Bits and Pieces....of our HOUSE!!!

Since we are having guests for New Years Eve - I thought I would post some pictures of our new house.

I have this AMAZING friend in CT that I miss dearly - shout out SUSAN!!!! She literally sold our house in CT and then made the trek to PA to help set up our house here.

So far the foyer, the family room and the guest room are mostly done.

This is the foyer

Our guest room:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE our family room... we have high celings and I love the way it came together. Here it is decorated for the holidays...

Our second holiday in NH

We spent a couple of days in NH for Christmas. The trip up was not too bad, however it took us 8 hours in the car yesterday to get home. That was long.

While we were there, we decorated a gingerbread train - courtesy of Connor, who happens to be a tad obsessed with trains ;)

Brianna started to sing Twinkle,Twinkle while in church on Christmas eve during the silent prayer.

Ryan and I got a night out to have dinner by ourselves - we have not done that since August!

Aunt Brooke help Aly make chocolates for the first time

Brianna of course, spent lots of time exploring the new potties in NH

It was nice to have some downtime to relax. Here are some pictures of the week:

Our Holidays in PA

Santa came to our house the weekend before Christmas, to make is easier for Mom so she did not have to lug all of the presents to and from NH. The girls were excited to put out cookies, although Brianna thought Santa should share, so she had one before going to bed.

We had a small celebration and the girls had a great time. Hopefully this week, I can post the rest of the pictures from our holidays

Our snow day!!!

So much went on this weekend it is like 5 posts!! We got a foot of snow and Aly LOVED it - Brianna not so much. I think she just wanted to spend time on the potty.

How we spent our snowy day

The number 1 reason I did NOT want to potty train until Feb:

Seriously, this girl loves the potty. I literally spent 20 minutes in the Target bathroom this morning with her. She announced quite loudly over and over that she pooped.

In addition, she loves to just sit on the potty - as evidenced here.

Both of these were taken today, notice the outfit changes. Maybe I have a future toilet paper model on my hands - look at the sheer happiness!

Being Good For Santa

I think every holiday should have a Santa - granted I have only started to use the "santa is watching" in the last week - but it has amazed me how Aly has really picked up on Santa.

This morning we needed to be out of the house by 7:40 to be at Brianna's 2 year well baby visit. Aly had a meltdown over the car seat choice and on the way to the Dr. I had to call Santa - well you can imagine that just made her hysterical over the idea that she might be on the naughty list.

We did call Santa back and tell him about our much improved behavior after school.

Brianna appt went well. Our pediatrician is new so she went over the standard questions. She asked if Brianna could string two words together - to which Brianna responded "I poop on the potty" yep killed two birds with one stone when the next question wasabout interest in the potty.

Speaking of the potty - it has become a slight obsession with her - the girl would spend hours on that potty - she just likes to sit there.

Here are a couple of pictures from this week:

Decorating the tree

We got our tree this morning and after bath and pjs we decorated the tree. I think it took them about 5 minutes - well maybe 15 but they were marathon decorators.


As you can see - they adhered to the one ornament per branch rule quite well.

There were no ornaments above three feet high - it was fun to watch their excitement. Aly was really interested in the ornaments - they each got to pick one out again this year.

Yahoo lets the holidays begin!!!

I train them well

I ordered pizza for dinner since our kitchen is under construction - the backsplash is getting done.

Ryan called from the train to tell me that he would pick it up - a slight argument ensued over the sizes. I assured him that the girls would eat the spinach, tomato and feta over ham. He disagreed.

Not only did they devour the "good" pizza both had 2 slices before the gym and shared one after. They would not touch the ham - well Brianna had a couple of bites of the ham.

hmmm next time I am ordering a large spinach, tomato and feta.

I LOVE this girl

You often hear about how kids from the same parents have such different personalities....

Well, ours fit that bill just about perfectly. Brianna when possible tears through the house naked - as happy as can be.

She really wants to potty train - I am holding out until Feb.....We are traveling a bunch these next six weeks and to be honest, the thought of hitting every possible potty though the holiday season and various airports is enough to make me want to encourage pull ups.

Tonight I found her in the bathroom...on the potty. She told me to leave her alone she was in the potty - pretty much the exact same words I use with her multiple times a day when Aly is in the potty. So, I left her to do her business. No more than two minutes had gone by when she announced that she had peed........on the floor. Hello - you were on the potty. I swear she just knows I am putting this off.

So we cleaned up the floor and went to read books - naked of course.

We have been super busy!

Here are a ton of pictures - we had a great couple of weeks on the road. We spent Thanksgiving in Worcester and NH and then headed to Iowa for our holiday celebration. We beat the snow out of Iowa and are home safe in PA.

Here are some pictures - we visited the ecotarium and the Des Moines Science Center - the girls love the hands on activites and spending time with their cousins.

Grandma let us fill the big tub with bubbles - how fun

We are meeting Dereks family in Mexico in Jan - I made the five girls Dora dresses for Mexico - needless to say - they LOVED them. How much fun are we going to have - five under 4 - anyone want to join us :)

We had a little pajama party - the older girls wanted to set up the chairs like a movie theater
We made gingerbread houses - it was actually not nearly as messy as I predicted. We made the houses before and then just let the kids decorate them. Luckily Aly has not asked where hers is in PA - it did not make the trip.

On the road.....

We made it safely to IA - Ryan will join us on Thursday. It has been a whirlwind week of traveling and holiday get togethers.

We have been in 3 different places the last 3 nights, the girls have done great. Aly cheered when we landed in IA and let everyone on the plane know to look out their window and celebrate.

I will post pics when Ryan arrives and we have our laptop.