Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night...

Well, the girls presents are all set out. We are so blessed. I wish we could every child as many gifts and as much love as Annika and Olivia get. My mom's love language is giving gifts. She is very good at it and the girls are certainly very happy recipients. My mom got some bells (like Santa sounding ones) and rang them while I was reading the girls their books. Their eyes got huge! They were so excited. Olivia knows about Santa, but we still do it just to be fun. And it is so fun! She wrapped him a gift (a ho ho ho throw blanket and a picture and card she made), made him choc. milk, carrots, cookies, and an apple and a knife to cut it with. She told me, "KK would only let us put out an icing knife. How is Santa supposed to cut an apple with an icing knife?" That is very true and funny! I like that she thinks that a certain type of knife is called an icing knife.

Tonight we went to the Christmas Eve service at my parents little church. It was very sweet and the girls enjoyed it. At the end they did the candle lighting while we sang Silent Night. Olivia seemed old enough to hold her own candle and she really enjoyed that. She only almost caught my hair on fire a couple of times. I looked down at Annika who was standing by my mom and I motioned for her to come by me. I carefully let her hold my candle. She looked so sweet and I wanted to get a picture of her just like I had gotten of Olivia. I looked down for about a half a second to turn on my camera and when I looked up Annika's hair was on fire!!! I mean flames- not just smoking. I just grabbed it and put it out with my hand. We headed for the bathroom. I couldn't bring myself to look until we got there. Thankfully, the black, burned ends wiped right off and you can't really tell. I am not kidding- I really am thankful. That fire could have spread really quickly. I washed that part of her hair when we got home because it didn't smell so good. She was SO tired and needed to be in bed. She now smells like toasted coconut. :)

Annika shortly before her hair caught on fire.

The girls ready to ice skate. Yes, I make them wear bike helmets. Olivia did really well and was skating by herself some at the end. Annika could hardly even stand in the skates. I didn't anticipate that. She skated some in her crocs and then watched from the side begging to go to "Chicken Nuggets," which is her name for McDonald's.

A Taste Of Arkansas

Well, it has been a while! We came to AR before Thanksgiving and we have been so busy. Travis traveled back to OH to finish up the quarter at OSU before returning. I was so looking forward to him being back because I guess I thought it was vacation time. Oh yeah, you can do research from anywhere. Shoot. The girls have so enjoyed being here. My parents have hundreds of things to do, see, etc. They have a playground, a pile of dirt to dig in, a gravel road to drive on, a Wii, a new enclosed deck room that is like a tree house, but connected to the house, a pool table, woods to run and play and yell in, a cat and a dog, lots of love, a big house to play in, a huge old doll house, a hot tub, lots of presents- it goes on and on. It is so fun watching them enjoy everything! Living so far from family makes it hard to get to enjoy these things on a normal basis.

Travis and I went to Ft. Worth to look for neighborhoods and found a house we really like. Actually, we found a lot of houses we really like, unfortunately most were 1 million or more. Hmmm, not quite in our price range, but pretty to see! It was fun, but quick! We flew b/c it was so cheap and it was such a time saver! We got to see downtown, with our sweet friends who let us stay with them. They have a super cute house and it is in a great part of town. We have decided to put our house on the market when we get back. If you are looking for a house in our neck of the woods, please let me know! :) Hopefully God will provide someone to sell our house to! I will miss it. It is great and has been more than a blessing to us.

My mom took Olivia and I to see the Rockettes. It was so fun! She loved it! My mom got GREAT seats! We also went to eat at Sekisui. It is a hibachi grill that is one of my and Trav's favorites! I love every part of it. The soup, salad, rice, veggies, and whatever else I get. This time is was shrimp and scallops. We are so blessed and I am so thankful to get to go do fun things like this.

We also went to the Wonder Place in LR- the girls have been begging to go. It is kind of like a children's museum. My sweet mom also got the girls animals from build a bear. Annika picked the cutest cat and Olivia got an elephant. They love going there. Of course, everything they get i start thinking where and when I will pack it up!

