Christmas: It truly is the MOST wonderful time of the year!

Our Christmas was quiet this year...well, quiet in terms of it was just my tight-knit foursome and no one else joined us.  But with two hyper, squealing girls at home it wasn't at all quiet....  Anyway, I made some traditional Christmas Eve foods for dinner (couldn't pass up the chance to to eat the best appetizers ever just because we had no extended family over; now we will have enough leftovers for a week!  I cooked the ENTIRE day except for a small break to shower and do my hair!).  We didn't do anything extra special really.  It's hard when there's only 4 of us at home!  We played some Christmas carols on the piano, watched some Christmas movies and we explained (in the simplest terms possible) about how the next day was Jesus' birthday and we give each other presents because it's a day of celebration.  That just went right over Lucy and Piper's heads.  It's hard to teach toddlers the real meaning of Christmas but I know someday it will stick so I must keep trying!

Thankfully, the girl's actually slept 'til 7 AM on Christmas morning!  We were SO relieved to look at the clock and see it was a decent hour to get up! They were very anxious and Shawn and I were terrified they'd sneak out of their bedroom in the night (or early the next morning) so we put the baby gate up at the top of the stairs. When Lucy saw this the next morning she first cried and in her most dramatic voice ever, threw back her head and exclaimed "NOW WE'LL NEVER GET TO SEE OUR PRESENTS!"  And then when I explained Daddy would move the gate as soon as Mommy set up the camera, she calmed down and instead tried to slide underneath it to sneak out....There was about a 5 inch gap from the bottom of the gate to the floor- she's skinny enough that it almost worked... little stinker!

Anyway, I set up the cameras and down they flew!  Seriously- Piper's big diaper slid her down our steep stairs like she was sledding and she was off!

My girls are always royally spoiled on the holidays from all of our extended families, so even though there is only 2 of them, presents still took a good while to open. They got everything they wanted and more.  We are a lucky bunch.  We got great gifts from all over the United States! Nana Raine even drove a truck full of hot chocolate right to my doorstep ;)  Haha, she cut her and Pops' faces out of a picture, glued them to a toy truck and mailed it to me saying that she loved me so much that she was personally delivering her homemade Hot chocolate to me! :)

Our hearts were a little sad that we weren't with any of our extended family; we wanted to share this special Holiday with them all and physically be there to give and receive hugs.  But we sent love across the miles and we were able to FaceTime and phone chat as well, so that helped.  Modern technology CAN be a wonderful thing!

Now our bellies are still full from 2 days of party and stocking food, and I'm exhausted from the craziness of the last couple days.  Can't wait to snuggle up in my warm bed and sleeeeeeeep!

Here are some pictures from the week leading up to Christmas, and Christmas itself :)

Piper is too much cuteness for me to handle!  Love this Unicorn!

Do you wanna build a Snowman?

 

Piper was scared of Santa a few weeks ago, but this time look! She's reaching up to him!! Such a sweetie!

Shawn makes me laugh so hard! I went in for a kiss and he non-nonchalantly grabbed my buns! HA!

Lucky Fella to get Kisses under the Mistletoe from such sweet little ladies :)

Waiting for Santa to drive down our street on a Fire Truck!

CHRISTMAS EVE.  My favorite picture!

Lucy's funny faces never cease to make me laugh!  And Maisy is as big as her already!

Look at Lucy's eyes. She always crosses them!  She is such a silly STINKER!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a GOOD NIGHT!

The Pi Baby Turns 2

Yesterday Piper turned 2.  It hit me pretty hard the night before her birthday when I realized it was her last night as a 1 year old. Then on her real birthday, hours after I had cleaned up the mess left from her day (late last night), it hit me again.  My baby.  My littlest best friend.  My cheerful, silly, spunky, crazy, sweet-as-can-be, independent, cuddly, blonde haired baby girl is officially a "toddler" and not Mama's baby anymore.  Well, she will always be my baby....but you know what I mean.  I let myself become melancholy on their birthdays because I think it's a Mother's Rite.  I looked at the pictures of her birth and remembered how anxiously I awaited the arrival of Lucy's soon-to-be best friend.  I was all sorts of nervous and excited because what if I couldn't love her the way I loved Lucy?  My love for Lucy was downright obsessive.  I have no shame in admitting that I smothered Lucy and breathed in Motherhood with each daily breath.  Lucy was my everything.  How on EARTH could I do that with 2 babies....and how could I do it equally?  There HAD to be give-and-take...right?  WRONG.  No one will ever be able to describe what happens when you have a 2nd baby.  No one can put it into words.  But every Mother reading this just knows.  I thank Heavenly Father for giving me this gift of indescribable love.  I wish there was a better word to label the feelings of motherhood than "love" but there just isn't!  

