SNOW!

We unfortunately have not seen a flake of snow in Virginia but upon our arrival to Nahnah and Pahpah's house we were greeted with feet of snow! We actually arrived just in time to miss another storm that was tracking through that night and added a few more inches to the mass amount of snow they have. We've taken advantage and been outside digging, building and making snow angels every day! The girls love the snow and Luli is really worried it will melt away before she gets to play in it again. I have assured her that this snow will be here for awhile! (much to Pahpah's dismay).

Merry Christmas

We've had a lovely Christmas celebration for the past few days. Arriving in NY on Tuesday evening, a long car ride but all in all the girls were well behaved. Christmas eve we spent at Aunt Peggy's house exchanging extended family presents and enjoying a reunion of family. The girls dressed in their holiday dresses and were really adorable. They were very good and enjoyed all of the new toys and clothes they received.

The girls were very excited for Santa to come and didn't nap at all on Christmas eve, which led to a very easy bedtime, they fell asleep on the drive home. We baked some chocolate chip cookies for Santa and I made sure to get them out for him, even though the girls had fallen asleep.

Christmas morning the girls gave the adults a treat by sleeping in until 8am! Actually Fiona was still asleep when Nahnah went in their room, and Luli quickly fixed that. Luli wanted everyone up and downstairs to see if Santa had indeed arrived! She was so excited and her reaction has been preserved on the video camera, it was pretty special. Fiona was still quite sleepy and a little slower than Luli.

They loved their new bathrobes that Santa made for them (I still need to get a picture of them both in them), they also got a parachute, a lite bright, and beads from Santa. Nahnah and Pahpah out did themselves with all the fun presents, lots of books, fairies, polly pockets, handmade baby beds, and Nahnah made a beautiful dollhouse! Santa also thought the girls would enjoy my cabbage patch kids (thanks for that idea Kathy!), so a basket of those were waiting also. All in all the girls had a great time and we've been opening new toys daily.

I'll be adding pictures to a new album on the side as we get them. My brother took some beautiful pictures and I hope to upload those tomorrow.

We hope you all had lovely holidays also...feel free to share your experiences in our comments, we love to hear from you!

A family of Pirates

This weekend Oscar made the girls swords out of poster board. They insisted that we also have swords and play the game. Luli's idea of the game has something to do with standing on one foot and trying to attack that way...I'm not really sure about it. But apparently Fiona understands, as she does it too. Here's our family pirate shot...what I love most...Fiona is jabbing her sword at the camera with much gusto, and Oscar's "ARRR" face!

Gymnastics

Before I start, I know the picture is awful! Something is up with our camera and it won't focus without the flash, so being behind glass and trying to take a picture of a child hopping down a trampoline isn't easy! Anyway, the part of gymnastics I love most is when they do different jumps down the tumbling trampoline. It cracks me up and just makes my heart fill up. Luli is hilarious, and I always put her in pigtails for it, which makes it more hilarious. Just watching her bounce here and there all the way down, with her big proud smile, and her hair flying all over the place is just too much. So if you open the picture up, you can see she's the child in the white and blue shirt, black pants and in mid jump.

Holiday Partying

Oscar and I attended the annual Network Solutions Holiday party a few weeks ago. Our great babysitter Miss Jennifer came and took care of the girls for us, and took a nice picture before we left. At the party they always have lots of festivities, including gambling, themed activities, and picture taking. This year the pictures were really fun, with a green screen and you could choose your own background. They had these hilarious scenes of being in the back of a sleigh flying through the air! I wanted to do that and be a little silly, but Oscar wanted a nice picture. So we did a nice one, and later on we decided to go for the silly...including some Santa hats! I wish I had a digital copy to share because they're really funny. For now you'll just get to enjoy our home picture.

Recent Baking, Cooking and Crafting

I'm trying to catch up on the bloggering, so I'm combining a few different things into one post...enjoy!

I've been baking a lot, Oscar says we're eating too many baked goods. I ask, is there such a problem as eating too many home baked goods? I'm using whole wheat flour, who cares if there are stickS! of butter, it's whole wheat! That's got to be healthy!

