Christmas Morn'

Ugh. They woke us up at a quarter-to-seven, which I'm guessing is "sleeping-in" for some families on Christmas Morning! They came racing out of the room, needing no reminding of what was in-store for them=) The first thing the did was notice the new train-table Santa brought them. We had the lid on it, foolishly thinking they wouldn't notice the giant, new table until we showed them:) Ben walked right up to it, pulled the lid off and said, "It's a train table!". They moved on to their other presents and had a wonderful 10 minutes ripping through the paper. I thought it would take longer, but Ben was on fast-forward any time you put a present in front of him. Emily took her time and savored the experience, which made it easier to take pictures! Callie was the classic baby and enjoyed the wrapping paper just as much as the actual gifts! They all had a blast, and so did Dan and I. Christmas is getting more and more fun each year=)
Emily unwrapping her favorite gift, Sleepy Dreams Dora. This was the one gift she consistently asked for and it lived up to her every expectation:) It never left her side for the rest of the day!

Callie with one of her new toys!

Some new art supplies for Milly!

Turbo-Ben literally tore through his gifts. He was so fast!

B. with is #1 asked-for gift. He reaaaaally wanted a Nerf Blaster(blaster is the euphemism we use for gun). He was a reaaaaaally good boy, so Santa brought it. Yes. We armed our 4 year old. No, we didn't really think that through! He's been great with it, though. We explained that if he blasts it at a person, animal or breakable, it gets taken away. He's learning restraint while perfecting his aim;) Dan desperately wants to play with it, too!

Callie: "You paid HOW MUCH for this?! I mean, it's cool and all. But it's a chew toy!"

Ben with his Mimi-made stocking!

Where as Ben took each item out one-by-one, Emily wasted no time and just dumped it=)

All our stockings were made by mom and they are adorable! This is Callie's and it's especially precious=)

Emily helped Callie open her gifts, then unceremoniously dumped them on her lap!


Callie: "They got allll that, and I got an over-priced chew toy, some wooden-string thing and a pair of shoes?"


Callie was sick for her first Christmas(RSV, sinus infection and double ear infections).
She wasn't too holly-jolly!

The Snowmen cinnamon-buns we had for breakfast!

Mmmmm!


Ben: "uhhh, are there anymore presents?" He asked that ALL DAY LONG and every day since!

Here We Go 'A Wassailing

We made our annual Christmas Day-trip to Elk Grove and Woodland to visit Dan's family and had a great time! Ben, Emily and Callie loved getting lavished with attention(and gifts!) and Dan and I love catching up with his loved-ones. It's a loooong trip but so worth it=)

Ben with his Great-Grandpa Bill, checking out the present situation


Callie with her Great-Grandma Patti

Ben desperately trying to get his Nerf Blaster back from his daddy. Dan is such a big child sometimes!

Papa and his newest granddaughter spending some quality time

Playing with their Zhu Zhu pets!

More presents!!

Fav Gift #2-- Her Princess Presto wand, cape and crown!

"Wands Up!"

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at my mom's and Ben and Emily could hardly contain their excitement over opening presents! My mom got Ben a tool-bench, complete with working power tools and he was in heaven! He LOVES tools and has been playing with his tool bench nonstop since we got it home. He also got a new puzzle and a travel Hungry-Hungry Hippos game(he wanted the full-sized version but it had too many choking hazards! He didn't even know the difference but the travel-version is much safer for Emmie and Callie!).
Emmie got her first dollhouse and has been having the best time playing with it! She has just started really loving pretend-play so having this house filled with furniture and little people is perfect for her. Ben loves it, too, but it didn't come with a big brother doll(only a baby sister and a big sister). He rectified the situation by having Batman come to visit:) Emmie loves her new Tinkerbell chair and Dora puzzle, too! Callie got a new toy, too, that I'm certain Ben and Emily will hijack the minute I take it from the box! Thanks, Mimi! Dinner was delicious and the kids were thoroughly spoiled!

Presents!

Ben and Emily got to open a couple of presents early and they were beyond excited! First, we let them open their Christmas present from Nana and they couldn't believe their good fortune. Later in the day, my friend Leslie came to visit and brought them all some darling new clothes! We're already feeling so loved and blessed and it isn't even Christmas yet:) More gift-giving 'n getting to come!


This is the face of pure, cheestastic happiness!
He desperately wanted this toy gym bag filled with workout toys when we saw it on amazon.com recently.
I had to save the picture of it on our computer so I could easily access it whenever he asked me to show it to him(and he asked. A LOT!). He was absolutely overjoyed to open this present. Thank, Nana!

Emily IS behind there, grinning widely, I assure you!
She proudly showed off her new Tinkerbell movie, then demanded we watch it:)

We have been playing "Let's go exercise!" ever since he opened this.
I am the front-desk clerk at the gym and Ben hands me his card.
Then I tell him where to exercise, wish him a good work-out and sometimes count his reps for him:)

Leslie brought Emmie this crazy-cute puffy vest and Emmie insisted on wearing it right away.
She even took off her beautiful princess dress in order to try it on!
She wore it for the rest of the day, too:) Thanks, for ALL the cute clothes, Leslie! We love them!

Tongues A'Waggin

Callie has discovered her tongue recently! She sticks it out all the time and it's hilarious:) My grandma was notorious for the same thing so it's especially endearing. This makes me wonder if it means Callie will be a big gossip?!

Feed Me! Or, rather, DON'T!

Callie had been displaying all the signs of readiness for solids--interest in our food, sitting up will with assistance, ditching the tongue-thrust reflex etc. In all honesty, I've been dreading starting solids because it's just one more demand on my time. The three of them run me ragged with their relentless demands from wake-up to bed-time and I don't know how or when I'll fit in three solid meals for Callie on top of it all. But, she was so eager and it's a milestone and blah blah blah. I decided to give it a go and see what happened. I'm pleased to report rice cereal was a big, fat FAIL. She hated it. She spit it out over and over again and by the fourth attempt, started crying any time I brought the spoon near her mouth. Phew! She just bought herself another month on the ol' liquid diet:)


So eager and happy!

In it went and out it goes, again.

"Seriously? This sh** is nasty. How could you feed this to a baby?!"

Nooooo Mooooooore!
The baby cereal really was gross, apparently. Emmie begged me for a bite, despite my insistence that it was yucky for her. I let her taste the teeniest bit and she immediately spit it out. So gross was this rice cereal that she also started gagging. Poor girl actually threw up in her mouth! This is her, telling me "You're right, mommy. That WAS yucky. My didn't like it". Awww:( No more cereal for either of my girls!

Picture Me Rollin'

I'm sad to report that my attempts to stunt Callie's development thereby forcing her to remain a dependent baby for as long as possible have already failed. I foolishly thought that if I rarely did tummy-time, she'd be slow on the uptake and not learn to roll yet. The sassy little minx proved me wrong by learning to roll the harder way first--back-to-tummy. She also made me rue the day I decided to limit tummy-time by continually rolling onto her belly and then screaming her head off til I roll her back over(then repeating the whole wretched scenerio all over again!). Now I'm kicking myself because I can't just lay her on the ground anymore. She immediately rolls onto her belly and turns on the water-works til I pick her up again. She'll figure it out soon, this much I know. But there's a LOT of frustrated crying going on at our house(and only some of it's mine!) right now.


"Oh, hello there!"

At least girlfriend still isn't sitting up yet(insert evil laugh here).
This is the immediate result of any attempt to get her into the sitting position.
She just folds like a deck of cards and cries til I right her.