Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

I've decided that this IS the best time of the year with a two-year old and not-quite one-year-old! Emma is hysterical with all of these Holiday shinanigans and Bela is just, well, Bela!
Emma has a complete fascination with anything Polar Express. While in Detroit, she snuggled up with the grandparents and watched the "Choo Choo movie" about a dozen times. Now, the book is all she wants, day and night. She knows it by heart and chimes in "The first gift of CHRISTMAS!!!!" among other catch phrases. It's really cute how much she has taken to my own favorite Christmas book as a kid. I took the girls to a friend's house last week and she found a little jingle bell hanging. She grabbed it and said "Mommy, I believe in that jingle bell!" How funny! Now she gets so excited whenever she sees a jingle bell and can hear it ring! I was working in my office last week too when she found my stash of holiday decor for gift baskets. Inside I had a box of jingle bells. She dumped them all out, so I took two and attached them to her tennis shoes. She thought she was soooo cool (and she was!). And when we did the same for Bela, she kept singing "Jingle Bela, Jingle Bela, jingle all the way! Ele-phant says to ride......hey!" That is, until Bela tried to eat hers off.....so those are gone now.
In addition to jingle bells and the Polar Express, Emma's starting to understand Santa, though he still intimidates her. In fact, at her recent trip to his lap in the mall, she tried to do a drive-by Santa-ing. She took one look at the big guy and booked it right past him, shouting "I want some balls!!!" I grabbed her little collar, and stuck her right on his lap, along with Bela, who was not any happier. We got the most uncomfortable looking picture of the two of them trying their best not to look at the stranger while leaning as far away from him as possible. (and of course Santa had dentures and spray-on eyebrows!). I LOOOOVED these pictures because it's sooooo my kids!
Emma knows how to say her own prayers now. At lunch she other day she said "Fank you God for my fam-ly. And fank you God for the Santa calendar" (yes, the calendar full of treats that she gets to pick from when she has no time-outs during the day). It took all I had to control my laughter. Oh the priorities in a two-year old's life.
I went to bake some Christmas cookies the other day and asked if she wanted to as well. "No" was her response, which was not all that surprising since she never wants to do ANYthing we suggest anymore! But BAKE COOKIES?! "Bite them?" she asked. So I said "No, you can't bite them, but do you want to help bake them?" "No, I just want to bite them" she said and walked away upset. Smart girl......
Bela has croup right now, poor baby (actually both girls have it, but Bela has it worse). She barks like a seal and wants to sleep most of the day away. Otherwise, she's doing well. She's learning how to clap to music, dance (of course!), fit things into one another, and really play games! It's wonderful to watch her personality develop. She gets sooooooooo excited about everything, gasping in delight! On the other hand, she has pretty much stopped eating and rarely wants to even drink. So we're keeping her on formula so she'll get some nutrition. She's still able to fit in 9 month clothes, though most of her 12 month ones fit too.........but she's so tiny! Perhaps it's because of all of the sickness and injury that poor baby has endured in the past few months. But hopefully that'll all change.
Okay, so I just realized my memory card is obsolete and doesn't fit in any slots on my laptop, so I'll have to put pictures on later when I can get on my PC. SORRY! I've got some cute ones too!

TOOOOO Fast!

Our trips to Buffalo and Detroit went WAY too fast for our liking. I just wish we had a lot more time with our families before we had to pack up and drive out.
Lukas- you are a beautiful baby with two of the most amazing parents I have ever met! Braden and I are proud to be your Godparents!
Niki- you make the most beautiful bride I've ever seen in my life. Eric's a lucky duck (and you know you are too, right?! He's awesome!) Thanks for letting me stand up in your wedding!

As soon as things slow down just a bit I'll add pictures and things. Right now I'm working REALLY hard trying to get a huge fundraising event going with Turning Point, a domestic violence shelter that houses women and children in a safe place away from their abusers. With a full house for the holidays, everyone's working hard to make sure no child goes without a Christmas (which seems harder and harder these days). The event is tomorrow (Tuesday, December 11th) and people get to come do their shopping with me and a bunch of other Mary Kay ladies, with a huge percentage of the profits going straight to Turning Point! We're also donating the same percentage of our online sales as well!
So if you get the chance, check out www.marykay.com/mgrupp and do some online shopping for a very good cause! Pass the word on because a bunch of us have opened up our websites all the way through Christmas (including me!) so that we will continue to give a percentage to Turning Point from EVERY online sale through December 25th!!!!!
I don't normally like to use the girls' blog for soliciting, but for a good cause, I'll do just about anything! Emma got to play with some of the kids at the shelter the other day and that really opened up my heart when I got to see exactly what kids we will be helping! They're amazing!