Getting Ready for Christmas

We started decorating for Christmas the week after Thanksgiving.  The kids like the Fisher Price nativity set.  Tyler was so cute--he thought the angel was a butterfly.  (And yes, the kids can sit on the coffee table, or stand on it for that matter, because it's one less thing for me to monitor.  It hasn't even been out for the last month since we put the tree up.)



We got our real Christmas tree at Lowe's.  We only got the lights on the first day, but the kids loved it.









Here it is decorated.  (Notice where all the decorations are.  Um, it's pretty obvious that we have 2 toddlers on our hands, huh?)  The presents only lasted 10 minutes under the tree once the girls discovered them.  They both brought me presents to show me their "finds."  Then Emily started to open one of the presents and then both girls pulled all of the bows off and put them all on one present.  The presents have been up on top of our bookshelf ever since.



Um, Christmas trees should not look like this:



My best guess is that our Christmas tree stand was weak after 7 years of use (?) because even though my neighbors Cindy and then Rachel came over to help me, we never could get it to stay standing upright.  Megan, Emily  and I ended up heading to Lowe's to buy another Christmas tree stand one day while Tyler was in preschool.  This baby cost $52 (Sheesh!) and comes with a lifetime warranty.  It better be good.  I ended up taking all of the lights and ornaments off and redecorating the whole thing.  (Double sheesh!)  So even though this particular real tree has been a royal pain, I love that I can still get a whiff of that "real Christmas tree" smell every day.

Tyler is getting so excited for Santa Claus to come.  He keeps saying Santa is going to bring him a firetruck.  And in case you didn't know, Santa says "Yo ho ho!" according to Tyler.  (I guess he's seen the Pirate Dance on Dora a few too many times. Hee!  Hee!)

Our annual Christmas sugar cookie decorating.  Emily and Megan were guardians of the sprinkles and kept shaking them like maracas.









We've been singing "Jingle Bells" lately.  Both Megan and Tyler can sing it according to their respective ages and abilities.  Tyler knows a lot of the words but he wouldn't let me video tape him.  Here is Megan (with a candy-cane stained mouth) singing, "Jingle Bells.  Jingle all way."

More Stuff

The girls are getting really good at using forks to eat.  They use them for "easily stab-able" foods like pancakes, waffles, etc.  They still prefer their fingers for most things.

 

Spoons are a little trickier, but oatmeal is the perfect food to practice with because it sticks to the spoon.  (It usually works pretty well until they decide to switch back to using their fingers to eat oatmeal.  Uh, yeah, that's messy!)



Megan thought she'd use her fingers to smash all the peas.  Emily left hers untouched.  These two are sooo picky!  Sometimes they like a food and then the next time they turn their noses up at it.  So frustrating!



It appears that I left the open box of tissues too close to the edge of the counter.  They were having all kinds of fun here.  Megan even found Darrell's cell phone and was playing with that.



This is where the girls get their hair done everyday.  This is the only place where they will stay semi-still for me so I can get the rubber bands in their hair.  They like playing with the normally untouchable things around the sink.





Emily moved the chair over by the blockade to the bookshelf, climbed up on the chair and into Tyler's booster and helped herself to a book.  She was reading it and so pleased with herself when I found her.

Megan plays with this WAY more than Tyler does.  She loves putting cars and all kinds of objects down the tracks.





We've been playing with the blocks lately.  I'll sit down with the kids and we build towers.  The girls and I made this today while Tyler was a preschool.





 

Stuff to Remember

This post doesn't have the most interesting content or the best pictures for that matter, but it does contain things that I want to remember about our life right now.  (It seems like every time I go to grab the camera to catch something they quit doing whatever it was that I was going to capture.  And then when I do take a picture it's when the kids are in action or not looking, etc. and nothing turns out very well.)  The kids keep changing and learning new things and I'm afraid they'll have moved on to something else if I don't hurry and post these pictures now. 

All three are milk guzzlers.  They'd all drink milk all day long if I let them.  Here they are one morning before breakfast.  (Yes, Tyler still uses a sippy cup because it's just easier since the girls do right now.)



Megan likes playing with Tyler's cars and driving them anywhere she can.  This picture is significant because we've reached a milestone--the girls just sit at the table now, they don't climb on top of it.  Yay!  Below Megan is storing cars and toys in the microwave of their kitchen.




The girls love carrying the stool around and then placing it just right so they can stand on it to reach things.  (Lovely!)  Emily brought the stool down the stairs this night.



The kids love watching Dora the Explorer DVDs from the library.  Both girls say "Dora" when they see her.  Megan and Tyler are the biggest fans.  They will watch it while I try to get things done.  Emily would rather hang out with me most times.



Tyler hides cars and other toys under the couches and beds.  If he's ever looking for a specific car or truck, we always have to go check under every hiding place.



Megan, Tyler and Emily have fun crawling through the tunnel between the couch and the wall.



Tyler is NOT interested in potty training and I'm not interested in forcing him to be interested so he wears pull ups.  He put one on his head like a hat and Emily wanted to copy him.  They ran around like that and had the greatest time.




Emily and Megan can now walk up the stairs.



Megan and Emily can also get themselves up on the couch now.  You'll notice Tyler has my "wrap around tie thing" (belt?  Is that what they call it?) that goes with my robe.  A few weeks ago he would always steal it and use it to play Rapunzel.  He would hold it up to his head and pretend he had long hair.  I had to put an end to such fun because my belt was always somewhere different around the house.  I'd always have to go searching for it when I wanted to put my robe on.  Instead I cut 3 pieces of "hair" from some old fabric, but none of the kids think that those are very fun.



Emily having fun with the Sunday newspaper. 



This is the aftermath of the girls hanging out in the kitchen with me while I made lasagna.



All three kids love books.  Yay!  Megan especially loves pulling them off the bookshelf and reading them.  Tyler and I always read together on his bed before his nap.  No matter what other books we read, we always end with his Clifford dictionary followed by "In a People House."  Tyler has the whole text of "In a People House" memorized and "reads" it to me.