The Nutcracker

Last week I took Aly and her friend to see The Nutcracker. The year before I had taken Aly to see it in San Jose and she absolutely loved it! She talked about it all year and wanted to go this year too! I wasn't sure if we would be able to go since I was so sick with the pregnancy but when I started feeling better I purchased tickets. I purchased 3 tickets hoping to take KK as she had been wanting to go too!

A week or so before The Nutcracker we went to the movies to see The Princess and the Frog. KK could not sit through this movie so I knew there was no way she could sit through a ballet. So I decided it would be best to invite Aly's friend Maya.

I didn't tell Aly about it until we were in the car headed to pick up Maya. I didn't want to tell her any earlier because it would hurt KK's feelings to know that we were going and she wasn't. When we were in the car I let Aly know where we were going and why I kept it a secret. I asked her not to brag about it in front of KK when we got home later as it would hurt her feelings.

So we left our house at 10:00 a.m. to go pick up Maya. We picked her up and headed to Round Table Pizza for their all you can eat lunch special. I don't know why but I am craving Round Table practically everyday! One week I ate there 3 times and was not even getting tired of it! Plus I knew the girls would eat pizza so it was an easy decision. They had a great time having lunch together. Next it was off to the Nutcracker!

We were about 20 minutes away from the Theatre and had 50 minutes to get there. I thought for sure that would be plenty of time. I was so wrong! I made the mistake of listening to my navigation system and taking the 16th street exit. This exit was backed up to the freeway--this should have been clue number 1! I am just not familiar with downtown so I though I better just listen to the navigation system. Due to all the traffic getting off the freeway and all the lights down on 16th street and the backup, we had ten minutes to get from the parking garage to the show which was three blocks away! I decided we better do a light jog to ensure we got their on time. Here I am, pregnant lady holding two 6 year olds hands jogging down the street in our nice clothing! I bet people were laughing at us! The girls thought it was funny. You know the ballet, if you don't get there on time you have to wait until intermission!

The girls were absolutely perfect during the show! They had amazing theatre manners and didn't talk at all. They loved watching the snowflake kingdom part. It was definitely different than the San Jose Performance. The Sacramento performance uses 500 children so it is very child centered. The San Jose performances uses mainly adults except for the gift opening part and the mice part.

Aly and I decided despite how cute it was with all of the children in the show, we liked San Jose's version 10x better! They used far more scenery changes, their dancing was more technical, and they did a better job telling the story! It was much more clear what was happening. So next year, if baby can handle Terry babysitting, we may see the Nutcracker in San Jose and see a special shortened version which is only an hour lone. This way KK can join us and should be able to handle it. Plus if she makes a little noise it is to be expected since it is a children's matinee.

Hubby is on a role!

Woohoo, hubby is super motivated and accomplishing so much during his two weeks off! Even with a cold! This past week he tore apart the girls closets in both rooms, took all of the mirrored closet doors out of our house, as well as tearing down a wall in our living room and making our living room larger! We also got a dumpster and he has been filling it full of junk we needed to get rid of! I can't believe that it is already almost full!



I just love the new closet! This was the best picture I was able to get! The best part is the new organizer is so efficient I was able to let the girls share one closet!

I wasn't able to get a good picture of our new expanded living room. I am sure after he puts in the new pergo flooring and we paint the walls I will get a few good pictures. Lucky for us we bought enough pergo flooring for the living room and dining room about 5 years ago so it won't cost us anything! I am not sure on his timing of things but he may begin working on the pergo floors in the next day or two!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning in our house was a slow, peaceful start! I got up around 6:30 in the morning. Aly didn't get up until 7:30. When she came down she was so excited! I told her we couldn't start until Daddy and KK woke up. I told her she could go wake them up if she wanted to. She chose not to and decided to have breakfast instead. Around 8:30 I told Aly that she could go wake up KK if she wanted to. This time she decided she would.

KK came down the stairs all sleepy and tired. She was quite surprised at what she saw. Just the night before we were telling her Santa would be coming and she didn't believe us. She said, "No, not for 9 more days!" Daddy decided he wanted to get coffee first and start a fire. So the girls patiently waited for the next twenty minutes or so while Daddy got his coffee and Mommy started a fire.

The girls got to open their stockings first. They had a great time. KK got super excited over all of the floam in her stocking. Here is the video:

After opening their stockings they got to open their present from Santa. Each year Santa has special paper and a special bow just for his presents. The girls love it! Their favorite part is the bow that none of the other presents have!

