The Bug

Griffin caught whatever bug Hannah had on Christmas. He's been out of commission for the last 24 hours - sleeping most of the day, not eating, and throwing up whatever he does eat. Hannah kicked it in 48 hours, so I'm hoping Griff starts feeling better tomorrow. Abby, so far, has steered clear of whatever it is. Hopefully she won't catch it - we make her wash her hands every 5 minutes, so hopefully that will do it!

If all goes as planned, Abby, Hannah and I are off to the American Girl store tomorrow at the Mall of America. I promised Abby I would take her over Christmas break, and she wants Hannah to come. Hannah would like Griff to come, "Giffy, too" she says, but I think we'll leave him home with Mike tomorrow, especially if he's not 100%.

The girls were outside with Mike this afternoon playing in the snow. They both came in with rosy cheeks. Griff slept on the couch :-)

2:46am Christmas Morning

The time Abby came into our room, ready to get up and open gifts! You have to understand, Abby NEVER comes into our room to wake us up. She will wait in her room until she hears us in the morning before either coming into our bedroom or going downstairs. We told her Christmas Eve that she could come into our room when she woke in the morning, so we could all go downstairs together to see what Santa brought. We had no idea it would be at 2:46am! That will be one of my most cherished memories....she looked SO sweet and SO excited, and SO SO sad that she had to go back to bed for another couple of hours. She slept fitfully the rest of the night (I know, b/c I was up from 3am until 5am with Hannah, cleaning up her throw-up...argh), and finally we all went downstairs around 6am. Griff, of course, didn't want to wake up, and I had to finally get him up at 7:30am, as it was getting a bit unfair to Abby and Hannah (who by now was feeling much better) to make them wait much longer!

Everyone had a wonderful time opening gifts - you could hear lots of laughter and giggles in our house all morning. Abby's favorite gift is probably her Razor Scooter or her Diamond Princess Barbie and Coach; Hannah LOVES her Baby Alive (actually, so does Abby!), and Griff is all over his fire truck, race track and new trike.

Mike's mom made them the most adorable little dolls (Abby and Hannah) and monkey (Griff) - pictures of them are below, along with all the other loot they got! There are a lot of pictures posted below, enjoy! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, too.

Merry Christmas to You

Wishing you a Merry Christmas. Santa was here earlier tonight, delivering the gifts. He loved the cookies Abby left for him :-) Wanted to post some Christmas Eve photos for you before Mike and I headed off to bed. Below are pictures of us, before leaving for Christmas Eve Mass. You can see how difficult it is to get a decent picture with all three kids -- two yes, three no! Although I have to admit, the last picture of me and the kids is probably my favorite. Nice shot, Mike!

Playing with Collages

You've probably seen all these pictures before, but I'm playing with collages, and I wanted to see what they looked like on the blog. I'm having them printed, too, so I can see what they look like in "real life". So far, I think they are kinda cool. Anyway, keeping me busy while Mike is watching the Bears game on tv.....yes, he finally got to watch a game this year!

What can you do in Minnesota in the middle of December, when it's 5 below zero, the wind is howling, and you can't catch your breath when you go outside?

1. Bake Christmas Cookies

2. Watch every Barbie movie ever made

3. Bake More Christmas Cookies

4. Read every book in the house, twice

5. Bake Even More Christmas Cookies

6. Make a trampoline out of the couch cushions and pray no one gets hurt

7. Bake, you know, Christmas Cookies

8. Referee stroller races around the kitchen island

9. Bake.....

10. Play every board game, card game, computer game known to man

11. Oh, and Bake Christmas Cookies

So, we've been busy finding things to do inside, since it's been a bit chilly here the last few days. And seriously, I've baked more cookies over the last week than ever. If you need any cookie recipes, I've got 'em. And thank goodness Mike takes them into the office, b/c I certainly don't need them calling my name all day! I don't have any good pictures, because frankly, it's been borning around here. I did get a couple of pictures of Abby frosting the cookies we made for Santa the other day. We managed to save three of them and put them in the freezer so they will be nice and fresh for him on Christmas Eve.

Mike and I were busy all weekend wrapping the presents, and I'm happy to say we are finished. It takes a bit of time to wrap presents for three kids! A couple bottles of wine helped :-)

Abby had two birthday parties to go to over the weekend. She had a great time at both, and even thanked me for braving the blizzard like conditions we had Saturday afternoon to drive her to the party for her best school friend. She is off of school for the next couple of weeks, so we've made a list of things to do to keep us busy. Hopefully the weather will turn a bit and it will warm up so it's not so difficult to get outside.

Hannah & Griff are good. They are talking up a storm, and it's so nice to be able to understand what they want and need. We're not quite at full sentences, but we are getting there!

That's all for now. Will be sure to post Christmas pictures, if not something before then.

Christmas Hodge-Podge

Some pictures from over this weekend....Abby had her little ornament decorating party on Sunday. Eleven little girls, all very excited about Christmas, filled the house with lots of giggles for a couple of hours on Sunday. I will admit I overestimated the girls' attention spans and ornament making abilities! The paint-your-own salt-dough ornaments were a hit, but the ornaments that required them to sit still for more than 5 minutes lost their appeal quickly! Everyone had a great time, however, and everyone went home with a baggie full of yet to be created ornaments (!), chocolate filled pretzel rings, and candy canes. I wasn't able to get any pictures of the girls at the party (and trust me, I had great plans to get a group shot!), as I was busy trying to glue Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer together for eleven five year olds, but I did manage to snap a couple of the set up before everyone arrived. Enjoy, and more to come!

Before everyone got here:
Yummy chocolate pretzel goodies to take home:
Yummy treats!
The painting table:

The DIY ornament table:

Our tree, because I don't think I've posted a picture of it before:

And Mike and the twins watching football after the party:

Snowman & Snowball

We were outside this afternoon, taking advantage of the 30 degree temperatures before the cold comes later this week. The high temps gave us perfect packing snow, so Mike built a snowman for the kids. There was lots of snow throwing, running and giggling going on, and everyone was sufficiently wiped out by dinner time, including Kona.

Tomorrow is Abby's ornament decorating party. I'll try to take some pictures when I'm not walking around with my glue gun, trying to put together little angle ornaments :-)

(try to ignore Hannah's black marker streak across her face -she was busy coloring before we went out :-)
(this one is blurry, as she was coming right at me when I was trying to take her picture! In an effort to save the camera, I ran and snapped at that same time!)

Abby's Advent Program and the Monkeys

Tonight was Abby's Advent Program at school. Kindergarden through Fourth grade performed - the Kindergarden classes played bells, and the other grades sang songs. It was a really nice evening, but I will say Hannah & Griff lost patience with the whole thing about 1/2 way through and let everyone around us know it. We weren't able to take any pictures during the performances, but I was able to snap a few before it started. Abby is in the second row, third from the left.

The other pics of the twins are from today - they were acting really cute together so I snapped a couple of pictures of them. Enjoy!