Christmas in a flash!

Christmas Season has come and gone! It always seems to be anticipated for so long, and then is over in a flash! The girls both enjoyed having “Ralph” their Elf visit for the month of December. Finding Ralph was the first thing that needed to be done upon waking up! Amber loved learning all the favorite Christmas Carols and found a new favorite book, “The Night Before Christmas.” And, even though Christmas is over, we still are reading “The Night Before Christmas” and we have to sing “Jingle Bells” and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” every night before bed!!

12/13/12: Leah’s 2^nd grade program. This was a big deal! Leah’s school is K-2, and only the 2^nd graders do a program. This is something that they are looking forward to doing from the time they are in Kindergarten! Leah was especially excited as she was chosen to play the part of the Grandma in her class’ song, “Grandma’s Chicken Soup.” She was so excited, she practiced her songs all of the time. During the program, she sang every word! She did so well. The program was very nice. I was very impressed how the kid’s did, they definitely worked hard to do well!

12/14/12: Joe and I got all dress up for his work’s holiday party. It was held at Tria Restaurant. We had a great time!

12/20/12: Grandpa Shorty came from Michigan to spend Christmas with us. The girls were so excited to see him. Amber did need some time to warm up, but it didn’t take long!

12/21/12: The girls both got a message from Santa!! It turns out both of them are on the Nice List. Way to go girls!!

12/22/12: Dance Dynamics Holiday Recital! Leah always is excited to perform and today was no different. She was even more excited as all of her grandparents were there to watch her!

12/22/12: Joshua’s first birthday (our Godson). Wow, hard to believe my little buddy is already 1! He is so darn precious. Unfortunately, he wasn’t feeling so great on his first birthday, turns out he had double ear infections. Poor little guy. I did get to snuggle him, though, so that was a bonus for me!

12/24/12: We hosted Christmas Eve for Joe’s side of the family. We had a total of 24 people! We had some issues with desserts that wanted to fall to the ground (Aunt Karen and Grama Mary both dropped a cake), but other than that it was a pretty smooth event, and I think most had a good time, at least I hope they did. Amber was really into the opening of presents this year. In fact, I don’t know if she really looked at what she was opening as she just wanted to move on to the next present to rip the paper off! Both girls were excited to get their Dream Lite Pillow Pets from Grama Mary!! They were given so many nice gifts. Everyone was so very generous and thoughtful! Our girls are so loved and blessed. It makes me so very happy! I got an underwater camera which will certainly come in handy for our Cruise in March! Thanks Joe!! Oh, and Miss Amber had such an adorable new red dress, but she refused to wear it. Apparently it was itchy! So, luckily we had another dress she could wear! Oh, she is so very stubborn!!

A fun memory: Everyone stayed late on Christmas Eve- which is great, because that means they were having a great time! We tried to get Amber to put on her PJs, but she just kept saying "I don't go to bed." So, around 10:30, Joe said, "well, if you don't put on your PJs, then Santa can't come." To which Amber slid off the couch, looked at her cousin and said, "I go put on my jammies now." Oh, love it.

12/25/12:

Santa Came!  The first thing Amber said when she got up, "Santa come?" Leah was up first, and she sat patiently next to her bundle playing her DS until the rest of us got up!! Amber was super excited as Santa brought what she had asked for – Tootsie rolls, suckers, and candy canes! Yes, it is pretty obvious that she has a sweet tooth!!  Santa also brought a new pillow pet for both girls. Also, they each got some nice, warm blankets to cuddle with, clothes and games.

After Church, we went to Nonna and Grandpa’s house to continue the festivities. We did our traditional Ravioli making which makes for such a yummy dinner. The girls participated some, but more to play with flour than to help make ravioli! We opened presents throughout the day. More clothes, games and toys for the girls! Leah scores a Nook Tablet from my parents which she has been playing nonstop since we had a chance to put some books and apps on it! I got a new Sony Cyber Shot camera with a 20x zoom which is so nice. I have been enjoying using it already! My parents are so very generous at Christmas (an always really), and I can’t thank them enough for all they do for us! Thanks mom and dad!!

