Christmas Treasures

My Meme (paternal grandmother) has given me a Christmas treasure every year since the day I was born until I got married. I would wait in eager anticipation to receive her handmade Christmas ornament and see what figure I had gotten that year. She always put my name and year on the ornament and some years made them very appropriate for my achievements, such as 1996 was Santa in a car since that was the year I learned to drive. She has done this for all her grandchildren every year (of which she has 11) and even started for her great-grandkids....Angel and Emma loved hanging them up this year. It is such a special gift she has done every year and holds so many memories for me...and helped to decorate my tree when I left home and had no other ornaments!! Thanks so much Meme, I will treasure these ALWAYS.

My Ornaments

Angel and Emma's

A Winters Day

Today was a very successful winters day...although it has only been hovering around freezing for several days now, I had to get to the post office today....CHECK....and then a long put off trip to the grocery store to stock back up...CHECK...all thanks to my sisters who watched the girls for me today (of which they had way to much fun, I will post pics soon!). Nothing better than getting your errands done, house cleaned, and sitting down to a this.... ....a hot bowl of chili and homemade cornbread!! That is of course, unless they would make these warm PJs in my size!! Hope everyone has a warm winters night!!

Another Great Novena

We enjoyed praying the Novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe....
...we are continuing our St. Andrew Novena until Christmas...
...and just started last night this beautiful Christmas Novena (Novena to the Child Jesus Infant of Prague).

More Advent Fun...

...and learning how to use finger puppets...a work in progress. (Funny - last year my hubby kept telling Angel to bring him the lion....um, I don't think lions were present at Christ's birth...and more importantly I think Joseph would be offended, although at first glance...the beard does look like a fuzzy mane!!)

Practicing...

Hair Fun

The other morning we had fun doing hair-dos. Here is Angel's ponytail loop thing and well....Emma's cute clip since she barely has hair!

Happy (Belated) Birthday!!

My nephew, Jacob, turned TWO on the 15th...and I saw (and stole) this pic on his mom's site and loved it!! Happy Birthday...we miss and love you lots!!

Advent Fun

We have been having fun playing with our different Advent activities....I will have to get some more pics of the others we have been enjoying. We try to "teach" the Christmas story and birth of Jesus while we play. This was handed down to the girls from Marmee and I think my Mamasan might have gotten it for us at one point. Anyways...technically you are supposed to put one new figure on each day...but after explaining that about 5 times to a two and one year old, they just look at me, shake their heads and continue to put all the figures on. Oh well...makes a nice play activity...that is if we can work on our SHARING skills....hehe....Angel would like to really play and arrange the figures while Emma would like to grab them and RUN. Maybe I should not have hung it within their reach!! I do think it is weird that they made Mary in pink since she is almost always in blue....and I wish the wise men would come AFTER his birth...makes it hard to explain the Epiphany when they are already there!! Technicalities...technicalities...

Welcome Home

Yesterday my plan to welcome Caitlin home from school and her AMAZING soccer national games...well....the weather didn't help!! But, I managed to get a yard sign (didn't take pic) and balloons posted at the turn off for home, and then I had gotten pom poms in all her soccer teams she had played on throughout the years (minus pink and black which Party City didn't have) and we headed over to my parents house. Luckily her friend Pam and soon to be mother-in-law Audrey were able to make it so it wasn't just us...We lined the long driveway and with pom poms and posters...cheered her home. She has a lot to be happy about and proud of....she has had an amazing soccer "career" and ended with a big bang!! We are very proud of her and Angel is very glad she is home for a bit. The last pic is one I LOVE of her when she scored the second goal during nationals!!

First Snow

...this is what we woke up to Sunday morning...it started falling Saturday night. We probably only got about two inches...but it isn't supposed to get above freezing all week...so maybe we will get more...need to get to the grocery store and post office first please!! Emma loved "dat" (that) pointing to snow and reminded me of last year when Angel would see snow and called it "ho-ho"...I guess she associated it with Christmas....so sweet. Stay warm!

Christmas Traditions....

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is bundling up and wearing our Santa hats and going to the local tree farm to find the perfect tree for Christmas. I have always taken this job very seriously and my sisters used to joke me a lot when I would start talking to the trees, naming them etc....to make sure we found THE ONE. So yesterday, in the snow flurries and all we went out to find our tree. Angel LOVED it....she actually loved playing with the sticks and rocks and walking all around the farm more than picking out the tree...but when it came time to cut it down...she wanted the honors! So we allowed her "to help!" After we loaded the tree we stopped by the Cider Hut (which Angel calls the little house....you can see a pic in the slide show) and warmed up by the fire and had some hot cider. A fun, COLD day, but we found our "perfect" tree!!

Baby Love

Emma absolutely loves giving kisses....to ANYTHING, but especially loves babies and the dolls...so sweet...she loves making the kissing sound "mmmm...mwuh!" And did you notice she finally has enough hair to put a little clip in? So excited!

Growing Girl

Friday, I took Emma in finally for her one year check. (After waiting FOREVER in the doctor's office which isn't recommended with two toddlers) we got her stats:

-21 pounds 13 ounces (50-75%)

-30.75 inches long (90%)

-head is 48.6 cm (still 97%!! - docs comment was, at least she is growing into it!)

(just to compare, at 12 months, Angel was 20 lbs 3 oz, 28.5 in, and head 45 cm)

**this visit also still affirmed for me how thankful I am that I have done so much research on vaccines and issues surrounding them because the nurses couldn't answer ANY of my questions and not even about the one I wanted...UGH...scary when you teach them something and they ask how I know so much...they didn't even know they had different brands and which ones they used!**

Funny Face

Emma has been making this face a lot lately....especially when you make the "huh" or "ohhh" sound....she looks so silly and makes us laugh. Of course, Angel had to show us that she can make the face too!

You thought I was kidding?

Well, can't believe I am posting this....but I think people have thought I was kidding when I have been saying Emma has reached a stage where she just decides to SCREAM....not sure if it is because she is the second born and trying to make herself heard over her sister....maybe it is just the very STRONG will this little one has and strong determination to have things her way...or maybe she just wants to be held all the time lately....because whenever mommy picks her up, she stops...smiles...and is just FINE. Oh boy....hopefully this is a very short stage!!

New Warm Coat

Thanks Marmee!!