Tuesday, December 20, 2011

A moment in time

The girls got their pictures taken at school a few weeks back.  I was very pleased with the results!







Monday, December 19, 2011

Christina says . .

And now, another installment of "Christina Says"

- "I said, hey there cowboy!"

- "I got my clappy clappy."

- "I'm going to bring this to ho and show."

- "Oh yeah, so yummy, so yummy.  Theres a party in my tummy!"

- "I want my eyes off.  I want my mouth off.  Cut my mouth off."

- "Don't come in here!  I'm doing something bad and I don't want you to see."

- "Look how smaller I got!"

- "I don't give cheerios to whiney babies"

- "I have to get rid of my arm because my arm is very very sick."

says to her sister - "What are you doing at my home?"

- "Are you serious?"

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Advent Calendar update

We've had Christmas treats and watched Christmas specials, we've made Christmas ornaments and Christmas crafts.  We've listened to Christmas music, played with Christmas stickers, and looked at the Christmas lights.  We have had a great time every step of the way.  The girls are excited everyday to "count down to Christmas".  Gwen obviously doesn't get as much out of it as CC does, but she is excited to go along with whatever we are doing.  Here are some of the captured moments:










Saturday, December 17, 2011

In the end, he always wins them all over

In the festive mood yet?  Only 8 more days until Christmas and no that doesn't mean you should wait 7 days until finishing your shopping list.  Get those trees up and decorated, get the gifts purchased and wrapped, and enjoy the count down.  Santa Claus is coming to town!!

I still have some wrapping left to do myself, but if you saw the mountain of gifts already wrapped, you would never guess that there are more to come.  My house is like the North Pole.  Gifts come from miles around to be prepped at my house for the big day.  Not because I'm a world class present wrapper or anything, but because I know what everyone wants for Christmas and I coordinate to try to make sure they get it.  I find the best deals so everyone can get the best bang for their buck.  And not to be forgotten, I host the big gift giving event at my house (and all that other fun Christmas stuff), which means everyone's gifts need to be present and accounted for. This is why I need an entire room in my house designated just for holding these gifts until Christmas Eve when Santa will oh so nicely re-deliver them and place them under our Christmas Tree.  Thank you Santa! (I'll be sleeping)

And speaking of Santa, this year we had quite the turn of events.  I attempted to have the girls sit on Santa's lap no less than THREE times this year.  The first time we looked from afar.  CC was very excited, but the mention of actually getting close enough to sit on his lap totally freaked her out.  This has been her typical behavior for the last two years or three years, uumm, well, for her whole life.  I didn't make her get any closer to Santa since she didn't want to.  She did want to stand there all day though, far enough back where the gate and all of the Christmas decorations were in between her and this dude that everyone says is so awesome (but she has yet to see any actual proof of it), and close enough to watch him (just in case Mommy and Daddy were right about him). The second attempt at sitting on Santa's lap this year was pretty similiar to the first. 

So, when we went to "breakfast with Santa" in our neighborhood this morning, I did not have high expectations.  We got there for story time which took place before Santa arrived.  We had our breakfast and just hung out.  I strategically picked chairs that would be located as close to Santa's chair as possible, with a direct view.  When Santa came in, Christina seemed pretty excited and Gwen didn't seem to care one way or the other.  All of the other children lined up to sit on Santa's lap.  We just sat and watched.  Christina was very relaxed and happy.  She liked seeing all of the boys and girls tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.  She was also intrigued by the candy cane they all got when they were finished.

About a half hour later I asked her if she wanted to get on line to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas.  She chimed in "and to get a candy cane?".  We were in.  She was convinced . . . but I wasn't.  I figured she would freak once it was our turn.  We waited about ten minutes and then . . . .


SUCCESS!!!

Christina actually jumped on Santa's lap with no problem at all!  She had a smile from ear to ear the entire time.  It was Gwen that totally freaked!!  Yet, Gwen freaking out didn't even bother Christina.  She told him what she wanted for Christmas and she got her candy cane.  I managed to stand next to Santa while holding Gwen so at least we could sort of get a picture.  Gwen was super tired and rubbing her eyes though, so it wasn't the best picture.

There's always next year. 

