Christmas Decorating

The girls were very excited to put up Christmas decorations this year.  As with Halloween, I had to tell them that some people do not follow the rules and put them up too early.  They were not happy that I made them wait.

The girls scoping out a place for lights while Kelly sets up the Christmas tree.

Hanging the net lets in the bushes.

Kayden helping out with the net lights.

I think Kelly is trying to convince the girls to spread out the ornaments.  It was a losing battle.

Helping Kayden get the hooks on the branches.

Showing off her work.

I'm not entirely sure that Kelly felt this was a stress free decorating experience.  Fighting with the lights/cords, having the ornaments get broken, and then having them clumped all in one place on the tree were not what I think he envisioned!  I on the other hand, thought it was great fun...on my side of the camera :-)

Thanksgiving cookies

The girls decorated cookies the day after Thanksgiving with Oma again this year.  They actually did it after Kelly and I had left and it was a little less structured than it might have been if I were home.  They had fun though!
 

Kayden sampling a mini-cupcake paper full of sprinkles before starting her work.

Hard at work frosting cookies.

A little for the cookie, a little for the decorator.

We like sprinkles at this house.

Decorating another with purple - her favorite color.

Kayden getting in on the sampling of the frosting.

More frosting samples.

Frosting? Sprinkles?  Who knows but it looks good!

Straight for the sprinkles container now.

And now those sprinkles are on the floor.

Smiling in front of their work.

Finished product.

Sampling cookie plus the frosting and sprinkles they'd already sampled.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we went to Aunt Alice's cabin in Oklahoma to celebrate.  The girls had a really good time, which I'll admit shocked me.  Keeley had a sinus infection, Kayden had walking pneumonia, and it was wet and freezing - in addition to it being people overload!  I thought that with the illness, yucky weather, and shy kids amidst all the family craziness that we would have a rough day.  They were totally fine and loving it, until we had to leave. At which point Keeley through a major fit and kept saying "I'm not going" while making a pouting face and crossing her arms.  Unfortunately, I did a horrible job getting pictures of the girls and Kelly only got two.  Neither shows Keeley's face though.

Here you see Kayden playing the recorder.  SO annoying.  I'm not looking forward to those in elementary school!

And here we have a picture of Kayden's crazy hair!  And Keeley working in the kitchen.  The girls had tea parties for their babies, played the recorder, and then pretended to iron after Grandma explained what the ironing board was.  I think they have only seen an iron at our house maybe 5 times in their lives!

Lab Puppy

Kayden has been very busy lately.  In less than 24 hours, she tore apart her foam pillow in her room before she got up in the morning, destroyed my make-up while I was helping Keeley in the bathroom, "wrote her name" on the carpet in 4 different colors, and dismantled a lamp in her room during nap time - wires and all

When I was telling Mom about it, she told me that Kayden was like a lab puppy - adorably cute but too smart to be left alone.  I have to say I agree.  It is really difficult to be mad at that cute little face, bouncy curls, and emphatic head nod!

Plus One

We are thrilled to announce that we are expecting again!  Baby Culhane should be arriving mid-May 2011.  It has been a bit of a rough start and so we chose to wait to tell the girls until my first trimester screen at 11 weeks.  Everything looked great so we told them at dinner a few weeks ago.  They were both very excited.  Keeley's immediate reaction was, "Can we name him Baby Kendrick?"  I told her that we didn't know if we were going to have a boy or girl so we couldn't pick a name yet. Her response was, "But we don't have a boy.  We only have girls."  Then she looked and noticed Kelly so she clarified, "We don't have a boy kiddo, only girls kiddos, so we need a boy kiddo."  I've tried to explain it doesn't work that way and that we don't get to choose but she is having none of that.  Hopefully we have a boy or we will have one really angry big sister! 

After we got past the gender issue a little, the girls wanted to talk about how big the baby was so I got out this awesome magazine I have that shows intra-uterine pictures of the baby at all stages.  I showed them what our baby looked like and then we had to walk through all the stages.  Then we looked at all the pictures of the days they were born.  They really enjoyed it and are telling everyone about the new baby.

Kayden is really excited.  She especially thought it was fun that she was going to get to be a big sister and a little sister just like Oma is.  The next day at school when I was picking her up, her teacher said, "Kayden told us all about the baby today."  Kayden immediately popped out of her seat and looked at my stomach and said, "is the baby out of your tummy yet, Mom?"  Needless to say, she's having a little bit of a more challenging time understanding the wait time.

