Facebook Stole My Blog

Or, more accurately, Facebook stole all my time to blog :-) I signed up with Facebook back in October. At that time, I found many old friends, acquaintances, and even family members to connect with. Since then, though, even more people I know have signed up and it seems as though almost everyone I know is now using Facebook. Because of that, I find that I spend ALOT of my time lately "facebooking" with people, and ignoring my poor, lonely old blog.

Now I know why they have Facebook addiction groups! And, the group that is the most humorous to me is "Not Now, Mommy's Facebooking"! It hasn't gotten quite that bad around here, but I could see it easily heading in that direction :-) I have been bitten by the Facebook addiction bug myself, but vow to back off a bit and get back to updating people on the kids and myself here!

Wordless Wednesday: Silly Girls!

Here are 2 of my favorite candid shots of the kids from the last few weeks.

I walked into Madison's bedroom one afternoon to see what she was up to and found her like this! She had pulled McKenna's inflatable bathtub from the bathroom onto her bed, climbed in, and decided to read a book. Silly girl #1!

Last week, I had left the 2 girls for a few moments in the family room while I went to answer the phone. I came back to find that McKenna had pulled up on the side table, got a hold of the tissue box, and decided to make a mess. Silly girl #2!

And then she decided to blow her nose since she had access to plenty of tissues. So cute!

A Christmas to Remember...

And, unfortunately for all of us, that's what I'm going to have to rely on .... remembering! As a scrapbooker, you'd think by now I'd be proficient in getting all the "action shots" to accurately capture the day and have my camera at-the-ready at all times. Well, this year, NOT.SO.MUCH! I am not quite sure what happened. Perhaps it was managing the Christmas chaos for 2 kids this year (McKenna was only 10 weeks old last Christmas, and really didn't enter the fray) or perhaps it was the level of sheer joy and elation that an almost 4 year old brings to the day, but for whatever reason, there are several shots of this Christmas that I just did not get. And, I am very sad about that. One of the main shots that is missing is the annual "on the stairs" shot. That's the picture that my Mom took each year of us in our jammies just before we went out to see the tree. I've done this each year with our kids too, and missed it this year :-( I am also soooo annoyed that I never got a picture of the girls together in their matching Christmas dresses! I have lots of PJ pictures from the morning at our house and then our gift opening at Mimi and Pop Pop's house, but no pics in their cute little dresses at my Uncle's house. And, finally, I also got no picture of the 4 of us together that day :-( Well, all I can do is hope that I re-read this post before next Christmas and try harder to get the shots I want next time!

But, I did manage to get a few fun shots of the day. Take a look!

McKenna LOVED her toy keys and car remote!

Checking out Elmo with Uncle Mark.

Santa granted Maddie's single wish... A Doll House. She loves it so much and barely wanted to see her other toys on Christmas morning. Good work, Santa. (Although it wasn't green, was it?)

Uncle Mark and Maddie take a brief time out from playing with the doll house to say "Cheese!"

Hugging her Tinker Bell movie!

Trying to show everyone her new Barbie head from Mimi and Pop Pop.

Reading her Elmo book like a big girl!

Whether we have the pictures or not, it was an amazing Christmas filled with lots of love, laughter, and family. What could be better?

Christmas Eve Excitement!

After coming home from our Christmas Eve dinner at Bonefish Grill (which has quite accidentally become a yearly tradition for the last 4 years!), we worked on our Christmas Eve preparations to welcome Santa and his reindeer so that we could get to bed and assure his arrival!

Here are the girls with our plate of homemade cookies and milk for Santa and a plate of carrots for the reindeer (8 carrots were carefully counted out for each reindeer by Madison!).

When we were young, my Mom parents always gave us one gift to open on Christmas Eve. Although we caught on quickly and knew that Christmas pajamas were in the packages, we still always got excited about it! So, here is Madison getting her Christmas Eve jammies. McKenna got matching pjs too, but getting pictures of her is very difficult these days :-)

Their pj's say "Dear Santa, It wasn't me!"

Trying (unsuccessfully) to get them to pose together in their matching jammies in Madison's bed.

This was the best we got :-)

Mommy snuck downstairs later that night and look what she found.... Santa and the reindeer had enjoyed our snack!

Sporting a new 'do!

Right before Christmas, we decided that Madison's hair had gotten so long that it just wasn't looking nice anymore. So, we decided to cut her hair back into the "bob" that we had done earlier this year. She loved that hair style and was more than happy to go get her hair cut. I didn't have my camera at the salon with us, but they cut off a good 3 to 4 inches.

I LOVE her new hair cut, but it really does make her look older. And, her looking older is NOT what I wanted when she is about to turn 4 in just a few short days. I can't believe my baby girl is getting so big! Here is a picture of her waiting to see Santa Claus and showing off her new hair cut!

A New Tradition is Born....

Some of my fondest memories of my childhood Christmases are the times my Mom would take us to see the Nutcracker Ballet. It was always such a special occasion and I was always so excited to get dressed up and be "fancy" for an afternoon. Well, now that Madison is a little ballerina herself, I thought it would be great fun to take her to see the Nutcracker this year.

In December, we went to a production of the Nutcracker by the Brandywine Ballet Company performed at West Chester University. One of the moms in our playgroup coordinated getting tickets for several of us, and it was a fun night! Thanks, Heidi!

My friend Shari and her daughter Daria accompanied Madison and I to dinner before the show and the girls were SO excited! They thought they were such big girls doing dinner and a show! Madison sat mesmerized for much of the show and kept declaring how BEAUTIFUL the Sugar Plum Fairy was! This will certainly now be an annual event for Mom and Maddie, and soon we will be able to include McKenna as well.

Madison and Daria so excited at dinner!

Shari and Daria

Mommy and Madison

A wonderful time was had by all and it really put all of us into the holiday spirit!!!