Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  2011 started off pretty crappy.  Andy was laid off right around Christmas of 2010, so he wasn't working and I was stuck at a horrible dead end job that was an hour away from home.  To say that I was stressed and unhappy would be an understatement!  But, things got better - Andy got a new job that he loves in April and I got a new job that I love in August.  Audrey started pre-K, quit needing pull-ups overnight and continues her love of fashion.  Bridget was potty trained in record time, loves daycare and keeps us laughing with her goofy ways.  2012 can only bring great things for the Farbotkos!

I plan on asking the girls some end of year questions every New Year's Eve.  Here are Audrey's answers (I think if you click on the picture it will make it bigger):

Bridget's answers don't make a whole lot of sense (we never went to a farm last year and she wants to be a chicken when she grows up), but they made us chuckle!

Christmas 2011

Santa was good to the Farbotko girls this year!  We had a nonstop weekend that began on Christmas Eve.  The girls and I got up and made cookies for Santa.

Before we go ready to go out, we let the girls exchange gifts to each other, a tradition that Andy's family did on Christmas Eve.  We didn't think far enough in advance to take them shopping for each other, so we just grabbed a couple of presents that we already had and had them give them to each other.

We then went to Grandma and Papa's house.  Before the boys got there and it got too chaotic, I made everyone sit down for a family picture.  The last one we took was at Easter where I had an eye infection, so I have a bright red eye and glasses on in the photo - lovely.  I think this one came out cute!

Bridget loves playing with Papa's Nerf dart gun - she gets an evil little grin and says "Do it again!  Shoot Mommy!"  She even knows how to reload the bullets and cock the gun.  Should I be worried?

After filling up on dinner and opening gifts, we headed home to set out Santa's milk and cookies.  We had to put them up on the mantle so Amos wouldn't eat them.  The girls went to be fairly quickly and Santa was able to come fairly early, which was good because he kept forgetting things that were hidden!

This is the first year that Audrey woke up remembering that it was Christmas.  Luckily, she woke up at her usual time (7:30) and not 3:30 like cousin Tyler!  Andy made her wake Bridget up so they could go down together and I went down first so I could capture their faces.

Bridget opened each gift next to the trash bag so she could throw away each little piece of paper, one by one.  Needless to say it took her a while but I hope this clean-freak thing sticks!  When we were at Baby Andrew's birthday party, Bridget had a great time playing with a little cash register toy, so I asked Santa to bring her one.  It turned out to be one of her favorite gifts!  She will bring it to Andy or me and say "Let's play Kroger!"  (We have her trained well on where to shop!)  We have to ring her up and then when the register opens, she grabs the money out of it and says "Have a nice day!"  If you hear about a string of Kroger robberies from a polite little robber, you will know who it is.  ;)

After presents, Audrey said "Christmas is over.  Let's take down the decorations."  She also asked if she was going to be allowed to stay up late for "New Week's."  After we ate breakfast and played with our new toys a little bit, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas celebration #2.  I don't have as many pictures from there because Audrey had to sit on my lap while opening her presents so I couldn't move.  She ripped open all of her gifts in a hurry and then went in sat in the other room crying because she didn't have any more gifts to open.  Grandma and I offered to let her help us but she wanted her own gifts to open.  Spoiled much?

Goodbye Kevin

Today is Kevin the Elf's last day with us.  Audrey is pretty bummed about it.  Here is a link to Kevin's adventures over the past month:

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZM3DRozaNGpI

Audrey has proven herself to be horrible with secrets - she just gets too excited.  The girls picked out a UGA pillow pet for Andy for Christmas at the beginning of the month and gave it to him as soon as we walked in the door even though they were supposed to go and hide it.  I found a pair of gloves that are made with some kind of fabric that lets you use touch screen devices (iPhones and iPads).  I didn't think Audrey was paying attention when I dropped them into Andy's stocking, but last night, out of the blue, she says "Oh Daddy, we got you some gloves for Christmas!"  Then she actually went and got them out of his stocking and gave them to him!  Luckily he has a few other gifts that Blabber Mouth doesn't know about!

She keeps telling me that she wants to buy me a ring for Christmas.  I asked her last night if she knew what Daddy bought me for Christmas (I knew she would give it up if she did).  She said "No, but it's not a ring because that's too expensive."  Daddy is smart and didn't show her any of my gifts!

The girls brought home all of their cute little Christmas crafts from school.  Here are Audrey's.

We hung the wreath on the back door and she is very proud of it!

Bridget made some reindeer food and a reindeer ornament:

I have a hard time believing that she actually made anything in this painting, but whatever:

And here is her cute reindeer hat:

While Audrey and I were making birthday thank you notes, Bridget wanted to write in a card too.  I gave her one and she wrote in it, put it in an envelope and asked me to mail it to Santa.  I guess this is her list?

Funnies:

While feeding Rainbow the goldfish:
A: "Bridget needs her own pet too.  Bridget, do you want a goldfish or a baby?"  Me: " Huh??"  A: "Oh, I mean betta."

We were supposed to go bake cookies with the boys last weekend but Tina called us and had a terrible cold.  The next morning:  A:  "Is Aunt Tina feeling better?"  B: "She dead."

Misheard lyrics - Audrey style:

"There's a dog on the stereo" Katy Perry 'California Girls' - real line "We've got white sand on our stilletos"

"You better run faster than my brother" Foseter the People 'Pumped Up Kicks' - real line "You better run faster than my bullet"

Kevin the Elf Gets In Trouble

This is where the girls found Kevin this morning:

I thought it was pretty funny! It looks like Kevin is just rolling in from a hot date with Barbie. 