12/26/12: The girls, Joe and Grandpa Shorty stayed home while Mommy had to work! The girls spent the afternoon at Nonna’s house making sugar cookies with Tiffanie, Thea and Delila while the boys went to lunch. It sounds like they had a lot of fun! The evening was spent enjoying some time with Grandpa Shorty as he had to leave the next day! Amber is still asking where he is as she thinks that he is still here! Both girls so did enjoy having him here and it was so nice that he was able to stay for a week. 

She was so worn out from the activites of the last few days, she slept like this for and hour - coat still on!

So, we took off Amber booster seat when we had company, and realized that she really doesn't need it anymore!!

12/29/12: We went to get Amber’s haircut, then Leah also got one while we were there. Amber got a super cute bob which was much needed as she does not like having her hair combed and she really has only had one trim in her life! She was very serious during most of the haircut, I think she was unsure of what was happening!! Leah got 2 hair pieces- pink and purple- yes, such a girly girl she is!! 

 

LOTS to catch up on this time!!

It's been awhile, probably the longest lapse in posting since I starting doing this. I have been struggling of late to manage my time as there is so much going on! I want to try to keep up with this, though, because, if I don't, I fear I will forget what was going on all the time when my beautiful girls were growing up!!

Leah’s weeks continue to be filled with school, dance and gymnastics. She also started Girl Scouts this month!

Amber’s weeks are filled with learning her ABCs, colors, shapes and numbers! She loves to follow her big sister around, and usually wants to do “homework” when Leah is working on her homework! Amber also has been doing gymnastics (at daycare, she has class 1x/week).

11/6/12 – Leah and I had appointments to see the dentist. I was told to bring Amber along so she could see the process. Well, she wanted to try it out herself, so she had her first dentist visit and even let Dr. Breitbach poke at her teeth – which were given a clean bill of health!! 

11/9/12 – Leah, Michael and I went to see “Cat in the Hat” at the Minneapolis Children’s Theatre. I think the kids enjoyed the show!

11/22/12 – Thanksgiving with the Martin’s – held at Nonna and Grandpa’s house including – Nonna, Grandpa, Dan, Tiff, Thea, Delila, Joe, Andrea, Leah, Amber, Jim and Renate. The girls looked adorable in their matching dressing, they (as always) had a blast playing with each other, and there was lots of good food!

11/23/12 – Leah got to spend the night at her friend’s house. She was only at Hailey’s house until 10:30pm when we got the phone call! Leah had somehow managed to cut her foot on a broken Snow Globe. Poor girl had a very bad cut. Hailey’s parents felt awful, but as we know, accidents happen!! Amber was spending the night at Grama Mary’s house, so Joe and I went to get Leah and off to the ER we went. There we were, at midnight! Leah got her first stitches on the top of her right foot. She got 6 stitches to close up the jagged cut. She did very well, but she was very scared and said often, “I don’t want to get stitches.” She had them in until 12/4. Getting them out was almost as traumatic as getting them put in!

11/24/12 – Thanksgiving with the Renlund’s – held at Aunt Karen’s house- Karen, Chris, Grama Mary, Joe, Andrea, Leah, Amber,  Lance, Fran, Michael, Patrick, Maggie, Molly, Pat, Nikki, Cory, and Emilee. We started the festivities with a Baby shower for Baby Boy Nesheim and completed it with the Thanksgiving feast!

11/30/12 – Leah (yes, Leah) decided to stick a rivet that had fallen off a pair of my jeans up her nose! Not really sure why, but she did. So, after consulting my mom who had to calm me down (I was a bit – okay a lot – mad), I brought her into the doctor. Our appointment was with a nurse practioner who tried hard to get it out, but was unsuccessful. She then went to get one of the pediatricians who, thankfully, was able to get it out after about ½ hour!!

