The next chapter will be good...

Happy New Year to all of our friends and family. The past year has brought us many new exeriences and so much joy! In March we welcomed Kiersten into our family and she has changed our lives. We have been able to watch her grow into an energetic little thing who loves to crawl and play and coo. When she smiles I can't help but smile right back at her. And her laugh...if only there was a way to measure how much joy it brings me. And Leah, she has gone from my baby girl to my big girl. She surprises me everyday with her intellect. Her language and her ability to master new tasks. She has shocked me with her ability to be such a caring big sister right from the start. She used to help clean up after Kiersten and always had to kiss her goodnight. Now she loves to invite Kiersten into her room to play and can be so loving to her. It's been a magical journey watching her transform from only child to sibling. In the past year Leah has mastered counting to 20, her ABC's, she knows all the letter sounds and is trying to put words together. She loves to play on the IPad and will soon be more advanced than I am on it. Her imagination runs wild and Mitch and I can't help but laugh when we stop and listen to her playing with her animals or dolls. As for Mitch and I, this year found us entering into a new world together. From parents attempting to raise up one child to parent's raising up two. I never would have thought it possible, but this journey has made my love for him grow. It is stronger than I ever imagined and now I know that as we continue on this road together it will only bring us closer. I am beyond blessed, I am fortunate in more ways than I can count to be able to call him my partner, my teammate, my best friend and husband. I thank the Lord everyday for bringing him into my life. Only God knows what the next year has in store for us. It will be a new chapter in our lives and it will be good.

Happy Birthday to PAPA!!!

My Dad is a New Year's Eve Baby...he thinks it great! He says that every year there is a party in his honor and usually all his friends are there...I guess that's a good way to think of it. Anyway, our last day in Illinois Gigi planned a treat for Macy and Leah. She had them make cupcakes and decorate them and that night we had dinner and sang Happy Birthday to Papa. Leah loves to sing Happy Birthday, just check out the video. Macy and Leah had a great time with the cupcakes but Leah thought that after she decorated one she should get to eat it, ha! They turned out good and we all enjoyed them. Happy Birthday, Papa!

Schultz Family Christmas

On Wednesday the 22nd we started the long trek up to Minnesota. Mitch parents house is about 11 hours away from Charleston. We were almost over the flu....almost, Kiersten's was lingering. She cried and cried in the car, so we turned her car seat around and let her sit right next to Leah. I know, I know...don't judge. Now that we are back in Jersey she is rear-facing and fine but 11 hours is a long time. Anyway, I would catch them holding hands in the backseat, and it would warm my heart so. About an hour out from Mitch's parents house Kiersten got sick...all over...it was rough, but we got to Montevideo about 1AM.

Thursday was low-key. Mitch's parents were both working so we just let the girls play and take naps and we did the same. Thursday night Mitch and I were able to go out to dinner sans kids which was wonderful...we rarely get the chance in Jersey and then did some last minute shopping. On Friday Mitch got to take Leah snowmobiling. She wasn't a big fan. When they got home she told me she was scared. But at least she tried it. Friday night we all went to the Christmas Eve service at church. Leah did great except when Grandpa Dave let her out of the pew and she tried to run to the front. Grandpa learned his lesson I think. She was so excited for the candlelit part of the ceremony she waited patiently until the end of Silent Night and then blew out the candles and said "Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus." We went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Aunt Lisa and Uncle Brian came over with Rylee. We got to go out for drinks. Rylee stayed and helped Grandma Tootie babysit and they had a surprise visit from Santa. We really enjoyed getting to go out with Brian and Lisa. Whenever we are all together we don't REALLY get the chance to visit because we are looking after all the kids so this was definitely a much enjoyed visit.

