Christmas Catch-Up

My parents came over to our house for Christmas morning. The girls got two large gifts this year. Nana & Papa gave them this awesome table and chairs. The girls LOVE having something their size to play on, eat at, and in general act like BIG STUFF! In the top right picture, my mom was having tea with the girls. It is hilarious to watch them hold their little cups with the side handles and drink like adults!


Alex and I got the girls a kitchen for Christmas. They love opening and closing all the doors, banging on their pots and pans from their godparents, and pretending to eat all their wood food and condiments from Alex's parents! I got the kitchen half-off at a local toy store. The owner said the grill side was broken so she'd sell it for half. I called KidKraft (the company who makes this Grill N' Bake kitchen) and they sent me a new grill portion for free. Probably the best costumer service I've encountered all year!


Here's some cute photos of Addie. Clockwise from top left, she loves wearing my shoes; she insisted I take her picture one morning and with that silly grin how could I resist; my dad was fixing a light fixture and the girls thought it was endless fun to run under the ladder; and lastly Addie giving her cousin Sawyer a hug.


Here's a picture of my nephew Sawyer! It is amazing how much he has changed since we saw him this summer. He has started taking some of his first steps over Christmas and it was so fun to get to watch! We were trying to predict who would be the trouble makers and who would be the informant down the road. Andrew (my brother) predicts that Addie and Sawyer will find the mischief, and Jasmine will come tell the adults!


Alex has had all kinds of extra time to play with the girls while on vacation. Here he's trying to entertain them to give me some time to finish a freelance graphic design project I was working on. The weather was beautiful yesterday, so we also got a chance to play outside and take a walk.


And lastly, some more Daddy hair styles from bath time last night!

Ebay Can Be SCARY

As most of you probably know, I sell used women's clothing for various friends and family members on Ebay. I sell a variety of things - but one category sells way better than I would have guessed. Lingerie.... It didn't seem disturbing before yesterday. I completely understand why someone would by a used Victoria Secret bra off of Ebay for 1/4 of the $40 price tag you'd pay new. But...why would there be a bidding war for the above used underwear that ended with a male buyer paying 4X the retail value? Actually, don't think about it too long because you might come up with some of the same frightening conclusions I did...

Needless to say, I will not be putting my real return address on this package.

Shellacked Bread

My new acquisition from this weekend.

I've been at White Elephant war with my Uncle Alan for several years. The war continued this weekend. Here's a little background!

Year #1 -
The first Christmas after Alex and I got married, we went to the Haas (my mom's side) family Christmas party. We play bingo every year and get "wonderful prizes" selected by that year's host. I got a shellacked hot dog bun that had flowers and other lovely things glued to it. It had been an actual Christmas gift to my Uncle Alan and his wife from a now ex-daughter-in-law. I was practically escorted out of the house when it was time to leave because they wanted to make sure I didn't leave my lovely present behind! However, the bread conveniently fit into their mailbox that was at the end of a long drive not visible from their house! : )

Year #2 -
Uncle Alan got my Aunt Louise (that year's host) to wrap up the bread and wait until I won to give it just to me. We were pregnant at that time with the girls, so I thought the "special gift" was baby clothes, etc...ah no...it was that darn piece of bread again! And - I couldn't leave it in the mailbox because it wasn't Alan's house.

Year #3 -
We didn't attend the party because the girls were still under 1 and it was in St. Louis this year - too long of a drive with little ones!

Year #4 -
I had saved the bread for two years waiting to return it to its rightful owner! We brainstormed on the way up how I could get Alan stuck with it! We thought the best scenario was to hide it somewhere in the house since Alan & Maria were hosting again. My mom suggested hanging the gift bag on the shower head in their bedroom...but we couldn't figure out how to get upstairs without raising suspicion. However, the perfect opportunity arose when Maria suggested I change the girls' diapers upstairs on their bed - yes!

So I thought I was safe - since I had the bread and hid it! Wrong! They thought that I'd misplaced the bread, so they made a special LARGER loaf themselves, rigged the bingo game by writing down all the numbers on my card, and gave me an extra special gift...my mom got a nice candle! : )

Alan tried to find the bread I hid before we left - but ah ha - to no avail! I just wish I could have seen his face when he went to take a shower this morning...!

Chillin' Indoors...Because its SO COLD Outside!

Here's some photos of the girls chillin' in their pjs. Since the weather has gotten colder, the trips out off the house have lessened - meaning we don't make it out of our pajamas some days! Who wouldn't want to hang out in polar fleece all day?! I think the picture of Mina sitting back with her cup in her chair is so funny! She is watching Sesame Street and apparently quite enjoying herself.


