Congrats, Miche!!

Miche finished up her last exam this week and she was officially DONE school today!! We went out with our family to celebrate. Uncle Timmy went and bought way too many rounds of shots for me to remember. We never, ever do shots sooooo YIKES! I think Miche and I had to stop at 3 or 4 - we didn't want to get sick!

Congrats, Sissy - we are beyond proud of you!!!

Shots?? Don't mind if we do!

Can't leave them alone for a second!

Here is why I can't blog anymore. Right here. I used to blog during naps or at night. Now their nap times are spent cleaning, doing laundry, catching up on phone calls and my nights are spent....zzzzzzzzz......

See, if I'm not on top of my game at ALL times in this house....THIS happens.



I was running around doing dishes and packing for preschool and saw Acadia petting Emma's head. So sweet. So adorable. I asked her what she was doing and she told me that she was giving Emma a bath. I thought to myself - this one's going on the blog! How cute - a bath from big sister. I went to get Emma's shirt on her and get going to school when I saw it. The bath "gel" that I thought was pretend was actually my lotion. Sweet! Acadia was pretty proud of herself :)

Dressing herself

Acadia has been into dressing herself lately. Here she is wearing a pretty sweet neck warmer as a hat. I think she rocked it!

One year later

I still think of you daily.
I still dream of you.
I still find it hard to talk about you and not cry.
I still ache for one more conversation.
I still wish I could get your advice on things.
I still wish I could give you one more hug.
I miss you, Pepaw.
You were the dad I always wanted....

The Toys Take Over Christmas

My Aunt Mimi takes her grandchildren to The Toys Take Over Christmas ever year. This year she invited Acadia along as well! Acadia is absolutely obsessed with her cousins E, T and M. LOVES them!! So she was thrilled to be hanging with her big cousins at the show! Auntie Mimi took them out to dinner first then to the show and that's all Acadia talked about for days!! Thanks so much, Oma!! I love this tradition you've started!! :)

Yes, Acadia insisted on wearing her tiara and Little Mermaid hair clip to the show...

Oh, Christmas Tree!

We went to White's Christmas tree farm again this year with Miche and Jimmy :) I love this tradition and can't wait until our kids can play together while choosing the perfect tree. After finding the tree, we always take a family picture then go inside for candy canes and hot cocoa. And the kids get to go for a ride on Santa's sleigh!

We found a bird's nest!

December 2nd - Watch a Christmas Movie

For the first time in the history of our family, we allowed tv watching during dinner. Acadia couldn't believe it!! Both girls were laughing and clapping and running around :) Rudolph was on tv that night and Acadia had never seen it so we chose that over The Polar Express, which is her all time favorite movie. The girls loved it!

Paradee Family Advent Calendar

I wanted to start this tradition last year but we just didn't have time with everything going on. So this will be the first official year doing the Paradee Family Advent Activity Calendar! (Try to say that 3 times fast!)

Dec 1 - Start enjoying our chocolate Advent calendars
Dec 2 - Watch a Christmas movie
Dec 3 - Decorate the house
Dec 4 - Cut down our Christmas tree
Dec 5 - Decorate our tree
Dec 6 - Make a gingerbread house
Dec 7 - Buy some toys for children less fortunate
Dec 8 - Visit Santa
Dec 9 - Make hot cocoa with marshmallows
Dec 10 - Make a Christmas craft
Dec 11 - Go to The Polar Express
Dec 12 - Buy a new ornament for the tree
Dec 13 - Make Christmas cookies and surprise someone at work with them
Dec 14 - Make a Christmas card for someone
Dec 15 - Make a paper chain to count down the days until Christmas
Dec 16 - Write a letter to Santa
Dec 17 - Do something nice for someone
Dec 18 - Family game night
Dec 19 - Go see Christmas lights
Dec 20 - Read a Christmas book
Dec 21 - Listen to Christmas music
Dec 22 - Wear red or green
Dec 23 - Take a family picture in front of the tree
Dec 24 - Make cookies for Santa and read 'Twas The Night Before Christmas

Just a girl with her backpack

Poor Matt

The day after Thanksgiving, Matt was changing the tires on our minivan. I was laying on the couch watching a movie with the girls when he ran up to our front windows and banged on them, then pointed to the garage door. I went to the door and he ran in with his hands cupped under his face. He ran over to the sink and was so disorientated with what had happened. He knew he was bleeding, obviously, but had no idea how bad the injury was or where it was coming from.

He was changing the tire and somehow the tire iron slipped and hit him right in the nose :( It was bleeding like crazy and the worst part about it was that we couldn't go to the hospital because our minivan was jacked up and there was a tire off of it. I ran to our neighbors to see if they could watch the girls and also called my sister in law, mom and sister. Our neighbors weren't home but my sister was and luckily was able to come over to watch the girls so I could take Matt to the hospital. There was no way he would have been able to drive - the bleeding hadn't stopped yet.

Poor Matti needed 6 stitches on his nose :( Knock on wood, that's the first time anyone in our family has needed stitches because of an injury. I hope it's our last, too!

Back for good!

Photography is done for the year.
My NYC trip is over.
I'm trying to slow down this winter.

Sooo.....I'm back! I feel like I have time to blog again now that we'll have a normal routine again.

I have to much to blog about my head hurts! For those of you who don't have google reader, you may want to hit "page down" to see my posts, since I'm going to have to go back in time to update a lot of my posts from this fall.

Good to be back!