Christmas 2012

We had a great Christmas this year and have tried to begin teaching Stella the spiritual side of this special holiday - celebrating the birth of Jesus and honoring his love for us.  When she asked if there would be balloons at church we knew she was catching on!

Our girls were blessed to have their grammie and pa with us on Christmas day and we had lots of fun together opening gifts.  Claire became a little overwhelmed despite our efforts to give the girls a somewhat modest Christmas; once you add up presents from everyone there ends up being a lot!  Among their most popular gifts are a Dora couch, arts and crafts, a Dora Gymnastics video, a Mickey Mouse hide and seek game, and baby dolls.  They really are enjoying all of the gifts that were given to them though!

We are really loving having extra family time together.  There's been so much snow mom even had an extra day at home because getting off South Street to go to work was simply not possible on Thursday until late morning!

This week we look forward to celebrating Stella's 3rd birthday.  We can hardly believe it's here already!

Canada and Gingerbread

As Christmas approaches way too fast, our girls got to experience even more "firsts".  The artistic skills of Stella came alive when her and her dad made a gingerbread house.  Although she managed to sneak a bunch of the candy as we built, she was able to save enough to make the house look presentable!

On Sunday, the girls made their first trip across a US border.  We traveled to Ottawa, Ontario to buy a present for Beth at one of our favorite stores, IKEA.  It was an absolutely wonderful trip.  The girls were well behaved.  We were able to shop, and play in the store as we walked around the giant place that IKEA is.  We then had a nice lunch, and made our way back home.

We would like to wish all of you a peaceful and rejuvenating holiday season.  May the season bring joy and hope to each and everyone of your families!

Family Portraits 2012

Family Photo Shoot, November 2012

As we gear up for a few really busy days to celebrate Christmas we welcomed a quiet weekend at home.  The girls had dinner with Niece on Saturday so we could have a night out with some friends but overall we had some quality time at home together with just the four of us.  When we finished putting up our Christmas decorations we stumbled across the Mickey Mouse lawn ornament gift from the Hooley's last year that we thought we misplaced.  Stella's been super excited about the festive addition he's made to South Street! 

Last month we spent an hour at Forevermore Studios in Massena getting family photos taken.  Despite how challenging our girls ages are for this type of activity we were blessed with some great shots to cherish and share!

Hello Santa!

This weekend the girls got to sit with Santa at the annual VFW Christmas party.  They were both excited and weren't shy at all.  Stella told Santa she wanted M&M's for Christmas, and Claire was just fascinated by the bow on the present he gave her!  The four of us were given the opportunity to light the second week of advent candles at church this week, and we also put up our Christmas tree too.  Stella's at a fun age for all of these traditions and lucky for us hasn't developed the gimmies yet!  Claire is just along for the ride, intrigued by all of the hustle and bustle but sure to not miss out on anything!    

Party Time

This month we have a series of parties and family gatherings scheduled so we expect it to be a fun one!  The celebrations began yesterday with a joint birthday party for the girls cousins Brody and Maggie in Plattsburgh at the Imaginarium Children's Museum.  This was a really fun place for a party and it was great to see some folks we don't have the opportunity to be around all that often.  We're so glad we made the trip!

Playing in the Crawling Corner at the Museum!

And Going Fishing Too!

Relaxing at home...