my favorite present

baby doll

Lucy's favorite present was the real baby doll that Todd and Tara brought with them :)

they're a little bit country

3 years ago you could have never told me that this is what Christmas would look like someday...

and I wouldn't have it any other way.

they finally meet

Audrey has always gotten Santa Claus and God confused this time of year. Understandable really if you think about it...neither can be seen, they both want you to be on your best behavior, makes perfect sense to me. Last year she was overheard praying at the dinner table to Hannah Montana about wanting a new microphone for Christmas. The year before, she was hesitant to go to Sunday School for fear that she would have to "sit on Jesus' lap".
Don't worry, it's all been worked out.
Today Audrey asks me if God can see her all of the time. I say yes. Then she tells me that God must be the one that tells Santa if she's on the good list.

last dance

Audrey's Christmas recital was Saturday...she did so good, even knew most of the moves. It is so cute to watch all of those little girls up there. I am so proud of her for getting up on that stage in front of the big audience...I think you can tell by her face that she's proud too.

cabin fever

Audrey has been asking to go bowling for about 2 years . Not sure why it took us so long to go...

Bumpers Up!

I made sure to take plenty of toys for Lucy.

That 6 pound ball is heavy.

LOVE the shoes!

The "plenty of toys" lasted about 5 minutes.

After 6-7 frames, Audrey could do it herself.

I call this the "Madonna pose".

Waiting for the ball to roll down there takes a long time.
Lucy decides that she needs a turn.

The best part is watching the ball pop up.

We had a great time as a family. Audrey scored a 72!

guess what?

Lucy loves you!

baby it's cold outside

Even the dogs are wearing sweaters...

glam tree

I'm pretty sure that this is exactly the way her tree will look someday...

21 months old

On the 1st that is...so I didn't take these until the 9th and didn't post them until now but give me a break. It's a busy time of the year...oh yeah, and she's my second kiddo :)

I Love You Lucy!!!

lil' hawks

This is one of the many posed pictures taken on Thanksgiving day. It's nearly impossible to get 6 kiddos to sit still and look at the camera simultaneously but considering, they did a great job. After the big family pictures, we changed all of the cousins/grandkids into their Jayhawk gear so that Papa Tom would have something to put on his desk at work. I'm pretty sure that Lucy is thinking about what she wants to get into after all of the picture taking is over...

trading cards

I love love love Christmas cards. In this fast paced world of email, evites, texts and blogs, the least I can do is sit down at the kitchen table once a year and hand address envelopes for 85 of my closest friends and family...give or take a few. I have quite the system. I keep all of my address on an excel spreadsheet that I update throughout the year. Then once a year I print out the most current version. Next I sit down and address all of the envelopes, place stamp and return address label. Now insert photo cards with cute pictures of my kiddos on them. Before sealing the envelopes I set aside a few of the cards that I want to include little notes in. Double check on my list that I didn't miss anyone, and off they go. Now here's where it gets interesting; when I receive a Christmas card, I highlight the name on my printout. In theory, I would go through the last couple of years lists and delete people that are not returning the favor or we are no longer in touch with. But here's the BIG question: "are these people not sending cards at all or are they just not sending a card to us???" Seriously, did you know that someone could ever read this much into a simple gesture of holiday cheer? It's not necessarily that I don't want to be festive with said individuals anymore, it's just that I'm trying to avoid having a list of 300 people by only adding and never taking any away. Word of my system got out a few years back and now some people find it necessary to beg to be kept on the list. That wasn't my intention at all, to make my nearest and dearest feel threatened at the most wonderful time of the year. So, relax, you're still on the list, you made the cuts - at least for this year :)

santa

This weekend we made our annual trip to see Santa. There really wasn't a week day that we could go to Crown Center (where the real Santa is) and you'd be crazy to try to go there on a weekend and wait at least 3 hours. So up to Metro North we went. The line was still about 40 minutes long but they had free train rides and the ol' hot air balloons to keep us occupied:

We finally get up to see the big man. I let Audrey go first so that she can sit on his lap and chat a while. She asks for a Princess Stove and a Microscope - neither of these has been purchased by "Santa" because "Santa" thought that she wasn't quite old enough for them yet. Uh oh. While that conversation is taking place, I lean over to the photographer and mention that Lucy might scream but that I want him to take the picture anyways. This comment is based on past toddler/Santa experiences:

I noticed that the reason the line was moving so slowly was that he was taking 2,3 4 sometimes 5 pictures of the little ones trying to get them to smile. Well, in my opinion, that just doesn't tell the true story. Finally, I move in to hand Lucy over and I say to Santa "hold on tight!"

I find the difference in freak out techniques interesting...notice how Audrey arched her back and tried to slip out from under Santa's arm but Lucy threw her body forward trying to escape over the arm. Also that Audrey's look is sheer terror but Lucy looks more mad than anything else. Here's another angle from my camera:I also love how Audrey does not seem the least bit concerned about her sister's well being, in fact, she's actually smiling.

Maybe it's because she's excited that Santa's going to sneak her that oven she's too little for.

sleepover

Audrey has been feeling a little self-pressure to sleep on her own lately. At first I thought it was because Lucy moved into her own crib recently. My second thought was maybe it was a ploy to get a bunk bed. (But if you listened a little closer to the story she wanted the bunk bed, in our room, next to our bed, with me in it) So she brings this sleeping bag into our room. The first week or so she gets into it for approximately 5-10 seconds and then jumps back into bed. Then she gets the idea to put the sleeping bag into our bed and asks if that "counts". Finally one night she asks me if I will get on the floor with her. So there we are, on the floor, with an empty king sized bed behind us. After about an hour of wiggling I say to Audrey "honey it's ok if you want to get in bed, mommy doesn't mind you sleeping with us at all". To which she replied:

"But mommy, I have got to start practicing for these sleepovers with my friends"

She did finally fall asleep that night. And was back in bed with us by 2am. The next morning she told me that "she didn't have nightmares or anything, she just missed my snuggles".

I missed yours too Audrey Grace...

so not cool

She took it suprisingly well. Since it was her dog that did the eating of the hand and all. But if it would have been her sister, now that would have been a whole different story.

give thanks

thirty

Today, when I woke up, I was thirty. And most of me is relieved to tell you the truth. I’ve been acting thirty since I was about twenty-three. And for a long, long time I let that bother me. I let myself dwell on things that I was missing out on. I tried to hide things about myself like driving a minivan or not owning a pair of heels. Only recently, after the move to the burbs, the 2nd baby, maybe even the blogging support, have I learned to embrace my true self. That maybe what I thought the twenties were supposed to be was all just in my head. That my life did not just accidentally happen this way; that this is the life that I choose, the life that I wanted all along.
So maybe that’s the difference between the twenties and the thirties. Maybe the thirties bring confidence, security, comfort, even a little pride. Because honestly, the thought of all of that spontaneity right now just makes me tired.

clean sweep

I clean out my van every single weekend. And every single weekend this is just about what I get out of it. How in the world does this happen? Seriously it's embarrassing to let people ride with me unless it's on a Monday maybe a Tuesday.

10 jackets
7 pairs of shoes
1 pair of jammies
2 scarves
4 babies
3 McDonald's toys
3 unopened juice boxes
5 days worth of mail
stuff that I cleaned out from my desk at work
bags of stuff that I bought but didn't take into the house yet
papers that I cleaned out of Audrey's backpack

just another friday night

Travis brought home rock band. Todd and Tara and Lily came over for dinner. Nuf said. Good times.