These are my blueberry muffins, as adapted from the Lemon Raspberry Streusel recipe from Virginia's Bed and Breakfasts Cookbook. They're soooooo good, and actually there is no butter, and I made them 100% whole wheat! Super yummy and I figure they're relatively healthy!

Then there was the marathon of baking I did for gifts to give to Oscar's co-workers last Thursday. I made three kinds of cookies whole wheat pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, lemon glazed cookies, and raspberry pinwheels. I had the pumpkin choc chip recipe for a long time and have made it several times, this time I made 100% whole wheat and bumped up the spices, they came out great! I got the lemon glazed cookies and raspberry pinwheels recipes from the December issue of Real Simple. The lemon glazed cookies came out so excellent, they'll be made again. I made them all regular flour, why not? But perhaps my butter wasn't room temp enough because they didn't roll into a "log" quite like they should have, and thus some were more crumbly then they were supposed to be. The Raspberry Pinwheels were really easy (except all the chilling and starting them at 9:30pm) I made them 25% whole wheat, I was worried more whole wheat would make them difficult to roll. Anyway they came out super also. Apparently everyone at work liked them, because most didn't waste anytime eating all of the cookies I gave them before they left for the day! I also made mini loaves of zucchini bread and banana bread (100% whole wheat).

And that brings me to my cooking...I've been in love with baby bok choy lately! And for some reason my crummy grocery store will only carry regular bok choy. Oscar found this huge bag of baby bok choy at the Asian supermarket for really cheap and they were beautiful! I steamed them and spooned over a soy, ginger, balsamic vinegar sauce. YUM!

Lastly, Crafting! Both of Luli's "newspapers" as she calls them, ("Chirp" and "High Five") had recipes for making scented ornaments. 1 cup applesauce to 1.5 cups Cinnamon. They were really easy for both girls to make and are lovely smelling. Though I will say while they are drying (3 days worth of drying) the scent is a bit much. A certain someone has a sensitive nose for these things and banished the tray to the lower level bathroom with the door closed! Now that they are finished they are much more mellow, and I think our family will love them.

Warm Breakfast, Cold Park

I found what looked like a great breakfast recipe for baked Havarti and Dill Eggs. It photographed much better than it came out. The egg just didn't cook very evenly so I had some really runny whites and overcooked yolk...I like the opposite! Actually undercooked whites make my stomach turn. But they look great, right?!

After breakfast we had grand plans to visit the winter festival at Ticonderoga Farms. But when we got there we really just couldn't deal with the cold and wind, we could have handled the cold, but not the wind! So instead of paying the entrance fee and then realizing we couldn't handle it, we opted for leaving and finding a small park in a neighboring neighborhood. We basically just needed to get out of the house and do something, anything! And in a rare occurrence, there is a picture of me on the blog!

Funny things Luli has said...

My Mom reminded me I should write down some of the hilarious things Luli has said recently.

Oscar asked Luli to do something one day and she wasn't doing it, so he asked her a second time, to which she responded "Daddy, you need to have some patience!"

Then a couple nights ago Oscar told the girls it was time to stop playing and head upstairs to bed, to which Luli responded "I'm never going to play with you again. I DO NOT like your attitude Daddy." This was pretty naughty but it surprised us both so much that we laughed a lot.

Some Santa related questions:
"Mommy why is Santa's belt on his coat and not his pants?"
"Mommy how will Santa get out of our fireplace?" (because it's gas and doesn't open)
"Mommy how will Santa find our tree if he comes in the fireplace downstairs?" (the fireplace is on the lower level, and the tree is on the main level)
"Mommy what do reindeer eat?" (she's always interested in what animals eat)

The family as Elves!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Birthday Allison!

