Nonna and Poppy are Here!

Nonna and Poppy weathered the storm and made it into Dallas just a little later than expected. The tornados around here and the thunderstorms made for a bumpy ride, but they are safe and sound on the ground. We ate dinner at the airport because the girls just couldn't go any longer without food and finally arrived back home around 8:30 p.m. The girls had Christmas again and you can see that Page is definitely a princess now. This is an authentic Disney World Cinderella dress complete with crown and glass slippers. She was in heaven! Emma got the animal train that she wanted and we could not find in Dallas or Baton Rouge for weeks. Nonna brought her camera so we will have pictures from the visit!

Page is 3!!!

We did celebrate Page's birthday last night. Here are the pictures of the girls anxiously awaiting cake and Page blowing out her candle. We did a very small cake since we had a big one for her party last weekend and since we would be the only ones eating it! I made a dairy free cake so that Emma could partake in the festivities as well. Page, as she usually does, ate all of the icing and left the cake for her daddy to eat :) I made a big Christmas dinner for us this year and left no time for decorating the cake. No one minded at all and I am glad that I didn't stress about it. After eating the cake the girls went off to play with all of their new toys, Will did some work on the computer and I spent the next two hours in the kitchen cooking and cleaning! This had to be the busiest Christmas I have ever had. It started so early and I felt like all I did was cook and clean. Next year we will be dining out since we will have a 4 year old, 2 1/2 year old and our 6 month old! I will definitely be too tired to cook.

More Pics from Christmas Day

Christmas Day

Page did not want her picture taken today so there aren't many to share of her. The girls had so much fun opening presents this morning. The baby doll set up from Nin and Grandma is by far the biggest hit with both of the girls. It came with a high chair, baby bed, car seat, diaper bag and stroller. We actually had to put it in Page's room so that the girls would stop fighting over it and open the rest of their presents. The dress up clothes from Maw Maw and Paw Paw were a big hit with both girls as well. Emma is still unsure of her giggle Elmo chair from Uncle Chris. Thank you to everyone for all of the wonderful gifts. We had a wonderful Christmas with our girls, but we wished we could have shared it with our family. Oh well, maybe next year. More pictures to come!

The Dresses

What to do when you get too many dresses for two girls to wear in one day? Change their clothes often! My parents and Will's parents both sent Christmas dresses for the girls. Luckily our church had regular services this morning and then a candlelight service tonight. I was able to dress the girls up this morning in the dresses from Nonna and Poppy, the sleeveless dresses. And then dress them up this evening in the dresses from Maw Maw and Paw Paw, the blue velvet for Page and the plaid dress for Emma. Emma's velvet dress did not fit, it was a lot too big, but it will definitely work for next year. Thanks to the grandparents for the beautiful dresses, our girls were the best dressed princesses there. Now to get Emma and Page to take pictures today we had to bribe them with marshmallows. Still no great pictures with both of them together, but at least we got a few pictures.
On a side note, Page had some very funny things to say tonight. Page was playing with some peppermints while I cooked dinner. She asked me if she could open a peppermint. I said no and she said "oops, just smile and wave." This is from Madagascar in case none of you have seen it. The penguin leader says this to the group of penguins when they get caught doing something. It is so scary that Page understands what that means! The other thing she said was when she was talking about her milk. We were in the van driving to church tonight when she said "that's cracka-lackin." Yet another quote from Madagascar. She has definitely seen this movie too many times!

Big Decorations!

In our little neighborhood of 4 streets, we have one house that has done some very interesting decorations. Page asks daily to go look at the "Big Decorations." We decided this afternoon to take a walk and see them so they could see them close up. Emma was a little distant but Page was all over their yard.

As you can tell we have a camera again, but not for long. I bid on one from eBay because the repairs were almost as much as a new one on eBay. To make a long story short, the camera doesn't zoom in and so I have to return it to them to repair. So I am waiting until after Christmas to send it back because I have to have a camera for Christmas!

Congratulations to the Braun's

Many of you may remember Ryan Braun from USM. He was a Sig Ep I think. Anyway, he married my cousin Michelle about 5 years ago. They have a little boy named Evan that is 2 1/2 and they gave him a baby brother this morning. They have named him Nathan and he was born today weighing in at 7 lbs. 4 oz. Congratulations to the Braun's for their newest addition!

Christmas Portrait

There was no amount of time that I could have purchased at the studio to get these two to smile at the same time. Emma actually cried a good portion of the time and I had to bribe Page with the promise of a cookie if she would smile when the photographer said to. I can't imagine what it is going to be like to get three to smile next year! Wow, what a thought. Anyway, here is their 2006 Christmas picture. We will be going back next week to get Page's 3 year old pictures done.

