl.

I’m not really sure how to describe it, but I felt somehow closer to Mom during that time. Partly the visit to West Virginia and partly Aunt Annie – who seems so similar to Mom.

I know we’ll head back for a visit again before too long. Soon, we’ll be planning our “reunion” for all of that side of the family. Can’t wait!

Family Room

The other day, Butch asked me what I thought about having a small version of our Christmas party. We haven't had one since before I was pregnant with Leah -- partly because of the mess 2 kids create & the stress trying to keep the house clean in preparation for a party would create. But, we both would like to try again this year.

We've also been considering a switch from DirecTv to Cable since I think we can get a good deal. (We have cable for the internet, so we might get a price break if we do both with 1 company.)

These are the things that prompted me to try rearranging the furniture. To do what I was thinking of, we would have to re-route the cable/DTV wiring, so we need to know where it should go before having the cable company come out.

And, this new arrangement allows some of the kids mess to be hidden a little more. Yes, I realize we will still have a mess. And, I'm fine with having a messy, lived-in house while our kids are little. However.....this might work well.

Remember when looking at the after pictures that the TV will be moved to the opposite corner. I'll mention where in a picture below.

View from the kitchen -- near the sunroom -- into the family room -- before:
Same view -- after:
View from kitchen -- entering from the foyer -- into the family room -- before:
Same view -- after:

Behind the couch (yes, I need to organize it, but will wait to make sure we like this before doing so...and will wait to get the TV moved from there first, too):

Standing behind the couch, looking to the kitchen. The corner to the left is where the TV will go.

I think this could work. What I'm not sure of is having the couch facing the kitchen when you are watching TV. But, I think it will be okay. And, I know that the kids toys will still end up in the middle often, but at least there is a true play area to "hide" it when needed.

Thoughts?

Summer is Gone

Wow. Summer is done. August flew by. And, I haven't posted anything on here since the end of July. So, I had to take a look at my pictures to figure out what all you've missed. :-)

At the end of July, we went to Chesapeake Beach. I had taken one of the Thursday morning's off when the girls were home with Butch. I'd hoped for a few hours of fun before coming home for a conference call. But....the weather wasn't great....drizzling off and on, so we only stayed about an hour.


There was this little stream that the girls were playing in a lot.



And, Lacey loved looking for sea shells.
I found a couple pieces of sea glass, too.

The beach is called Brownie's Beach. It's not usually too crowded & was free....until August of this year. They have added a per person fee now for non-county residents and for the 4 of us, it would be over $30. Not bad, except the kids sometimes only want to stay for an hour or so.

Like this visit. Lacey was happy to keep playing & looking for shells, but after about an hour, Leah was pointing to the exit, saying "Mimi, done pool". And, since it wasn't a great day, she won.

I'm sure we'll go back next year....$30-35 isn't too bad to give the girls some fun. :-)

One of the things I'll miss most about summer is the fresh corn! I think Leah will miss it, too! She can finish an entire ear on her own .... and still ask for more.

At least we will still have a few nice days this week. I love the Fall & all the festivals there are in the area, too!