Christmas recap and pics

I am finally just now getting around to sharing our Christmas pictures. We had a great Christmas Eve and Christmas day. We are all so blessed. Wow, what a great time. It was exhausting, but so worth it. We are fortunate to be able to celebrate with both families at our home. Christmas Eve morning Presley woke up with a little temp, so we were worried it wouldn't be a good day, but she did really well. We think her teeth were bothering her again. In the afternoon we went to Chad's parents to see aunts, uncles, and cousins. Then we came back home to celebrate with my family. After we ate dinner Papa read a story about the birth of Jesus and we exchanged presents.

Addison was up most of the night Christmas Eve. I think she was waiting to hear Santa and his reindeer. Christmas morning was our own family time for exchanging our presents. When Presley woke up, she saw that Santa had left her a new kitchen and a baby. She went right for her baby and didn't bother with anything else. It was actually kind of hard to get her to open her presents this year. She just wanted to play! She was a very lucky girl who also got another baby similar to this. She sure loves her babies. After we opened our gifts as a family Nana and Papa stopped over to give us our stocking gifts. Chad and I got a new carrom board for our stockings. I was so excited.

Chad's family then came over for brunch. After we ate a yummy brunch we exchanged presents once again. Wow, talk about gift overload! It was great. The girls (and Chad and I too) both got so much great stuff. In fact we all got so much that the problem quickly became apparent.....where do we put it all? In fact, it got us really wondering so guess what Chad is going to work on the rest of this break??? Getting the basement finished up. Well, maybe not completely finished, but at least a little closer.

That night Chad's family and my parents and Hilary came back over for snacks, desserts, carrom, and board games.

I have uploaded a few of our pictures to snapfish for you to see. Hope you enjoy!

another funny

I forgot one more funny thing from yesterday. We were doing laundry and Chad had put a pile on the couch that needed to be folded. We had to run some errands so we just left it on the couch not folded. When we got back we were busy putting things away and didn't realize what Presley was doing. A couple of minutes later we hear her start running toward us squealing...she had gotten a couple of pairs of my underwear from the couch and had put them on over her clothes, or at least had tried to put them on. She had both legs through one opening. It was so funny, and she knew it was too.

funnies

Here are a couple funny things Presley has said these last few days:

"zippitqueenie" (She had heard Chad tell Queenie to zip it earlier in the day.)

"nooooope" (instead of saying no all the time)

"add" (she heard me calling to Chad)

"a'ber" (repeating Chad calling to me)

and here's one we are trying to change

"poopie!" (after she hears Addison have gas. we are trying to get her to say stinky instead)

She is really starting to repeat EVERYTHING we say now. It's so funny. She is talking all the time. In fact even now as she is supposed to be asleep, I can hear her talking away in her crib....

funny tasting apple

Yesterday morning we dropped Pres and Addison off at Grandma B.'s for the morning so we could get a little returning/exchanging/shopping done without the girls. We knew we had to try stuff on so we didn't want them to have to wait with us.

Well, Grandma was feeding Presley lunch, Grandma was eating a tomato and Presley said "Apple? bite?" So Grandma told her it was a tomato, but let her have a bite anyways. Presley promptly took a bite, spit it out and said, "don't like it." :) 3 words in a row!

christmas card

Most of you have should have gotten our Christmas card by now. We are a little late getting them out, but hey, at least we got them out before Christmas, right? We were actually able to get a decent one of both of the girls. We had lots of shots where one would have a huge smile on her face, but the other one wouldn't be looking. Good thing we had this photo shoot at home and didn't have to pay. We took lots of shots! We have some pretty funny ones that I thought I would share. You can see in some Presley was more interested in Addison's shoes than looking at us. She also thought it was pretty funny when Addison fell over. One of the shots is pretty blury, but I loved it. Presley was "loving" Addison, giving her a hug. I wish it would've turned out.