Saturday we woke up with more snow. Leah got to go out and sled with Grandpa Dave. She made snow angels, and attempted to make snow balls. She even got to swing. Daddy trampled a path all the way to the swing set in the 3 feet of snow and then she stayed on for about 15 seconds. After lunch the dreaded flu hit, this time Grandpa Dave. We felt awful that it followed us up from Illinois. Around 5 the rest of the family arrived and Leah was super excited to see Aunt Lori, Uncle Todd, Justin, Shelby and Lexi. Saturday night we had our traditional visit from Santa. We called it a night early so we could start up again the next day. Aunt Lori, Uncle Todd, Mitch and I of course took our annual trip to the neighbors hot tub, but this time we were light on the alcohol ;)

Sunday morning Grandpa Dave was still under the weather. But we started the day with a great traditional Christmas dinner...ham, turkey, potatoes, yams. The kids were getting antsy for presents but we put ours down for a quick nap. That afternoon the gift giving commenced. The girls got all sorts of fun toys. A ball pit from Aunt Lori and Uncle Todd, a Jessie doll from Grandma and Grandpa, clothes and pajamas too. It was a wonderful Christmas but the best gift was by far the company. We ended the night with our annual gag gift exchange. My initials from last year were DJ so Lori and Todd gave me a photographed picture of Brett Favre with Dumb Jock written across it in big block letters...I LOVED IT! Monday we started with a big family breakfast and then we hit the road.

We are so fortunate that Mitch's grandparents live in Wisconsin. It allows us to stop and see them on the way home. This was their first time meeting Kiersten and they were so excited. Grandma Fran had a wonderful lunch prepared and had toys out to entertain the kids. It's always so wonderful that we get to make this stop. It gives us the opportunity to take pictures of the kids with their great-grandparents and someday we can share those pictures and stories

Myerscough Family Christmas

Like I stated earlier, we celebrated Christmas with my family the weekend before Christmas. It was just what worked best for everyone, especially Laura and Jeff as they wanted to be able to see their nieces and nephew. We got to Charleston on the 16th and Laura and Jeff arrived on the 17th. Friday night was pretty low key. Matt and Cynthia and the kids came over for dinner of course. Mom made a Chicken Pot Pie for dinner and we enjoyed each other's company. Especially the kids! They are always so excited to see one another that they just play and play and play and are of course a little loud too!

On Saturday we were planning on celebrating the holiday. The day started with Jeff and Laura treating the girls to a movie. They came home and napped and around 4pm the festivities began. The kids had so much fun opening the gifts. I am pretty sure us grown ups had just as much fun watching them. Leah had already gotten her Jeep from Gigi and Papa. She also got a box of clothes. Two pairs of pajamas and the Fisher Price Happy Sounds Doll House~She loved it! She got a Woody Doll from Macy, Colby, Matt and Cynthia and Leapfrog Tag-Toy Story set from Jeff and Laura. Little girl was in Heaven. She is so vocal and articulate and of course Papa loves to tease her. He kept saying to her "Leah that's not yours, that's mine" and she would get so fired up she would yell right back at him "NO, that's not your's Papa, You stop Teasing Me." Everyone was getting a kick out of it. She is full of spunk, that one. Kiersten got her American Girl Doll, Clothes, PJ's, a Vtech Learning Turtle, A laptop and her Fisher Price Kitchen Set which seems to be a big hit. She did great just crawling around watching everyone and seemed so happy the entire time. Secretly I think Colby is her favorite...probably because he is the closest to her size.

After all the gifts had been unwrapped and the kids were calming down, we moved to the dining room for dinner. Mitch had "helped" my mom prepare an amazing Prime Rib Dinner with a horseradish/mustard glaze and a delicious whipped Horseradish sauce on the side, mashed potatoes, asparagus, corn and a tossed salad. It was DELICIOUS! Even Leah couldn't help but over indulge. I don't remember my mom being a great cook when I was a kid, but nowadays she does it up right! Of course it helps that she has my master chef husband helping her every step of the way. So glad I married a man that cooks ;) We followed up dinner with a Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake that was heavenly...Colby couldn't stop eating it. It was the Merriest of Christmases!

After dinner the Christmas music got turned on in the living room and the kids went crazy dancing and wearing crazy animal hats that Aunt Laura and Uncle Jeff had brought from Mexico. It was a hoot to watch them and the night ended with Laura "attempting" and I use the term loosely, to give Macy ballet lessons. That was Macy's big gift this year. Gigi and Papa are paying for her to start dance and got her the clothes and shoes she will need.

Sunday we had Christmas with the entire Myerscough family. We don't get to spend enough time together and there are so many of us, it is hard to catch up with everyone. But it's always so nice. Almost all of us were there and the kids played together so well. As of right now there will be 3 new little Myerscough cousins joining the party next year. Tara is due Feb. 3rd, Sanya is due Feb. 11th and Tiffany is due June 26th...they will make great-grandkids #15, 16 and 17! Wow, that's a lot of little kids running wild. Anyway, it was a fantastic holiday and we were so glad we made the trip as usual.

