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!