Some Holiday Cheer

We had a great Christmas here. The girls are still having a blast with all of their new things. Lots of new babies are gracing our home along with many other fun things to play with. I spent the whole day after Christmas sorting the new and old toys, unwrapping them and putting things away. We are impatiently awaiting nicer weather so that the girls can ride their new bikes outside. Shelby asked me the other day if the snow would go away now that Christmas is over. Oh, how I wish that were how it worked dear girl! I know that I have no use for snow after Christmas, but unfortunately that is not how Mother Nature works in Northern Illinois.

We have another week to enjoy before heading back to our routines. We have very little that we must do during that time which is great because I am enjoying catching up on some reading and just relaxing. Here are some pics to highlight some of our holiday fun.

Both girls got a new lap desk for coloring, writing, drawing, etc. They were simply but lovingly hand-decorated by mommy (with her limited artistic abilities).
Shelby opening a new princess Barbie.

Sarah's new strider bike. It was the perfect choice for her. She was able to climb on and ride right away with very little help from us. That would not have happened with a typical pedal bike. She spent every spare minute Christmas morning riding it around the house. Nate still isn't convinced it's a real bike (with no pedals) but it certainly is to Sarah!

Shelby's new bike. Her's was harder to maneuver than Sarah's smaller bike around the house but she had fun pedaling it around the house just the same!

The girls are here modeling one of the many hat sets they got for Christmas. You can never have too many in this cold weather! The best one was a handmade set from Nate's Grandma Hansen. As soon as I can get the girls to slow down and put them on, I will post a pic of them in that set.

Frustrated!

Hi, hope everyone had a great Christmas. Our family did, the girls got so many great things. I promise to post some pics about it soon, but first I have to vent my frustrations over my little Sarah's eating habits.

I know that I've written about this before, but I sometimes feel like it's getting worse, not better like I think it should. We have just spent 2 really unhappy dinners in a row with a crying child who refuses to eat anything on her plate besides the fruit and bread (if that's offered). I have always been of the opinion that natural consequences should do the trick because, hey if you are hungry enough then duh you'll eat, right? Not so with stubborn little Sarah! She tells us she's full (when she hasn't eaten since lunch) and if we ask if she wants to grow up to be strong and healthy she tells us no she likes to be little! Do ANY of you have any more pearls of wisdom for me? Nate has been trying to make her sit at the table until bedtime (about 1 to 1 1/2 hours after dinner) just to get her to eat a bite. Mind you, we're not trying to make her clean her plate, just give the food a try.

In contrast, Shelby is doing really well about trying things. She may not always like it and finish it, but she at least tries which is all we are asking.

Okay, I'm done venting now but really if you have any pearls of wisdom that don't involve physically shoving the food down her throat (because that has crossed our minds) please, please let us know!

You won't believe this one!

Hi all! Well my good news will come first in this post, I am sitting here typing on my NEW computer which was a anniversary/Christmas gift from Nate that I got to pick out myself (those are sometimes the best kind of gift -- just what I want). The other bit was the extra day we had added onto our Christmas vacation with today's snow day.

That would be great except that today is Nate's and my 10th anniversary. Not so fun when your hubby was out all last night, most of the morning and is now out plowing too. Wow, 10 years, like I told him this morning it has flown by and yet it seems that we've been a part of each other's lives for so long that I can't remember what life was like before him. Nate doesn't ever read this or I'd give him a better shout out than that.

Now for the part you won't believe...ever have days when you can't believe the human race? We had one of those on Wednesday. We were out finishing up some Christmas shopping. The Santa presents this year are bikes for the girls. We found Shelby's at Toys R Us -- a hot pink Barbie one right up her alley and Sarah has been telling anyone who will listen that she wants a YELLOW bike for Christmas. Well, Toys R Us didn't have any in her size so we called around from the truck and learned that Wal-Mart had one. We went in for about 15 minutes, decided that the Tonka bike wasn't yellow enough, and went out to the truck, pick up the girls from my mom and went home.

After we put the girls to bed we went out to get our purchases, but there was no longer a bike in the back of the truck. That's right, someone stole our daughter's Christmas present! I have never been so disappointed and sad in my whole life about the world we live in. I mean, really, you stole a child's bike a week before Christmas? Come on! Mind you, this bike was in the back of Nate's chip truck which is enclosed, tall , and the bike was hidden behind a pile of wood chips and a garbage can.

We will buy her another bike for Christmas, but what if we couldn't afford to? Could someone really sleep at night thinking they stole someone's Christmas gift and a child no less? So, it seems that we are going tomorrow to try again. And we found a yellow one for Sarah, but it is a little different. Check this out. It doesn't have pedals which is good because it will probably be a good year before she can pedal. She will run to make it go. I've heard they're great for developing those motor skills and balance and that it is easier to transition to regular bikes without training wheels after riding this. I think it will be great, but Nate isn't so convinced yet.

That's my terrible Christmas story and I hope it's my last.

If I don't post again before, have a Merry Christmas!

The Big S.C.

We took the girls to visit Santa this morning. Might I add in a much more sane way by having breakfast with Santa this year instead of braving the mall like last year. We spent an hour and a half last year waiting in line only to have both girls cry while we paid way too much for a picture. This year, for the price of pictures we got breakfast and to take our own pictures. Shelby also had an hour to decide that she would talk to but not sit with Santa. We'll take that, it's better than nothing. We will definitely do this again next year!

Here's Shelby feeling very hesitant about the big guy...she later told us that "big girls" don't sit on Santa's lap. We don't know where that came from and asked where the little girl stage went since she didn't sit on his lap then either???

Sarah the brave one walked right up to Santa and sat on his lap like a champ. She asked for a yellow bike. Gee, I hope he can deliver on that one. Daddy snapped this picture of the girls with Santa.

We hope you are enjoying this fun holiday season as much as we're trying to with the little ones.

A Bear's Birthday

Our main guy around here, Nate will be celebrating his 34th birthday tomorrow, so I took him to a Chicago Bear's game for his big day this past Sunday. We had a great, but COLD time there! It was our first pro football game, and I'm thinking it won't be our last. What a treat to have a whole day to ourselves so thanks goes out to Nate's brother Brandon, his wife Deanna, and her son Julian for entertaining and taking care of the girls for us on Sunday. They had a great time there and came home totally pooped out! Here is a pic I took near the end of the game (that's why the stands are so empty) and then one we snapped of ourselves so that we could remember our adventure.

In other news...we're in full-on holiday mode around here. The girls have an advent calendar for the first time and the highlight of their days has been coming home to see what their treat is for that day. We are going to visit the big guy (Santa) this weekend and we'll hope for better results than last year when there were lots more tears than smiles about our visit. We are going to a breakfast with Santa at a local golf course this time around in the hopes that having more time to check him out will help the girls not freak out quite so much. Time will tell...

I still have LOTS of Christmas shopping left to do, and my grinchy hubby isn't helping me out much. I had a sitter all ready to go for tomorrow, but he doesn't want to shop on his birthday! I tell ya, if it were up to that guy we'd be shopping on December 24 as the stores closed and our family would get whatever we could find as their gift. I just keep telling myself that it will all get done in time, but the question is whose???

One last complaint...I have been exercising my patience for the past week and a half waiting for my new computer to ship from Dell (my Christmas/anniversary gift from Nate). It was supposed to ship today until I got an e-mail telling me that it will now ship on or before December 19! What? I have to wait another almost 2 weeks? So not fair.