Christmas break has begun

Well, technically the girls get out tomorrow - but I am checking out in my mind today. I'll be back to blogging after Christmas - I'll miss you all!

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! (I may be back before New Year's, but I make no promises ...)

Our first Christmas together, 2002.

We were so young! So thin (him at least)! (Hey - despite the bangs I really like my hair ...)

We had no idea of the craziness that was to come - and now that it's here we wouldn't trade it for the world.

Pictures with Santa through the years

We took the girls to visit Santa Claus this past Saturday at our town's Community Center. It was free, we could take our own pictures, it was free, they had music and munchies for the girls, and hey ... it was free! I worked in a mall for years and years and I always admired those parents who brought their youngins to see Santa - the place was always a madhouse. I try to avoid the mall around Christmas by any means possible.

This is the first year that the girls REALLY understand Santa and who he is and what he does so I had high hopes. They point him out in drawings or figures whereever we go so I figured we had a pretty good chance of getting a decent picture this year.

The CC gave out numbers as you walked in and called them out in sets of 10 so you didn't have to wait on line for an hour. There was so much for the kids to do: dance with the DJ, color, look at the HUGE tree, and walk through a mini Christmas village. We had a great time, saw lots of neighbors, and when our number was called we only waited on line for about 5-7 minutes.

As we were waiting, I mulled in my head our pictures with Santa through the years ...

Their first Christmas ... 2006 ...

This picture was taken at my twin club's annual Breakfast with Santa. The girls were 8 months old and crawling all over the filthy floor. I absolutely LOVE this picture. I actually entered it into a contest, but that was over three years ago and I never heard anything so I'm figuring we didn't win. The next picture is what happened about 30 seconds after this was shot ...

30 Seconds Later

Katie lost it. Check out Maddie's face. "Yo, dude, whassup?"

Second Christmas ... 2007

Not bad, not bad. Again at twin club Breakfast with Santa. Both a little shy, but I remember they would not look at the camera at all. Katie has this sheepish grin on her face (looking down) and Maddie and Santa are just checking eack other out.

Third Christmas ... 2008 (last year)

Whoa, Nellie - this was a toughie. We decided to try something new that year and went to Santa Land (check out that post here). The place was GREAT - but neither girl would even go near him. This first picure is Maddie going floppy (which she still does) and just melting to the floor.

Here's Katie, just clinging for dear life. There was quite a line behind us, but that Santa was wonderful and really tried his best to talk to the girls. He gave them both an apple and they managed to smile at him in the end.

This Christmas ... 2009

What a difference! Here is Maddie posing in front of one of the village scenes. There were 8 of these overall - each one had little children/elves in a different Christmas scene: cutting down the tree, baking cookies, making toys, decorating the tree, ice skating - and they all moved. Maddie was enthralled and spent most of the time walking up and down the lane just looking at them all.

Katie spent most of her time coloring, but I got her to check out the village a little bit, too.

Daddy and the girls in front of the tree.

Finally it was our turn to meet Santa ...

They ran and gave him the biggest hug! It was great!

What a shot! I just love this picture.

(I wish I had thought of taking their pics with him separately - it's on my list from now on.)

They are finally old enough to pose for a picture with Santa.

Let's see what a 6 month old will add to the mix next year!

Away in a Manger

Katie's school's Christmas Concert was this past Friday and it was beautiful. It is a K-8 school and every class participated (through song or narration) in the story of Christmas.

Katie's class were cherubs and they sang "Away in a Manger." They sent a note home about a month ago that the preschoolers needed to wear a white shirt and white pants. I avoid white clothing on my girls like the plague - I had nothing for her to wear! I found a white long sleeved shirt at Walmart, and thank goodness my friend Carol had a pair of white pants that she let us borrow. (White pants!?!)

They sent the words home and we practiced - though she liked to fool around almost every time. She would sing in a mouse's voice or in a really deep voice or just mouth the words with no sound. It drove me nuts!

But, lo and behold, when it came for her to be on stage she sang every word! There were about twenty 3-year-olds on stage and you could barely hear them, but I saw her mouth moving. Whoo hoo! I videotaped her song, but of course I have no clue how to transfer it (on tape) to the computer. We got there super early so we had a great spot in the second row.

I must say I really loved it - I can't wait for both of them to do more things like this as they grow up!

Our Christmas Card Surprise

When we decided (read: when I convinced Mr. Andy Man) to try for a third kid we at first thought of planning for last year, when the girls would turn three. Which meant we had to get started when they were 2 1/2 - which both of us immediately reconsidered! We decided that waiting until the girls were going to be four when the new baby was born was probably a better idea.

I still can't get pregnant on my own, so we did IVF again (we did it for the girls) - and since we knew the drill it wasn't nearly as daunting this time. Our only request from our fabulous doctors at RMA was that we only wanted ONE embryo transfered. They laughed and said, "Sure - but you know it may split, right?" Oh yes, we knew! We just knew we'd have to add another bedroom onto the house if that happened.

