Happy Birthday DiDi!

Happy Birthday DiDi!

Merry Christmas

Merry Merry Christmas

I finally have the pictures from Christmas tree hunting! Gramma got a really good one of the entire family. Those are so rare. I love it! No need for the Shore Acres family pic this year.


You can't have Christmas without a gingerbread house. The girls were thoroughly upset that they couldn't eat all the candy first.


We also made salt dough ornaments. That was interesting, but they had fun.


I got terribly sick last weekend. Hello sore throat, completely congested head and body aches. I was miserable, but it was Gramma and Papa's Christmas Open House and the girls were desperate to go. We stayed at DiDi's house so they wouldn't dismantle Gramma and Papa's house, but we had dinner with Gramma and Papa and decorated sugar cookies with Auntie Colie and Brad. They loved it, even though I was stressed out. Mira and Leia haven't quite figured out that you're not supposed to lick the knife and put it back in the frosting or eat all the sprinkles.


Instead of Shore Acres, we decided to attempt Zoo Lights. Of course, I was sick, so was Mira and it snowed that morning! It was so incredibly cold. My feet immediately went numb and Adia fussed almost the entire time. Adia and Leia ended up riding in the stroller while Mira walked or was carried the entire time. Mira seemed to really have fun despite her horrible horrible cough and stridor. They absolutely loved the train ride.


I've been sewing like crazy. I made hooded towels for gifts this year and made some rice bags. Adia also begged for a fleece quilt. I wasn't so sure how it would turn out, but she absolutely loves it. 

Christmastime's a coming

We got our tree today, but I don't have any pictures from the tree farm. I'll make a better post when I get them. I didn't have my camera. It was wet and muddy, but not too cold. Now the tree's up and the cats haven't completely killed it yet. They keep batting ornaments off though.

Singing in the rain...

To say that today was wet would be an understatement. I wore rain boots and a raincoat to drop off and pick up the kiddos from their schools and I still got drenched.


And Mira can write her name! I'm so proud of her. I love her "i". It reminds me of a lollypop. Every single time she writes her name she asks, "Can I get a library card now?" She knows that once she can write it well, she gets her very own card.


And Miss Adia is reading! I knew it was just a matter of time. She now has a book memorized, but this is one of the first times she attempted it. She's since read a few others.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndlUVqAxFlc

Santa

The girls begged to go see Santa so we went. Leia was the most determined to see him, but when we actually got there, she freaked. No smiles from her, as usual.

Long Weekends

Adia had a 5 day weekend this last weekend. By day 2, I was already going nuts. The girls were running wild and fighting constantly. DiDi came over Friday evening. The girls were all asleep, but she was going to spend the night, see Wreck it Ralph in the morning and then take Adia home with her. The girls were so incredibly happy to see her Saturday morning. They read books, played on her iPad and begged for pancakes. DiDi ended up taking us to our favorite breakfast place, Addi's. All the pictures I took of Adia and DiDi didn't turn out.


After breakfast, it was a quick trip to the fabric store (What? I had a coupon.) and then to the movies. The girls loved Wreck it Ralph. I agree, it was pretty good. It was slow in a few parts, but overall it was enjoyable. The twins fell asleep on the drive home and DiDi left, taking Adia with her. Leia was the first to wake up and she wandered around the house looking for DiDi and Adia. She was not happy to learn they had left and Daddy was gone at work too. Mira had a full on breakdown when she discovered their absence.


Sunday was supposed to be a house cleaning/relax day, but Daddy texted me at 8pm Friday night to say he'd be late. When he doesn't get off work for 6 more hours and knows he's already going to be late, you know it's going to be a long time before you see him. I got a few more texts saying he'd be later and later. He still wasn't home when we got up the next morning. At about 8am, he asked for caffeine and food. The girls and I ran to the store and through the drive thru to bring him something. He promised he'd be home by noon, 20 hours after he'd gone to work. He walked in the door at 11:35am. It's rare when he's actually right about timing. He slept for a few hours and then got up to hang out, but his whole sleeping schedule was off.

DiDi brought Adia back on Monday. The twins were so happy to see her, but very unhappy that DiDi wasn't staying. DiDi did take me shopping and I now have a new winter coat, hot pink sneakers and a few shirts. She bought me my last winter coat before I was pregnant with Adia! It's so warm and cozy.

