The other morning Grace came out of bed holding a doll vest over her eyes. She said, "Look, Mom! I am Super Why!"
For those of you not up to date with your children cartoons...Super Why is a superhero from the PBS show Super Readers. He wears a green mask and helps his friends solve problems by finding examples in a book.
I helped her tie some string around it and she wore the make-shift mask pretty much the whole day! She kept asking me if I had any problems to be solved. She helped me do super important things like picking up toys, shutting doors, and making her baby sister smile.
The day we got back from New York we were surprised to find that it had snowed at home. Snow is not a totally common thing here. The girls were so excited to go out and play! We got them all dressed up in their warm clothes, gave them some spoons and bowls to dig in the snow, and sent them out to play. Much to our surprise the snow was rock hard! Along with the snow had come lots of rain (not uncommon for Virginia) and with the cold temps, it turned the snow into a sheet of ice!
But that didn't stop the girls from having fun!
Who needs a sled when you have an older sister!
They spent hours out "sledding" on the hill! They even did some the next day, but by the third day it was all completely melted.
Well, it was fun while it lasted!
We celebrated our birthday's this last week. Mine on the 13th and Chad on the 17th. My birthday landed on a Sunday, which in my opinion is kinda stinky! My family did their best to make it a great day though. They made me breakfast, bought me a couple books (which I have already almost finished reading), Chad made me some yummy Asian chicken wings for dinner, and he did all of the diaper changes! How could you ask for much more than that?!? Somehow, yet again, we don't have any pictures! Probably because I am always the one behind the camera.
Chad had a pretty great birthday too!
A few days before his big day this arrived in the mail, from his mom. He was so excited he couldn't wait for his birthday to open it.
I love these pictures with the girls! They love their dad so much! I also have to tell you what a great dad he is...we sat down to watch a show and he had the remote. He could have chosen to watch any show (because it's his birthday!) and he chose a Tinkerbell show, because he knew the girls would like it! No wonder they love him!
We gave him a foam roll out tube. You use it after you work out to loosen your muscles.
I made a super yummy peanut butter sheet cake for him. The candles make a 32, in case you couldn't tell.
Chad and Hannah both ordered shirts from their schools and they happened to arrive on the same day. I had to get a picture of them showing their school pride! We are definitely proud of them and all the hard work they are doing with school!
I don't know how I missed posting pictures of my beautiful girls in their beautiful Christmas dresses! Grandma Hurd was so nice and purchased and sent us these great Christmas dresses. The girls knew they were coming and asked everyday if the package had arrived. Hannah tried her dress on as soon as she had it out of the box! She wore it two Sundays in a row and would have worn it a third if I hadn't stopped her! Grace looked so grown up and pretty in her dress. I loved all the little roses on Clara's dress!
We finally made it to New York a day later than planned! Luckily, we had an awesome host (my Aunt Mary Anne and Uncle Tom) and they were flexible with our schedule! They were so great to us. My cousin, Emily, was there with her children also. My girls LOVED having other children to play with. They probably would have been just as happy to stay at their house and play! The first night we ventured into the city with the older girls. Again, my awesome family, kept Clara and put her to sleep. We rode the train into the city. The girls thought it was so cool that they had actual ticket and a conductor that came and hole-punched it!
We saw Grand Central Station, a bunch of Christmas window displays, and Rockefeller Center. It was SUPER cold and crowded, but also SUPER cool.
The next day we traveled into the city again. We saw Times Square, Toys R Us, FAO Schwarz, and more Christmas windows. I thought it was really cool that there were Mormon.org advertisements right in Times Square. There was just so much too see! I am not going to lie...it was hard with children! It was so cold and crowded. We would be freezing outside and then burning hot in the buildings! The subway was not stroller-friendly. I do have to say, there were some people that were so nice! Almost every time we were going down the stairs to the subway, some man would stop what he was doing and where he was going and help Chad carry the stroller down the stairs. So nice!
It was a really fun trip. I don't know what we would have done without the help of Tom and Mary Anne. They were so nice and helpful. Tom gave us a ride to and home from the train every time! They fed us, gave us a place to stay, and gave us helpful directions and advice. Thanks so much!