It was so different this time because of a few reasons. We decided not to tell anyone this time. When we couldn't get pregnant years ago - everyone knew. They knew we were trying - they knew we were going through infertility treatments - they knew when we had the IVF done - and they knew the minute I found out I was pregant. They knew we were having twins - they knew they were girls - they even knew their names. I really wanted the element of surprise this time.

Another thing that was different than years ago was that now we had the girls. Andy was always able to come to appointments with me (which were anywhere from 5:30-7:30am). Now he had to stay home with the girls. We had a friend lined up to babysit the girls when the actual transfer took place - but then both our girls were sick with horrible horrible colds and we didn't want to get her little girl sick, so Andy stayed home instead. I went alone. It wasn't horrible - but I would have loved for him to be there to hold my hand.

We found out within a week that the transfer worked! And we found out a few days later that the embryo did NOT split. Yay!

Now we had to wait to tell everyone. I wanted to be sure and I wanted the baby to be safe. We waited until 8 weeks to tell our parents and siblings - on Halloween! All our parents were in a state of shock I think, and looked at us like we were nuts. Hey - we may be nuts, but all I know it that I felt like someone was missing. There was a notion of another little kid running around this house that I could just not get out of my head.

I don't want you all to think that our parents are upset or anything - I think we just shocked them! Trust me - they will eat this next little one up judging by the way they adore our girls in a way I never thought possible! :)

So now we had to tell everyone else. When I saw that I was going to hit 12 weeks the first week of December, "Christmas card" immediately popped into my head. My cousin did it a few years ago and I thought it was such a great idea - so I copied. That week we had our nuchal scan screening and got great results so the next day I mailed the cards.

I took a picture of the girls wearing "I'm gonna be a Big Sister" shirts instead of a Christmas dress. Mail must be fast because the next day the phone rang and rang. It was great to tell everyone and hear "Are you sure it's not two?" over and over!

I'll be blogging more and more now. I am just starting to feel better - the exhaustion, morning sickness, and headaches are almost gone. (Shhh ... don't tell Andy ...)

The Christmas Carrolls

(Whew! The girls are in bed finally. They both have colds right now and Maddie sounds like Kathleen Turner. Very throaty. Love it.)

How was your Christmas? Ours was wonderful. We spent Christmas Eve at my mom's house where we did the whole fish thing as we Italians are wont to do. Andy's parents came and Uncle Eric was there, too.

Andy and his dad were in the garage for the beginning of the evening deep frying calamari and shrimp for us all and they came out delicious! I wish I had thought to get a picture of them doing it - they had a blast. We had a fantastic antipasta spread - my mom really outdid herself. We had so much of it, in fact, that we barely touched any of the main courses. We all sat there looking at each other with "I'm stuffed" looks on our faces. We decided then and there that we will be doing an appetizer-only Christmas Eve next year. That's where all the good stuff shows up anyway!

The girls had a blast running around my mom's condo and eating clementines. They peel them all by themselves right over the garbage can, and then section them off and eat them one by one. Delish. I asked my mom and Andy's parents if they could give the girls a present that was a toy before dinner to keep them occupied - and that kept them busy for all of 10 minutes! We fed them their spaghetti and some broccoli, and then they ate Hanukkah shortbread cookies because my father-in-law said they were the most delicious cookie at the store. I said Jesus was Jewish - so there you go. We put them up in their pack-n-plays to bed before we all sat down to eat because I actually like to sit down and eat. All the adults had a wonderful time and we opened our presents to each other so all we had to worry about the next day was the girls.

Andy's parents were sleeping over, so we all packed up and headed back home, where we proceeded to place all the girls' presents under (and around) the tree. I think I got to bed around 12:30am, which was not too bad.

The girls woke up bright and early (as usual!) and surprisingly didn't rush to the tree. They are in such a habit of walking right downstairs to the playroom to have their diapers changed and play a bit before breakfast, and this day was no different. All the adults woke up eventually and the girls started opening presents around 9am - and this went on for over two hours! NOT because they had two hours worth of gifts to open, but because they had to play with every toy right then and there before they were satisfied enough to move on to the next one! (The Blue's Clues plush were such a big hit - it took them forever to want to open another present after that!) I let them do it because they were having such a blast. We even took a cinnamon roll intermission to re-energize.

The girls would NOT take off their pj's all day. I had beautiful dresses for them to wear but they loved their Christmas pj's so everyone said to just leave them in them. So I did.

We had the same crew for Christmas Dinner, with the addition of my mom's friend who the girls call Aunt Patty. It was very nice - and it was very casual. We set the table and everything - but it was a very "take some now or take some later" event. After dinner Uncle Eric plugged in the Wii and we bowled the rest of the night - with Andy and his dad getting into it the most. Andy asked me if I wanted to get a Wii and I said "sure, right after I get my new oven." He was all, "I know, I know." It may happen soon! Both of our parents gave us gift cards to Lowe's and that will certainly help.

(We missed my brother Jeffery and his girlfriend, Heather, who live up in Vermont - and Andy's brother Matt and his wife, Jenny, who are in Mississippi. We talked to them both and maybe we will see them all for Christmas next year!)

