Hanukkah AND Christmas!

Yes, that's right...my kids are spoiled!  They are fortunate enough to be able to celebrate both holidays.  I know it's going to get a little more tricky as they get holder, but for now, they are pretty darn happy to get a double dosage of presents!

Hanukkah was VERY early this year, on December 1st.  I made sure the kids had a present to open each night and we lit the candles each night as well.  On the 4th, we had a small Hanukkah party at our house with a few family and friends.  While I was cooking and cleaning, Jason took the girls to the movie theater to see Tangled.  I'm pretty sure they ate a lot of candy!  By the time they got home, it was party time!  The Miller crew was supposed to come, but Morgan had to go and break her arm which lead to emergency surgery!  Peter showed up to represent the family though!  Sydney and Lizzy had a blast eating and playing with Lily, Jake, and Nathan.  I think the highlight of Sydney's night was that she got "Twinkle Toe Sketchers" from Grandpa.  They also got some pretty sweet furniture from Grandma Sharon for their Bitty Babies.  All in all, it was a really fun night.

Skipping ahead now a few weeks later...CHRISTMAS!!  We headed to Jason's parent's house in Midland, which we do every single year.  It kind of works out well that my family doesn't celebrate, so we never have to decide on which family to celebrate the holiday with.  Jason (I mean...Santa) bought the kids a TON of presents, so our car was packed!  When we got up to Midland, we went to the Santa House with Tyler.  That was NOT my favorite.  We had to wait outside for like 2 hours in the freezing cold...I don't do so well in the cold!  Lizzy and I had to sit in the car for a little bit, but we lasted most of the time.  They had a big blow up santa that she loved for some reason.  She kept saying, "BIG Santa, BIG Santa" really loudly!  After about an hour and a half, she went and stood at the front of the line and chanted, "open the door, open the door, open the door."  It was really cute and she still keeps saying it all of the time!  FINALLY they got to see Santa and Sydney was so upset because her pants were wet, but we threw her on his lap and she shaped up really quickly...this girl is all about the presents!!

The next day, they opened up all of their loot and then we headed to Polly's sisters house for dinner with all of the family.  We had fun and ate pretty well! 

The next day we decided to go to Traverse City for a day to see my Grandpa and cousins.  Although I was glad to see them, and the kids had a blast, it turned out to be a BIG mistake.  When we woke up the next morning, Peyton threw up and everyone knows about my phobia and how I can't deal with it.  So, we packed up and left instantly so we wouldn't catch it.  TOO LATE!  We made it back to Midland just in time for Sydney to start throwing up.  I was so beside myself...Jason had to do everything.  Finally she stopped and was in bed just in time for Lizzy to start throwing up.  It was such a disaster having two kids sick at the same time.  I think I stayed up the entire night, I was just a wreck.  Fortunately, Jason's mom and sister were very helpful as I was useless!  I felt so bad for Jason, but he handled it great!  The next day we all just laid around the house, the kids ran slight fevers and were really miserable.  I was so tired and out of it that I just laid on the couch all day.  Finally, the next day we went home.  We had been gone for 7 days so it felt so amazing to finally be back home.  I thought all of this sickness was behind us until that night, Lizzy started throwing up AGAIN!  This time I didn't have Jason's family to help out.  Jason still did most of the work...I did the laundry, but that's it.  Jason ended up sleeping on Lizzy's floor and took the day off of work...which I was very thankful for.  We kept Lizzy in her room the ENTIRE day and just hooked up a DVD player in her room and she watched videos all day.

Finally, today (Friday), I think everyone is finally feeling better!  Jason went to work and I cleaned the house while the kids played with all of their new toys.  I think they were happy to finally be home and to be able to play with eachother.  I'm sad though that this week is slowly coming to an end.  I always hate that stretch after Christmas break with no holidays...just a whole lot of work...what a bummer!  Tonight for New Years it looks like we are just laying low to make sure the kids are fully recovered....and let me tell you...they better be!

We shall see what 2011 has in store for us!