snow crab

This is our leftovers after we had dinner the other night. We are both seafood fans, Chad even more than me, and when we went to the grocery store last weekend we found this crab on a sale, so of course we had to get some. Saturday night Chad made dinner for me. He steamed snow crab. He even had the garlic butter dipping sauce for us. It was delicious, although it was a little hard to crack open. I had the scissors out trying to cut the legs, and it was still hard. Chad ended up opening most of my crab for me, and when we were finished his hands were pretty beat up. Those things have sharp little knobby things, that hurt when you are grabbing on trying to crack open the leg to get the meat out. Beside the crab, we also had mashed potatoes and corn. It was all wonderful. We offered some to Presley, but she was more interested in playing with the claw than actually eating any of the crab. She didn't know what she was missing.

feeling good...lots accomplished

I have been MIA lately from this whole blog thing. I have been forcing myself to stay away because I know I have so much to do and if I get started on the computer I find time flies by and before I know it, I'm too tired to get anything done. So, I am feeling much better now about where we are in terms of getting ready for Christmas. We finished up the gift buying, wrapped all the presents, planned Christmas Eve dinner, planned Christmas morning brunch, took the kids Christmas card picture, got cards made, addressed and sealed the envelopes, mailed cards, got coordinating (couldn't find matching) pajamas for the girls, and gated up the Christmas tree. Yep, you read it right, gated up the Christmas tree. With all the presents under and around the tree, Presley was having a blast. She thought it was fun to pull off all the bows, move the gifts around, try to open them and try to pick them up. Plus, the gifts that were in bags were just waiting for her to peek inside. So, we had to put a baby gate around the tree. When I was wrapping the presents I was putting them in piles of who they belonged to, and we found that Presley's pile was quite a bit larger than Addison's. It seems like it was much easier to shop for Presley this year. Addison doesn't need as much because she has all of Presley's things. But, we didn't want to keep it that way, so we did go out and get a few more things for Addison to even them up. I know she wouldn't realize, but it didn't feel right to me.

Basically all we have left now is to grocery shop and clean the house for our visitors. The girls had their Christmas party today at Day Care. This week is going to be extremely busy. Chad has a game tonight, tomorrow night, and Thursday night. 3 nights in a row! Tonight's is away and the next two are at home. He has now had 1 victory, so at least he isn't going to have a winless season. In fact the game he won he beat the other team by like 20. We have our parties at school on Thursday. Friday both girls have Dr. appointments, and Saturday we have a Christmas party with friends to go to. Sometime in the middle of all of that we will get to the store, clean up the house, and get food ready for company. I'm exited for this weekend! It's coming fast.

say cheese, Santa

Well, what do you know? Santa wasn't so bad....not so good either. Presley let me sit her on his lap and actually STAYED THERE! She didn't even cry. I guess I need to be a bit more optimistic. We couldn't get a smile out of her, but I was just happy she stayed, didn't throw a fit, didn't try to get down, and didn't cry. I'm calling it a success. The picture wasn't the greatest, but it's better than we were expecting. I think Presley was a little scared so she didn't know what to do. Addison did great, although it was during her normal nap time, so we couldn't get a smile out of her either. Oh well. Hey, at least we got a smile out of Santa. After we left Santa, Presley couldn't stop talking about him. She was so excited. Chad and I were able to get a lot of shopping done today. Silly me, I wasn't thinking about the fact that we were power shopping and I decided to wear my boots, my high heeled boots mind you, because I thought they looked better with my outfit, and let me tell you, by about 1:00 this afternoon my feet were KILLING me. I was in pain. And, we were barely started. We went the the mall twice, Kohl's, Old Navy, Dick's, Bed Bath & Beyond, Lowe's, and Target. We were able to get pretty much everyone taken care of. We still need to buy for 2 people and get one more thing for another to be finished with our families. I also need to see what we have gotten for Presley and Addison so far and see if we are done with them or not. I was able to get them their Christmas outfits. I still want to get them a set of matching pajamas for when they open their presents from us. I'm having a hard time finding them in both of their sizes. I did find a cute pair of pajamas today and it was available in both of their sizes, but they were $22 a piece. I couldn't see spending $44 on two pairs of pajamas. It seemed a little ridiculous. I'm hoping I will still be able to find something for them. I originally wanted to get matching pajamas for all of us, but Chad wasn't very interested in that idea. After all our shopping, we picked up the girls, had dinner, played, read books, and put them to bed. Then I got all of our gifts out on our living room floor getting ready to wrap them, but whoops, no tape, not much wrapping paper, and no tissue paper left from last year. I guess I can't wrap. So, back out to the store tomorrow to pick up more supplies. It's ok with me, I wasn't really looking forward to wrapping gifts anyways. That's not my favorite part. Now, i'm off to start planning the menu's. I'm sure this week will be busy.

