It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I love this time of year.  I like to get out our Chirstmas decorations right after Thanksgiving so I have lots of time to enjoy them before the season ends.  Shortly after Halloween I started showing Polina Christmas DVDs and reading Christmas books to help her start to understand the season.  She has since become VERY concerned about the big guy.  We have since given him the code name "Harold".  For about the past week or so, the first words out of Polinas mouth were "mom, where Santa?"  This would go on the entire day.  So last Sunday we took our annual trip to see Santa.

As you can see she was not nearly as excited to see him once we got there.

By the time we left the play place she was saying "Santa, watch me"

Before we left the house, I ask the boys to put on something with Christmas colors and these are the shirts they chose.  LOL

 Every year after we see Santa we stop at Fritz's.  The food is horrible but this kids LOVE the train that delivers the food to your table.

After Fritz's we always check out the gingerbread houses and then head to the Westin and on to Union Station for some of the Seasons best decor.

Brett thinks he's getting to old for this "Santa" stuff but I love how he has taken on the role of "caring" for his little sister.

I have been taking my kids to the same Santa every year since my oldest was 6 days old.  I told Brett when we got home that he is under contract to have his picture with Santa until the age of 18.  He finger printed the contract before we would take him home from the hospital. At least that is what we have told him.  He said that was entirely not fair...but he believes that he's stuck and has to do it!  LOL

Why is it that getting a good family photo is so hard???

Polina's 3rd Birthday

Polina's birthday was the end of October.  I figure better late than never so here is the post.  :)

I held large birthday partys for both of my boys when they turned 1 so I wanted this to be a big party for Polina.  I started thinking about the party in July probably and struggled to come up with a theme since she really wasn't that interested in any of the characters at the time.  So I decided that her biggest passion right now was dogs.  She LOVES dogs!  So I had a theme and then one day on Zulilly I found this dress.

The rest of the party was planned around this supper cute dress.  My neighbor offered to make the cake and did an amazing job!  The top layers represent the 2 birthdays we missed.

We had puppy's for everyone to take home.

We played the limbo, "pin the tail on the pooch" and had a pinata.  I think all of the kids had a great time!

3 Year Old Checkup

We went to the doctor today and he had no issues with Polina's health or development.  She weighed 27lbs (12%) and was 36.5" (30%) for height.  

Polina's 3rd Birthday at OneTrueMedia.com

This is the montage that I made in celebration of Polina's 3rd birthday. This is the first birthday we have shared with her.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

We met one year ago today.

Here is the little girl that I met one year ago today.  She was quiet not sure what to think of us.  We knew she could walk but she wouldn't even stand up.

  

Here she is today, one year later.  She speaks English quite well, loves music, dancing, swimming and playing outside.  She knows most of our friends by name and can even recognize their cars when she sees them out!

One year ago today we received our first glimpse of who our daughter would be.

One year ago today we received a video in the mail.  We watched it over and over again.  I look back today and I think "how did we get so lucky".

Here is a clip from that video.

And here we are a year later.

Catching up.

This summer has been nothing short of wonderful!  I decided not to sign the kids up for any camps this year and just have an old fashion lazy summer.  We sleep in almost everyday until 8:30 or 9:00.  I sit around in my pjs and drink coffee.  Around 10am we get going for the day and have lots of fun.  We've gone to Lego Land and Sea Life, had friends over, swam, played baseball, rode bikes, went to some garage sales and spent the night at the Great Wolf Lodge.

I dressed the kids in coordinating clothes today to go to Sea Life...Mostly because I bought the clothes for photos and then never used them.  So on the way home we stopped to take some pictures at a fountain on the Plaza. The kids were hot, tired, and hungry by the time we got there.  Needless to say, it did not go well but here are the best of the bunch.

 Jax and Polina have been working hard on swim lessons.  Jax had a lot of fear to overcome and Polina just sucked her thumb her first 2 lessons.  Look how far they have come.

We've played a lot of baseball this summer too.  Every game Polina gets a little more adventours.  Last week she discovered the sand box which had the wet sand in it from the rain we had the night before.  We had to strip her down to her diaper to get her home.  

"Seriously Mom, what's the big deal?"

I had the kids picture taken.  This one was almost perfect!  LOL

This past month Polina's speech has really taken off.  She cracks me up!  She hears the boys say "can I..." all day long and she has picked up on that.  Now Polina says "Can I over and over again.  Occasionally she'll come up with something.  Last Friday she said "Can I go Mama's (Grandma) house?"  But my favorite sentence was last Monday.  We were sitting at a restaurant and she said "I cheeseburger me" the girl would like to order her own food!  LOL

Before I go, I can't leave out the photos of our trip to Party City to buy balloons for Grandma's birthday.