Recital

This past weekend, Sydney had her first dance recital ever.  She had been practicing a routine in dance class, but when I asked her if she knew what recital meant, she had no clue.  So, I was a little worried how she would react when she saw the stage.  I kept telling her she would be on a stage and she would say, "no, the stage is just pretend."  Obviously in dance class the teacher must have been telling the kids to pretend that they were on stage, but Sydney was confused and thought the stage wasn't real.

We had to arrive a little early for dress rehearsal and when Sydney saw the stage, she kind of looked petrified.  They practiced their routine twice and were all so awful that it was cute.  They had no idea what they were doing and had to watch their instructor in the wings.  There was also a 4th grader who had helped out in the class as a demonstrator and the poor thing had to wear the same costume as the the 3 and 4 year olds.  She went on stage with them for the recital, so half of the kids watched her and the other half stared off into the wings.  Kids were just basically looking every which way and all off rhythm.  But, I have to admit, Sydney did an amazing job.  I was very impressed.  She came out with a smile on her face and rocked it way better than rehearsal.  I was so proud of her!

I was also very surprised with Lizzy.  I thought she would be terrible in the audience.  She loved the entire show though.  She would keep saying, "what's next, what's next?"  She was a dancing machine sitting on my lap and would mimic all of the moves the kids on stage were doing.  It was so adorable.  She wanted to get up on that stage so badly.  After intermission, they sent the "little kids" back to the audience with their parents.  So, Lizzy took Sydney's hat and thought that if she put it on, that she could go up on the stage and dance.  I had to chase after her once...we were sitting really close to the front in an isle seat...so she was pretty darn close to that stage!  I ended up letting her dance in the isle next to me...she really had a blast.  Maybe Lizzy will be our dancer (she had some moves) and Sydney will be a swimmer.  Only time will tell!

(That's her stop taking pictures of me face).

When Life Gives You Lemons...You Make Lemonade!

Well, this Thanksgiving weekend didn't go quite as planned, but it's not necessarily a bad thing.  It all started when I picked Lizzy up at daycare on Tuesday night.  The poor thing had a fever and sounded like a barking seal.  The saddest part was that, every time she coughed, she would cry and she just looked so pitiful, so I took her to the doctor.  They confirmed that she had croup and didn't like the way she was breathing, so we had to put her on breathing treatments.  We were supposed to go to Midland the next day, but since Polly hasn't been feeling well (for almost a year now) we couldn't take Lizzy there and expose Polly to anything because she is very susceptible right now and we had to be careful.  So, that threw our plans completely out of whack.

I ended up staying home from work on Wednesday to take care of Lizzy.  So, the positive side to that is that I got an even extra long weekend and I was able to clean the house and do the laundry...none of which would have gotten done had I gone to work (I can only imagine how clean and organized my house would be if I didn't work...).  But that night some friends were getting together and even an old friend, Beth was flying in from California and I was going to have to miss out on the gathering because we were going to be in Midland.  So, I was excited that I was able to get together with the girls.  I even took my heartbroken Sydney with me...she was so sad and cried the whole day because she couldn't go to Midland to see Tyler...sure, she likes her other cousins too...but she LOVES Tyler.  It was nice for her to at least go somewhere! 

Fortunately, Jill came to the rescue on Thursday and met Jason half way so that we could get Sydney to Midland and put a smile back on her face.  She was ridiculously excited to go.  I was a little sad not to have her home for Thanksgiving, but she was doing what she wanted to do.  By Thurday night, Lizzy didn't have a fever, but just a little cough so we went to my mom's new boyfriend's house for Thanksgiving.  His name is Ira, but Lizzy refuses to call him by his name.  She calls him "guy".  She even says it to his face..."hi guy".  It was kind of last second...but at least we still got a nice meal!!

The rest of the weekend revolved around my old college roomate, Angela's wedding.  I was standing up in the wedding, so we had to go for sure and I still had Lizzy on my hands.  She was supposed to be in Midland with Sydney while we were in Mount Pleasant for the wedding.  Fortunately, Jason's cousin Kim came to the rescue and offered to watch Lizzy for us.  It was the most convenient option since she lived in Midland as well, so both of my kids were at least in the same city!

