Frosty!

What better way to spend Christmas than to build our own Frosty. We were both quite proud of our own little frosty. Neither of us were willing to give up our hats for him - it was snowing quite a bit when we were out there and it was very wet snow. And perhaps he wasn't as big as the "real" Frosty - but still we were proud!!!!

We even got the sleds out and I gave Megan a good sliding lesson on a little hill. She's getting ready for her big trip to Minnesota. This is just breaking her in!She loved it! And I have to admit, I loved it too!

Poor Daddy (ha, ha) had to stay inside and miss the snow action - he was hanging with a grumpy Nicole - who doesn't seem to be healing from her ear infections. But they were watching the action from afar.Right after we played, we ran inside to change and head to my parents for our Christmas stocking exchange. While we were gone the snow kept falling and we arrived home to snow that had not melted - but kept on piling up. I don't know for sure how much we got - but I'd guess it was at least 3 inches. We came home to a pretty winter wonderland. Here's to a new GA record - It's been 130 years since we'd even had a trace of snow on Christmas.

Merry White Christmas!

Megan is estatic that we have a white Christmas.... of couse to her all that means is - IT'S SNOWING! It started and about 30 minutes later I took this shot... It's now been snowing about 2 hours and our yard is white with a very very wet snow. Megan and I went out a little bit ago and I pushed her down the hill on her sled (thanks Uncle Tony and Auntie Dawn) and we made a little snowman... those pictures will be up later.

This morning, the girls were all excited about opening presents and seeing what Santa brought to them.

Megan was sooo excited that Santa brought her a little vanity. Oh my gosh, she's been so cute with it. And Nicole got a cool Princess push/ride-on toy. We've been having fun with that all morning.

megan also got Precious Places castle from good ole mom and dad. I have to say she's kept herself quite busy all morning. Even Tom was excited about his UMD Bulldogs shirt.

Both girls loved Nicole's new wagon. We had to make a little track in the house since it's so cold and wet outside.

All the gift giving has been fun and we've loved sharing these fun times with the girls, but it was so sweet to hear Megan pray at breakfast and tell God thank you that it was Jesus' birthday and that we got to celebrate. In the midst of all the "Stuff" it's hard to keep their little eyes on God's greatest gift to us, His Son!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful celebration to end this time of Advent. As Megan proclaimed today, "Mommy, the season of having to wait is over!" Yes it is, it's the eve of Jesus' birthday - to remind us of that truth we went to our family Christmas eve service tonight. To make it even more special, Megan got to be in it for the first time. She was a lamb...Megan had a great time singing in it. At some point I'll get the video uploaded and you'll see how much fun she had. Not only did she love singing (and her impromptu dance solo) but she loved being with her friends - like Mary Grace...

And singing with Doss....

And Andrew (his mom and I lead the Joyful Noise 3 year old choir)...
Nicole seemed to like watching her sister (once mommy finished her choir duties and got to hold her).

So as Advent comes to a close.... may this season of waiting fill your hearts with hope and joy.

Merry Christmas Ev!

We are still here....

I know I haven't been on here much....
Were you worried?

We are still here - just a bit swamped and computer time has taken a backseat.
Megan has had several "concerts" (her word for it) recently.... she sang at church, she sang at her school church (the church where her preschool is located) and then last night their school had their Christmas performance. I have tons of video but just haven't had time to get it uploaded - but here are a few shots of my Angel!They did a great job - can you find Megan in the swarm of angels and shepherds?One of the reasons I haven't had a chance to really get on the computer is that Megan has dropped her nap (they are now an exception and not the rule). Which means I have lost virtually all the free time I had during the day so my naptime creations are not being created and my evenings are full of all the chores I didn't get done during the day.

As you can see from this picture of my Angel - by the evening, she's done.....

But hopefully I'll get a routine down soon and we'll be back to keeping track of all those awesome memories. Hopefully I'll get some more pictures up soon.

