12.29.2009

Ol' Neglected Blog

With all the computer work I did during my last week of school I decided to take a break from the ol' keyboard and opt for reading books and watching movies with the little ladies. We even got our sleeping bags and slept in the living room for a few nights. Here is a quick recap of our holiday..
Family Photo 2009

Adrianne's Preschool Creations
First we bundled up to select the perfect Christmas tree.


After nearly an hour of wondering around the tree lot and arguing over how big the tree should be, we made our final selection, a fraiser fir about 6 ft. tall. Then our truck wouldn't start and we had to jump it (but we'll erase that little glitch from our memories). Alexa fed her first goat, she has always been afraid of feeding any animal but I gave her my glove so he wouldn't touch her hand; with strict instructions not to let the goat eat my good glove! Quite a feat for her, and it shows just how much she is growing and learning to take risks.

Adrianne picked her favorite Christmas tree.


On Christmas Eve my mom and the girls got out the Gingerbread house and decorated it to perfection. One of the best houses yet, and it is personalized with the half-moon window, sliding glass door, and girls' room window from our house.

Alexa's half.

Adrianne's half.
For our Christmas eve celebration we went to my Aunt Judy's house. There was ham and tons of desserts (oh yea, we made 5 different kinds of cookies, don't know why I didn't take a photo of them.. Also accidentally burned Alexa with the cookie sheet!) Christmas eve is the one time a year when we see most of the family/extended family. It was nice to see everyone, and I am glad we were all a part of it and healthy. The girls were scared of the uncles, as usual. They would not talk to or sit next to any of them. However after much convincing Alexa began playing with Uncle Pete, who is known to all the kids as "the mean one". As the night wore on both Adrianne and Alexa were playing with him and even sat on his lap! What a shocker, I was just amazed and again realized the many changes that are taking place with Alexa.

Alexa with Uncle Pete.

Adrianne with Uncle Pete.

Ofcourse this year didn't pass without the much needed matching outfit photos, I got these from JC Penny's, not the dress I wanted but they didn't have it so I went for the sophisticated look.

Alexa 2009

Adrianne 2009

Isn't this cute!

A couple more random assortment of Christmas eve photos.


When we got home from Christmas eve we put out some water and cookies for santa as well as a bowl of water for the reindeer. Adrianne was surprisingly more interested in placing everything out for Santa, we even opened the doors to our fire place so the big man could get in.

Christmas morning the girls woke and said to me, "MOM, Mom, santa brought the huge-est house!" The best gift from santa.


Adrianne was shocked to see that Santa drank all the water and ate the cookies! He even left her a dollar and a note telling her thanks for the cookies and the reindeer's water (boy we're they thirsty!) It was super cute to watch her, she was just in awe.. I loved it.

We let them open a few presents and they got to open some more after the aunts came.


We finished off Christmas day with a wonderful dinner and more presents, and the kiddos stayed up late into the night playing with their princess barbies and their huge house. What an awesome Christmas! :)

12.07.2009

The ghost of Christmas Past

Well I was trying to go through and find a photo of the girls from each Christmas but unfortunately as I have mentioned before my cataloging skills are not very good. I have some photos here, and some there.. some use dates as the file name while others I have named, making it even harder to remember which year is which... But I did come up with these gems.

This is Alexa, her first Christmas, 2004

This is Alexa's 2nd Christmas, 2005


This is Alexa's 3rd Christmas, 2006


Here is Adrianne at her first Christmas, 2006


These are the two of them in their holiday dresses, 2006


And this little cutie is Adrianne's first birthday photo, 1.3.2007

I have dug up so many cute photos.. We have a ton of Alexa pictures but I was unable to find many of Adrianne.. Here are some of my favorites: (the first 6 are Alexa)

12.05.2009

Yumm, candy!

Today the girls and I braved the frozen car and went to Adrianne's preschool to make some mini gingerbread houses. They had so much fun once they got the hang of it. Their creations are too cute and I mostly let them do what they wanted (no controlling mom wanting to make the perfect house!) Once the houses were done we came home and ofcourse Adrianne wanted to eat hers so I let them both have a few pieces (although I know from the amount missing that Adrianne went WAY beyond her rationed five pieces!)




