Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Laughs


My girls are cracking me up today!


We went to the Dollar Tree to buy some decorations for the New Year. Of coarse the girls found the toy aisle and we're playing with the foam swords, as I'm trying to look for balloons. I hear Victoria say, "Look Bella, a pirate sippy cup." I turn and see she's holding a small flask. Love it!


As I'm driving home, I hear the girls in the back of the van, say to one another. "Well, what does it smell like?" "Strawberry jam?" "Or maybe bird poop?" When I come to a stop, I look in my rearview mirror and she that they've taken off their shoes and socks and are sticking their feet in each others faces and smelling them. I love them so much.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Paul and Lauren Visit

My brother Paul and Lauren came to visit us on Saturday from Albuquerque, New Mexico. We talked, ate some good steak, played Trivia, and just relaxed. Paul even showed me what has been wrong with my camera- the flash does work, it just wasn't properly hooked up. Yes! I can take good pictures indoors again. He also showed me some of his amazing photos and we talked about where they've gone over the past year. It was a nice visit.


A White Christmas

It started snowing Christmas Eve and lasted into the night with "blizzard-like conditions". On Christmas, we awoke to find that the snow was still there. It was the first time I've seen a White Christmas in Frisco. In fact, the news channel reported that it was the first time in 83 years that DFW received a White Christmas.
Two to three inches of snow.

Victoria threw a snowball at me after Daddy told her to.

Bella was so happy- she was doing a little jig on top of the slide.




The snow wasn't that great for making snowballs or snowmen- it was all powdery. However, Daddy and Bella manage to scoop up a couple of small snowballs and create a miniature snowman on our back patio table. We had brought a carrot outside for the snowman's nose, but couldn't find it. Victoria had gone inside by this point- too cold. When I went to go check on her, I found her eating the snowman's nose:)

Our Christmas

Santa visited our house on Friday morning. Victoria woke Jer and I up at 7:15 (usually it's Bella, but I think Victoria was more excited.) As I'm getting ready to come out into the living room, I hear Victoria scream- I love you Santa!- as loud as she can! Then, I hear her say to Daddy- Look! Santa ate my cookies and left me a note! I come out and see a wonderful fun site in our living room! He left a hop-scotch game and Barbie swimming pool unwrapped for the girls to play with.
Funny thing- the pool actually leaked. (Santa forgot to plug it.) Thank goodness it was on a towel and didn't get any of the presents wet. They played with the pool for 20 minutes.

Both of the girl's favorite presents were their dolls. Victoria got a beautiful Madame Alexander doll that looks just like her- same face and red hair. Bella got a cute blond baby doll that sneezes. Bella can take her temperature and help her get better.
Bella also got some doctor scrubs.

Victoria got a wedding dress;)

It's hard to believe how much things change in a day. On Wednesday it was 75 degrees out. On Thursday a cold front blew in and it started snowing. We went to Christmas Eve mass as early as we could so that we wouldn't be stuck out in ice. The 3 o'clock mass was packed and we had to stand, even though we got there 35 minutes early. Luckily, an usher found one seat for me and Bella. She ended up falling asleep in my arms. (I miss that.) Later, on our way to receive Communion, Bella runs up to the manger and shouts "Baby Jesus! Look! There's baby Jesus!" The whole first row belted in laughter, as did I.

Lunn Families Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with the Lunn families on Wednesday. I had dressed the girls in warm clothes, but the weather turned out to be gorgeous (75 degrees). I had to borrow some short sleeve shirts for the girls from Renae. While Keira was sleeping, Grandma Carol and Grandpa Dick gave the big kids their big presents that could be used outside. Chloe and Victoria got a 16 inch bike. V's is a pink Barbie one that has a small Barbie bike attached to her steering column that her doll can ride with her. She loves it! I was very surprised at how fast she's picked up biking. She had a smaller bike (that Bella can now ride) that she would ride with caution. Now she just flies past me. Bella was given a small motorized vehicle. She loves it too! It took her a while to get used to going faster and steering. She kept wanting to repeatedly push the gas button so that she was stopping and starting like a maniac, but she finally figured out that if you hold it down, you go fast and can have fun. Later the girls took turns riding each others bikes.
I didn't get as many pictures as I had hoped for at our Christmas, because my camera was acting up. I think the flash is broken, but it still takes great outdoor pictures. I missed getting a picture of Victoria's favorite gift that she gave to Caleb- a guitar with pics that we decorated with his favorite Mario character. My favorite part of the day was watching the cousins play together, even little Keira is now old enough to be part of the gang and tags along everywhere. We went for a walk after our delicious potato soup dinner to see Carol's and Dick's neighborhood lights. All the girls were holding hands and running together in awe. Great memories.



Sunday, December 20, 2009

Holiday Blessings

We have been very blessed this past whirlwind of a week to have many friends and family to celebrate the holidays. Marlee came over to help us make Christmas cookies and play reindeer games (seriously, they played "Follow me- I'm Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer!"- too cute.
Later that same night, Braelyn came over and added to the mix of sugar high. Then we had 4 girls who wanted to be Rudolph, however, Victoria, my problem solver, came up with her own solution- "Let's all be Rudolph." Lots of chasing, crawling, and laughs!

