Christmas, Part II

Well, it's official. We've celebrated Christmas twice in our house and it was both fun and exhausting! The Hepper family joined us late last week for the second round of Christmas here in Richmond. We are very grateful that everyone was willing to come to us this year as travel is not quite possible for our family yet.
We enjoyed about 5 days of family time, yummy desserts, nice meals (in and ) out, and of course, presents!
Caroline was so excited that she got to experience Christmas more than once this year, but didn't quite understand why Santa wouldn't be making a second stop at our house. Luckily, she has very generous aunts, uncles, and grandparents, so she certainly wasn't lacking in the gift department. Anyways, for Caroline the best gift of all was having her relatives around to play with, boss around, and show off in front of....and she took full advantage!

Check out our Christmas, Part II...

Caroline and Grandma make sugar cookies.

Reading the Night Before Christmas.

Caroline hosting one of many tea parties for Grandpa.

Margaret and Grandpa

Julia and Margaret busy playing while we opened gifts.

Excited to open gifts!

Grandma's new wind chimes

Julia plays with one of her new activity triangle.

The twins got new high chairs...

...but that didn't stop us from putting Margaret in Caroline's new baby doll high chair :)

Julia hangs out with her princess doll and Aunt Erin.

All the adult kids went out for New Year's Eve (Tate, Donna, Paul, Lauren, Erin, Chris)...

...while Caroline and the babies stayed home and celebrated with Grandpa and Grandma.

Happy New Year to All! 

Best wishes for a fabulous 2012!!!

Video Post!

Here's a mix of videos from the last couple months...

Caroline showing off some interesting dance moves...

Margaret and Julia making a play for Caroline's big wheel (about 6 months old)...

Caroline declares herself a princess and the twins as her princes (about 4.5 months old)...

Caroline taking her new cowboy boots out for a spin...

Caroline loves jumping on her big girl bed and Margaret LOVES watching her...

Christmas, Part I

Whew! We are officially finished with Christmas, Part I in our house. It was full of memories, fun, laughter,  and cookies!

We started the holiday on Saturday by baking cookies and then making a visit to St. Bridget's for Mass. Our trio of girls were amazing despite not having a place to sit (we arrived 35 mins prior to Mass, and TWO ENTIRE venues were already completely full) and it being 6pm when Mass began. Unfortunately, by the time Communion was being prepared, all three girls were on the verge of meltdown, so we decided to pull the plug and make a hasty exit out the back door. Which would have gone well if the moment we opened the door, a car alarm hadn't erupted into the night and as the congregation turned towards us to see what the commotion was about I hadn't yelled said, "Oh, Jesus!" as we ran out the door. So much for a stealthy exit!

After church, we quickly snapped a few pictures of the girls in their Christmas finery, shuffled them into their pjs, and set out cookies, milk, reindeer food and carrots for Santa and his crew before tucking our trio of ladies into bed for (what we hoped would be) a long winter's nap.
Thankfully, Caroline slept until 7 and the babies didn't make their appearance until almost 8:30am. Big sister Caroline couldn't wait for the little ones to get up, so she got a jump start on the festivities. She thrilled to see that Santa had enjoyed the snack she left for him and that he'd left her a note reminding her to share her toys with Julia and Margaret. After that, the unwrapping of gifts began!
 Caroline enjoyed playing with each gift so much that we didn't even finishing unwrapping everything until this morning. I'm guessing we could have gotten away with giving her a fraction of the gifts under the tree and she would've been just as happy. The big girl bed has been a moderate success so far.  We'll post more pictures later on when we finish dressing it with bedding.
The twins were thrilled with their new toys and looked with great excitement at the Laugh and Learn house that will be theirs to enjoy as soon as they can crawl to it. In the meantime, Caroline has been more than happy to play with it for her little sisters.
We spent the rest of the day eating good food (if I do say so myself), taking a family walk, and enjoying lots and lots of play time together. It was one of the best days we've spent together so far as a family of five and I enjoyed every last minute of it.
We are now looking forward to a few days of down time before the Hepper side of the family arrives late this week and we gear up for Christmas, Part II!

