Most Wonderful Day of the Year!

Boy did these girls have fun!

The girls played with their new presents all morning and then we went to church.

finger paints

Elmo, elmo, elmo

We saw Uncle Matt for a little bit and played some more.

dress-ups

It took forever for them to get to sleep tonight. Gianna was wired- she is so excited to go to StL tomorrow!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

We started the evening out with some homemade mini pizzas. Second year in a row, and I hope to keep the tradition up! Its fun for the girls to pick their toppings.

We opened presents from family members, and something tells me that this is going to be a very Elmo Christmas for Boom. We set out treats for Santa and of course, the carrot is for the reindeer!

What a difference a year makes:

Once the girls were snug in their beds, we took the stocking advent calendar down and put their stockings up. We put out the Nativity scene with Jesus in it, and put all the presents under the tree.

Can't wait to see their reactions! See that Elmo bag Santa left? Elia is going to go ga-ga over it!

Merry Christmas to all!

Great Weekend!

We've been doing a lot of driving around our neighborhood at night these days to see all the Christmas lights. The girls love getting dressed in their jammies and bringing their blankets to go driving. So that was our Friday- pretty low key.

Here is Elia all snuggled up! Check out the sweet new boots Aunt Shanny sent her that just happen to match PERFECTLY with the hand-me-down coat from G.

Chris worked Saturday morning. We headed out to John and Sam's kiddo's birthday party. It was sooo fun- bounce house to start, plenty of great food, and then an Elmo pinata!

They did a fabulous job with the party. The kids were dressed for the theme, which was Thing 1 and Thing 2- as their 2 kids are 13 months apart. Love this creative spread:

Both girls had a few swings at the piñata. Piñatas at this age are hilarious because no one gets a really good satisfying blow, so the kids could literally hit the thing all night long. John eventually ripped it open a little to get the goods out.

Sunday was the usual- cartoons, Church, and lunch. Weinpel came over to help with the room so he brought Koda. The girls got to see her once they woke up from naps. I couldn't believe how excited I was to see her- I even let her lick me a couple times! (this is huge guys) Anyways, while they worked on the room G and I made these awesome button cookies. Sooooo kid friendly, and no batter to mix! I'll give you the recipe really quick because it is SO easy!

You Need:

Pretzel checkers or waffles

Hershey kisses, hugs, etc.

M&Ms

Directions:

Put pretzels on baking sheet. Place an unwrapped kiss on each pretzel. Put in oven at 200 for 5 minutes. This will make the chocolate nice and soft. Here is G waiting for them:

Then pull them out, and press an m&m into each. You can mix it up however you want- different flavors and colors of kisses and m&ms. Durn Tom Thumb was out of plain Christmas m&ms so I went with the regular ones. G loved pushing the m&ms into the kisses, and sampling everything of course. This is seriously my new go-to recipe!

So I know I keep saying I am going to put pics up of the room. I might just wait until it is completely done. Baseboards are in the works, and sometime this week we are going to get our bed! Merry Christmas to Chris and I, YAY! This week I am going to be soooo busy getting ready for Christmas and then packing for our trip to StL for Col's wedding. See ya!

Cleaning Out My Closet

Love my little helpers! They helped me turn this:

Into this:

Here they are helping me!

Hide and Seek

These girls are OBSESSED with Hide and Seek, especially when Chris is around. Elia is especially hilarious about it. She sits still so well when she knows she is hiding, and sometimes she willingly encloses herself into the laundry room or a closet just so she can hide. If I open the door to get her out, she says "No, hide!" and then pushes the door closed. This is more or less how it goes:

Chris is notorious for finding really good hiding spots (like laying across the kitchen counter, etc.) and is teaching the girls his ways. He even got G in the wash machine the other night.

No children were hurt in this game of hide and seek. Whenever we play hide and seek, there is constant adult supervision. No doors are ever closed on our children!

Ornaments

So excited for the ornaments I picked out this year! Every year we give each of us an ornament so that we will have one for every year. I love this tradition- one that Chris' family does and we decided to carry on. I LOVE Pier One's ornaments so I try to go there each year. When I saw these, I couldn't NOT get them, right?

When I was pregnant with E and found out it was a girl, Chris kept saying wouldn't it be cool if we had a brunette girl? Then we would have one of each(a blonde and brunette). And so far, that is exactly what happened!

I got these for Chris and I- the rougher bear is for Chris and the smoother, prettier bear is for me.

We are getting sooooo excited for Christmas over here. Gianna probably asks me twice a day if tomorrow is Christmas. She is getting way excited. My Christmas shopping is done so I can enjoy the rest of advent. Yay!

Teaching her to be sneaky?

