christmas '09: part 1

christmas was fabulous.  we started our celebrations on christmas eve by picking grandma up from the airport.  once we got home, grant and i put her right to work taking care of the girls:

i finished up and served dinner (pot roast with carrots, crash hot potatoes, yorkshire puddings, cesar salad, and my mom's raspberry jello salad):

 then it was time to pop open the traditional christmas crackers:

and wear our lovely crowns:

after we finished eating:

we hosed the girls off and then read luke chapter 2, using a nativity to make it more kid friendly for them.  after we finished reading, we asked hazel some questions to see if she understood why we celebrate christmas.  when asked who's birthday it was she exclaimed, "it's jesus time!"  once hazel and lucy were tucked into bed, we got everything ready for the morning.  it was so fun, putting out the presents.  i was looking forward to the girls' excitement:

and they didn't disappoint.  both hopped onto their bikes as soon as they came out:

finally, present opening time.  hazel got very enthusiastic, opening not only hers but everyone else's.  we had to move fast in order to keep her hands full:

lucy, on the other hand, just wandered around, carting a wrapped present and her m&m's:

or playing with something hazel had already unwrapped:

eventually, she got down to business:

and she loved everything she got:

does that face look familiar?  i thought so too:

anyway.  once the frenzy was over and i had recieved some really awesome presents:

like season 5 of lost and................................................a new camera!!!!!!!! so excited about that one (apparently my subtle-as-a-sledgehammer hints worked).  i'll post more about it when i figure out how to use it. since both girls got bikes, of course we had to try them out. so we bundled up (it was sunny, but freezing outside) and headed out:

grant had a blast testing out hazel's bike several times (until she started crying and begging for a turn):

lucy stayed true to character and wandered around, rather than riding her trike.  we then headed off to our park:

where they played until their noses were running and their hands were numb:

christmas day to be continued in part 2...

i had a little turtle...

this is going to be a looooooong post. just warning you. lots of pictures and disjointed stories. so before you begin: grab a comfy chair and some warm cocoa (crank the a/c if you happen to be in houston so the warm drink will be palatable).  i'll wait......there, are you ready? alrighty then, let's begin:

several sundays ago, i was trying get myself and the girls ready for church.  we were planning on picking someone up, so the pressure was on for us to actually make it a few minutes early (we usually average about 10 minutes late).  anyway, i had the girls ready to go and to keep them occupied while i finished up i turned on the ever present babysitter:

i thought they looked particularly cute as the tv burned their eyes out.  lucy especially tickled my heart:

she loves combs.  i imagine that will change once she has hair with tangles to comb out. 

when i was feeling ambitious (i.e. not sick) last week, i had grand ideas of making several kinds of cookies to give to neighbors.  lucy had other plans:

she grabbed that one and in the process stuck her fingers in several others. oh well, grant thought the cookies were too sugary anyway.

you may recall that we've been potty training hazel for the past month.  some of it has been promising but a lot of it has been frustrating.  especially when i have to practice patience.  i'm not very good at that (surprise, surprise).  we're pleased to announce that hazel is 87.4251% potty trained:

hazel's pretty proud of herself.  she now wears panties all of the time (not on her head) and we feel safe taking her out into public again. she has also started telling us when she needs to go rather than waiting for us to ask.  we've only had two nighttime accidents, the first two nights we tried and since then she has managed to make it until morning or wake us up when she needs to go.  she's done so awesome.  we still need to work with #2 but we're so happy she's finally this far along.

we have a guest for the next couple of weeks staying with us now:

our friends are in colorado for the holidays and needed someone to babysit (turtlesit?) him.  how could i turn them down especially when i knew how excited hazel would be:

and she is.  she loves feeding him and talking to him. we have started keeping him in our room during the day so that she's not tempted to 'feed' him all of the crumbs and fluffs she picks up off the floor.  don't worry, kelsy and brad, we'll keep him safe from hazel's enthusiasm.

