Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!

Just wanted to wish all of our friends and family a very Merry Christmas!!!

If you haven't had a chance to read the very first "Christmas story" in the New Testament, take a moment, turn to Luke and read the story. Miss A and I read from her little story book that my aunt sent her last year-The First Nativity-and it helped us focus on Jesus' birth today. Our pastor sent out an email to our church last week when we weren't able to hold church on account of the blizzard. His talk was going to be on the way some key people surrounding Jesus' birth reacted to his birth: they worshiped. It was a wonderful reminder especially during this holiday season when things can get so busy and a little crazy at times.

Miss A is 23 months old today and Baby F is 12 weeks old today....which means a "month birthday" post will be coming soon. We are in NJ for Christmas and will be home in a few days...I'll post with lots of fun pics of Miss A celebrating her 2nd Christmas and Baby F celebrating his 1st Christmas then!

Just a few more from Chanukah...

Miss A playing with her wooden Chanukah set she got last year...it comes complete with latkes, frying pan, and gelt!

Baby F in front of the UNLIT candles on the 7th night-

  

His face is totally saying "Mom?? Seriously??"

On the last night-

 

 

Blizzard 2009

We had a blizzard here on Saturday! It started snowing Friday night and didn't stop till Saturday night. We got close to 20 inches of snow!!! This is the most I've ever seen in my lifetime and E thinks it is the most he's seen since he's been here in VA. (He's lived here since he was 2.)
We bundled up the kiddos and took them outside on Saturday. Miss A had a good time trying to walk/trudge through the snow. Baby F was all warm inside the Baby Bjorn in E's jacket.
Miss A almost all ready to go...she's wearing a ski bib and boots that were handed down to us from a friend last year...she couldn't fit into any of it last year but she fits it so well this year and I am so thankful to have it-

 

Our cars covered in snow-

 

Miss A smiling under her scarf (that's actually my scarf that luckily worked for her)-

E holding F in the Baby Bjorn under his coat and Miss A-

Miss A and me-

E and Miss A walking down our street after it was plowed-

The backs of our cars-

Our house-

Miss A with rosy red cheeks and red nose-

  

Our deck earlier in the day-

 

Our deck that night-

Our back yard...you can just barely see the top of the gas can sticking out of the snow-

This picture below gives you an idea of how high the snow came up on our patio door...that snow is still there as I am posting this-

 

I love this tree that is behind our townhouse-
 

Our neighbor across the street took this pic of us from his window-

 

This photo was taken on Sunday from our upstairs bedroom window when E went out to dig out our cars...E is in the tan jacket with the tan hat on and he's carrying the shovel...a bunch of the neighbors came outside to help each other out...it was wonderful and such a blessing!

Chanukah Oh Chanukah!

Chanukah started last Friday evening at sundown. We've been lighting the candles each night and saying the prayers. We say them in Hebrew and in English so we know what we are saying. As someone who did not grow up celebrating Chanukah, it's still so new to me even though this is my 5th year celebrating. I always look forward to it and love the glow of the candles. In fact I love the candle part so much, I wanted to start doing an advent wreath this year but discovered that I am a little bit behind on that. So maybe next year!

This years, Miss A has been able to help with lighting the candles...she loves it! These pictures were taken on the second night of Chanukah. (Unfortunately with E's work holiday party starting at 6 p.m. on Friday, we didn't even have time to pull out the camera to snap some photos of the first night.)

 

(Yes, Miss A is sitting on the counter!)

Below is a picture to give you an idea of where we had the menorah sitting on Friday night when the candles were lit. This is a pic with the new shade up but you can see why the candles had a prime position for burning a window shade-

Below is a photo of the holes in the shade after they were taken down (Miss A sticking her tongue out...she was actually making funny sounds when the photo was taken.)-

E putting up the new shade-

We have always lit our menorah in the kitchen window so we aren't sure what we did in years past that did not result in a burned window shade. If you are wondering about the story-here it is-

We lit the shamash and the first candle for the first night of Chanukah. E wondered aloud if the candles were too close the shade and I said they were fine. Famous last words! Later, I am standing on the stairs talking to E and Miss A and I look over at the shade. I notice some dark spots and think they are just shadows. I was very discombobulated for a moment! Then it hit me that the candles were burning holes in the shade and I very slowly said to E what was happening. He immediately put Miss A down and ran over and blew out the candles. The generally held belief is that the Chanukah candles are supposed to burn until they burn out. They usually aren't supposed to be blown out like birthday candles. But in emergencies such as this, a little human hot air was needed!

