Two videos

I have two videos to share with you.

This one is what we do when it's to cold for us Floridians to go outside (this was the day it barely got into the 40s! I don't care who you are...that's cold! haha) This video is a little long...but I think it's hysterical! Jeremy gets the treadmill up to max speed...and the girls have a turn trying too.



This video is more for our dear family who live in a land far far away. Nathan is really starting to smile and coo....however, I caught him at the tale end of his smiling time. Oh well...you get to see it anyway. Hang in there until the end (or fast forward to the end) so you can catch a little glimpse of Nicole and Hannah....and, what I generally look like during the day (unbrushed, unmake-uped, and perfectly "real" haha

Pizza Cupcakes

For Christmas, I got a cookbook called The Cooking for Kids Bible.  It is filled with all sorts of fun, yummy recipes.  I used several this last week and I wanted to share one that I made for lunch.  They are called Pizza Cupcakes.

Ingredients
1 tube of refrigerated biscuits
1/4 C diced red sweet pepper
1/4 C diced onion
1 C spaghetti sauce
Mozzarella cheese

Saute red pepper and onion until soft.  Meanwhile, place one biscuit in each cupcake tin and spread up the sides of the cupcake container, making a well in the center.  When the veggies are cooked, add the spaghetti sauce and bring to a boil for 1 to 2 minutes.  Fill each biscuit cupcake with a scoop of sauce, top with mozzarella cheese.  Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes. 

These were a pretty good little lunch.  I was happy that I was able to sneak in some veggies too.

Iguanas

Picturing this gave me a much needed laugh today.  Taken from this article.

Freeze warnings covered nearly all of Florida with temperatures expected to drop into the 20s. Iguanas were seen falling out of trees; experts say the cold-blooded reptiles become immobilized and lose their grip when the temperature falls into the 40s or below.

More pictures

You know...I have the opportunity to post, so I might as well. This may not happen again for another week or more:-)  In case your just checking in...you have some catching up to do, so keep reading:-)

First....Nathan has been left out in the past few posts.  But, not in this one.

He's smiling and cooing a lot.  It's so sweet.  After all the crying, the smiling takes the stress away.  He's being calmed more now by the girls too.  I think he gets lonely, because he cries if he's by himself, but then Nicole will go over to talk to him, and he stops.  He seems to love them already!

 

Last week we went to the park where the girls rode around a racquetball court on their bikes while Jeremy and his friend played....aren't they cool???

I love this picture of Nicole on this very cool tree swing. 

Aprons

For Christmas, I decided I would try to make matching aprons for the girls and I.  I have no idea how I found the time (yes I do...it was late...late...late at night), but I was able to complete the aprons for Nicole and Hannah.  Mine is not done, but it will get done!

It's hard to tell in this picture, but the back is purple with sparkles all over.

I wanted to add some embellishments but I didn't.  One, because I didn't have enough time, and 2, because I didn't know how to.  I have another little project on my mind now.  Hopefully I'll have time to get around to it soon.

BIG update post

So, rather than write a bunch of different posts...I'm going to do one big post with random pictures and stories from the past couple of weeks.  The girls have just went down for nap time, although they aren't asleep yet, and Nathan is still sleeping from this morning.  This is my chance.  Here's hoping I finish:-)


Family Visits
As I've said several times, Jeremy's sister Tiffany came down to visit along with her husband, Chris, and their two cute kids, Seth (almost 3) and Susannah (1).  We all commented how much Susannah and Hannah look alike, and even act alike.  Not to mention that their names rhyme.  In fact, when we do prayer requests at night, Nicole always says, "and another Hannah...Susannah Hannah".  I think she does it because she thinks it's funny their names rhyme.  So, Jeremy and I are always saying Susannah Hannah, but I'm not sure Tiff and Chris like that ! hahaha.

Here is Susannah

Me and Susannah

  I don't know whose idea it was, but Gramps spent at least an hour with those three on the pretend airplane.  In this picture Nicole was the pilot, and Hannah and Seth were helping to keep the plane in the air with their outstretched arms.  Can you see the airplane drawn on the ground?  It was adorable.  I would venture to say this might have been one of gramps' favorite times with those three.

