My favorite Christmas present was.....

Watching Hanna & Haley have fun and spending time with my family and celebrating the birth of Jesus;  of course I always appreciate all those things every Christmas but......if I had to pick a monetary thing it would have to be a gift from my sweet hubby.  He had my blog printed out into a full size book!  I was completely and totally shocked!!!  I could tell it was some kind of a book so naturally I thought it was a new cookbook.  When I saw the writing on it I thought for a second it was a cookbook from Paula Deen;  "A Man and Three Little Ladies"....."The Lady and Sons"; they are kind of similar.

As if I wasn't already in tears he told me to look in the preface of the book.  That's when I really got choked up.  Thankfully nobody was snapping pictures then!   So sweet!!!

Fun times

Hanna felt much better by Tuesday so we decided to get out of the house and go bowling.  Both Hanna and Haley love it!  Haley kept saying, "My turn, my turn."  We left straight from the bowling alley to take Heather to the airport.....tear.  The holidays always go by WAY too fast.  It is so hard to re-adjust from hanging out with my family to having an "empty" house.  My folks headed out yesterday and we haven't done much since!  Leaving up all the decorations until the weekend because I am too lazy to deal with it now and I still want to look at it, not quite over it yet.  Hope everyone had as terrific a Christmas as we did!

Christmas part II

Dad & Jason drove to pick Heather up at the airport Sat morning.  She got in around 10am.  Yay!  We had fun opening and exchanging presents for most of the morning.

The girls got some really cute clothes for Christmas.

Haley modeling her new pj's from Aunt Heather and

her new fancy coat.  Adorable!!!

Aunt Heather got Hanna a bouncy ball maker and they made several.  I was skeptical but it really works!  You can make any color you want.  Pretty cool.

I made Heather endure the task of decorating the ginger bread house with Hanna and she gladly accepted.  Hanna threw in the towel toward the end.

Ladies in the kitchen preparing one heck of a Christmas dinner!

Papa popped us some of  his special popcorn and we all watched Hanna's new movie Up.  We put the girls to bed and played The Beatles Rock Band.  Oh my gosh......my new favorite game!

Merry Christmas!

Santa came!!!

What did Santa leave in our stockings!

Haley got Hanna new crayons since she has broken most of hers.

Haley loved playing with her new baby doll furniture that Santa brought.  She got several new dolls for Christmas so she has plenty to keep her busy!

Hanna didn't feel well on Christmas Eve and woke up in the middle of the night burning up with fever.  She was very concerned that Santa might still be in the house.  We stripped her out of her fleece nightgown and put a t-shirt on her and gave her medicine.  Her fever had gone down by Christmas morning but she still wasn't herself and she slept off and on all day fighting a fever.  

We let them open a few gifts from me and Jason and other family but waited on most of the gifts until the next day.  Heather flew in early on Saturday so we waited to have our Christmas dinner and open presents with her.  

Christmas Eve

Little sweethearts!

We let Hanna & Haley open a few gifts that our family had sent.

Hanna opened a gift from Mimi & Papa.

Mimi read Twas the Night Before Christmas and then we

put out cookies and milk for Santa.  I did not have the time nor the energy to "home-make" cookies this year.  I don't think Santa  minded getting store bought cookies!

Is Mimi & Papa here yet???

Hanna drove me up a wall asking when Mimi and Papa would get here!  When I told her that they were just 5 minutes away she asked if they were in Arkansas yet.  When she finally grasped that they would be here in just a few minutes she wanted to watch out the front door for them.  They were so excited to greet them at the door!

Naughty or nice??

I took Hanna & Haley to Picture People a few weeks ago for some pictures of them in a couple of their Christmas-y outfits.  We used their fall pictures for our Christmas card but I really wanted a few holiday shots of them as well.  In a few years they will fight me on all these photo sessions so a girl's got to take advantage when she can!  I was dancing and acting a fool behind the photographer and put my fingers to the corners of my mouth and said, "Smile."  So, Haley being the little copycat she is followed my instruction literally.  It turned out to be my favorite shot.  She either looks really mischievous or really, really sweet.  I haven't decided yet..........

Lady Gaga and Lady Googoo

WARNING!!!  YOU WILL LAUGH!!!

All I want for Christmas is my.........guitar

I will be the first to admit that Hanna's smile looks a little creepy.  When put on the spot she doesn't perform very well.....or candidly for that matter.  I had to play peek-a-boo with Haley behind the counter to get a smile from her.  Why oh why do we perform circus tricks, in public no doubt, to get smiles from our little midgets.  

