What My Heart is Made Of...: Catching Up

I realize none of my posts lately have included anything we’ve been up to since Thanksgiving and now it’s 2014! I was doing really well with that, but this past month has of course flown by and been pretty busy!

I don’t think I mentioned this in my Thanksgiving post, but my mom, my brother, his girlfriend and I started Thanksgiving morning off the healthy way by doing a 5k. It was SOOO cold that morning and we had to leave for the race by 7 am. Of course we stayed up way too late the night before. We had a great time though. I have always been a runner, and up until I got pregnant with Matthew, I’d been running multiple times a week, girls’ double stroller in front of me. But, once I knew I was pregnant, I did a couple of 5k’s but spotted after each of them, so decided to call it quits. So, the very last time I ran was exactly one year ago from this 5k, on Thanksgiving Day! What was I thinking deciding to do a 3 mile race when I haven’t even jogged in a year?? I thought for sure I’d be the last one across the finish line, or for sure the last one out of our group to finish. BUT…I actually finished the race in less than 36 minutes!! AND…I won 2^nd place in my age group {30-35}! AND…I was the 2^nd one in our group of 4 to finish, after the Male of course! Yayyy!!!! What a serious ego booster! I’ve been feeling down about my flabby, stretchmark ridden belly lately and wondering how I’m going to get back in shape. But, my amazing body surprised me again in how easily it remembers what it once did, and the capabilities it has to not only birth 3 babies, but hop right back on the wagon of my old ways! In other good news, my mom won 1^st place in her age group!!

During the month of December, we spent time meeting Santa, going to Christmas related activities and shopping for presents. One of the Christmas related activities is a new tradition for us. Noodle bought the girls ‘The Elf on the Shelf’, which is a Christmas Elf that you place in a different spot each night and when the kids wake up, they find where he is. Supposedly, he watches the kids to make sure they’re behaving, and then tells Santa if they should get gifts or not. Two year old toddlers don’t really understand all that so it was just fun to move him around and have them find him.

Yes, I know there are 24 days before Christmas in December...Let's just say Scarecrow got tired of his picture being taken every single day {rather than the fact that Mommy & Daddy for got to move him a few times}

I took the kids to my Mothers of Multiples Christmas party at the beginning of December, to meet Santa and get their picture with him. The girls had been talking about Santa nonstop and were really excited about him…until they had to get up close and sit on his lap! Then they wanted nothing to do with him. Matthew of course had no problem meeting Santa, and I finally got a picture of all 3 of them with some bribing. The funny thing is, Rosie didn't want to get close to Santa at all when it was picture time, but when I told her Santa was leaving, and to wave goodbye, she ran over and grabbed onto his leg and wouldn't let go!

We also got some holiday pictures of the kids for our Christmas card, taken by our good friend, Tony. It was a very exhausting photo shoot since the girls have no interest in listening to anything we say and were just trying to play and be silly instead of cooperate. The positive out of this is that the photos sure do capture their personalities, rather than one of those perfect pose pictures!

Another really fun event we got to do is take the girls to see Disney Junior Live! This was an opportunity to see all of their most favorite cartoon characters {Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Sofia the First, Doc McStuffins, Jake and the Neverland Pirates} up close and personal. Scott found us some great seats right at the front of the balcony. The girls could not take their eyes off the show the whole time, shouted when the characters came out, clapped in all the right places, and even sang along sometimes!

Another new tradition I started this year is Christmas Cookies! I spent a full weekend {Friday night to Sunday night} and countless hours late at night on other nights working in the kitchen. I made loads and loads of cookies to pass around as gifts in cute Christmas tins, to those people who would be at the Christmas dinner we attend. They were a HUGE hit, both for the girls who helped me make them, and for all the recipients who got to eat them! Sadly, they were also a huge hit for one of my dogs, who stole about half the frosted sugar cookies as the frosting was drying. Those are the ones that took the longest of course! This tradition is definitely something I will continue! {And if you really knew me, you’d be shocked by this, because I am NOT someone who spends much time in the kitchen!}

Christmas Eve was spent at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, having lots of good food and the girls having their first big unwrapping event. They had a blast and kept asking “Do I get more presents?” after everything was opened. We got home that night and tucked the girls in, getting them to go to sleep by letting them know Santa couldn’t come leave them presents if they were awake. We spent a good portion of the middle of the night wrapping their gifts, since we’re huge procrastinators and couldn’t wait for morning since we were so excited to see their reactions! As we were wrapping presents and finishing up last minute details in the middle of the night, I couldn’t help but think about the fact that my parents were probably doing the same exact thing about 20-25 years ago! It felt so special, and so right, to be continuing these steps that they did for us as children.

The next morning, as soon as we knew they were awake I ran up to their room and kept them up there until I knew Scott had the camera ready. Then he got their excitement as they came around the corner and saw the presents and then came down and started opening. Everything was just so fun seeing their excitement and seeing all the magic through their eyes. Thanks to modern technology, we did “FaceTime” with Poppy and Noodle so they could see {from New York} the kids open the gifts they got them and so we could see them open what we sent with my brother. Later that day, we continued a tradition of going to spend Christmas Dinner with our “Atlanta Family”. Tony Hall makes THE BEST Christmas Dinner!!!! By this point, the girls were Pro’s at opening gifts! We wrapped up Christmas weekend by attending an Atlanta Falcons football game with Scott’s organization. The Falcons lost of course, but it was still a good game and a fun time!