Merry Christmas

Well, we had an exciting and exhausting Christmas! It was a marathon event, and took something like 12 hours! But in the end, everyone had a great time and we were all very happy! Here are some pics from the various events.......

Katie sitting next to the stockings that Santa left us. The first comment she made was that Santa "forgot to wrap" her new Tinkerbell doll!

Hannah holding one of her gifts that Santa wrapped in her stocking. Santa wisely gave her Yogurt drops! She promptly handed them to me and gave me the "more" sign in sign language to open and feed them to her!

Katie helping her Opa open one of his gifts.


Hannah giving her new Nemo doll a "kiss."

Making sure her new scarf and hit fit.

Practicing her "non-walk!"

Trying out her new poncho from Aunt Lisa!

A great day had by all!!!! :-)

So we are still not done opening all the gifts or trying things out. The tree came down yesterday and we are trying to just relax and enjoy the rest of our break. Josh and I finally broke down yesterday and got a new dining room table and chairs! We are super excited - it will arrive next week. I hope it fits well in the room - it is definately bigger than what we have now! =)

Finally!

I have been fighting with the computer on and off now for months to upload this video! It's too dark to actually see, but you can get a kick out of Hannah talking. We had put her to bed an hour or so prior to me finally grabbing the camera. SHe was just talking and laughing away! My favorite part is her response after my comment about her Mimi giving her coffee ice cream! More updates and pics to come!

Another post?

Wow - two updates in two days! What is going on? Actually, I don't count yesterday as a blog- It was just a bunch of pictures....This time there will be some information!
So Katie got her first "professional" haircut this weekend. SHe was so cute - and of course so well behaved! Here is the before......

And here is the after! They ended up taking like 2 inches off!

She has hair like I did when I was younger....very thin and very fine. She looks so grown-up! I can't believe she is going to be four in just a couple of days! She is so excited for her birthday party. It's so cute, but I realize now that she is going to be so sad on Saturday evening when all her "fun" is officially over. What are we going to do?

So I was finally going through the rest of the older pictures I have been keeping in the closet, and picked some to scan in so I could get them back to their original owner. 5 pictures in my scanner just breaks. What's funny is I can't even open it up to try and re-adjust it. I think the scanner is officially gone. And such good intentions I had!!!! I guess after 7+ years of working just fine, it has decided to retire. I just wish it had waited until I was done to break! =(

Well, I should go. I am exhausted and the weekend is done. Back to work and reality.......Wish me luck for this upcoming week and I'll update after!

We had Hannh's Birthday Party last week. Hard to believe she is one year already! Here are a few pictures from her party.......Here is our latest family picture......

Getting a kiss from sister

There's that tongue!

Katie helping her little sister out!

And finally here is the cupcake topper!

I am still figuring out how to get this layout workable for me.....The pictures loaded in the opposite way than I thought they would, but it all works! Now that I finally have a large amount of photos saved, I am hoping to get some more posted tomorrow.

Updates

Well, the school year has been up and running for about a month now. Sometimes I think it's hard to believe it's only been a month, and sometimes I think it's crazy that it's already been a month! The girls are doing well and Katie especially is enjoying being back in class with her friends!

Both girls will have a birthday within a few weeks! I imagine where I was a year ago, waiting for Hannah to make her arrival! Tomorrow she will be one and I cannot believe it! I cannot imagine our lives without her - such a happy little girl! And boy does she love her sister! What is equally wonderful is how much her sister loves her too! I have yet (and I know "yet" is the appropriate word) to see any sibling rivalry between the girls!
Now Katie is all about planning her Birthday (and her sister's as well!)! We think Katie will have her first official "friend" party with some of her close friends from school! She is SO EXCITED! =) It's hard to believe she will be 4!

I am still working on their scrapbooks! I feel so guilty - like Katie's should definately be done by now. I constantly make that my "goal" for the week/weekend, but then "life" just gets in the way! I really do need to work on those! But who are we kidding - look at how slow I am to update this!

~Stacy

Dancer girl!

This is our little Katie dancing at the wedding in Texas where she was a Flower Girl! She had so much fun! She was literally the last one on the dance floor! It was so much fun! =)

Where has the time gone?

So, not only has the summer come since my last post, but it has also nearly gone away. Next week is our last official week off, and then we report back to work for the next school year. It has been a rough summer. I was really looking forward to this summer with our two girls. I had many plans including dance and swim lessons for Katie, and getting caught up on various projects....

School let out mid June. A week after that we flew to Texas for the wedding of one of Josh's best friends. He was the best man and Katie was a flower girl. We had a ton of fun (even though we left Hannah home!) Katie was adorable and had a blast throughout the trip.

Unfortunately a few days after we returned Josh's grandfather passed away. Two days after that, my grandmother passed away. She had been ill for several years, but it is still hard to think about. She and I were extremely close while I was growing up and I always felt like we had a special connection. Yesterday my grandparents would have celebrated their 60th anniversary. It was definately a sad day where it should have been more happy....

I did have the honor of flying to Boston last week with my grandfather. He took me up on my invite to join Hannah and myself in visiting my older sister and her family. We were originally going to fly up and then drive down with Lisa and her kids, but she couldn't come down after she flew down here for my grandmothers service. So we flew up instead and spent a few days with her family. It was fun and a nice way to end a rather rough and emotional summer.
So that is our last couple of months. Many times I have though of something cute the kids said or did, and realized that such a story, quote or picture would be perfect to share on this blog. I vow to start up again, and will post a large number of pictures and even videos this weekend!
Stay tuned......

The big 3-0

I turned 30 last Sunday......At times I am fine with it, and at other times I am like - "when did I grow up?" My sweet husband likes to mention it - mainly because he has a few more weeks until he joins me. I am ready though. If I think about it, I was very busy in my 20's. I got an Associates, Batchelors and Masters degree, got married, had two kids, bought a house, and got my career going. Now, in my 30's, I can enjoy all this! :-)

In other news, we are still working on getting both girls to simultaneously sleep through the night. Hannah got back into a routine of waking up to eat while I was still recovering from surgery, and on the few nights when she sleeps the whole night, Katie takes her place waking us up. We are really having a hard time with her "night terrors." They seem to not be occuring as often, but still enough.....

Hannah will be 5 months old in a little over a week.....Boy how times flies! She has discovered her tongue, and it always seems to be sticking out of her mouth - it is so cute! Meanwhile, her sister "plays" school for hours on end! She comes home from daycare and re-enacts her day in her classroom! When she is hard at work in the middle of her "day," her answer to anything Josh and I will ask is usually...."no - I'm the teacher!" I guess with two parents in education, she is headed down that road anyway! :-)