Elise quotes...

Another cute morning of Elise-isms...
We've been playing tea-party (she says it's "hot chocolate" actually!), baking cookies in her new kitchen, cleaning up all the Christmas decorations, etc... for the last 90 minutes while Ainsley naps. Elise has said a few cute things:

"Mommy, the Christmas tree is all Nakey (Naked) now."

"I don't want Ainsley to wake up. I want her to sleep all day so I can play with just you"

"I save lotta lotta cookies for Daddy when he comes home. He loves cookies"

"Mommy, can we get another tree tomorrow and get ready for Christmas all over again?!"

"Elise, I think you are beautiful." "Mommy, I think you're a good share-er"

Christmas hats

For some reason, my mother and mother-in-law decided last year that a new Christmas tradition would entail everyone wearing goofy Reindeer antlers/elf hats/etc...purchased at the dollar store. It seems random, but is definitely fun. We continued it this year and We wore them on Wednesday night as we were all being "Santa" and filling stockings, assembling toys, etc...and then again throughout Christmas day, too. I think I got pictures of almost all of us (sorry, Nana!)...fun new tradition! We all look like dorks, but it yields good pictures, too.

Christmas stuff...

Along with everyone else, it's been a little hectic around here for the last 8 days with family visiting, pre-school on break, and all of us doing nothing but EATING 24/7!! I'll post pictures soon from Christmas morning and whatnot...it was a great time and SOOO fun with an almost-3-year-old! Elise "got it" more than I thought she would and it was a blast. Here are a few quick shots of the days leading up to Christmas morning...Ainsley sneaked over to the tree and was just pulling presents down one at a time...had the cutest look on her face as she played with ribbons and wrapping paper. I had been changing her clothes when she "ran away", hence the diaper-only!

It's just what you do, right?..

Following the tradition of probably every parent out there, we took the girls to get a picture with Santa this morning...Although I detest waiting in line for silly things ESPECIALLY if they interfere with naptimes, we knew this "is just what you do" when you have kids...so, we did. It wasn't too bad. We waited a little over an hour in line, ran into some friends, enjoyed the breezy 65 degree weather, and left with one wide-eyed happy kid and one screaming baby. =) Elise was BEYOND excited until she actually saw Santa, then got a little nervous for a minute or two. Ainsley (almost always happy!) wanted NOTHING to do with Old St.Nick! We got a few good pictures and Elise got to pass on her Christmas wishes to Santa, so we called it a successful day.

Bread Dilemma

Elise's 3 day/week preschool is so great! For her two teachers' Christmas presents, I had planned on baking them each 2 loaves of bread (1 pumpkin, 1 zucchini) and a $10 Starbucks gift card. A nice gift, but nothing too fancy...hey, we're in a Recession, right?!
So, I just pulled the loaves of Pumpkin bread out of the oven and the bottoms totally stuck to the loaf pan. So, they're only 80% of what they were, there's no "icing" to hold the bottom on or try to hide the issue...so I'm not sure what to do...
1.Eat the loaves ourselves and start over for the teachers (however, I don't want all those calories and it just took an hour and a half to make!)
2.Give it to them anyway and make a joke out of it...it still tastes GREAT, just doesn't look 100%. (I hate that it wouldn't be perfect...but I think I can get over it.)

Any opinions?

Ode to Daddy

Our girls LOVE their Daddy! It's so fun to see both of them LIGHT UP when Adam gets home at night or even just walks into the room. I don't know if it has anything to do with Adam's deployments and the huge amounts of time he was gone during Elise's first two years or what, but it's such a blessing to me. Ainsley giggles, wrinkles her nose, and smiles at everyone, but it's a special little smirk for her Daddy. I know they love me and they still run to me first if they're injured, sad, etc...but it's great to see them just overwhelmed with excitement and joy when Adam gets home...Elise has said a few times lately, "Daddy has to go to work AGAIN!? I miss him SOOOOOOOOO much when he go to work." Can it get any cuter?

No Way!

We just had an Earthquake!!! No way. doesn't happen often in this part of the country...that's for sure. I was awake making coffee, girls and Adam were still in bed and it was a huge BOOM. It only lasted about 5 seconds, but it felt more like an explosion nearby, the whole house shook, and it was very loud. I thought it was more of a sonic boom right over us or something...all the neighbors met out in the street and nobody had any idea what it was. crazy.
I think it's really funny that we lived in Japan for 2 years and only felt 3 TINY Earthquakes while living in the "Ring of Fire" (the most Earthquake-prone zone on the planet). But now we move to the SE USA and just sat through a bigger EQ than we ever had in Japan. It was a little fun, actually. But I'm a nerd like that. You can see on our "Favorite Websites" on the right a link to the US Geological Survey...click on that and you can see a cool graphic of all recent EQ's in the world. I check the site fairly regularly just for fun. Again, I know I'm a dork.