A New Christmas Eve Tradition

12-24-08
Jim woke up on Christmas Eve and decided we were going to start a new tradition. Every Christmas Eve day we are going to go somewhere and 'do' something. This year we would have gone horseback riding, but I'm still only 4 weeks out of surgery and couldn't. So we chose to go to Ybor City, have lunch and of course I brought my camera! This is a great place for pics! We had a good time walking up and down the strip and looking in the stores.


When we were leaving we stopped at the train track and played for a second..a very brief second! All of a sudden we heard 'ding ding ding' and sure enough the train was coming. Scared us to death!:) Jim grabbed the girls and we watched as the train flew by.

We weren't having a great hair day..but still precious.:)

Cookie making day!

12-23-08
We've always had a family tradition of making sugar cookies and decorating them for Santa to eat when he stops by to drop off presents. This year we went to our twins group cookie making playgroup with our friends, Kristine, Ethan and Connor. We got to roll out the dough and cut out our cookies. Maryann, our host, cooked them for us to take home. When we got home I made MORE cookies and we decorated all of them with Kyle and Alec. We had a really good time:)

"Jingle bells, Jingle bells .....

12-22-08

Oh what fun it is to ride with a fox and a fox and some hay!"..this is what Brianna was singing tonight as she laid in bed:) I about fell out of my chair laughing so hard!... My friend Kristine's son Connor had a good one too! He decided to add arubics cube as one of Santa's reindeer! You know!..there's Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Arubics Cube! OH!!! HOW FUNNY!

Well, today we went to see the man himself...SANTA:) This is the first year that B&B are excited to see Santa. All they want this year is a hula hoop, a yo-yo and a ming ming and tuck (for all of you that no longer have young children..these are characters from The Wonder Pets) :). You would think by their short list of toys they want we would get off cheap...well..don't forget we have 4 teenagers too...oh and B&B have a daddy that won't dare just get them a hula hoop, a yo-yo, and ming-ming and tuck! I have NO idea where I'm going to put all the new toys that are going to be arriving!Oh well..

When we got to the mall, there was no line. Jim went ahead and told Santa the girls were coming and told him their names and what they wanted...the girls were so thrilled when Santa saw them and said "Hi Brooke and Brianna!" and then KNEW what they wanted!! You can see by their faces they were beside themselves with happiness! OH I love those little faces!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Train ride with Papa..

Playing in the playhouse at the mall:)

Nana is the best

12.9.08
As I've mentioned I've been recovering. My mom (nana) has been wonderful. Here everyday to take care of me and the girls while Jim is working. This day she brought over the oranges Papa Dick had given her and they made fresh squeezed orange juice. The girls loved it. They loved making it and drinking it. I thought the juice was really sour and tasted much better with alot of sugar!:)
Thanks so much mom!! We Love you!

Decorating the Tree

12.7.08
Even though I've been recovering we were able to get the tree up and decorated. I wasn't allowed to do anything..except take pictures:) My parents and brother were here to help out....and we got the job done.
We realized we have so many ornaments we weren't able to put even half of the ornaments on the tree. We limited it to mostly the kids personalized ones and the Disney ones my mom and dad have been collecting for the kids for 18 years.
Brooke and Brianna were so excited this year it was alot of fun to watch them pull out an ornament and look at it so excited and then hang it on the tree. However, we did have a few drop and daddy had to get the super glue out. I think it was Donald Duck that lost his head and a leg....we found them under the tree...he was fixable.:)

Tis the season...

12.6.08
We went out to get our Christmas tree. Of course, since I had the five of my kids together I wanted a picture:) It's always so much fun to try and get a good picture of all of them together...see for yourself:) However, even though Brooke isn't looking I do love the last one. The first one cracks me up!!
Don't I have great looking kids!

Happy Thanksgiving

11.23.08

Because I was scheduled for a hysterectomy a few days before Thanksgiving and knew I would be in the hospital during the day of Thanksgiving we had our day a little early.

The food was great and of course having the family together was better.

We started a knew tradition this year. It's called 'Elf on the Shelf'. The book explains..during the Holiday season the Elf comes to our home and watches to make sure the kids are good and every night flies home to Santa to tell them if the kids are good or bad. He's basically Santa's informant:) When he comes back from reporting to Santa before morning he always finds a new place to sit. Brooke and Brianna LOVE getting up in the morning to see where the Elf's new place is. We love being able to remind Brooke and Brianna the Elf is watching and they need to behave:) Bribery...it's always a great parenting tool:) We also had to name our Elf. Our Elf is a girl and she has two names Melody Mallie. Brianna named her Melody and Brooke named her Mallie.

Here are some pics of our Thanksgiving:)
Melody Mallie....