In the meantime, I think CC has a new best friend.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Advent Calendar


I bought this adorable advent calendar (you can ignore the dog), at Kohls and have been so excited to use it with the girls this year.  I am calling it the Countdown to Christmas.  I told them that they get to open one box (door of the train) each day after school (as long as CC has a good day at school), and the paper inside will tell us if we get to open a small gift/surprise/treat or if we get to do some sort of fun Christmas activity.  Anything that goes with the activity for that day, gets wrapped and put in the basket next to the Advant Calendar.  So if they get a special treat, there will be two small gifts to open with the treat in it.  If they get to watch "The Grinch", the movie is wrapped for them to open (even though we have it already - hey, it's fun to open presents!). 


It was pretty challenging trying to find 24 ideas to put in there, especially ones that would be good for toddlers.  I didn't want there to be a bunch of candy and I wasn't going to buy a bunch of presents either.  I think I ended up with a great mix of activities, treats and gifts.  Take a look

Advent Calendar

1. Paint toenails in Christmas colors (red nail polish wrapped and green nail polish wrapped)
2. Get a special Christmas surprise (wrapped Frosty and Santa figurine from dollar tree)
3. Go to see a holiday lights show (we previously bought a Groupon to do this anyway)
4. Visit Santa (what is Christmas without visiting Santa at the mall?)
5. Have a special Christmas treat (wrapped Christmas tree and Santa shaped cookie)
6. Watch "The Grinch" (wrapped our DVD)
7. Write a letter to Santa (nothing to open here, but a necessity for little ones at Christmas)
8. Make Christmas cards (I am going to start on them, wrap them and then let them draw all over them on their own)
9. Make Christmas ornaments (materials from Michaels, wrapped)

10. Listen to Christmas music (nothing to open)

11. Watch a Christmas movie (Elf, Home Alone or Rudolph)
12. Color a Christmas coloring page (a few coloring sheets that I printed online, wrapped for each girl)
13. Read Christmas books (I got 'Twas the Night before Christmas Record a Story and recorded me reading it, then wrapped it for them to open together. I might wrap another Christmas book that we already have too)
14. Wrap presents (I am going to have them "help" me wrap Daddy's presents)
15. Play with Christmas stickers (from the dollar store, wrapped for each girl)
16. Complete a Christmas puzzle  (printed online, wrapped for each girl)
17. Make a Christmas related craft (materials from Michaels, Christmas necklaces and finger puppets)
18. Bake cookies
19. Get a treat from the Snowman cookie jar
20. Sing Christmas songs (wrapped, tiny song books from dollar tree)
21. Go see neighborhood houses decorated for Christmas
22. Make a birthday card for Jesus and put it under the tree
23. Get a Christmas treat (wrapped a box of candy canes from dollar tree)
24. Go to/have a Christmas party (family will be in town, so we are doing this anyway)

Last night was our first "box" in the countdown to Christmas.  The girls were very excited and really enjoyed having their toenails painted red and green.  I am excited to see how each day goes.  I hope CC doesn't have any bad days at school because I would hate to have to leave her out of some of the fun.  Unfortunately, she has been having a lot of "red" days lately (which means that she wasn't listening to her teacher, she was pushing the other kids, or something of the sort that got her put in timeout).  Yesterday she had a blue day so we are off to a good start.

So, what do you think?  Do you have any ideas for your own advent calendar?  I would love to hear them.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

And she speaks

Gwen is having a verbal explosion! 

Over the last two weeks, she has said several new words including:  bubbles, hi, bye, no, poo-poo, shush, nose, eye, cup, cheese, stinky and cupcake!  These new words are added to her current vocabulary of: Dad, Daddy, Mama, look, don't touch, thank you, duck, dog, more, quack, out, up, down, yes, uh-oh, hot, and gentle.  At least I think that is all of them.

It is amazing that she is saying so many new words.  It seems like there is a new one every day.  Her favorite by far is "no".  She said it once and was hooked.  Now the answer to every question I ask is "no".  I think she gets it from her older sister.  She loves to try to control the situation.  The only consistent yes I can get is when I ask her if she wants food.  Pajama's, bed, come here, stay there . . no, no, no and no.  Sometimes she says no and then runs away.

