Paige and her Cuz

We headed to Scott's sister's house in Buffalo Christmas afternoon.  Scott's sister has a baby that is a couple of months older than Paige.  We let them visit for a while under the play gym.  It was all going well until...

Paige got a little taste.

And then some more...

Paige!  No!

Luckily, Hannah is a forgiving spirit...

Because I'm an Awesome Mom...

I was very prepared for Christmas.

My kids got the presents they asked for and a couple that I just knew they'd like.

But!  In all my preparation I forgot to make sure the camera had enough memory to accomodate some serious Christmas morning picture taking.

It didn't.  I got about 10 pictures before it told me the memory card was full.  Awesome.

Yo Mama So Ugly...

Our friends held an "Ugly Christmas Sweater" party.  After a fiasco wherein I purchased a truly hideous sweater via Ebay and had it sent to my brother's old house in Utah by accident, I found this lovely number at WalMart.  Somehow I knew WalMart would come through for me. 

The idea was to pose as cheesily as possible.  My spell check is telling me that "cheesily" is not a word.  Apparently the spell check hasn't seen these pictures.

I also just happened to have these lovely green velvet pants laying around.  I tried to convince a friend at the party that they weren't so bad and might actually look okay with a black top.  She wasn't convinced.  I'm not really either.  I don't know why I bought them.  I'm impulsive.  If it helps you to not think less of me, I never wore them anywhere but this party.  Didn't help?  Oh well, I never liked you anyway.

As we were finishing up our photo session, another couple was coming down to start theirs.  Scott and Kurt* decided to take a few together.  As I reached the top of the stairs I heard Kurt say, "Why do I always have to be the girl?"

*Did you think I changed his name to protect his reputation?  I didn't.  I just wanted to note that Kurt won the prize for the ugliest outfit.

Stokoe Farm

Adam's preschool class went on a field trip to a Christmas tree farm.  It is a bit out of the way and there are some nice hilly roads.  My poor citified children, they thought it was "just like Disney World".

Stokoe Farm is awesome.  If you wear just the right snow pants you can really get going down this slide.  Adam was wearing the right snow pants.  Jane wasn't.  Sorry Jane.

Here is my family sans Paige, who was smart enough to stay home and nap with Grandma.

Pay no attention to that double-chinned woman in the red coat.  She kept following us around and sneaking into our pictures.  Plus, I heard she's finally losing that baby weight.

Sound Bites

It's that time again.

Jane was at the museum playing with a little castle.  As she dropped little people down the trap door to the dungeon she would say "Ayudame!".  Dora, it's like preschool on TV.  Right?  Right....

We have been trying to teach Adam not to pee on the seat, or at the very least to tell us if he does so we can help him clean it up.  This morning Scott said, "Adam, somebody peed on the toilet seat."  Adams reply?  "Probably Mama." Sure Adam, sure.

And here are a couple of videos.  You probably won't be that interested in them unless you're grandma or have an exceptional affection for my kids:



Paige (she's got things to say too!)

2!

Our sweet baby girl is becoming less and less of a baby.  She turned two on December 3rd.  We started the celebration on the 2nd.  She donned her birthday shirt and we headed to IHOP for her free breakfast.

While she enjoyed the pancakes, the ice cream sundae for breakfast was probably the highlight.

After IHOP, we headed over to Jump Club.  We love Jump Club.

The next day was Jane's actual birthday.  My sister and her family joined us for our little celebration.

Adam wanted to get Jane some slippers in the hopes that she would stop wearing his.  I wish I could say it worked.  Sorry Adam.

My sister got Jane a real Dora backpack, Map was even tucked into the side pocket.  She sleeps with it at night like a stuffed animal.

Jane requested a pink frog cake, so that's what she got.  Adam's already thinking about what kind of cake he wants for his birthday and it's a bit complicated.  I may need to start outsourcing.
 

I can't believe she's already two, but there's no way she's a baby anymore.  She speaks in full sentences (sometimes paragraphs), loves to sing and is getting a tad opinionated about her wardrobe.  Luckily she still loves to snuggle.  She also still tells me that she "loves me so much" and I look "so pwetty"!  She's super-mischievous but she's also so darn cute you can't even be mad at her.  Even when she walks out of the bathroom with her face covered in expensive black eyeliner.