And now back to our regularly scheduled subjects...

Ava & Sofia received a belated Christmas gift from their Aunt Mary & Uncle Gregg & Cousin Jack. They absolutely LOVE it. They love it so much that they used it non-stop for days & I finally had to give it a time-out on top of the refrigerator. They are usually very good at taking turns and sharing (it's a necessity when you're a twin) but their patience started wearing thin with this present...


So what is this wonderful out-0f-sight present?! Drumroll please...A digital camera!!! Most of the pictures they took were of their "friends" (stuffed animals) and of each other (well, most of each other...note the foot in the picture above...) and for some unknown reason I found many pictures of our dog's derriere (which I have kindly left out of this montage...).


On another note, having a Chef as the "Patriarch" of the family usually means celebrating holidays & occasions on a day other than the actual day - It took some getting used to at first, but now it's old hat. The girls & I had fun making Daddy a Valentine's Day cake after Valentine's Day and here is the masterpiece! That's the Chef's arm...

A flashback of a moment in time...

So here's a moment in time from the 1980's...How many of you can find me?!

And tell me what I'm thinking...
And what the girl on the bottom left is thinking...


Hey - don't make too much fun of me. I bet you all have pictures like this.

And, by the way...when you play right field in elementary school girls' softball you don't get much action way out there, so corduroys & a sweater are perfectly acceptable attire.

Now, what can I get my girls involved in now so that they can be hideously embarrassed by photographs in 20 years just like me...?

Last week, out of the blue, the girls asked if we could go bowling! We had been bowling before with Zack and Sarah, but that was a while ago. They asked so nicely that I decided to bring them. So, we went over to the local bowling alley & had a really fun time! They really like to bowl...And they like the shoes, too.

Even though Sofia won't eat bananas right out of the peel, she will eat bananas if they're baked in bread with chocolate chips...So...I pulled out our favorite Banana Bread recipe (written on Jennifer's 1996 atm receipt...holy smokes, that was 12 years ago...POW...sometimes the passage of times just socks me in the face...)

and I pulled out the secret ingredient...

And we got all the other ingredients and started baking!

And after a little fun and a big mess:

YUMM - O - LICIOUS!!

And then, less than 24 hours later:

I think we need to start doing double or triple batches...

Quick update...

We did a lot last month! We still take Bella for walks to the park & playground....unless is less than 30 degrees out. Sorry Bella, but that's just too cold for the girls...
We also got to go the the children's museum which was a lot of fun. They love being veterinarians & they love playing on the pirate ship (Ava is hoisting the sail & Sofia is making a sharp turn on the wheel...)

And of course there was another snowstorm. One of our neighbors came over to play & once again, Sofia worked so hard she had to take a rest in the snow...

As promised...

Pictures of Christmas Tree Removal (& our conversation as we got the tree out of the house...)


Let's just push the tree out the window so we don't track needles all the way through the house! Great idea!



Mo-mmmmy... I knocked over the watering can..

That's okay -

Xavier will help clean it up...

But the tree appears to be stuck...Daddy's not going to liiiike this...





That's okay, we'll push it out!!





In the end, we did get the tree out of the house...and that's really all that matters!

One month later...

What a December. First, we did have another real snowstorm & I had a sore back & arms to prove it. The girls loved the snow & we made snow mountains out front from all the snow dumped in front of our driveway for them to slide down.

They both rolled snowballs to make snowmen, but then Sofia was too pooped to add their arms & eyes! My four year olds make me laugh more than any people I know.

Their diet pretty much consists of macaroni & cheese, chicken tenders, peanut butter & jelly and soynut butter & jelly and yogurt, BUT, the one thing I found that they love is HUMMUS! If they only knew what it was made of! But here they are showing a little Patriot pride & some product placement for Tribe Hummus:

Now on to Christmas . . . Here is our beautiful tree - It was the best one we've gotten ... EVER, in my opinion - plump & perfect. I say 'was' because we disposed of it yesterday. That's a whole other story I'll share next time I post - what a ridiculous comedy of errors and a big mess, too.

For this picture, I wasn't in a very good position to get the star, too, but it's up there. It is just very difficult to get everyone to sit still & smile for a lot of pictures, so I take what I can get!

We went to Nonni's for Christmas & then to Aunt Sandy's & Uncle Andy's. Here are some pics of the girls in actual dresses!! They looked so adorable I couldn't stand it! I just wanted to eat them up. I took a lot of pictures, but I won't overwhelm the blog with all the pictures! (fyi - Sofia's on the left & Ava's on the right)

Most of the pictures I have of them look something like this one on the right. One is making a strange face, the other one is talking...which is funny because bring them around anyone else & they don't talk much at all. At home, however, I find it hard to get them to stay quiet...

So it's hard enough to get my girls to stand beautifully together, add in their cousin Jack & then it becomes one tough assignment. The trick? Mmmmmm...COOKIES!!!

All in all we had a great holiday & it's always fun to get to see Christmas through the eyes of children. It was awesome to see everyone and I am very grateful for all the love in our lives.

Oh yeah, I'm sure I'll catch grief from someone if I don't include a picture of me & Garry, too . . . So here you go!

Aaaannnddd, here's an even better one with all of us:

Now we're all famous on the blog!

Oh wait, I need the one of the godparents, too!

Phew. I think I'm done now...Until the next post.

First Snowstorm!! . . . sort of . . . who said there's no global warming?!

This morning, Ava & Sofia looked out the window & were absolutely thrilled to see snow on the ground! They immediately wanted to run outside & play. They got their boots, hats, mittens & coats on & rushed outside. It was funny & cute & a little sad all at the same time. Ava was pretty funny saying that it wasn't a very big snowstorm and that they could only play in one corner of the yard.
They asked me to help them make snowballs . . . It didn't work out that well . . . But they had fun & that's what matters!



After playing in the "snow" we ate lunch & went to see Santa at the imPossible Dream playground. They had crafts set up & they had pony rides & "fishing for toys" where the girls put a fishing pole with a hook over a wall & then magically there was a toy attached to the end of their fishing pole. It was a pretty cool Christmas party & something different to do on a Saturday. Ava & Sofia had the most fun with the crafts, but they didn't smile much at Santa or when I went to take their pictures on the ponies...They did smile the whole time they were riding the ponies, though!