Merry Christmas Break....

or Winter Break if you want to be PC!

Sadly, time flies when you are having fun, and my 2 weeks off with the girls over the holidays are slowly drawing to a close. :(

Winter Break started off with a bang, as on Saturday night Matt and I had a date night where we went out to dinner with some friends and to a Christmas concert put on by our friend Bob Becherer and his friend Merry Keller (LOVE the spelling of her name by the way)! It was awesome to have a date night and I of course adored the Christmas music as well!

We had a fabulous First Christmas together as a family, and the girls were as always super cute! Everyone in our family has been super generous with the girls! We received tons of new toys to play with and a lot of clothes. SOme highlights include a super cool afghan in a circus theme that Grandma Pat has been working on FOREVER, complete with circus animals and a clown, muscial frogs, a cool stacking animals toy, a muscial table for when we are bigger, a farm mat, crawling balls, Laugh N Learn Puppies (that we adore, but when they start talking at 3 am they freak Mom out), and a talking story book. Of course there are tons more toys.

We've also had some firsts over the past week....

1). The girls have started Rice Cereal. Olivia does pretty well at it, but Sydney isn't quite sure what to do with it. I think it's stopping them up (as rice cereal has a tendency to do), SOOO tonight I ran to Target to get them some baby oatmeal to try tomorrow.

2). WHile both girls have been babbling for awhile now, Olivia has started screeching and it is HILARIOUS, I swear she does it just to hear the sound of her own voice. I can tell she's going to be a talker, which both Matt and I are, so it's going to be hard to figure out who she takes after with that!

3). Olivia has started rolling over from stomach to back on a pretty regular basis! Sydney will do it with some prompting, but not very frequently.

4). The newest addition to our home is a FABULOUS video camera that we've been using a ton since we received it for Christmas from my Dad and Stepmom...we love it and soon, our blog will be able to feature videos of the girls, which you all will love, I am sure!

5). We've had our assessments by the Missouri First Steps Program, and will be having our family meeting with them On January 6th at 4:15 to discuss their findings. I suspect that they will find (as they have already hinted at), that the girls are doing very well and will not need services. BOO.

6). WE've had a change in bottle schedule and have moved to 4 bottles a day and are pretty regularly sleeping through the night with very little crying (we had a slight digression when Mommy went back to work, so I suspect that next week will be rough). It also appears that we MAY be going through a growth spurt and are starting to eat more.

7). Olivia weighs 10lbs, 10.5 oz and Sydney weighs 10lbs, 9.5 oz! So that is awesome!

8). We've figured out that Sydney is about 3 weeks behind Olivia in development, so we're waiting patiently for her to catch up with her sister!

9). We spend a lot more time playing with the girls...we've busted out one of their extrasaucers, their new farm playmat, and several of their Christmas toys..they love them...its a lot of fun and I Really enjoy our 2 play times a day! :)

As Break draws towards a close, I have started panicing, getting ready for them to go to Georgine's house in a week and a half (our day care lady...2 houses away...who is awesome), I fear that they are going to become hysterical there and freak her out...as they can be very demanding, and I've also started to get the house back in order. I have to find places for all these baby toys, wash all their new clothes, do our laundry, and then of course put away all our fabulous Christmas decorations. NOrmally, I'd wait and do them the second weekend in January, but with the babies, I want to have things done and put away faster than I normally do so that I can spend time with them in the evenings and on the weekends while I am working!

We hope everyone is well...we miss all of our family and friends...as promised, since we've been BIG slackers, here are a TON of fabulous pictures from Christmas Break...so far! :)

Hanging under the Christmas Tree!

Christmas Eve.....

Sydney....

Olivia...

Christmas Morning.....

Olivia...

Sydney....

The cutest picture EVER!!!!!!!!!!!! (I know I've said this before, but seriously it is)...Christmas Day!

Rice Cereal....

Sydney...

Olivia...

Playtime....dress up...our fabulous coats from Aunt Gretchen and Uncle Jason!

Olivia....




Sydney....

Hope all is well and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year.

Love,

M, J, S, & O! And Cassius and Sugar!