Tale of Two Sisters & A New Brother

Hope everyone's Christmas was wonderful! Ours was except for a minor glitch in Mom getting sick on Christmas day and spending most of the day in bed! But as you can see from the videos, the girls had a great time and Santa was especially generous this year. Caileigh is very excited about her bike - she already rode it twice outside and is really getting the hang of it. And Keira is thrilled to have more things her height to play with and walk around. But her favorite toy is Caileigh's - the barking puppy! As you see, Keira loves it and just buries her head in him when he starts barking - so cute!!

Tomorrow the girls are off to Grammy & Pap Pap's for the day and we have our annual Spaghetti Dinner with the Duffys! No school for Caileigh this week so she is thrilled!!

Merry Christmas from our family to you and yours! We are so blessed to have you as a part of our lives!! I hope Santa was good to you, he certainly was to us!!

Christmas Eve and the three girls went to Ms. Amy's house to play with Abby & Joey and give them a few presents. Then it was back home to help mom wrap daddy's gifts (shhh!). Off to church with the Ryans and Aunt MK and then to Grandma & Grandpa's for Christmas Eve dinner!

What a fun time Caileigh had unwrapping so many gifts ! And Keira had fun dancing a little for us and even took a few (quick) steps!!

We had birthday cake for baby Jesus and then it was home to put the reindeer food out and read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" before going to bed. We even heard Santa's bells so Mommy & I got under the covers right away and pretended we were asleep! But since Santa knows if you're awake, he just flew over the house and came back later!

Merry Christmas Eve!!

Well we're getting closer to the big day! Caileigh is getting excited as she wakes up each morning and Smiley the Elf seems to be landing closer and closer to the fireplace (waiting for Santa she says). Keira has bit of a croup cough and low fever so I won't be surprised if she ends up with another ear infection in the next few days. Hopefully her cough will clear up and she'll get some sleep!

Speaking of ears, Caileigh will be getting tubes on January 8th! Hopefully that will take care of her ear infections and difficulty hearing. Lots of changes in store for our 4 year old including moving up to the 4 year old room at school. Right now she's looking forward to the break from school over the holidays and spending time with her cousins!!

Christmas with the Duffys! Grammy, Pap Pap, Aunt Ash, Aunt Amanda, Uncle Charley and Steve all came over to celebrate Christmas early with us. What fun we had (especially with the Steelers winning in the last second!). Caileigh got a huge Princess castle which converts into a table & chairs, a play center with balls & some tinkerbell makeup (yea thanks for that Aunts!). Keira got a rocking pony, a learning/electronic/music toy and a vibrating ball that jumps around! And the night ended with Caileigh singing her Christmas pageant songs!!

And I don't think I mentioned that Keira has been standing all by herself for the past few days. She doesn't stay up long but we know steps are next! I swore she would have walked by now since she has been standing for so long but she's taking her good ole' time!

Back home. A wet slushy ride but no ice thankfully. Both of the girls took much needed naps on the way home and went to bed early ( well Keira started early but woke up 30 mins later. Hopefully this week will be a smooth one for Caileigh. She has her follow ENT appt on thurs.

What a day!! We slept in a bit and then Caileigh and I headed to the pool with all her cousins. Then to a late breakfast and some shopping. Too bad our 4 yr old decided to throw a fit outside Claire's Boutique in the mall so that put the kabosh on any further shopping!

After some much needed naps it was off to Aunt Mary's for the big party with my cousins. Great to see everyone and the kids had a blast playing, singing and goofing around. And despite my best efforts to prepare Caileigh for the big guy she still burst into tears as soon as he said her name! And we practiced what she was going to ask for but she never said a word. Oh well. Her sister on the other hand was amazed by him and even put on a show doing " how big is Keira?" for the crowd. She was a trooper, never crying a bit and went to everyone that wanted to hold her. She was up hours past her bedtime but you couldn't tell.

And we got our annual picture with the other "Kaeli". She's officially about 2 heads taller than Caileigh but very cute.

Pics and videos to come soon!!

And the annual visit with the Livonia Mall Santa came and went and Caileigh has not broken her streak of fshying away when she sees him. Even though she is with her cousins she still won't talk to Santa. Oh well better start preparing her for tomorrow.

We had nice visit with Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom and then with Pat & Ellen in Ann Arbor. The kids had a blast singing songs after dinner. I'll upload videos soon.

We arrived in Michigan last night safe and sound. The girls were a little wound up after sleeping in the car after dinner so we were up late. Everyone is sleeping in this morning and then we're off to the pool, shopping and to visit with Aunt Mary, Uncle Tom and Pat & Ellen for dinner. Caileigh is excited for her cousins to arrive!

Happy 11 month birthday Keira!! What is our almost 1 year old up to these days?
-- cruising around the furniture!
-- her front left tooth broke through!
-- picking up anything and everything off the ground....
and then putting most of it in her mouth!
-- "sharing" or handing you everything she picks up ...
we sign "thank you" and then she takes it back!
-- still saying da! da! whenever you ask her to say "ma".
-- says "ma ma ma" at night
-- opening up all the drawers, cupboards and pressing the buttons on the tv
-- getting excited for Christmas!

Today was tree cutting day so the three of us went to Allison's tree farm in Aliquippa to cut down our tree! It was snowing so it was a perfect day! The fraser fir trees were tall but we found the perfect one and hitched it to the roof to take home. Daddy put all the lights on and we all helped put on the ornaments. It looks beautiful!!

Check out all the pictures & videos we added!

What a day for Caileigh! Grandma & Grandpa took her to lunch downtown and then to the Rockettes ! What a fun time, and the best part was the "whole thing". Santa, elves and lots of dancing and singing the whole time! It was so great! Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!