Friday, December 17, 2010

Christmas Time is Here Again and Has Gone Again

The tree(s) are trimmed. Yes that is right, trees. Emma has her tree and Maddie has her tree. Lilly doesn't have one yet, but give her a couple years.


The stockings are hung, two out of three ain't bad. That is what happens when great grandma Janetzke doesn't crochet anymore. Lilly is missing her stocking, but don't worry grandma J is working on one.

The presents are bought, well all but one. This weekend we have to get Maddie's teacher's present, but that is an easy one.

Most of the presents are wrapped.

Cookies are being made tomorrow that was back on the 18th of December, some were made last week at aunt Susie's house, but those already have been eaten.

You know as well as I do, that this list could go on and on. I know that stress levels are high this time of year, mine included. But I love the excitement of everything;

Well now as I continue this post, the presents have been opened, fancy dresses have been worn, pictures have been taken, cousins have been played with, swimming at the waterpark has been done, and now all the cousins, except one (Nolan) have gone home. It has been so much fun spending time in Germantown with the whole Janetzke clan and the whole Heffelfinger clan at the indoor waterpark for Christmas day. We will start with the pictures.

Here are all the Heffelfinger cousins, minus Sam(he didn't want his picture taken) and plus one Rosie who is my cousin's daughter. That makes her the girls' second cousin.

Christmas Eve at Trinity Freisdadt.

The whole Janetzke Family. There are 17 of us, the Heffelfingers actually have them beat by one. I'm sure that will change since only 3 out of 7 are married on the Janetzke side and on my side everyone is married.


The 5 of us on Christmas Eve. We had to bribe Maddie with cookies when we got home so she would sit through all the pictures. Little did she know that we would have let her have some anyways.


Here are the girls on Christmas morning at Mount Olive. Lilly was being a ham the whole time and wouldn't leave the front of church until we took a picture of just her. I would say she is taking a little after Maddie in that department.

The girls have done great with all the different places and people. Emma did end up getting a little sick the day after Christmas, but I think she just had a little bit too much Christmas. She was so exhausted that I think her body was just done.

Now we are looking forward to spending New Year's Eve in Iowa at Jana and Mike's house. We will be heading there on Wednesday and enjoying some hanging out.

So we are now back into the swing of things with school. We spent a fun 4 days in Iowa. We went sledding before all the snow melted. Built a snowman. Set up the basement in full theater mode. Went to the Playstation (big indoor playground) for their Noon Year's Eve Bash (they had a balloon drop and celebrated New Year's at noon on Friday since their patrons are mostly under the age of 10. Maddie made it to see the ball drop, well she her eyes were open if she was actually awake is still being decided. We spent most of New Year's day at the Jonasson's house. We got to hang out with the 5 of them and had a great time. Maddie got a chance to play the Kinectimals on XBox Kinect. She is hooked. I already told her we aren't getting one. We had a Wii bowling tournament and did watch some football in there. To end the weekend Chad and Mike watched the Vikings/Lions game. It was a great weekend and we thank the Pownell's for inviting us and having us. It was a lot of fun.

It was back to the grind for everyone yesterday. Chad to school. Lilly by aunt Kendra, the girls to school/daycare, and me to work. We all got to all of the above on time and even with some time to spare. Our Redeemer called about 1:30 to let me know that Maddie wasn't feeling well, so it was a short day at work and off to get the girls and have them come home and rest. She did stay home again today, because she had a little fever, but I think she will be as good as new tomorrow. They have enjoyed playing with all their toys and we are still opening some from Christmas.

This morning Maddie and Lilly ran some errands with me. One of our stops was Target. Maddie has had this $10 from Christmas burning a hole in her pocket. So being the oldest and just like her dad, it took us about 25 minutes to decide on something. She ended up with the most perfect thing. She spotted a webkinz. It was an Okapi. Now if you know anything about Maddie and her Okapis it was perfect. An Okapi is an animal that is part of the giraffe family. It was her favorite at the Houston Zoo. She always loved to go and look at it and see it every time we went. Now the funny thing about this animal is a little fact about it and that is that it can lick it's own eyeballs and since the first time we told her that she has thought that was the funniest thing and has been hooked. So all you Houston friends next time you are at the zoo, check out the Okapi.

As you can see our lives are never dull or lack anything exciting. I hope that you all had a great Christmas and a very Happy New Year.


Thursday, December 09, 2010

Figuring It Out

What is the it?? Now I have to tell you that we don't ever really tell our girls that there is a Santa. We just kind of let them believe what they think it is all about. Christmas presents are always from mom and dad, so we just let them make their own conclusions. Now Maddie knows that the Santa in the mall is just a guy dressed up. She isn't sure why there are guys dressed up, but she knows he is in costume. So on Sunday night, St. Nick came to the house. He filled Maddie and Emma's stockings with some goodies. Nothing big you know: a coloring book, a new toothbrush, some m&m's, and a little toy. Maddie was so excited and so was Emma. You could tell Emma was really thinking about this all hard. She was trying to put 2 and 2 together, but wasn't quite sure about it. So she went to school and daycare and on the way to pick up Lilly from Germantown and this is how the conversation went.

E: Mom, did you or St. Nick put those things in my stocking
Me: (again not telling her that there is not or there is a St. Nick) Well who do you think put those things in your stocking?
E: Welll I think that St. Nick did, but those are all things that you know that I wanted.

I have this feeling that she is putting it all together and is going to figure it all out. Now as long as she doesn't take the approach that one of the boys in 1st grade does and goes around telling all the kids that there is no Santa.

