Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful first Christmas as a complete family! We celebrated with my side of the family on Christmas Eve.

It started raining as we left to come home, and by the time we got the girls in bed, it was really windy too. After we... I mean, Santa... put the presents under the tree, I went to bed so I could be ready for a busy Christmas day. Around 11 pm, I hear the sound of tree falling, so I jumped out of bed to check on my car. We couldn't see any trees down from the windows, so Andy went out back and noticed that one of the big, live pine trees had totally uprooted from the wind and rain.

We decided that our Christmas angel was watching out for us that night. That tree is on the side of the house that the girls rooms are on, but luckily it fell away from the house. It also managed to fall without hitting the shed, the Adarondak chairs, the toys in the yard - the only thing it damaged was the fence, which Andy was able to pretty much bend back to shaped today after he, Pete and Dad got the tree off.

On Christmas morning, after showing Audrey the tree that Santa knocked down on his way out, we opened our gifts here.

Then we headed over to Andy's side of the family for Christmas brunch and dinner.

Andy and I spent two hours last night putting gifts away and I have been sorting and putting stuff away all day today too! Here are all of my Christmas pictures:

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We hope you all had a Merry Christmas too!

Ariel Junior

Little Bridget has been forced to watch The Little Mermaid so many times with big sis that she has one of the songs down.

For those of you who don't watch the movie five times a week (what is wrong with you?), in order to get legs to visit Prince Eric, Ursula makes Ariel sing a song and traps her voice into a seashell necklace.

Audrey received the seashell necklace as part of her b'day gift. When you press it, it plays Ariel's voice, and Bridget has been singing along with it. She has a terrible voice, but she has the melody down! ;)

Busy, Busy, Busy

This past weekend, we had my company party on Friday, Andy's company party on Saturday, and then Disney Live with Emma on Sunday. I must say, Disney Live was a bit disappointing. They did not do any songs that the kids knew, but Audrey at least watched the whole thing, clapped at the appropriate times, and bounced with Tigger! Too bad Ariel wasn't there!


Sunday was also Bridget's 10 month birthday, so here is her official 10 month old photo:

In comparison with Audrey's:

Audrey wanted me to take her picture while I was trying to get a decent one of B on Sunday:

This morning we went over to bake cookies for Santa and decorate sugar cookies with Tyler, Ryan and Jack. For some reason, the kids weren't very into it this year, so it turned into mostly Tina and I making cookies! (Side story - it took us forever to get to Tina's because my little fashionista insisted on wearing a dress to go see the boys. She kept picking out her fancy holiday dresses and it took me forever to convince her to wear a regular dress!) When lunch time rolled around, Audrey wouldn't eat and was laying around saying that she needed medicine. We took her temperature - 101.4.

Luckily, I had her 3 year checkup scheduled for today, so were were already on our way to the doctor's office. On the checkup front, Audrey is 39 1/2 inches tall (90th%) and 33 1/3 lbs (50th%). When her doc looked in her mouth, she saw white spots i her throat and ordered a strep test. It came back negative, but they are going to culture it to see if it's one of the strains that isn't picked up by the instant test. She thinks that Audrey may have a virus and will have a fever and bad cold symptoms for the next couple of days. Bridget is already on an antibiotic for an ear infection, so if it is strep, she won't get it too.

The pediatrician recommended taking Audrey to a dentist sometime between 3 and 4 years old. She gave me a list of pediatric dentists that they refer to. She circled two - one is the one that she uses and loves, the other is one that is great and is also good looking. I think we know which one I am going to choose... :)

I talked to Stephanie tonight and the other cousins are sick this week too. Keep your fingers crossed that everyone is healthy for Christmas!

Ballerina

Today was the last day of this ballet session, so the Mom's were allowed to sit in class. It was a little distracting at first, but then she ignored me and Bridget (after she announced that she had to go potty about 5 minutes in).

She got praise on her form here:

And they got to dress up as Sugar Plum Fairies and Reindeer:
And here is a video of her super-duper leap and twirl!

She is already signed up for the January Twinkle Tots class!

Happy 3rd Birthday Audrey!

We had a party filled weekend last weekend, starting with cousin Tyler's 6th birthday party at the bowling alley. This was Audrey's first time bowling and I think she had a good time. I thought it was cute that they had bowling shoes in her size!

