Last Year and This Year

Last Year Around This Time 

Oh and I never ever posted her baptism pictures!! This is her dress and this

was her sister's dress.  My sister Vickie made it.

This Year Around This Time 

(she loves to cook)

Last Year Around This Time 

(not sure what she was doing, just looking cute)

This Year Around This Time

(In reality, I do not see a huge change, she is taller and thinner but not that much taller as 

she is wearing most of the same pants as last year.  She is amazing though)

Merry Christmas

 We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!

white christmas!

Celia's Awesome Teacher

So I am sharing the email that was sent by Celia's awesome teacher today.

Dear Sonbeams, What a special day this is...I know you must be counting down the hours until "visions of sugarplums" dance in your heads! I know that you are enjoying some very special time with your family and friends.  When you wake tomorrow, it will be the birthday of Jesus....such a precious day! I hope that you will remember the story of the candy cane and that you will share it with someone. I pray that you will be singing and rejoicing just as the angels filled the sky with beautiful music on that very first Christmas, that you will look for Jesus in everything beautiful during this season just as the shepherds looked for Him in Bethlehem, that you will remember all of the love and joy that you share with your family and friends just as Mary remembered in her heart everything about the birth of Jesus, and that you will share something very special from your heart with your family and friends just as the wise men brought precious treasure to the Baby Jesus. I am praying that your Christmas celebration will be AWESOME!  
 I told Santa that it will not be hard to find your house...he just has to look for your Sonbeam light shining brightly!!!! 
                                    Merry Christmas and much love to you and your family

We love her teacher so much and I hope she does not mind that I am sharing this!!

Paw Paw

We will miss you Paw Paw.  You lived a good life and everyone is blessed to have known you.

Gingerbread House

This is Gill

He patiently helped Celia make this fabulous Gingerbread House

I typically don't do Gingerbread Houses, so we hired Gill.

Didn't they do a good job!!

Gill was free by the way as he is friends with my Mom who

bought the Gingerbread House.

I do not know if he is still available if anyone needs a Gingerbread contractor

It is sitting on top of our tv stand, away from one trouble making 2 year old's little hands and one 5 year old who I know at one point was itching to play doll house with it.

Sometimes

So sometimes for a second I can not find Audrey and then I turn around and see a pile of undies and pants... I then often here an "I did it" and i find her on the toilet proud to be going all by herself. I am very proud of our big girl!

The cutest little banana eater

Putting up the Tree

Each year we hike far and wide, through the cold and rough terrain to the closet where we excavate our large bigger then a pinecone, christmas tree.

Audrey was basically a pest during the whole decorating project and we went over the "pretty, don't touch" part of the Christmas tree. She nodded knowingly and then proceeded to touch every part of the tree that she possibly could. We have been through the lesson a few times over, a time out drove the lesson home. In fact the other day, I moved an ornament and was told "pitty don touch".

Audrey hitting the egg nog (kidding)

I am always amazed that there are not more trees out there with a piglet angel on top of the tree.

Oh and by the way, a strand of christmas tree beads is on sale at Target for $2 a tube and it provides quite a lot of entertainment for the 12 month to 2+ age group. Celia even was occupied for a short time. Heck, I played with them for a bit.

Sandy Hook

As you know I switched teaching jobs 2 months ago. At the beginning of the school year when I taught in my school age Autistic Support program, we had to start doing lock down drills. We were to turn off the lights and have the children go to a corner of the room, out of view. I was also supposed to do a sweep of the area immediately outside of my classroom and bring anyone in to my room who needed safety. We then could lock the doors. In that building, the doors could be locked from the inside. They could be locked from the inside because in that school, we often had to lock the doors to keep our students and staff safe from aggressive students in other rooms.

Elementary schools go through these lock down drills across the nation. I know you know why I am sharing this. We prepare for lock downs but we never can be fully prepared. As of yet we do not know the full stories. But it sounds like, for the classrooms that could, teachers and staff followed the procedures and the law enforcement. /div>

I am not a very emotional person, but this has gotten to me. They are little kids, they have no idea what to do if this kind of violence happens. I don't want my little elementary school child to have to know what to do if a gunman enters their school.

I watched the news story in my bedroom, away from the girls. Celia has no idea and I wonder if she will hear about it from someone. I hesitate at her age because she listens to everything and now she understands what is said. So I question, do I tell her a tiny bit so if she hears someone talking she will not be interested because she already knows the story, or do I wait. For now I am waiting and hoping she does not hear anything.