Miss A had a chance to open her Chanukah gifts as well as F's gifts this year. (It's still so amazing to me that we were just celebrating Miss A's First Christmas and Chanukah last year and this year we are celebrating all these firsts for F!)

 

 

She is so much better at opening presents this year. If you were wondering what the presents were-she got a Chanukah puzzle, he got a musical dreidel, and they both got a Chanukah book to share.

Last year, you may recall me taking a photo of Miss A in a Chanukah bib-

2008

Here she is this year in that same bib...I love comparing the photos and seeing how much she's grown! I just can't believe she was that little a year ago! (I know that is so cliche!)

2009

2009

Even though it's her second Chanukah, the bib still works-

Happy Chanukah!!

Not Me Monday

 Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

We did NOT almost burn down our kitchen by accidentally letting our Chanukah candles burn holes in our window shade in our kitchen during the first night of Chanukah.
We did NOT then have to replace the window shade with another one that we luckily had in our house.
During my Thanksgiving trip car ride, I did NOT give my toddler leftover pumped breastmilk from her baby brother's bottle and put it in her cup when she kept asking over and over for more milk after she had already downed her whole milk.
My toddler did NOT say "Mmmmm" after drinking that breastmilk and proceed to chug it down.
I did NOT spell a word to my husband instead of saying it when we were at his company Christmas party Friday night and forget that we were among adults who could also spell.
I have NOT had to walk around nursing my baby because I have had to feed/put down for a nap/change my toddler's pullups/put her on the potty.
We have NOT waited till the last minute to buy a few Christmas presents.
We are NOT crossing our fingers that those gifts get here in time. 
I did NOT have to put Christmas stamps on some Chanukah cards because those were the only stamps in the house.
The Apple store did NOT just deliver our Christmas cards today!!!
I am NOT wondering when I am going to find the time to make address labels, put the cards in the envelopes, address the cards, and mail them out!

Sleepy Santa

The first weekend in November we were at the mall and saw Santa! (Yes, they had him at the mall already!) We decided to seize the moment and get a photo with him. However, Miss A was terrified of Santa and would not go near him. Santa had an idea-he suggested he could lay down in his great big throne and pretend to sleep while having baby F lay on his chest. He suggested that perhaps Miss A could stand by him and put her finger to her lips as if she was saying "shhhh". (YEAH RIGHT!) So, we got baby F to lay on his chest with no problem but still Miss A was having nothing to do with Santa. If I was holding her and I went near Santa, she would ask for Daddy and if E went near Santa, then she would ask for me. I am glad we didn't force the issue because below is the peaceful, sweet photo we got of our baby boy sleeping on Santa's chest. (For photos of other children who are terrified of Santa, click on this link for a photo gallery- http://www.parenting.com/gallery/Baby/Scared-of-Santa/1/)
Santa even asked if they could use our photo as an example for other people with babies!
Here's the priceless pic (which is also the pic in my header)-

UGH!!!