The wedding weekend was a ton of fun.  Since the wedding was in Mount Pleasant, there was no way that I wasn't going to hit up the casino...and that's exactly what we did after the rehearsal dinner!  I can't say we won, but we didn't lose big.  I lasted a pretty long time at the blackjack table, since I wasn't so lucky with craps.  While I was playing, Jason managed to keep himself busy at casino bar...supposedly they have really cheap drinks!  Don't worry...I drove home!  The next day we partied until the DJ stopped playing.  It's nice when the party is also at the hotel you're staying at!  It was also nice because we (well, more like Jason) was pretty whipped after the 3 hour party bus and then the reception!  We don't get to have fun like this very often, so we definitley enjoyed ourselves!  And the best part is that Angela married a great guy...make that an excellent guy, because he's also a fellow Spartan!!

So, even though are long weekend started out a little rocky, we were able to make the best of the situation (with the help of Jill and Kim) and it ended up to be quite nice.  Lizzy now has a favorite babysitter for the next time we go out of town.  I'm pretty sure Lizzy cried for a good hour and a half because she didn't want to come home!  She must have been spoiled!

Halloween Weekend

Wow...another Halloween came and went...but man, was it quite an event.  We had so many Halloween celebrations this year, I could hardly keep up!

The festivities began the Wednesday before Halloween at Sydney's school.  The class had a party and a school parade. What a difference from last year where I was like the only parent in the class who showed up.  There is a ton of parent involvement this year which is so nice to see!  Sydney is in an excellent class with well behaved kids and great teachers...I'm pleased with how this year is turning out!

The next day was the Halloween party at daycare.  Sydney wore her Sleeping Beauty dress and Lizzy dressed up as Minnie Mouse.  Lizzy was so consfused as to why they were putting costumes on first thing in the morning...she wasn't too happy and cried when I got her dressed.  Sydney is of course always thrilled to wear a princess dress whenever possible.  Once Lizzy got out of her funk and realized a party was inolved...she was all about it....of course!  I'm sure they ate plenty of junk!

On Friday we went to Canada to visit my Aunts and Uncles.  We hadn't been there in a while so it was great to catch up.  Sydney and Lizzy are obsessed with Mama Mia so they put in that movie and had a blast dancing to the music.  It was a family affair...everyone got their groove on.  By the end of the night, everyone was exhausted!  Sydney was out like a light when we got in the car, but Lizzy was on a sugar high...she just couldn't resist all of the candy that was around their house...I'm not surprised!  Now I know how my parents felt when I was young and wouldn't stop talking on a long car ride home.  It used to drive them nuts!  So...I guess I was just getting a tast of my own medicine!

The next morning I packed the kids in the car so we could finish buying Jason a birthday present.  He kind of always gets the shaft having his birthday the day after Halloween...we're usually always busy doing something!!  After that, we stopped at Lily's house to borrow a costume for Lizzy, but we ended up staying all day.  They were having a Halloween party in their common area so the kids threw on a couple of princess dresses and went to collect their treats...I mean, they weren't going to get enough the next night, right?  Finally we went home so Lizzy could take a little nap...and then it was off to Zoo Boo.  So we had to put on costumes for the second time that day.  Sydney decided she wanted to wear the costume that we had borrowed for Lizzy, but it worked kind of well because Sydney was a cat, and Lizzy was a dog...so we took our little pets to the Zoo to collect MORE treats.  Lizzy had fun sitting next to Nathan in the stroller and all of the kids got along well and had fun together!  It was much better than last year...maybe because Lizzy was more interested!