This afternoon the girls and I went to Allison's second birthday party! Allison is the daughter of one of my walking friends. It's been so much fun to watch Allison grow and become so vocal and so fun...big change from the days she'd sleep the whole walk away. Allison loves cupcakes, so accordingly her birthday was cupcake themed. Mommy made her a cupcake shirt (so cute!), pin the candle on the cupcake, a cupcake shaped cake, and lots of cupcakes. We had a great time and the girls were thrilled to play with Allison, and play fun games.

We started off with a cupcake craft. The kids stuffed a cupcake tin with fluff (cupcake) and then decorated. It was a great craft, anytime we can use glitter it's a good time!

Pin the candle on the cupcake was a great themed take on pin the tail on the donkey. The kids loved picking out their candles and sticking them on the board. The little kids didn't have to blindfold, and Luli got her's closest so she got a big flower, which she hasn't let go of!

Then we were off to singing happy birthday and eating cupcakes

Luli's First French Braid

Today we were getting ready for a birthday party and I decided Luli would get her first french braid experience. The other day I had decided I wanted to do her hair this way for her first gymnastics (another post to come) but the morning was too fast to do her hair this morning. Like always, she sat very well for getting her hair done. There were little complaints here and there about it hurting, but she loves having her hair done. I did two french braids because her hair is still short in the front and it wouldn't have worked with one braid. It came out super cute and I'm totally in love with it. Surprisingly it held up decently under a winter hat also.

Playing under the Tree

The girls are quite obsessed with playing near the Christmas tree. It is apparently Polly Pocket's new favorite place to live, work and play. She hikes in the tree, naps in the tree, drives her car around the tree, plays with all her friends (ornaments) in the tree.

Fiona has also discovered she can see her reflection in some of the ornaments, and that was a huge delight.

Starry Night

For days we talked about being able to seeing Jupiter and Venus with the moon at night. And for many nights we were disappointed with cloudy skies, and a very sad Luli. But one night last week we had beautiful clear skies and were able to get a beautiful view right out the back door.

Luli's Preschool Picture

Letters to Santa

As dictated by both girls:

Dear Santa,
I love you Santa. I want to sing you the ABCs. I want a toy snowman, a toy horse, an inside hopscotch game, a bathrobe, craft things and a toy sewing machine, I also want a real fish with fish tank.

I would like to play with you. I will bake cookies for you when you come to our house. I'm going to make you blueberry cookies with sprinkles.

Thank you for all of the presents Santa.
Love
Lourdes (she signed her name herself)
PS: I want to name my fish Rudolph
I also forgot I want Polly Pockets

Dear Santa,
Meno
Real Fish
Polly Pocket

Love,
Fiona (she signed her name with some assistance)

NOTE: Luli totally cracks me up because some things I have no idea where she gets them from. But when she said her own sewing machine I teared up because that was totally from the heart. She wants me to teach her to sew and I told her I will when she's older. I let both girls take turns sitting on my lap while I sew so they can see how it works and they love it.

Fiona's letter is just a list, the girl can't put a letter together yet- what do you expect of her! Meno means Nemo, it's just how she's said it since seeing the movie. And I think we have enough Meno around that he may not make it into Santa's bag :)

Advent Calendar

Today the girls and I made our Advent Calendar. In retrospect there is one thing I would change...but I digress. We made a big Christmas tree and the girls drew ornaments to put the numbers on. I numbered them 1-25 with glue and then we glittered them like crazy! I decided to end with the star and numbered that 25. I'm wondering if I should have numbered that 1 to finish with? oh well, too late now! We've put our first ornament on and when it's all decorated (Christmas day) we'll post a finished picture of it...maybe one half way through too. Enjoy!

Funny Conversations

Fiona entered the "why" phase a while back and it's cute but as any parent knows it's annoying also. With number two it's actually easier to handle because she "why's" Luli to death, which I think is fitting because I took the brunt of Luli's "why" phase. Well Luli doesn't play nice with the why phase and it totally cracks me up! This mornings conversation went like this:

Luli: Mommy do I have school today?
Mommy: No honey, tomorrow
Luli: I don't like that
Fiona: Why? (and might I add her voice is so cute)
Luli: because I don't like that Fiona (mildly irritated)
Fiona: Why? (genuinely concerned and interested)
Luli: Fiona, stop asking me why. I don't like you always asking me why! (very irritated!)