Nicole sat and watched Gramps carve the turkey on Christmas day.  I think she was a bit appalled at what was going on.  She had a very disgusted look on her face.  I'm pretty sure if someone would have picked the turkey up and made it dance on the counter, she would have freaked out and became a vegetarian:-)

Can you believe this weird-o is getting married next month! Scary, isn't it? :-)

Camels.....

We came home Christmas eve from looking at Christmas lights with a surprise on Jeremy's work van...a GIGANTIC Camel!!!

We thought for sure it was my dad who put it there, because the next day when we moved it to my van, strapped it on, and drove around town like that...he made a big deal about what a great joke it was and how we should pass it around to other people.  The (very small) tag even said "Dad" on it.  Well, come to find out, it wasn't from my dad, it was put there by Jeremy's friend Aaron, who got it at a white elephant gift exchange a week or so earlier. 

We ended up stuffing it into the work van of our friend Dan.  I don't know where that camel is now though.  It was pretty fun playing with it for a few days though.

Hannah still likes her some food!

The other night we were having something italian for dinner...stuffed shells maybe.  Anyway, here are just a few pictures to remind you how much Hannah likes her food.  She's hysterical!

 

 Obviously Jeremy and I weren't paying attention to what she was doing until it was to late...at that point then, you might as well take pictures and laugh!

An update from Last Year

Happy New Year!!!!  2009 came and went faster than expected.  This time last year, I had no idea I would be pregnant and have a baby boy before the year's end.  Ahhh...but this post isn't about last year or about this year.  I am so far behind and I have so many things to write about and show you.  I'm pretty sure I won't get to them though.  Want a sneak peak anyway....my possible future posts have to do with
~camels
~pizza cupcakes
~neices and nephews
~weddings
~organization
~and the crazy life as a family of 5

For now anyway, I'll share a few pictures from our very adventurous trip to the zoo last week.

Jeremy was blessed to be given last week off of work, and remarkably...he was only called a few times by his customers, so it was a real unexpected vacation.  We stayed in town because his sister and her family were down, and Justin came down for a few days too.  However, after everyone left, we had some serious plans for work and for play.  We worked very hard  on catching up around the house, finishing garage organization, laundry, getting rid of un-used decorations and clothes and so forth. And, we decided to take one day totally away and go to Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo.

We've been there before, but only Nicole remembers.  This time, Hannah was in on the fun too.  Next time, maybe Nathan will remember the trip. Soooo....here it goes......

It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive to the zoo.  The ride up was great, Nathan fell asleep soon into the trip, as did Hannah.  Nathan actually stayed asleep until just after lunch!  Unbelievable considering he doesn't like the car seat much (you'll hear about that later!)  The zoo was very busy, which made the crazyness seem all the more crazy!  After dealing with potty breaks, snacks, drinks, and begging for more snacks and drinks, there wasn't a lot of time for animals watching.  Actually...there was.

Hannah and Nicole both got to feed a giraffe.  We have a funny video of the video trying to lick Hannah (twice!) and it totally freaking her (me) out.  I can't get it on here though:-(

Nicole got to ride a camel (I whisked Hannah away so we wouldn't have a "that's not fair" meltdown). 

We found a pretty little place to take pictures of the girls. However, we couldn't get them to smile at the same time. 

So, we tried again...we said, "Nicole smile"

and again....this time we said, "Nicole, show us your teeth." So she did...and Hannah stuck out her tongue

and again...

and again.....

Nope, we couldn't get a good one.  Oh well.

Christmas

This year we had fun celebrating Christmas three different times.

Once in the morning amongst our little family of 5
Once later that day with Jeremy's family, including his sister Tiffany and her family, and granny
And, once the next day with my family, including my little brother and his fiance and my grandpa and his wife.  All three celebrations were filled with fun and family...they were great!

At home

We have tried not to go overboard with gifts.  In the past few years, we usually had a big gift for Nicole (a swing set one year I got for 50% off on black friday, a kitchen set we bought from our neighbors, etc).  This year we didn't really have a "big" item in mind, and we knew Hannah would be aware of what was going on.  Nicole's "special" gift was a digital camera! haha.  It's actually a kids camera, but it takes pictures you can upload onto your computer and it even takes videos too.  She likes to use our camera, so now she has one of her own that can take a beating if needed.  She also got some books and puzzles we bought at a children's consignment store.  Hannah got a little toy car, more puzzles and books too.  Then, the girls also got a game.  But, I think the "best" present for Hannah was the cow tail in her stocking (it's a creamed filled caramel type candy.

