Jingle antics:
*hanging from Christmas lights. I'd been moving her around downstairs mostly, so this was upstairs and it took Natalia a bit to find her.
*When we got to lunch with Grandpa Steve I usually bribe the girls with quarters for the gumball machines to try and get them to stay in their seats instead of running amok with their cousins and finish their lunch. Jingle heard us talking about it at bedtime and provided their special quarters
*The girls made fuzzy glasses at Steph's house one night for taco night, she sent me this super cute picture of the girls so I printed it and put Jingle with it.
*Jingle playing the piano, Santa Claus is Coming to Town
*Getting into the cookie jar, ready for our big cookie baking day
*Coloring a picture
*Natalia really really really wanted to make a card for Jingle to take home to the North Pole
*Jingle wrote a goodbye message
I didn't get a lot of pictures of our cookie day except this one. Natalia and Lydia helping Aunt Stephanie make "play dough" cookies. They are actually called cream wafers or something like that, but all of Charlie's family refers to them as play dough cookies and have since they were kids. Natalia is wearing those darn orange fuzzy glasses and she actually wore them all day long. No joke. We spent the entire day baking cookies and I was on my feet way too much! But we had a ton of delicious cookies to pig out on for the following week. YUM!
Christmas Eve dinner is a huge tradition on my mom's side of the family. I grew up with her siblings and their families coming over for dinner at our house. When my parents split up two of my aunts took it upon themselves to take turns hosting the dinner. Well, one of my aunts recently moved to CA. Since we have a "big" home now and the space to do so, I volunteered to host this year. Not sure if we'll alternate with my aunt or if it'll just always be here like it used to be with my mom... but either way I loved it. We were a small group since most of her siblings live out of state now, but it was still so nice to be together. I did my usual type A personality prep work the night before so the tables/chairs and dishes were already out. Food was divided among everyone so all I had to worry about was green bean casserole and steamed veggies. The BSU bowl game was on that night as well so we had it on in the back ground, but I gave up watching pretty quickly because it totally blew and we lost BIG time. The girls LOVED having everyone at our house. Earlier that day on our way home from Steve's house in the car Natalia was playing on my phone and just randomly said, "I'm just so excited for dinner tonight. I don't know why but I keep thinking about it. I'm just so excited." It was the sweetest thing coming out in that little four year old voice. Love her to pieces. My girls got lucky and got to sit next to their favorite people, Briana and Kyle. They are such troopers and so awesome with the kids. I love having them around because I get to just relax knowing the girls are in good hands. ;) After a huge delicious dinner the kiddos were given a few gifts to open. Natalia got princess jewelry from the Moores and clothes from the Craycrofts. Lydia... oh Lydia. She was given the BIGGEST Mickey from the Craycrofts. This thing is bigger then she is... and she adores it. She calls it Giant Mickey and if it were up to her it would go every where with her. For the most part I can convince her to leave him in her crib. He takes up half of the crib as it is though. her face with Giant Mickey is just pure joy so what's a mama to do. ha ha ha. She also got a Minnie Mouse Tea set from the Moores and had Giant Mickey set up for a tea party in no time, pretty much the cutest thing ever. Once everyone had left and my super mom had done all the dishes for me, it was time for the girls to open their gifts from her and Colin. They were spoiled once again. Lydia got tons of Minnie stuff for her room (and we've already made the switch from her baby bedding, sad face) and Natalia got lots of ponies. We managed to remember to put cookies and carrots out for Santa and the reindeer and the girls were off to bed SUPER late. Then Charlie and I were quick to work to set up the living room for Santa's visit. Thankfully I had everything wrapped already so it was quick and we could head off to bed too.
Christmas morning Charlie and I were both up and ready by 8am.... and the girls were sound asleep. I know it won't last long and they'll be getting us up at 5am in the years to come, but we were so excited to get going that it was hard to be patient. ;) Lydia woke up first but she was so content in her crib gabbing away with Giant Mickey we didn't get her out. Finally at 9am Natalia came downstairs and asked if it was time to open presents. I ran up and grabbed Lydia and we started in on our stockings. I got Charlie mostly new tennis stuff this year and a pair of new shoes. I got a new label maker, mine has been broken for ages and I LOVE to label my Rubbermaid totes so it's been torture not having one. ;) My main gift is a new phone... I FINALLY get to get rid of my phone and get a working phone mid January, and since I want the new IPhone 5s I told him that I didn't want anything else for Christmas. We tried to keep the girls gifts minimal, so they got cute fuzzy bathrobes and slippers, and super hero capes. Lydia got her Minnie Potty (hoping to start that up soon) and Natalia got a small camera that takes about 30 pictures and then I can upload them to the computer for her to see. Santa came through and brought her her Twilight Sparkle, Bad Smurf, and Stuffy the Brave Dragon. She was super happy. Lydia didn't really ask anything of Santa so she got a toy Minnie Camera, Smurfette, and a Snow White Doll. Then it was time to bring out the Ipad. Natalia knew right away what it was and was so happy! So while we cleaned up and got ready for the rest of our day she was showing Lydia some of the games on it. She did an amazing job at trying to share, but Lydia not so much... so we had to take it away. I made sure to praise Natalia for doing so well though because I wanted her to know I wasn't taking it away because of her behavior.