Funny Stories to Remember

Oh I've been horrible getting to the blog at night... I'll try to do better, I promise. But I had to post a few funny and/or memorable things that I just don't want to forget (especially for non-facebook family)...

Megan: what a cutie. She's trying to drop her nap. And I'm letting her. It's been a rough go of it because she gets grumpy and if we go anywhere after 4 pm we risk her falling asleep in the car. And I lose MY time everyday (hence, no blog updates). We are working on her having some quiet alone time each day... but she hates being alone so much that it's been a challenge. The positive side of that is that she's ready for bed by 7:30! WooHoo!!!!! She also has those super cute moments that make you want to just hug her and never let go. Like when she runs up and tells you, "It's your special day!" And you ask, why and her response is, "because you get to sit next to me!" I just love her - and she sure does make me feel special.

Nicole: Oh she loves dogs! You will know if she sees one -real or a picture - because she'll start barking. It comes out sounding like, "ouh ouh ouh ouh" It's very cute - and loud! You might not realize how many posters of that Target Dog there are at your local Target... unless you are with a girl who barks at every one of them. :^) Today we were at a craft store and she was barking constantly - I couldn't find a dog anywhere and couldn't figure out what she was doing - I thought she was just excited to see all the people. Until suddenly she lunged for a coat in someone's cart. Suddenly I realized that she'd been barking at everyone who was wearing a coat that was lined with fur. Which is obviously the IN thing because she pretty much "barked" at everyone we passed. I started laughing and the lady who's cart we were next to thought I'd lost it, so I explained that my baby thought her coat was a dog and she was barking at it.... Let's just say she was not as amused as I was. Really, it wasn't a slam on the coat... I'm just glad that I didn't buy one last week when I was looking at them. She'd be barking at me all day!

And the biggest change in the Blaisdell household..... (drum roll please.......)...... Last night, for the first time in almost 13 months - I DID NOT PUT NICOLE TO BED! I went out and Tom put her down! I know - hard to believe.... 13 months without a night off - every bedtime feeding was mine. But this is the baby who wouldn't take a bottle - and now who won't drink milk. So - she was mine. It's taken a month to wean her off her final nursing time and find a bedtime routine that didn't involve a cup of milk or something... but it's done and now I'm so excited about finally getting a REAL date night (one that doesn't involve me being back home by 8:30 to feed Nicole).

Nicole is also a pro a kiss blowing -and for the record has 12 teeth and seems to be working on another one. She is not walking but seems to be working on mustering up some courage and will occasionally take 1 step to something. She is so fast at crawling that she's not in any hurry to walk. Both girls currently have ear infections and both are having asthma flareups due to the cold weather. Christmas cards aren't done, shopping isn't finished, but life is FULL and fun!

Ho Ho Ho!

The Christmas Season is officially upon us! String the lights, sing some carols, decorate the tree... and hop up on Santa's lap to whisper what you want for Christmas.

Megan was very polite and thanked Santa for letting her come see him (melted my heart), and Nicole just asked for Santa to let her go so that she could escape the clutches of the man in red and get to her MOMMY!!!!!!!!

We were excited that we got one picture of Nicole not crying. Tom and I even got in a shot with Santa, but not even that made Nicole happy... she was still just too close. Megan had that dear in headlights look because she was trying to keep Nicole from crying.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! May this be a day full of reflection... a time to count your blessings. This has been an awesome year and we will definitely take some time to reflect upon all the ways God has poured out his blessings to our household.

We are heading to AL to visit my extended family there - Nicole said she would help with the driving....
But I've been asking Megan - what she's thankful for (we have a little Thanksgiving tree and we write things we are thankful for on leaves and tape them to the branches)... that little cutie has come up with everything from "I'm so thankful for you!" to "I'm thankful I'm a big sister!" to "I'm so thankful for Cinderella's castle!!!!!" Here she is being thankful for her princess puzzle.
And although she may not have the words to tell me, here is Nicole being thankful for smoothies!