Olivia also got her last two dental appts over! Thank you God! We saw Dr. Mark Wilson in NLR. He is outstanding! He told Olivia what he was doing the entire time. It was so great. I am so thankful. She now has a very shiny mouth! Hopefully she will be good and her permanent teeth coming in will not have these same problems!
Olivia has been loving playing guitar with Poppy! Little does she know, Santa has one for her!
We have also had fun playing with my nephew Hayes. This picture does not do him justice. He is the cutest little boy ever. Oh my goodness. I am partial to girls. I just can't help it. Now I am partial to girls and Hayes. :) Olivia read him a book and he loved it!

We got to go to Fayetteville to visit Trav's family and friends. It is just so good to be there. I forgot how good it feels to be around friends that you have a history with. I so miss my friend Allison. We both have two little girls close in age. It seems wrong that we don't live in the same town. We got to go out the first night we were in town. Travis took his turn staying at the hotel with the girls while we went out. We went to Mason's just as they were closing and tried on hats. :) Then she treated me to some kind of yummy choc. frozen drink from Starbucks. It was so fun! The next morning we went to a Happy Birthday Jesus party. It was so fun to see people we used to have play group with. And yes, about 5 min. later someone got hurt on this.
Travis, the girls and I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express this time. It was SUPER! It met all of our needs and then some. I definitely recommend it! We also got to eat- a lot! We went to Monte Ne chicken house with 10 of our closest friends. The next day we ate lunch at Taste Of Thai. They have the best spring rolls. Afterwards we got in the car and I did my normal check my teeth. When I opened the mirror and an envelope fell in my lap. It was gift certificate to Mason's. Which led to this. One of my very FAVORITE things- I am very shallow apparently- jeans. With the addition of a bit of my Christmas money, I got these. I almost cried in the dressing room. There aren't a lot of gifts that do that to me. Oh, they feel so good. Thank you Travis! We got to spend a lot of time with Trav's family. The girls were so excited to see them- even though it had been 9 months. They got to color, read books, and make candy cane cookies. They had a great time! We did opened gifts with Travis' family. The girls were so excited to get the Bitty Baby beds. They have been wanting them for so long! They got a lot of other fun things, too. We went out to Powerhouse for dinner. I was a little worried b/c in the past it has taken a long time and our girls that are normally very good at restaurants had bad nights. This time was different. It took a long time, but the girls were great. I got crab legs and a kilowatt ( a yummy frozen drink). Both such a good time. The next day we at breakfast at IHOP and went to Uncle Todd and Aunt Tonya's house to see their baby cow. The girls loved feeding him. He really was cute! On the way to their house, Olivia said, "Tonya is one of my favorite persons."

We headed back to Little Rock. It is nice because my mom is off of work now, so we can play! We did a little shopping today b/c there were some good sales including 20% off of everything at Williams Sonoma. That's a good time! I got a digital candy thermometer I have been wanting. I also got our secret santa gift from there. I want it. I have to admit. I won't be sad if we end up with it. :)

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

A lot has happened in the past week or so. Although nothing really stands out to blog about. We did see our first snow flakes today. Olivia was so excited and thought she should wear her snow suit to church. I wanted to post this picture because I really like it. It is my mom and step-dad with us by Lake Michigan in Chicago. I found this frame and used it for Olivia's flat friend project that we finally finished up today. It will get sent to the Czech Republic this week. We got hers from her flat friend there. It was really interesting to see- they actually have some history that dates back more than a few hundred years. She also goes mushrooming with her father and dog often.

We did our Christmas yesterday. The girls had so much fun and loved everything. I took some pictures, but our camera was having major problems with the lighting, so none turned out great. I guess a well lit room is too stressful for it. :) I will post a picture another time. I need to go dry my hair. I have a countdown going until we head to AR, but most important right now is the countdown until I can get my scraggly looking long hair cut off. It needs at least 5 inches to get rid of the apparent wrong type of thinning for my hair type. Can't wait to hear the scissors! Olivia is very anxious to get hers cut, too. Last week at Walmart she asked as we passed if she could get her hair cut at the place there. Umm, no. (nothing against these places. I am sure there are fine people working there who can give a great haircut. I have just had a few too many bad haircuts- so we stick with Lynn in Little Rock.) Olivia can't wait to get her shoulder length hair back again. I got a really fun new computer screen that is big enough to have photoshop open to one side and my "everything for photoshop" folder open (contains all of my super fun downloads) at the same time! I could play forever! Thank you to my sweet husband.

