Kevin the Elf

First, here are a couple more pictures from decorating the tree.  Here is my pretty girl:

Here she is hamming it up for the camera:

Putting the angel on the tree:

Bridget wanted Daddy to hold her up to put something on the tree too, so he had to hold her up to put an ornament up high:

We got one of the Elf on a Shelf toys a couple of years ago and this is the first year that we've actually put it out.  I think we chose the perfect year because while Bridget doesn't really get it, Audrey is really into it!  Meet Kevin the Elf (he is named after our friend who gave him to us):

He arrived from the North Pole yesterday morning and the girls discovered him in one of the stocking holders when they got up.

When Audrey got home from school, she checked to make sure he was still there and was really well behaved all evening.  At one point, Andy asked Bridget something and she said "No."  Audrey said "Bridget, it's more polite to say 'No Ma'am' to Daddy."  :)

First thing this morning, Audrey ran into the living room to look for Kevin.  She came into the kitchen and said "Mommy, Kevin is gone!  Oh wait - there he is!!  How did he get up there??"  He was in the handles of the cabinet above the stove, looking down on the kitchen.

I think if she continues to behave for Kevin, he is going to have to stay here all year long!  I plan on taking a picture of him every day so the girls can have a little photo album of Kevin's adventures.  :)

Here are some more funny kid quotes:

Audrey, while chasing Bridget around the house "Come here you crazy love hawk!"  I have no idea what that means but it cracked me up.

A:  "Do the teachers sleep at the school?"

A: "I am not going to wear pants anymore.  I am only going to wear skirts and dresses like Taylor Swift."  If you think about it, have you ever seen a picture of Taylor in anything other than a skirt or dress?

Andy: "Audrey, who is cuter, you or Bridget."  Audrey:  "Bridget, but I'm smarter."  That's my girl!

Bridget:  "I have super powers.  I can fly like a penguin!"  You sure can, Bridget.  ;)

Playing Catch Up

It's been a while and I honestly can't remember all of the funny stuff I was going to blog about, so here are some pictures from my phone.  Last weekend, the girls and I went to Madeline's 2nd birthday party, which was Olivia themed.  Here are the cute little Olivia's:

Audrey is the same age as the little boy that she is towering over - my Amazon girl! Those two hit it off well and ran around together for the whole party.  (Side note: Audrey is sitting here while I am typing this and just said "I am so bored in that picture."  I thought she had a good time...!)  Bridget loved her piggy nose party favor

 

Audrey was off of school this week, so the girls got to spend the night out on Tuesday night.  Andy and I took advantage of our kid free evening by doing absolutely nothing.  Instead of Christmas shopping or cleaning, we caught up on some DVR'ed shows, went to bed early and actually got to sleep without a third and fourth person sneaking into bed!  When we picked the girls up on Wednesday, we stayed for dinner at his folks house.  Andy was trying to get Audrey to clean her dinner plate, and he told Audrey "If you don't eat dinner, what are you going to poop out tomorrow?"  (nice, I know...)  Without missing a beat, Audrey said "Glitter."  Everything really is glitter and rainbows for her!

We spent this Thanksgiving with the Hoffman side of the family.  We tried to get a photo of all of the kids together, which was quite an effort!  This was the best of my photos:

My drama queen didn't want to sit for a photo and Tyler and Ryan were wrestling the whole time.  We should have just taken photos of Bridget and Jack.  Here are some of the other pictures:

I think in this one Audrey is saying "Please get me out of here!"

"Will these people please stop trying to take pictures??"

The girls ate most of their turkey, which was impressive.  It was also cool that the kids got to Skype with Great Grandma.  While talking to the twins, I heard her say "They are supposed to be twins??"  She thought Tyler and Ryan should have been twins.  :)

We got our Christmas tree up today.  Audrey was so excited when Andy brought the decorations up and was pretty helpful in unpacking the boxes.  She loved putting the ornaments on the tree and although the tree is a little ornament-heavy on the bottom, we love it!

Birthday

First I wanted to share this cute picture of B and Aunt Tina.  She got to go to the outlet mall with Aunt Tina and Grandma Carol last week while Audrey was in school and I was at work.   She kept admiring the train, so Aunt Tina gave in and rode it around the mall with her.

 I forgot to mention in my last post that after I arrived home from getting my hair chopped, Audrey greeted me at the door with "It looks pretty!"  while Bridget wrinkled her nose and said "Your hair look messy."  Thanks kiddo!  Here is a not so great shot of my hair - also, I think my nose is getting bigger as I get older!

On Sunday, we dropped the girls off at Mom and Dad's so we could start our Christmas shopping and also go the AT&T store and order me a new iPhone 4s for my birthday (it just arrived today and I am activating it as I type this!).  While there, Andy bought himself an iPad (Happy Birthday to me??).  When we got back to the folks house, Andy gave the girls a present to give to me (a Wii game that I picked out while we were at Toys R Us - Just Dance 3).  Audrey comes running in the kitchen yelling "Mommy!  Don't come in the living room.  We are wrapping your gift.  It's a new video game!"  Note to self: Don't tell Audrey secrets!

