Snow & Cold

We received our first snow of 2010 on January 14. Honestly - it wasn't much snow around here. Not even enough to build a snowman - not even a really little one - much to Heidi's disappointment. But the light dusting of snow was pretty.

Because it was cold going in to this snow and continued cold for several days after, it got really icy around here. Emma was out of school on Friday and there were car crashes a plenty around the city. Speaking of cold - I read in the paper that it was actually colder here than it was in Anchorage, Alaska!!! Our low that day was 19 and theirs was 29! Crazy.

Even though it was rather cold, the girls spent a little bit of time outside - mostly sliding on ice. And this of course was Rachel's first snow - so we needed some token pictures.
Hoping for some more snow this winter - some we can actually play in!!!

"Hi!" from Rachel

Rachel is now 4+ months old. She has found her voice and enjoys using it at all sound levels. She also smiles a lot - which is just beautiful. She is grabbing on to toys and trying very had to sit up. When I lay her down across my lap, she starts trying to do a tummy crunch. I'm guessing she'll be sitting up on her own before too much longer.

Merry Christmas!!!

Ok, so I'm a little behind - alright - a lot behind! I've got lots of catching up to do on our blog but here's a start!
We celebrated Christmas with Laura's family the Saturday before Christmas up at Grammy & Papa's house in Dahlonega. It was a fun, special time together. Part of the fun was the kids decorating gingerbread houses.Grammy said she'd put the houses out for the deer to eat. Hopefully they didn't get sick from all the sugar!!! They were VERY WELL decorated gingerbread houses (that is, total area covered with some form of sugar - frosting, sugar, candies, etc).
Rachel taking it all in.
Emma and her pile of presents.

Heidi and her pile of presents.

Emma and Heidi enjoyed the opportunity to help open Rachel's presents. She got lots of diapers.

Rachel did get a few new toys - not just diapers. :-)

Heidi with cousin Lindsay.

Rachel with Aunt Michele.

We went to the family Christmas Eve service at church. Which is code for lots of kids and it's ok if they aren't quiet. It's very much geared to the children which is neat. Emma's choir sang a couple songs, but I didn't get any good pictures.

Heidi and Emma always enjoy their time with Grammy & Papa! Here's Heidi lovin' on Grammy.

This was actually taken a couple weeks before Christmas, but one day when I picked up Heidi from preschool, all of them were dressed as little Rudolphs - complete with antlers and red noses. Here she is with her Rudolph.

Stay tuned for the next post. This was only the beginning of Christmas!

Heidi Quotes

Recent conversations with Heidi:

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Heidi: "Are we going to baby Jesus' birthday party tonight?"
Mom: "No, we went to a birthday party for him at your school last week. But we celebrate Jesus' birthday on Christmas Day this week."
Heidi: "Will Mary, Joseph and the animals be there?"
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(We have had a roof leak - Jason recently sealed where he thought the leak was. Jason went up in the attic to check the status of the leak.)
Heidi: "What are you doing Daddy?"
Daddy: "I'm looking for water."
Heidi: "It's in the sink."
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(One of Heidi's favorite places to go is Home Depot. And recently, when we've been, we've looked at their Christmas decorations they have for sale. We were about to go drive around looking at Christmas lights and go to a local light display.)
Heidi: "Where are we going?"
Daddy: "We're going to go look at lots of Christmas lights!"
Heidi: "At Home Depot?"

Santa Claus

Christmas is just a few weeks away! But Heidi has been talking about Santa Claus for several weeks.

For the last 5 years, we have gone to the Lockheed Tree Lighting to see Santa. A local elementary school chorus sings holiday songs, they "light" a large Christmas Tree, and Santa Claus shows up on a fire truck! :-) It's a good time!

So we were planning to go this past Tuesday night. Earlier in the day I told Heidi we were going to go hear kids sing, see a big Christmas tree, and she'd get to see Santa! Well, she started whining a bit and said she didn't want to see Santa - that he scared her. I said "OK" and nothing more about the man in the red suit.

About an hour later, she asked if we were going to see the kids sing. I said yes. To which she said, "maybe you can just leave me here." Then she said, "how about we go see the kids sing and the Christmas tree and then you can bring me back here." :-)

No more talking of Santa.

It was a chilly evening, but we all enjoyed the kids singing, the free popcorn, cookies and hot chocolate, and got to see the big Christmas tree.
Then they mentioned Santa was coming... PANIC. Heidi started looking for one of us to pick her up and Emma was saying, "Santa's coming! Santa's coming! Woo hoo!!" Yet another way these two are opposites. :-)

Santa arrived on the fire truck and Jason held Heidi a "safe" distance from Santa (determined by her). Whereas Emma was reaching out to touch Santa's hand as he walked by. (Emma is in the pink hat on the right with my mom.)

We waited in line to have a picture taken with Santa. This Santa travels with his wife, Mrs. Claus. So when it was our turn, we put Heidi on Mrs. Claus' knee and Emma was on one of Santa's knees while Rachel was on the other in the middle. Heidi didn't panic, cry or run away - she just sat there.
After the pictures, Santa asked Emma if she had been a good girl this year and what she wanted for Christmas. He then turned to Heidi and asked the same question. She didn't say a word - just looked at him. You could maybe say she glared at him. To which he said, "you look terrified." They hopped out of the laps and we got a stocking of goodies they give to all the kids.

After the festivities, we went to dinner. At the restaurant, my mom asked Emma what she told Santa she wanted for Christmas - she said "Treats." Then she turned and asked Heidi what she had told Santa. Heidi said, "I didn't talk to him because I was not happy to see him."

