Thanksgiving recap...

Just wanted to share some pictures of our very fun Thanksgiving celebration. We had a great long weekend with Grandma and Grandpa A who drove all the way from Indiana to spend the holiday with us. We also got a quick visit from our California friends Matt and Mo. They've recently moved to Penn State and were up visiting family in Bucks County.


Lily and Elsa were very involved with the food preparations. They helped me make pie, challah bread and potatoes. Here's Elsa carefully reading the instructions for pumpkin pie.


Grandma and Grandpa and the girls at the table. This is the first time that we ever had guests for Thanksgiving. How exciting! It was actually the first real time we've hosted a party in our new house. We will have to do that more often.


Grandma and Grandpa brought the family high chairs for the girls to use. One was used at our house by the kids when we were little. The other was actually used by Grandma and Aunt Chris when they were little. Elsa looks very pleased to sit right at the table. She even used real plates and silverware. The girls are growing up so fast!


Relaxing after dinner. The girls decided to get out of their dresses. (L,E)


The next morning, Grandma gave the girls a little XMAS tree for their room. It comes with little soft ornaments from the Manger scene. Little did we know that Elsa would fall in love with the tree. She has slept with it in her arms for the past week. Lily has since adopted a jingle Xmas sock that she wears on her hand.


We also followed another Angyus tradition and went to the XMAS tree farm the weekend after Thanksgiving. This was my little family's first real tree. Here's Lily and Grandma looking for the right tree. Very exciting. Mark got to chop down his first XMAS tree. It looks so beautiful.


Speaking of trees, the weather was amazing all weekend (downright balmy!) and we were able to play in the tree in the front yard. Isn't it amazing.


Grandma and Grandpa took the girls overnight so Mark and I could go to NYC. We had a fabulous time. (Times Square, Central Park, went iceskating in Rockefeller (sp) Center, saw a comedy show, at pizza...hard to believe were only a little over an hour from THE big city!) And it sounds like Lily and Elsa had a great time with their Grandma and Grandpa. The girls were perfect angels all week long. They only had one tantrum in five days. (a recent record). And they slept at night, too! Grandma and Grandpa are going to have to share their secret with us. After only 24 hours away, Grandma and Grandpa managed to sew curtains and decorate the girls room, clean the house and do all our laundry. What a great gift! But, the best gift was spending such a happy visit with our family. Now we get to look forward to Grandma and Grandpa P's visit for Christmas...

XXOO

Big girl beds, etc

Mark is back from his trip to Ohio, so I finally have a moment to post. Lots to report. I keep forgetting to say that the girls had their two-year-old checkup last month. They are still little sprites. 5th percentile weight/25th percentile height. But, the doctor declares them very healthy. And he was very impressed with their language development. The girls can speak in long sentences with quite an impressive vocabulary. They are showing great interest in the alphabet (especially letter W. And M because it looks like an upsidedown W). And they like to count things up to 3.

They really enjoy going to our "library school" on Tuesdays. I think they would greatly enjoy preschool. We're trying to get them into a program for the Fall. Hopefully, we can get them into something. Apparently, you have to sign up over a year in advance! (so we're already late). I've been trying to do more structured things with them at home like art, baking and music time. Lately, one of their favorite things to do is to make up stories with me that we draw on to paper.

We've been challenged with some major tantrums complete with throwing off clothes/shoes/banging their heads against the wall and floor and lots of fighting with each other. I'm trying very hard to be patient. But, phew. I think two-year-old twins would try the patience of a saint. Some days are quite overwhelming, especially since they refuse to nap.

But, this is also a really fun time. The girls are really coming into their own as little people complete with their own ideas and opinions. We have such interesting conversations. The girls ask me so many questions. Like last week, Elsa asked me "Mama, what is art?" I thought that was a pretty deep question from a two-year-old.

And now for pictures...



Twin Gothic. Lily and Elsa enjoy a day of Indian Summer.


Lily's a builder.


Lily and Elsa soak up the sun at our favorite park.


Elsa loves her sunglasses.


The girls are still in love with Halloween. They talk about their pumpkins and costumes all the time. They ended up being trick-or-treating machines and joined the gang of neighborhood two's around the complex. Mostly they enjoyed wandering around in the dark with flashlights. Here's Elsa and Lily sportin' their witchy hats and rainboots with their pjs.


The big news is that Lily and Elsa don't sleep in cribs anymore. (L front). We've been going through some major sleep training around here. (you might have noticed the lack of recent posts). Basically, the girls stopped reliably sleeping the night sometime in July. We figured it was all related to the stress of the move. But, in recent weeks they lost all ability to sooth themselves back to sleep. And nothing Mark and I did seemed to help them. Miss Lily was feeling so frustrated by her crib that she kept climbing out. ( a couple times with a serious thud). So, we had to move them into beds in a bit of a hurry. Grandma and Grandpa A bought them these cute little toddler beds as an early Xmas present. The girls got to help pick them out at the store. Last weekend was rough. Very rough. But, the girls have made a lot of progress. They've slept through the night 3 times in a row now. The hardest part is getting them to sleep in the first place. It is taking anywhere from 1-2 hours. But, they are now letting us leave the room while they are still awake which is a huge step in the right direction.


Lily poses in her big girl bed with a very tired Daddy.