While Grandma Carol was finishing up dinner, we tried the game out.  Here are Tina and the kids dancing:

Andy also played around with the goofy picture app on his iPad.  Don't the kids look creepy??

On my birthday, we went out to a new restaurant called Marlow's Tavern.  Audrey thinks it's cool to eat at restaurants and gets brave with her food.  She tried calamari and liked it!

After I read her the kids menu, I asked her if she wanted her usual chicken fingers and she said "No, I want mini cheeseburgers."  She rarely eats hamburgers so that was a big deal.  Poor Bridget fell asleep in the car on the way to the restaurant and never woke up.  I ate with her sleeping on my lap while praying that she wouldn't go potty!

I think my new phone is done activating, so off to play with that!

Miscellaneous

Last Wednesday, Andy had to go out of town for a few days for a conference in Connecticut.  The night after he left, Bridget was asleep in my bed, Audrey was almost asleep, and I was watching TV when I heard and saw something fly over my head.  Audrey shot up and said "What was that?"  It was a little bird that the cats must have brought in.

He didn't look injured at all and he was just as scared as we were.  Audrey started to panic a little "Call the police!  Don't let it get on Bridget!"  I ended up closing him in my room, opening all of the window and removing the screens and chasing him around with a broom until he finally flew out.  It took about 20 minutes because he kept flying everywhere but out!

Here is what the bed looked like most nights.  We fit in there somewhere...

Andy ended up having to stay in CT longer because his company was contracted to help with snow storm damage while he was up there.  He wasn't sure exactly when he was coming home, and when he finally booked his flight, he thought it would be cute to not tell us and surprise us.  The only problem was that he got home at 11:30 pm on Monday.  I was awoken by the sound of the basement door creaking open and the dogs running down the stairs barking.  I was reaching for my phone to call 911 when I realized that the dogs were not barking anymore and that it was probably Andy. He gave me a heart attack!

It's starting to get a little colder here, and just like Audrey at this age, Bridget does not like to wear jackets.  She will, however, wear this fuzzy white vest.  This is the picture I got when I told her to smile for the camera:

Big sis wanted to wear her hair in a side pony tail like the girl on her shirt, and these are the cheesy shots that she took:

They get their inability to smile normal for the camera from their father!

This picture was taken when Bridget was mad because we were out of Oreos:

Tomorrow I turn the big 3-5!  I'm starting out this new year with a sassy new haircut and I am on a mission to update my wardrobe.  At my old job, I was usually by myself in the office so it didn't really matter what I wore.  I realized at this new job that most of my work clothes are from back in my Lucent days, so my 35th year will be all about style!  No more frumpy mom clothes!  Happy Birthday to me.  :)

Trick or Treat

When I last left you, I thought Bridget was on the mend from her little bug, but on Monday, Grandma Carol called me at work to let me know that B's fever was back.  By the time I got home from work, it was up to 102.4.  Mom had to go straight to Tina's to watch the boys, so she took Audrey with her so I could take B to the after hours clinic.  Before we left, Audrey asked "Is Bridget going to see Dr. Uggless?"  "It's Dr. Douglass and it depends on which doctor is at the clinic."  "Well, if it's Dr. Douglass, please tell her that I got some new pink cowboy boots."  Audrey knows what is important!

Bridget just ended up having a viral infection and I had to call in to my new job for the first time to stay home with her on Tuesday.  That was the first time we've ever spent the day just the two of us.  It is much easier with one kid! :)

The rest of the week was a whirlwind of activity.  Audrey had her class Halloween party at school on Friday and then the girls spent the night at Grandma and Papa's while Andy and I had an exciting evening of watching TV and sleeping - woo hoo!  I had to run errands on Saturday morning, then we had a neighborhood Halloween party/pig roast/hay ride.  Andy had my camera in his truck and my cell phone died so I don't have any pictures from that party.  We learned that Audrey is terrified of creepy masks - one of the guys put one on and ran out to scare the kids and poor Audrey was hysterical and wouldn't go outside for about 30 minutes.

On Sunday, the girls and I had brunch at Grandma and Grandpa's to celebrate Aunt Steph's birthday and then came home to clean and get ready for Halloween.  Here is my favorite photo of Snow White and Rapunzel:

Andy left work early on Monday and carved pumpkins and had dinner ready and then the girls and I went trick or treating with a couple of little girls from down the street.  Bridget wasn't that into it - she went to the first few houses by herself (with the big girls), then she would make me hold her hand, and then she just wanted me to carry her.  After that, I just kept her at the curb with me.  She wouldn't even ride in the wagon.  About half way around the neighborhood, she started saying that she wanted to go home, so I called Andy to come and pick her up.  I went to our neighborhood haunted house for the first time expecting something silly, but these folks put a lot of money and effort into it - it was really good!

