Winter Activities

It's been unseasonably warm this year but if you want it to feel like winter, you hit the rink! Nana and Papa gave Katie ice skates last Christmas and they fit like a glove this year.  We signed her up for lessons. By lesson #5, we weren't seeing much progress from Katie and her class. By #8, it was a totally different story. She loves it and is making some great progress now. We wanted to capitalize on her momentum so we are heading into round 2 of lessons. At least she won't be subjected to the "Are you related to Nancy Kerrigan?" question.

Marin is dying to get on the ice but watching is the next best thing. 

The girls play "Cars" alot when they are shunning the cold weather. I'm flabbergasted at how long these kids can play with these cars. Marin is a little destructo and Katie is type A but somehow it works out.

Valentine's day brings the Daddy Daughter Dance and one happy Katie. She was very excited about her date and corsage. They had a great time!

Not to be outdone (now or ever) but Marin had to put on her fancy black shoes too. She's too young to go to the dance this year but she still wanted to be part of the party.

After that was my 36th birthday...

Marin has suddenly developed a love for books and Abby is a great audience. I always thought winter was the best time to cuddle up with a good book. 



Ah! Ah! Ah!

This is Marin and Katie's favorite song. 100 points to anyone who can recognize the tune. Ok, it's Firework by Katy Perry. It's one of the few current songs that I don't cringe when they start singing it. You don't realize how questionable lyrics are until a toddler is belting them out.  Runners up in the Most Played Song on Cedar Street are (drum roll)....

1. Elmo and Andrea Bochelli singing "Time to Say Goodnight" So cute.
2. Weezer's cover of the Cars  "You Might Think". I love Weezer so a special thank you to the producers of the movie Cars 2.
3. "Always Love You" from The Muppets Take Manhattan. A cute flashback of The Muppets when they were babies.

Eleven Degrees

I wish I was this happy when it was eleven degrees outside. Brrrrr. They didn't last too long outside this weekend because it was soooooo cold but at least they had some fun. 

Marin tried to escape down the street. You're busted...

Of course, Abby couldn't be left out.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We've been very busy this season so I've been out of touch. We are back with some highlights from our holidays. And we upgraded Carl the O' Computer with more space so I could download the pictures for the festivities. Phew!

First we started with a tree purchase at Mackay's Christmas Trees in Berlin. We went there to see Josh the Camel who I'm a fan of (on Facebook). He added a fun twist to tree buying. And our tree was awesome this year...just perfect.

Now we have to decorate it. We only managed to break about 5 ornaments. This doesn't count the 2 that broke when the tree died and we didn't have a chance to take it down. Ornaments were kamakazing off the tree and onto the hardwood floor thanks to the drooping branches. Grand total: 7.

The girls loved their new Christmas jammies and we watch alot of Christmas specials this year. I think a favorite was the Elf on the Shelf and Ice Age Christmas. Diane- these next 4 photos are for you! Ugh.  

Marin helped Chad put out the luminaries this year. Nice job guys! We're not Birchwood Drive yet (wink, wink) but give us a few more years!

We had our second annual Christmas Eve celebration with our family.  The Perusse side and my cousins Mike and Paul came up to watch the Patriots game before the official party. A few gifts were open and (thankfully) the Pats pulled out a win. A true Christmas miracle!

Moving onto the actual party, Marin had a few wardrobe malfunctions and ended up pulling out a few different looks.

Christmas morning came and we had a ton of fun opening gifts from Santa. Marin didn't understand that she had a few gifts and after opening one, she was done. We had to coax her to open more. Katie knew the drill. Here is Katie with her new guitar.

Marin checking out Elmo.

Abby is excited about her new bone!

We went to Grammie's for Christmas dinner. Enjoying some dip and some down time.

The next day we got to see Grampa, Nona, Auntie Mary and Auntie Helen to exchange more gifts!

We had a great Christmas and we hope you did too. Now onto 2012! 



Hanging Around

Soon Greenwood the Elf will leave us until next year. The kids love to find him and he's been very creative. Marin loves to yell "HERE!" when she finds him. Then she does a little shake-your-booty dance because she is so excited.

My Elf with a Tail

I haven't been posting much and I can blame it on two things: work and Christmas. Chad missed Thanksgiving thanks to a stomach bug. Katie and Marin had it too. Once we survived that week, we moved into full on Christmas mode. Our life doesn't have to much free time but right now it's being take up by Christmas. Things aren't chaotic but I'm taking a "vacation day" today in an effort to try and stay ahead of things and avoid our typical stressed-out, sprint-to-the-finish Christmas season. I am determined not to get stressed out so I'm trying to take all things in stride... but my assistant keeps sitting in the middle of my wrapping station!

Dr. Teeth

I wish I were this happy in the dentist's chair! Chad took her this week to get her teeth cleaned and checked. Katie reported back that she wore sunglasses and they had a blower to get rid of all the sugar bugs.  They also had a "Mr. Rumble" to clean your teeth and a "Mr. Shower" to rinse. A successful trip!