Merry Christmas!

Wishing you the merriest of Christmases!

Lots of Christmases

One of the big reasons I was so excited to get my new job is that it was located in Michigan, which is where the majority of my family lives.  It has allowed us to attend a lot more family events than we were able to in the past.  While packing up the girls even for a few hours is a big effort, I love that they are going to grow up with family around them like I did.

After the multiples club Christmas party, our next holiday event was Christmas with my Dad's side of the family.  We spent the weekend at my parents' house, and traveled north to my Aunt's house for the party.

The girls had a blast playing with my cousins and my cousin's kids.  I have cousins that span in age from six months older than me to seven years old, with quite a few in between.

This was the first year that the girls were really into opening presents, which made the party a ton of fun.

So cute!

 

 

Sweaters handmade by Great-Grandma, and hats handmade by Aunt Beth!

I got to blow out candles on our traditional cranberry pudding dessert.

Birthday Pancakes

My birthday was last weekend, and I got extra spoiled since we were at my parents's house.  On Friday, they asked me what I wanted for my birthday breakfast, and I requested pumpkin pancakes.  My mom has an amazing recipe that is one of my favorite breakfasts.

I woke up Saturday morning to find the girls hard at working helping Grandma and Grandpa make me breakfast.

At one point, Tannah started to lick the pumpking spoon.  She decided she liked it, so the girls had a little pumpkin snack.

Meeting Santa

I've been attending meetings at our town's local twins club.  The ladies are very nice, and they hold a Christmas party every year.  Santa and Mrs. Claus come every year and bring a present for all of the kids.  We attended this year, so the girls got to meet Santa for the first time.

They pretty much wanted nothing to do with Santa, although they love the puppies that he brought for them.  I brought them up to see Santa, but they clung to my dress, so I didn't even attempt to get them to sit on his lap.  Maybe next year.

 

Harper in Santa's chair before he arrived



 

Tannah in her Rudolph hat



 

Meeting Santa

All of the kids sat down around Santa to get a group picture.  Harper and Tannah sat on the very edge, and kept getting up and running over to me to show me their puppies.  It was pretty adorable that they were so excited.

Ornaments

I don't think I ever posted this picture last year or told the story of the girls' 1st Christmas ornaments.

 My birthday is in December, and a nurse in the hospital where I was born gave me my very first Christmas ornament.  It's Winnie-the-Pooh, dressed as Santa.  I love Christmas and decorating, so in December of 2010 when I was pregnant with the girls I started scoping out babies first Christmas ornaments so I would have an idea of what would be available for the girls the next year.

I discovered that Hallmark sells a line of Winnie-the-Pooh Baby's First Christmas ornaments, and I was sold.  I plan to continue my family's tradition of buying a new ornament that has some sort of meaning every year, and I was very happy to find a first Christmas ornament that had so much meaning to me.  And the girls slept a lot that first year (although very rarely all night long:), so a sleeping Pooh is pretty reminiscent of them in 2011 as well.

Big Girl Table

While I was down in Chicago meeting my new niece last week, I made some time for an IKEA run.  $100 later, I have some new pillows, a Christmas present for Wei-Yand, and a new "big girl" table for the girls.

They weren't very happy when we moved their high chairs down to the basement, but they love their little table.  They go sit down and wait for dinner.  The only problem is that they can now get up, so they don't usually make it through an entire meal without getting up a least a few times.  They also like to run steal food off of their sister's plate.  We have a lot less food thrown on the floor now than we did while they were in their high chairs, so I think that's a win.

20 Months!

We're creeping closer and closer to two, and the girls are turning more into little girls rather than babies every day.

At 20 months:

 The girls love books (especially books that have flaps to lift), pushing toys all over the house, and their blankets.

They regularly say "more", "up", "mama", "dada", "hi", "bye bye", and "ball".  Tannah also says "Harper" (so adorable) and a few more words.

They know that ducks say "quack", cows say "moo", tigers say "roar", dogs say "ruff", and Santa says "ho, ho ho".

We're still dealing with major tantrums on a regular basis. The biting seems to have slowed down, but they sometimes pinch.

They love hot dogs, yogurt, goldfish crackers, cheese, and pretty much all fruit. 

They drink about three sippy cups of milk per day.

They really like to use utensils.

They wear size 18-24 clothes month, although some of their shirts are 2T. They wear size 5 diapers and size 5 shoes.

They love to stand on their chairs and look out the window. They can climb up on our dining room chairs, and we have to make sure that we don't leave anything too close to the edge of our counters.

They love music, dancing, and nursery rhymes.  Both of them "sing" Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.  (You know the version that goes "baa, baa, baa, baa, ba da ba da ba" to the tune of Baa, Baa Black Sheep:)

They give fantastic hugs and kisses.

They sleep from about  6:45/7 until 6:45, and they take one nap.

Tannah has 16 teeth, and Harper has 13.

Fall Fun

We've had a number of really nice days this fall, so we've been lucky to be able to bring the girls outside to play on a pretty regular basis.  I know I've said it before, but the girls love having a yard so, so much.  They run around like they own the neighborhood.  I had to drag Tannah out of our neighbors' garage once because she decided that their Cozy Coupe looked like lots of fun.

 

Harper loves the purple ball.  I spend a lot of time chasing after it because our drive has a slight slope.

 

Both girls love their bikes.  They love to both ride and push them.

Sidewalk chalk is also a big (messy) hit.

Straws

The girls love to drink out of straws, so I gave them big girl cups one day when they were watching me cook their dinner.

 

I seriously cannot handle how big they are getting!

More Thanksgiving Pictures

We ended up getting invited to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving, which was really nice because I came down with a cold and didn't really have the energy to make a big Thanksgiving dinner.  I had a hard enough time making the two dishes I brought (sweet potato casserole and 7-layer salad - both Wei-Yand's requests).

My aunt has a horse and rabbits, so the girls enjoyed going out to the barn to see the animals.

It was very windy, but quite warm for November in Michigan.

PB&J for dinner since we had our big meal for lunch.

When the girls got their PJ's on before our drive home, my cousins put their footie PJ's on as well.

Thankful

I have a lot for which to be thankful this year, but the top of my list is this beautiful family.  I love them so much.

 

The Beach

One of my favorites parts of living in Michigan is living so close to the beach.  We've been lucky to have some fantastic weather this fall, so we took the girls to the beach a few weeks ago on a particularly nice day.  The girls love playing in the sand, and I had an idea that maybe I would be able to get a cute picture of the girls for the Christmas card.  I got lots of pictures, but I find it nearly impossible to get a picture of the girls when they are both looking at the camera and smiling.  They generally ignore me when I'm trying to get their attention for a picture, and they most definitely do not smile on command.

I tried to bribe them with goldfish crackers.  Tannah's signing "more".

 

 

Hugs!

Finally some smiles:)