Christmas Time

The time leading up to Christmas was a blast. We went to Greensboro for some good family time. The house was full with us, Steven, Courtney, Steven Ed, Nana, and Poppy. We got to relax and enjoy the season.


We went to a holiday piano concert (which did not make for good pictures).
We took Hana to see her first big screen movie (Bee movie). She loved it!! She stared at the movie and was really good! This is in the car after the movie.

We went to the mall (as tradition states) on Christmas eve.
The boys stopped for a photo opt.

We walked around and took Hana to see Santa (SEE being the operative word- she just wanted to look at him but NOT sit on his lap).
This is Pre-Santa

And here we are SEEING Santa.

After the mall we went to the Christmas Eve Candle light service. The kids we wonderful! Hana even got to hold the candle. Look Mom FIRE!


Here we are at the service (I guess I was looking for something- who knows)

We then went home and had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner (I enjoyed starting that new tradition! Yummy food!). We then read the Christmas story and sat by the fire.
The next morning, after an early start (you are all welcome for that!), we tore into the presents.

There were toys and clothes all around!

The end was quite a mess!


It is hard to believe that Christmas is over until next year.

And sadly on Christmas morning we got the news that one of Jack's close friends from college passed away. He and several friends drove to Florida for the funeral. It was a sad time and a reminder of what is really important.

Merry Christmas!!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Making Christmas cookies

Hana and I started a new tradition today, we made cookies! I will admit that we did not make the cookies from scratch (that may be something for next year) but we still had fun!!
She got to cut the shapes with cookie cutters.


She loved eating the dough! Who doesn't??!

She also loved decorating the cookies with icing.



Even getting some on her mouth. Yummmmm icing :)

It was a fun mother and daughter tradition that I can't wait to repeat for next year with two helpers!!

Hana's Preschool "performance"

Hana's Preschool had a "performance" this morning. It was not so much of a performance and more of them singing some Christmas songs with the music teacher. Hana was not into the singing. When we got there they were coming in from outside. Jack and I could hear her crying on the way in. She did not want to come in from playing outside. It was little comfort to her to know that her parents took time out of their busy day to hear her sing. So while the rest of the kids sang several songs, she sat on the carpet. Oh well (and she was not the only one!).

She was not too happy to sing the prayer they sing before they eat snack.

She did perk up when it came time to eat. And as you can see from her plate, it was not a totally healthy snack :) She was in a much better mood after a healthy helping of M&Ms and cookies.

She did get a compliment today though, a lady (I am not sure if it was her new teacher or a parent that came in to read) commented on how smart she was. She was very impressed that she was reading along with the story and that she knew her letters :)

Merry (almost) Christmas!!

Side by Side Christmas

The girls have been sick for the last couple of days so I really don't have a lot of new things to report. But after getting our Christmas pictures on Sunday I was struck that the pictures of Brooke were very similar to pictures that were taken of Hana at about the same age not so long ago... so I just thought it would be nice to compare and see just how much they look alike (my two redheaded daughters) :)

Then

Now


Then


Now


What do you think? Are they twins or sisters?

Christmas Pictures

This will ruin some of your Christmas presents... so if you don't want to see them stop reading now :)







If you don't care... here you go!!

These are not all of the pictures, but they are the Christmas ones.







Merry Christmas!

Christmas Pictures of the Girls at home

We took a few pictures of the girls this morning in their Christmas jamas (that is pajamas in Hana speak). They were just so cute I had to share!











Merry Christmas!

Brooke stands and walks :)

In the midst of Hana and her antics. I have another wonderful daughter who sometimes gets overlooked (maybe because she is not quite so demanding). Well not today!! Brooke stood(with only one sock)!!


She was holding on to the edge of the laundry basket watching her sister inside.

(Brooke did not put herself into the standing position- I did that... but she held on herself once she got the hang of it!)
She may end up being just like Hana (in this area) and skip crawling all together and go straight to walking. She actually has walked some, I hold on to her fingers and she s-l-o-w-l-y walks towards me. I will try to catch it on video if I can. We got one that is pretty good :)


And another one...



I just wanted to share one of Brooke's accomplishments.
Her sister was happy to be there to give her a hug.
(I am glad that I was able to have sisters)


I will close with one more Hana-ism. When I went to get her from her nap today, she had played with the camera so I asked her what happens when she plays with the camera. To which she answered that she gets a spanking. So as I am spanking her bottom, she says "I am not going to cry Mommy". She was not being rude or disrespectful, she was just being truthful. And she did not cry. (For those of you who know me well- one of my "favorite" stories of when I was little was when Mom told me that she was going to spank me and I said "You can spank me if you want to, but I am not going to cry"... I shall call her "mini-me")

Hana keeps me on my toes

Hana did some interesting things today that I just had to share. During nap she moved the camera monitor so that I could not see what she was doing. She slept for a while and then I heard a big crash. I ran into her room and she was screaming and shaking. She then told me that she had fallen off of the TALL dresser in her room. She was up there playing with the sound machine and bear and fell off. She ended up being fine, just a bit scared (maybe she won't do that anymore!!)
After that was over, I gave her a snack of popcorn (which she has eaten successfully many times). I went over to check on her and she had put a popcorn kernel UP HER NOSE!! I wigged out and got the tweezers and was all ready to preform major surgery. She covered her nose and would not let me get to it. She wanted "Daddy to do it" (and good thing too). He came in and blew her nose and out it came (I guess major surgery was not needed).
So I just wanted to share my eventful day with everyone! At least tomorrow she goes to preschool :)

**I did want to add one Hana-ism... at lunch today she wanted "block cheese". I told her that she could have slice cheese (which is American cheese) or no cheese. She said that she wanted no cheese. So I said OK and started to get up. She then started to cry and kept saying "I want no cheese, I want no cheese!" Apparently in her mind "no cheese" was a cool brand that she had yet to have.
*Sigh* Ahhhh Hana.

Christmas decorations

This post may not interest anyone at all, but here is our house decorated at Christmas. Since none of you have ever been to our house at Christmas, I thought I would take some pictures of the house decorated so you can see what you are missing :) I love Christmas so there are more decorations that did not make the blog- but here are the main ones :)

Stockings were hung on the china cabinet with care... (in hopes that one day we will have a house with a fireplace and mantle...)


The most important part... (a bit empty, but we are working on it)


Our tree (with no presents yet, but there will be some)


The outside (well some of it) the wreath and garland around the door. We also have candles in the windows. We are about 30 years away from having moving reindeer in our yard. Sorry Mom.

Here are a couple of pictures of the girls by the tree. No Christmas attire, but still cute.


Don't ask me what is going on with Brooke's eyes in this one.




Only 24 days until Christmas!