Now Adia's back at school (yay!) and the twins and I are headed to storytime. We haven't been in a few weeks and our library books are terrible. Naia has a vet appointment this afternoon and then it's tumbling for the girls. I can't wait to see how the twins do.

Little Lady

We have a new little lady at our house. Her name is Naia and it's all Daddy's fault.


Daddy and I spent Sunday night on the coast while Gramma and Papa stayed at our house to watch the girls. On Monday morning, Daddy said we should stop by the humane society and see their kittens. I'd been toying with getting a kitten for 6 weeks or so, but all the places around here are crazy difficult to adopt from. They want to do background checks and home visitations. It's crazy! We visited the Florence Humane Society just as the doors opened and they had so many sweet and adorable kittens! We can easily say it was love at first sight. I picked Naia up and she immediately flipped over on her back and started purring. She was just a little ball of love and sweetness. We knew she had to be ours. Within 10 minutes we were filling out the paperwork to bring her home. She was scared in the cardboard carrier so we let her have free reign of the car. She ended up perched on Daddy's shoulder. When we got home, I was a little nervous how it would go with Tiger and Cheeto. I was hoping that since she's not even 4mo old and a female that Tiger wouldn't feel threatened by her. I figured Cheeto would be perfectly okay with her once he realized she was part of the group. I was completely right about Cheeto. He sniffed her, she didn't run or act scared and he immediately started wagging his tale. He sometimes gets a little mouthy and hyper around her, but she'll hiss or swipe at him and he'll back off. Tiger wasn't such an easy sell. He was terrified of her. She's used to other cats and looked happy to see him, but he started hissing if she dared get close. He followed her around, keeping a fair distance, but making sure she was always in sight. If she faced him, he'd hiss. He never took a swipe at her or acted aggressive, he just seemed frightened. She eventually just started ignoring him and claimed her spot on the back of the couch, right next to where Cheeto normally sleeps during the day. Tiger would just eye her from his cat tree.


Her first days here were a tad difficult on the accident side too. For some reason she decided Mira's bed made an excellent litter box. The first morning she pooped on Mira's pillow and peed on the mattress, body pillow and several stuffed animals. I'm glad we use waterproof mattress pads. The next morning, she peed on her bed again! I was getting worried since she was supposed to be litter box trained. We decided to take the lid off her litter box and leave her in the laundry room when we weren't home. I haven't discovered anymore accidents and I know she's been using her box. Yesterday, Tiger started to relax a bit. If they came close to each other, Tiger wouldn't hiss, but he was still uneasy. Eventually he came up and sniffed her while she continued to act disinterested. After the girls fell asleep last night, Naia was sitting under the coffee table and Tiger's tail was hanging over the edge. You can just guess how that ended. Naia went for his tail, he jumped, but it was like a light went on. You mean it plays??? That was it. They started playing tag all over the house. Tiger would chase Naia until he tagged her and then she'd chase him. Up and over furniture, under couches, all over the place. The best move was when Naia went under the swivel chair where Tiger no longer fits. She'd bap his paw and quickly retreat. He'd jump and try to get her. It was the funniest thing. Eventually they were all tuckered out. Naia jumped on the back of the couch and Tiger headed for his cat tree. When I went to bed, Naia followed. I woke up in the middle of the night with her curled up next to my head, purring like a chainsaw. Today, you would have thought they'd always been together. I caught them sleeping next to each other on the top of the couch. They both woke up to see what I was doing and then Tiger started grooming Naia! It was so sweet and she looked thoroughly pleased.


Despite being so tiny and cute, she's incredibly loud. The first night, she kept Gramma and Papa up by yowling in the laundry room. She woke us up at 5am on Wednesday by crying in the hallway. She obviously doesn't like to be alone and she couldn't seem to find us in the bedroom. Tonight, as I was putting the girls to bed, I could hear her pacing the hallway mewing and yowling. She purred and chirped when I opened the door to lay Adia down. However, she was not pleased to discovered "her girls" sleeping. She likes them, even though they're incredibly loud and like to pick her up by her head. Yes, we're working on that.