Here are the rest of our Halloween photos.  Enjoy!
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My Little Artists

We had a fairly packed weekend planned, but Bridget started Friday night with a low fever.  Here she is before the fever hit in her cute new Minnie Mouse hat from Grandma Mary.

Andy had to go into work on Saturday, so I kept B drugged up with Tylenol so we could get through the day.  After ballet, we went to Target to look at shoes because Audrey only has 2 pairs at home (one of which she doesn't like).  I let her pick out a pair, and she is the proud new owner of some pink cowboy boots!

That afternoon, we went to Emma's 5th birthday party.  Emma loves art and had her party at a painting studio.  Here are the little artists:

The girls got to paint a butterfly canvas. The instructor had the butterfly sketched out in pencil and walked the girls through painting it.  They started by painting the background.  Of course, Audrey picked red.

Even though she is too little to follow the instructions, Amanda was nice enough to set up a canvas for Bridget so she wouldn't be left out.  I painted her background for her, let her go to town on the butterfly part, then finished it off.

Here is Audrey working on hers.  She got a little eager and just painted the whole thing blue instead of painting sections of the wings, but that's ok.  I asked her if she wanted to add more colors or a pattern and she said no.  It's her butterfly after all!

And here are the final products.  Even the instructor thought that mine and B's group effort turned out pretty cool and Audrey's smiley face on hers is adorable.

Poor feverish Bridget was pitiful by the end of the party because her fever was back, so we just went home and relaxed for the rest of the night.  We had planned on going to a pumpkin farm on Sunday, but even though B slept in and seemed ok, we decided to keep her home to make sure.

Since Audrey likes to sleep in B's room, Amos has decided to take over Audrey's room.  This is where I found him this morning.  He and Avalanche both sleep in there most nights.

Since we were kind of home bound today, I decided to empty out all of Bridget's summer stuff and filled her drawers with the winter clothes.  I had Andy take the 3T box down from the attic but after looking through the clothes, I think it's going to be a while before she is in 3T.  The pants were about half the length of B's body!  The girls played in the playroom and played house most of the day.  Here is Bridget as the baby - I think she's a little too big for the baby doll pack 'n play.

Bridget-isms

I am always posting about the funny stuff that Audrey says, but Bridget is becoming pretty goofy too!  I've been keeping track of some of the cute stuff she says too:

When she wakes up on her own in the morning, she will come and find me and say "I done shleeping!"

She was singing a song from Yo Gabba Gabba that goes "Don't, don't, don't bite your friends."  She stopped singing and said "If you bite your friends, they get boo boo.  If you eat your friends, they get really big boo boo and cry 'Wah!'!"

She loves to sing and can often be heard singing Katy Perry's "Firework" or Cee Lo Green's "Forget You."  She calls that one the "I Got Change In My Pocket Song"

When she goes poopy, she calls me to the bathroom and says "Close your eyes!"  Then she leads me to the toilet and says "Ta daa!"  What a lovely surprise!

She came into the bathroom while I was showering the other day and stood outside of the shower pointing at me and saying "Big!  Big butt!"  A couple of days later, I was changing her and said "Who has a cute butt?"  She replied with "Who has a cute big butt?"  "Are you talking about me, B?"  "Yesh!"  I suppose I need to start watching what I eat!

When I asked her what she wanted for dinner the other day, she said "Chickens with Happy Toy."  Translation: chicken nugget Happy Meal.

Last Saturday at ballet, she couldn't remember the other little sister's name, so she would just say "Come on Baby Girl" and grab her hand.  Baby Girl is about 3 months younger than her and a little bit taller, but I guess since Bridget is older, she can call her a baby! ;)

Grandma Mary took Bridget to the dollar store one day while Audrey was in school.  She let her pick out any toy she wanted, and she chose a pink calculator!  It's especially funny because when Cousin Ryan was around the same age, Tina let the boys each pick out a toy at BJ's and Ty and Jack got some kind of toy and Ryan chose a two pack of calculators!  I think we have two little math nerds on our hands!

Last weekend, Andy's Uncle Jon was in town for business, so the girls got to meet their great uncle for the first time.  Audrey talked his ear off (as usual), but Bridget was so serious and barely cracked a smile the entire day.  Here she is seriously taking a picture with Great Uncle Jon and Uncle Alex

Ian brought his Jeep over, and while Audrey loved to ride in it, she was too scared to drive it.  The one time she got in the drivers side, she would only press the pedal and not steer.  Because of this, she nearly decapitated her poor sister who was in the passenger seat as the Jeep went right towards Andy's open tail gate on his truck.  Needless to say, the girls will not be getting a Jeep!