here comes the really exciting part of this post. on saturday, our friend amanda (who takes beautiful pictures, seriously look at her blog) took ours.  we spent the morning on rice campus chasing the girls and trying to get them to pose with us.  while we got lots of excellent pictures of hazel and lucy, it was a lot more difficult getting one of the four of us all looking at the camera and smiling. the pictures sort of speak for themselves, so i'll keep the commentary to a minimum:

i love lucy's toothy grin.

this is one of my favorites:

the bushes were calling:

love the fall colors in this one:

hazel was such a poser the whole time.  it was really cute:

thanks so much, amanda! you did awesome. by the way, since i have pictures now i'm putting together our newsletter. so if you want one (and trust me you do, i didn't post the pictures in the letter. ha! foiled y'all.), email me your address: rutheo13(at)gmail(dot)com

finally, on sunday, we headed over to amanda and matt's for dinner and gingerbread house decorating. 

before:

during:

yes, poor lucy was banished to her highchair.  she was surprisingly well-behaved.  we passed her candies every now and then, and i gave her my gingerbread tree to eat. hazel had so much fun and loves her house:

after:

i'm quite proud of mine and have refused to eat it so far.  the best part is round the back:

yep, i made a litte snowman.  i'm so clever, i know.

well, that was a doozy.  since this will probably be the last post before christmas, we hope you all have a very happy one and new year too.   xxx

birthday + (christmas x 2) = 1 busy weekend

[before i begin this post, i have to say how upset i am. somehow, while transferring my pictures to the lappy, my absolute favorite one got erased!  i'm so sad. i'm 99.834256% sure that it wasn't me.  i think it was my lame camera.  at least that's what i'm telling myself. and apparently in my distress, i didn't take care of any of the red eyes. sorry.]

this past saturday was a busy day.  in the morning we took the girls to pump it up for alex's 6th birthday party (he's grant's professor's son and hazel's good buddy). and right here is where i would have put a super cute picture of hazel and alex.  grrrrrrrrrrrrr.  anyway, the girls had a ton of fun playing.  it took them a bit to warm up to all of the bouncy things.  hazel kept climbing up the stairs to this large slide:

but it took grant sending lucy down (by herself!) to get hazel to try:

yeah, i don't think lucy really enjoyed it but at least she didn't cry.  in fact, she giggled once i helped her off.  maybe because her ride of terror was over?  this was when hazel decided to try:

and she loved it.  she went down over and over again.  while i was staying by hazel and i thought grant was watching lucy, lucy figured out how to climb into the bouncy tent things:

she had fun collecting all of the balls and throwing them.  eventually hazel went through the obstical course:

she did really well even with all of the older kids blowing past her.  then it was time for juice and cake:

even "the baby", as everyone refered to lucy, sat at the table drinking from her juice box:

and here's the only picture of the birthday boy (with his mom and dad) that i have, thanks to my camera:

after singing to alex, the cake was passed out and, like sharks to blood, my girls attacked:

thank you for inviting us, alex!  we hope you had a great birthday!  after we got home, i headed out again, this time sans husband and kids.  some friends and i decided to get together for a christmas treat exchange of sorts.  we all brought something to make.  i took gingerbread cookies and stuff to make toffee.  sadly, i messed up [undercooked] the toffee (surprising and sad, since i make several times a year).  amanda made her mother-in-law's orange rolls, kelsy made popcorn balls and a cream cheese ball, and jan made nuts 'n bolts.  all of it was delish.  i took some pictures of the food but they didn't look very appatizing.  hilariously, amanda and i wore the exact same thing:

yes, those would be our pw shirts from the book signing.  we're awesome, i know.  and here's a lovely picture of jan (what pregnant woman doesn't love a picture of herself eating) and kelsy chatting and snacking:

then that evening it was time for the ward christmas party.  it was a bit of a struggle keeping lucy from running wild and by the time santa made his appearance, we were ready to bag the whole thing.  but hazel was really looking forward to seeing santa, so i wandered the halls of the church with lucy while grant waited in line with hazel.  i made it back in time to watch hazel casually walk over and climb onto santa's lap, so in a hurry i handed him lucy as well.  here is the resulting picture:

lucy trying to squirm her way out of his lap so she can cause some more ruckus, santa with a look that says, "help", and hazel, with her wonderful posture, grinning prettily.  what a lovely, long day.