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.