December 2010

Greetings from snowy South Dakota! Things have been busy here. Last week, Eric & I both had our work Christmas parties, so I drove the girls to my mom's house on Friday afternoon. My party was on Friday night at the Country Club and it was much fun. Saturday, Eric & I went to lunch and to a movie! What a treat! That was a struggle, due to the 7" of snow that we had received the night before. Lots of things were closed and the roads were hard to manuever, but we were a few of the people that made it to Eric's office party at his boss's house. It was fun, but sad that only about 1/3 of the people made it. On top of that, the interstate was closed most of the weekend, so we didn't get to pick up the girls until Monday!! Momma was missing them like crazy!! Emma was so "sad" to have missed a day of school :)

(This post will be a little out of order due to the way I put the pictures in, so excuse me)

I am so very proud of my husband with his tremendous weight loss! He's been on the Atkin's Diet since June and has lost about 75lbs! We actually picked up his wedding ring today at the mall as it had to be resized a whole size!! It's crazy, but he looks amazing! He is so much healthier & no longer snores!! Thank you, God!

Yesterday, I took the girls to see Santa. Emma didn't want to go, since she no longer thinks he's real (dummy), but I wanted her to help with Harper. Well, good thing she did! She crawled up Emma when it was our turn. I've never seen her behave that way, but Santa was NOT something she was a fan of! So, I got one picture (compliments of Emma) of Harper! Maybe next year!

We tried to bribe Harper into the picture by watching Emma with Santa, but that didn't work. I did get a good picture of Emma with Santa tho, so I guess I still won:)

Here was a cute picture of the girls while waiting in line to see Santa, it was too cute. Emma is such a great big sister! I'm so proud of her!

Last week, we tried to take Christmas card pictures..it didn't go well either!

This is a very good example of how it went over!

Our tree this year. We decided to put it downstairs to prevent a little someone from pulling off the ornaments. It's nice down there, but sad to not see it when I walk in at night.

Emma had a chorus concert a few weeks ago at school. This was her "boomwacker" time - to - shine - event. It was basically a tube that made noise, but it was cute.

I do need to explain a little bit about how cute Harper is. Right now, she's carrying around a package of instant soup. That's normal behavior, right?! Also, at night at dinner when we pray, we all hold hands. She now has to hold our hand and says "amen" in her own version of the word!  She's begun to kind of use utensils (sometimes the spoon goes upside down, but it's a good effort).  She's begun sleeping most of the night...last week she started to stir around 4:30, so guess who else was up that early. I feared a sinus infection as it had been going around daycare, supposedly, but I took her to acute care today to find out toddler's don't have sinus cavities yet, so I don't know how kids at daycare have it!

It's going to be a busy week! Emma only has school thru Tuesday. Eric has Friday off, but I work until noon. We will spend Christmas Eve just the 4 of us. We will go to Eric's parents on Saturday and my grandma's on Sunday. Emma will spend New Years weekend with her dad's family and then my mom's side the weekend following.

Lots of running & I pray for everyone's health & happiness. Merry Christmas & I hope you all have a wonderful 2011!

Eric, Nicole, Emma & Harper

Busy - busy - busy

Where does the time go? I just don't understand how it's all of a sudden 2 weeks since I've written!

Thanksgiving was nice at my parents house. My brother, Matt & his family came, as well as my parents.  We came back home Thursday night and brought Bethany (my sister) home with us! It was so fun to have her here for a few days! Because I'm 18 years older than her, we've never really spent sister time together. We did some shopping that Thursday night & a few other times over the weekend. She graciously watched the girls for us Sat night, while Eric & I went to dinner & a movie!

This past week was a lot of running around. Emma had her first dance recital this week, so Monday, she had rehearsal. We had our first bought of freezing rain/snow that night, so our commutes home were exhausting!

Emma went to her dad's last weekend, and I got a call at around noon on Friday that Harper had thrown up at daycare = come get her! She threw up & walked to the time out corner, like she was bad?! How sweet! So, we came home & she napped for a few hours & I got some much needed cleaning done!! Harper threw up a few more times (including once on the dog!) and then seemed to be just fine.  Due to my short day on Friday, I had to go back to the office on Saturday morning, so Eric stayed at home with Harper.

Here's a picture of Emma in her hip hop outfit! they danced to "Christmas in California." It was so great & she did so well! I have never been so proud of her!! They danced on the Great Stage in the Washington Pavillion. She was in awe of it! "Mom, actors/actresses & singers perform on this stage, and now I am!" It was a great show! I'm looking forward to the next one in the Spring!

Our little Harper is quite the little ham! She realized her true love of ketchup!!  She is SO into music. No matter what she's doing, she will completely stop what she's doing to look where the music is coming from & she will bounce to the music!

She also is suddenly intrigued with time out. If she's being naughty & you threaten with time out, she'll walk to the corner & sit. It's cute & strange all at the same time!

Every time I take Harper's picture, she always closes her eyes! I can NOT get one lately with her eyes open! It's like she's trying to do it!

Tomorrow night, I have to take the girls' Christmas pictures (it snuck up on me!). Wednesday is my night for some fun (nails & a friend's party) and Thursday night is Emma's dance recital video at the dance studio. Friday I have the day off as Suzanne is closed. Harper & I will hang out & then go get Emma. I'm taking the girls to my folk's house this weekend as Friday night is my Christmas party & Saturday is Eric's. Mine is at Westward Ho Country Club & Eric's is at his bosses house. I don't know what to expect with mine, but Eric's is always so much fun!

Speaking of my husband, I'm so proud of him! He has lost about 70 lbs! He gave up carbs in May - yes, that's all! No exercise what-so-ever! But his body does really well with that type of diet! We even had to take his wedding ring in to the jewelers this weekend to get it sized a whole size smaller!

Well, it's time to go finish the daunting task of wrapping Christmas presents! I can tell I'm getting old....I no longer like to do it!

Have a good week