Speaking of little Nicole... she's been a bit grumpy lately and today I figured out why! She had 2 new teeth suddenly pop through (literally overnight), and another is right under the skin. Yeah - that would mean she's gotten 3 teeth in 2 weeks... that brings the total to 11 teeth in 12 months and 2 weeks. wow!

Why I LOVE Fall

The approach.... The leap....

The impact (look closely and you'll see parts of her peaking out of the leaves)....

The recovery...

That's why I love fall... it's just so much fun to be outside!

Nicole wasn't so sure about the leaves.

But this fall beauty loved being outside. We'd been talking about jumping in leaf piles for weeks - finally today Megan got her wish!

While Megan jumped to her hearts content - Nicole played in the playhouse. This was her first day to actually be in there. And I have to say - she loved it and it's inspired me to figure out how to make our outside play area a little more play friendly (which means, how to clean it up so it's not all muddy all the time).

Megan took advantage of the leaves and made a pile to slide into...

Sheer joy for a 3 year old!

And Nicole was all about being with her big sister. Nicole thinks that Megan is the best entertainment of all!

It's official! Nicole loves Fall too!!!!!

What about you.... do you love fall?

I know we'll love winter too.... espcially if there is some snow this year - but right now, we are really enjoying the great fall weather!

Minnie

Tonight we had Nicole's "official" 1st birthday party. Grandma and Papa just got here from MN so we had a fabulous family gathering with all my family and Tom's parents.

For Nicole birthday - Megan really thought she needed a Minnie Mouse cake.... Nicole loves the Disney characters (yes, at this age Megan didn't know what the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was - but Nicole does!). So.... I put on my super mommy cake and went to work to make a Minnie cake for Nicole.

I have to admit - I'm really proud of my Minnie cake... It's my first "character" cake and I think it turned out pretty good... and it was yummy. Even Nicole thought so - she got part of Minnie's bow.

And then her big sister, and all her cousins, helped her open her presents....

It was a fun evening celebrating that sweet little girl! Happy Birthday (again) our sweet angel.

And did I mention that this past week she got another tooth... tooth 9. And I think the 10th one is right on it's tail.

The Feast

Today at Megan's school, they invited the parents for a Thanksgiving Feast! Before we actually partook of the feast, all the 3 year old classes put on a little musical presentation... Nicole was anxiously awaiting the arrival of her big sister.

Oh my goodness, they were cute!

And they were great little performers. They wowed us all with their Pledge of Allegiance, then they sung God Bless American and a great little pilgrim song.

You can tell Megan had had some "stage time" because she sang out loud... I loved it. She's definitely a singer, like her daddy!

Make A Joyful Noise

I would like to proudly present The Joyful Noise Choir: Really, there's not much sweeter than hearing 3 year olds singing songs about Jesus. And sometimes that "singing" may be a bit off key, a bit off the beat, and hey - perhaps a few creative liberties were given to the actual lyrics.... but it IS a joyful noise!

Our little choir sang during both the traditional and contemporary church services today and I must say they were well recieved! After the first service, Tom laughed and said - you and Susan (my fabulous partner in crime with these litte ones) looked lik you were having as much fun as they were.....

And those sweeties of ours were so stinking cute!!!!!

Megan loves singing with one of her BFF's - Mary Grace.

We really didn't know how today would go... would they sing? who would be crying? What "fun times" would await? We had a few "creative verses" sung, lots of yelling the words, some arm swinging, some hysterical facial expressions, one dart off stage and then return again, a few tears, lots of smiles and 9 adorable singers! All together we have 13 kids in the choir. We knew that 2 wouldn't be there. And we had 2 that experienced a bit of stage fright. But the other 9 we truely stars today!

I'm so proud of them... especially my little performer!

I'm working on getting some video up. Tonight blogger is not cooperating.