Playroom Refresh

With the Chritmas holiday and new toys and such we've spent a little bit of time updating the playroom. Just thought I'd share a few pictures.

Big kids now (aka: Christmas Recap)

I am exhausted. I'm actually secretly looking forward (just a bit) to going back to work tomorrow. I'm only in the office half days this week (I'm working from home in the afternoons), so that may have something to do with it.

We had a very lovely Christmas holiday. My parents and brother came into town and we celebrated Christmas Eve at Tim's parents house. We went to Xmas eve mass (and I had the pleasure of wrangling Kendyll, who entertained herself by belching, blowing raspberries and screaming "MORE!!!!" every time a song ended during mass. Fun times). We then enjoyed several rounds of egg nog and crunch berry martinis (YUM!) and a delicious Italian meal prepared by my parents (at Tim's parent's house). Christmas morning we opened presents at our house and were all spoiled so much. Then yesterday I took a road trip with B&K up to my parents house to see some of my mom's family and spend the night with them.

B&K received a cool kitchen from Santa, a PBK table & chairs from Nana & Papa, a wicked cool tunnel set from Uncle Mark and a really, really cool slinky dog, doodle board and snow gear from Grandma & Grandpa. Plus a shit-ton of other stuff from everyone. They are now set. Seriously. I shutter to think what their birthday might bring in about 6 weeks. :)

In a lot of ways B&K seem like such big kids all of a sudden. They love to sit at their new table and eat their snack (or breakfast, lunch & dinner) from a plate and with real forks. They were perfect angels on the trip up to my parents house and today on the way back home (although I must say I'm a little sick of hearing the Elmo DVD over & over & over again). We did a little shopping today and went to dinner with Nana out and B&K sat in real booster seats and drank their milk out of real cups with straws. Who are these kids?

Here is a montage of pics from the holiday. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, too.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

She's Crafty (part deux)

You may recall this post from the fall. I've really gotten back into this knitting thing and have expanded my horizons. I wanted to share a few of my recent projects and gifts.

Theses are little additions I made for some of the wine we gifted from our trip to CA in October.

This is a little frilly hat I made and ended up giving to a friend for her daughter, Sadie.

I made this hat for a couple of friends this season. So adorable (but VERY time consuming!!).

And I branched out from knitting to make some girlie things for a children's gift exchange I participated in as part of my MoMs group. I drew my friend, Mandie, who has a 3 year old daughter and girl, girl, boy twins who are just are B&K's age. I ended up making the girls tutus and matching tiaras for dress-up (their brother got a Super Why dress up thing, too . . . I unfortunately ran out of time before the exchange date to make something for him!).

Merry Christmas!!!

We hope everyone has had a safe, wonderful holiday!! From our family to yours - a very Merry Christmas!

Who is THAT guy???

My friend Mary, her husband Robin and their daughter Bethany came over for a holiday visit and joined us for dinner last night. Most people don't know this, but Robin is Santa's twin brother. ;) We were SO excited when Mr. Santa stopped by for a quick visit in the midst of his very, very busy schedule. And much to our surprise, Bennett LOVED him. Kendyll was just eh . . . she much preferred the cherry candy canes he brought instead.

Thanks so much for the visit Mary, Robin, Bethany & Santa!! We hope to see you all again soon!!

Bennett soon after Santa gave him his first candy cane:

B telling Santa how awesome the candy tastes.

Kendyll trying to shove the candy up Santa's nose:

Where have I been?

I'm still here. I know, I know . . . I'm sorry! I won't make excuses, just know we've all been very, very busy. Work has been busy (isn't it supposed to slow down around the holidays??), B&K have been hanging with their grandparents a bit, I'm *almost* back to normal heath-wise, B&K are sort of sick AGAIN, we're trying to get ready for Christmas and I've been a crafting fiend (I promise a separate post on that soon).

And yes, I fully realize I've neglected to post a "22 Months" post. So sorry again. I don't think I've taken a picture of B&K in over a week. Well, since we tried FIVE SEPARATE TIMES to get some decent pictures for our holiday card. I promise a separate post on that, too.

Santa is paying a special visit to our house on Monday night. I can't wait to see him! Turns out my friend, Mary, has a inside hook-up to him. I'm sure B&K's reaction will warrant a whole separate post, too.

So stay tuned. More to come very soon!

LOFT giveaway!!

Anyone who knows me well knows that 95% of my wardrobe comes from Ann Taylor Loft (hint, hint if you are looking for holiday ideas for me!). Suz from the Steece's Pieces blog just wrote up a GREAT review of the store here. And I wanna win the $200 gift card!! Mama needs some new Curvy Boot Jeans! :)

(and just to prove this . . . I am wearing a pair of curvy boot jeans, a brown long sleeve tee and a cream colored short sleeve sweater today all from ATL!!).

Lack of update - update

Sorry -- this won't be much of an update. We've been busy getting our Xmas card ready and all that jazz. More to come on the "fun" that was our many, many attempts to get a few decent pics of B&K.

Here are a couple that A snapped . . . enjoy!

Our Christmas Wishlist

There are two things on our Christmas wishlist this year . . .

- A new head coach for Notre Dame {almost check - Charlie Weis went bye-bye on Monday. Woo-hoo!}

- Bennett to be a walker by Christmas {almost check! He took 16 unassisted steps in PT yesterday -- on top of several 10 - 12 unassisted step trips beforehand. He was also showing off his skills to Tim last night}

Who needs iPods and DJ rockband and gift cards when you can have these two things that really matter. :)

Wildlights at the zoo

We met up with some friends Sunday night to check out the lights at the zoo. We had PERFECT timing . . . we made it just after the rain ended (which meant the crowds were down), the weather was on the warmer side for late November and we left just as the rain started up again. Woo-hoo! B&K seemed to really like it -- lots of pointing at the lights and Kendyll danced to the song & light show. Definitely will keep this on our family traditions list.

And now a few pictures!

Erin & Mandy waiting to head in:

Tim (and Nick) pulling the wagon:

Me with B&K (not loving the fact that they had to wear their hats):

And the lights, of course!