More Christmas Fun

We tried to catch them opening all the swell gifts they got from Aunties, Grandparents and such. However, despite the number of clips we did obtain (and we have MORE), we did miss some present openings when the memory card got full and shut down the camera. Sorry!

Ho ho Ho! Merry Christmas!

The girls had a smashing Christmas overflowing with toys though they were all (even Lani) overwhelmed.Thank you Aunty Renee, Aunty May, Aunty Carol, Greg & Iris, Jordan, Grandma Rose, and Grammy Jean and Grampa Joe for the wonderful gifts. Miss you guys! Wish we were there!

For Lani, her favorites included the Leapster game and the Barbie stuff.

For Arden, her favorites included everything Thomas: the trains from Santa and the videos from Aunty Renee.

For Cari, her favorite is, hands down, Barbie. She loves her new doll. She's sleeping with it right now in fact. Her old Barbie (my old Barbie actually) sits unloved in their shopping cart. She also loved the dress-up dress and shoes that Greg & Iris sent them. She wore them all day.

Our tree

A close-up of the presents.

The girls loved the headbands Jordan gave them.

Lani enjoyed playing Santa.

Below are some clips from today. I have many more to upload. Maybe tomorrow...

The First Snow

It's been hellishly cold here at best hitting the high 30s for awhile. So in some ways when the first snow came this week, it was a refreshing change. It took about 30 minutes of sweating, huffing, and cajoling to bundle everyone up in snowsuits and get them out the door. We played for over an hour with the sleds, shoveled, and built a miniature snowman. I got a good workout pulling the sleds (technically, toboggans).

Let's shovel. (Mittens are a accursed things. All they do are get in the way, then they fall off)

Arden: Mama, pull this thing already!

Our teeny snowman had a lazy eye.

And a lazy head. (His head kept falling off.)

Can I eat this stuff?!!

Ahhh, teamwork. Too bad it is only a prelude to a brawl (or a bawl) ;-)

And this is what our pile of snowgear looks like when we come in.

Oh this is ours too

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The girls like to do art projects. So I decided to play a game called "whose hands are the messiest?"

Clean...

Clean...

And we have a winner!

The girls are really enjoying their dad a lot (and vice versa).

We HAD to open one present tonight for 2 reasons. First, dinner wasn't quite ready and the kids were starving. (Chris made Rosemary's spareribs for dinner) Second, we received so many presents with more to come from Santa that they will be barely able to open all their presents tomorrow. I predict that they will lose interest after the first 4-5 presents...Alana chose Grandma Rose's present to open, so to keep things "even" the twins also opened their presents from Grandma Rose.

The following clip is so funny and cute. This highlights the fun side of being twins and being the mom of twins.

Murphette Musings

I thought I would take this time at the end of year to talk about the cute sayings, interests, and capabilities of my three wonderful girls.

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Cari was crying about something. Arden walked over to Cari, leaned over, patted her shoulder, and said, "It's okay, Cawee" several times. Then she leaned in and kissed her.

Upon eating miso soup for the first time since last winter, Lana exclaimed: "I want some more two-food!"

Alana has grown extremely interested in coins. So I asked her if she wanted a piggy bank (Justine gave her a ceramic one last year, which has been packed away). Alana: "Oh, yes! Oh, yes! I want a piggy oink!" Me: Well, it's called a "piggy bank." Alana: "I want a piggy boink!"

The three girls were playing with playdoh with Jordan (sitter) overseeing. Cari leaned over towards Jordan and chirped "I happy!" (She often says this when she's enjoying herself!)

Playing with a pile of coins, Arden counted out nine of them. THEN she counted to six in Spanish.

Cari, when choosing her clothes: "I want pink!" When she wants something in general, Cari says: "M'hab it!" (Me have it)

Arden, picking out a Christmas cookie: "How 'bout dis one?"

Cari, when I try to dress her in something that doesn't please her: "I don't wike it"

Cari, however is super obedient and sweet too, so I sometimes tell her we'll do it later or she'll get it later, and she almost always says, "Okay, mama" She also likes to be in a conga line with her sister and her dad. Tonight, she held onto Alana's shoulders and followed her (and Daddy) all around the house. Then when we were done, she chased Alana all over the house trying to latch back on to her shoulders.

Both twins have an idea of sharing. Sort of. Both demand: "I turn! I turn!"

Whenever Arden wants to claim something, she says: "Me Arden book" or "Me Arden twuck"

Cari loves to be fully decked out and dresses herself. She will put on gloves, a hat, a vest, and shoes (no shoes are safe from Cari) and spend her day in her finery. Amazingly, she can also run at full tilt in the princess play heels.

Cari is my cuddle-bug. Despite being almost 32 lbs, she always asks me "Up, up". She also has a very tender heart. If I pretend to cry, she gets a worried look and says "mama" and hugs me. She always says pwease, thank you, welcome, bwess you.

Cari adores all animals (afraid of none so far), but especially Blue. She loves to hug Blue or put her whole body over Blue. She also pulls Blue around by the collar on occasion.

Cari loves Barbie. She carries around my old Barbie from 1978, which she only allows to wear pink and purple dresses. Cari also loves Thomas.

Arden is in love with dinosaurs and Thomas. She has a sweet baby voice and an extensive vocabulary and adds new words constantly. She has a funny way of speaking though where many two-syllable words are chopped into very distinct segments, usually with the accent on the first syllable. She knows most kid songs by heart and sings constantly.

Arden is mischievous. Last week, we went to the library and she ran away and was lost for a few minutes. This week, we went to the library and she pushed the alarm button on the elevator then got her fingers stuck in the slit the elevator door slides into.

