Merry Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas Eve at Adam's parents house. Despite the blizzard, we made it there! The food, company, and presents were worth the drive. Also, the Heffelbowers are famous for their practical joke gifts. Adam gave his brother Scott a nicely wrapped box filled with 10 little cards that were "Good for one free hug." Adam later gave Scott his real present. Scott and Jeremy both brought little boxes of edible bugs. Juliet was so curious about them, and even licked one (video to follow soon). As a non-gag, but really great gift, Scott gave Jeremy an assortment of fancy cheeses. One cheese was $60 per pound! Some of the cheeses were good, but others smelled so terrible we could not eat them.

Today, we woke up in the morning with the blizzard continuing. After the kids opened the presents from their stockings, we put on our snow gear and made a wonderful snow-man! After Juliet's nap, we headed over to Great Grandpa Quenten's (aka Ahcoon's) house for another party. It was a wonderful Christmas.

There is just no room for a Christmas tree in our little house. So, Santa leaves presents in the Christmas stockings. These stockings were presents from great grandma and grandpa Frigo.

Opening presents in our jammies.

Homemade gingerbread cookies (which taste nothing like the store-bought kind).


The "snow king."

Our radiator serves as a coat rack during the winter months. Everything gets so dry and toasty!

Holiday Switching

Ever since we had kids, we "switch" holidays every year between our parents. This year, thanksgiving was in Green Bay with my parents, and Christmas will be in White Bear Lake with Adam's family. The next year, it will be the opposite. So far, it has worked really well.

We had a great time over thanksgiving. Katie was there, along with her fiance Darin, and his two twin daughters, Mya and Madison. Sophia and Juliet thought Mya and Madison were great. They played make believe games for hours. When they got tired of that, they would snuggle on the couch and watch a movie or coerce Adam into playing video games with them.

My parents also came into town a few weekends ago to celebrate Christmas with us. The girls loved their new penguin jammies and other gifts from Grandma and Grandpa.

Grandma, Grandpa, and the girls in their matching penguin jammies at the "Mulloy" Christmas.

Hanging out and playing game boy at Thanksgiving.

Mya, Madison, & Sophia snuggled together.


The girls decided to eat thanksgiving dinner together at the little table, even though there was room for them at the big table.

Juliet is ready to eat!

Cutie Pie

This picture is not staged. On very rare occasions, Juliet asks to have a book in her crib at nap time. Typically, she sleeps with her stuffed animals "Woofie" and "Baa-bie" and her blanket. She must have fallen asleep reading the book, and I could not resist taking a picture!

After several tries, I finally got Juliet to give me a cute smile (rather than a silly one).

Today, the girls and I went to "Once Upon A Child" to find a few "new" toys for the car-ride to Green Bay this weekend. We did not find too many toys, but the girls discovered the ball pit that they have there. It is a very small ball pit created by half-walls built into a small square and filled with balls. The girls played in there for an hour, and I had to drag them out of there. (Yes, I know that the ball pit was probably H1N1 hot-zone central, but how could I deny them that fun????).

I also found some adorable dresses for Christmas. The girls insisted on wearing them all afternoon, pretending to be princesses. They spent hours twirling around the house and fluffing their fancy gowns. It was a good day.

Moments Like These...

I was making dinner in the kitchen and peeked around the corner to see what the girls were up to. I had heard Sophia reading books out-loud. She loves to pretend to be the "teacher" and face the book outward. Usually, her "students" are her stuffed animals or her mommy and daddy. Today, however, I saw this sweet scene of Sophia telling Juliet the book while she quietly listened. Moments like these I wish I could bottle-up forever.

