Follow up

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes and little prayers. Caroline's minor surgery went well. She did great! She was very groggy coming out of it and got sick on the way home but by this afternoon she was back to herself. Hopefully these tubes will be good for her!

Sweet Caroline

Poor Caroline has been battling ear infections for over a year now. We went to the Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) Doctor at the beginning of the month and he highly recommended us putting tubes into Caroline's ears. Tomorrow is the big surgery day. I am a little nervous about the whole thing, especially putting her to sleep. I know that tubes have become very routine among little ones and most kids seem to do remarkably well. I am hoping she will finally get a little relief and feel better.
I am sure she will be fine but any extra prayers are always helpful.
We appreciate it!
Say an extra prayer for this sweet little girl...

Kids say the funniest things...

At our house Taylor usually demands the TV to be on "her" cartoons. When she watches Nick Jr. she is exposed to LOTS of different commericals. Lately she has asked Rob several times if she can have a Pillow Pet. She usually goes back and forth between the ladybug and the frog. I guess this is the first of many commericals that are going to draw her in!
So on Friday night I had just gotten Taylor into the shower and Rob had just gotten home from work and came upstairs to change. Taylor heard him come upstairs so she opened the shower door and said, "Hey Daddy! You know what; the Pillow Pets are EVEN machine washable!"
We were both caught off guard and had to ask her what she said again. She was so matter of fact about it. She is seriously into this Pillow Pet so I guess it is on her mind a lot :)
We have made a deal with her...if she is good girl at night and actually goes to sleep without getting up 100 times and making a big fuss then we will consider ordering her a Pillow Pet.
I just thought it was hilarious that she told us that the Pillow Pet was machine washable and that she is already "working" on getting things she wants.
Of course she hit up Daddy first because he is the push over with his little girls :)

I guess it is hard to deny these two sweet little girls!

Random...

These are just a few random things from the past couple of weeks...

On New Year's Day Rob's Aunt Liz, Uncle Stephen and Granny came for a visit and we all had a wonderful dinner over at Mimi and Popie's house.

Taylor "tried" to help Granny out with this large puzzle but I am pretty sure she messed a few of the pieces up :)

Uncle Stephen and Granny were trying to be interested in Taylor playing her new Leapster...her look already reminds me of a teenager!!!

About the age, 16-17 months Taylor started to refuse sitting in her high chair. I guess Taylor and Caroline are a lot alike. This past weekend Caroline refused to sit in her high chair too. I am sure since Taylor sits at the table that Caroline wants to be just like her sister and sit there too. We are experiencing a lot of that...Caroline wants to do what Taylor is doing or wants whatever toy Taylor has! Sometimes it is not a good ending as someone ends up crying or throwing a tantrum for not getting her way!

The other night Taylor asked for pudding...for some reason I don't think it is as bad if it is sugar free :) Of course Caroline screamed "MINE" until I gave her some pudding too. Rob walked in from work saw her messy face and went straight for the camera. She definitely enjoyed her pudding and got very mad at me when I took it away.

Birthday parties and Good times!

One of my best friend's, Laura Hockman had a little girl a year ago. We were there to celebrate with Ellie on her FIRST birthday a couple of weekends ago! She loved the new shopping cart but wasn't too sure about the whole cake thing!!

Caroline all smiles as usual!

Taylor decided to take most of the pictures during Ellie's party. She captured a sweet photo of my good friend Meredith and her little girl Kennedy.

Of course she just had to take a picture of Mommy!

Caroline is a little giggle box! She loves to laugh and it is so contagious when she does it. Looks like she was on a mission here!

Again Taylor LOVES to take pictures and this is one of her recent photos of Daddy. It makes me laugh :)

Our Little Diva!

Christmas!