Monday it started...the flu hit and it hit hard. Kiersten woke up throwing up in her crib. By Monday nigh Mitch was down. I got struck about 3 AM on Tuesday and Tuesday evening Leah was hit hard too...we all recovered and moved on to Christmas in Minnesota. At least it was short lived and we were able to celebrate with everyone.

Aunt Laura and Uncle Jeff

We never get to see Aunt Laura and Uncle Jeff, so what a special treat that they were able to make it to Illinois for Christmas this year. Actually we celebrated Christmas the weekend before so it worked out perfect. We flew in on Thursday December 16th, and they got in the afternoon of Friday the 17th. We skype with them on a regular basis and Leah was beyond excited! On Saturday Aunt Laura and Uncle Jeff took Leah and Macy to see the new Disney movie about Rapunzel, TANGLED...I think Aunt Laura and Uncle Jeff were nervous about taking the girls, but we educated Jeff on how to work a carseat, warned them to make them go potty before the movie started and they were off. Laura and Jeff were smart and went to WAL-MART and stocked up on Skittles, M&M's and Reeses Pieces before the show. When they got there They got some yummy buttery popcorn and some drinks and they were set. Macy pulled a fast one on Uncle Jeff. She told him that Leah can only have milk, water or Juice to drink so he got her small...not a kids, Hi-C fruit punch. Then Macy told him that she is allowed to have Coke and Sprite and that her mom lets her have it all the time...so she got a Coke. Needless to say, Mom does NOT let her drink coke, so later that night when Jeff was telling the story of how helpful Macy was her mom was shocked to say the least and we all got a good laugh, but what sports of Uncle Jeff and Aunt Laura to take the girls to the show...they LOVED it! They also brought the kids some silly animal hats from their trip to Mexico in October so we had lots of fun with those. It was so wonderful to see them both, we wish we could do it more...maybe someday, until then we skype. Anyway, Happy New Year to Aunt Laura and Uncle Jeff...we love you!

Kiersten's 1st Christmas

It's so sad that baby's don't get to remember their first Christmas, because I think they are so special. I loved her first reaction to Santa Claus, her first time gazing at the Christmas Tree, and of course pulling off the glittery ornament and sticking it straight in her mouth. Of course she was more interested in the paper than the toys, but you can tell how excited she was by it all. Passing up naps in favor of opening presents and crawling from here and there to see what everyone got. Her First Christmas was just too precious. And she was spoiled beyond measure. She was so fascinated by the big kids...her older cousins and they were so good with her. She wanted to play with all of Leah's toys and of course Leah had to check out hers too. She got her first American Girl Doll, Kirsten...the Scandanavian girl who settles with her family in Minnesota. Of course we HAD to have her, so even though she is retired Gigi found one on Ebay. Her little Kitchen set from Aunt Wawa and Uncle Jeff, her own laptop from Uncle Matt and Aunt Cynthia, A ball pit from Aunt Lori, Uncle Todd and the kids, an Interactive Zoo toy from Grandma and Grandpa Schultz and a Fisher Price electronic book from Aunt Lisa, Uncle Brian and the kids...the kid did good. Lots of other toys too, and clothes and Christmas PJ's of course! She got to spend it with ALL of her family with makes it that much more special! I hope that all the rest of her Christmases are just as wonderful.

It's a Firetruck!

Leah was one lucky girl this year. She was fortunate to get one of her Christmas gifts early. My parents, Gigi and Papa, sent her a Power Wheels Dora 4-wheelin Jeep for Christmas, but because we fly they had it sent directly to New Jersey. I went and picked it up at Wal-Mart on Dec. 11th and on the 12th she woke up to find it in our living room. Unfortunately it was a no good, very bad, rainy day outside so she didn't get to take it out and give it a test drive until the 13th, but boy did she love it! Her first response after seeing it was "It's a Firetruck" and then she quickly spotted Dora's friends Map and Backpack, I even caught her on video singing the Dora theme song. It was great! It didn't take her long to figure it out either. She can switch it easily from drive to reverse, but struggles a little with steering...just ask Kiersten, she's already been taken out once, ha! Anyway a big thank you to Gigi and Papa for such a special treat!

