The Holidays

Ok...so we woke up Christmas morning to...nothing! Well at 4 months and 2 years and 4 months, this household doesn't quite get the whole Santa concept yet. So Daddy and Mommy relished perhaps one of the last Christmas mornings for quite some time when we'll be able to sleep past 7am!
Now, Rowan might not understand that Santa came to house in the middle of the night and left her some presents, but she sure does know how to look cute in her "My First Christmas PJs".
The picture of Holiday Serenity:)

Here's a pretty cute picture of both of our girls on Christmas morning, Kaylee has now started posing with her sister and asking me to get the camera. Am I Mommy-Whipped or what?

Here's another requested shot near the tree.

Then, Kaylee wasted no time ripping open both hers and Ro's presents. Ro is too little to open her own things afterall. Enjoy it while it lasts kid...you've got 1 more year of that max.

Then, we got all gussied up and headed down to Grammy and Grampy's house. Here's the girls on the couch with Daddy and Great-Grandma Chip; or as Kaylee calls her, just plain ol' "Chip."

She wanted Great-Grandma to play the piano with her so she said, "Chip, come on now, play piano!"

Here is Kaylee reading Great-Grandma's Christmas gift from her...a picture book starring her and her little sister.

Here's Ro with her Grampy.

And Kaylee, in her pretty holiday dress.

And Rowan in her Christmas finery.

The Saturday before Christmas we gussied the girls us and took them down to Connecticut to see Daddy's family.

Here's the oldest and the youngest of our branch of the Daddy's Clan (and actually it might be the oldest and youngest of the more extended branch too, I don't think there are any babies on that side younger than Ro, and Ba is certainly the patriarch.)

Auntie Abbie made sure to snag some Ro time...not the best picture of Abbie for which I apologize but we now have a better camera so future pictures should be better.

Here is Bampa using Kaylee's head as a good luck charm...I wonder if he was making a last ditch wish to Santa?

Then it was time for Bampa to color with 2 of his favorite girls.

And that was how we celebrated Christmas this year.

Kaylee also learned how to say "Happy Hannukah" which came out more like "Happy Kana." We also taught her about a menorah and lighting candles. She asked on several occasions to light the "nora" and once it was lit and she waited through the prayer she made sure to sing "Happy Birthday" all 8 nights! But since Mommy was generally busy doing the lighting and saying the prayer, I didn't actually manage any pictures...oh well, next year.

Happy Holidays all and Happy New Year. Look for new pics in the new year taken by our newer and better camera...hurray!

The Icestorm and the Blackout

OK---the first few pictures have nothing to do with the title of the post, but I didn't feel like doing 2 posts...so I am lumping everything together.
Today we got dressed up and went to see Santa. I love this Santa, he's been at our local mall for all 3 of Kaylee's Christmases and I hope he stays until my kids refuse to have their picture taken, because he's the real deal.

Kaylee told him she wanted a wagon and said "Berry Misnus! Ho Ho Ho!" Santa loved it. Rowan, as you can see, was just along for the ride.

I took these pictures over a week ago, but haven't had time to post them...again the explanation will come in a few more pictures. But aren't these 2 sisters pretty darn cute?

Kaylee really does love Rowan...she's been a great big sister.

And hey would you look at this smile I caught on camera?

Alright...now for some explanations. Last Thursday night at 9pm, we lost our power in the midst of an ice storm. No big deal...we thought we'd have it back by morning, and so we went to bed early...Daddy in our room and Mommy in Rowan's room since without a monitor, I wanted to be able to hear her quickly and easily when she got hungry. At around midnight or so, I heard a really big thump in Kaylee's room and then she started screaming. Of course, I ran to her...she had fallen out of bed. I assumed she had woken up and become disoriented without a night-light. So Daddy camped out in Kaylee's room for the rest of the night. Well, it was more than just the dark that had poor Kaylee screaming. We're not exactly sure what happened, I think she hit her night table on her way to the ground. Daddy thinks the water cup may have hit her full on in the eye. Whatever, happened...she sure has a nice shiner now.

We headed down to Grammy and Grampy's on Friday morning around 10:30 since we still had no power and no idea when it was coming back.

And I took some shots of the damage the storm caused to our property. This is our swing set, covered by ice-laden trees.

A closer shot of the same thing.

Here's some trees bent all the way to the ground.

And then one, that couldn't take the weight and snapped.

We have a lot of downed trees and now that the snow has fallen and we're going to be getting more tomorrow, I doubt we'll be able to clear much until spring.