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So that was 2 days ago. Well today we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch after picking her up from preschool. In addition to Santa Claus, Heidi is also scared of the Chick-fil-A cow. As we were getting out of the van, she saw her worst nightmare - a Chick-fil-A cow dressed as Santa Claus! :-) He didn't approach us or even get close to our table - but she was quite bothered by his presence. She did ask if there was a Mrs. Claus Cow - and said she might not be scared of her. :-) We'll have to submit that request/suggestion to Chick-fil-A corporate headquarters.

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Finally, this afternoon I asked Heidi what she wanted for Christmas. She said "Dogs. Dogs and sheep." OK. Emma said she wanted, "games, toys, and maybe some candy." ;-) But Heidi says she doesn't want Santa to come visit, so he can just leave her dogs and sheep in her stocking.

Stay tuned for more Santa and Christmas adventures!

November

OK. So November came and went really fast! It's hard to believe it's already December. This post probably should have been broken in to several throughout the month, but... Thanks for bearing with me on this long post. There are some cute pictures! Enjoy!

Here are the highlights:

Rachel is smiling more and more these days - which is great fun!

Rachel is almost 3 months old now. At about 2 1/2 months, I finally let Emma and Heidi hold her. My thinking was that if I let them (primarily Heidi) hold her, that would open the door for thinking they/she could pick her up whenever, carry her around, etc. Heidi had been asking to hold her for quite awhile. She just kept saying, "when she gets bigger, then I can hold her." :-) So here are the proud sisters!

Heidi really LOVES holding her. She generally doesn't care if she's crying or wiggly. Although yesterday when she was holding Rachel and she started crying, Heidi said "your turn." :-)

Rachel has also started cooing and "talking." Here we are having a conversation.

The weekend of November 13-15, the US Boomerang Team Trials were held in Conyers, GA. We were kind of the hosts (even though Conyers is about an hour from our house). But it was a gorgeous weekend and the event went well. Teams were selected to represent the US at the next World Cup to be held in Rome, Italy next year. Jason was selected to be a member of Team 3. These pictures were taken by a newspaper photographer and posted on their website.

I am desperately trying to get back to exercising. I go jogging with our friend Jim two mornings a week, and then a group of us often meet on Saturdays to exercise. Anyways, Jim is gracious enough to push the jogging stroller if Heidi and/or Rachel go with us in the morning. This particular morning, Jason was in to work early, so Heidi and Rachel went with us. It was kind of chilly. But here is Rachel bundled up for her first early morning stroller ride - the first of many. :-)

In November we celebrated Thanksgiving! Both the girls were out of school the whole week of Thanksgiving. So, the Thursday before, they both had "Thanksgiving Feasts" in their classes. Rachel and I went to Emma's class for their feast. All the kids dressed as either pilgrims or Indians. Emma was a pilgrim. Unfortunately, I was not prepared and did not have our camera. Another mom took some pictures that I need to try to get. But it was a delicious feast and lots of fun to participate with Emma.

That same day, I went to pick Heidi up at preschool and all of them were dressed as Indians! Very cute! So she wore her costume home and I got some pictures once we got home.

Insert cute Rachel pic here (at 11 weeks):

The week of Thanksgiving, I took Emma and Heidi to get their hair cut. This was Heidi's first haircut. Yet again, I was not prepared with a camera. It didn't even cross my mind 'til we were done, had eaten lunch out and were headed home. But here is a picture of the end result.

Thanksgiving Day we had a really fun, low key time up at my parent's house in Dahlonega. We enjoyed a delicious meal together, went on a walk in the woods, browsed Black Friday ads, and the kids decorated gingerbread houses. It was a fun day with my whole family. And additionally Jason's brother Nate and his wife Laura came down to join us.

It was a real treat to have Nate and Laura spend Thanksgiving with us and to spend a few days at our house. The girls very much enjoyed having them here. And Aunt Laura is a wonderful playmate and jungle gym. :-)

This was also the first time Nate and Laura had the opportunity to meet Rachel.


They also planned ahead and brought our Christmas gifts (I wish I was that on top of things!!!). So we had an early Christmas before they left.

Rachel's first Christmas gift! :-)

Lastly, Rachel is getting more and more used to "tummy time." She's doing quite well holding her head up.
Then she just face plants when she's done. :-)

Hopefully I'll get several posts done during December - otherwise the next one will probably be REALLY long.

Happy Halloween!

Heidi was Cinderella.

Emma was a monkey.

Halloween festivities started Thursday when Heidi had a Halloween party at school. They were encouraged to wear their costumes and the party was at the end of the day. Rachel and I went to the party as well. They played Halloween themed games, made a Halloween place mat, read a Halloween story, and had Halloween cookies.Heidi with some of her classmates

Heidi with her Halloween place mat

Saturday, our neighborhood had their annual Halloween party in one of the cul-de-sacs. Despite the drizzly evening, there was a good turn out. One of Emma's classmates, Morgan, was there and they enjoyed playing together. And Heidi's friend Natalie was also there.Morgan, Emma & Heidi

Heidi, Emma, Morgan & Natalie

After leaving the neighborhood party, we returned home and Jason took the girls trick-or-treating on our street. They went to some of the houses on our street (about 6-8) which was enough with the rain and the fact that none of us need to eat the candy. :-)Soggy monkey and soggy Cinderella enjoying one of their favorites - lollipops

Daddy and Cinderella

Rachel slept through all of the festivities. She didn't even make it in to her Halloween sleeper outfit. She'll just have to wait 'til next year and make her costume debut. But I did take this picture Thursday.Now that Halloween has come and gone, 53 shopping days 'til Christmas! :-)