9 months

My little love bug turned 9 months old earlier this week. I can't believe it. She surely must hold the record for speed crawling and she can walk and walk and walk...as long as she is holding on to something. She got her first tooth a few weeks ago on Nov. 20th and the second one decided to show up on her actual 9 month birthday, the 8th. No more little gummy grins from my baby girl, for Christmas she got her 2 front teeth! Developmentally she is thriving. She is making all sorts of noises "buh, buh, buh, dah, dah, dah" and so forth and she loves to grunt. She has started making a cute little funny face as she blows air out of her nose. She is too big and independent for baby food anymore, she only eats big girl food. Lots of fruits and veggies, pasta, cheese, eggs and an occasional peanut butter sandwich (which our pediatrician was less than thrilled with). She claps her hands and waves and is growing like a weed. All that big girl food is catching up to her. She weighed 18 lbs and 14 oz and measured 27 and three quarters inches at her appointment this week. Dr. Matt put her in the 50th percentile across the charts!!! YAY!

I can best describe Kiersten these days as Leah's little shadow. Wherever big sister is, Kiersten wants to be too. If Leah is still napping in her room with the door shut, Kiersten will crawl down the hall to her room and bang on her door and I have a video of Leah playing outside and Kiersten is banging on the sliding glass door begging for some attention. They are definitely a pair. Leah is fairly tolerant of her "shadow" these days but I know it won't last long. For now I am just in love with my baby girls. They make me smile in more ways than I can count and I have a feeling this is going to be the best Christmas ever.

Naughty or Nice

Last week we took the girls to see Santa Claus. It was interesting. I told Leah earlier in the day that we would be going to see him. She talked a big game about how she was going to sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. Which by the way is ALWAYS "Woody, and Jessie and Bullseye and Buzz" from Toy Story. Well we got there and she clung to my leg like static cling, I had to pry her off and it took her awhile before she would go over. And heaven forbid she smile. Kiersten did great, she sat there happy and calm for about the first minute and then Santa started talking to Leah. Kiersten turned her head and looked at him and within seconds the bottom lip came out and she started wailing. I of course wanted to get the picture where Kiersten's bottom lip was coming out and she was about to let loose but Mitch said no...so this is what I got. I call it the mug shot. Have you ever seen two kids less thrilled about seeing Santa??? Well at least we got one. Otherwise Leah is all about Christmas. She already knows the words to Jingle Bells and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. We have the Elf on the Shelf and she finds him every morning. I think the girl is just about as prepared as a 2 year old can be, now hurry up Christmas!

Leah too!

Yes, Leah too! Every month on the 8th I get the blocks out and take a few pictures of Kiersten, and this month Leah wanted to participate too. It works out pretty great that Leah's birthday is on the 9th because when I took this picture she was only a day away from 31 months! I will post Kiersten's picture later after we have our 9 month well child check-up. Leah is so funny though, she really has quite an imagination. We hear her making up stories and taking part in fantasy play all the time. The other day she was playing with her cell phone chatting away with Aunt Wawa, she told us all about how Aunt Wawa went shopping and bought Chicken Nuggets. I catch her on a regular basis putting her stuffed animals up on our kitchen island playing doctor. She treats them and makes them feel all better with her hair brush and microphone. Don't worry, Santa Claus will be delivering a proper pretend medical kit.

And don't get me started on Santa Claus. Having kids around makes the holidays a whole new experience. We are loving it. She gets so excited about Kris Kringle, Christmas Trees and all that jazz. It is adorable. We haven't quite figured out how to do this Santa thing yet, with us being gone for the holidays. But I think Santa will conveniently put the gifts under the tree while two little girls are being strapped into their carseats for the long haul back to the midwest and when we return on the 29th the gifts will just "magically" be there! Can't wait to see the look on my little 31 monthers face!

Winter Wonders

It's here! Winter has definitely settled in, although it technically won't be here until the end of the month I am declaring that it is already here. Right now the temperature in my neck of the woods is a chilling 32 degrees and I have seen snowflakes falling a few times today. It has excited Leah to no end to see them twinkling down from the sky. She screeched with delight and ran to grab her coat. Yes, my little tomboy insisted on going out for a little fun in the non-existent sun. She played out there a good forty minutes. Digging around in her sand table while in the meantime Kiersten banged and banged and banged on the sliding glass doors trying to beckon her big sister back inside to play. Here are some pictures of the day.