She also has been with me in a store where I have gotten a few of Lilly's or Maddie's toys. I have a feeling that all this information is being stored and when those toys are open on Christmas a lightbulb is going to go off. Now I know that it isn't a big deal, but it is just that innocence of a child who just lights up when they open that present. Emma is kind of like a closet smarty pants. She is our bubbly, twirling in circle kind of girl; but if something doesn't make sense logically, she will call you out on it and want to know how it really works. I will have to keep you updated on how all of that goes.

On a side note of the innocence of a child: last night the girls had their Christmas program at church. It is the 4K-2nd grade. So right away you know that it is going to be loud and all those kids are going to just sing their heart out even if they are off key. Now if any of you know Maddie, she is a performer. She loves to sing and dance. She wears her headphones with her MP3 player around the house. So when I dropped her off in her room- she told me that tonight she was going to be a rockstar. And boy was she ever. She had the hand motions for every song, she was belting it out like she was on American Idol. Let's just say that I had more then one comment from other parents about her performance. I love that she was having just the best time, but we all couldn't help but laugh at her. We love her for her enthusiasm.

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Giving Thanks and Snow Flurries

So as always around Thanksgiving, everyone wants to know what you are thankful for. I know we all are thankful for food, shelter, family, and friends, but I wanted to point out a few particulars when it comes to those three crazy girls we call daughters.

MADELINE

She is quite the 5 year old. She loves music and anything that has to do with music. Just yesterday we went to the library and got 7 cds to put onto her mp3 player. Since those songs have been on, I don't think she has taken her headphones off. She is always moving, running, jumping, playing some sort of ball. She loves to be wherever her dad is, and do whatever dad is doing. She is also a big help around the house, she usually does what is asked; even if that means going to get a diaper for Lilly or picking up toys she didn't play with. She will try anything and everything, especially when it comes to fun things, but also at the dinner table. She loves school more then anything and loves to write and make up stories. She is a unique little girl and I can't wait to see where her next adventure takes her.


(both of the pictures of Maddie are from Monkey Joe's at the beginning of November, as you can see the daredevil in her- going down head first)


EMMA
She is our social butterfly, loves to talk to everyone and anyone (we have to watch that sometimes). That being said, she is quite the homebody. She is most happy at home playing with her barbies, polly pockets, or just coloring (you also have to watch that, because she will color on anything). She is definetly the mothering type, she loves her baby dolls, helping Lilly, and being the little mother hen for Lilly and Nolan when everyone is together. She also loves school. She is smarter then she leads on, example she knows what a letter is but will always ask you just to have that interaction with you and make sure she is right. She is a whiz at puzzles. She will walk past the puzzle grandma J is doing, pick up a piece, look at it, and put it in it's correct place. She doesn't like to take as many risks as her sister and she is okay with that. She stays in her comfort zone of peanut butter sandwiches and go-gurts. She is a chocolate milk- aholic. She loves her princesses and playing dress-up, she also never passes up a chance to have her hair or nails done.

Riding a little ride at Mall of America

One of the last Brewers game we went to this fall

LILLY
Oh boy, does this one have her own personality. She wants no one to help her and that includes her sisters. Some days she reminds me of Maddie as she is climbing the chairs and sits in the middle of the dining room table. Other times she is like Emma as she can just sit and play with her bebe (think of it in French) that is what she calls a baby. She is a ham and loves to do her "tricks". She loves the bath, but hates the sprinkler. She loves Mo-Mo (Elmo). She can look at 100 books a day, she also expects you to read that many to her. Lilly is a bruiser, she loves to wrestle anyone who is laying on the floor. She loves to laugh and thinks that the world is her audience. She also loves music and loves to dance. She can't go to bed before giving everyone a kiss goodnight- it doesn't matter who is there, she has to give one to everyone. She loves her donkey (Army Mule) and takes him everywhere. Let's just say he is getting his share of time in the washer. She loves to go to the YMCA daycare and play with the kids there. She also loves to wave good bye to everyone, no matter where we are. She is a girl who is just trying to be her own person and I will be interested to see how her sisters pull her in their directions.

Lilly at Monkey Joe's she was trying so hard to get up the wall to slide, but she just wasn't quite big enough, which of course ticked her off.

Here is that ham- in the tub with the swimming dog's goggles on. Now every time she is in the tub she has to put them on.

In the quote of Emma- "It is going to be a great day, because there is snow falling"

That is what she said to me today when I picked her up from school. What she doesn't realize is that all it is is a dusting. Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure we will get our fair share, it was just to cute that she was excited for the first snow. It took until December for that to happen, so we are just hoping that winter doesn't last until May around here.

The girls got to watch their first Christmas Special last night- it was the cartoon version of How a Grinch Stole Christmas. They get that love of Christmas specials from their dad. Good thing we have DVR now because with basketball he misses a lot of them, so now I am able to record them and they can all watch them later. The girls get so excited about all the classics; Rudolph, Santa Claus is coming to town, Frosty. Now they like the new ones too, but I think they just love the classics because dad gets to into them too.

The older girls are in their Christmas program next week, they cannot wait to sing for everyone and Emma is so looking forward to wearing her sparkly Christmas dress. This girl loves anything that sparkles and shines. I will make sure to put some pictures up of that night.

So as December starts and we all know how crazy it can get; baking cookies, buying presents, wrapping presents, seeing friends and family, let's make sure we always take time to remember that little baby that came to us that first Christmas as the best present anyone has ever received.