In the past 6 months, Steve and I have had fun watching the girls become sisters.  I can’t pinpoint the exact changes – it has been a series of small things that have built to really highlight the sibling bond in a way we didn’t see previously.  Obviously, they’ve always lived together and played together and loved one another but lately they have started working cooperatively, plotting and planning, sharing  experiences, making up games together, and giggling together.  It has been great fun to witness.

Watching Dora together:

They love to walk around the circle of our downstairs while holding hands.  They also like to dance together.  Strangely their dancing involves dancing and then falling down and then dancing and then falling down and giggling like maniacs.

Dancing:

Falling down:

Dancing again:

Poor Tessa, I think she inherited Mommy’s lack of coordination but she has a little rhythm.

And at our house, we might be a little big excited about a little game coming up this weekend.  Perhaps you’ve heard about it?

GO STEELERS!

First was the flu, then came the snow, then Grandma arrived.  All of that has kept us busy but none provided much blog fodder.

Pony tails on a little one just make me melt.

Sabrina was in heaven with Grandma here.

The girls love to “play” Guitar Hero with Daddy.

Steve and I got a date night with friends while Grandma was in town – woohoo!

The girls have their Steelers gear and are ready for the game next week.

This week they are enjoying having Grandma here.

The flu kicked my butt for much of last week and weekend.  I finally start feeling better but only had 1 day of freedom before we end up snowed in.  A little over 3 inches fell – that is practically a blizzard for us.  And with the southern snow removal method (aka wait for it to melt method), it meant we were house bound yesterday.  Thankfully, it has been warm-ish so the roads actually cleared up pretty quickly…otherwise this could have left us snowed in for days.  My mother in law was supposed to fly in today but her flight was canceled so we hope to see her in a couple of days.

We got Sabrina a Mobigo for Christmas.  She LOVES it.  Tessa also got her own “laptop” – actually 2 of them – so she can join in with the geeky family fun.

The girls got an art table from Abuela.  More fun than watching them is listening to the story behind Sabrina’s drawings.  Love her imagination.

Of course they wanted to play in the snow.  Fortunately, Steve likes to play with them.  Momma isn’t such a fan.  Snow is cold and wet.  I like to be warm and dry.  I like to do the occasional snowman but I can never find all of my winter gear now that I only don’t need it daily for 4 months.

Sabrina’s school was canceled today so we are having a quiet day at home…less appealing after all of the quiet days when I had the flu but they never object to a little Dora.

Sabrina never passes up a princess opportunity.

I sometimes scratch my head at the ads Facebook seems to think are targeted at me but the people I may know usually contains someone I went to high school with but didn’t really know well enough to care to catch up with them on Facebook.  But no, Lambchop and I weren’t classmates.  I would be curious to know why Facebook thinks we might be acquainted.

While we are talking Facebook, can I just add a little piece of etiquette/advice?  If you send a friend request to someone you don’t really know well (or only know online), include a quick sentence about who you are.  Say hi.  Something.

Since Christmas, I feel like we’ve been over taken by princess crap.  The girls wear their dress up outfits and run around carrying little princesses in rubber dresses (or fairies or Barbies).  They look adorable…I just have this overwhelming desire to buy them footballs and trucks.

Sabrina has been insisting that Daddy be the prince and dance with the princess.  Yes, the cute is overwhelming sometimes.

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Yesterday, we were talking on the way home from school.  Sabrina was asking about kindergarten and I mentioned it would make me sad because it meant she was growing up.  She said “Mommy, I have to grow up so that I can have my own kids.”  I asked why she wanted to have her own kids.  She said “I have to have kids so that I can put them in time out when they do something wrong.”  Good to know that is how she views my job as a mom.

How do we deny this face anything?

Tessa is obsessed with kitties.  She often pretends to be one.  Here is our princess kitty.

Occasionally, someone will ask me how I get so many photos of my children.  I tell them I have to take A LOT of photos to get a few decent ones to post on the blog.  I get a lot of the back of heads or someone’s elbow as they run out of the frame.  Here is one outtake that made me laugh because it is so typical of our day in its chaos – everyone headed in a different direction, even the dog.

Anyone who has been around here for awhile knows that I don’t usually do a warm, fuzzy year in review nor do I declare a bunch of resolutions.  Not that there is anything wrong with those things…I’m just too lazy not one of those folks.  I always find New Years Eve bittersweet and the New Year overwhelming if I get too caught up in review and resolutions.

New Years Day is a day of celebration in our home because it is my husband’s birthday.  So happy birthday to the man who rocks my world and is my rock in this world.  I can’t even express how lucky I am to spend the rest of my life with him as my friend, husband, and partner.  /mushy stuff

Christmas has been packed away into its neat little boxes until next time.  My living room looks like a toy store exploded.  I need to do some major triage in the toy room.  And laundry is piled up a bit.  But I figure I’ll wait to get back into that mundane stuff until Monday.  I still have a weekend left in our little pink holiday cloud with my little family so I’ll just stay there a little while longer.

A few photos of the girls enjoying their Christmas haul.

Sabrina is the girliest girl ever.  She is wearing a princess dress up dress, 4 necklaces, and 4 bracelets while playing with her sparkly Barbie.  (Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a Barbie that isn’t dressed like a pole dancer?  Seriously! Dresses cut up to her crotch and f*ck me shoes or a bikini.  And if you want one of the non-white Barbies, your choices shrink even further.  This was the only one that came close to being somewhat covered.  Crazy!)

I continue to have to catch Tessa unaware in order to get photos of her.  Stinker.