Happy Day

Happy Birthday Dad & Papa!


I know I already told you on Jen's blog but wanted to wish you a good day here too. Hope you had a great day. We love you and can't wait to see you soon. Just wanted you to know we were thinking of you. You're the best!

decorations

Awhile ago I mentioned that I would try and get some pictures of our Christmas decorations on the blog....and then I realized I didn't take many. I only have a couple and here they are. I figured I better do it soon, seeing as Christmas is only 11 days away! Wow, is that right? Only 11 days? Yikes. I have A LOT to do before I'm ready. We are a little behind, or I probably shouldn't say a little, quite a bit. In fact, we are so behind we (Chad and I) we decided that we better take a personal day and try to get a lot of our shopping done. So tomorrow we are taking the day off. Watch out shoppers, here we come! We actually have a few gifts to the girls and others already, but they still need to be wrapped. We plan on taking Presley and Addison to the mall to visit Santa in the morning. I'm not that optimistic about Presley's visit with Santa, but I guess you never know. Maybe she'll surprise us. I'm sure Addison won't mind. So after Santa, we plan to have lunch together and then Chad and I will drop them off at Day Care just in time for their naps and then we will go back out to do some more of our shopping. Here's hoping we get a lot accomplished!

I still need to get a picture of our lights on our house, but I keep waiting until we get some snow so it looks more like Christmas. But, all we are getting is this rain. I sure hope it snows, at least in time for Christmas. How weird would it be not to have snow on Christmas. There has been so much rain that our lawn is muddy and soft and our poor little snowman falls down everyday. We set him up, he falls down, pick him up, fall down etc.. You get the idea. The ground isn't hard enough for him to stand. I guess I better take a picture soon with or without the snow. I'll post when I get one taken outside.

Besides the shopping part of being behind, I am a little behind on the whole planning of Christmas Eve/Christmas morning thing. We are hosting both here at our house. We will have my (D'Arcy) side over on Christmas Eve for dinner and presents. Growing up we always opened our presents on Christmas Eve so it's nice to continue that tradition with my side. Then on Christmas morning we will have Chad's (Brugh) family over for brunch and more gifts. We haven't decided exactly yet when we will do our own family gifts. I think last year we did it Christmas Eve morning. The only problem with that is this year Christmas Eve is on a Sunday and we have nursery at church that Sunday. So, we'll see. I still need to plan the menus for both the dinner and the brunch. I guess I better start that this weekend. I also need to get ready for Christmas parties at Day Care and school. Aghhh! The longer I sit here and type the more I think of that still needs to be done. I guess I better get off here and start doing something! I think I am getting a little overwhelmed. I have to start sometime....here I GO!!

little elves...

I found this today and have been having a blast, laughing out loud even. Hope you enjoy! After you watch it, you can make your own.

Addy the Elf

Pres the Elf

(I have heard several of you weren't able to watch it. Sorry, it's really cute. I think your computer will need flash player to see it.)

Don't forget about me...