Addie: Check this out, Jasmine, there is a button on my stomach!


Addie: Want help finding yours? I'm an expert at belly buttons since I touch mine all day long and show it undiscerning to all who will look. (We actually had to put bandaids over Addie's belly button for awhile because it was so red and irritated from all her poking and prodding of it!)


Jasmine: Anyone want to see?


This was an unexpected hilarious picture. I was trying to capture some pictures of my mom playing with the girls and the girls were so hyper it was hard to get them to stop bouncing on the bed! They were playing with my headbands and generally being silly! Addie always makes a fish face when she kisses now....I guess it is an upgrade from the open mouth kisses of a few months ago! : )

I'm am counting the days until Alex's Christmas break begins - I can't wait to have 11 straight days in a row with him! We've got so many fun things planned - movies, cookie baking, time with family, a game night, New Year's Eve with friends, and lots of rest! My main present from Alex is going to be labor (labor & delivery in July...I wish!). He's going to be painting our bedroom and some of our bedroom furniture. If I have my wits about me, I'll try and take a before and after picture!

Whew!

On Wednesday night, Alex and I went to bed thinking I was at the beginning of a miscarriage. I had one previous to the arrival of the girls, so I was familiar with some of the signs. The first time we went to the ER and that was not a pleasant experience - so we decided this time to just go to bed and see what happens - always keeping the ER as a "if we have to" option.

When I woke up around 1 a.m. - there was no bleeding - not even any signs that there had been bleeding when we went to bed. At this point, I didn't know what to think. We called my O.B. first thing in the morning and they fit me in. I heard the heartbeat of the baby and was told that everything looked okay. So we are incredibly grateful and relieved! We feel completely blessed to still have Baby #3 still alive and growing - Praise God!

12 weeks

This Wednesday marks me being 12 weeks pregnant with our third child!!! I'm SO ready for the morning sickness to cease and move into the more comfortable second trimester. Our third baby is schedule to arrive July 1st.

If we decided to go the all natural route - this baby could continue the generational tradition of birthday sharing. If he/she arrived just a few days earlier it would land on my birthday also known as Alex's birthday also known as Alex's mom Ang's birthday...wouldn't that be special! : )

We are definitely going to find out what we are having in a little over a month. If it's a boy - I can start getting rid of the ton of baby girl clothes we've been storing and if it is a girl I can get better organized and not have 0-12 month clothing in one HUGE bin!

So for any of you who were told "Mumms the word" feel free to now spread the news! : )

'Tis the Season

Here's a cute sister moment - I think they are trying to decide if they are going to get in trouble for playing with my frame or not. My mom got them these dress for Christmas - so we decided to give them a trial run at the Moms of Multiples party.


They were being so cute I took some individual pictures of them while they were playing! Addie always looks like "what are you doing...." and Jasmine just takes the opportunity to ham it up.


Ah - one of those cute Santa photos - very sweet right....and...



Not so Merry Christmas...Jasmine clearly doesn't like strange old men in costume holding her...just can't imagine why this would be frightening! : )



Here the girls are doing some modeling on our yummy kitchen floor - carpeted kitchen floor...!


"All through the house it was quiet, no one was stirring, not even a mouse...."

I was getting ready and Alex was "watching" the girls. I could tell from the back bedroom that something wasn't right since it was absolutely silent in a house with two toddlers. I asked Alex what the girls were doing and he said they were fine.... : ) Yep - they were more than fine - they were deliriously happy as they shredded an entire box of Kleenex in their playroom!

Rental House Update

After we sold our house in August, we moved into a rental house next to my dad's school. It had been vacant for a year and before that was left in not so nice condition! Alex and I didn't even go in the master bathroom for the first two months...until the molding carpet had been ripped out, rotting sub-floor replaced, and tile laid.

With the hardwork of my Dad and Alex (helping when I'm not desperate for someone else to watch the girls!), the rental has come A LONG WAY in five months. Here's a list of improvements:

1.) Garbage disposal repaired (very necessary for toddler food scraps)
2.) New carpet as of today (replacing cat pee carpet!)
3.) New tile in master bath (replacing carpet - YUCK!)
4.) New tile in main bath (also replacing carpet...not a good idea with babies who splash in the tub!)
5.) Two new windows - with three on the way
6.) New light fixtures in main bath & front room as of Saturday

Now the only other major eye sore to go is the carpet in kitchen...yeah...again...YUCK! : )

We are feeling much more at home with all the improvements - thanks Dad!