We are very busy right now getting ready for Page's birthday party, which is on Sunday if anyone will be in town, LOL. She wants Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty to come to her party and she wants EVERYTHING to be pink. I am going to do pink frosting, but I am not doing a pink cake. We have pink balloons, plates, napkins, table clothes, forks and cups. Any more would be sickening. Wait, there is nothing else that can be pink. Her presents from Maw Maw and Paw Paw arrived this week and they happen to be wrapped in pink princess paper. (I caught her out of her bed during nap time yesterday playing with them.) She is very excited and requests daily to have her party "right now." Everyone we come in contact with she tells them about her party and that she is going to be 3. I hate that my camera won't be in by this weekend. I am going to try my regular camera and just scan the hard copies I get developed. Hope it works.

Christmas Decorations

We finally got around to decorating this weekend. When we went to decorate outside we ran into a little problem. None of the outside outlets work! We can't do any outside decorations this year. Page was pretty upset about it. To console her we drove around looking at other people's decorations. Since neither of the kids took naps today the ride was a short one. Around 6:30 Page started asking us if we could go home because she was ready for bed. (Of course we drove straight home.)
On a side note the girls have been sick for a few days with a stomach virus/cold. Emma is a little worse than Page with her symptoms. While the girls were taking a bath tonight Emma let pooped in the tub. It was straight to the shower and then a nasty clean up for mommy and daddy. It is times like this that make me feel very much like a mom. No matter how grossed out you feel, you still do what needs to be done.

Emma the Big Sister!

This is a picture of a sonogram I had 2 weeks ago. I am now 12 weeks along and due in June. Things are looking good with this baby. I have been seeing the doctor almost every week since we found out and have been on asprin to help with the blood clots. The baby's heartbeat was in the 150's today and I am growing quickly. Morning (All day) sickness is starting to ease up as well, and that is a much needed relief! We will be finding out the sex in late January, early February. We'll keep everyone updated.

Too Loud

At dinner tonight Emma did something that she has not done before. Page was whining about dinner and Emma put her hands over her ears. Will and I started laughing. I asked Emma "do you not want to hear Page whining?" Emma started vehemently shaking her head yes! We had to put Page to bed at 6:30 tonight. She was so tired that she broke down crying about EVERYTHING! School days are so hard for her because she won't nap at school and she is exhausted for the rest of the day.

Broken Camera

Well, just in time for the holidays we have broken our camera! Actually Page broke our camera, but it was an accident. I hope to have it repaired soon, but until then I will just post funny stories.
Here is the first funny story. While making dinner tonight I noticed that the girls were being unusually quiet. Just as I was putting dinner into the oven Emma walked around the corner. Page had painted stripes all over her face and neck with a grey marker! I called for Page so that I could send her to time out and guess what, she looked almost exactly the same as Emma did except she had her hands painted too. It is amazing how fast they can accomplish things they WANT to do.

Santa's Village

The lighting of the Christmas Tree at the Civic Center was tonight. We went out for it and there was an entire village set up for the kids to play in. There were 16 different houses each with some type of goodie for the children. It was packed, of course, but it was beautiful! The hats the girls and I are wearing were made by my mom last year. The girls had scarves to match, but you can't see them because they are under their coats. I tried desperately to get a picture of the two girls smiling at the same time for our Christmas cards and for the third time it was impossible. I am going to have to send them out with one of them not smiling or no one will get cards from us this year! Anyway, they are going to have this village every weekend until Christmas so we will probably go back one weekend when it is not so crowded. We didn't get any of Mrs. Clause's cookies or have our picture done with Santa; the lines were just too long.

Arctic Blast

Winter has begun for us! We were in shorts on Wednesday as the weather was in the upper 70's. Well this morning we dropped to 30 degrees! We had snow falling all day. I took the girls out after I picked up Page from school. Emma wasn't thrilled with being out there, but Page was pretty excited. The first thing she asked was "where are the snow balls?" I thought that was so funny! She then picked up some of the snow and told me "this tastes just like ice!" We were only outside for about 5 minutes because Emma was pulling off her gloves and pulling at her coat.

The New Kitchen

Nonna and Poppy got the girls a new kitchen for the playroom. The are having a lot of fun playing with the new set. We had to rearrange the play room in order to fit the kitchen it is so big!

Apple Pie

Here are the girls making apple pie with my mom. Page is waiting for a paper towel to clean her hands and Emma is thrilled to have her hands dirty!