Here is the video of them opening Santa's gift!

After they finished opening Santa's gift we let them play with it for awhile before we opened anymore gifts. The girls got used to opening a gift and playing with it so it was a nice and slow process. KK was so fun to watch open presents, she kept saying, "just what I always wanted!"

KK loved her playdoh ice cream maker. Aly loved her new doll. She even got matching jammies for her and her doll!

The baby in mommies tummy got presents too! Only because the girls insisted on buying the baby a toy for Christmas. I told them that the baby wouldn't be here yet but they still wanted to buy a toy. KK also asked Santa on two different occasions to bring the baby a rattle for Christmas. She didn't even ask him to bring her anything! So Santa brought the baby a rattle for Christmas. The girls opened the babies presents and put them in the closet.

They had a great day opening gifts and playing with all of their new things! It was so much fun to watch them!

Our Christmas Eve Jammie Tradition

Back in my early 20's I spent a Christmas Eve with a family I babysit for. They introduced me to their family tradition of opening a present on Christmas Eve which happened to be Christmas Jammies. They were also so kind as to give me a pair of Christmas jammies. I still have them too! They were red with white snowflakes on them! I decided then that when I had a family I would start this tradition with my family.





This year the girls are finally getting the tradition. Alyssa was asking days before Christmas if she was going to be able to open her Christmas Jammies on Christmas Eve. You all know me as frugal and you better believe that I scored a great deal on their jammies too! I bought them Disney Pajamas from the Disney store. I believe I got them in July on clearance for $5.99 a pair! First I had purchased the Mickey Jammies and later when the Minnie Jammies went on clearance I decided to splurge and buy those too. So this year they had two pair of jammies to choose from. The Minnie Jammies were a nightgown which can be kind of cold for us here. The girls decided to wear the Mickey jammie bottoms with their nightgowns so it was perfect!





I took a video of them opening up their jammies too!

Baby News

Yes, it is true, after four years of trying to get me to have another baby, I finally gave hubby his wish! If it were up to him, we would have four children! When I agreed to this one I made it clear, this would be it! I am sure he still has a glimer of hope that I may change my mind down the road...but hey, I am not getting any younger and soon enough it won't be a good idea to have anymore. Besides, I think we will have all we can handle with three children.

As many of you could tell I pretty much dropped off the face of the Earth during the month of November. I was SO SICK! I had morning sickness all day and night! I was throwing up every morning and every night! Heck, sometimes, for no reason I would throw up in the middle of the afternoon. I felt sea sick every second of the day! While I was sick with both Alyssa and Kayla, it wasn't this bad!

I also had a scare during the 7th week of pregnancy. I had a tear in between the uterus and the baby sac causing me to bleed. This is called a subchorionic bleed. This increases your chances at a miscarriage. Lucky for me it was small. I was put on bed rest for two weeks. We just had an ultrasound last Thursday that showed everything is great, the bleed is all healed, and the baby is fine. So now we are ready to announce it!

I am currently 12 weeks pregnant and just starting to feel better. I still have some bouts of nausea, but have only gotten sick once in the last week. I am hoping this will all just continue to get better and better and I will get my appetite and energy back! I think my family hopes so too!

I got rid of all of my baby stuff and maternity clothes so we will have to start all over again...oh well, what can you do? We do still have a car seat and some friends have offered some hand me downs which I will be so thrilled to borrow! We look forward to finding out what the baby is in February during our next ultrasound! Of course, once we find out we will announce it!

Gingerbread House

I think we have finally made a family tradition whether we like it or not! For three years in a row now we have made a gingerbread house. The girls love it! I don't really like the building of the house but the kids love the decorating! I have to say, KK eats much more candy then she actually puts on the house.

The funny thing is for the next few days KK kept sneaking candy off the house. Within a few days the house was striped of its decorations and ended up in the garbage!

Our Newly Remodeled Bathroom

When we moved into this house it had ALOT of work to be done! Let me just say, we still have a lot to go but we have made progress. Hubby recently remodeled our hallway bathroom upstairs. I have to say, it is now the nicest room in the house! He did a really nice job! Of course he always does nice work but this bathroom just really came together! I took some photos but it is a small bathroom so it was hard to fit it in the pictures.

We put a new toilet, sink, and flooring in. We painted the walls a neutral tan color. We added a new mirror and all new towel bars and accessories.