The Twins Turn 1!

My brother's baby girls turned one on Jan. 6th. Thier Mom threw a great little family party for them an it was such a special day to be able to celebrate. They are so precious an really turning into fun little people. Her is Analiese on the left and Genevieve on the right.

The cake Christy made for them.

Little G diggin' in.

Little A showin' us what she's got.

New Year's Eve

We spent NYE at my good friend Eva's house. We ate and talked and watched the kids play. G got into some dress up clothes.

She also lost her 3rd tooth the week between Christmas and New Year's.

After much playing we let the kids settle into a movie. FYI all of our kids are within 2 months of age of their closest peer so they really play well together.

Christmas Nanue/Big Papa Style 2011

Christmas Morning 2011

I didn't take too many pictures of Christmas morning but Santa did come and brought lots of bath stuff and a trampoline for the yard as well as some suckers. Mera LOVES suckers.

G made this awesome art at school so I framed and matted it for my mom because it has her colors in it.

After presents at my parent's house, we went home and played in the bath with our fun new foam soap.

The Desk

So I took on an incredibly stupid and time consuming project three weeks before Christmas. I really wanted to get G an old school desk and I looked around on craigslist but to no avail. I spent a whole Saturday looking at the flea market and antique shops and just as I was ready to give up I found the perfect thing. Only it was in bad shape. It was a 3-piece desk set and here is the before picture of the chair.

I only got 2 of the pieces re-finished and the other will have to wait until spring but here is a picture of what I got finished. They turned out really great and later when I asked what her favorite part of Christmas was she said, "Getting my desk." Makes a Momma happy.

Darby and her buddy Matt.

Christmas Eve 2011

So this is just a bunch of pictures of me and my kids and our family on Christmas Eve so feel free to skip it if you want.

This is Mera's little friend from playgroup. They both love to point out babies and this is what they are doing here. (photo credit to Eva Garringer.)

Hives

Besides all of the fun we had over Christmas we also had a little un-fun. Darby broke out in hives on Tues. before Christmas after eating a bunch of tabouli and I immediately worried she was reacting to a food. We gave her some Benedryl and she was fine for a while and then they came back. This happened for a few days and the on Christmas Eve G broke out in hives. I wrote it off to nerves or something. Then on Monday after Christmas Mera broke out in hives. All hives responded to Benedryl and stopped after a couple of days so that was good and I came to the conclusion they were probably viral hives because that is the best I could do. G had it the worst by far and her whole face and neck were covered. Here is a picture bless her heart.

Gleason Style

So now that I have explained how it works Gleason style here are some pictures of the various nights of Christmas at our house.

Mera got it really quickly and was all about opening the presents.

Georgia loves art and got a lot of gifts to give her different ways to create her art.

Darby is driving her remote control car and Mera is pointing at it and I am just being silly.

Darby wanted a telescope more than anything and her Dad obliged.

The Four Days of Christmas-Our Tradition

Every year I kind of explain our Christmas tradition but we seem to keep adding family members so not that we are done adding this will be my final Christmas tradition explanation to be referenced for all Christmases to follow.

When I was almost 2 and my sister almost 4, my mom was 9-moths pregnant with my brother and had, what she claims, was the worst Christmas ever. She says by Christmas night she so disliked my sister and me that she swore she never would do Christmas again. Well thankfully she changed her mind but the next year she did things very differently and this tradition is where we get our tradition. The point of our Christmas tradition is to help alleviate the brattyness and grabbiness of Christmas morning and this is how it goes:

On December 20th we kick off the holiday by having our version of Christmas dinner (my mom always did the full blown turkey etc. but we just eat shrimp). That night the oldest child give the present she bought for her sisters to them and she, in return, receives her gift from her father. The next night the middle child gives to sisters and receives from dad, the next night the youngest child gives gifts to sisters and receives from dad. This brings us to the night of the 23rd when all children are given one present from Mama. On Christmas Eve they get to open Christmas Eve PJs from Nanue and gifts from the cousins. Christmas morning they get one big Santa gift and then open a present from my parents. We do Christmas with Matt's parents whenever they come in town so those presents are also appreciated for who they are from.

This worked really well this year and made Christmas so fun for me and Matt. No yelling and indiscriminately tearing into packages with no acknowledgment of who it was from. The way we did it, eat girl was thoughtful in her choice of gift for her sister and each family member remembers distinctly what they got from the others.

Now, being a bigger family there were some things I did to create more gifts without spending much money and I will share those now:

1. I bought all Mera's gifts at the Thrift Store and then let each girl pick from that lot what they wanted to get her. I got some great stuff and Mera, nor the big girls, seemed to know the difference.

2. I bought A BUNCH of used books, both online and from the Thrift Store ($.50 each), and let the girls open some books each night. I love books so this was really fun for me.

3. I saved up my Disover Cashback Bonus (not to worry, I pay my full CC balance every month) and bought most of my gifts from Amazon, paying with my Cashback Bonus so my bills through Nov. and Dec. never really jumped.

4. I started in Nov. buying stocking stuffers and bought a few each week at the grocery store so they kind of went along with my grocery budget.

5. We did baked good and homemade gifts for all the girls teachers (total of about 125 cookies I baked) and went to the dollar store for packaging.

Now all my secrets are out. It may not seem like much but it helped me enjoy Christmas a little more, still keeping the giving spirit, and not breaking the bank.

Student of the Week

G was student of the week for her class in early December. She was recongnized at an all school assembly where an older student read a page of interview questions she had answered. Here she is in front of the whole school.

And here is what was read about her. (If you click the picture it will get bigger and more readable.)

The Dog

So I realized I have posted about the dog since we got her back in July. Wow did we luck out. She is a great addition to our family and has been so easy to train and housebreak. She is six-months-old now and gets bigger every day. She loves to go run with me and it is so nice to have company. We go down in the valley and she runs and plays while I just run. I didn't really think I would enjoy a dog at this point in my life but I was wrong. She is really a great companion, watch dog, and family member.

Mera and her Towel

Mera's speech is coming right along and one of her favorite words is "towel." She takes showers with me on a regular basis and every time we get out she is over at the cabinet saying "tow"(she leaves of the "el"). If I don't get her one of these awesome princess towels Nanue got us, she has a little fit. I then have to put the towel on her so she can prance around the house and show everyone her "tow."

TSHA Christmas Party 2011

Each year TSHA (click here to learn more) has an awesome Holiday party for the kids with hearing loss and kids of families with members who have a hearing loss. This was our second year attending and it was so fun. Georgia sat on Santa's lap willingly for the first time in her life. Here they are signing "I love you."

They have crafts for the kids and treats to eat.

And here is Georgia and the audiologists who diagnosed her hearing loss. We love her!

Bed Time

We have been having some bed time growing pains but I will talk more about that at another time. Here is Daddy doing bed time stories.

It is a group activity.