Christmas Day

Holy Moly are we so blessed. My sisters and mom all came over for Christmas later on in the day. We haven't had everyone here in a while. We had a great day and a great spread of food! The tree was full of gifts! It is just amazing to me. It took a while to open all the gifts and the kiddos were pretty patient. Daphne danced on the gifts, Stella tried to open many that were not hers and Nora and Jalen waited! We then had dinner and played rob your neighbor and our favorite LRC!  So much fun!!!

Christmas Morning

Crazy as it sounds, the girls did not wake up until 9:50 on Christmas morning. We had them up late on Christmas Eve and that is the way it went. But when they got up they were very excited to see that Santa had come! We headed downstairs to open gifts and they sure did get a lot. Nora's favorite was her tablet and Stella's favorite was her baby stuff that she got. I just love watching their faces light up!!! It was a great morning.

Christmas Eve

Since we were in St. Louis this year we got to celebrate with the Bromeier side of the family on Christmas Eve. Before we headed to my cousin, Kurt's house we did a little celebration with my dad and did some gift exchanging. Nora sooooo wanted a rudolph and clarice stuffed animal from the movie and luckily we found some for Pappy to give her. She was so excited!!! Stella got a Sofia sleeping bag and Peter and I got some new camping chairs. Peter was very excited about these chairs. We then headed to my cousin's house and had fun hanging out and visiting. It was a smaller crew this year, but we still had a great time.

Christmas-take one

Grandma and Grandpa came in from Chicago this past weekend to celebrate Christmas with us since it was our turn to be in St. Louis this year. We had our celebration on Saturday and the girls, as well as us had a great time opening gifts. Stella and Grandma went to the Magic House with me while Nora was at dance camp on Saturday. We bought a pass for the next year and so we took advantage of it. They had a lot of fun playing. We are so lucky that they can come in and do the trip. And we are so fortunate that they are so good to us! So blessed!!!
The girls got an awesome Doc McStuffins work table along with some great clothes and other toys. Poor Nora got the stomach bug that night, but luckily it didn't stay long. Grandpa got it when he got home on Sunday night. I am hoping that no one else gets it while we are on break!

Cookie Making

I am so far behind on blogging, but I am going to attempt to catch up. We made cut out cookies a few Sunday's ago and had fun doing so. We decided to icing some of them and that was different. I should have made homemade icing, but now we know!

Santa Visit 2013

I am very happy to say there were NO tears this year seeing Santa!!! I thought for sure that Stella would cry on the big guys lap. But she did not cry at all. I think it helped that he talked to them both first and then we sat on his lap. I am so excited for Christmas this year I can hardly stand it!!! Nora is at such a great age and totally believes. I hope she believes for a long time! Our elf, Merida, has been very sneaky in her places, but she was caught by an army of little green men last night and is being held hostage on Peter's work bench. Silly elf! Here is our pick with Santa. Don't know what happened to Santa's other better looking elf that helps him out.

3 Fears

So way back in February I had a post about 30 things I want my kids to know about me and I had set a goal for myself to complete it by the end of 2013. I don't think that is a reality, but I still want to do it, so I am going to answer the 2nd question now.

The second question or statement is to list your 3 legitimate fears and why they are fears.

1. I have a fear of my loved ones dying unexpectedly.. I think this became a fear for me when my grandma died when I was 7. She passed away in her sleep and after that happened I thought every old person was going to die in their sleep. It took me a long time to get over and then my grandpa and uncle passed away with in 6 weeks of each other unexpectedly and so my fear of loved ones dying unexpectedly has continued.

2. I have a fear of failure. I am not sure where this comes from or why, but I always want to be the best and I do not want to fail at pretty much anything. I guess that goes with why I have anxiety and like to be in control and what not.

3. My third fear is of needles or my blood being drawn. I always get light headed and feel like fainting. It doesn't matter if it is a flu shot or what, but ugh, it makes me squirm just thinking about it.

Happy Halloween 2013

"It's time for a checkup"! Yes, Nora and Stella were themed again this year and their theme was from a show called DocMcstuffins. It is a really cute show on Disney Jr. and the little girl plays doctor to her stuffed animals and they come alive. So Nora was the doc and Stella was her favorite stuffed animal, Lambie. Unfortunately it was a very rainy and yucky night here in St. Louis ;( And Jalen scared Stella when he put his whole costume on and she cried the whole time she tried to trick or treat (which was for only 5 houses). Poor baby!! So daddy took her back and Nora and I continued on with the bigger kids. Nora lasted about 3 blocks and then wanted to go back and play with the Kountzman's play house that they have at their house. She was not all about getting candy. I was completely fine with that. We didn't see Jalen the rest of the night. We left before he came back, so I am sure he made a haul!!! Overall, we had another fun Halloween!

Stella update and Pumpkin carving

So Stella went to the doctor today for her 2 year check up. She is doing great!! No concerns, she is doing everything she is supposed to be doing and is talking and everything a 2 year old should be doing. (So why do I worry?!) She got two shots, poor baby. Stella weighed in at 28 lbs even and is 2' 10.5" tall, which puts her in the 70th%ile for both height and weight. Stella is talking up a storm and I just love it and she now is saying 'I love you'. That is the best ever!!!

Now on to pumpkin carving. We decided to carve pumpkins last night since this week is so crazy. So Jalen and grandma came over to help and so Jalen could carve as well. We only had Nora and Stella carve this year. Normally all four of us carve, but it was just too much last night. We had fun and Nora was all about the carving and picking out the picture to carve. She wanted a 'scary' pumpkin, which cracks me up. And of course Peter did Stella's 'peter style'. We cannot wait for Halloween! Hope it doesn't rain too much.

Happy 2nd Birthday Stella

Today is Stella's 2nd birthday! I cannot believe she is already two, but I cannot remember life without her anymore. She has been such a blessing to our family. She makes me smile constantly and she is full of so much energy and love.
We decided to do something a little different for her party this year. We did a pancake and pajama birthday party. We actually did it this morning at 10:00 am. I decorated the basement and we changed our table into a bed for 'breakfast in bed'. Everyone wore their pajamas and we had pancakes with different toppings!!! The kiddos made fruit loop necklaces and got to take home a blanket as their thank you. We had a lot of fun and it was so simple to do.
Stella got a bitty baby from us this year and she hasn't put it down, which makes it well worth every penny spent on it and it has renewed Nora's interest in her bitty baby ;) She also got a little princess couch in which both girls haven't quit playing with either. We are so blessed to have such great friends and family!
Here are some pics from this morning. I will post her yearly update tomorrow after we visit the doctor!