"Big Smile for Mommy"

I told Juliet that I wanted"a big smile" and this is what the goof-ball gave me! She cracks me up! Sometimes, we will be hanging-out and Juliet will get-up and put on the "Juliettie Show." She dances, runs, pretends to fall, walks backwards, and performs a whole variety of other entertainment. Sophia thinks it's fantastic and will frequently pee her pants because she is laughing so hard.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Pre Trick-or-Treating Bath

All dressed-up as Princess Snow White (notice the bluebird perched on her shoulder)

Little Princess Juliet (who did not particularly enjoy dressing up)

Trick-or-Treating with Mommy and the neighborhood kids

Post Trick-or-Treating loot

Chatty Ms. Juliet

Juliet has become very chatty. She is learning new words every day. Her most used word is "Gee-a" for Sophia. She can also say her teacher's name "Mom-ii" (Mollie). She can say her own name perfectly. A few other favorites are backpack, scary, hungry, milk, woof-woof, draw, tv, out, sit, mine, me and many more. We sometimes cannot understand some words. For example, "scary" and "carry" sound nearly identical, which causes some confusion. We are loving our little talkative girl!

New Friends

These are just a few random photos over the summer. Aren't the girls darling????

The past few weeks with pre-school have had their ups and downs. Juliet still screams every time that I drop her off, but quickly recovers. (Teacher Mollie texts me when Juliet stops crying, which is usually before I reach the car).

Sophia has had a hard time with transitions during the day. Teacher Laurie tells me that she gets upset when her friend, Veda, leaves at 12:30, and again when Sophia has to go into the Chameleons room at the end of the day on Thursdays (Sophia is a Platypus).

I had the brilliant idea to get Sophia a darling little stuffed animal deer for her transition to the Chameleons. So far, it is has worked.

Sophia talks about her new friend, Veda, a lot. They both go to school only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. One of their games is to hide rocks in the playground one day, and then go on a treasure hunt to find them the next day. Sophia talks about Veda's special little animal friend that is similar to Bunny Bun. However, Sophia also told me that Veda sometimes tells her that she needs some alone time; and Sophia has said that she likes to follow Veda around. This got me a little worried about whether Sophia's friendship with Veda was entirely mutual.

My fears were all laid to rest today. Sophia has been sick with croup (yuck!) this week and has not been to school. Today, however, we dropped Juliet off for school in the morning. That's when we saw Veda's mom. Sophia said, "Mommy, mommy, mommy! That Veda's mommy!" I said, "Hi, Veda's mommy." Veda's mommy said that Veda had been so sad Sophia had not been at school on Tuesday. Veda's mom said that she was considering extending Veda's day so that she and Sophia could spend more time together!

As for Juliet, she loves her teacher, and says her name often. Drop offs are still rough, but hopefully they will get better. I am sure that there will be more pre-school stories as we continue on this new adventure.

Calvin and Sophia

Adam has been reading "Calvin and Hobbes" at night with Sophia. As everyone knows, Calvin does some crazy things. Last night, they read about how Calvin locked the babysitter out of the house.

Flash forward to this afternoon. My neighbor (Mya) and her kids were over, and we were all playing nicely in the background. Suddenly, the three oldest (Jude, Chloe and Sophia) ran to the front yard. We hear a door slam. Then, dead silence. Mya and I waited a minute or two. Then I went to the front yard to find them. They were not there. I tried the front door. Locked. I went to the back door. Locked.

Luckily, Mya and I are both good-natured, but we were mad. We rang the doorbell, yelled through the window, promised treats, and then made threats, but no one would open the door. Finally, Mya must have threatened the right thing and Jude (7) came down stairs and unlocked the door.

The kids thought it was hilarious. They were hiding in the closet upstairs. Mya and I made the kids sit on the patio furniture. The kids had TWO moms reprimanding them. Sophia told me, "Mommy, nothing bad happened. There wasn't a fire in the house or anything." Oy Vey!

A Lot of "Firsts" Today

We had a lot of "firsts" today. Sophia and Juliet started pre-school this morning. Until now, we have had a nanny coming to our house to watch our girls while I worked two or three days per week. We have been so lucky that we had two great nannies this past year. But, nanny Katie moved to Seattle, and nanny Megan went back to school this fall. So, we decided to have the girls start preschool this fall.

