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.