Hanna, in a very low sweet voice told Santa that she wanted a guitar and a dolly house.  The last time I picked her up from school I noticed on the wall outside her room that all the kids drew a picture of what they wanted for Christmas while the teacher wrote it down on the same sheet of paper.  While most of the little girls wrote down and (tried to draw a picture) of Ariel, or a princess, Hanna drew a very good picture of a guitar w/ strings and all and underneath was written......guitar.  Santa has looked at several but just can't decide on the best one for a 4 yr old!  They either seem too childish or too adult.  

Haley made Santa play the guessing game.

And the winner is.......

Unfortunately I didn't win for having the tackiest Christmas sweater at the company party and while I was a little disappointed, I think the girl deserved it, hands down. She even had on stir-up pants. Her mother has kept hers and her sisters sweaters from Christmas' past and she said she had a closet full to choose from. I was green with envy. Where does one find a mock-neck sweatshirt at that length anyway?

Pure awesomeness

What lies in this bag is a vision of beauty.  I stumbled upon this little gem while at the mall this afternoon in Christopher & Banks.  

They had a plethora of beautiful Christmas sweaters and while it was difficult picking just one out of the bunch as soon as my eyes lit upon this one there was no question.   The fact that it was 50% off only sweetened the deal.  Score!  My friend Erin is parting with her blinking lights necklace for the night.  I think it completes the look.  Or does it take away from the embellished reindeer antlers?  I'll have a tough decision on that one.  My eyes are on the prize!

Flowers and pancakes

While I was at pilates last night Jason took the girls "shopping" for my birthday gifts.  They wanted to go and ahead and give them to me last night so I waited in the bedroom and in walked Hanna, beaming with pride, holding a bouquet of pink roses and a birthday card.  I love to see what cards they pick out.  She asked me over and over if I liked my flowers because she did indeed pick them out on her own. 

So, in waltzes Haley, smiling from ear to ear with her birthday card and this:

At first I thought, "Gosh am I slow or something.  I just don't get it."  Jason said he asked her what she wanted to get Mommy for her birthday and she said pancakes.  She proceeded to rip into the box to get herself one.  Gotta love pancakes!!

Hanna's birthday party

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Happy Birthday to you!

My birthday blog background is in honor of December birthdays!  Hanna has her birthday party coming up this weekend and she has tons of friends who also share a December birthday.  Let's see who else.......oh yes, I have a December birthday as well!  

So happy birthday to all you December babies who get to have their birthday at such a magical time of the year!!!

Thanksgiving in Pittsburgh

Thanksgiving Day- about to stuff ourselves!  After dinner we played games;  one of our favorites is Things, so funny.

Haley with Marco (that is what she calls Heather most of the time)

New Dora jammies from Aunt Heather!

Hanna was so excited to take a bath in Aunt Heather's big tub.

On Friday night we drove into the city to watch the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular.  Hanna LOVED it and was mesmerized with the Rockettes.  She watched the entire show with big eyes.

The scowl on Haley's face is a foreshadowing of the rest of the night.  She didn't watch very much of the show since she couldn't sit still for more than a minute.

Hanna was adamant on sitting with Mimi during the show and ended up sitting on her lap for most of the show.

We went to dinner at Bravo Italiano after the show.  Ate way too much, again!

Playing some serious Rock Band after returning to Heather and Marco's.

Saturday was chilly but sunny so we decided to get out of the house and go to a park.  It was a great park with tons of fun things to do.  The girls went wild running.

They didn't know where to go first!

Haley playing monkey with Aunt Heather

Anthony and Dominic came over to play with us on Saturday.  Hanna loves getting to see them and is constantly asking them questions and wanting them to play with them.  She said, "Mommy, I like the way the boys talk.  They are so funny."

(I took a picture of Dominic but it didn't turn out for some reason)

Haley loving on her beloved Uncle

Marco and Heather have friends that play in a band so on Saturday night we took advantage of our top-notch babysitters (Mom & Dad) and went out for the night to listen to the band.

They played great dance music so we tore up the dance floor.  We couldn't get Anthony and Marco out there but we sure tried!

Mom, Dad, Anthony, and Hillary had to leave Sunday morning.  We didn't have to fly out until the following morning, so we got to hang out all day and play Scrabble and watch lots of football.

We had a great time in Pittsburgh getting to see our family.  Heather and Marco were great hostesses!  We appreciate everything guys!  Thank you for a wonderful time!