Christmas 2009

We had a VERY busy Christmas this year!!! On the 19th we celebrated with Joe's family at his parents house with his parents, Jeremy, his girlfriend Rebecca, and GG. We had some yummy food and got some very nice presents!!


Then on the 24th we went to Peggy's to meet up with our "Arlington Heights friends" and have a few drinks. The girls like going to Peggys on Xmas eve because they can run around!! Then we went back to my parents' house for Christmas with my parents and Amy and Chris. We did our annual pajamas tradition (my mom gets us all pajamas that we put on then we open our presents). So that was fun!


On Christmas Day the girls opened their presents from Santa (they must have been veeery good this year because Santa brought lots of presents). Then we played with the new toys for a while before going to my Aunt Margee's house for Christmas with my mom's side.


Sunday 12/27/09 (also our 6th anniversary) we celebrated at my parents' house with my dad's side. It was a smaller gathering with only 25 "Popp's" there, but the kids had fun playing with their cousins!!

There are sooo many pictures from the weekend, so below is a link to view them all at snapfish if you so desire:

Click here for Christmas 2009 pictures

And here are just a few pictures that kind of sum up the holiday week:

The girls at Grandma and Grandpa's house ready to open presents!

In a big bag...that Hilde wanted into too! (Hilde is Jeremy and Rebecca's dog)

Rebecca and Jeremy playing a duet for us!

Making Christmas cookies!!!

All 3 girls so pretty on Christmas Eve!

The "Popp Family Christmas Shot" at Peggy's




Sitting at the bar (is this a glimpse into the future?!?)




Opening presents at Booma and Boompa's house




Santa came!!!!






Sooo many presents!

Eryn's first Christmas morning!

"Popp" kids in a box!!!!

This was great fun for them!!

Botanic Gardens

Saturday 12/12/09 we went to the Botanic Gardens with Grandma and Grandpa to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. They had the trains set up, which were really neat!! The girls enjoyed the craft area where they got to make snowflakes out of coffee filters and bird feeders out of a little acorn on a wire which they put cranberries on then covered it with Crisco and bird seeds. They also had a little "bingo" sheet where the kids had to try to find various things as they went through the exhibit. Afterwards we went out for a yummy dinner at Red Robbin!! It was a very fun day!

The girls looking at a huge gingerbread house display

Daddy showing Kaylynn a train

Daddy and Kaylynn

Loren looking at a train

Kaylynn trying to catch the "snow"!

Loren thought the trains were really neat!

Eryn enjoying the views from her car seat!

Kaylynn making a bird feeder

Loren putting the cranberries on the bird feeder

Daddy helping Kaylynn cut a snowflake

L

Loren cutting a snowflake

Loren putting the Crisco on her bird feeder

Kaylynn looking into one of the microscopes

Kaylynn walking to see the big tree!

Our family by the big tree!

Eryn 2 months

Yesterday Eryn turned 2 months old!! I can't believe how fast it's going!!! She's getting soo big! We had her 2 month doctor appointment today and she's growing very nicely! She weighs 11 pounds 10 ounces (75th percentile), is 23 inches tall (75th percentile) and has a head circumference of 39.5cm (70th percentile). She also got 4 shots and an oral vaccine. Poor girl was not happy about the shots!!! But she got over it quickly!!


Eryn is a very happy baby! She smiles ALL the time, especially at her sisters (unless she's hungry, then she gets very angry until she's fed)!! She had been sleeping very well the past week and a half, going from 11pm or 12am to about 6 or 7am, but then last night she was up pretty much all night! Like her big sisters, she likes to sleep on her tummy!


Here are a few pictures of Eryn:

Eryn napping at her first thanksgiving

6 1/2 weeks old

7 1/2 weeks old


"Ta-da Cuteness has arrived"




Smiles for Daddy!

Sleeping with funny hands!

2 months old and happy!!

Loren and Kaylynn's preschool Christmas Songfests

On Monday 12/14/09 Loren had her Christmas songfest at school, Kaylynn had hers the next day on 12/15/09. They had been practicing at school for the past couple weeks for this and were very excited to have me come and see them! After the songs they had a cookie social, which we all enjoyed!

Loren's songfest:


Kaylynn's songfest:

Playing in the snow!

The weeks of 12/8/09 we got our first decent snowfall!! The girls were SO excited to finally have snow to play in! They couldn't get outside enough!! They wanted to build snowmen and snow angels!! They built their first snowman and he was a little small, but very cute! Then they tried to build a bigger one, but couldn't get the second ball on top of the first ball. So they decided to decorate the first ball as the head and pretend it was an "underground snowman"!! I thought that was rather creative!!!

Here are pictures of fun in the snow:

Kaylynn thought it was great fun to go down the slide in the snow!

Loren and Kaylynn with their first snowman!

The "underground snowman"

(get it, his head is above ground but his body is underground)

Kaylynn with the snowman she build with Daddy

So festive!

12/13/09 - Building the underground snowman:


12/13/09 - Kaylynn and the underground snowman:


12/13/09 - Loren telling the tale of the "underground snowman":

Ice skating and Gymnastics

On Sunday 11/29/09, I took Loren ice skating. I took her last year as well and she's gotten better over the year (not that she's had any practice, she probably just is able to keep her balance better now)! She REALLY enjoyed it and I hope to do it again this season. She was able to let go of the boards more this year and tried to do more on her own! But it seemed every time I'd try to video tape her, she'd fall!!

The girls have been doing gymnastics for a while now, and this is the first session Kaylynn didn't have Mommy do the class with her. She technically is supposed to be 3 to do this class (and she was a good 2 1/2 months away from being 3 when the session started), so she had a rough time at the beginning (like running the wrong way), but each week she's getting better and better!! She LOVES going to gymnastics!



11/30/09 - Kaylynn running at gymnastics:


11/30/09 - More Kaylynn gymnastics:

Videos

So, I've been bad at uploading the various videos I've taken, so I will put a bunch of them here now!


Here is Eryn and Mommy just after she was born in the hospital:


Here is Eryn meeting Grandma for the first time (please ignore me talking on the phone to Loren!):


Here is another one of Eryn at the hospital after she was born:


This is Eryn chillin' in the nursery just before her first bath (and Mommy waving):


10/16/09 Kaylynn showing Eryn her bunny just after we got home from the hospital:


10/16/09 - More of Kaylynn playing with Eryn just as we got home from the hospital:


10/29/09 - Eryn sleeping with her creepy eye roll!


11/10/09 - Eryn's first bottle

Mrs. Claus and Santa

On Tuesday December 1st we went to the library to have a special story time with Mrs. Claus! We've gone to this the past few years and the kids always really enjoy it!! They sing songs and read stories! Then they get to sit on Mrs. Claus' lap and then draw pictures for her to bring to Santa!

Then on Friday December 4th we went to Little Village Playplace in AH to have cookies with Santa! We've gone to this the past few years as well! The girls got to sit on Santa's lap and spend lots of time with him, talking to him and telling him stories! Surprisingly, they never asked him for any presents! They instead had him do jumping jacks and told him stories about Eryn!! Too funny!!! Kaylynn just kept going up to him and waving at him!! She love Santa!

All 3 girls with Mrs. Claus

Loren and Kaylynn drawing pictures for Santa

At LVPP, Loren in a dress and Kaylynn as a dinosaur!

Mommy with the girls and their cookies!



All 3 girls with Santa! You can just see how excited they were!!!!




Back for another chat with Santa

Smoosh face...checking it all out!

Kaylynn playing with 2 babies!

Eryn and Daddy

Taking a little nappy! (7 weeks old)