HA!

Great Weekend and Holiday Decorations

Can I first say how much I love long weekends with my husband? It's been so great to be a full family for four straight days! We've had a lot of fun and I'm sure Monday will be an adjustment for each of us. Thursday we shared a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with my Aunt Joan and Uncle Tom and cousin Evan. Dinner was super yummy and catching up was even more fun.

On Friday we had a lazy morning and then went to the gym. The girls played in the kids club and Oscar and I had a nice workout. After our workout the girls ate lunch in the car and we decided to try our first car wash experience. We'd talked about it for a few days prior and what was going to happen and how exciting it was. It started off iffy, Fiona had a very frightened face, but we kept up the excitement and eventually she was saying "Hi" to all the machines and laughing. It was very positive and both girls want to go again.

Saturday we had a nice lazy day again but were productive around the house. Oscar was cleaning up a storm and I headed to a friend's Mary Kay Party. When I returned I worked more on the Christmas tree (I was restringing the lights on our pre-lit tree because some had gone out...that's an undertaking!)

Sunday morning we did some family hanging out, and videoing. I worked more on the Christmas tree and getting the decorations ready. When the girls got up from nap time they helped me put all the ornaments on the tree. I was pretty happy with the tree because I was able to go the ball ornament route and the old wooden ornaments I received from my mother. I have many glass bulbs that were also my grandmothers and I've wanted to do a full antique bulb tree. Thanks to a huge sale at Joann's Fabrics I got some nice shatterproof ornaments which blend well with my antiques. Overall it's a beautiful look. I used some of the ornaments that didn't go on the tree to decorate my chandelier...looks interesting (idea inspired by Real Simple).

For the Finishing touch both girls put the star on top of the tree.

A Stroll Down Memory Lane

We were just looking at old pictures with the girls and watching some videos. This is still one of my favorite videos ever. Luli is just over 19 mths, and Fiona (though not in the video) is a newborn. This was during one of those times that Fiona was napping and Luli and I got to spend sometime together just us. This video still makes us laugh and now Luli and Fiona think it's hilarious also.

Happy Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I love Thanksgiving because I love to be surrounded by family and I love to eat. As the years progress I become more and more aware of the things I am thankful for. I am eternally thankful for my husband, who is probably the most supportive amazing husband I could have ever asked for. For seven plus years now he's been by my side making a perfect partner in everything we do. We work together to make our decisions and try hard to stick together and live a healthy, environmentally friendly, and considerate life. He's just the most amazing man, I can't put it any other way because the words don't exist to describe how I love this man.

I'm very thankful for my daughters who came to us with ease, taught us the value of life very quickly, and remind me to bring out my inner little girl every day. They teach me patience (well they push my patience and I teach myself MORE patience :) ). The smiles they give, the hugs they share, and the unconditional love they shower us with is the most amazing thing to have. They've also taught me the two most amazing names a person could be called, "Mommy" and "Daddy."

My parents are a continued network of support and love for which I thank God every day. My parents are there for us and our children whenever we need. The love they share with their grandchildren is the most amazing thing to witness. I'm thankful I have the ability to witness this and share in the joy of child and grandparent love.

The relationship that has grown so wonderfully with my brother is something I'm more thankful for every day. As adults we've come to understand each other so much more. We've come to rely on each other for support. He's an amazing, brilliant man who's talent shines like a star. I love him dearly.

My family that stretches the globe but remains a constant part of my life. I'm thankful for growing up a part of your lives and learning lessons of love and life from each of you.

My girlfriends and my mommy friends who help keep my sanity and help me grow as a woman and mother. For your friendship I am forever thankful.

I continue to be thankful for the way in which our country has grown and to be a witness to an amazing passage of history.