Happy Halloween!

The girls were so excited to Trick or Treat that I didn't get any good pictures. I can hope Papa succeeded. Mira had a Halloween Party at school on Tuesday and Daddy got a good picture of her with Leia.


We carved pumpkins yesterday too. Leia wanted nothing to do with the goo, but she did draw the face on her pumpkin. I think hers was my favorite. Mira and Adia drew their faces too.

Adia dates and the Pumpkin Patch

We've been seeing Gramma, Papa and DiDi quite a bit lately. They were all here on Friday to attend the Fall Festival at Adia's school. The girls had a blast playing games, bouncing the bounce house, making crafts and getting their faces painted. All 3 of them got their faces painted, but I only managed to get a picture of Leia since I was in charge of a game at the time.


The next morning, DiDi took the twins home with her and Adia got to have Mommy & Daddy all to herself. We played games, made sugar cookies, went out to dinner and read stories. Adia won at Sorry. She almost always wins.


The next morning, we met up with Gramma, Papa, Colie, Brad, Chelsea, Danny, Carson, DiDi, Mira and Leia at the pumpkin patch. It had been heavily raining for the last few days and the night before so Adia sung "Rain Rain Go Away" the whole drive. She must be magic because the rain stopped and the sun came out. The pumpkin patch was still incredibly muddy and cold, but at least the sun was out.


Adia was determined to find the biggest pumpkin in the field and have Brad carry it. She ended up with a 25lb pumpkin, so lighter than last year, but still pretty big. Mira and Leia still want to be able to carry their pumpkin so they ended up with some smaller ones. They had the hardest time choosing their pumpkins though and both ended up falling. Mira almost face planted in the mud. Her jeans and coat were covered in mud. Leia fell once in the patch and then landed on her bottom once we got back to the farm. She was thoroughly covered in mud.


As usual, we attempted a family picture when we got back. Big mistake. The girls were hungry and wanted nothing to do with it. Luckily, we got the group picture before we set off to find pumpkins. I'll have that picture tomorrow when I see Gramma and Papa again.


Since everyone was starving, we attempted going out for lunch. Our first try was a no go. They wanted to place us at two different booths. The next place had a 45min wait to get us all in. Finally we called ahead to PF Changs and got right in. The girls did really well in the restaurant and the twins ate a ton.


After PF Changs, Colie and Brad had to leave. Leia was not happy to see Colie go, but at least we get to see her on Halloween again. We decided to go to Euphoria for some chocolate for a little dessert. We then attempted more group photos since Oakway is all decked out in Autumn decorations. That was a bit of a disaster too since the girls were tired and the hay was soaking wet. I sat down and ended up with a completely wet butt. It was awful. The girls were exhausted when we got home.


Yesterday was a lazy day for Daddy and the twins. Mira spent most of the morning curled up in my lap with a bad tummy ache. Adia won Monopoly Jr. at the fall festival so we played that while Mira lounged in my lap. Somehow I won, but I'm not sure how since I wasn't really paying attention. Around dinnertime, Adia started complaining of a tummy ache too. She wanted to go to bed around 6p, so I snuggled her and read books. She made many trips to the bathroom, but was out cold by 7p. I woke up this morning with a terrible stomach ache. Whatever it was obviously made its rounds. Leia has been mostly okay. She said her tummy hurt for a little while, but is fine now. Daddy has been having some problems this afternoon. I just hope it's a one time thing and we're done.


I helped in Adia's class this morning. It's always fun, even if I'm just cutting paper for projects or collating papers. I just like watching what they do in class and how organized her teacher is. She's only in school for 2.5 hours, but they do so much! Daddy went to the dentist this afternoon and Adia decided to go with him. She loves the dentist, even if it's just watching someone else get their teeth cleaned. While she was gone, Mira helped me make a pumpkin pie. I picked up 2 pie pumpkins while at the pumpkin patch and I made puree out of them yesterday. Mira loves to bake and she was a great helper. We only had one big mess and it was an easy clean up.


Right now the house smells like autumn. I have cider with cinnamon sticks simmering on the stove and a pumpkin pie in the oven. It's making me hungry, but it's almost dinnertime so that's ok.