I'll end with a question from Annika (2 1/2 yrs old). "How do wedgies get in people's panties?"

Here comes Santa Clause...

Well, it's that time of year again. We have done our Chrismas in November for the past two years. We are always gone at Christmas, so we do it before we go. This year we head out a little earlier and I want the girls to have time to play with their toys. Olivia LOVES making chocolate milk for Santa (even though she knows the truth) and putting out cookies and carrots. She is very particular about how it gets done. She also wrote Santa this letter today. I LOVE it. I know in 5 years I am going to look back on it and cry. She is just precious. She wrote this herself and just asked us how to spell the words (everything but Hi and A). Apparently she misunderstood Travis spelling present for her, but it is so cute! I had to share it! Hopefully we'll get some good pics of the morning. Annika will probably wake up bright and early. She was too pooped to help with Santa stuff tonight. I do not trust her with a pile of wrapped gifts, so they will remain hidden in our closet. They will be shuffled back to their room after asking 100 times when daddy is going to get up and then we'll set them out. I love kids and I love playing Santa.

Chicago!!!

The girls and I got to have a super fun weekend in Chicago with my parents. They had some business on Friday morning and they invited us to come hang out the rest of the weekend. (and funded our trip!) I was so excited because I love to travel and I haven't in a long time (except to go back to visit family in AR). I guess the last trip was to San Francisco with Travis when I was prego with Annika, so about 3 years ago. I LOVE Chicago. It is absolutely my favorite big city- with San Diego close behind. I also LOVE shopping. I wish I didn't. I really have to exercise much restraint. Kids are actually pretty helpful because it is hard to go into stores that I really love. And it is fun to watch them enjoy themselves.

OK, so back to our trip. Annika was so cute on the plane. Even though she has flown several times, this was the first time she really realized what was going on. As we took off, she looked out the window and in the sweetest little toddler voice, she loudly said, "We're flying!" It was so cute! Everyone around us said, ahhh. The girls did great on the plane and we made it with two girls, a stroller, a bag, two car seats, dora backpack, DVD player, purse, and really crammed backpack holding two Bitty Babies. We got picked up at the airport in a HUGE explorer type limo. The girls LOVED it! Limos are everywhere in Chicago, so it is pretty normal to see. We also had him drive us around down by Lake Michigan. He even stopped and we got some good pics of us by the lake. It was freezing, but beautiful! He then dropped us all off at the Rainforest Cafe. Their food is not good, but the atmosphere was so fun. The girls had a great time! Then we got a cab to the American Girl store. My step-dad was such a trooper! He even suggested going to the store on Fri and Sat. (which was the original day we were going.) The girls were so excited. And they should have been. It was amazing! They know what they are doing. About a month ago they moved into the Water Tower and it takes up two floors and the space of at least 6 stores. They really love Bitty Baby, so we looked around and played. Then we looked around upstairs. They wanted everything, but we had talked about how much they could spend, so they had good attitudes. We also got the best cookies ever (for $3.50 a piece! It is really a good thing they cost so much b/c I would have bought a hundred and eaten them all right there!) I am so glad we went both days b/c Sat. was so packed you could hardly move. After that we headed back to the room and we were all so tired. The girls went to bed and mom and I headed to Crate and Barrel. Oh, I love that store. And it is 4 stories there. My step-dad stayed with the girls and he later told me they got up like 5 times. Annika would hear a siren, get up and look out the window (we were right on Michigan Ave- you could see Amer. girl and the lake from our room!) and Olivia would go tell Poppy that Annika was up. He would then tell A to get back in bed and it would happen all over again. They were sleeping peacefully after that. Mom and I were hungry so we got some food at the hotel and took it up and sat in the bathroom to eat! :) Both parts of our room were occupied by sleeping people. My poor mom had no voice b/c she had a cold last week.

Sat. morning the girls woke up early (6ish) and so we went to the pool. It was heated and really fun. They had so much fun swimming. Then we went to the Corner Bakery for brunch. It was so good! After that we went to the 4 story Gap. They even had toys. After that we headed back to the room to rest and then to lunch at the American Girl Cafe. It was so good. I want to post all of the pics, but they are on our picasa site. It was a several course meal with a really fun dessert. Olivia was really tired, but Annika had the BEST time. So in case you are wondering, 2 1/2 is a great age to go. It isn't too young. After that we headed back to the room to get the girls ready for bed. They were so tired and begging for bed. They NEVER do that. My parents went to Le Lan's for dinner and we went to bed. We got up at 6 for more swimming and then ate the Corner Bakery in our room and then headed to the airport. It was so fun.
I love toddlers. Especially this one. She loves just being in panties and got these new house shoes this weekend.