Today I thought I would update you all a little on Addison. It seems like most of my posts have been about Presley lately. I guess it's because she is doing so much now. Addison is getting so big now. She can pretty much sit up by herself now. She will sometimes still fall over to the side, but I am surprised at how well she does and she just turned 4 months on the 9th of December. I don't think Presley was sitting by herself yet at this age. I do kind of think that the Bumbo seat may have helped her a little with this. I actually also got to see her roll over from her back to her front once this weekend. She hasn't done it since, but at least I got to see her do it. She rolled from her front to her back about a month ago. She doesn't do it often, but every once in awhile. She is in love with "singing" now. She will do it all the time. It's the cutest thing. We don't remember Presley doing it, but Addison will just sit or lay and sing. I think it's adorable, Chad does too most of the time. The last couple of days she will wake up at night, not fussy or wanting to eat, just ready to get up, so she will just lay in her bassinet and "sing." Chad doesn't think it's so cute then. :) She is doing great with sleeping. We have been lucky to have two really good sleepers. Addison goes down between 7 and 8 sometime, and then I sometimes feed her when I go to bed, and sometimes I don't. Then she will usually sleep until around 5 or so. Sometimes she gets up around 3:30, but not every night. I am happy with that. She is a really happy baby and will give big smiles to just about anyone who will give her some attention. She loves watching Presley play. She will try and talk to her and give her big smiles. It's hard to believe that 4 months have gone by already. It sure does go fast.

mary and baby jesus

Presley loves playing with her nativity, lil' shephard, and lil' drummer boy little people sets. Chad was playing with her and showing her how angels fly and now she takes all the people (and animals too) and has them flying through the air while she is making the "shhhhewww" (flying) sound. When you ask her where Mary is, she can find her and say her name. She will also find Mary when I ask her who is Baby Jesus' mommy. She also can find Baby Jesus and say his name. It's adorable. In fact last week she took Mary to Day Care for her letter Mm show and tell and she was able to tell them who it was that she brought.

Puppy Sitting

This weekend we were able to puppy sit for our friends, Brian, Roxy, and Grayden's puppy. They have a little shih tzu named Lucy. Presley was in love!!! She followed her all over saying "Oocy". It was adorable. As soon as we got Presley up from her naps or in the morning she would ask "Oocy go?" Sometimes Lucy would walk in with me to get her up and Presley would just squeal with joy. She (Lucy) did a pretty good job at our house. Queenie wasn't all that thrilled to have her here, but she tolerated her ok, as long as she still got some attention.

Saturday night the girls had Grandma and Grandpa Brugh over to babysit while Chad and I went to his staff Christmas party. We had a nice time.

Here are a few pictures of Presley and Lucy, otherwise known as "Oocy."

911

Most of you know how Presley is obsessed with the phone, especially cell phones. She loves to have a phone to "talk" and call people. She will pick up the phone, push the on button and hold it up to her ear and "talk." She will quite often turn it on and then leave it off the hook, and we will find it hours later still off the hook. Well tonight as I was sitting on the couch with Addison and Presley watching JoJo (Presley's favorite show) on TV, the doorbell rang. I got up and answered the door, on my way to the door I looked out the window and saw a sheriff's car out front. It actually kind of scared me. I wondered what in the world they would be at my house for. I opened the door to find the sheriff and another deputy standing outside on the porch. I was holding Addison, Presley was pounding on the door, and Queenie was barking like crazy. Chad was still at practice. They probably thought we were crazy. I asked them to hang on a minute while I put Queenie away. They stood there, and when I got back they said they recieved a 911 call from our home.... I wonder who could've done that???? Presley - that little stinker. Apparantly she had dialed 911 while playing with the phone. They were just checking to make sure everything was ok. I assured them we were all ok, thanked them for coming and apologized for the inconvience. I guess we will have to do a better job at keeping the phones up out of the reach of our little phone operator.

