Christmas Day 2011

So this was a different type Christmas than ever before. One it was on a Sunday. So that was different in its own right, and two, my schedule on my days off is dictated by two little girls...even Christmas!
We wake up about two hours before we need to get to church, feed the girls, and then get ready to go. Ben lets me know that one of the gifts he got for me would go nicely with my Christmas attire, and would I like to open it and wear it to church? I say sure, and I open a beautiful pendant with two rubies in it. (Ruby is the girls birthstone) I put it on and it does indeed look nice with my attire!


We end up being 5 minutes late to church. But we sit in the back so not too many notice!

During church both girls decide that it is nap time, but since we have been trying so hard to sleep train them, they have gotten so they want to lie down to sleep. So Ben puts Ana on his coat on the pew next to him, and I do the same with Emily. Ana drops right off, and Emily decides that she wants to moan and cry and groan to put herself to sleep (she does this often) So I have to pick her up and I was going to take her into the nursery where they have a pack and play that I could have put her down in and she could groan all she wanted to. But since it was Christmas, the nursery was locked up tight. So I had to get her relaxed enough to fall asleep in my arms. It took about 10 minutes, but she finally dozed off. So I go back into the service and she sleeps the rest of the time, as does Ana. Near the end of the service Ana wakes up and is happy and smiley! (I love this after nap time)

So we get home, and need to feed the girls again, eat something ourselves, and put the girls down again for a short nap. So it ends up being after 1pm before we even get time to go and open any gifts!

I tell Ben at this point we better quickly go open a few of our gifts since once the girls get up we probably will not end up with any time.
So he opens up his gift from me, and I open up his gift to me. We both got what we had asked for!

As soon as he started looking at his gift, the girls wake up. We get them up,and start opening their gifts!
Thank you to all who got gifts for them and us.
They did not last very long and they were ready for another nap. So we put them down, and started dinner. We had a nice big ham to cook, green bean casserole and mashed potatoes. It was so very good!
Since then we just have been playing with our daughters and enjoying our little family.
We have had a fantastic Christmas.
Here are some pictures from the day.

The girls new stockings from their Godmother Andrea


The girls laying on Grandma Ricks quilts that she made for them, and snuggling with the teddy bears from Great Grandaddy Biggs


Emily with her Teddy


Ana and her Teddy


All the loot


The after loot picture



The girls after church

Christmas Eve

Girls first Christmas Eve, They are so excited for Santa to come that they hardly would go to sleep...lol.
But they sure were cute in thier new PJ's!

Emily and Ana



Ana



Emily

Some Comic Relief

So while we were having picture day, the girls started looking at each other and I thought it was darling, so I stopped taking pictures and started a video. What happened next was so funny to me. Emily decided to say hello to her sister in one of the only ways she knows how to communicate...screaming. Ana did not appreciate it!
Poor Emily did not understand why her sister got all bent out of shape, she was just playing. Love this.

See what happens when I get a day off!

It seems like it is picture day when I get a day off! So here are some more results. I know I am biased, but these two little girls are so freaking cute I cant hardly stand it! They are the (don't mind the old fashioned quote it has been running through my head today) "apple of my eye!"

Emily in Purple, Ana in Pink

I hope all who read this are having a good Holiday season! I am finally ready for Christmas. All the shopping is done, all the goodies made, and all the gifts wrapped!

Christmas Cards

So after all of the picture Drama, we did find some pictures that we used for a photo card, we did get them sent out, and we did go pick them up...after that it has been not really easy to actually address the cards, and get them out. So my promise to all of those who will be getting a Christmas card...
They will be SENT before Christmas!

Reading

So during story time Ben decided to get a picture...and the girls finally figured out that they are interested in looking at the little red light on the camera...if only they could have figured this out last week!

Almost Christmas!

This Christmas season has been a blur! With the hours that I am putting in at work, and the rush to get home to be with my family it seems like I have almost missed it!
Ben and I really wanted to get photo cards for Christmas this year to send out, and we kept trying to set up time to go get our family pictures taken, and everything we set up kept falling through.
So we finally got the camera, got dressed up, and did the whole timer thing. We took a whole day to get pictures of us, and the girls. We honestly did not have too many turn out because the girls were kind of grumpy that day, and it was hard to get them to look a the camera when all they were looking at was a blinking red dot!
Here are some pictures from the WHOLE day of work!

Sickness

Sickness has struck our household again. Ben has been sick for about a week, and yesterday it hit me and both girls head on. So I stayed home from work today not hardly able to get out of bed, and Ben was up all night last night with the girls waking me up only to feed them. He is an awesome guy. He did this for me while he was still feeling yucky himself. I would have been so much worse off if I did not get the sleep I got last night and this morning, so I am taking care of the girls today with the help of my cousin who we have hired to help us a few days a week. Thank goodness for that! The girls are downish for a nap, and I am taking just a few moments to update while they go all the way to sleep! I am hoping the girls go down for real and I can take a nap too! They have to be tired since they slept so poorly last night.
We will see! I hope with the sleep I have been getting that I am able to go back to work tomorrow and not make myself worse by doing so...
The fun of little bugs that make our lives miserable!

5 Months

I thought that time flew before I had kids, now I am truly not sure what happened to the whole year of 2011. It is already almost over, and I feel like I was in a dream world and jumped ahead in time and jumped over an entire year of my life...
Emily and Ana are 5 months old now which means they are learning to sit upright by themselves if they are placed that way, they are starting to get a little cereal in the morning with their breakfast, they are sleeping better and going to sleep on their own pretty much without assistance (most times!)

Ana's first meal


Emily's first meal


I hate to go to work more and more everyday because they are growing and developing so fast that I feel like I come home and they are already different.
I put Ana down for a nap the other day, and I swear that when I got her up a few short hours later that she was an inch taller!
They have developed little personalities and have started to notice that they have a sister and want to interact with each other. That is still developing and Emily wants to play with Ana more than Ana wants to play, but Ana has always been a few weeks behind in development, so I am sure her day is coming where she will interact and play with her sister.
They are so darling and I marvel everyday that Ben and I are responsible for these two little girls that have captured both of us heart and soul.

Halloween

We were invited to a friends house for Halloween this year. I had to work until about 5, but ended up working until about 7ish. Then I ran home as fast as possible got the girls fed, changed into their Halloween outfits, in the car, drove 20 miles to the place, and then the girls got passed around like crazy. We thought that it was just a smaller get together a few couples. Turned out it was a major get together and there were probably 8 couples there and their kids. It was a mess! Then the girls were over tired and started to cry, and were not having any of it. So we only ended up staying for a few hours, then left. Needless to say, we did not get any pictures of the girls on Halloween due to the circumstances.
So we had to wash their outfits and then dress them up again to make sure we documented how darling they were!!!
So here are a few after Halloween pictures!