Andy is off of work with the girls today and just sent me this video.  Audrey does not think it's funny.

5 Year Checkup

Audrey had her checkup yesterday afternoon. She is 45 1/2 lbs (75%) and 46 inches (97%). She passed all of her physical tests and the only milestone one that she couldn't do was write her lowercase letters, but she seems a little young for that in my opinion!

Audrey's Birthday

Our big girl turned 5 last Wednesday.  Man, I still can't believe it - 5 seems so big!  We had her party last Sunday at Monkey Joe's.  She had gone with me a few days prior to order the cake and was very mad that I ordered a half sheet cake.  "I don't want a half of a cake!  I want a whole cake!"  I couldn't explain the cake sizes to her well enough.  She went with Andy to pick the cake up before her party and the first thing she said when they got home was "I didn't get a half of a cake, I got a whole cake!"

She had so much fun at Monkey Joe's!  Most of the guests were her little ballet friends.  They have all been in ballet together since they were 3, and even though they only see each other on Saturdays, they are pretty good friends.

Last time we were there, B wouldn't venture too far from me, but this time I didn't know where she was half the time.  She did come and find me and hug my leg every 10 minutes or so just to make sure I was still around!  That's her on the right at the top of the big slide with Emma:

Her toys are getting to be a lot more fun!  She got a lot of Barbie stuff and an Easy Bake Oven, so we made brownies on Monday after work.  This is how my bathroom vanity looks.  The Barbie dog park has taken over!

Audrey also got a Little Mermaid aquarium, so meet the newest member of our zoo, Rainbow Unicorn!  Audrey slept in her bed for the first time in months last night so she could sleep with Rainbow.

We let Audrey choose what to do for dinner on her birthday and she chose to order in pizza, which worked well for us because Mommy and Daddy were out late the night before at my company Christmas party and we were exhausted!

Today was the last ballet class of this session and the girls were supposed to do a little Christmas dance for the parents.  Audrey was so excited all morning, asking Andy "Are you coming to ballet?  We are dancing to the Nutcracker!"  When we got there, her teacher was out with the flu and there was another teacher.  We still got to sit in the class and watch but they didn't get to do their Christmas dance.  I may be a little biased, but I think Audrey was the best ballerina in class!

I got a couple of videos too, but I will post those another day.

Creepy Santa

I was so excited that Santa was going to visit the girls at daycare because that meant that I didn't have to go stand in line at the mall.  The girls looked adorable in their little Christmas outfits.   Audrey said that she wanted a Jewel Sparkles Lalaloopsy doll and was doing to ask Santa if he "handled Lalaloopsy dolls."

When I picked up the girls this afternoon, I was happy to see that the photos were already printed and ready to go.  Unfortunately, they are terrible!  They are off center, the girls are not smiling and Santa looks like a creeper!  To make matters worse, the pictures are printed on cheap paper.  The photographer has her phone number and website all over the envelope - she should be embarrassed!  I am so pissed!  Here are the offset girls and creepy cheap Santa:

Audrey is trying to smile here, but even she realizes how bad this is:

We knew Audrey had inherited this, but apparently Bridget has also inherited Andy's inability to smile properly for a photo

Ugh - I don't even know what else to say other than I am SO disappointed in these pictures.  This goes down as the worst Santa photos ever!  I'd rather have them crying at a nice looking Santa than these!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Between getting ready for Audrey's birthday and getting ready for Christmas, I feel like I've been on the go non-stop.  Last Saturday, Andy took Audrey to ballet while I took Bridget to Andrew's 1st birthday party.  Here is Audrey in her cute leg warmers:

Andy and Audrey made it to the birthday party just in time for cake.  Here is Andy and Andrew - he's such a cutie (Baby Andrew I mean!) ;)

When it was time to leave the party, Bridget was playing with one of Andrew's new toys and asked Tim "May I take this home?"  It doesn't hurt to ask!

After the party, I ran out to look for teacher gifts and party favors for the birthday party.  I got home just in time for the Bryant's to come over where Alex and I ruled the Just Dance competition.  :)

The girls are still having a blast with Kevin the Elf.  In the mornings, Audrey walks around downstairs going "Kevin?  Where are you?  I hear you but I don't see you."  Bridget thought this was particularly funny - "Mommy - he drawing with your marker!"

Audrey's teacher told me that she gets daily updates of the silly things that the elf does.

Here are some pictures from my phone.  Amos stuck his tongue up my nose right when I took this:

Audrey and Bridget were playing doctor.  Audrey was the nurse and would hand baby dolls to Dr. Bridget. She would take her clipboard and say "Check UP" and hand the baby back to Audrey.

Bridget got a hold of my phone and I discovered a self portrait that she had taken:

Here is me and my big girl.  The other day, I caught her sitting on the vanity.  I asked her what she was doing and she said "Looking in the mirror because I'm pretty."  Can't argue with that!  A couple of days later, she asked me who she looked like.  I told her that she looks like Daddy.  She said "No, I look like Aunt Tina."  Aunt Tina should take that as a huge compliment since Audrey thinks so highly of herself!

I think I am ready for Audrey's party.  I got the favors put together last night and Grandma Mary found a  birthday shirt at Carter's today, so she is all set!