Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Frightened Little Girls

Natalie wasn't a fan of Santa last year and in the last 12 months it seems not much has changed. We met the big guy in red at a Breakfast with Santa birthday party this weekend. (Happy 2nd, Amelia!) The kids at the party ushered him in by ringing jingle bells and as soon as he came through the door Natalie ran crying in the other direction. But, as he came bearing gifts for the kids brave enough to sit and chat with him, both girls rallied their courage.

Audrey went first and we figured our smiley girl would make a new friend. She wasn't so sure. Guess Natalie got to her and told her her war stories beforehand.

Then Natalie mustered her strength, as long as Dad would be a safety buffer, to make sure Santa knew just how much she wanted those Rosie and Mavis engines.

They both did fine and we're proud of them for being brave. Congrats to Natalie and Audrey for making this year's Nice List!

Chompers

As seems to be par for the course with our poor dear 2nd child, we're a week late in making this post but Audrey has her 1st tooth! It's the bottom front left. We found it last Sunday. You can just see it if you look carefully in this picture. We're pretty sure she finally grew it just so she wouldn't miss out on all the Christmas treats!

Christmas Girls

We're all getting very excited for Christmas. We wanted to share some Christmas pictures of the girls. Enjoy!

Ice Skating

Balsam Lake was a skater's dream this weekend (people much more experienced in WI winters said they'd never seen such smooth natural ice) so we took advantage, laced up our skates, and headed out.

Brian taught Natalie the finer points of hockey stick control.

Chris invented a new winter child-sliding sport - a cross between curling and shotput.  No doubt the IOC will be getting a letter soon.

Aunt Mimi soon joined in the fun too.

I got too many bruises Saturday falling on my skates (my knees are purple) so on Sunday I tried out my new winter boots (Christmas present from Chris).  We figured my 3rd WI winter finally warranted a pair.

And after lots of hard work skating, Natalie tried out the winter cuisine.

She's asked to have snowballs for lunch several times since.

There's no snow on the ground yet in Neenah but we're hopeful it'll show up soon.  We love winter fun!

Living Room Bookshelf Built-In

We love the living room. It's where we spend a lot of family time. So when we designed our house a large living room was top priority.  But the result of our glorious room was one very large, very long, very boring wall.

We came up with a solution - a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf built-in unit. Chris did a ton of research, designing, planning, and we were off.  The base is 4 prefab cabinets from Lowe's.

Chris was the mastermind but had a little help along the way.  Jerry spent the weekend and helped build and install these 4 upper boxes. (Thanks!)

As always, Natalie loved to get involved.

There was lots of priming and painting to do.

And lots of supervising work to do too, of course.

Once it was all said and done (a little over a month from start to finish), we had a beautiful end result that adds so much warmth to our favorite room.  Chris did such a brilliant job and added yet another touch that makes this house our perfect home.

Happy St. Nick's Day!

The girls must've been good this year because we woke up to shoes full this morning!

In honor of the holiday we dedicated today to Christmas celebrating of all sorts in our house. We baked and decorated traditional Holley Christmas cut-outs (a recipe dating back to the girls' great grandmother, a family tradition, and the true taste of Christmas for my mom, sister, and me).

Notice the ever-traditional Christmas cookie shape - the airplane.  The purple airplane, nonetheless.  Natalie has put her own touch on this tradition.

We also made a Christmas tear-off countdown to help the girls visualize the arrival of the big day.

In other Christmas spirit, last weekend we channeled the Griswold Family Christmas and headed into the woods to cut our own tree.

The girls helped decorate and the house is now well-dressed for the holidays.

Stay tuned for pictures of the house's other new touch!

Happy St. Nick's Day, everyone!

Wonderful Girls

Just a short update this time (and no pics - sorry).

With Chris being on the road so much lately we weren't sure Audrey was getting the idea of "daddy" after she started into "mamama" just a few weeks ago.

Then on Friday Audrey saw Chris after work and started jabbering and yelling "dadadadada!"

This, and then at dinner the same night she very clearly started signing "more." It's amazing and surprising to see how fast she's learning and becoming an independent young lady.

Natalie has been very interested in telling everyone she loves them "so so so so so so much!" Also asking every day when snow will come to our house, and helping dad with our project (built-in bookshelves in the LR).

We'll have another update shortly - Nov was a fun month, great to see Ben & Erin for Thanksgiving, and lots of work around the house.

Dear Santa

I'd like a snowblower for Christmas. Love, Natalie

Trick or Treat!

A good friend of ours says that Nov. 1 is her favorite day to be a Facebook user because undoubtedly your homepage fills up with adorable pictures of costume-clad kids. How right she is but seeing that we aren't the most avid Facebookers, here are ours to share.

We joined some friends (in a more densely populated neighborhood) for an evening of teaching the kids an important life lesson - being cute goes a long way. It didn't take three 2-year-olds long to catch on to the trick or treating concept and they were off!

Baby siblings Audrey and Simon weren't quite sure what was going on but enjoyed the walk.

The kids ended the evening with chilly fingers, full bags, and big smiles. Thanks again, Kroes's, for having us!

Audrey's 9 Months Old

We can hardly believe it. She had her 9 month well-baby visit today.

Stats
Weight: 16 lbs, 7%
Height: 26.5 in, 16% (Exactly same at Natalie at 9 months but she was listed at 13%. Does anyone know if the % numbers are adjusted over time? Michelle Routhier, I'm counting on you to know this. :))
Head: 43.5 cm, 35%

None of these numbers are adjusted for her prematurity.  She's measuring and developing exactly on track with her fullterm peers.  She's even 7 oz heavier than Natalie was at 9 months. She's wonderfully healthy and happy and the doctor called her perfect.  Of course we already knew she was.

Audrey's big development lately is crawling and she does it confidently.  She especially loves motoring after Natalie.

Every once in a while she even catches her. :)  These girls are each other's biggest fans and we continue to be very blessed.