Happy Thanksgiving

My next door neighbor left this in our mailbox yesterday and it made me smile, so I thought I would share it with all of you. I hope everyone has a wonderful and thankful Thanksgiving Day!

'Twas the night before Thanksgiving, I just couldn't sleep
I tried counting backwards, I tried counting sheep.
The leftovers beckoned - the dark meat and white
But I fought the temptation with al of my might
Tossing and turning with anticipation
The thought of a snack became infatuation.
So, I raced to the kitchen, flung open the door
And gazed at the fridge, full of goodies galore.
I gobbled up turkey and buttered potatoes,
Pickles and carrots, beans and tomatoes.
I felt myself swelling so plump and so round,
'Til all of a sudden I rose off the ground.
I crashed through the ceiling, floating into the sky
With a mouth full of pudding and a handful of pie.
But, I managed to yell as I soared past the trees...
Happy eating to all - pass the cranberries please.
May your stuffing be tasty, may your turkey be plump,
May your potatoes and gravy have nary a lump,
May your yams be delicious, may your pies take the prize,
May your Thanksgiving dinner stay off of your thighs,
May your Thanksgiving be blessed!

Major Book Fetish

Okay, the real story.

Two weeks ago I decided to go down to a local computer store to pick up a few titles from the clearance section. While checking out several $0.99 books rang up as $0.10 items. When I went home I told Kerri, "Getting some books, even if they cost me $0.10 a piece and are out of date, is still a great investment." So, Sunday rolled around and I returned with family in tow. I filled up a grocery cart with, what I later learned to be 41 books, and headed to check out. At the check out the floor manager came up to me and said, "I've approved it with my manager, we're just going to give these to you. We're throwing them away tonight." Over $1,500 worth of books for the price of gas to the store.

The other Steele...Will

We are Still Here

I haven't been posting because all of our pictures are on a computer that we can not get hooked up to the internet! What a frustration. If Time Warner Cable ever moves to your area let me be the first to recommend satellite television. We are working on getting the Kodak software on Will's computer, but even that is a nightmare and my husband works with computers al day long! So, when that task gets fixed, I have tons of pictures to share.

I have been undergoing some blood tests and have an answer to my recurrent miscarriages, 4 total now. I have a rare blood disorder called PSD. My body is not making enough of Protein S which causes me to develop blood clots. Very small ones but big enough to cause problems for the babies. Some people are asymptomatic but others can start developing problems as early as in utero! I will be seeing a hematologist to discuss this more, but any of you nurses or nurses husbands who happen to be doctors, i.e. Adam, please feel free to tell me what you know. There is very little information out there.

We now have all of the parts to finish Page's princess room! Poppy paintedher room pink while they were visiting and hung some border, but we ran out an have been waiting fo rit to come in. She loves her room so much that she frequently tells us in the morning that different people or animals have come into her room at night to pray with her and to tell her how pretty her princess room is. It is hysterical to hear and see her tell these stories. She uses a lot of hand motions to really elaborate the point. The most common animals are water buffaloes and owls. (The water buffalo comes from a silly song on Veggie Tales, it is not completely random.) Also, everyone that comes to the house is invited by Page into her princess room to see how pretty it is. Upon entering she does some ballerina moves and twirls around until she falls on her bottom. (She only refers to her room as the "princess" room.)

A Little Late

Emma's 1 year portraits came in a lttle late. We had them taken while we were in Baton Rouge our last visit. Here are two of the portraits. Sorry for the big white spaces, I don't really know how to use our scanner and Will is still working!

RBFC Fall Festival

The church we belong to held a Fall Festival. There was so much to do that Page got completely overwhelmed. She did great at first going from booth to booth but after a while she would just stand there and not do the activities. I knew it was time to go home when she didn't want to play games and eat candy! Emma was a little young for everything but she loved seeing all of the people and balloons - her favorite thing.

Happy Birthday

Will is 30 years old today! I hope you have a wonderful birthday my love. You are a wonderful husband a a great dad to our girls. We are so blessed to have you in our lives. I promise to have that cheesecake made for you tonight, what would a birthday be ofr you without cheesecake?! Anyway, I hope you have a great day and that this next year all of your dreams will come true!

Pumpkin Painting?

Well, it all started with pumpkin painting. Then it moved to painting her hands and feet. Poppy then thought it would be fun to do some face painting. The pumpkin got very little paint on it, but Page got completely covered! It was so funny to watch her paint herself so intently. When she concentrates on something she sticks her tongue out and she had it out the whole time.

The Big Orange Pumpkin Patch