The girls went to bed, everyone (except Andy's parents) went home - and we were all fast asleep by 10pm. Whew! (I am sure I am leaving out a bunch of things ...)

I posted a slideshow below of the best shots of the day - enjoy!

Merry Christmas ...

... from our home to yours!

Nativities and Bible Lessons

My dream of dreams is to have the complete Willow Tree Nativity. I love the whole Willow Tree line, and this nativity just touches something inside of me like no other one I have seen has.

For now however, this is the nativity we have here in the Crazy Carroll Compound ...
Yes, it's a Little People Nativity. I got it at a garage sale and I have to admit, I love it to death. It is just soooo cute, as the girls would say.

Our Bible lesson this Christmas was for the girls to learn that Jesus was born on Christmas, and that his mommy is Mary and his daddy is Joseph.

Me: "Whose birthday is on Christmas?"
Maddie: "Baby Jeeeeeesus."
Katie: "Id's Kadie's birday. I need cake." (Pause, after a look from me ...) Then she says, "Baby Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus!" and collapses into a fit of giggles.

They both know Mary and Joseph, too. Excuse me while I go pat myself on the back!

Christmas wishes to all of you

Whoo hoo!

Found the stockings!!!

They were in a box, under a box, under a box - of course! My mom knitted mine and Andy's when we were married 5 years ago. Then she made them for the girls when they were born. She has made them for cousin's, family friends, etc. The very first one she made was for ME when I was a baby. I thought that was the one I had, but she has it at her house. I forgot she made me a new one so it would match Andy's better.

Hope this week is going well for everyone - it seems blogging is slow, as it should be. Spend the week with your families, and enjoy the festivities!

In need of a silver pen

So I ordered our Christmas cards through Shutterfly and I was so happy with the design I chose. I wanted it to be different from the previous years ...

Christmas 2006 ... I loved this card. I loved their dresses, I loved the circular space to write in ... just loved it all. It was our first "picture card" and I felt like I finally belonged to that exclusive little club! hehe

Christmas 2007 ... I liked the horizonal look a lot. I liked the bright white, too. Also, since it took us about 3 hours to take this picture and I still wasn't 100% thrilled with the results - I included some closeup shots of the girls from different pictures, which everyone else loved, too. Their dress came with a black velvet bolero but when we put it on them it just looked like they had on a black dress, so I took it off of them.

So I did the red - and I did the white - so I thought ... "green would look nice this year!" I also dressed them in a non-traditional Christmas dress. They are ivory and teal and magenta. A very small paisley design on an ivory corderoy jumper and a long sleeve ivory onesie with a cute collar. I bought them at Janie & Jack for like 90% off on clearance when they were only a few months old. I got it in a size 3T - and lucky for me it just fits Katie.

So looking at only green cards, I found one I really liked. I don't want to post it here because I want my relatives to be surprised when they see it for the first time. Here is a sample of the card, just to show you the color ...

Pretty green right? Well it printed up about a thousand times darker. So dark that my black Sharpie doesn't even show up on it! Here is what it really looks like ...

BUT DARKER! I couldn't even get it to look as dark as it really is without going into black - which it might as well be. And the pictures printed really dark, too. I used a shot of them in front of our tree and didn't use the flash to get a nice glow - but it just looks like I used a bad picture.

Not a big deal, I know - there are much worse things in this world. I'll just go out and get a silver pen. And I'll remember to compensate for brightness next year. But it's just those types of little things that drive me nutso.

Make me feel better. Tell me something that drives you nutso even though it's really not a big deal. You'll feel better! PROMISE!

Santa Land

We went to Santa Land today! We heard about it from a friend and decided to check it out. It is an indoor/outdoor Christmas themed park. Inside you meet Santa and outside there is a nice little playground for the kids to run around and climb. To meet Santa, you stand in line in front of a 50-foot mini-village of different Christmas scenes. There was a carousel, a train that went around the whole village, a waterfall, a castle, and more.







The girls were PE-TRI-FIED of Santa - but Katie came around when he gave her an apple. She loves herself a good apple. Ate almost the whole thing - skin and all - on the ride home.

Tried to get a picture with Grandma in front of the tree - t.r.i.e.d.

After that debacle, we let them loose on the playground and they had a great time.

It was a short excursion - which was fine for this age. Everytime we do something like this I think ... it will get easier when they get older ... and take a deep breath.

And I wasn't kidding about that apple.

How to make a really big mess in under an hour

We decided to make sugar cookies with the girls this afternoon. I looked and looked for my Christmas cookie cutters, but no luck. So we just used a round glass and it was great!

We had sprinkles and candy in little bowls. The girls had parchment paper to work on. The cookie dough was nice and cold.

Then Maddie started eating the M&Ms off the raw cookies. Katie ate them right out of the bowl. Sugar rush ensued!

Batch one in the oven!

Yummy!

Even Daddy got in on the act with his "KM" cookies.

Messy messy table!

Then came the time to chow down.
You couldn't walk one step without getting nonpareils on your socks! Andy swiffered for the next hour!

Now that I think about it, it wasn't that bad! It didn't take too long, really. It was the perfect after-nap activity!

But we are still stepping on nonpareils.