Jingle Bell Rock...

Today we were supposed to attend Olivia's Winter Program. This morning, I was up early and was able to be productive and finish my Christmas cards. However, we had bought 32 cards and needed 37, so I was short by 5 cards and 1 picture since I had ordered 36 prints. I finished my cards, took care of the girls, woke up Tony, showered and went to Target to re-stock my cards while Tony bathed Olivia. I got home at 10ish and sent Tony to the shower after I had blown dry Olivia's hair. We were able to leave at 10:30 to pick up the last picture and get Olivia to her dentist appointment at 11. I dropped her and Tony off and found the post office to get those cards in the mail. We left the dentist at about 12:15 and were happily on our way to the Winter Program. Olivia was dressed to the nines in her christmas dress and was very excited. We made it to the school at about 12:45 and seemed to be the first ones there for the 1 o'clock start. This seemed a bit odd, so we took a look at the invitation. The program was for 10 - 12. We missed it. Oy.....

Pictures: This is from Thanksgiving-ish. Mia and Cari.Jory sportin' his super-awesome reggae dork hat.Olivia and GrandmaNo longer Thanksgiving - here's Olivia with her fairy princess wings and wand. She is very suspicious of other princesses.Mia with her remote. She loves this remote and tries to child-lock the TV over and over and over again.Olivia making one of her faces. At least she wasn't picking her nose - at least not during the picture.This one is from today. I had the camera for the program that we missed and stopped to grab a pic of Mia. She saw me and immediately came to me. This is Mia in motion moving towards mommy.
Hope that you all are having great Christmases so far!

Our 7 minute photo shoot...

So...since we are on a tighter budget this year, we couldn't afford to do professional Christmas pictures as we like to do every year. We decided to take the pictures ourselves!!! We dressed teh girls up, curled some hair, pulled on the tights, spread a sheet on the floor, and tried. We were done in about seven minutes and have sent our "keepers" to be printed so that we can get our cards out. Here are some of the "rejects"......


Olivia by herself with my assistants leg and fingers in the shot. My assistant was attempting to lure the other child back into the frame. Check out the expression on Olivia's face. Oy. Mia would not sit still, as those of you that have dealt with 14 month olds, can most likely atest to. This would have been a great picture if it weren't for the nice view up Olivia's nasal passages.Mia was very interested in her headband - when she could take it off of her head. I'm sure that my assistant was telling her '"no", hence the looking of in the other direction.Mia thought it was fun to pull her dress up and show us all the lovely detail on the inside.Ah...and the best. Mia upset and running to Mommy for condolences.

You will all receive cards with pictures in the mail. In the meantime, I hope that you appreciate our hard work in getting a few nice pictures!

before and after....

Since we have been in our lovely house for almost three years (only 27 more to go), we have only just begun to paint our very very very white walls. Here is the dining room, taped, without our blinds, before we painted.The dining room into the kitchen...And after. I know it doesn't look much different, but it is this very light minty color. The paint card called it "Lemon Sage," but it looks like mint ice cream to me.I love it in the kitchen, but am still unsure about the dining room. Since we plan to replace the floor and the furniture, I believe this is still a work in progress.This pic was taken without the flash, hoping to get truer of the color. I am not sure it helped.
:-)

Lastly, here is a video of our big walker. It's about a min and a half - beginning with her on the hunt for a cat. Which is big game in our house.

Finally: Halloween....

Long time, no blog. What have we been up to? Well, I won the apple pie throw down. Yay me! I have been overly overwhelmed at work, which, of course, leads to being overwhelmed at home. Speaking of home, we have decided on the colors that we will be painting our downstairs and I am hoping we can get started on that painting this weekend!!! Yay! I want to banish the white walls of nothingness!

Olivia is doing well at school. She has been moved to the high reading group! Mia is working at walking, although, she is crawling more than walking. We have started pulling her hair back and she has officially moved into her 18 month clothes! She still has the tiniest feet I've ever seen.

;-p

Tony is in PA for school and contemplating the 80 mile drive to Philly. He really wants a cheesesteak.

Below are our Halloween pics. There are a lot, so make sure that you have time! ;-)

Welcome to our SCARY home!!My mister and the little sister.

The pumpkin wants to eat her bib.We started the festivities on Halloween Eve. Mia rocked the leggings with her Stevie Nicks skirt. If you see it, you will know why it is a Stevie Nicks skirt.The view from the front windows.

The view from the back door.Mia at Menard's the day after Halloween. This is her first time in a car cart.Mia rockin' out in Olivia's wig.Olivia - our Snow Princess.The ghost train.

The SCARY lights on our walkway.Thundercats HOOOOO!!Look at this awesome hat. Cool.Yep - we dressed up for our party. The plan was to go GOTH, but it turns out, we are rock stars.Our little Pumpkin's first Trick-or-Treating.

My Little Mimi.....

So, it's official!! Mia has taken her first steps!!! We are so excited!!! Another walker. Here comes our time to stop being the carriers of Mia. Hhhhmmmmm...... Maybe we should baby proof? :-)

Here's Mia enjoying herself - feeding herself. And yes... I am channelling Austin Powers.

Mia finding new things to taste and explore.

And away she goes!!

Another Bake-off....

Claudia and I, at work, have been trash-talking each other about our baking skills. We had a cookie bake-off and Claudia won, but only because she fixed the contest. :-)

We are going to have an apple pie bake-off, IF I can find a recipe and a make a good pie. I tried with this one below today. The top crust was great....but, I think that there was too much apple and not enough dry ingredients in the filling. There were apples swimming in liquid when I opened it up. Oh well....I will try again. At least I won with the crust - now to perfect the filling.

Taking a cue....

Taking a cue from Emily, I wanted to commemorate Mia's first year with pictures over the year. Thank your for the idea, Emily! And thank you, Mia, for choosing us as your family! We love you!
Yep...we need some coffee as we begin the next year. :-)