We went out with Denise and Dave to the coolest place ever for kids- a hibachi grill, called Masu. Victoria and Bella were treated to the best- chef hats, kid friendly chop sticks, and sake. Okay, not really, it was a lychee (fruit) drink served in sake cups. They loved the knife and fire show, although Bella was very scared of the giant fireball in the beginning. They both thought the volcano (sliced/stacked onion made to erupt with fire and smoke) was very neat. Victoria even said this was her favorite restaurant. And Mommy was happy because they both devoured very healthy food- chicken, rice, soup, lychee, and the occasional bite of vegetable.


We went over to Dave and Denise's beautiful new house afterward. The kids watched a classic story about Kris Kringle, while the older kids made a cheer with a glass of wine;)

We made ginger cookies for my mother for part of her Christmas present. Victoria and Bella enjoyed rolling the dough into little balls and flatting them.

We went over to my parents' house later that day to celebrate Christmas with a delicious turkey meal with broccoli rice casserole, my cranberry jello, croissant rolls, and lemon merange pie. Yum!

Grandpa asks Victoria if she's been naughty or nice.

Mom in the process of opening her gingersnaps. Bella was holding on. She had just woken up from a small car nap. She really needed more sleep, but refused to give in. (That's pretty much her entire story these past couple of days- tonight I'm putting her down early.)

While the casserole was cooking, we took a fast jaunt around my Coppell neighborhood where I grew up to see the Christmas lights. The girls were bundled up in their coats, hats, mittens, and scarves. They were so happy. I suggested we sing a Christmas song. For the next 5 minutes Bella sang at full blast Jingle Bells. When I asked her if she knew another song, she said- yes, and continues to belt out Jingle Bells. I reminded them they knew We Wish You A Merry Christmas and Rudolph.

The Sadowski family Christmas.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Bella's Bunk Bed Bo-Bo

On Thursday Bella fell off the bunk bed ladder and landed on her wrist. She wouldn't stop crying, so I took her to Urgent Care and they X ray her arm. She has a contusion and needs to wear a brace for the next couple of days. After I brought her home from the doctor, I was making dinner and out of the corner of my eye I see Bella standing on the couch arm getting ready to jump. I run and grab her and explain she can't do this for the next week and she looks sarcastically at me- yeah, right! I've already had her take the brace off earlier this morning. This is going to be a fun couple of days.

Christmas Parties

On Wednesday was Victoria and Bella's Christmas parties and music program. Bella's class of 2 year olds preformed a S.A.N.T.A. (sung to Bingo) and Where is Santa (sung to Where is Thumpkin). Victoria's preK classes preformed Bethlehem Lullaby (sung to Brahms Lullaby) and Old St. Nicholas (sung to Old McDonald). The kids had a hard time with the songs and the teacher had to sing loudly for the audience to understand. Call me traditional, but I wanted some Jingle Bells and Silent Night. Bella preformed first and really didn't even know what was going on- she did keep looking for me. As she was leaving stage I shouted her name and she turned to look at me and was happy. Victoria preformed next. This year I made sure Victoria knew I was there from the get go by shouting her name too. (Last year she was upset and thought I wasn't there.) She so preformed for me the whole time. It was kind of funny though- the three kids below her were goofing off the whole time. At one point the little boy put a choke hold on the little girl who was instigating it and laughing the entire time. Then the two boys got into a punching match and one was removed from stage. Ah, the excitement of Christmas programs.

Victoria had her class party after the program. They ate donuts and made penguin and Santa ornaments and a reindeer bouncy ball with paddle.

They also did a book exchange and Victoria received the book Hugs and Kisses- a cute book about a puppy dog looking for the best kiss and finds it his Mom.

Bella's Christmas party was in the afternoon. They ate cute sugar cookies shaped like ornaments with their names on them in icing. Of coarse, every kid licked off their name first. Can you guess what color Bella's name was by the color on her nose?

Bella the red Nose Reindeer :)
She takes after her dad :) They both had a lot of fun at their parties.

Breakfast With Santa

Last Saturday, Victoria and Bella happily went to their school's Breakfast With Santa. They ate pancakes, made crafts, and got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted- Bella wants a baby doll and Victoria wants an Egyptian boat. The girls were first in line to get their picture and Bella was blowing Santa kisses. This is the first Christmas that both of my girls are smiling with Santa- it's a Christmas miracle;)

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

The First Snow of '09

After almost 2 years of no snow, we were pleasantly surprised this morning. (The storm wasn't predicted to make it this far east, so it took everyone off guard.) Our yard looked beautiful coated with the white stuff and the kids wanted to go out and play in it before school.




Victoria picked it up and licked it. Bella wasn't as impressed with it and wanted to go inside for warmth. But not before Daddy showed them how to make a decent snowball and hit the fence with it. The snow was nice to look at while it lasted (about 2 hours.)

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Gingerbread House

On Saturday morning I went out shopping and came home to Jer making a gingerbread house with the girls. They loved it! And so did he. Look at the details he's putting on the roof.
Can you tell the similarity in the following three pictures?


Give up? They all at one point are licking icing from their fingers:)

Victoria and Bella had a great time making their gingerbread house!

Renae, Josh, Chloe, Caleb, Keira, Carol, and Dick came over on Saturday night and helped to demolish the gingerbread house.

Build A Bear

Lake Ray Roberts

Memorial Weekend 2009

Brothers Visit

Christmas '08

PA Vacation Slideshow