It is really cute to hear her speak so often and pretty cool that she can verbalize her opinion, even though I think half the time she just says no just because she can.  While learning this behavior from Christina is definitely not a good thing, she has also learned from Christina that timeout sucks.  All I have to do is ask Gwen if she wants to go to timeout and normally that stops her in her tracks.  I'll take the good and the bad.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Count with me

I hope everyone had a good Halloween and is looking forward to the holidays.  I can't believe Thanksgiving is already next week.  I have a lot to catch you up on.  Here are a few random updates since I just can't pack everything in all at once.

1.  I haven't quite gotten over the month long cold (for lack of a better word although it was more annoying than the common cold) and all of this week I've also had a stomach bug.  I can't tell you how nice it has been to feel sick to my stomach all day and all night, not be able to eat anything, and not be able to function . . . . uumm, yeah, not so much.  It reminds me of morning sickness!  I guess this is just my body's way of reminding me of what I will feel like for weeks when I do go through this again for baby number three (which by the way we are hoping to work on in the New Year!!).

2.  I've recently realized that toddlers are just like babies in the way that they cry when they are hungry or tired.  You would think that they would grow out of that, what with all of the other growing that they are doing, but nope, just like babies.  At first I thought Christina was just whiny, but realized that she just gets out of control when she is overly hungry or tired.  Stand back people, it is not a pretty sight.

3.  During speach therapy with Gwen, Christina and Nik were on the other side of the wall watching Gwen.  It was one of those window's where they can see us but we can't see them.  They didn't have the sound on, so they were only watching us.  Christina leaned over to Nik and asked "Is Gwen learning Spanish?".  Nik said, "No, Gwen is learning English."  To which she replied, "But she already knows English".  What a cutie pants.

4. After 30 years, I can now finally whistle. (Yes, I never knew how to whistle, how sad is that?) I give credit to all of the songs on the radio recently that have lots of whistling. I love to sing along to the radio so all of the whistling gave me lots of time to practice. I'm not exactly an expert now, but hey, I can keep up with the song and that is something.

5.  Gwen has a new tooth (that makes 9) and I think she is working on more.  It is weird how she was getting one tooth after the other so quickly and then she didn't get another one until months later.  I wonder if she is going to get a bunch at once again.

6.  I am totally psyched for Black Friday again this year.  Woohoo!  Anyone else? (If I am not better by then, someone is going to have to pay!!!)

7.  Christina is taking dance class at her school and enjoying it so much.  She wore a tutu I made her to class this week and looked adorable.  She's always wiggling around and singing the songs from class.  I can't wait for her recital!!

8.  On the same trip to the mall that I mentioned here - http://meganjustagirl.blogspot.com/2011/11/we-do-still-have-all-of-our-arms-and.html, I also almost passed out, but because of a totally unrelated event.  I took the kids on the mall merry go round.  It was a full sized merry go round but they only allowed kids to ride on the animals, the adults had to stand.  Since they didn't have seat belts, I had to stand in between the girls and hold onto them while they were going up and down.  I was also staring at the stroller (filled with our jackets, my purse, the stuff we bought, etc) on the side of the merry go round, trying to make sure no one ran off with it.  Something about going round and round while looking at a fixed location (while having an empty stomach), made me really dizzy and nauseous.  I was stressing out as the feeling of passing out kept growing stronger.  That would have been great if I passed right out on the merry go round and then both kids fell off their animals.  Hopefully they would have at least landed on my unconscious body!  But nope, the ride ended and I got us off that ride in record time.  Thank goodness.  That was a close one.

9.  We went to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Virginia a few weeks ago for my Mom's 50th birthday party.  We had a great time and it was really awesome to see five of the little cousins together.  I had my two girls, my nephew (who recently started crawling and pulling up), our almost-four year old cousin that lives a few doors down, and our cousin that lives in VA who is almost the same age as Gwen.  So basically we had five kids under four and we tried to herd them together for a group picture.  It was so adorable and pretty cute that my six month old nephew was surrounded by girls.  The whole weekend went really well and we had a great time (even if we did have to drive 10+ hours each way for only a weekend trip . . . it was worth it).

10.  Speaking of our 10+ hour drive each way, I have to mention (I think I've mentioned it before) that for some reason The Chipmunks is like the super, secret, problem solver to all things Gwen (while we are in the car, although we have never tried it elsewhere).  It is crazy.  Whenever Gwen gets really upset (for any random reason) and starts to cry, the ONLY thing that can calm her down is to blast The Chipmunks music.  And it works every.single.time.  How weird is my child?

