A Cold New Years Eve

Brother M, Two Fish, & Brother W (don't you think he looks like Darth Vader?)

Two Fish and I went skiing today with two of his brothers. It was Brother M's first time on the slopes. A fabulous way to end the year. The high temp of the day was 9 degrees fahrenheit and by the time we left it was only 3 degrees at the bottom of the resort. The top of the hills were unspeakably cold. I wore two coats, two hats, and two pairs of gloves and I'm lucky I still have all of my toes. It was awfully brisk but the mountain was beautiful as always. Plus my skis and new rainbow colored goggles make me feel like a rockstar.

D is for Dig and Dino

The weather heard Red Fish's pleas to shovel snow and complied.

She is outside right now helping her Daddy. I bundled her up within an inch of her life because it is so cold out there!

We went to the dinosaur museum today with my Mom. Red Fish has been wanting her to go for quite awhile. After we came home we played with dinosaurs and Red Fish made some "dino art." Red Fish had me write a little story on her collage.

This is Dino. He is a nice dino.

He eats food. Dino food.

He eats purple apples, trees,

leaves and Mommy.

He lives in a new home (she made it out of popsicle sticks)

It has eight sticks.

He drinks milk like me.

He likes ovals. (Ovals are Red Fish's favorite shape.)

Done

I swore I would make these curtains this year and I just barely made it. Horray!

Also - just because it's funny. Tonight Red Fish didn't want to go to bed because she knew Two Fish was going outside to shovel snow and she wanted to help. After she had a long tantrum, I got in bed with her and we had a tearful little conversation. I was trying to comfort her and told her she could go in the snow tomorrow and this is what she told me. "But I need help my Daddy! He need me because he will fall in snow and there be snow in his eyes! His eyes dirty! He need [Red Fish] clean his eyeballs! I need help him!" This was very serious. She was very worried about her Daddy and his eyeballs. She cracks me up.

S is for Sea, Silhouette & Sick

Red Fish went to the aquarium with my Mom today so she could get out of the house and have some fun. The aquarium is one of her favorite places. When she got back we worked on some speech activities involving the letter S and F. We talked about all sorts of things that start with an S especially things involving the "sea." So then Red Fish and New Fish made a big ocean picture so we could talk about fish, seashells, etc. It's the only activity I have been able to involve New Fish in for several days. New Fish really really loves foam stickers. I let Red Fish add the watercolors after New Fish was in bed.
I got a Silhouette SD for Christmas. I've been playing with it after the kids are in bed. So far I've done vinyl labels for all of the toy bins and made a new years decorations. It is a very fun little machine.
This little baby had a very bad reaction to the antibiotics she was on and is still sick. She has been a very sad baby. I have pretty much spent the majority of my time sitting on the couch holding and snuggling my little sweetie. When my baby is sick- the whole world comes to a screeching halt.

Aftermath

Christmas Day

On Christmas morning, I thought that Red Fish wasn't awake yet but when I went downstairs she was already down there looking around! Little stinker. She hadn't moved anything. She was just playing with the bubbles and body paint her grandparents gave her the night before. We made her come back upstairs and wait for my parents and Mimi to come over. Then we let the girls come downstairs and see their santa stuff.Red Fish had to check and make sure Santa wasn't still outside. It's un that she is excited about Santa this year.

Poor New Fish was a sad baby most of the day. She just wanted to hang out with her Daddy.

We had to play the new bee game immediately.

The retired Santas snoozed on the couch.

After we had seen everything Santa brought, we went to my parents house to open more presents. Red Fish got a new wagon. I have a feeling it is going to be well used. She did get her meat as requested and we had turkey and brunch.I was excited to get my first gift from a child. Red Fish made us a picture frame in preschool.

New Fish got an ENORMOUS bear.

In the afternoon after naptime, we went to Two Fish's mom's house for Christmas dinner. I didn't get any great pictures because there is always so much going on. The cousins exchanged gifts which is always fun to watch. Then we exchanged gifts with Two Fish's siblings. The kids ran wild together and had a great time.

It was a great Christmas, mostly because of all the time we got to spend with family. We are so lucky to have so much family nearby!

Christmas Eve

On Thursday night, we went to see Tangled with the girls. It was the second movie we have taken them both to. We saw Toy Story 3 over the summer. My parents went with us and it was really fun. I'm a little concerned because Red Fish keeps talking about haircuts especially after seeing Rapunzel's hair cut off. Blue Fish recently had a haircut and so did Two Fish and it seems to have made an impression. I've hidden all of the scissors in the house.

After the movie, New Fish didn't seem to be feeling great and she got a fever. I took her to the doctor on Friday morning while Two Fish spent some time with his Mom and Red Fish. New Fish screamed like I have never heard her scream before and it turns out she is getting molars (which is weird since she only has 4 teeth total) and has a particularly nasty ear infection. The anti-biotics make her sick and turn her into a human explosive so she didn't have the best Christmas ever.

Doesn't he look thrilled?

This year we went over to Grandma and Bockum's for Christmas Eve. We had dinner, sang Christmas carols and opened a few gifts. I just helped Bockum publish his life history so he handed out copies to everyone. New Fish enetertained herself by picking up everyone's wrapping paper and collecting them in a big bag. It was really nice to have everyone together for Christmas eve this year. Now that we are all married it makes the holidays more complicated.