Keeley also took a magazine to school the next day for show and share to tell her class just how big the baby is right now.  She informed me later that, when she grows up, she is going to marry Wesley and they are going to make a baby.  She's really intent on this marrying Wesley thing!

Bubbles

For the most part, I'm pretty picky about what the girls bathe in.  The cleaning products and "bubble" baths we use are pretty natural.  I feel good about that and I know that it is good for their skin.  The down side is that it isn't very bubbly.  The other day I purchased some bath paints that were not the type of product I normally purchase.  As I was letting the girls play with them, I read that the paints could be used as body soap too. I figured that meant they would suds a little bit.  I was way off.  We had crazy amounts of suds in the bathtub and the girls loved it!!

Surgery

Grosspapa is having heart surgery on Monday.  He is having a valve replacement and double by-pass.  We told the girls that the reason we went to Houston this week was to see him before surgery since it will be a long time before he is well enough to come up to see us.  Today while driving in the car, Kayden remembered the surgery and asked when it was.  I told her and then this conversation ensued with sister:


Keeley:  "He's having surgery on his heart."
Me: "Yes.  It isn't working very well so the doctors are going to fix it."
Keeley: "Where is your heart?"
Me:  "It is in your chest.  I can show you when we stop and you can feel it beating."
Keeley: "So they are going to fix his heart."
Me: "Yes."
Keeley: "How will they do that?"
Me: "The doctors will give him some medicine so he goes to sleep and some medicine so he doesn't hurt and then they will work on his heart."
Keeley: "But how will they get to it?"
Me: "Well, they'll have to cut him"
Keeley:  (horrified gasp) "But that will hurt."
Me: "Yes, it will hurt like when you fall down and get cuts, but they will give him medicine so he doesn't hurt."
Keeley: "How will they cut him?"
Me:  "Well, they'll use an instrument called a scalpel."
Keeley: "But that will hurt.  Grossmama will have to give him lots of hugs and kisses."

I learned two things through this conversation:
1. Answering kids questions honestly and simply doesn't always prevent you from having to get to details you weren't anticipating having to share.
2. Hugs and kisses are better than any medicine the doctor can give you.

Birthday party and Not enough

Keeley told me the other day that she doesn't like it when people sing "Happy Birthday" to her because it is too loud in her ears.  I told her that was fine and that we didn't have to sing that at her birthday.  The next morning she said, "When I have my birthday, I want to have it at the house.  That way not too many people will come and it won't be too loud in my ears." I told her that was fine and then asked who she'd like to have come to her party.  She replied, "Umm, Grandma and Oma, because I really love them."  When I asked if she'd like to have friends she said, "Nope.  Just Grandma and Oma."  So, friends, don't get your feelings hurt if you don't get invited to a 4 year old birthday party in March next year!

Yesterday morning Kayden kept leaning all the way across the table and I got onto her.  She started to get a very sad face and told me that I hurt her feelings.  I told her that I was sorry I hurt her feelings but that she wasn't listening and she was being dangerous at the table.  Keeley, sitting across the table eating her breakfast, looked at me and said, "Mom, sometimes 'sorry' is not enough.  You need to give her a hug!" 

Trip to Houston

A few weeks ago Grossmama and Grosspapa were supposed to come up for some family pictures. After Grosspapa suffered a small TIA and had to stay in the hospital, we had to change our plans.  He is scheduled to have heart surgery this week and we thought it would be a while before he felt up to making the drive to Dallas.  The girls were so sad they didn't get to see them for the pictures so Kelly and I decided to make a trip down to Houston to see them.  It was a crazy down and back trip but we had a blast and got so see some cousins too.

Adding some bird food to the bird feeder.

Really excited about something!  Isn't it crazy how pretty that grass is still in November?!

Kayden and Grossmama working with the magnet set.

They LOVE that magnet set.

Such concentration.

Keeley and Grosspapa making the "I love you" sign and Kayden trying to make her fingers do it too.

Working hard to get those fingers down!

Playing at the park.  I think we wore Grossmama and Grosspapa out!

Checking to see if the birds ate their dinner after the park.

Looks like they have plenty of food for tomorrow too!