Finally...Halloween Sunday!  We took Jason out for lunch to celebrate his birthday since Sydney had dance class the next night on his birthday.  We just went to Olga's...simple, but good!  We bought Jason a new pair of shoes, pajama pants, a new casual shirt, and an alarm clock for his I Phone.  I never know what to buy him..men are so difficult!  I'm easy...just expensive!!  That afternoon we carved the pumpkins and made a gingerbread haunted house.  It was kind of a pain in the butt, but Sydney enjoyed decorating it.  Later, Grandma Sharon came over so she could pass out the candy and the kids got into their costumes for the last time...thank goodness.  Sydney wore her Strawberry Shortcake costume and Lizzy really wanted to be the dog again even though she was supposed to wear the cat costume.  They had SO much fun trick-or-treating this year!  Savannah even got to come with us, but I made Jason hold the leash so that I could be nosey and look into everyone's houses...I like to see how other people decorate!!  We got home way later than I anticipated because they had to hit like every house in the neighborhood. Lizzy was funny...they would open their door and instead of saying "trick-or-treat", she would say, "I have a nose" (she thought it was pretty cool that I painted her face).  Then they would put the candy in her bag and she would get all upset because of course she wanted to eat it right away.  So, she would ask if she could "have one more for her hand."  Is she too young to have a conversation about greediness? We have way too much candy in my house right now...two huge bags full.  It is not proving to be an easy task to hide it from Lizzy, but we're trying our best.  I would say this was a successful Halloween (with lots of costume changes).

Surprise...Disney On Ice

Last weekend I decided I would do something special with Sydney, just her and I.  Our schedule is so hectic and we're always running here and there and I feel like we never stop moving.  So this was a chance for us to just spend a little time together.

So, I purchased a couple of tickets to Disney on Ice, but I didn't tell anyone.  I especially didn't tell Jason because I knew he would tell Sydney and I wanted to surprise her.  The day before the show, we were at the MSU game and I had told Karen that I was taking Sydney and when we were saying goodbye, she told me to have fun tomorrow.  Well, naturally Jason wanted to know what we were going to have fun doing, so he found out that I bought the tickets.

Sure enough, the next morning, Sydney comes banging on my shower door all excited.  She said, "Daddy said to today is my big day and that you have a surprise for me."  I knew he would tell her something, I just knew it.  But at least he didn't tell her where I was taking her.  The entire day she guessed that we were going to the Shop-o-Rama, aka...the mall.  She calls it a shop-o-rama because of one of our favorite books (Llama Llama Mad at Mama).  She assumed that I was taking her to buy a Belle dress.  There is a big story behind that one, and she never seems to forget!  When we were at Disney World last year, she settled for a Cinderella dress because she wanted instant gratification and they didn't have her size in a Belle dress.  But she pretty much asks on a daily basis for a Belle dress for the past year.  We haven't given in yet!  So anyway, I told her she could where her Cinderella dress to the place I was taking her.

When we arrived at the Palace, she was a little surprised that it wasn't the mall.  But when we went in she was so excited to see that all of the kids were all dressed up like her.  Finally, she realized we were at Disney on Ice.  She was super excited and had a ton of fun.  I caved and bought her a snow cone in a really expensive Tinkerbell cup, but she loved it!  She was happy that I took her and even said thank you, so that made me feel good.

But then we got in the car to leave.  She asked where we were going next.  I told her we were going home and she got very upset and moody.  I was like, "where did you want to go?  Haven't I done enough?"  And of course she responded that she wanted to go to Toys R Us to buy a Belle dress.  There was no way I was doing that, so she pretty much cried the whole way home until she finally fell asleep.  It kind of put a damper on the day, but she did wake up fairly happy!  So, all in all, it was a good day, but that kid still doesn't have a Belle dress.

I wonder how much longer I have to hear about this darn dress!

Lizzy Lately

And now for everyone's favorite installment of what I like to call "Lizzy Lately".  At Lizzy's age, things are constantly changing.  One day she like Elmo, and the next day it's Dora...but then probably back to Elmo the next day!  Anyway, with everything that goes on around all of us, there is one thing that has remained constant since the day Lizzy was born, and that is...her love of food!  We just can't find a way to get her out of the cupboards.  Of course we tried, but the not so handy people that we are...she ripped the baby proof aparatus right off of the darn door!  I swear, she eats from the time she gets home from daycare until bedtime, so we try to keep her pre-occupied so she doesn't think about food.