Here is Bridget walking around the bowling alley with Papa.

The girls spent the night out that night so Andy and I could go to a Christmas party with some college friends and by the time they came home on Sunday, the house was decorated for Audrey's Ariel party. Just as I expected, she had to hurry and put on her costume. Her buddy Emma came dressed as Sleeping Beauty.

I had the kids play Pin the Tiara on Ariel and it didn't go quite as planned. Everyone pulled the bandana off when they got up to the Ariel poster, so it turned into Put a Sticker on Ariel. Cousin Ian put his right over the boobs - way to be a boy, Ian!

Everyone knows of Audrey's love of Ariel, so she got a ton of new Ariel stuff. Surprisingly, there were no repeat gifts - there must be a ton of Little Mermaid stuff out there! Audrey thoroughly played with everything before bed!

Here is a picture that I took of Audrey on her birthday that shows her little sassy face, which we see a lot lately. I told her to smile and she told me to get the camera out of her face and that I'm not her friend. I can tell that 3 is going to be a fun age! ;)

On Monday, Audrey's actual birthday (for which she chose chocolate chip pancakes for dinner), Bridget made a trip to the pediatrician with a 102.3 fever. The poor little thing has a cold which has lead to an ear infection and swollen tonsils. She started an antibiotic on Monday night but she is still really congested and fussy and her fever just broke yesterday.

Andy got a great shot of Bridget's gapped top teeth. Hopefully they will grow together as the other teeth come in, or we are going to be spending a lot on braces!

Bridget is standing by herself fairly well, but I think we are a long way off from walking. I am pretty sure I heard her say "Uh Oh" and "No" recently, but she hasn't said it consistantly enough for me to be sure. Other than that, we have been busy getting ready for Santa. The girls can't wait!

Random Photos From My Phone

Most of these are dark and fuzzy, but since I have been camera-less for the past couple of weeks, these are the only pictures I have! I have since purchased a new battery and will hopefully get around to sticking it in the camera soon!

You can't tell here, but Bridget is actually asleep while standing and screaming. She does this sometimes when we try to let her cry it out. We have to go lay her down, although we are curious how long she can stand there!

The twins came over the other day so their Mommy could go to the grocery store in peace. Audrey had to hurry and put on her Ariel costume and said "Where is Prince Charming? There he is!" She ran over to Jack and gave him a big hug, then put her arm around him and made him walk around the living room with her. This is how I found her about 20 minutes after they left:

In this shot, Audrey tackled Bridget and was rolling around on the floor with her saying "I lub you!" You can see the love on B's face!

Bridget was a fussbudget while eating dinner the other night and I snapped a picture to show Andy what I was dealing with. I felt really bad when a couple minutes later, I found a piece of wicker basket in her mouth! It probably doesn't feel that great to eat dinner with wicker in your mouth - Sorry B!

I snapped this last night. I was nursing Bridget and Audrey got up on the bed with her baby doll and nursed her too! She looks like a zombie because it's right before bedtime.

Turkey Day

My rechargeable camera battery bit the dust on Thursday morning, so excuse the lack of photos. Just believe me that the girls looked adorable in their dresses on Thanksgiving! :) Grandma Carol has some pictures on her camera, but it will probably be next Thanksgiving before she remembers to download and email them to me (hint, hint Mom)!

Audrey wore her Halloween costume while watching the Macy's parade. Luckily we convinced her to take it off before we left for Grandma and Papa's house! Bridget sampled all of the food, but like her Mommy, she wasn't super excited about the turkey. She only ate one piece of that and left the rest on her plate.

The rest of the long weekend was spent cleaning the house and putting up Christmas decorations. The tree is up with the lights on right now and Audrey and I plan on getting the ornaments up today. Even though there are no ornaments on the tree, the girls have already broken three!

What else is new... Bridget can now let go of stuff and stand by herself for about 10 seconds and she has also learned to clap in the past week. And she's still a crappy sleeper! I keep trying the "cry it out" technique but she just gets super pissed and then she's wide awake. I was reading online that sleep problems are common at this age because separation anxiety really kicks in. 9 month olds are learning that they are a separate person from Mommy and it's a little scary when Mommy is not near.

On Sunday night, Audrey kept trying to pick up Bridget and put her on her lap while saying "You are so cute! I love you. I love you already!"