Ok and if you guessed that I was only going to count to ten, well then you'd be right.  But, I just couldn't leave you without giving you a piece of this sweet sweet goodness.  So take a look and eat your heart out! (Maybe next time we can get them all to smile and look at the camera, HA HA, yeah right, I can totally see that happening!!!  -- maybe when they are teenagers.)


-- credit for coordinated outfits goes to none other than the birthday girl herself, Grandma Mary! --

Pictures

My Mom wanted her grandkids to have some professional pictures taken, so off to the portrait studio we went!
























Thursday, November 17, 2011

We do still have all of our arms and legs, thank you

I took the kids to the mall a couple of weeks ago. We got some pictures taken at JCPenny's (pictures to come later) and then walked around the mall for a little while afterwards.  We were on the bottom level and needed to go up, since Gwen was in the stroller, we were waiting to get on the elevator. There were so many people on line that by the time it was our turn, the elevator was full.  I was going to wait for it to come back, but the people nearby were insisting that there was enough room and I didn't need to wait. I guess I hestiated too long because when I finally decided to get on, the door started closing. Normally this would be no big deal as I am familiar with elevator doors that start to close and then reopen when they sense something in the way. I don't know what was wrong with this elevator though because it most definitely did not do what it was suppose to.


Gwen was in her stroller in front of me and CC was close behind me on foot. I got the stroller half way inside the elevator when the door started closing. Gwen wasn't quite all the way in and I was just outside with the stroller mostly in between the doors. The doors would not stop and just kept closing in on the stroller. Half a dozen arms and hands were in the middle of the doors, trying to get the doors to stop closing, but they just kept coming. I don't know if my face went all white or what, but I was just about to flip out, faint, cry, scream or maybe all of the above. I was watching my baby helplessly stuck in the stroller that was about to get crushed by these doors.

I can't even tell you everything that was going on in my mind at the time, but I was really scared. I was thinking that this would be a horrible, but fitting scene in a Final Destination movie. I was thinking that I was powerless to save my poor child and I can't believe I just ASSUMED that it was safe to walk onto an elevator. I wanted to cry, but then FINALLY the doors stopped squeezing the stroller and reopened.

Even when the ordeal was over, I still wanted to cry. I was by myself and couldn't express how upset I was since I was trying to hold it together for the kids. Luckily, they didn't seem upset by any of it. I wondered if I would ever be able to get on an elevator again. I didn't want to become some crazy person that couldn't ride on things like elevators because of some freakish accident that has almost no chance of ever happening, but then again - how would you feel if you just watched your child almost get crushed by elevator doors?

Friday, October 21, 2011

It's been twenty days since I've written anything on here.  That was not my plan.  Normally this is my creative outlet and a great way to show off my girls.  But lately I've been juggling so many things.  The girls have been taking turns getting sick and although they aren't exactly getting better, they seem to hide being sick better on some days then others.  Sick girls means thermometers, medication, doctor's appointments, vicks vapor rub, inhalers, temper tantrum's, and sleepless nights.

To keep myself sane, I have been getting crafty.  It started with painting the rooms on our third floor and then I moved to painting canvas.  I completed a bunch of new artwork for the house.  Pinterest has peaked my interested in DIY projects.  I made some paper ghosts for our front door, a fun menu board to help me plan our dinner's, a couple of toddler sized tutu's, and am still working on a custom photo collage.  I have other projects in mind too.  So many in fact that it is difficult to follow through on one thing before moving onto the next.  I am just so excited over this stuff lately, lol.

Of course there are only so many hours in the day, so my blog, unfortunately, has taken a back seat.    Oh, and I have been Christmas shopping!  Yes, already!  Crazy, huh?  I turned into a crazy coupon clipper to help save money and that led me to some awesome deals online.  I don't think I have ever been this ahead of the game before Black Friday.  This is great though because that means I won't feel guilty when I buy stuff for myself on Black Friday, lol.

I know I am really behind with updates on the girls.  But, for now, here are some pictures of what I've been working on lately.  Check out the "My Art" page http://meganjustagirl.blogspot.com/p/my-art.html for pictures of my paintings.  All of the other random projects are pictured below:

Halloween / Fall Decor




Photo Collage




Menu Board





Tutu's