And so this is Christmas....

Another year over...

Highlights of Christmas 2010:

• Mia's reaction on Christmas morning. This is one of the defining moments of childhood and parenthood! She came down the stairs and stood wide-eyed, staring at the living room. She had a silly grin on her face and said in a hushed voice "Santa came!" And my heart grew 3 sizes, at least. What a fantastic moment :)

• The day after Christmas snowfall! Norfolk got 13 inches of snow that day! The most in over 20 years. It was so peaceful and calm and bright.

• Neighbors again make my list. From the last minute Christmas Eve gathering, to "secret Santa's" running around the street delivering presents, and the lone snow shovel that was shared from house to house, I again am so thankful for my amazing neighbors.

• The McB family SKYPE event on Christmas day! A 5-way Skyping episode with lots of McB family members was one of the funniest things I've seen in a while :)

• Watching Baba (my grandmother) hold Ellie. I get teary-eyed just remembering it.

• Huge family dinners in Johnstown! I love that everyone was together. Even if it was chaotic and Ellie was all over the place and Mia insisted on wearing her princess dress, it was just so great that we were all in one place.

Soon we'll put away the decorations and haul the extremely dry tree out to the curb. I'm ready to start the New Year and organize and get into our routine. But we certainly had a memorable Christmas 2010!

 Santa's gifts were a scooter and a kitchen play set!

 Winter wonderland!

It was a very Princess Christmas for Mia too! She was in heaven!

Just some of our photos... More to come!

Christmastime Catching up

A mini "Christmas letter" update on our lives the past few weeks!


Mia is finished with school for the year. Her Holiday program was so sweet and adorable. She is counting down the days until Christmas and reminds me every morning about opening her advent calendar. She talks about her friend Joseph from school all the time, so we invited him over for a playdate last week. When he got here she proceeded to ignore him the entire time and play with his baby sister. She is something else.

Three year-olds wish you a merry Christmas!! Please excuse the shaky video. Ellie was lunging for the camera the entire time.

Ellie is 9 months old! Her check-up was today. She is 17lbs, 14oz (25%) and 27 1/4 inches (25%). I thought she seemed a little small but the doc thinks she is just perfect. She loves to eat and feed herself! I am struggling to find things to give her. She's very busy, crawling, pulling up, exploring. She waves "bye-bye" and we are working on blowing kisses :) Best of all, she started sleeping from 8pm to 8am last week!! We haven't had a full night's sleep in 9 mths! This is heaven! (Of course, I know I just jinxed it by typing this). We also have some more travel coming up, which always messes things up a bit.

We had a quick visit with family and friends in Md last weekend. We've been having an annual Christmas gathering with good friends for many years now. When it started, I don't even think anyone was married, and now there are 11 kids between us. I love this tradition of getting together with good, old friends!

I still have some minor things to do--stocking stuffers, neighbor's presents, last minute things as always. I'm going to attempt to make Grandma Weller's sugar cookies this year. We'll see :) 

 Oh yeah, it SNOWED! :)

and we drove through some pretty Christmas lights at the Botanical Gardens.

 

Merry almost Christmas!

Taking a Breather

It is my annual "panic and feel overwhelmed with all of the stuff to do, run around like a crazy person for two days, get a lot done and feel slightly better on Sunday night" weekend. We have been busy, busy, but now I'm just watching the Redskins lose again, and watching Sean obsess over the fire while it rains outside and the girls are napping. Sigh.

Still have lots to do--want to take them to see Santa at the mall, have a short visit to SoMd for the Xmas party this weekend!, and plenty of wrapping.

But for now, I'm taking a breather and picking some of my favorite photos over the past week to share.

Oh, if you are having trouble viewing the blog lately, try refreshing it once you are on the page. I think the snowflake background takes a while to load.

Hugs from us!

What a Difference....

