Best Day Ever

Today was seriously so much fun. First planned family fun day...success! We took the girls to Snow Mountain in Atlanta today. It was a 2 hour drive and we stopped at Chipotle for lunch before heading over. Shane and I were really looking forward to a nice lunch but the kids didn't quite agree. After the tears and tantrums and a few bites from each of them we headed to the fun. :) Thankfully...the rest of the day was much much better! 

First we went to the Snow Village. There was a snow machine spewing snow everywhere. They had a couple of small sledding areas too. We threw snowballs and the kids dug in the snow. They went down the small sledding ramps a few times. Then we headed to the big sledding. They had a couple lanes closed because they melted, about 4 ramps for the single riders and 3 ramps for the family or group riders. We did the family one twice...so much fun! Then Natalie wanted to go by herself, so Shane took her and I stayed with Heidi. She is still a little too short. Natalie loved going by herself and wanted to go again so the next time I went with her. Not as fast as the family rides but still fun. Then we took the sky rail to the top of Stone Mountain. The kids loved the ride and the top of the mountain was really cool. You could see so far! Heidi made me a little (or a lot) nervous. She was running and jumping like we were in a playground and not on the top of a mountain! When we finished walking around we took the sky rail back down, went down the big family ramp one last time and then let them play in the Snow Village one more time before heading home. This time we got some Chick-fil-a...no complaints from the girls there! :) As soon as we got home, I got them both into bed and they were out cold within minutes. Such a great day! :) 

 At the top of Stone Mountain

 Ready to go sledding

 

 Shane and Natalie 

 Downtown Atlanta in the background

 In the family inner tube....my favorite part of the day!

 Snow Angels are highly overrated. :)

He Did It!

Yesterday was Shane's last class for his Masters. Yay!! His graduation ceremony isn't until April but I wanted to do something small to celebrate. I invited his brother and sister and Colby, Dane and Colie. We all surprised him when he walked in the door, clapping and congratulating him. It was so awesome. It was pretty late and we are planning a big party when he has his ceremony but it was just enough time for a toast! :) 

 Shane was pretty excited to be finished too. :)

 Cheers! You did it and you're awesome!!

I am so so proud of Shane for working like crazy to do this. This past year and a half was insane and super busy with him working, studying and going to class. He did such a great job! I am so happy that he is finally done though and that I get my husband back! For the next few months we don't have anything planned except for lots and lots of family time. :)

100th Day of School

 

Natalie had her 100th day of school yesterday. It was so cute...they had her dress like a 100 year old person! Not an easy thing to make a cute little girl look old by the way! I put her hair in a bun and poured baby powder on it to make it look gray. Mom had a pair of reading glasses that she took the glass out of and Natalie loved that! She wants to keep wearing them! The clothes were a little tougher. I put her in her normal clothes but threw a sweater around her shoulders.

Merry Christmas!!

Such a great year. We celebrated with Shane's family first on Christmas Eve. I made potato soup for dinner and then we all exchanged gifts. The kids were great...all taking turns, watching everyone open their presents and waiting patiently till their turn came around again. After gifts we let all the kids decorate cookies for Santa. A huge mess! But they loved it. I think they might have given Santa a sugar overload.

 So many gifts!

Love this face!

 We had so much fun!

 Jim and Rose Marie

 Decorating Cookies

 Cute little fingers all ready for Christmas

Cookies and milk left out for Santa. I love Natalie's note!

The next morning I was in bed, waiting for the girls to wake up. They still weren't awake by 7 so I made Shane open their doors so they'd wake up. He opens Natalie's door and then comes running back down the hall. Two seconds later Natalie comes in and says, "Who opened my door?" I told her maybe Santa did. She wasn't buying it and seriously asked me the same question at least 3 more times. Finally I looked at her and said...Natalie...it's Christmas. Then it clicked and she got very excited. Heidi was already jumping on the bed totally excited about Christmas but Natalie was just worried about her door. That pretty much sums up my girls. :)

After Shane got the Christmas lights on and turned on the music, the girls ran down the stairs to their gifts. Natalie was so excited this year because she picked out gifts for all of us at school and wrapped the gifts herself. She kept asking if she could give us our gifts even before opening her stocking! This year I really wasn't very good with taking pictures. I was just enjoying every moment and kind of forgot about my camera. I think I took three pictures and one came out blurry! :)

The girls waiting to go downstairs...taken with my iPhone :)