They are attending Fraser school two days per week. Fraser is a pre-school that specializes in putting regularly developing kids with kids with special needs, particularly autism. It is a great program for my kids because they receive the benefits of some of the special services for the kids with special needs, such as music therapy, high teacher-child ratios, and awesome indoor and outdoor "large muscle" playgrounds. Plus, a lot of the neighborhood kids go there as well.

Even though we knew Fraser was a great program, I was still nervous about sending the girls off into the world. But, I should not have been worried. They did great! We started-off doing just a 1/2 day.

Sophia was a bit nervous when she walked into her room, but quickly put her backpack down and sat at a table and started drawing. I kissed her goodbye, and she was fine. I, however, was choking back tears and could hardly say goodbye.

Next, we went to Juliet's room where they were heading outside. I walked outside with the teachers and kids. Juliet loves playing outside, so this was fortunate. As expected, when I was telling Juliet goodbye, she was hysterical. It was so hard to leave. Teacher Mollie said that I should call her room in an hour to see how Juliet was doing. I did call, and Juliet was doing great!

When I went to Fraser to pick-up Juliet after lunch, they were playing in the indoor playground. At first, I could not find Juliet. Finally, I looked inside the play structure and there she was having the time of her life. She told me over and over, "Weee!!!! Weeee!!!!" I asked if she wanted to come out, and she shook her head no. I started to walk to get her backpack and things and then she started calling for me and finally did come out. Mollie said Juliet had a terrific day!

We then picked-up Sophia. Sophia had just finished eating and was reading a book with the teacher. She ran to me and gave me a hug. We grabbed her backpack, and as we were leaving a few little girls waived and said, "Bye, Sophia!" It was so sweet. I got very little information from Sophia about her day, but she said that she "loves" preschool. Yay!

Sophia and her "my little pony" backpack ready for her first day of school.


Juliet and her "hello kitty" backpack. But, she was more interested in taking the camera from me.

Then, this afternoon, the girls got haircuts. Neither one likes getting their hair washed and Juliet still absolutely refuses to let me do anything with hair. Thus, we keep their hair as simple as possible. Sophia got a nice chin-length bob. Juliet got her first haircut! Juliet's hair had grown into a curly mullet that covered her eyes. It was time for the first haircut. She handled it great! She loved eating her sucker and watching cartoons. The same hair dresser that cut Sophia's first hair cut (Delores) also gave Juliet her first hairdo.

"No big deal. Just getting my haircut."

"Look at my pretty eyes without my hair in my face!"

"So pretty."

Pictures from Florida

We made it home from Florida with our gazillion bags of luggage, pack 'n' play, and stroller! Sanibel was beautiful, and it was wonderful to spend a whole week together as a family. But, it is always nice to come home, too.

Playing in the kiddie pool. This is where Sophia learned to dunk her whole head and swim a few feet under water. This is also the pool where Juliet picked-up a drowning bee, and got strung, which she still talks about---when she sees a bee she looks at her hand and says "Ow."

One of the "pelican trees," where the birds liked to relax.

Our condo.

Juliet enjoying a snack on the porch.

Sophia goofing around with daddy on the porch.

We are at Sanibel Island!

At the last minute, we decided to go on vacation to Sanibel Island. I am usually a planner, so this was unusual for me. I had the week off from work because we are in-between the nanny leaving for college and pre-school, which starts next week. Adam has been bugging me for a long time to go on a real family vacation, so here we are! I have such great memories of coming here once with my family as a kid and wanted to share that experience with my girls, too.