We had our traditional New Year's Eve party...fondue, games, sparkling cider, fake countdown at 8pm, and call it a night! We also spent some time writing up our New Year resolutions and talking about our resolutions from last year.
Well that is the end of the holiday fun! The next day the decorations came down and I did a deep cleaning! I was ready for school to start again. Hannah ended up being sick on the first day back! She was home for two days longer, but now she and Chad are back to school and things are slowly getting back to normal!
Christmas day was a new experience with just our little family. It was so fun being able to focus on just us and do what ever we wanted to do (like take a 15min time-out from opening gifts so I could start our yummy breakfast). The girls got everything they wanted and more! Grace asked for a "LaLa Loopsey stuffed animal doll", Hannah asked for a Unicorn Dreamlite, and Clara asked (really, she did! :)) for a shopping cart with food. We had a great Christmas day. It was fun to play with the toys we got, watch a movie, and just spend time together.
While Chad and Clara took a nap, Grace, Hannah and I made and decorated gingerbread cookies. This was an activity we had been planning and I had made the dough the day before, but we never got around to making them. It was funny though, because I think we were all on sugar overload. The girls were not really even interested in eating the cookies. Because we were leaving the next day for the rest of the week we ended up tossing them in the trash. It was a waste, but I guess decorating them is the fun part right?!?
The day after Christmas we got up bright and early and headed for New York City for a few days....well, the was the original plan. We just so happened to leave on a day when a HUGE winter storm hit. The roads were terrible and there were wrecks everywhere! We thought about turning around and returning home, but decided to push on to Hershey, PA, stay for the night, and then decide what to do in the morning.
A drive that should have taken 3 hours, ended up taking 6! We were so glad to make it safe! We found a really great hotel to stay in. Apparently I sounded stressed when I called to book the room, because the lady said that she was going to upgrade us to the 2 bedroom suite for the same price as the one bedroom! Awesome! The girls had a room all to themselves, Clara slept in the living room, and Chad and I had a separate room. Delightful!
We had plans to go to this drive-thru Christmas light show in Hershey that night, but we all made it out to the car, and decided the roads and weather were too bad! We went back inside, went swimming, and hung out in the hotel for the night!
The next day the roads and weather were MUCH better. We went and toured the Hershey Factory. The girls LOVED it. There was a ride that tells you all about how they make the candy. The girls enjoyed it so much that we rode it twice!
We got some yummy chocolate, drove around some areas from Chad's mission, and then continued our trip to NY!
More to come...
I don't know about you, but I am about Christmas-ed out! I am pretty much over all the fun and excitement and ready to get back to the routine of daily life, but because I took the last week off from blogging and I am behind! So this week will be a last push of Holiday overload!
Leading up to Christmas we had 25 Days of Christmas Fun. Every day there was a new activity to help us get ready for Christmas. The girls took turns pulling out the activity.
Some of the things we did were: make a countdown chain, make and deliver Christmas gifts to our neighbors,
make an M&M Christmas wreath,
have an indoor snowball fight (my favorite),
write letters to Santa,
color Christmas pictures and drink hot chocolate,
and visit the DC temple to see the Christmas lights (another favorite).
This was our first Christmas away from family and we couldn't imagine a Christmas Eve without a pancake breakfast, so we invited the Sister Missionaries and some families from the ward over for breakfast. We had the traditional ham, eggs, pancakes, and juice. Although the pancakes were not as good as my dad's on the grill, it was still a yummy start to the day!
We thought that we were not going to have a white Christmas this year, but to our surprise and delight during our breakfast big flakes started falling! The kids loved it and it totally made it feel like officially Christmas!
During the day Chad and I worked on a fun puzzle.
On Christmas Eve night we had our own little party. We played a game using dice and rolling the numbers that correspond to a part of the snowman. The first person to draw a whole snowman wins.
The Winner!
We told the story of the Nativity with a fun magnet scene that my mom sent us.
After the Nativity, the girls opened their Christmas PJs!!
We finished off the night with leaving cookies and milk for Santa.
It was definitely a different feeling being with just our little family and not being around all of our family. We enjoyed making our own traditions and carrying on some from our families as well!