Arden is very focused and determined. And creative. Tonight, she drew something on the magnadoodle that looked like an ice cream cone and that's what she called. I asked her to draw it again and she drew something similar. Then Chris asked her to draw Blue and she drew a dog like head with 2 dots for eyes! Her hand is so steady and controlled for a 2 year old. I remember when she used to try to draw something when she was much younger and she would get so frustrated because she couldn't draw what she wanted.

They all love to watch themselves on the digital camera playback screen. Arden, pointing to Cari dancing on camera and then to Cari sitting nearby, said: "That's Cawee's picture. That's Cawee."

Lana has a best friend. Her name is Ava. Alana writes Ava's name in her drawings constantly and often makes "cards" for her.

Lana also loves Barbies. She has a box of my old barbies and clothes that she loves to dress and undress.

Lana is very creative. She likes to draw hearts with eyes and arms and legs, scenes (eg, an alligator in water with the sun shining down). She likes to draw people (eg, a picture of her and friend Ava, with Ava being taller and wearing a bow in her hair). She makes up her own games.

Lana is still the rule enforcer and a worryer (although her favorite phrase is, "don't worry about it, mom"). During our bout with pink-eye, Alana would occasionally run to the bathroom exclaiming, "Oh, oh. I need to wash my hands. I touched my eye." Once we were better, Alana thought she saw my hand reach toward my eye and she said, "Mom, don't touch your eye. Germs"

We have 1 oven mitt for our play kitchen. The other day a friend was over and using that lone mitt. Alana wanted one too. I said, "I guess I should buy another mitt." Alana said, "Mom, you need to buy three."

Lani can add to about 12 (counts much higher of course). She can also write many letters and a few numbers; however, some of the letters (L, S) come out backwards and sometimes she writes her name right to left.

Favorite meals beyond the typical kiddie stuff that all 3 love: scrambled eggs, miso soup with tofu, ravioli, popcorn shrimp. The twins currently love spanokopita and potstickers (esp the mini chicken & cilantro ones from Trader Joes)

Cari Loves Barbie

Two-Year Old Art Prodigy

The doggy - the first time she drew Blue looked more like a doggy :)

Pink-eye & Thanksgiving 2010

THIS POST IS OVER A MONTH OLD, BUT ANYWAY...

We had a crazy weekend. I was out for evening activities 2 out of 3 nights. They didn't used to let me out at night. It's a whole different world. Alana got sick on Saturday and did her usual high, fast fever spikes. Her fevers are like trying to manage a runaway train. Once it picks up enough steam, it's very difficult to control with medication. Sunday we were up all night as our feverish, restless girl moaned and kicked us in our bed, which she crawled into around midnight. No joke, but she somehow managed to spend the night kicking my head.

Today, she woke up with a case of pink eye that appears to be getting worse before gets better.

If it weren't for all the crying and brawling, it would be a lot of fun. Thomas is a point of particular contention...

In the end, all the girls (including me) contracted pink eye. Twice. But everyone's healthy. For now. xoxo

Below are pics from Thanksgiving at Rosemary's house.

Dog pile!

Pictures from our visit to the Bergen County zoo.

Mix-up on videos:

Rosemary's Surprise 80th Birthday Party - Nov 13th

Chris and I told Rosemary that we were coming to visit and take her to lunch for her birthday. Everyone, including her friends, kept mum about the party. On Saturday, her sons called her from their respective homes to wish her a happy birthday. Sadly, no one could make it to lunch, not even her devoted daughter-in-law, Susan.

Here are the kids on Friday, when we arrived. Why does Arden's head look so big? I hope that's a trick of perspective and lighting. Yikes! It looks like she is one of the twins from "Flowers in the Attic." Giant head, tiny body...

We held the party at Aldo's in Wyckoff. I'm sure Rosemary wondered why we were heading out so far away, but she didn't say so. She did make a roundabout comment about how she expected all her children to be with her on her 80th birthday. So sad.

Chris went ahead with Neil, who picked him up on the sly. Chris told his mom his friend Bob was picking him up and would drop him off at the restaurant. I complained about it to Rose, but she defended Chris stating that he hadn't seen Bob in a long time.

When we arrived, I sent Gramma Rose and Alana ahead while the twins and I trailed behind. Jim got this great picture of Rosemary at the very instant she realized everyone she loved was packed into the room. Alana looks a little shell-shocked too because we didn't let her in on the surprise. You can't expect a chatterbox 4-year old to keep a secret!

Below are Chris, Frank, and Rose with the Purdue family.

One of the lovely fall-themed centerpieces that Susan and a friend designed.

The gift table with a small tribute to Tim as the 13th would have been his 86th birthday.

Aldo's garden room. The manager and staff at Aldo's was fantastic. Truly excellent service! And the food was good too.

Rosemary's church friends chatting with Christina Lang.

The two Rosemarys. Gramma Rose put her corsage in a tiny bud vase when we got home.

Big cousins keeping an eye on the little cousins.

Susan ordered this pretty cake from a bakery in Hawthorne.

Blowing out the candles. Her sons told her that she couldn't have 80 candles on the cake as it would be a fire hazard. In reality, we forgot the candles! Thank goodness Aldo's was prepared with a few to spare.

After the entrees, the brothers toasted their mom. Most were short and sweet. Stephen, however, offered us a wonderful monologue reminding us of many Roseisms...

Our kids were the youngest at the party and I suppose the worst behaved. Oh well. They did as well as could be expected for little ones who had to spend 4 hours in one room with boring grown-ups.

Uncle Jerome and Grampa's visit

Grampa Joe and Uncle Jerome came to visit for Alana's birthday party.