Check out our long weekend of holiday fun...

Julia/Margaret

Sampling a cookie.

Bad lighting, but decent smiles on 2/3 girls.

Better lighting, silly smiles

Caroline checks Santa's plate before heading off to bed.

Caroline helps Margaret open her stocking.

Helping Margaret hold onto her new ball.

Sweet Caroline and Mommy

Margaret

Max and Ruby dolls

Caroline jumps her big girl bed..more bedding to come! 

Julia

Off for our family walk!

Engrossed in play

Julia and Margaret

Playtime with Daddy

Loving her first dollhouse!

Foot Love

Today has been all about feet in the Hepper household. It started out this morning with Claire's Christmas gift to Caroline: a fabulous pair of cowboy boots! Caroline looked adorable in her stylish new kicks, and we can't wait to try them with some of her smocked dresses for a twist on the typical Richmond style. The best part is that Caroline's pair match Claire's! Now when these two hit the town together, they'll look even cuter than usual.

You know she loves them if the tongue is out!

We match!

We love our boots!!

In other foot related news, Margaret's love for feet now extends to feet belonging to others. It's a good thing for her that Julia doesn't mind sharing..at least as long as Margaret doesn't have teeth :)

Hhmmm....what's this?

What a tasty foot!

Caught!

In non-foot related news, Margaret would like to show off her new skill! She is now able to sit up on her own for up to a minute at a time! Julia is not fazed by her smaller sibling beating her to this milestone and has shown zero interest in learning how to sit. :)

Sitting pretty!

Added bonus...it's easier to look at your feet when you can sit upright.

My Bumbo seat suits me just fine, thank you!

Countdown to Christmas!

It's hard to believe that Christmas is less than a week away!! All our gifts have been wrapped and placed under the tree, our Christmas cards have been sent, we've been baking up a storm of yummy treats and have enjoyed lots of fun holiday festivities. We're looking forward to our first Christmas as a family of five!
Caroline is especially excited since we told her that her big girl bed will be arriving a few days early because Santa is so busy this year that he can't fit such a big gift on his sleigh. She'll be on the lookout for a very special delivery by one of Santa's elves this Friday. :)

I took about a bajillion pictures of the girls in the Christmas jammies. This was the best of the bunch. Seriously.

Julia and Margaret rockin' it as Santa and Rudolph.

Tuckered out Rudolph

Sleepy Santa

Margaret and Julia as reindeer.

Scroll beyond the birthday post for the Santa visit entry!!

Happy (1/2) Birthday!

In the past few days, all three girls celebrated a half birthday. On Tuesday Caroline turned 2.5 and on Saturday the twins turned 6 months old. Their unique personalities are really beginning to reveal themselves, so I thought I'd share my take on each girl.

Caroline is...
imaginative, determined, spunky, silly, amazing at independent play, and an observer in groups but a firecracker at home.

Caroline celebrated 2.5 years by holding (yet another) meeting with babies Gigi and Nye Nye.

Julia is...
affectionate and cuddly, introverted, observant, persistent, increasingly on the move and very curious about her environment.

Julia celebrated 6 months by log rolling all the way across the rug and under the bed.

Margaret is...
jolly, extroverted, perpetually hungry, in love with her feet, quick to laugh, and always interested in a good time.

Margaret celebrated 6 months by showing off her sitting skills.

It's amazing to me that despite how different each of our girls are, they are all incredibly happy-go-lucky and so much fun to call our own. I can't wait to see what the next six months brings!

Julia and Margaret's favorite way to sleep.

Buddies: Margaret and Julia

Buddies: Daddy and Caroline

In other news...
Now that the twins are 6 months, we've been given the green light to begin solids. As with Caroline, I'm not overly excited about this milestone because it's just so messy and time consuming. And with two little mouths to feed pureed foods, you'd better believe there's going to be a big mess! We started last week with cereal. It was a big hit with both girls, and we look forward to some mashed bananas, sweet potatoes, and maybe even some yogurt in the coming weeks!

Margaret

Julia