Here are the great things about being on vacation on Sanibel:

• The beautiful white sand beaches.
• The crazy birds that we have never seen before--including the pelicans that perch by the dozens in the trees outside the condo.
• Watching Sophia see a rainbow for the first time.
• Catching Juliet over and over and over again as she jumps into the pool.
• Helping Sophia learn how to swim in the kiddie pool. She now can fully dunk her head under water and swim about five feet under water. She was so scared to do that when we first arrived!
• Looking at all of the seashells on the beach.
• Learning about and seeing the little crabs that clean the mongrave trees.
• The gloriously hot pools and ocean.
• Virgin pina-coladas

Here are the not-so-good things about vacationing on Sanibel:

• Who knew it would be so, so, so, hot in August in Florida?
• The constant slathering of the sunscreen on slippery kids.
• Sand flies.
• Injuries at the airport (Sophia fell really hard on the moving walkway at the Mpls. airport and banged-up her knee, nose and forehead. Juliet fell really hard on the ground at the Fort Meyers airport, causing a lot of bleeding from her nose/mouth, which caused a panicked airline employee to call 911, which necessitated waiting for the ambulance and a lot of paperwork to be told that she was fine--which we knew).
• Getting the kids to sleep when they are in an unfamiliar place.

We have decided that we will definitely come back to Sanibel, but probably during the winter months, instead.

A Few More Birthday Pics.

For birthdays, we usually have lots of parties. This year, we had a big family party at our house. It was a really hot day, so we ordered pizzas, ate homemade cake, and Sophia wore her snow white outfit. We had lots of family come who gave lots of presents, that Sophia loves. Here are a few more pictures of her family party!

Happy 4th Birthday!

Our darling Sophia turned 4 today. She woke up this morning to find balloons, presents and cupcakes waiting for her at the dining room table. She got a leash for her little stuffed puppy, Lucy; some fancy dress up shoes; and a crown, wand and earrings. She was pretty happy. When she saw all of the birthday stuff at the table, she said, "Mommy, how old was I when I went to bed last night?" "You were 3." "Mommy," she said, "How old was I when I woke up this morning?" "You are 4." Then, she got a big smile on her face. Adam tied a birthday balloon to her stroller and took the girls for a walk. So many people wished her a happy birthday. It was a great day.

Puppy Love

White Bear Lake Grandma and Grandpa got a new little puppy named Stella last week. She is nine weeks old and totally adorable. Sophia is a bit obsessed. She spent hours with Stella last Wednesday and talked about how Stella napped on her "for like an hour." Stella is the sweetest little sheltie. She tolerated Juliet running after her and giving her big hugs. And, I think that Stella may love Sophia as much as Sophia loves her.

The Summer Is Just Flying By

Summer is just flying by. We have been taking pictures all summer, but I have not had a single moment to post them. We have been spending a lot of time outside. Almost everyday, we go to the park or the beach or the pool or the zoo or some other outdoor activity. Despite drenching ourselves in sunscreen we are still getting a tan.

Today we went to the Como zoo. I briefly lost Juliet at the zoo and nearly had a heart attack. I had visions of her swinging from the monkey cages. I had forgotten just how crazy 18 month toddlers are. She runs, jumps, climbs, teeters, and ditches me as if she had nine lives. At the zoo today, Sophia, Juliet and I went to the bathroom. I was helping Sophia wash her hands and I turned around and Juliet had vanished from the very crowded bathroom. I ran around the bathroom and then out the bathroom and could not find her. At that point, I started saying frantically, "I lost my baby." One mom started searching with me and another helped Sophia finish washing her hands. We found Juliet outside of the bathroom, around the corner, playing by the picnic tables. Oh my.

Juliet is also still my little sweetie-pie snuggler. Until a few days ago, she called me "Mama." Now, I am "Mom-me."

Sophia today told me that I had to see her "habitat." She then showed me the little private space she made under Juliet's crib. She had toys and books and stuffed animals (and the packing tape I had been looking for) in her habitat. This afternoon, she crawled in her habitat and took a little nap while Juliet and I read books. This is quiet amazing, since she has not taken a nap in years! Our house is small, so I am glad she found a little space for herself.