After our Christmas fun we got ourselves cleaned up and were headed off to Charlie's mom's house. We made a delicious brunch of biscuits and gravy, bacon, eggs, ham, and fruit. They always ask what we should eat for our meal together and I always insist on breakfast. It's one of the only times I get biscuits and gravy... I can never get it right here at home so I just don't bother. ;) Then it was stocking/present time. We tried to rein her in this year and told her she couldn't go as crazy with the kids as she has in the past. (lucky us and grandma's who love their grand babies so much right?!?!) Anyway, we were afraid she was setting a precedent for the kids and as they get older and their tastes change, and the family grows she was really going to do herself in. She did great this year though. The kiddos got their usual jammies and a couple of outfits from her. Then she did one main gift for each one. It worked out really well. Natalia got a Cinderella castle lego that she loves. She's always taking it apart and making new things out of it. She plays with that more then she does her old legos. Lydia got a Minnie Mouse boat set that she also loves and Natalia plays really well with her with it. We all got lots of fun goodies in our stockings as well. And even Quinton got a couple of outfits and toys. She totally made me cry though because she had a stocking all ready for Quinton.... all the adult's stockings have our names hand stitched on them. (she even managed to save mine for those two years Charlie and I weren't together, another tearful moment) Anyway, the grand kids just have their names written on them. (she plans to have them all stitched for next year) But for whatever reason she felt inspired to stitch Quinton's name on his stocking Christmas Eve Night. That just made me all emotional and such so I cried. Crazy hormones.
Christmas dinner was back at home with my dad. I had left a ham in the crock pot and had tons of left overs from Christmas Eve Dinner there wasn't much prep work left but to do a lot of reheating. HA! This was my second attempt at Ham and my second FAILED attempt at ham. Last time it turned out way too dry. This time I somehow managed to find the easiest recipe you can find but forgot to take off the plastic casing around the ham. So it wasn't dry, it just didn't have any of the flavor from the sauce. Then it over cooked because of the plastic so it was a different texture to say the least. OOPS! Time to give up on making ham. ha ha ha. I managed to find a whole series of seasons of Star Trek Deep Space 9 used on Facebook for super cheap for my dad and was really happy to see how surprised he was to open it. Usually one season is a gift, but to be able to find the whole series for that cost was awesome. He got the girls lots of story books (yay!!) and this cool dress up kit. It's a little trunk with princess dresses and accessories. The dresses are easier for Natalia to put on by herself then the ones we have already so she's been wearing them tons.
The day after Christmas I was determined to head to Target and hit up the sales. I needed lots of lights to supplement what didn't work this year and be prepared for next year. ;) Steph and Cypress were already headed to the Target by the mall so rather then go to the one close to home we met up with them. Debra and Alison also joined the fun. I got lots of good deals! Then we had lunch at Red Robin and went to Costco so I could get Charlie some tea. They had these adorable coats there for only $9.97, and I just couldn't resist. Even though, as Charlie likes to remind me the girls have lots of coats, they were just too darn cute!! I was so worn out by the time it was time to go that Steph kindly offered to take Natalia home with her to play with Cypress so that I could take Lydia home and nap while she napped.
That same night my mom was supposed to come watch the girls for us. I had the idea that instead Lydia could get some one on one time with Grandma which has never happened being the fourth born of the grand babies and then Charlie and I could take Natalia to see Frozen (first movie theater experience!). We knew Lydia wouldn't sit through a movie but that Natalia probably would and I was dying to see it. I'm so bummed we didn't get a picture of Natalia at the theater though. My stupid phone died and Charlie left his in the car in the hustle. Natalia did awesome though and sat through the whole movie. She talks about it all the time and likes to dress up with her princess dresses and super hero cape saying she's the ice princess.
The next night was another date night for just the two of us though. My mom decided to attempt her first grandma sleep over at my Grandma Gladys's house with the girls. She got them adorable little sleeping bags and they all camped out in the living room together. She said the girls did awesome and slept the whole night. Charlie and I got dinner and saw American Hustle. Fun times like these make it harder on me when my mom is gone. We love having her around!!
Another annual tradition I've been doing with Charlie's sisters/mom is to go get pedicures for Christmas. This year we did it the Saturday after Christmas because we've all just been so busy. I was really grateful for it because it's getting really tough to reach my toes!! I don't usually paint them in the winter since I'm usually not wearing flip flops but it was still a nice treat. They did need to be trimmed up though so that was nice. ;)
Now we are at 29 weeks!!! Seriously could the time fly by any faster?!?!?! Other then crazy heartburn and exhaustion nothing much to report. I do feel huge at times though. It's getting harder and harder to do normal things because of this big bump in my way. ;)
Now all our Christmas decor is put away (I'm EXHAUSTED to say the least, that was hard work) and our house looks bare. I always say it every year, this year it was more so because where the tree was at is now just an empty spot. We were used to it being an empty spot, then got used to having something there... so now we either find a chair to put there or leave it empty. =) I managed to find a 9ft Christmas tree on Craigslist for only $20 though!! So next year our tree won't look so puny in that spot. This nice lady had downsized homes and just wanted to get rid of it. Lucky us!
Alrighty, I finally got it all down. This afternoon is my ultrasound to check on the placenta so stay tuned for some pictures!
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