A couple of months age we started putting the girls down at the same time at night. Most nights, it works perfectly. We have to go in there from time to time and shush their giggles, but thats about the worst that happens. I actually like that they talk and giggle at night, it is what I used to do with my sisters too! Gianna is a much better sleeper than Elia. I often have to wake her up from nap or else she might sleep until 5! But Elia doesn't love her sleep as much. On days like today, when Elia woke up at 4am and slept little after that AND took a 30 minute nap, she is exhausted by 8pm. Elia is ready to go to bed while G is not. But Elia won't go to sleep without big sister across the room from her, so we pretty much HAVE to put them down together. We worked out a deal with Gianna. On some nights, if she waits in her bed for Elia to fall asleep, then she can come back out of her room and hang out. It might happen just once a week or so, and I especially like to do it when Chris works late (like getting home at 8:45-9pm late) so that G can see her daddy. Tonight, we decorated cookies and read books together. I enjoy the rare one-on-one time with her. And when she comes tiptoeing out of her room once Elia is asleep, it is so cute. I hope this is not giving her any ideas on how to sneak out when she is a teenager!

Licking the spoon this past weekend.

Very precise about her sprinkles!

Elia Belia

Poor girl is sick today. Its nice that she took a 3 hour nap, but so sad to see her eyes all watery and nose all red and stuffy. But she is much more snuggly! After she woke up today all she wanted to do was cuddle. She even fell asleep in my arms earlier this evening. :)So I thought I would take this time to write about what this little girl is up to. She is pretty good at talking now- can repeat most words we say to her. She wants to do everything Gianna does, and will let Giana dress her and brush her and generally torture her.

She wanted to be zipped up in the suitcase.

Whenever she has a small bump or bruise, she yells OW and then comes over and make me kiss the spot she hurt. So cute.

Last night she said Daddy for the first time in months. It is really cute- it sounds like Dannyyyyyyy. Chris is eating it up.

She loves to give kisses, which is especially er, sweet, when she is sick. She is obsessed with Elmo. Whenever she sees Elmo on her cup or at the store on a pack of diapers she squeals and won't stop saying Elmo!!!! Santa is bringing some Elmo toys, I'm sure of it. Funny thing is, we rarely watch Sesame Street!

When I was trying to take their Christmas picture the other day, I was having a really hard time getting her to sit still and next to G. I remembered I had a pack of M&Ms in my car, so I went out to go get them. Elia followed me into the garage, and saw that I had the pack in my hands. As soon as she saw I had them, she turned around and ran back to her room where we were taking the picture. She immediately sat down next to G and just looked at the camera all pretty. And I hadn't given her one yet! Smarty girl. The photo session went much better after that.

Can't believe how big she is getting!!!

Color Fiend

When she decides what to wear, her outfits are ridiculously colorful. Green turtle neck, pink shirt over it, polka dot sweatshirt over that. Green polka dot pants with orange socks and pink crocs. Heehee.

But this post is more about her coloring obsession. She has recently become infatuated with coloring. She would rather color than watch tv. If someone is coming to visit (like Uncle Matt or Aunt Shanny) she just has to draw them a picture. She often colors and then asks me to put it on facebook. Some pictures she even wants to sleep with. So sweet.

She is also starting to randomly tell me or Chris that she loves us. In the bath the other night I was washing Elia's hair, and she said "Mommy, I love you!" She will say it at the most random times, and it just makes my heart swell. Love her.

The Christmas Pictures You Won't Get in the Mail

I wanted to shoot myself last night. I needed to get a Christmas picture taken so I could put it in the mail. I don't know who was worse, my moody 3 year old or my giggly wiggly 18 month old. I took 94 pictures last night, and I think I have one out of all of those that is good enough to send out. Here are a few you won't be getting in the mail:

Distracted Boom

Moody

Pokey

My personal fave.

M&Ms were the only thing that kept us all going.

Last Day to Teach

Today was my last day of teaching Preschool Playdates. There is one more next week, and then Gianna will be going on to preschool in January! Sniff sniff.

We learned about St. Nick and the letter J. J is for Jesus (duh!) and St. Nick made a special stop to the kiddos while we were at preschool. It was a fun last day.

St. Nick came to see us!

Decorating St. Nick's miter (hat).

Last week, I went and visited my future class. I'm not going to give too many details out on the blog-o-sphere, but I can tell you a little. It is a brand new school (this is its first year!) in a very nice neighborhood. There are 20 kids in my class and they seem like a good enough bunch. I read them Our Teacher's Having a Baby to them and we talked about how excited they are for their teacher to have a baby. After teaching preschool today and seeing the 3rd graders a few days ago, it has just reaffirmed how I am way more cut out for 8/9 year olds. You have to have way more energy and patience for 3 year olds than 8 year olds. Not only that, but you have to have EVERY second planned or the 3 year olds go crizazy. Who knows, I might be singing a different tune in 2 months! I plan to visit 2 more times in Jan/Feb. The teacher is due February 16th, so as soon as she "goes", I'm in. It is so bittersweet. I am truly looking forward to working again (and earning a paycheck :) but it will be so sad to leave my girls with someone else. It will all be worth it in the end!

St. Nick's Day

St. Nick's day was a big hit here! G insisted on putting out her shoes she is wearing for the wedding. We put some of Elia's out too. Gianna kept getting St. Nick's name wrong and was starting to call him Uncle Rick. (What??:) These little girls are plum spoiled with the Advent calendar AND shoes full of chocolate and a kaleidescope. I just know Christmas is going to be soooo fun!