Christmas Eve Dinner

My mom and Lydia and Peter and their kids all came and stayed with us for a few days leading up to Christmas. We had a great time visiting, getting out for a nice adult dinner, cousins play time and went to Old Spaghetti Factory for a collective birthday dinner. Christmas Eve we had dinner at our house with the family that was here, plus some good friends.

After dinner, the kids decorated "Christmas trees" made out of waffle cones. I think it was a hit!

Later that night after all the kiddos were in bed, the guys put together the girls' big presents!

First Time Ice Skating

Figure skating was a huge part of my life growing up and continued as I coached kids thru my college years. As soon as I found out that I was pregnant with girls, I started dreaming about taking them ice skating. We finally decided they were old enough to try it out last week on my birthday. It was so much fun!!! I was so happy that they were both super excited to skate and stuck with learning the toddler basics for a good half hour. They both really want to go again so I consider that a big win!!! Lexi told me several times "let go of me, go away" because she wanted to be like the bigger kids and skate by herself. I still stuck close by.

Hopefully they continue to like skating  when we go again. It was such a fun family moment for the four of us to skate together. Here is Lexi showing her skills after about half an hour on the ice. 

MVI 2161 from Natalie on Vimeo.

Snowy Day

The girls were lucky to get to spend a few days in Yakima with their Bebe Jan and Papa this week. We were lucky enough to get some kid-free time to go out to dinner with friends, work on house projects and prepare for hosting Christmas. While they were there, it snowed a lot! Apparently they had so much fun playing in the snow that they didn't want to come inside.

A Day in Our Life at 2.5

For at least the first year of the girls' life, I was a die hard schedule fan. I have a spreadsheet of their schedule at 3/6/9/12 months and have shared it with other mamas many times. I should probably post it here too. It changed often going from 3/2/1 naps and adding/changing feedings and meals. Now we have had the same schedule for about a year. Its the afternoon nap version and its much more variable.

I love when other moms share what their daily life looks like so I'm joining in to and share ours. Because I work part-time, our schedule has some variety, but it works well for us. Here is a typical day for me when I am off work and home with the girls. Obviously, every day is a bit different and if we are out of town or have special plans, its a lot different.

6:30 or 7 - Marcus leaves for work and I drag myself into the shower.

7:00/7:30 - Usually the girls are still sleeping so I head downstairs for some quiet time (chai tea, check email, fb, start a load of laundry or dishwasher)

8:00 - Girls are talking in their cribs so I walk in and they yell "Good Morning!" and start chatting away. Change diapers and head downstairs for some lazy morning time if we don't have to be anywhere early. Girls like to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and I give them a sippy cup of milk and bowl of dry cheerios.

If  I slept in late and didn't get a shower in yet, the girls sit in my bed reading books while I take a shower.

8:30 - Girls sit down to breakfast (usually a combo of waffles, pancakes, oatmeal, cereal bars, fruit, yogurt)
I keep working on chores and might start prepping dinner if I'm really organized. I clean up the kitchen again after we are done eating. The girls love to "help".

9/10 - We go upstairs to get the girls dressed. It takes forever for them to pick an outfit and actually get it on. They change their mind five times each and run away laughing many times.

At this point we usually head out of the house to meet up with friends at the museum or other play place, go to a friend's house to play or we might just head to Costco or the library. If we stay home, we usually do some sort of arts and crafts time, baking or just play.

11:30/12:30 I prep something easy for lunch and the girls eat it.

1:00 - The girls are done eating and back to playing. I clean up the kitchen again. Its like groundhog day! I try and get a few more chores done so I have more time to relax during nap time. Other days I just focus on playing with them in the playroom or reading books with them.

1:30/2:00 - I herd the girls into their room, change their diapers and put them into their cribs for nap time. They usually spend at least half an hour talking and singing, sometimes much longer, before they eventually go to sleep.

I usually knock out a few house chores (cleaning, paying bills, laundry) before I make myself a late lunch or snack. I relax and check email, FB, Google Reader. I usually try to tackle a project or two on my to-do list, but sometimes I just watch tv or take a nap.

4:00 - The girls are usually up from nap by now. We head downstairs for a snack and I might let them watch a tv show or we play downstairs or read books. Some days we bundle up and go for a walk in the neighborhood and get the mail from the mail box down the street.

We usually get out busy bags, puzzle books or their toy laptops (all stored on the kid shelves in the pantry) to play with in the family room while I cook dinner.

5:30 - Marcus is usually home by now and we all sit down to dinner.

6:00 - Every other night the girls take a bath. On the off night, we all play together or they play with Marcus while I clean up the kitchen.

7:00 - We head to the girls room to get ready for bed - pajamas, brush teeth. After they are ready for bed, they sit in the big chair in their room to read books with Marcus (usually about four books).

7:30 - The girls go into their cribs, I sing them "the goodnight song" and we say goodnight.

After the girls go to bed, Marcus and I try to be productive. Right now, its kitchen projects and I'm working on my long to-do list with lots of holiday plans. Sometimes we just grab snacks and veg in front of the tv though.

10:30/11 - We head to bed. Sometimes we stay up way too late if we are hooked on a show and watch "just one more episode."
**If you know me very well, you know I am kind of a organizational/clean freak. Its a blessing and a curse. This post really shows how I pretty much constantly clean/organize as the day goes on, but it keeps me sane!

The Bookcase

I want to update this nursery post with new pictures of the bookcase in action. We used it as a changing table in the nursery at our old house, but we moved it into the playroom at the new house.

The nursery post is the most viewed post on this whole blog (its linked to Ana White's knock-off building plans website). Here is the building plan. Marcus and a friend built it from scratch when I was pregnant. They modified the dimensions to make the top shelf shorter. Here is what it looks like now: