Lots and lots of Christmas-time.

I had so much fun this year doing Christmas-y things with the girls.  I remember being shocked at Fiona's patience when she decorated cookies diligently at 19 months for 2+ hours.  I was definitely prepared for Evie to be bored with any decorating activities within 15 minutes.  Much to my delight, that was not the case, and I have a feeling these little girls and I will get along swimmingly for years to come when it comes to crafty things.  Yipee!

Anyhow, Mara and Bess and Jacob came over one night and decorated gingerbread houses with us.  (For future reference, if you're trying to save time I don't recommend cutting out the step where you attach the gingerbread to cardboard.)

I also thoroughly enjoyed this cuteness in the clam before the storm:

Sometimes I can't stand how sweet they are together, and how much they love each other.  

Jesse made a stop in Dallas on his long leave trek.  The girls loved playing with him, and I had lots of fun hanging out with my siblings around Christmas-time.

Somehow we didn't manage a sibling picture.  Oops.  At least I got these.

Nanny, Papa, Steve, Cindy and Abby arrived and we had so much fun with our visitors!  We had a great night heading down to Main Street to see the decorations and lights.

This kids had a blast dancing to the music at the gazebo.  Later that night the Bird boys and Nanny had a blast singing karaoke.

We had a lovely morning decorating cookies with Steve, Cindy and Abby.

Fiona would have kept going all morning, but eventually we ran out of cookies.

I must admit, I was pretty impressed with the results.

Everyone got dressed up for Christmas Eve Mass.

This kid is a trip.

She literally cracks herself up.

And then we came home and had a good old Bird Family Christmas Eve bash.  Unfortunately, I think my picture taking was directly linked to how many people were around.  Lots of people (stupidly) = no pictures.  :(

Of course Christmas morning was a hit.  The girls came out and just stared at Santa's gifts for a bit before Fiona just ran over and gave me a hug. Pure excitement, happiness and joy.  

Becca and Joe had everyone over for a delicious Christmas brunch (which of course I forgot my camera for too!), and our way home it started snowing!

By the time our very necessary naps were over, there was enough to actually play in!  

We had such a happy Christmas and are so so blessed.  Thank you to all the Birds who traveled so far to spend such a wonderful week with us!  Next time, I'll try to get my camera out amid the chaos!

Christkindl Market

Jon's been kind of obsessed with Germany since Oktoberfest.  Mostly authentic German sausages on authentic German rolls with authentic German beer.  He found a German deli not too far away in October and was SO excited to to find they sold imported Haufbrau beer.  They were also supposed to be having a Christkindl Market one weekend in December.  He was really looking forward to pretending he was in Germany and sipping some nice warm Gluewein.  Unfortunately, he forgot about it and missed the weekend.

Luckily, I'd remembered hearing advertisements for a Chritkindl Market in Arlington on the radio, and after some internet searching found this:




Not sure if it was just the day we chose to go or what, but it looked like this:

Not quite the same atmosphere.  But the girls sure enjoyed the hot cider.

And brats.

And Jon got his Gluewein and beer.  So not a total fail. 

Fiona's Christmas Program

Fiona had her dance recital last weekend.  Pictures pretty much speak for themselves here.  It was so strange to drop her off backstage, entrust her to some high school drill team girls and not see her for a couple hours. 

Evie was enthralled for pretty much all 25 routines.

So stinkin' cute!!!

And actually performing!

Evie kept inching closer and closer to the stage.

Side Note:  So they didn't have a rehearsal or anything.  We'd talked about her recital for weeks beforehand, but there is no way Fiona could have possibly anticipated getting up on a stage in a dark high school auditorium doing those little dance routines in front of bright lights and a couple hundred people.  Crazy.  I was ridiculously proud. 

Happy Birthday, Jon!!!

The girls were SO excited for Jon to get home from work on his birthday for cake and presents.  Evie spent most of the day singing "Happy Birthday" to him in his absence.  It was good practice.

Hard to believe he's now closer to 40 than 30.  Lucky for us girls we don't need to worry about him acting like it anytime soon!

Ah, Mornings...

Usually the girls will play really well together in the morning--for hours.  Seriously.  It is awesome.  Especially if I want to finish cleaning up the kitchen from the day before or get laundry or other housework done or something.  Or more likely play on the internet, look at Facebook, and pretend to look at news headlines for the day.

Then there are random mornings that sound like this:


Evie:  Aahhh!
Silence.
Evie:  Aaaaahhhh!
Me:  Fiona?
Silence.
Evie:  AAAAAHHHHH!
Me:  Fiona!
Silence
Me:  FIONA GET IN HERE RIGHT NOW!
Pat pat pat pat.
Me:  Why is Evie screaming?
Fiona:  I don't know.
Me: Yes you do.  Why is Evie screaming?
Fiona: Probably because I'm doing nothing.

On the bright side, they forgive each other VERY quickly.   I sure hope that lasts into their teenage years.

Superficial Preperations for Christmas

We spent a good part of last weekend getting the house all Christmas-y.

The advent calendar Emily sent last year was filled and ready to go December 1. 

I put it up overnight so it was a surprise for the girls...and what a surprise it's been!  I overheard Fiona yesterday saying, "Me, Evie, Me, Evie, Me, Evie..." I had no idea what she was talking about until I realized she was standing in front of the calendar.  She was pointing to all the numbers saying who got to open which ones.  At least I know there will be no confusion... 

Saturday Jon put lights up...

and let the girls help with the finishing touches. 

We got our tree...

 and made a pit stop on the way home.  God Bless Texas and 75 degree December weather!

Sunday we pulled out decorations...

Apparently, Evie knows what stocking are really for.

and broke lots of ornaments trimmed the tree with the girls.  (For anyone with a 1 and 3 year old who hasn't done this yet, I highly recommend having a broom and dust pan handy and making sure everyone has on shoes.  Or use shatterproof ornaments.)

I love all the ornaments grouped together at the bottom of the tree. 

Strangely enough, my OCD self isn't even tempted to rearrange them.

It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas...can't wait for all the Birds to get here!

We're baaack!

Typical

So after five months (doh!) our point and shoot has FINALLY been replaced.  With it's purchase has come a renewed commitment to blogging.  So much so that Jon even said if the only way I'd start blogging consistently again is if we made a dedicated time each week for him to take the girls and me have some alone time to do it, he'd be more than happy to.  That completely contradicts my procrastination lifestyle (people actually blog when they aren't supposed to be doing something else like watching children, buying groceries, cleaning, etc?), but I must say it was quite a sweet offer.

Anyway, just thought I throw up a few pictures of everyday life before I dive in.  On any given day, you can find the girls doing this for hours. 

Yes, they're saying grace first...

Or playing, "Scar, brother, help me." 

Just the murder scene from The Lion King...NBD.

I tried to get a nice picture of both girls together, but Evie had other plans.  See first picture.  And this one.

And then Fiona had to get in on the action.

 Oh well.  I've got a fun new camera now.  I'm sure we'll get one one day.

While we were camera-less, I should have been better about posting the random funny things the girls have been saying.  Oops, I didn't.  So here are a couple recent favorites.


Fiona's been playing with a little "Hot" Solo action figure.

Sick of listening to the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack every time we get in the car, Jon has started trying to get the girls into rock 'n' roll.  Fiona's off key Fly Away by Lenny Kravitz sounds like a mix between a lullaby and ballad--super awesome.  And I LOVE that when Evie sings along to AC/DC's TNT she yells "OINK! OINK! OINK!"