I uploaded pictures of the girls onto the computer a few hours ago and I thought about all of the families. The families that still have those pictures on their cameras and phones. The families who will soon go through pictures for an entirely different reason. The families that have their photo christmas cards ready to be mailed out.

I will of course give my girls some extra hugs but I am going to go on with life as normal. Celia will get in trouble for making as much noise as possible while in "quiet" time because that is normal life. Living your life as a family and not letting the violence that occurred today destroy your everyday moments in my opinion is the best way to fight back against this tragedy. We will be praying for the families, friends, students, and community in that small Connecticut town. In that small town where my husband lived for a short time as a child and he did attend Sandy Hook elementary school. There always seems to be ties to someone or something when these tragedies occur.

Audrey's ongoings today

Audrey came to Target with me this morning. She likes Target and she is typically very good. Today she was good but chatty. She has learned the word buy and i guess somewhat knows the meaning of it.

I was looking in the clothing area and she was not as thrilled with it but i let her play with a toy tiger and she was ok.

I held up a sweater and Audrey looked at it. She looked at me and said "No Mommy, i don't like that". She then pulled the closest thing next to her, bright pink sequined tank top " mommy buy". Mommy chose to make neither purchase but the lady near us thought it was funny.

We went to her clothing area and she caught sight of a very boyish looking elmo shirt. I told her it was for boys and she put her pouting face on and then said "I want boy". umm no.

She is accustomed to visiting elmo in the toy section but this was the first time that she called him nonstop when we caught sight of the toy section " Elmo, Elmo" was called until we reached him and then she said "There he is". Weird thing is, she never wants to bring the elmos home. She did however want the majority of the christmas light boxes, go figure.

I bought some hair bands for Celia and Audrey spent a good five minutes trying to put the whole pack in her hair ( while still attched all together). She was not the least bit succesful and they were thrown in the back of the cart. Audrey did declare her hair "pretty" so I guess they helped!

When it was time for nap, Audrey became very sweet.
"i cuddle mommy, here mommy mote (remote)"

"you think mommy should watch tv and you can cuddle with me?"

Nods head emphatically

I decided we woild relax for a rew but when I turn on the tv I heard

"Mommy, watch elmo"

You think I should watch elmo?

A big nod, cuddles in with me, then cries when Mommy does not watch elmo but instead carries her up to nap.

School pictures

The girls had school pictures taken the first week of November and the came back shortly after Thanksgiving.  Audrey did as was expected and would not smile and basically looked mad in all of the pictures.  So I did not purchase her photos.  I purchased a sheet of Celia's photo (Grandparents you are getting a copy).  They sent us a copy of the girls photo with a flyer to buy more online (grandparents I do have the website and code, but really the girls did not show off so they are not fantastic, photography was great, it was the subjects!!)
So here is the photo of Celia and the one of the two of them.

This is the best Audrey did!

Honestly I enjoy the monthly photos sent home from their teachers better then the posed school pictures!  Audrey's teacher is very diligent about sending home special pictures each month.  We get some from Celia's teacher too but they tend to display them for longer periods of time in the classroom and then we get a stack.  For Celia, I love seeing them up in her classroom and outside of the room!

I have to say though, Celia is so pretty in the picture.  I love that shirt on her.  It was not a cool shirt to her until her Best Bud Amber said "Oh I like that shirt" and then it was ok.  Thanks Amber!!

our felt tree

So I love pinterest but i never get around to making anything. I actually made a felt tree for the girls and it turned out really well. We will see how long it stays on the wall, I do not trust the way I secured it!
Hopefullu they will have fun decorating that tree vs our tree!
The picture is not great, but you get the idea.

stronger part two

And nothins' gonna bring us down... No!

Never givin' up gotta go... Go!

cause I know I'll keep gettin' stronger.

What I AM is SUPER.

(celia)
What I AM is PROUD.

(celia)

What I AM is FRIENDLY.

What I AM is GROUCHY.

What you are is MAGICAL.

What you are is SPECIAL.

(audrey)

There's nothing I can't achieve

cause in myself I believe in NO (?)

(audrey)

Gonna hold my head up high

Keep on reachin' high

I'm never gonna stop

I'll keep gettin' stonger.

Nothins' gonna bring me down

Never givin' up 

Gotta go

Yeah...

I'll keep gettin' stronger.