Should I Go Into Business?

Well, I have to say that I was pretty impressed with myself with this gift I made for my Mom and Otto. I promised Michelle that I would post a picture of the finished product, so here it is. It was rather easy to do, just a bit time consuming as I did it by hand. All I did was buy a $4 black fleece blanket from Walmart and 1/2 yard of orange fleece material. I cut out an "M" and a "U" and then stitched them on with black embroidery thread. I probably spent about 3-4 hours on it! I love it so much that I'm going to be making myself one!

Christmas Pictures

Well we hope that everyone had a great Christmas this year! We sure did! The fun part was seeing the excitement of the girls about Santa Claus and their presents. We had fun with the Carles on Christmas Eve, especially with Uncle Jud being so willing to be the reindeer and having all the kids climbing on him!! :) The girls got what they wanted as Kayley was able to get her Pocahontas doll from Santa (the only thing she really wanted!) Cora of course was looking around for Santa Claus when we said "Santa was coming" or "Santa came." This age sure is fun! It is just going by way too fast! I remember our Christmas with Kayley when she was Cora's age and it only seems like yesterday! I'm just trying to savor every moment I can! We hope you all had a great Christmas and that you all will have a Happy New Year this week! Oh and please keep reading as I've put a few more posts up as I haven't posted in a while! Hope you enjoy!

This Is Our Cora

Well, the other day I tried to decide what Cora is, a hoarder of food or a houdini? She was helping me with the dishes the other day and I found these pretzels in the silverware holder and then when I was finished I found her eating on this chocolate bar, which she must have hid it a few days before and then found it again for later. Then she is also a houdini as a few nights ago she started to wake up around 4 in the morning and just cry and cry. Well, I let her cry it out and by the 2nd night Nick and I both heard a thump and she had fallen out of the bed! So, we had one more setting that we could lower the crib and then set up a fort around her bed in case she did her trick again. So far, so good as she has not fallen out and she has also gotten over waking up during that time...for now at least! But, until then, the girls love to jump on the mattress by the bed!

What We've Been Up To

Well, I realize it's been a while since I've posted something. The holidays just get you so busy! Here is a collage of pics that we've been doing. We've baked lots of Christmas goodies, attended a freezing cold Christmas parade in Springfield, played in the first official snow that left remains on the ground, and playing in our snow-wear.

Merry Christmas

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Here's our Christmas Card this year...hope you all enjoy and have a Very Merry Christmas this year! Best wishes to all this year! Be sure to click on all the small pics on the sides so you can see them larger and read the captions.

Happy Belated Birthday Sammy

I know this is a day late as Sammy's Birthday was yesterday, but we wanted to wish him a happy birthday! Sammy used to be Nick's buddy as you can tell when we first got married. We were "ToTo and Neck" to Matt and Sammy was always attached to Nick's hip! Sammy turned 6 yesterday and we can't believe he is getting so big, much less that all our nieces and nephews are growing so fast!

Christmas is Here!!

This last week we put up our Christmas tree. It is so fun to see our girls get so excited for Christmas and putting up the tree. All growing up it was a fun night to put up our Christmas tree as we would unwrap all of our ornaments and put them up by taking turns...I have a second cousin who gave us ornaments every year with our name on it. As we grew up and left the house, we got to take our ornaments with us. Now that I'm married and have my own kids, my cousin continues to send us ornaments, only this time to our girls and some for Nick and I. They love pulling out their ornaments and taking their turns to put their own ornaments up. This year it was fun as the girls put on their Santa hats and loved to decorate the tree! It's fun to see our tree decorated with all my ornaments from when I was little and now seeing it being filled with their ornaments as well. Isn't Christmas so much fun!? :)

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we were sitting at home getting the girls ready to head out to Walmart when I heard some sirens that sounded like they were right outside our door. We looked out the window and sure enough did see some sirens from the police escorting Santa Claus through our neighborhood. Apparently the City of Grain Valley has this cool bus that has been transformed into a trailer or Santa's sleigh. They go around the whole town throughout the end of November and all of December on Saturdays to have kids come out and sit on Santa's lap...for free!! :) The girls were way excited and we rushed them outside with our camera. They both got on his lap, but Cora didn't last very long as you can tell. Kayley wanted to cry, but we reminded her she needed to tell Santa what she wanted him to bring her, so she stopped her frowny face and told him she wanted a Pocahontas doll. (Thanks ebay!) Then Santa gives each child a toy out of his sack. Cora got a Winnie the Pooh that had Baby's First Christmas written on it. Kayley got a Woodstock from Charlie Brown. She thought Santa was going to give her Pocahontas right then and there, but we had to remind her that if she was good he would bring it to her Christmas morning, then we had to teach her who Woodstock was. Then we were lucky enough to watch Snoopy Come Home on tv the next day...what are the odds of that one! :) The girls loved all of it and kept telling everyone that Santa came to see them and carried their toys around all day like they were trophies! It was a neat experience and great memory for them to have! Thanks Santa! :) Oh and have we mentioned that we like Grain Valley?!?

Jesus Has "Maggots"

Ok...I'm not trying to be sac-religious (sp?)...but this is how it was said to her Daddy. Kayley was helping me put out our Christmas decorations the other day and I had my nativity scenes out on our buffet table. Of course the girls were beside themselves and kept trying to get Jesus down to play with Him, but they were really good at listening and leaving Baby Jesus in His bed. Anyway, as I started on other decorations, Kayley mentioned to me that Jesus was cold, so she went and got her magnet set of Book of Mormon stories and got two fire magnets to put in front of Jesus to keep Him warm. But, instead of calling them magnets, Kayley pronounces them as "maggots"...so when Daddy came home, Kayley told him Jesus had maggots. It was pretty cute and very sweet and thoughtful of Kayley to think of Jesus being warm.

"Ralphie!!"

Ok...a couple of weeks ago when we started to finally have cold weather, we put on our winter coats for the first time this season. When I put on Cora's coat the other day, she was so cute because it was so big on her that she kept falling over, so it reminded me of the movie "A Christmas Story" when Randy and Ralphie are on their way to school and their mom gets them all bundled up in their winter attire. Someone pushes Randy over and he can't get up and continues to yell Ralphie's name and saying, "I can't get up, I can't get up!" Cora actually couldn't get up on her own either...so it was pretty funny to me!