Oma's Birthday

On Wednesday last week, I reminded the girls that Oma's birthday was Friday and that we needed to make her a card.  When Friday rolled around, the girls asked where her party was going to be.  I tried to explain that grown-ups didn't always have birthday parties but they were having none of that.  Keeley said, "but you said it was her birthday party today".  I tried to clarify that it was her birthday, but no party.  They were not happy.  I asked if they thought we should have a birthday party for Oma on Saturday when she came over and they enthusiastically agreed.  We went to the store and got cupcakes, balloons, and sang to her.  The girls were thrilled.

Trick or Treating!

All ready to begin the night of trick or treating.  They like to pose by the bear.

Headed up to Oma's door to trick or treat.  They specifically requested that we go.

Getting poised to knock and start filling their buckets.

Showing Grandma the candy they got at Oma's as they prepare to tackle the neighborhood.

Cutest little Minnie Mouses ever!

Walking up with Grandma.  Mom stayed behind with the wagon most of the time.

A little freaked out by the singing skelton guy.  Unfortunately, that was not the scariest thing we encountered.

Trick or Treating!

I can't seem to add my words to the picture post so I'll summarize Halloween here.

The girls were super excited to go trick or treating this year. We did some practice at our house and at Oma's so that they knew to say "trick or treat" and made sure to practice thanking people. They did a great job with that and not taking handfuls of candy when presented with the bowl. I was very proud of them! Early on in the evening, a man waved as they were leaving and said, "Happy Halloween" to the girls. From that point forward, every time Keeley left a house she would turn over her shoulder as she was leaving, wave, and say, "Thank you. Happy Halloween!!" It was adorable. We took the wagon this year since Kelly ended up carrying both the girls home last year. Next year we need to take their water bottles too because Kayden kept asking for water. After about 30 or 45 minutes of trick or treating, Keeley climbed in the wagon and said, "We have enough candy. That's it guys. Let's go home." She did hop out a couple times on the way home for a few more stops, but she really was done.

They loved digging into their candy that night and the next few nights but quickly forgot about it. I think since we don't ever eat candy, it made their tummies hurt, which ruined some of the fun! It'll be fun to see what next year is like since they enjoyed it so much this year.

Beavers Bend and Pacifiers

We decided that it was time for the pacis to go away.  They only used them at nap and night time, but I was tired of seeing them and I was starting to notice some speech issues with Keeley.  They were minor and perhaps only I would notice them, but they bothered me.  We decided to take them away when we went to Beavers Bend.  Our logic being that the girls would be off their routine and really tired so it would make those first two days a bit easier. We started talking about it for almost a month prior and the girls were excited that they were going to get special toys to replace them.  After the bike-a-thon, we took two very tired girls to Toys'r'us to pick out a prize for surrendering their pacis.  We let them keep their pacifiers for the car ride up (hoping they would sleep and sleep they did for almost the entire 3 hours) and took them away as soon as we got there.  They were both quick to surrender the pacifiers for their new toys (Kayden had tried in the parking lot leaving the store).  That night, however, Kayden asked for her pacifier and I told her that we didn't have them anymore because now we had the new toys.  She looked at me and said, "I want to take all my toys back to the store and keep my paci."  I was completely shocked because I 100% expected that from Keeley, but not from 2.5 year old Kayden!  They both did fine though and asked for it occasionally the next few days but there were no tears and the only problems we've had is with nap time - but we had those anyway!

They girls definitely wore themselves out at our cabin and on our adventures.  We met up with a school friend for a train ride and they loved that.  We played in leaves, had s'mores, and learned to "fish".  All in all it was a wonderful trip.  I had to laugh at Keeley though one morning when she asked for the special treat we had eaten the night before (smores) but said, "um, how about no chocolate, and I don't really want the graham cracker"  Basically I guess she was just excited to have the marshmallow!

Playing in the leaves at our cabin.

They loved the hammock for them and their babies.

Burrowing through the leaves.

Little sister doing the same...

Piles of leaves.  Who knew that could be so much fun!

Relocating more leaves.

Keeley exploring by the train and taking pictures with her camera.

They've started playing "king of the mountain" but with no pushing yet...

Poised to take a good shot.  She stayed this way most of the train ride.

Kayden fishing.  She wanted none of my help.

Keeley fishing.

The girls and Daddy fishing.

Cutest picture!

King of the mountain again after they gave up on fishing.

Tire type swing that they loved at a playground in the park.

I saw disaster all over this but we escaped unscathed.

Swinging from the bars.  How many kids do you think have fallen?