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

After lots of discussion, Rob and I finally made the decision to travel to Connecticut this year for Christmas.  My sister lives there with her family.  She has two little boys that are the same age as my girls.  My parents had been planning on going up for the Holiday and after my sister invited us, I knew it would be wonderful to all be together on such a special day.  So on Wednesday before Christmas we woke up very early and headed out for the LONG drive.  I was very nervous about the ride as I wasn’t too sure how the girls would behave in the car for that long.  To our surprise, they were great!  With the frequent bathroom stops and some food pit stops, we made it there in about 12 hours.  Taylor was super excited about going to see her cousins.  When I went into her room that morning around 4:30, I figured she would be her normal groggy self.  Nope she hopped right up, changed clothes and was ready for the trip.  She did however ask after 7 minutes in the car if we were there yet?!  Poor thing.  I had to tell her that we had a very LONG way to go!  She did ask often if we were there yet, but was awesome the entire trip!  Once we got into Connecticut we hit major traffic.  We were all so ready to be there and out of the car.  Little Caroline had lost it by then and had a meltdown.  I felt horrible for her but seriously there wasn’t much we could do to help her.  She just wanted out!  I can’t blame her, because I personally would NOT want to be strapped in a seat for 12 hours!!!!  Once we got there, the kids were beside themselves.  They were running every which way and so excited to see their cousins Mason and Jake (and Aunt Kerri and Uncle Jimmy too!)

We had a wonderful trip and a fabulous Holiday.  My sister Kerri has an awesome extended family.  Her husband is one of nine children and all of them live in CT except for one of his sister’s and her family.  The LeBlanc’s have always been so welcoming and loving.  They make our visits fun and memorable and we really appreciate them sharing their traditions with us and always being so generous.  A HUGE thank you to my sister as well.  She always does a great job as a hostess in making everyone comfortable and happy.  I admire her for that since I really don’t have to be a hostess much to out of town guests.  When my sister comes into town they usually stay with my parents.  Kerri was a huge help with getting some of our gifts for Christmas morning.  She was a fabulous cook (and bartender) throughout the week and made the trip relaxing, fun and total worth it!

On Christmas morning the kids totally made Christmas!  From the looks on their faces and the many shrieks of joy, it made all the fuss and craziness of shopping totally worth it!  Now don’t get me wrong, it was pure chaos that morning with the gift opening.  Santa brought Taylor this Princess keyboard vanity which was quite the hit among ALL the kids!

Santa brought Mason and Jake a train table, new cars and a “guy” kitchen.  These were the only gifts that were unwrapped.  So once the present opening started it was just crazy.  I think they were all overwhelmed.  Jake and Caroline were too funny.  They didn’t care to open their gifts and just wandered around.  Mason and Taylor were happy to help in opening the little one’s gifts though.  There were so many toys I don’t think the kids knew where to start.  Taylor got this guitar, microphone and amp set from Santa as well.  We have lots of clips of the cousins playing in “their band”

 

Oh yes these are priceless moments! 

Even as we are home now I feel like the girls get out something new everyday that they got from Christmas.  They must have been two very good girls!!

The four cousins right before church on Christmas Eve.  There are several photos as we attempted to get all four looking at the camera and smiling…yeah right, not going to happen not at the age 3 and 1!!

After Christmas Eve partying…getting ready for bed and lounging with Grammy and PawPaw.

Crazy yet FUN Christmas morning.  Not too many photos but I do have video to post!

More pictures from the Christmas Program

Taylor and Jacob weren't quite ready to get off the stage. Mr. Chan had to help hurry them along.

This is Taylor's best friend and "boyfriend" Jacob. They have been best buddies since they started at Village Kids when they were only three months old!

Say Cheese Taylor!

Mrs. Keiran (her favorite teacher) and Taylor

Little Caroline was SO hot in the gym...not sure if the AC was on there! I just loved her face here

Yes we are here...

I really have NO excuses as to why I haven't posted in over a month!!!! Things have been busy with the Holidays and just life in general. Lately I have just been so tired and have a million things to do when I get home from work. I know you are all JUST as busy and again there are no excuses! I am going to post more and try to keep this blog updated for the New Year.

So no new camera for Christmas :(
Well really I didn't expect that expensive camera at all but gosh what a nice surprise, right?! My big present was being with my family over the Holidays!!!
I tried to take more pictures of the girls, but we have just gotten BAD at taking our camera with us. We did however get a new video camera for Christmas so I have been pretty excited about that new addition. The clips below are from our regular camera with the video option. They are not too clear but gives you a good look at Taylor's Christmas program. Seriously how cute are these clips of the kids?! I thought they did a wonderful job. I am totally amazed at how well 3-4 year olds can memorize these songs. Taylor is still constantly singing these Christmas carols as well as the other songs performed by other classes. I guess all the classes practiced together at times so they ended up learning more songs. It is priceless!
This was the Christmas program put on by the 3-5 year old classes from the girls' daycare the first weekend in December. Each class sung 2-3 songs. It was one of the cutest things I have seen in a long time. I loved it!! It was a great start to a wonderful Christmas in 2009.