M.E. and Doo

We read the Christmas story and talked about everyone's Christmas traditions.

J, Lee Lee, and Mimi

By the time we put on the girl's jammies, New Fish was not a happy girl but they both fell asleep in the car on the way home and we just carried them up to bed.

This is my favorite part of Christmas right now. I LOVE being Santa. I went completely overboard this year and bought way too many presents but I think the girls love everthing they got. The left side is New Fish, the middle is full of things to share and the right side is Red Fish. Santa doesn't wrap in our house because I think it is way more fun to set up a little display of their toys. New Fish got a steering wheel, a huge box of foam stickers, dinosaurs, books, bath towells (so hopefully we can stop fighting over the dog towell that Grandma made) a puzzle and wood blocks.

They both got some musical instruments, and dress up clothes. I must insert that I love the dollar store and Halloween clearance aisle for dress ups. They got princess dresses and gloves and necklaces. I made them boas but those haven't gone over well. They also got some of the world's coolest popup books. If you have never seen of David Carter's books, you really need to see one. I'm not sure I can let the girls touch them because they are so beautiful.

Red Fish got bath towells, a whole bunch of animals and dinosaurs, a small dollhouse, books, puzzles, a bee flashlight, a small stuffed bee, and the all important bee game. She also got some new shoes and slippers.

Extravaganza

Yesterday, Lovely L and Miss C came from California to visit. We wanted to have an art play date and let the girls get to know each other a little bit better. It was the first time Lovely L has met New Fish and New Fish was immediately in love with her. (I think it stems from a shared love of accessories!)

We made some handprint ornaments out of sculpy. It went much better than last year's attempt at ornaments.

New Fish's painting

The girls did some paintings and had a bath.

We wish Lovely L and Miss C could come over all the time! Two hours a year just isn't enough! It was so fun to see them though. Miss C is getting so big. She was born almost between my little girls and I hope the three of them can be great friends.

After Miss C left to get a nap and New Fish went down for a nap, Red Fish was determined to keep creating. She got out all of the collage materials and started gluing. Then she got out the some mask templates and made herself a mask fitting for the mardi gras.

Then Lovely N and Miss A stopped by and the artistic flurry just kept going.

They colored some masks and chased each other all over the house.

Then the three girls spent the rest of the afternoon playing with salt dough.

And of course- the girls had to work on their ornaments with some more paint and a little glitter. We will insert pictures of them into the little frames when they are dry.

The creating didn't end until well after dinnertime. There was coloring and drawing galore. My house may not recover but the girls had a fabulous day!

Family Photos

Merry Christmas!

A Few Cute Things

There is way too much to write about everything we've been doing. I've had several blogs started that I haven't been able to finish. So here are a random smattering of pictures and things that I've wanted to blog about. Just a download of my brain.

We've been doing all things Christmas like. We've listened to music, watched all of the classic movies, wrapped all of the presents and made decorations galore. On Friday, Two Fish took me to see Irving Berlin's White Christmas. I LOVED it. My face hurt from smiling so much. The tap dancing, the music, and the costumes were all fabulous. I even loved the giant cheesy Christmas ball gowns at the end. It was so fun.

Baking cookies with Great Grandma.

Dancing with Great Grandma.

When I was a little kid, Santa used to ride a fire engine to all of the school bus stops and give us each a bag with candy and an orange in it. It was awesome. Holidays in small towns are the best. Now that our town is not nearly as small Santa can't come to each neighborhood anymore. This year they started a new Christmas festival and we got to go to a local mall to see Santa ride in on an engine and greet each of the kids. We didn't get the goodie bags because we didn't want to wait in line but Red Fish did get to hug Santa and remind him that she wants a bumble bee and some meat for Christmas. (Little weirdo.)

Red Fish has been begging to go see "the cute dinos" so we went to the Dinosaur museum. It's the first time New Fish has wanted out of her stroller and really gotten into visiting the museum. It was fun. Two Fish came and met us after work and we got some dinner at the deli. Then we saw some live reindeer. It was a fabulous night.

Red Fish learned to play Shoots & Ladders and Candy Land this week and she is completely addicted. She tries to convince everyone to play with her. Tonight she had "Pop Pops" play both with her. Santa is bringing Red Fish a bumble bee game that I'm pretty sure she is going to go crazy over.

"MeMine" and the girls.

We tried stamping on construction paper to use as wrapping paper yesterday. It turned more into a very messy finger painting session but the girls had a blast.

I keep wanting to blog about all of the babies we've been able to meet lately. My sister in law L got a new baby and we've had two good friends have babies. There is nothing better than seeing these little miracles come into families that have been waiting for them. The girls have loved meeting the new babies. Some of these pictures are from back on Thanksgiving.

Red Fish meeting Cousin P.

Meeting Cousin P. New Fish was MAD as could be at Uncle J for changing cousin P's diaper because he kept crying and she was convinced he was hurt. She is very protective over babies.

Here is New Fish loving on M&A's new baby. Red Fish has nicknamed him "Elmo."