Mommy got a new camera....

Attack of the flying baby!

Our family Christmas before our trip to Texas

Cousin Grant, Josh and Cousin Hunter

Stella and Papa at the park in Mongomery, Texas

Playing soccer with Bootsy-look at that form!

Shopping with the boys and Aunt Carrie

Sophia enjoying some "o" shaped cereal (I don't get sponsorships from this cereal, so I refuse to promote it)

Mimi, Papa and the grandkids

Walking to the park

Daddy trying to keep her warm

The Donalson visit on Christmas eve

Opening presents with Uncle Richard

Aunt Carrie

This was on the way to church on Christmas eve-I think the service started at 6:00?

Putting food out for the reindeer

...and milk and cookies for Santa

Christmas morning

Santa came through! A teddy bear-she named him Possum

And on to Jasper, Texas to visit Grandma and Paw Paw-it was sooooo cold in Texas this year!

What a great present! Paw Paw and Sophia reconnecting

Cousin Tori, Cousin Taylor, and Stella opening presents

Cousin Brandon and Sophia

Stella got to help Uncle Tim collect eggs from the chicken coop

Sophia's first seafood gumbo-she loved it!

Checking out the goats minutes before....

the twins were born!! This goat is just a few minutes old!

Gigi had to come see what all the commotion was about in her trusty golf cart

Back in Atlanta having some ice cream for Paw Paw's birthday

We couldn't fit 62 candles on the cake

Can we cut the cake already?

We are finally home and trying to get back to normal. As you can see, we had an eventful two weeks. I had to take both girls to the doctor yesterday. Our whole household is sick or recovering from it. We had such a great time in Texas, though. The awful 15 hour drive to Texas was no indication of how our vacation would be. I think we should rent an RV next year. Having the kids strapped in those car seats was miserable! Anyway, it was all worth it. Now we are ready for 2010!

Top 10 Lessons in 2009

1. Never trust a 3 year old with paint supplies. Stella has painted our couch and her rug with finger nail polish, our stairs with white paint, her hair with water colors. She is a budding artist and the world is her canvas. This had better pay off someday. We hope to be laughing about this one day while she refurnishes our home with the sale of her first masterpiece.

2. Run, don't walk when you hear the sound of Sophia crying and Stella saying "Shhhh! You are o.k."

3. Children sense weakness.

4. Children also know when you are outnumbered. On our drive back to Texas, we stopped in at a Chik -fil-A for lunch. We were enjoying ourselves and being out of the car, so Josh offered to go get gas while we finished our meal. Not even thirty seconds after he left the building, Stella said "I have to poop." Are you kidding me? Well, you can't tell a recently potty trained kid "no." I had to pack up our food, snacks, Sophia's high chair cover, Sophia, and Stella and drag it all back to the bathroom. Since I couldn't hold everything and Sophia and help Stella, I had to strap Sophia to the diaper changing station and hold Stella's door open with my foot while holding Stella over the potty yelling at her to stop touching everything.

5. Watch your mouth. Stella repeats everything. (ie: "Grandma's crazy.")

6. Diego is our best friend. He has come in handy especially since Stella has recently given up her nap. When you ask a 3 year old what her favorite animal is and she says "a tapir", you know Diego has been involved. What the heck is a tapir?

7. Cheap stickers aren't easy to remove from floors, tables, shoes, cabinets, and windows. Always invest in hight quality stickers.

8. Always have poison control on speed dial. Children's medicine tastes like candy and they love it-and child resistant caps are no match for a three year old.

9. Don't put a step stool in the pantry-especially when snacks can be reached with the use of step stool.

10. After going through potty training, we now know that your entire home has to be sterilized upon completion. And to all of our friends with potty trained children, you never told us how gross and difficult it really would be. Thank you for that, because if you had, Stella would be wearing diapers until she graduated from high school. Sophia might have to go live with another family when her time comes.

Merry Christmas from the Newman Family

Stella and her new favorite "shape game" from Aunt Carrie

New top teeth

Sophia started crawling the day we put up the tree

She's obsessed-I put bells on the bottom so I can hear if she is into the tree. Don't people do that with dogs?

Family tradition-Stella helping daddy put the star on the tree

Stella helped me decorate. She was so careful with the ornaments. She is also my watchdog with Sophia. She is sure to yell at me when Sophia is getting close to it. The other day, she was trying to physically move her away-which was very impressive because she is only 14 pounds heavier than Sophia. That is like me trying to lift something that is 100 pounds! (what are you laughing about?)

If Sophia is not messing with the tree, this is usually where you can find her....under my feet!

In line to visit with Santa-I don't know if they do this with all Santas(this is our first time), but you actually make an appointment to see him and you have a 15 minute window. I actually signed up for the date in October! Anyway, it was a great experience. She wouldn't even go near him last year at school, so I didn't even bother to take her to the mall Santa. This year, she was absolutely bursting with excitement.

He was wonderful. I think I actually believe in Santa now. He talked to them both and was so sweet. Stella first told him she wanted "toys and presents," which is what she has been telling me for weeks. This makes my job pretty easy. He then asked "what kind of toys and presents?" She answered "girl presents." He said "What are girl presents?" She answered "a teddy bear." That is better than the answer she has been giving us. She told me she wanted a rainbow. I can definitely do a teddy bear.

Another favorite place to play-under the coffee table. Apparently she has a really hard head. She bangs her head on the table, the floor, the door facings, etc. all day and doesn't even cry.

O Christmas Tree

December 5th

Daddy and Stella before they blew out the candles

Out of order-Stella helping me bake the cake for daddy. She is such a great helper. She even knows how to crack eggs now. She is great at measuring and pouring in the ingredients. Maybe she will be a better cook than I am and can take over in a year or two.

Sophia has been so busy lately-learning to crawl, pull up (she would pull up at first and not know how to get down), and cutting two top teeth!

Stella is still the funniest person I know. She is a great kid. We like three a whole lot more than two. She is a lot more agreeable and a lot of help with Sophia. She is mostly eager to please and is a joy to be around. (I am her mother, though) It's so funny to hear her say things like "pretty much" or "that's your choice" or listening to her sing a song in the other room and say "thank you, thank you..."

Sophia is growing up too fast. I keep getting sad because she will probably be my last baby-unless we end up getting a night shift nanny for a third baby. That is the only way I would get through another newborn phase. I LOVE the fact that she sleeps for 12 hours. She is such a snuggly baby-she loves to just sit in your lap. This will change soon because she is crawling, but it is great for now. I keep having to remind myself to just enjoy the moment and that she will be a baby for a long time.

Stay tuned for our 2009 Top Ten List! Looking forward to seeing our Texas people in a week!

p.s. It occurred to me that in most of these pictures, the girls are wearing pajamas. There is a reason for this. When we are at home, they do wear their flannel pajamas a lot. It is not because we are lazy-it is because they are warm and we live in a drafty old house! We love our drafty old house, but it is COLD! We do own real clothes and wear them every day.

Family Pics

We went to Stone Mountain today to take some family portraits with Danielle Bryson-a local photographer. It was soooo cold, but the girls did really well. She had to do black and whites at the end of the shoot because Sophia's nose was so red! Here are some of them-more to come!

http://daniellebryson.com/blog/