So, last night we took Sydney to her swim class (which she made it up to the next level last night...Gliders! Go Sydney!!) and Lizzy knows that they sell candy there.  Jason and I sat down to watch Sydney swim and of course Lizzy went right up to the counter sulking, hoping someone would give her candy.  Eventually she went up to Jason and asked for a sucker and started begging for money and tried to search in his pockets for money.  We felt kind of bad that we had this annoying kid begging for candy while everyone was trying to watch their kid swim, so we bought her the dum-dum sucker...it's not like it was a chocolate bar.  Plus, she's super jealous that she can't swim too, so we gave in.  This made her pretty darn happy...until it was gone.  And then it started all over again..."can I have a sucker?"  At least everyone around us was laughing...I'm telling you, she's obsessed!  We are going to have issues when Halloween rolls around!  But this is just an example of how she never stops thinking (or begging) for food!

Let's see...what else!  She seems a little more interested in the potty...but definitely not ready to be potty trained yet.  But when she's pooping....she likes to be alone and will tell you to leave the room.  Sydney did that when she was close to being trained...so hopefully soon!  Anyway...last night I got out of the shower and was putting my pj's on and Lizzy went in the bathroom, slammed the door shut and opened up one of the drawers next to the door so I couldn't get it opened.  I knew she was pooping, but I didn't like that fact that she was in there alone.  But, I could see her a little bit because the door would open just a little bit until it hit the drawer.  This is what she did...she opened up my makeup and rubbed it all over her face, and then got out the makeup brush and put that all over her face, she dumped out all of my stuff that was in my cosmetic bag, and then she got out Jason's blue deoderant and decided that it looked like lipstick.  She kept saying, "I have to put on my wipstick, for my wips" and looked at herself in the mirror.  Of course I was yelling at her the whole time, but couldn't get in.  Finally she opened up the door so I could change her diaper, but we are going to have to do something about this door issue...we have a little troublemaker on our hands!

One more cute story.  Last night I was awoken at 2:30am by a loud scream..."mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy."  So I ran to Sydney's room, but she was fast asleep.  Lizzy never wakes up, but much to my surprise...it was coming from her room.  I went into her room and she was standing up in her bed, and I asked her what was wrong and she said, "the twinkle twinkle star is going to get me".  At first I thought she wanted me to sing her Twinkle Twinkle Little star, but as soon as I started singing she said, "Nooooooo, don't sing that....sing Rock A Bye Lizzy".  And so I did, and she went right back to sleep.  Poor kid is having nightmares about Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!

School Fun

Sydney is loving her school this year.  She especially likes the fact that she has the same teachers as last year.  I think she has adjusted great to going to school all day!

The first big activity of the year was the Trike-A-Thon, which is the school's big fundraiser.  Student's basically have to get pledges and then they ride their bikes around the school for a half hour.  I guess the theory behind it all is that no one really wants to buy crap, so students just collect money and it goes directly to the school.  It seems kind of weird to me, but my family, friends, and co-workers were happy to give Sydney a little money.  I couldn't actually attend the event during the day, but Jason was able to make an appearance and cheer Sydney on!  Apparently they had a blast and there were only two crashes!

The second activity happened today...a trip to Erwin's Apple Orchard.  I took a half day of work so that I could attend with Sydney.   The weather was absolutely perfect...67 and sunny, so it made for a really great afteroon with my favorite little four year old.  It was fun to watch Sydney interact with her friends and also to meet the other parents.  She had so much fun picking apples and searching for the right pumpkin.  They gave each kid a bag to put the apples in, and when Sydney's was full, she got the bright idea to start putting them in her coat pockets...I had a great day with her.  However, I must say...Sydney did not want me to go on the trip with her.  Last year, when she went on this same trip, Grandpa Eliot took her and so she really wanted him to take her again.  The entire way there she begged me to call him to come instead.  But once we got there, she was happy to be there with me!

We are looking forward to many more exciting activities.  The year has only just begun!