 Shane opening his present from Heidi

Heidi's gift from us this year. We got her a bike for her birthday this year but she has already gotten too big for it. We were going to get her the Dora Gymnastics doll that actually does gymnastics. It was all she wanted. She has been talking about it since the Olympics this past summer. I kept seeing it at the store but waited till after Thanksgiving when Shane and I go shopping together. When we went shopping it was gone. I looked online at every toy store I could think of, I got put on email lists and even checked out ebay. They were going for $100 right before Christmas. Needless to say we got her a bike instead. :) But it's a Cinderella bike and she really wanted it so I think we did okay. AND....she hasn't mentioned the Dora doll again but I figure if she does, I can buy it for her at normal price. :) 

So after we did our own Christmas, we headed over to my parents house to do Christmas there. We all stayed in our pjs and I brought over Nutella cinnamon rolls. Seriously...so amazing! Click on the link to get the recipe...it's super easy and insanely good! Before we even started the gifts, everyone was looking for Shane. In my family everyone has to be present and paying attention before someone can unwrap a present! When I looked up he was rolling in a bike...for me! Such a surprise!

I was a little surprised! But seriously...isn't this the cutest bike ever?!?! After I recovered from my shock we started in on our presents. We do this weird thing in my family where we all throw aluminum foil balls into a bucket. Whoever makes a basket gets to be the first one to open a gift. Then we go around the circle and do it again for the next round. It's so much fun! Gift opening lasts forever in my family...it's awesome!

 Heidi and Natalie with my Mom holding their new dollies that Shane's mom gave them for Christmas. They are the cutest dolls and she got them from Cracker Barrel! 

 My gift to Bub...such a perfect gift for him!

 This is the ornament that Heidi painted for my mom at the ceramic store. It's an angel that she kept painting over and over and over until I finally told her to stop. It's got so many layers of colors!

 I painted the girls feet to make Christmas trees. They turned out so cute that I framed some for my house and also gave them as gifts to both of our parents. 

 Nokie was REALLY excited to get a new Splat the Cat book. :)

 Nokie with her new baby doll and me with my Nutella cinnamon rolls. 

 This was so Heidi on Christmas morning! I think Christmas Eve was plenty for her cause she was over it by the time we got to my parents!

 Natalie got a locket from my parents for Christmas

 Heidi decided to put some bows on Nan. Makes me laugh every time I see it. :)

My mom painted me a Precious Moments nativity set for Christmas. So so cool! I love it!

After all the festivities we went home and took a nap, showered and then headed back over for dinner. Nan made her famous lasagna...the traditional Christmas dinner for our family. It was a perfect ending to a perfect Christmas!

  

What a Week!!

Holy Moly! This week has been insane. Monday morning Heidi's allergies were out of control. She was blowing her nose every 5 minutes and eyes were running all day. So I called the doctor just to see if she needed a change in her allergy meds. After her nap she woke up with a fever and was burning up all afternoon. Natalie came home from spending time with my mom and Heidi all of a sudden was fine. But Natalie fell asleep on the couch at 6 and was burning up all through the night. The next morning they let me bring both girls together. Natalie's whole throat was swollen. You could literally look at her and see that her throat was swollen. She had strep throat and the doctor said Heidi did too. We got them both on meds but for some reason Natalie's strep was a million times worse than Heidi's. Heidi never got another fever but Natalie had a fever for...well today was the first day that she didn't have a really high fever.  The poor girl! Really! She has been so so sick. I even had to take her back to the doctor on Thursday because she had blisters all over her tongue. Not a big deal I guess but it totally freaked me out! I'm really hoping that she has a full and complete day of no fever tomorrow so that she can go to school on Monday. 

 This is pretty much where we stayed all week. Natalie wanted me close to her every minute. Heidi, on the other hand was not even allowed to touch her on accident or she would freak out. It was a very emotional week for her too. 

Today was much better. It actually felt a little bit more like normal. Natalie still isn't eating. She is pretty much living off of gatorade, Dannon smoothies and the applesauce pouches that you basically drink. Anyway...the girls remembered today that they haven't taken any circles off their Christmas countdown chains and they haven't opened any of their advent boxes. Today was make button ornaments and it was so fun. A perfect craft for two girls who are still pretty weak but wanted to do something besides watch tv. :)

 Such an easy fun craft. Florist wire and some buttons. They picked out the buttons, put them on the wire and then we closed it up to make a button wreath. They turned out really cute!

 Natalie organized her pattern out before she put them on the wire! :)