Here Presley just got off the phone with Daddy on his way home from practice, and he had just walked in the door. If you click on the picture, you can see the goldfish crackers in her teeth. She gets so excited when she hears the door open.

coach brugh

i finally ventured out to one of chad's games tonight, although not by myself. both chad's mom and dad went too. it's a good thing they did. presley was all over the place. it wasn't that she wanted to go to chad, it was that she just wanted to run and play. she was not interested in sitting and watching the game at all. i was very thankful that i had help there. i felt bad for them because they took turns taking her for walks, and weren't able to see chad's game much, although they assured me they didn't mind. i have taken presley to chad's practice before and she was able to run and play all she wanted, so i'm sure she couldn't understand why she was supposed to sit now. addison enjoyed the game. she was awake the whole time and was cooing. chad's team should've probably won, but once again it came down to to many missed free-throws and sloppy ball handling. this was their closest game of the season so far. they lost 25-26. they are now 0 and 5. :( looks like this season might be a long one.

rudolph

We got this reindeer last year at Meijer because while we were in the store Presley started squealing with laughter. If you push the hand of the reindeer it will sing a song and jump up and down. It was her first really loud giggle. We thought if that's what it takes to hear her giggle, then we had to have it at home. This year isn't quite the same. She is still in love with it and will talk to him, love and kiss him, but only likes him as long as he stays quiet. She isn't quite sure what to do when his hand accidentally gets pushed and he starts singing. She will usually run to one of us to pick her up and hold her until he is done singing. She likes him better when he doesn't "talk back".

Miss Manners

Tonight while I was sitting at the table while Presley was eating dinner, I sneezed and Presley said " 'Scuse you." How sweet. She will often say it if we have already said it, but I was home with the girls alone and I hadn't even said excuse me yet. She did it all on her own!

Last night while we were eating dinner she said her first sentence too. She said, "I want taco." 3 words in a row! Usually she is still saying one word, sometimes two, but this was 3 by herself. Yippee!

She is getting good at saying names now too. She can recognize most of our families now by looking at her photo album. I will point and she will tell me their name. She is even starting to say her name now, although it sounds more like Prekley. She is really good at Addison too. She has a couple of names for her like baby, peanut (she hears me call her that), and then sonson (her way of saying Addison). She sure is growing up.

Discovering Music

This picture is also from Aunt Cindy on Thanksgiving. Presley discovered Tyler's keyboard. She had a blast with the pre-set music buttons with Gabi. She was bopping her head up and down and squealing. She loved it. The next day at Aunt Jenny's she got to practice her skills some more on their piano. They were watching her for us while we went shopping and when we went to pick her up, she was sitting on the bench with Reagan squealing and banging the keys. Chad thinks we need to buy her a keyboard now. :)

Mini-me

I thought I would share this picture with you. Aunt Cindy took it on Thanksgiving and sent it to us. You can tell that Presley has seen her daddy playing his Play Station game and talking on his headset before. She loves to copy anything he does. She's a pure "Daddy's girl."

Night and Day

Wow, the difference one day can make. It's amazing. Thursday you would've thought Presley was sicker than a dog. Friday I went to wake her up, and she was so happy, she was laughing out loud in her crib. She was in a great mood all day. So, obviously she must be feeling much better. I'm so happy this is over, although Chad woke up Saturday morning not feeling very good. I hope he doesn't get anything now. I know his dad and sister are both sick now and Chad has strep throat going around at his school. Chad, Presley and I have all gotten our flu shots, so hopefully we won't have any trouble with that this year. Addison is still to young to get hers. We will probably get her a shot in February if the Dr.'s still say the flu is going around.

Friday night we went to some friends house and had a game night. We played Taboo and Scene It, the movie version. We played guys against girls, and the girls lost every time. Surprising, I know! I'm not sure what the problem with the girls was. We had a great time. We rarely get out anymore to see friends, especially without kids. Thankfully Hilary was able to babysit again. I know it wasn't much fun for her, since both kids were sleeping when we left and didn't really wake up while we were gone. We sure have a couple of great sleepers.