I just need to get this off my chest-I am sooo angry!!!! I ordered a mug for my grandmother from seehere.com. It's fuji's photo website. I also ordered two other mugs. However I ordered the mug for my grandmother to be sent to HER house and the other two mugs were ordered separately and they were to be sent to MY house. Well, how lovely today when my children and I are awakened from our nap by the doorbell because there are packages at our door. (Both children proceeded to cry from being awakened so quickly.) So, I go down and see this big box from Fuji. I think to myself "Surely this isn't just to hold 2 mugs!". Well I was right! There were 3 mugs in there! They had mailed me my grandmother's mug too!!! I checked the packing slips. There were two of them. The one for my grandmother's gift had her address on it in the "Received by" section and they still sent it to me!! I checked my confirmation email and it also had her name and address in the "shipped to" section! Someone at Seehere totally screwed up and sent them all to me! I am so angry about this because that mug is a Christmas present. I know I still have time to get it to her but with a toddler and a 2 month old, it's really hard for me to get out of the house these days and I surely don't want to pack them in the car and then unload them just to walk in to the post office to mail it out which will take all of 5 minutes and then have to load them back in again. Especially in the cold, windy, snowy weather we've been having. Also, I got free shipping on the site so now I will have to pay for the shipping if I mail it out on my own. I went to the site to see if I could contact someone and the ONLY way to contact anyone there is through email! I even called Fuji's direct line that I found online and they also told me that you can only contact them through email. So, I sent an email and it said it can take 1-2 days. Now, I just have to wait. I know there are worse things than this...I just needed to vent!

First Smiles

I caught F's smile on camera! I wasn't even trying to! He just started smiling when I took these pics of him sitting in his bouncy seat. I just thought he looked cute in this doggie romper and hat but I was greeted with smiles when I started taking pics. What a wonderful surprise!

 

Here are pics of Miss A's first smiles...I really see a similarity between F's smile in the second pic and Miss A's smile in the second pic-

 

These Boots Were Made For Fashion...er...Splashin'

Miss A just loves shoes...what girl doesn't? She, like most toddlers, loves trying on shoes...and definitely Mommy's golashes/wellies/rainboots (whatever name you prefer). (Please ignore the extraneous items in the background i.e. the diaper bag, shoes, blanket, coat, baby toys...what's a home at Christmastime without lots of miscellaneous items lying around?)
Miss A getting into the boots...you know you've got good boots when you have to hold on to something to put them on...

My Little Man

I snapped this photo on Sunday after we came home from church and I just love it...

Two Beautiful Presents Under My Tree

Yesterday was our first day back to church since having baby F.  We miraculously got to church on time too!  After church, I decided to take some photos of them in front of the tree. Of course, trying to get a photo of your toddler holding her baby brother who is over half her size is a little challenging to say the least.  I took 4 photos and most of them had both of them looking away from the camera of course...however, I am going to post 1 of them...Miss A looks a little stunned in it though...as if Rudolph just walked in the door...

My little Mary?

Not sure what Miss A was up to when she decided to put this kitchen towel on her head...but perhaps she was just trying to dress up as Mary and remember the reason for the season...

Oh Christmas Tree and Let It Snow!

Having 2 children has turned our tree buying/decorating into a week long process.  On Monday, after we returned from NJ,  E went out in the cold rain and bought a real tree from a local garden center while I stayed home with our kiddos. Tuesday, it sat outside on our deck in a bucket of water and then on Wednesday, he brought it inside the house. Thursday, it just sat in its stand and on Friday, we  finally got to decorate it!  Miss A was asleep for the night during the decorating part. We had to get a skinny tree this year so we could still fit the playard in front of the window. When Miss A woke up Saturday morning and came down to see the tree, it didn't take long for her to grab an ornament and drop it on the hardwood floor...breaking it into a few pieces. We've had those ornaments since the year we got married and we had never broken any...until this year! But that's okay...we cleaned it up and just pushed the ornaments further back on the tree.
Here's E putting on the lights-

Me putting on an ornament while wearing F in the Moby wrap (we were all in our pj's for this)-

E putting the star on the tree-

All done-

It also snowed here on Saturday...somewhere between 2-4 inches weather.com had predicted...I am guessing it was closer to 4! Here are some photos that I took from standing inside of our front door-

 

Above-that's our front porch and walkway

Below-the furniture on our deck

Mr. F all bundled up for the snow...don't worry...I wore him in the Baby Bjorn!

 

Miss A enjoying the snow and E shoveling our sidewalk-(Miss A kept looking at us with big eyes and saying "Whoa! Snow!")

 

 

 

Our boots by the front door afterward-