Travis interviewed at TCU this weekend. More about that another post. Better get to putting some stuff away.

7 minutes of heaven...

I found a recipe I liked for the 7 minute frosting I wanted to make. It is from one of my favorite cookbooks called cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans. Martha's baking book used 6 egg whites- I wasn't trying to make icing for an army, so I went with the recipe using two egg whites.
It is pretty intense- you have to beat it over a double boiler for 7 minutes. Mine wasn't 160 yet, so I beat it two more. My arm was tired from holding the mixer like that! I looked over and Annika had done this:

She doesn't normally do stuff like that, but she does normally get all up in my personal space while I am trying to make icing, so I was impressed she was being so quiet.

It is as yummy as it looks. Travis and the girls prefer thicker icing, so I also made their favorite kind- cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and a pinch of salt. Beat it for about 10 minutes and it becomes so fluffy. No pics of those, but they were yummy. Here are the cupcakes with the 7 minute frosting on them.

Today we made a craft. We made little penguins. It was from "Your Big Backyard." It was really fun, but you pretty much have to do everything. You'll notice Annika added extra glue just for fun all over its face. She really likes to squeeze the glue.

Fall Fun

We took the girls to a church festival close to our house. So it is a preview of Halloween. I LOVE their costumes. I have never been a huge fan of costumes, but I think they look so cute!

The girls made these "Listening Ears" at church on Sunday. Aren't they funny? Imagine if our kids really had ears like that- I might make some for Travis, too! :)

There is Olivia working with hers on. You'll notice she wrote her name in cursive on her ear. I think that it is funny that she did that, too!

7 minute icing

Well, I have been craving 7 minute icing for years, but because my major was microbiology, I can't bring myself to eat it. I found this great site that answers all of kinds of questions about eggs. I know this is random to post, but it was a good site. http://www.eggsafety.org/f_a_q.htm#4
After reading this, I feel like it is probably pretty safe. I am sure I will attempt it in the next few days. I will let you know how it turns out and if I don't eat it all out of the bowl, I will take a picture.
Also, since this is random- be sure and throw out all of your old toothbrushes. If any brushes have bristles sticking out to the side, ditch it. My mom (a dental hygienist) came and made me throw out 8 of our favorite brushes. They aren't that much- and you will spend way more at the dentist for not having good hygiene. We recently got some at Wal-mart we like. They are Veggie Tales. I really like the brush and the girls do to! I better go brush the Nerds off the girls teeth.

This has been a weird day. You know the days you just can't get out of a funk? They don't happen all that often for me, but today was one. I have been with the girls all day everyday for a while. Travis went out of town for 5 days and then he has been swamped with work 7 days a week since. The only time I have been without the girls was to go to the rodeo with Travis- but it was almost bedtime, so it doesn't really count. I LOVE my girls and I am beyond blessed to be able to stay home with them. I know many people want to and can't, so I am eternally grateful! They are such beautiful gifts from God and are really such sweet girls. But the selfish part of me, just needs an hour or two with a friend or by myself. And I don't mean after they go to bed, I mean during the day. I feel better just having said it (mostly). Hopefully I will wake up tomorrow (to Annika laying outside of my door making noises too early, but actually not coming in so she can claim she didn't wake me) refreshed and ready. That is a hard part of living here. Since not many people have really close friends, this is a normal way of life for them. Not for me! I had decided I would go see The Duchess tonight after the girls went to bed. For some reason it isn't on here- it is on 25 min. away, but it doesn't start until 9:45. I think I would not like myself in the morning for going. Ok, enough complaining. Sorry.

I did make this for fun while ago. It was so quick and fun! I am sure I will make some changes, but for now this is how it will be. Now I just need a picture to insert! :) While making it I have been listening to Colbie Caillat. Someone had her playing on their blog and I like her music. Thanks to youtube, I heard quite a few of her songs. Off to take a shower and beg for a better attitude...