Weekly Update

Wes was up early Monday morning so we played quietly with his manly building blocks while wearing the girliest (cousin Jayla's hand-me-down) slippers. It wasn't too long before the girls joined in and brought out their blocks to join forces:

The kids tested Grammy's chocolate chip cookies that she sent us and Tenley gave them her stamp of approval:

My littlest babes were on a sugar high and could not stop giggling:

I love days when they are full of sweetness and smiles:

Wes looked so sweet as he napped with 'Doo-Doo':

I lucked out with the kids being so good all day because we managed to go to Von's to buy our endive, make meatballs for the wedding soup and pasta, and boil the chicken for the wedding soup. Later that evening I cleaned, boiled, chopped and froze the endive while indulging in some white chocolate peppermint candies (one of my holiday favs) and sipping on some Riesling:

I had a busy day planned for my little Sous Chefs on Wednesday. Daddy's grease duct passed inspections at work so to celebrate we made him an apple pie- his fav. It was really no trouble since Tenley loves baking. She was cracking me up because every time I laid down parchment paper she would say, "we gotta protect our work surface!" She loved every second of baking Daddy's pie:

After the pie was in the over and our mess was cleaned up, we moved on to baking sugar cookies. I made the dough as soon as I woke up so it was cooled and ready to go around 10am. The kids were really excited about using the cookie cutters (especially the Mickey ears). Ev was more into scooping up flour with the pie scooper and licking it:

After all that baking the kids napped really good. Ev preferred napping on me; which was fine by me because I was pooped, too:

Once our cookies cooled we got to decorating them; which was a realllll treat. It really tested my OCD patience to see the sticky icing we made flying everywhere and those LITTLE sprinkles bouncing all over the tile, but the kids had so much fun and that's all that matters. Tenley was really into it and loved decorating them all differently. Wes kind of understood what to do, but didn't know whether to be excited about dumping a whole can of sprinkles on the counter or to freak out because sprinkles were touching him. Ev could careless what everyone else was doing as long as she was able to keep eating sprinkles; girlfriend has such a sweet tooth. They truly made some masterpieces: 

We had such a magical Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Everyone is loving the double stroller Santa brought because it was the center of attention both Saturday and Sunday:

Sunday was my mom's birthday and we are all missing her SO much! We called her as soon as we woke up to tell her 'Happy Birthday!' Although a FaceTime call isn't the same as seeing her in person I'm so happy we were at least able to do that and I'm super jealous she got to celebrate with some red velvet cake (my fav). I wish so badly that I could've been there to give her the biggest hug and seen the kids make her smile ear-to-ear. She means the world to us and I'm so thankful that she was in good hands in Ohio:

(Miss and love you, mom!!)

The kids used a piece of their bath bomb from Isla and the pink water made them super silly. We turned on some music and they were dancing in the tub while Ed and I were cracking up:

What a great week! See you in 2016! :)

Greatest Gifts of All

We started our Christmas Eve with a little gingerbread castle decorating. The girls decorated a pink Disney princess castle and since Wes is obsessed with the color blue and Olaf he gladly decorated a Frozen castle:

After I wrote Wes' name on his castle he insisted that I wrote 'Pop Pop' on the other side. I mean, he would not continue until his best bud's name was on the other side and how could I say no to such a sweet boy:

Tenley and Wes were really into it, but Ev was more interested in eating the sprinkles:

We really get to take it easy on Christmas Eve and Christmas day since I do most of the cooking/baking prior to. The only thing we make on the actual day is our pierogies. Ed has taken over on those and I'm more like the Sous Chef. Tenley was FaceTiming with my in-laws, while Ed and I were in the kitchen starting on the pierogies. Then, Tenley decided to show Grammy her impressive dough rolling skills and I must say she can roll out pierogies like a champ:

The twins finally woke up from their nap and everyone noticed that Santa's elves stopped by and dropped a few surprises off- Christmas PJ's and the new Minion movie:

My Grammy sends me Oplatek every year and this year before eating we sat down and explained who it was from, how it is tradition for us as Great Grammy Sophie's mom came from Poland and we discussed all the things we were thankful for. Of course Wes was strictly thankful for Pop Pop and Donald Duck, Tenley was thankful for the presents she was going to get and Ev was silent, as always. I explained to Tenley how it wasn't all about presents and that it was actually about the birth of baby Jesus. I told her that I was thankful for our food because some people didn't have food, thankful for the roof over our head because some people don't have a warm home, thankful for daddy who works so hard to take care of us. Then Ed thanked God for our three lovely kids even if they drive us nuts at times and Tenley interrupted him and said, "while we're on that subject...I hope Santa still brings me presents!!" We were laughing so hard. Praying with kids is so funny. Then when we broke up the Oplatek into pieces they were so excited then they were all gagging simultaneously and Tenley said, "ew, I don't want to eat cardboard!" We had such a good dinner with the kids and everyone was all smiles after their bellies were full:

It's become tradition that we go light-seeing Christmas Eve night and since we didn't make it to Ethel M's yet we headed their first:

After Ethel M's we went to see some of our favorite houses off of Pacific and they didn't disappoint:

Before bed Daddy tracked Santa on his phone and the kids thought it was so cool:

For some reason Tenley got really scared at bedtime; she was really worried about a bad guy coming down the chimney. She made us promise that we'd sleep on the couch to make sure only Santa came in the house. Good news, Tenley...only Santa came and he thought you, Ev and Wes were reallllllly good (I think there was some sort of mix-up there...):

I got the best Christmas gift ever that night. While going through the boxes my mother-in-law mailed for the kids I found my Grandma Betty's recipes that she copied from my dad. I forgot that she said she mailed them with the Christmas gifts so I sat in bed on Christmas Eve crying as I read every line of her beautiful handwriting, then I would laugh when I'd find one of our writings on her recipe cards...little love notes or doodles that made my day that much more perfect. I will treasure these forever:

Tenley and Wes both woke up at 6:30am screaming to open presents, while little Princess had to be woken up:

Seeing the kids excitement when they saw that Santa came in the middle of the night was the best! Tenley was so excited about all the presents, but was very insistent on finding her Limited Edition Aurora:

Since Aurora happened to be the first gift she opened, we quickly moved on to the rest of the presents:

Ed and I never exchange gifts because it's all about the kids to us, but this year he really surprised me. He had Tenley bring me a bag from Green Valley Ranch's Spa and she shouted, "SURPRISE! Thanks for being the best mommy!" and Ed told me it was a gift card for some "me time" at the spa. I was so surprised and so excited! We spent the rest of the morning playing with all the awesome toys that Santa brought:

After naps, the kids finally got to their stockings:

The pierogies we made on Christmas Eve were so delicious that after snacking on them all day we only had 3 left! Sadly Mason had to work Christmas night so we recruited the rest of the Rices for dinner; which meant we needed to make more pierogies so they could taste the deliciousness, too:

After being little bakers, the kids posed in their adorable Disney PJ's by the tree:

Our family-friends arrived and the girls exchanged the presents that they insisted on buying each other...cute little things like Donald Duck jelly beans and pink bath bombs:

While tucking the girls in during their pretend sleepover I started to shut the door and Isla said, "WAIT, WAIT! I love you!" and my heart melted. Hearing all of our kids giggle together made our Christmas complete:

As if this day couldn't get any better, Ev slept in her bed AND it snowed in Henderson! Two Christmas miracles!! This has truly been our best Christmas since we've been away from our family in Ohio. I've never felt so much love in the air like I did this year. I just feel so incredibly blessed to have such a great family that keeps me smiling even through the hard days. Nothing is more important to me than my family and they are truly my greatest gifts of all!