12.04.2009

One of those days

Ever have one of those days when you're not feeling well and it seems as if you kids somehow sense weak blood and target you with every chance to whine/complain or just plain throw a fit. I am having one of those days. One child is throwing a fit because she doesn't want to get dressed and the other is crying because the first childs crying is hurting her ears. And I am super fed up with it all! I don't feel well and I don't have the energy to even care. It's just going to be a long day, alot of time outs, and a whole lot of angry mommy.

12.01.2009

My brain is exhausted

I think I did pretty good on the test, despite a couple that I didn't know if I got right or not. For the most part I felt I knew what I was doing. Now for the test tomorrow, all I can say is thank goodness for the one page of notes, or I probably could not make it through. I still do not understand throughput contributions, no matter how many times I read the 2 pages relating to it. I will just have to wing it and thank goodness that a: it is multiple guess, and b: my grade is not on the line!! I already have an A, so even if I bomb it, it won't be detrimental in the long run.. I am off to bed, I deserve some rest and I think my brain is needing a break..

11.30.2009

25 Days 'Til Christmas

The countdown is beginning, I really need to find the girls' advent calendars and figure out what I am going to put in them this year. We really need to start decorating at some point, we still have the Thanksgiving deco up (what little there is of it). This year should be some fun decorating as I have accumulated alot of new things this time around, and we have alot more space to put it.

Oh, we got new tires on the car last Friday, so now it's a smooth ride.. If only I had time to clean out the inside. Okay I need to finish studying and then I am off to get the girlies. Here's to 25 days of holiday mania!

11.29.2009

A full weekend

Julius and I have spent the entire weekend studying. Saturday the girls did well playing together throughout the day while Julius and I studied (I was so surprised at them, and they did it without the computer!). Then today my aunt took the girls up to their Great Grandma's house while Julius and I sat and studied the entire day (minus lunch, and a brief walk around the block). It was great, I believe I spent atleast 20 hours studying for my test tomorrow. I have to get atleast a B- in order to have any chance of passing. I have never studied that much for one test! My book shows alot of wear and tear, in addition to it's multiple colors of highlighter and it's scribbled notes in the margins!

Now it's 11pm and I am just taking a break before going to bed. I am catching some computer time and watching StarWars Ep. IV (the first one). It has been so nice to spend some time at home, I cannot wait for Christmas break, it's just nice to have some time to relax and enjoy the new house.

11.28.2009

Christmas Tree Lighting

Well I have successfully back dated several posts! But this one I will keep as today :) Yesterday the girls and dad went towards Mt. Hood and found some snow (despite not having proper clothing). They said they had a good time, but snow is really COLD!

When they got back we all went down to Esther Short Park to see the Christmas tree lighting (although it was already lit when we got there, it was still nice). We took a brief walk around the park and it was nice, cold though. That means that Christmas is upon us, although I did not do any BF shopping.

Here is the photo we took of the tree, soon we will have one of our own to decorate (a smaller one!).
(I would post the photo from the other time we went -I cannot even remember what year it was- but unfortunately due to my very bad photo organization system I cannot find it.. :( I guess I will have to put that on my list of things to do!)

11.27.2009

My little muffin top!

Photobucket

Me and the little lady... what a cutie!

11.26.2009

Turkey Day

For us Thanksgiving has calmed down in the last 10 years. It used to be a huge celebration with all the Aunt and Uncles and their respective mates and kids - lots of kids, and often their kids too. Everyone would stuff themselves not only on turkey and mashed potatoes but also on pies and desserts. It was a day long procession with people coming and going. It changed alot once my grandma moved to a smaller house, then the home of the annual Turkey day changed to my Uncles who had a somewhat large house (although located a ways from the hub of Vancouver).. from there it went to my other Uncles, who had a gross of sticky, loud, grand kids (not a big attraction). It's somewhat dwindled since then. And admittedly now that I have my own family it's somewhat nice just to have a small dinner with time for a little peace and quiet. In fact we don't even serve turkey.

So this year we had a small celebration at my house with a few extra family members. It was nice, aside from the two days of cleaning (but the house sure did sparkle!) It was a calm day and we even had a few hours to sit and watch TV, while everything roasted, toasted, and boiled! :) We took this time to take a few photos...