Puppy Dog Tent Madness!!

So, my sister got the kids this tent for Christmas and I just had to post the pictures from when we put it up in the living room.  This thing is great- just their size and pretty easy to put up and take down (if by "take down" you mean fold up as much as you can and shove it under your bed.  That thing will not fit back in the bag it came in.  IT. JUST. WON'T).  I digress- they had so much fun and we were cracking up watching them!

Checking it out..

 Oh yea!  Rolling around and testing the strength of the structure in no time!

 Time out- crashing heads was bound to happen!

 Time in- Ready to go!

 Peek-A-Boo!

 Time for a nap?

 NAAAHHH!!

Thanks for the tent, Aunt Hilary -was a hit!

What can you get done in a week..

When you're at home on vacation form work with two two and half year olds? Not much! I took the week off between Christmas and NYE and had grand plans to do things around the house, get organized, run errands, yada yada.. but I will admit I didn't accomplish much.

I don't regret it though, and I tried not to feel like a loser about it. I did manage to meet up with a few of teacher my friends were also off, which was GREAT.   I truly enjoyed playing with my kids, staying in our pajamas 'til noon, and running errands with them just to get out of the house and enjoy the fresh air. And might I brag just a little, that right now, in this point in time, they are AWESOME out in public. We went to Target and Hobby Lobby one day, and another day we met up with some girlfriends and their kids for a play date at McDonald's just to let them get some energy out and it went really well! Three different people at Hobby Lobby commented on how good they were (YAY!!). They just love to observe and look at everything around them and it makes them forget about fussing for a few minutes! Not that I could focus on get any real shopping done, but still.. a good time was had by all. One of my days off, my sister and her kids were in town and came by for a while and Nate and Lilly had a lot of fun playing with cousins while my sister and I chatted. All in all- an AWESOME week of vacation.  It went by too fast!

So let's document the week in pictures, shall we? That is usually the best way for me to do things here..

We did A LOT of coloring!  Lilly always wants me to join her- "Mommy, sit down, color!!"

Hours were spent looking through our wedding and honeymoon photo albums.. "Mommy!  Daddy!! Mommy!  Daddy!!"

Fun with cousins, playing beauty shop with Dolly..

 Mommy taking too many pictures?

I couldn't resist taking pictures of Nate in his big boy underwear (while we were attempting some potty training).  Don't ask me why he had to have shoes on even though he doesn't have pants on.. Weirdo!

Sweet little HINEY!!

Play date at good ol' McDonald's!  Nate and Logan had a blast while Lilly stayed very close to me..

Help! Problem downloading pictures!!

I was uploading pictures for my next post and got this message:

"Whoops! You're out of space. Purchase more storage.

Photos are stored in your Picasa Web Albums account and are included in your 1 GB free quota for photos. Additional storage you purchase is shared between Gmail, Picasa Web Albums, and Google Docs, and is in addition to your free quota."
 
I have had this blog over two years and never ran into this problem!  Has anyone else had to PAY to be able to put more pictures on your blog?  I think it said 5 or 10 dollars a year, but still - I thought this was FREE!!  Someone let me know if this has happened to them or if I'm doing something wrong please! 
 
THANK YOU!!

UPDATE:  I didn't hear anything, so I just paid for more storage- only $5/year for 20G, so no big deal..  I had to do something- Pictures are my favorite part of every post!!!

Christmas 2010!

Oh man, I don't know what it is about having time off, but I find it so hard to open up my computer! SORRY!  I have so much to fill everyone in on, but here is a good start..

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with family, with friends, or by yourself if that was the way you wanted it!! We had a great Christmas, although I had a hard time getting into the spirit of things this year for some reason.  I think I have just been overwhelmed with other things and just couldn't seem to focus.  Even after putting up the Christmas tree, sending out our Christmas cards and forcing myself to listen to Christmas music all day every day, it still didn't quite feel like Christmas for some reason.  We even baked Christmas cookies with the kids (for the FIRST TIME) the weekend before Christmas!  That was a lot of fun, but they had no clue what they were doing!!  Lilly was trying to decorate them, but Nate just wanted to eat all of the frosting!  Spoon fulls at a time- ICK!  The part of Christmas I love now is getting everything ready for the kids.  I love reading them stories about Santa Clause, and about Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus in the manger.  I love setting up their "Santa Clause" in a way that will guaranty the utmost excitement for each and every gift!  This year at 2.5 years old, they didn't completely get it, but it was SO MUCH more fun than last year!  I could tell they were happy about their toys and really wanted to play with all of their new stuff.  What I felt seeing them so excited, felt a lot like Christmas spirit!  So cute hearing them say and "Merry Mithmas!" (Nate) "Mewy Cwismus" (Lilly).  LOVE IT.  My sweet babies.

Here are LOTS of pictures!

When we decided to take his frosting away..

Hanging out in Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve just before bed..

SANTA!

A few from Christmas morning..They tore threw those presents!!  It was so fun to watch!! 

We spent Christmas Day at my Mom's with my sister and her family.  I didn't get too many pictures because there was so much going on and I just really wanted to put my camera down and enjoy Christmas!

My nephew showing me his WIGGLES CD!

 My neice..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Traumatic Santa Experience 2010!

This year we have been talking about Santa a lot, and Nate and Lilly were sooo excited to go see him!  Even in the car on the way there, they were all smiles and "I want Santa Clause!".  Of course that changed when the fat bearded man was front and center LIVE and they were forced to sit in his lap!  Lilly was screaming before I even sat her down and Nate was staring at Santa and tugging on his beard.  Once we got Nate's attention so he would turn around and look at the camera, Lilly was in full-on panic mode reaching out for me!   

We thought Nate was ok, but when we picked him up he was a little shaky too.

All in all, the experience was fairly painless for us and hopefully they will not remember the trauma and be forever frightened of Santa Clause.  I have the picture up and every time Lilly walks by it, she says "Lilly crying!" 

Just for future references- Nate, you were not allergic to the sun when you were a toddler.  You were not really this pale. I'm not sure why your face is as white as Lilly's tights unless you were just that frightened.

Oh my WORDS!

We have some serious talkers on our hands lately.  Some of it I have NO idea where they pick it up, but mst of the time it sounds VERY familliar!  Especially Lilly, she repeats, repeats, repeats!!! 

Some favorites:

"I want..(fill in here- particular movie, toy,  food, drink, or parent of choice at that moment)!!!"
"Mattie, no, no!  No, no, Mattie!" while pointing and shaking finger at Mattie (actually they do this to each other too)..
"Sit down!" - when they want you to stop running around and come sit down by them.. I love this one!
"Ahh MAN!"  - Nate says this and he got it from me, for sure!