 Eating her cow tail

 

 Nicole opening her camera

 

This is the game the girls opened together. 

At Grammy & Gramps

In the early afternoon, we headed over to Jeremy's parents house.  Tiffy, Chris, Seth and Susannah were down for a visit for about a week, and we got to spend Christmas day with them, and Granny...Jeremy's grandma.  We had a  yummy lunch, opened presents, played games, watched football and just had a nice time visiting. 

 Nicole, excited about all the presents

 

This picture is simply to prove that Hannah does indeed have a beautiful smile:-) 

Jeremy got a football for Christmas and decided it was time for Nate to learn how to hold the ball. 

At Yaya & Papas
Saturday, we spent most of the day at my parents house.  We had another yummy dinner, opened more gifts, watched more football, and played an exciting game of Pictionary.  My little brother was down and it was great to see him!  He spent time playing with the kids and we enjoyed hanging out with him and Erica, his fiance (less than two months until they get married).  My grandpa and his wife Dolores also came over. 

 Uncle Justin and Nicole

 

 Justin and Jeremy always get a similar gift and this year it was this.  I don't know what they are...some sort of scary looking tool.  It's a guy thing I think.

 

 Goldie also enjoyed celebrating.

 

 Don't tell her she's not a reindeer.  She won't believe you!

From the grandparents and family, the kids got lots of arts and craft supplies (play-doh, paint, paper, and other assorted things), more books, and some fun toys.  I would venture to say that this was one of the best holidays ever.  It was fun to watch Nicole and Hannah open their gifts (small piece by small piece), we got to spend a lot of time with our whole families, and everyone was in great spirits.    I hope you had a Merry Christmas as well!

At Yaya's and Papa's house

The kids and I had to miss church yesterday because miss Nicole had a fever and we didn't want her to be around the other children in the nursery (fever is gone now...she's fine).  So...we went over to Yaya and Papa's house for a couple of hours.  They had been out of town and hadn't seen the kids in "months" as my mom said (it was a week...but you know how those grandparents are:-)

So....we had a lot of fun.  And, of course we took some pictures and got some really great shots. 

Nicole & Hannah....I liked this one because Papa got out the camera, and Nicole went right over to Hannah, put her arm around her and smiled.  It was so sweet.

Hannah laughed when she saw this picture of herself.

Just the girls

Papa and His girls

Nathan is starting to smile a little bit.  It's hard to capture it right now though.

Speaking of Nate...he had his 1 month check up today. 
He was 10lbs 10oz and 24 inches!  Off the chart in length...no wonder that boy is always so hungry...he's growing so fast already!

Hannah also got a shot at the Dr. Unfortunately, just before the shot, she fell down and wacked her nose and cheek pretty hard on these big plastic bins that hold toys.  Poor little girl...she's always falling down and hurting herself.  She cried more from her fall than from the shot.   She also threw a royal, kicking screaming tantrum when her lolipop fell on the floor and I threw it away.  The nurse gave her another one and she very pathetically said "Thank you" at which all the Drs and nurses were amazed! haha. 

Nothing as sweet as a sleeping baby

I LOVE sleeping babies (especially mine:-)  I love to watch them sleep.  I love to listen to their little tiny breathes.  I love to watch their faces as they "dream".  I love the feel of their breath when they are sleeping in my arms.  I love to kiss their little faces when they sleep.  I simply love sleeping babies and I really do think there is nothing quite as a sweet.

So....here is my sleeping baby.  The pictures are dark because I turned the flash off.  I didn't want to wake him.

I love his little face.

And I love his little feet (OK. they are actually pretty big).  I love the little wrinkles.  His feet are VERY sensitive.  He does not like it when I touch them, even if it's by accident when changing his clothes.

I wanted to just take a picture of his hands, but it would have looked a little funny, so I had to get his head and body in this picture.  But, I love how his hands are cupped upward.  They're so cute!

Oh goodness...I just finished writing this post and went to go check on the girls.  Look at what I found

Hannah fell asleep in the chair, "reading".  She doesn't look to comfortable though