And we finally got power back on Tuesday night! Can you believe it, 5 days without power and there are still plenty of folks in our area whose power has not yet been restored. The storm packed quite a punch and now we have to hunker down and prepare for tomorrow's onslaught!

We are all very happy to be home and thankful for a patient Grammy and Grampy who let our family stay with them until our power came back.

Charmingfare Farm

Today we started a family tradition. We took a small drive north to Charmingfare Farm for one of their Christmas events...and we were not disappointed. While we waited for our horse-drawn sleigh ride, Kaylee got to feed some animals...likes goats.
Daddy was very concerned that those goats would eat Kaylee's fingers...but I assure everyone all 20 digits are still present and accounted for.

She was giggling the whole time she was feeding them...

She got to feed the cows too. The whole time she was saying "hi cow" and "What does a cow say? Mooooo." Our child is so self-sufficient, she answers her own questions now.

I assure you there were ponies, horses, sheep, chickens, llamas (and bears, cougars and mountain lions too--but my camera which I had just put new batteries in on the way to the farm was already running low, so I had to conserve on the pictures.) Thank goodness we're well into our research on buying a new camera! (Refer to next post for more camera rants.)

Finally our ride was ready! Pretty fancy yes? Our horses names were Calvin and Hobbes :)

We suckered some poor souls into taking a few family shots as we wound through the paths passing the bear and lots of other animals along the way.

The event we went to was called "Santa's Big Party." And finally we arrived to find Santa in his apron passing out cookies and cocoa and supervising the barbecue. Kaylee said, "Merry Christmas Santa" with some prompting...although it sounded a little more like "Berry Misnus Santa." We're working on it...I have 19 days!

We bothered our St. Nicholas for a picture with our littlest one too, and he was happy to oblige.

But the best part of the party was definitely all the characters. At first Kaylee was a little wary and shy...but soon she was interacting and having a blast.

There were 2 characters she liked more than the others...one was Rudolf who got showered with several hugs.

But the clear favorite was Frosty here. We must have taken 10 different pictures (on 10 different occasions as Kaylee sought him out in the crowd.)

She doesn't know "Frosty" yet so she just called him Snowman...which I think is totally acceptable.

Again, I really wish the camera was a bit faster since there were so many cute moments that the camera could just not keep up with, but I think you can at least see that Kaylee really liked the snowman!

So we had Daddy take a shot where both girls could pose with our new friend.

And one with our runner-up in the favorite character category too!

Then it was time to load back into a tractor pulled wagon to head back...the characters lined up to say good-bye.

One of the last animals we say (and that Kaylee got to feed) were Santa's reindeer of course.

Kaylee was more than happy to give them the rest of her animal feed, which I think they appreciated in that they have a very big night ahead of them at the end of the month.

And that's what we did today! Kaylee had a blast and Rowan was really good the whole time and therefore Mommy and Daddy had a really really good time. We can't wait to do it again next year.

The Librarian and the Playgroup on the Mat...

OK, not exactly the Librarian (I guess I have that Noah Wylie TNT movie on the brain at the moment...) but I couldn't resist posting a few pictures I took at library story time. Usually we end the class by dancing to a special song with our kids...however both Jackie and I were holding Oliver and Rowan (respectively) so we could not dance with Emily and Kaylee...so we asked them to dance together, and they actually did!
It was so cute, they danced for the whole song! And I swear I really did try to catch a few shots of Emily's face, but Emily moves way faster than my shutter does. (Our camera officially sucks now though and we will be buying a new one with our Christmas funds...but that's another gripe.)

So yeah, I definitely had to share Kaylee and Emily's dancing talent with our cyber audience. I think we have a future Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers...just don't ask me which is which! :)

And on Wednesday, I was practicing with Kaylee to say "cheese" for the camera. Fabulous, yes?

I thought Rowan's expression here was really cute, so I thought I'd share this one too.

Whenever I bring out the baby mat for Rowan to play on, Kaylee always has to horn in on the action.

Not sure why...perhaps she thinks her little sister needs a usage demonstration? Regardless, it generally does make for some Kodak moments and this time since I had a second moderator because Daddy was home...I ran for the camera.

Kaylee really is becoming quite a ham, she likes showing off, but most of all she really loves Rowan. Lots of kisses and hugs and she often even reminds me: "Don't forget Rowan Mommy!" And no I am not putting words in her mouth.

Its hard to really tell what Rowan thinks of her big sister, but if the smiles are any indication I think we have a die-hard fan of Kaylee here.

Anyone else see pure adoration, from both parties?

And there's your weekly (? probably not, I want to put up some more pictures within 24 hours) dosage of the girls.