No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!

I let the girls choose the title of this post, so I am not sure how much it applies.  It has beds and it is about monkeys (the girls), so I will go with it.  Last summer we were in a furniture store and the girls saw loft beds that they thought were fantastic.  We left the store and I thought nothing more about it.  A couple of months later (about one week before we moved our furniture out of our old house), Kevin announced that he was going to make the girls new beds.  Kevin is not a "fly by the seat of his pants" kind of guy, so I figured he had put some thought into this proclamation.  I confirmed that he was serious.  He said he was planning to make them over Christmas break.  I was a bit skeptical but proceeded to put their old beds on Craigslist.  The beds sold the next day.  For the past two months, the girls have been sleeping on their mattresses on the floor.  Christmas vacation came and Kevin put his woodworking skills to work.  I must say I am very impressed.  He did not have a pattern to work from and these are the beauties that he produced. 

Kendall's Room

Of course she chose the pinkest of pinks for her paint color. 

 Now she has a desk to do all of her crafting.

 We picked up some wood letters for her name.

 She has turned her fort into a dress-up area.

Sidney's Room

After much deliberation and many changes of her mind, Sidney settled on purple for her bed.

I am not sure how much crafting will be done at her desk, but plenty of "baby" doctoring I am sure.

Sidney turned her fort into a dolly area.

Take a long look because I am certain that this is the cleanest her room will be for long time.

Kevin did an amazing job and the girls really love the beds.  I personally love the little ladders and the fact that the beds are not too high up.  Thank you Kevin!

And the winner is...

Cody was the proud winner of the annual ugly sweater contest.  After seeing the prize (some very yummy chocolate bars), I wished that I would have brought my ugly sweater. 

We made the round-robin trip to see our families this year.  We started out at Grandma Terrell's house where the rest of the family joined us.  The girls had some excellent cousin bonding time.

 At one point the girls decided to put their swimsuits on and run around the house - not sure why exactly.  Kendall snagged Cousin AshLee's boots and tried them on for size.

 

Aunt Lisa brought the girls some very awesome winter hats. 

Daddy thought it best that he try them on as well.

Grandma T. and Ashlee stole the mustaches from the Ugly Sweater contest and had a little fun.

After a yummy dinner of Ludafisk and Potato Sausage (okay, I only eat the Potato Sausage, so I can truly use the word "yummy") it was time to open the presents.  The girls were SO much fun this year.  They anticipated every minute leading up to the big event. 

 This picture of paper flying and mass chaos just about sums it up.

After a short night of sleep, it was off to Grandma Karen and Papa Mark's house for Christmas morning.  The girls received this awesome white convertible.  During the first spin (inside the house - only at Grandma's house) in which Kendall crashed her and Sid into the stairs, Sidney would not get back in the car with her sister.  She would only get in the car when Kendall was a safe distance away.

With the exception of this one present, Sidney took each of her presents one by one to the car and sat in the car to open them. 

Of course, what would be a trip to Grandma and Papa's without dress up, dance and barbies?

Dylan made us all an amazing breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon. 

We had a great Christmas and though it went to fast, we are so grateful to have made the trip to spend it with our families!

Partying with Santa - NOT!

Party season has officially begun.  The girls kicked off the season with a party at their school.  I dug out my old curling iron from the 80s and gave them both some curly locks for the party.  Their school always puts on great parties.  They had treats, ornament making, games, music and Santa even stopped by the party.

Kendall is a big 4 year old this year, so she participated in the Christmas performance.

The biggest surprise of all was when Santa arrived.  Both girls knew in advance that he was going to be there.  Kendall had quite a list of questions that she wanted to ask him:

What do the reindeer eat? 

What does he eat? 

How fast does his sleigh go?  etc.

Sidney was talking a big game.  She claimed that she was NOT going to sit on his lap, but she WOULD talk to him.  Well as soon as Santa arrived and shouted out his "Ho. Ho. Ho."  She began screaming and climbed up me like a spider monkey.  There was no way I was going to be able to pry her loose.  We immediately headed for the treat table.  She was perfectly content as long as she did not have to see him OR hear him.  Kendall decided that she was not very interested in seeing him either.  She said that she would like to go back and finish making ornaments.  So that is exactly what we did.  The only problem was we actually had to get within 50 feet of Santa to get to the craft room.  Sidney clung to me relentlessly as we made our way across the room.  Once they were safely inside the classroom, they were the last ones to leave the party.

Two days prior to the school party, Kendall and I were in Walmart doing some shopping.  She has never been fearful of Santa.  We were finishing up ou shoping, when they announced over the speaker that Santa was in the store.  I asked her if she wanted to go see him and she sort of half nodded.  I thought that was a bit strange, but in my own excitement did not pay too much attention.  I grabbed her hand, and we started trotting over to the garden area.  Suddenly I saw Santa in the distance.  He started waving at us and I picked up the pace.  At that instant, Kendall put the breaks on.  She pulled my hand back and said, "I don't want to go see him."  I asked, "Are you sure?  He is right there waving at us."  She said, "No mommy.  I do not want to go see him."  Okay.  So we turned on our heels, as I sadly waved goodbye to Santa. 

Then last Friday there was my work Christmas party.  Each year, Santa makes an appearance.  He brings each of the kids a gift.  It is pretty cool.  Sidney did not think it was so cool.  Here she is right after Santa arrived. 

Kendall braved the waters to go accept both her and Sidney's gifts from the jolly old man. 