...Someone with talent makes! Check out a few of the beautiful photos a friend took this past weekend. And we got our Christmas card picture! You'll be seeing that one soon enough :)

I just love these of Ellie...

Haul out the holly, put up the tree before my spirit falls again!

Various thoughts from my scattered brain this morning:

• The Christmas tree didn't look nearly this big in the lot yesterday. It may take all week to decorate it.
• I'm so glad Mia wants to help decorate the tree this year! This is what I live for! So what if she put 12 ornaments on the same branch :) I love it!
• If this tree survives Ellie the crazy, climbing, constantly moving baby, it will be a Christmas miracle.
• Christmas cards are serious business these days.
• I wish I had cleaned my house before I brought all the Christmas stuff in.

Hope you are enjoying this fun, festive, BUSY time of year! I plan to relax and just stare at my tree for a while tonight :) Hope you do the same!

 Santa Baby

 Our first fire

 She looks so grown up in this coat

Taking a break from decorating

November Wrap-up!

Back from Oak Ridge! Had a great visit with everyone! Got to stop in Lynchburg for a quick visit, had a blast watching cousins play, ate fabulous food and enjoyed each other's company.

Up next, Ellie's first Xmas :)

 Fun times at the Children's Museum! Mia got a kick out of the puppet show.

 Beautiful Norah and Handsome Gabe loved their Ellie time :)

PJs!

Mia wearing my boots before a bday party.

Requisite cute Ellie photo:)

I'm thankful for...

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, a list of what I am most thankful for today:

• Weekend mornings, thoughtful husbands, quiet beds and sleeping in!
• Strong immunity systems. We've been exposed to about a billion people with the stomach bug over the past few weeks and so far we are still all healthy! Fingers and toes crossed!!!
• Neighborhood potlucks. I sometimes feel like I'm living in another era, and like we are all part of a Norman Rockwell painting. I am so grateful that I know everyone on my street and we all look out for each other.
• Coffee
• A woman I met yesterday who gave me the idea to take Mia to a local volunteer spot, where we can sort food and I can introduce her to the concept of helping others who are less fortunate.

Without getting too deep, I am constantly thankful for family and friends, health and home. There have been a few setbacks over the year, but I am hopeful for continued blessings with all of these things.

Wishing you and your families a very happy and content Thanksgiving!

Que Pasa?

I can't seem to get a good picture to save my life lately. I am definitely taking a photography class soon about how to take better pictures of your kids. Seriously, I've been trying for days to get a cute one of the girls together with absolutely no luck. Ellie is the worst. She lunges for the camera, my hair, Mia's hair--you name it--and will not be still for a second. I need some tips.

In other news, Ellie will play the "How big is Ellie?" game, which is so extremely adorable I can barely stand it. Mia's teacher told us that she is doing great in school, and that she seems to have matured when it comes to sharing with her friends :)

We will be driving to Tennessee for Turkey Day! It has been years since we've been there and we are really looking forward to it! Also looking forward to the beautiful scenery, but not necessarily the drive itself. Wish us luck keeping 2 active girls entertained!

 Ok, this is a cute one. She looks so pleased with herself after figuring out the sippy cup.

 At least my trees cooperate for pictures.

 I tried forever to get a picture of her smiling in this position. I have a similar picture of Mia at this age in that cute Spanish sweater and I wanted one of Ellie for comparison. This was as close as I got.

 "Soooooo Big!"

This is what I was dealing with today.

This was a project Mia did at school that I thought was so funny. Almost all of these answers are news to me! I know she loves pasta, but other than that, I think she just completely made this up! We don't own "The Princess and the Pea" and her favorite color changes constantly, but I have yet to hear her say black. She makes me laugh :)

My beautiful dancing queen (princess)

This was fun. That old song "Everybody Dance Now" by C&C Music Factory came on the radio, and Mia decided to put on her princess outfit and dance in the kitchen. I may have danced a little bit too :)

Peek-a-boo!

She woke up happy from this nap, and ready to play :)