Gobble, Gobble!

How thankful we are this Thanksgiving!!! Not only are we blessed with good health and happiness and our two beautiful girls, but we were also invited to spend the holiday with some dear friends. Thanks to Jim and Jenn for welcoming us into their home. It was a great way to celebrate Kiersten's first Thanksgiving and Leah had so much fun playing with Bella and Olivia. Of course Zach was a perfect peanut too for only 2 weeks old! How fun, and How grateful we are to have such wonderful friends. Jenn's mom Gloria was so wonderful to sit and make the Turkey headband craft with the girls...we just had to get a picture and I LOVE that Leah has one sock on and one sock off. And as you can tell, by the end of the night Leah was all turkeyed out, ha! It was a wonderful day for our family and hopefully for your families too.

Big Things

Yep, Big Things have been happening around our house! I mean besides the roof and the hoards of company that we have had. But the roof is finally done, all of our company is gone and thanks to everyone for your concern after Mitch pulled the ULTIMATE "Mitch" and put the nail through his toe!!! Anyway, it finally happened! On November 20th Kiersten got her first tooth, YAY! We knew it was coming, we could see the white pressing up against the gums...we always try to remain optimistic without getting our hopes up too much. Afterall, Leah got her 1st tooth on her 11 month birthday exactly so we were elated when Kiersten got her first "toofer" at 8.5 months...YAY! Now if the rest of them would just start cooperating.

In addition to the first tooth, on November 21st we finally decided to be brave and let the girls take a bath together. Anyone that knows Leah knows that she can be a little rough, to put it mildly. So we were apprehensive, but she did great. They LOVE taking a bath together and it is certainly making things easier on Daddy since he is the one usually dishing out the baths. Leah was super excited when we finally pulled out her winter jammies with feet because now she has jammies just like Kiersten. Everyday they amaze me with how much they love one another. It's really awesome and I love having picture like this one to look back on and make me smile.

New York, New York

This past Thursday my mom and sis-in-law Cynthia flew out to my place for a girl's weekend and we did it up in style. Mitch took Friday off and so us women-folk hopped on the train at Princeton and headed up to the city. This trip was planned for weeks and I was so excited to have some "me" time. I hadn't been away from Leah in over 2 years and it was my first time away from Kiersten.

We started out with a "little" shopping in the Largest Store in the world...ten stories tall, Macy's! I LOVE Macy's...it is the real miracle on 34th street, let me tell you! I could spend days in there, I always find all sorts of goodies. But we headed back to the hotel around 5 so we could get ready for dinner. Our concierge made us reservations at a cute little Italian Restaurant called Arno. It was awesome, mom and I split a dish and still walked out of there full. We had a wonderful lamb ratatouile and calamari for starters, followed by a chicken and artichoke dish with the most delicious homemade pasta and a fabulous banana chocolate mouse pie for dessert. We were in heaven!!! Cynthia was quite adventurous. She had a lot of first at the restaurant. Her first Pinot Grigio, lamb, calamari, prosciutto, and mushrooms...She enjoyed it too! After dinner we hightailed it about 15 blocks to the Broadway Theatre, where we had tickets to see Promises, Promises. It was fantastic, Sean Hayes and Kristen Chenoweth were the leading roles and Molly Shannon was in it as well, she is ALWAYS hilarious! It really was great. A big thanks to my mom for treating us.

On Saturday we got up, packed our suitcases and headed out on the town again for some shopping. We went to Rockefeller Plaza and hit up a few stores, then kept on trucking down to FAO Schwartz...it was a zoo. Made a stop at LegoLand, the Disney Store and a few others on Times Square before heading back to...MACY'S! We shopped there for a few hours, hit up H&M and hopped on the train to head home. Penn station is always a zoo, but we made it on the first train and got home just in time for a wonderfully prepared dinner by Mitch, WHO happened to put a nail in his big toe while working on the rood on Friday. I hadn't even been gone 2 hours and I got a picture text of his big toe with a BIG Nail sticking out of it...I guess Air Nail Guns will go right through a shoe and a sock and a little bit of bone. Thankfully our friend Kathleen was able to come sit with the girls while Mitch went to the ER where they had to cut the nail out. I told my mom "I don't have to worry about my girls when I leave home, I have to worry about my husband." Overall, it was a fabulous weekend and I am already planning for the next one :)