School Thanksgiving Festival

Luli's school decided to have a Thanksgiving party. I made a yummy pumpkin pie with whole wheat crust. The party was adorable as always and so fun to video and photograph. The kids made costumes for the show and sang two great songs. Each child had an Indian headdress with feathers and an Indian name they chose themselves. The boys were Chief "insert name" and the girls were Princess "Insert name," their only guideline was to create a name that related to nature. Luli quite accurately named herself "Princess Sunshine" isn't that adorable! I love it! For this party Luli had more of her singing voice on, which was great, I love to hear her sing and to see her do the dances. She's really grown so much from last year.

Cooking and Crafting

I've been busily working on several crafts and cooking up a storm. Fall and Winter could possibly be my favorite cooking seasons. I love to make soups and bake up yummy things to eat, why not I can hide it under my sweaters - right?! I made this really yummy pumpkin soup from this amazing cookbook my brother gave us a few years ago called "The Big Book of Soups and Stews." If you even remotely want to make soups you should own this book!

I'm working on one craft I can't talk about yet, for a variety of reasons. One reason is I have two little girls birthday parties to attend so I can't spoil it for them, and the second is that Santa is bringing this craft to my two ladies also! It's fun times to try and secretly create something with eyes glued to you. What I can share is a preview of my Holiday cards for this year. Last year I started making my own cards, I really like it. Oscar likes to point out that it isn't really saving money. To which I remind him, it's not the money I'm concerned with, I just really like to create them I think it means a lot to receive something someone has put a lot of energy into. And let me tell you, these cards did take awhile to make (mainly because I had to make so many).

Visit from Friends

In the beginning of November my very good friends Dana and Kristin came to visit us. We all met at college and bonded quickly, remaining great friends through the distance and changes of adult life.







Kristin brought her 5 mth old daughter, Donna, to visit also. We love having a baby in the house! Her presence was wonderful and the girls LOVED playing with her. They named their baby dolls "baby Donna" and loved gazing at the real Donna and petting her hair very gently. Fiona wanted a bit more "baby" attention for herself during the weekend and a few days afterward, which was to be expected.







The visit was lovely and we did a lot. Friday we went to tiny tots for Fiona's class, then picked up Luli and had a picnic. Luli took us all to see the "magic rocks" and take some pictures there. Saturday we went for a hike and picnic at Great Falls National Park, and Sunday before departure we enjoyed brunch at Patowmack Farm.

Beautiful Weather

We woke up Saturday morning to beautiful weather, getting up to the 70s. Well you can't sit around the house on a day like that in November! We packed up some lunches got dressed in our hiking gear and headed out to Shenandoah. The leaves were a wee bit past prime but it was a beautiful afternoon and the colors were still impressive. After a visit to the visitors center and touching all of the display stuff there we headed out to a short hike with a nice view. I should remember nice view always means rocks with sharp drops. This experience always leads to heightened anxiety for me even when it's just me and Oscar, add in my curious children and I'm a heartbeat away from a heart attack. Oscar likes to climb all over the rocks and Luli really wanted to climb with him. So it was *fun* keeping her with me! You can see in the pictures that I've got anxiety written all over it. Other than that we had a great time and really enjoyed the beautiful skyline drive and hike.

Happy Halloween

Our Halloween festivities started early, with Luli's preschool party. All the kids dressed in their costumes for the day at school and then prepared for the party with all their parents attending. They started with a costume parade around the school house and then inside for the show. The kids performed three songs and then it was time to party. Luli sang and danced the last song, which this year it was surprising that she didn't do the other two. Her teachers say she is the loudest singer in the class! Not surprising, she's a loud singer at home too. You'll remember this is a huge change from who Luli was last year, the shyest in the class.

Fiona also had class on Halloween and continued refusing to wear her costume, instead she carried duck everywhere. Oh well, at least I got it cheap on Ebay! Fiona and I left her class early in order to attend the party, which just required us walking across the hallway. And daddy arrived from work for the festivities.