When it comes to my daughters, I have 3 distinct moments that I can say were, without a doubt, the best moments of my life.  The first was the moment Lucy was placed in my arms after birth and I discovered this high that is Motherhood.  The second was the moment Piper was placed on my chest after birth and my love multiplied so fast that I literally felt as though my heart would burst at the seams.  The 3rd was the night that Lucy met Piper.  My one-and-only met her favorite side-kick.  She looked adoringly at her sister and "ooh'd" and "ahh'd" over her for days.  Watching my first-born baby hold my second-born baby was so beautifully heart-wrenching.  She was as in love as I was it seemed! 

 Fast forward 2 years and here we are.  Bringing breakfast in bed to my sweetie Pi!  She is just the best.  Seriously.  She thought it was SO cool that she was getting breakfast in bed, and because I know Lucy would want to share, I brought 2 forks up and they ate together :)  I swear, they are the Ying to each other's Yang.  What one does, the other copies.  When one feels something, the other feels it too.  I know they're a year and a half apart, but I think they were twins separated in Heaven when I got pregnant with Lucy.  They are as close as 2 little girls can be.  It's more than just a "Sister" relationship.  It's another one of those phenomenons that I can't describe.  They are 100% my biggest blessings in life and everything I ever wanted.  I just worry that someday when I have a 3rd, he or she will feel majorly left out, because their bond is somethin' fierce!

 Anyway, we took Maisy down to Manchester where we went to Build-A-Bear for Piper's birthday.  Of course we left Maisy in the car while we went into the mall, but we still haven't left her home alone and it's an hour drive to the mall so we didn't want to leave her by herself for too many hours for the 1st time. 

 We'd never been to Build-A-Bear before so it was fun for all of us!  The girls were in Heaven!  How cute it was!  A little pricey, which is why we saved it for a birthday, but worth every penny!

We came home and let the girls go crazy with balloons, cake and presents!  I am SO proud of my cake this year because I honestly can NOT bake (remember how Nana helped me with Piper's last year?  I'm just cursed when it comes to baking!).  But I managed to pull off a pretty cute teddy bear cake for the Pi Baby- no cake pan, no instructions!  I was trying to come up with some sort of theme...and since we went to Build-A-Bear I decided to make a Teddy Bear cake to tie it all together.  It took me a total of 5 hours, and I hated every second of it. Haha! But it's like a hard workout.  You HATE doing it, but love the feeling of being done.  It was cool to look at and present to Miss Pi.  She loved it.  Lucy did too!  I guess I can say it was worth it! :)

Lucy kept running around last night exclaiming "THIS IS THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!" Haha, I'm not sure she quite understood that it was Piper's birthday and not hers.  But that's ok :)

 I had to get a few pictures with the Birthday Girl!

Once the day was over, as I said, I looked through my pictures of Piper's first 24 hours on earth and bawled my eyes out.  She is such a sweet spirit. She came to us with a literal light in her eyes; they always looked like they were actually lit up and I know it was just her sweet spirit shining through.  She has been the easiest baby from day 1!  She loves life and she loves people.  She's gaining more independence daily and is starting to like to do things her own way without Mommy's help.  But she's still so affectionate and loveable.  She has lost almost all her baby fat (look at her arms in the pictures where she's eating her cake); she's skinny these days!  I miss squishing her, but she still has her sweet cheeks and still loves to kiss me all day long, when I don't even ask for kisses.  She literally woke me up with kisses this morning when she came and jumped on my bed.  She was kissing my face everywhere.  Can you think of a sweeter way to wake up?  I can't.  I love that baby with all my heart.  I love her determination to figure things out, I love that she loves to learn, I love that she knows almost all of her alphabet letters and enjoys playing with educational toys just as much as her dolls and stuffed animals.  I love that she will hug and kiss you at any time.  I love that she still loves to take naps and never fights it.  She just lays down and sleeps. I love how big her personality is! I love that she shakes strangers hands and is extremely outgoing and friendly.  I love that she adores her big sister.  I love that she's a complete Daddy's girl. I love how EVERY SINGLE time I put her shirt on in the morning she says "BOO!" when her head pops out, even if she's cranky. I love that she loves spicy food!  I love that she laughs and sqeals all day long.  I love that she has a tender-heart and kisses you if you're sad.  I love that she follows Maisy around all day and tells her to chase her.  I love her pudgy fingers and how she squints her eyes and scrunches her nose when she laughs.  I love that she is so talkative these days.  I love that she LOVES Minnie Mouse and Olaf. I love that she loves to sing and dance and is constantly doing one or the other (just like her big Sis!) 

I am crazy amounts of obsessed with two little girls and my life honestly feels complete.  

Happy birthday my Sweet P.