Lazy Days of Winter

I know summer is the season when laziness is suppose to kick in, but I have to say, with 2 little ones, a COLD snowy winter, a Daddy who travels, and a couple of rounds of feverish viruses, our January has been pretty pathetic! 

After all of the excitement of the holidays, it was actually nice having a few days to hang around the house before starting back into the real world.  About the most photo-worthy event was the girls wearing my jackets around the house and hanging out in the laundry basket to entertain themselves...fortunately, we do have a lot of great new toys as well, so the girls played with those...maybe a little too much!!  :)

We survived through "the great snowstorm" of 2011 (hopefully that's the only one, but I'm knocking on wood as I type) and unfortunately for our girls, Mommy and Daddy were not very prepared.  We treked out in the snow to every store we could get to trying to find snow-worthy footgear, only to end up with a couple of pairs of rainboots, one of which was a whole size too big...After layering up in our gear, we headed out into the white yonder...and made it about as far as the sidewalk, walked around a little more, took a few dives, and decided it was time to come in.  I still feel like we somehow deprived our little ones of really enjoying the snowy adventure, but we didn't have sleds and the girls didn't really seem to love being that cold (and neither did I), so we just returned to our layer and called it a day...I wish I had more enthusiasm for the winter wonderland scene, but it's not a surprise that my heart belongs to summer!

After the snow melted, Gary had to leave for the better part of the last 2 weeks, and what an interesting 2 weeks it's been!  I've dove right into a CRAZY amount of work and stress, the girls had a bit of an adjustment to being in daycare ALL day every day, and then both of them ended up getting pretty sick...Macy's started last Friday, Makayla's almost EXACTLY a week later (yesterday morning!)  They have been pitiful, and after a typical trip to the doctor, we found that there was nothing we could do but lay low, feed plenty of fluids and tylenol, and wait it all out.  I'm SO ready to see my little ones back to themselves again!

We did make a quick trip to a birthday party this morning for our little friend Emme...the party was at Ben and Jerry's, and the girls got to tie-dye shirts, color pictures of COWS, and Macy had some delicious Ice Cream cake.  Unfortunately, Makayla started feeling pretty bad again while we were there, so she didn't get to really enjoy the party, and we're now back at home napping and trying to recover...and counting down the hours until Spring!!

Christmas Past

I apologize for being SO far behind on my updates.  I started back to work full time on January 3, so life is flying by at the speed of light while I work a lot of hours and attempt to develop some sort of routine! So let me begin by getting back into the Christmas spirit for a minute...

As previously mentioned, Christmas Day was SO MUCH fun!!  I figured I'd start with a little more detail around the big day...Fortunately for us, over our long Christmas "break" from work, the girls developed a (short-lived) habit of sleeping in until close to 7:30!  Christmas was no different, but, as with many mornings Macy woke up before Makayla.  We got Macy out of bed and kept her upstairs to change her diaper, hoping Makayla would hurry and wake up and we'd bring them both down to see what Santa had left for them.  Macy is quick, though, and as soon as she was changed, she peaked downstairs just enough that her new aquisition had caught her eye...and she couldn't stop staring!  Fortunately, Makayla quickly woke up and we headed down to go through our loot. 

The day after Christmas, we had planned to leave to go to Gainesville to visit Gary's side of the family.  We had an unusually white Christmas this year, and due to the crazy weather, we decided to postpone the trip by a day so it wouldn't be quite as bumpy of a ride.  We were happy to make it to church that day, then spent a lazy day at home enjoying our new toys, and woke up early Monday morning to start our trip. 

We again were able to appreciate Gary's ability to turn a 4 hour drive into a quick 1 hour flight, and headed to our usual lunch at Mellow Mushroom so we could meet up with the rest of the family.  Mimi, Grandpa, Great-Grandma and Grandpa Wibbenmeyer, Aunt Melissa and Aunt Sabrina all met us there, and the girls finally got to meet their new cousin NOAH!  Unfortunately, we found out that Haley was sick with the flu, and she had to stay home and miss the first couple of nights of the party.  The girls were thrilled to see their family, and had a great time bonding with all, especially Mimi, over the next few days!

We also had the chance to visit with Aunt Sheryl a few times, and then on Wednesday, the girls had the rare chance to spend time with Uncle Jason, Aunt Jen, and their cousins Reganne and Riley!  Fortunately, Haley was well enough to come up at this point too, and family friends Zoe, Elie, Taleen, and Bryce came up for dinner, so the party was ON!!  The girls all had a great time playing together, and Macy and Makayla spent lots of time checking in on the new little guy as well.  Oddly enough, one of their favorite things to do was to play in his pack and play and climb in and out of his swing...who'da knew?  :)

The girls got MORE awesome gifts, so many, in fact, that we had to leave them at Mimi's so that she could send them home with Mamaw and Papaw when they returned from visiting with Nathan, Lauren, and Emmy Cate. One of Makayla's favorites was an adorable dress from Mimi that she had to immediately put on to push her new grocery cart around the room!  Yes, the girls got 2 more grocery carts, so they are now happily able to push their carts through every corner of our house, dropping off all of the plastic and cardboard food goodies in every crevace...thank you Aunts Lauren and Sabrina!  :)  The girls really do LOVE all of their gifts!

After a few days of fun, it was time to head home on Thursday, so we packed up after naps and made the quick trip home in time to have dinner with Mamaw and Papaw before dragging home two very sleepy babies .  It was such a great trip, and was a nice trip to wrap up our holiday celebration.

While the girls have been too little this year to really understand all of the craziness and why we do all of the things that we do, they have had a great time opening up gifts and spending time with family.  We had so much fun experiencing Christmas again through the eyes of a child, and while we know every Christmas from now to the rest of our lives will be different and in some ways better than the year before, we did our best to stop and appreciate this precious age.  Since I know I'll forget, some of my favorite things that I hope to never forget were...the gleam in their eyes every single morning when they came out of their rooms and immediately found and announced the LIGHTS on the Christmas tree...the way they made a point of kissing the tree and telling it "Bye, Bye" every time we left the house...the fact that they LOVED talking about Santa and to point to his picture, but don't let the real guy ANYWHERE near them...the way they intensely listened to the Christmas story every single night around the holidays, and always self-initiated "rock"ing "baby Jesus" when the story was over...watching our first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with them while putting up the Christmas tree (previous blog)...and the way they danced to their kid's Christmas CD...especially Makayla's "robot" dance to "Must be Santa Claus".  This we know...it IS a wonderful life!