Then in the evening we waited for Daddy to get home early then ate dinner and got our costumes on...ok well Luli got her costume on and Fiona put on a sweater while she carried duck around. Then we were off to trick or treat! We started at our next door neighbors house, who had a lil pirate and a k9 police officer. We had both police pose for pictures, then a pic of the pirate and his police dog. So cute! We went to all of the neighbors we knew and then a few right in our closer area of houses. The girls had a great time yelling "HAPPY HALLOWEEN TRICK OR TREAT." Fiona would yell her version of "TRICK OR TREAT, DUCK DUCK DUCK!" The girls had a great time and Mommy and Daddy scaled back the treats considerably.

At home for handing out candy we had only a handful of visitors so I'm left with an enormous bowl of candy which is now stashed in the freezer! Some years we have lots of visitors and some we have none, bummer. Luli and Fiona really enjoyed handing out treats so it would have been a lot of fun to have more visitors...maybe next year we'll have a new neighborhood and lots more goblins and princesses to visit us!

A policeman, a duck and a mommy go to Family Fun Night

Luli and Fiona's school hosted a few family fun night Halloween events this week. We went tonight and had a great time. However, getting homework done, dinner fed and out the door by 5:30pm was no easy task! We got there and picked out our pumpkins and started in the pumpkin painting room, which is when Daddy met up with us. We saw many of our preschool friends there, though they were disguised as transformers, firemen, Minny Mouse, Princesses, and Superman. The girls did great jobs painting their pumpkins and Miss Cindy said it right, they looked more like porcelain than pumpkins! Needless to say these didn't dry by the time we were departing, so they'll come home tomorrow.

After pumpkin painting we made bats, and their wings are the shape of our hands! Luli and Fiona both did a great job with this! With two crafts under our belt we headed into the snack room. We found apple cider and lots of sweets! After an energy boost we tried to get on a hayride but it was full...so on to the final craft. This one was to create pumpkins on a fence. The craft corresponds to a song that Luli and Fiona have learned in their classes at the farm. I helped Fiona with her's and I would call it more of a collage than pumpkins on a fence, though I really like it! Luli and Oscar worked on one and it also came out lovely. Attempt number two at the hayride, again no such luck. It was getting late so we chatted with Miss Cindy and Miss Fran for a few moments and then were on our way home for bedtime.

Miss Cindy said tomorrow they're voting for Blue's Clues vs. Elmo, I'll let you know who wins!

Mess Mess Mess

We were in the playroom and Luli said "FIONA! Let's make a mess!" and Fiona responded "YEA!" and they proceeded to pour their toys around the floor and shuffle through them. They were giggling so hard that I couldn't see the harm. That is until they really poured EVERY toy on the floor and were headed for the books, then it was time to clean up!

Pumpkin Time!

This afternoon we carved our pumpkins! After nap the girls got up and had their snack on the deck. It's been a beautiful day with high 60's temps (quite different from the past week). The girls picked out all the pumpkins earlier in the day from the grocery store, two big ones for Mommy and Daddy and small ones for the girls. Once the girls were sufficiently snacked we started the design process. Mommy and Luli teamed up to create a "Happy" pumpkin and Fiona and Daddy teamed to create a "sad" pumpkin. Apparently the sad pumpkin's mommy wouldn't let him be a duck for Halloween!

Luli really wanted to cut but that's a bit advanced so she settled for popping out all the pieces. It seemed a good compromise because she didn't whine for cutting anymore and was totally into the whole process. Also different from years past with Luli and pumpkin cutting, she was really into cleaning out the pumpkin. She still isn't into putting her hands in but she efficiently scooped with a big spoon. Fiona definitely wasn't into putting her hands in the pumpkin but enjoyed holding the spoon next to Daddy as he worked.

Once the pumpkins were carved we did some photo taking and added our pumpkin family to our family portraits. Once the sun set we lit them up and they look pretty cool!

Peanut Brittle

Oscar has been wanting peanut brittle. Apparently he REALLY wanted it because he and the girls made it this weekend. I had planned on making it on Halloween. The girls were really adorable helping out as best they could. Everyone donned their aprons, and the little ones pulled up chairs to the counter and then stove area to help prep and watch Daddy stir. For a first attempt it came out pretty good.