11/30/12 – Nonna, Leah and I along with Deb, Jaci and Kaylee went to see “Madeline’s Christmas” at Stages Theater. This was an adorable show! I really enjoyed it and I think the rest did as well. 

12/1/12 - Ralph, our Elf came to visit us again. Leah and Amber enjoy finding him every morning and giving him messages for Santa. Leah is now telling Ralph where he should be the next morning, and Amber wakes up asking "Where Ralph?"

12/1-2/12 –  Duluth

We went to Duluth for the “Polar Express” and “Bentlyville.” We meaning Andrea, Nonna, Leah, Amber, Dan, Tiffanie, Thea and Delila. We stayed at the “Edgewater Resort” which was CRAZY!! It is a hotel with a waterpark. It was very busy and we ended up with rooms on the outside of the hotel, so we had to walk outside to go to the waterpark. Luckily, we had abnormally warm weather for this time of the year, so it did work out. I am not convinced that I want to stay there again, but maybe, this will change after some time has passed to forget the chaos. I do need to remember to try to enjoy all that we are doing because with the craziness I get too flustered to really enjoy what we are doing! I know that the girls had a fantastic time and, in the end, that is what is important.

Meeting Santa and visiting the Reindeer at Fitgers: We got to Fitgers to eat prior to the Polar Express. Santa the Reindeer were there, so the girls stopped to see Santa and to visit the reindeer. Amber asked Santa for “suckers,” and Leah asked Santa for a “light up pillow pet.”

Polar Express: We boarded the train at Fitgers and rode the train down to the Depot where we took Polar Express to the North Pole (the kids sat on the floor while the story was told), then they got their bell and talked to Santa – again! The girls asked Santa for the same things they had asked for earlier. After the train took us back to Fitgers, they got hot chocolate and cookies! Yummy.

Bentlyville: Wow, did we luck out this year! Normally we are FREEZING as we go through this amazing display of lights, but this year, we had wonderful weather (well, for northern MN)! We didn’t even have to put snow pants on the girls! The hit of Bentlyville (besides the amazing lights), is Mrs. Claus. The girls love to sit with Mrs. Claus and get their candy cane! Santa is there as well, but the line is just too long. They also love getting popcorn, roasting marshmallows and getting more cookies and hot chocolate! We didn’t leave Bentlyville until shortly after 9pm, so needless to say, they were up WAY past their bedtime!

Waterpark: We did spend a few hours at the waterpark on Sunday morning. Leah needed to be bribed to go down a slide (which she did say she liked, but she did not repeat). Amber would not go near the younger child area because there was a huge bucket that filled up with water and dumped water over the entire apparatus about every 5 minutes. I could see how this is scary to a little person! So, my point, well, they spent a majority of the time in the large pool playing with the balls!! So, maybe we don’t need a fancy waterpark, but just a normal hotel pool and we could bring some beach balls with us?!!?

12/2/12: While we were away, Joe decorate the outside of the house! He did a great job! The girls love it!!

12/8/12: Krayola Kids Christmas Program – Amber was so darn cute up on stage where she danced and sang to “Jingle Bells.” I was too far back to get any decent pictures of her on stage, but here she is off the stage all dressed up! She even let me braid her hair (yes, I bribed her with a sucker, but she did let me do it)!

12/9/12: St. Patrick’s Church Program. Leah’s 2^nd grade class sang “We Three Kings.” She knew all that words and said she enjoyed it, not sure why she decided to stand with her arms crossed!

12/9/12: St. Patick’s Church – Breakfast with St. Nicholas. Amber was not a fan of St. Nicolas when close, but did admire him from afar!

12/10/12: Snow day. So, I worked the weekend (yes, along with all the other activities of the weekend). I was off today to try to get stuff done, but instead we have a snow day and the girls are home with me! I am getting some done, but not nearly as much as I hoped! We spent a little time outside today. Amber wanted nothing to do with the snow and Leah was complaining about getting snow in her boots, so they did not last long outside!

With this long post I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas as I am sure that it will not be until after Christmas that I post again!!