This year at the work party, we had a 'kids" room setup.  The kids had movies, games, music, food and even had gingerbread men to decorate.  There was a wonderful girl named Andrea who kept the kids entertained, while the parents got to enjoy the festivities.

This strange fear of Santa has not dampened the holiday spirit though.  Kendall made a special request for her own Christmas tree this year. 

Sidney got a special penguin that lights up to decorate her room for the holidays.

The girls can hardly wait for Christmas this year.  A funny story happened last night.  Kevin and I got the girls Go Go Pups for Christmas this year.  They have been asking for them since last August when they saw Hallie's.  For those who may not be familiar, these pups are the loudest things, and they CANNOT be stopped.  We have been hiding them in our closet.  Every time I turn out the light I have to fake cough to drown out the barking.  Saturday night I wrapped them up and put them under the tree.  Kevin was thinking that if they were wrapped up that they would not bark.  No such luck.  He closed the doors to the sun room in hopes that the girls would not notice.  So yesterday afternoon, I was in the bedroom and Kevin was upstairs.  I came out to hear the girls in the sun room and Kendall exclaiming, "SID, IT IS A GO GO PUP.  SID, WE ARE GETTING GO GO PUPS!"  Kevin came down and tried to convince her that she was hearing things.  Then the girls proceeded to shake rattle and roll every present under the tree.  They grew especially excited if they saw their name on a tag.  Their anticipation and excitement is contagious.  They informed me tonight, "Only 6 more days until Christmas!"

Dance Recitals

The girls are both taking dance this year.  Today they had their informal "in-class" recital in which they showcased everything that they have been learning.  They started off with the Nutcracker's Sugar Plum Fairy and ended with the Toy Store Dance.  It was Sidney's first recital and I was excited to see how she would do.  She has been a rather shy mommy's girl until recently.  She has definitely started to become more social.  Today at the recital, she did amazing.  It was great to see her having so much fun!  She also insisted on showing off her Christmas socks for the recital.

Wave to the camera!

Leaping and turning!

Mom here is the picture you have been requesting...my new hair color.

Kendall is in her second year of dance.  It was great to see how much she had grown and developed over the last year.  All of the girls in her class had improved so much.  At the beginning of the recital, they demonstrated all of the different positions and moves they are learning. 

 They did several dances in which they incorporated props.  We did not get a picture of my favorite dance, where they wore bracelets of bells. 

Way to go ladies!

A Season for Giving.

One of the things that we have trying to focus on this year is teaching the girls that Christmas is not all about them!  Just try teaching that to a four year old that has a Christmas list that could wrap around the neighborhood several times.  Today we took them to Toys-R-Us with the sole mission of buying toys for other boys and girls.  We explained to them that not all parents can afford gifts for their children.  We gave them the task of picking out a toy that they would really want to receive for Christmas.  The only catch was that when we left the store we would put it in the Toys for Tots box.  Kevin ran through the scenario several times.  They were well prepped. 

Sidney ran around the store changing her mind every 30 seconds.  She finally settled on a little dolly that came with a pacifier and several other accessories.  Kendall settled on an electronic train set.  As we were waiting in line to pay, a fight ensued amongst the girls.  The semi-humorous thing was that they were fighting over playing with the toys while in line, but then every few seconds one of them would say "Sid (or Kendall) this is not yours to keep.  We are going to give it to another boy or girl so they will smile on Christmas morning."  I stress that this was only semi-humorous because they were fighting nonetheless.  Once we paid for the items, the girls walked to the toy bin.  I half expected them to start the negotiations with us to keep the toys, but they did not.  Kendall put her toy right in.  Sid held hers above the box for about 30 seconds before letting go.  As we left the store, they were both pretty excited about making someone else's Christmas just a little bit brighter.

Adventures on Ice

Kevin and I decided to take the girls on their first ice skating experience yesterday.  We felt pretty confident that this would be a good idea, after all the rink has walkers that we can rent for the girls.  We packed everybody up and headed for the ice skating rink.  Once we got our skates on, I asked for two of the walkers to rent.  What?  You do not have anymore?  There must be a mistake.  Well, adventure it would be.  We geared up and headed for the ice.

We got there just in time to see the Zamboni machine finish cleaning the ice.  The girls were very excited.

It took us a couple of spins around the ice before we found our groove.  The girls did excellent.  Sidney sang Jingle Bells at the top of her lungs (she literally had a sore throat that evening from singing so much).  She kept yelling, "I LOVE ICE SKATING!"

Kendall did awesome.  It took her a minute to figure out how to keep the skates pointed straight.  She secretly told me that Daddy was having a hard time keeping his skates straight too:)

About halfway through somebody with a walker was leaving, and they generously asked if Kendall would like to use it.  She took off like a speed skater.  There was no turning back for her.  Sidney tried the walker out a couple of times, but I think she did much better skating between my legs. 

Sidney taking a break while the Zamboni machine cleaned the ice for a second time.  The girls kept saying that the ice was so golden and beautiful.

I took Kendall around the ice one last time before we headed out.  The last 1/4 of the circle she started going super slow.  I asked her if she was getting tired.  Her reply was, "No, I am just going very slow because this is my last time.  I love skating and when I get to the door I have to stop."  I suppose that means we will be heading back sometime soon.  Kevin and I were laughing as we were both so tired and sore.  It was a lot of work (or are we out of shape)?  Hmm...

Sporty Girls

Kevin and I decided that we had to make the most of the cheer outfits that Grandma T. sent the girls.  Photo Opp!  Kevin went with us and we had a great time.  Here is the one that he set up...