Christmas Eve Eve!

Let the over-stimulation begin!  We exchanged gifts with Stephanie this morning, and the girls were not disappointed in beginning the gift-giving a little early.  In my last post, I mentioned how excited Riley was just to have a present under the tree.  For obvious reasons (Noelle), we haven't been keeping the gifts accessible.  And speaking of our reason to hide presents, Noelle has quickly learned the art of unwrapping.  To think, one month ago, she didn't really know that you could or should open a paper-covered box.  But then her birthday came.  There is no doubt about it-- the girl knows her way around a wrapped present.

She unwrapped her presents.  Then she proceeded to help Stephanie with hers.

And since she had helped open it, she figured she should probably partake in the gift (cookies!!!), as well.

Wait... show me that I-heart-cookies face again.  There it is.

Riley, meanwhile, patiently salivated over this gift:

Oh, hold on... cookie break.

Back to the gifts.  Riley's patience paid off as she opened a set of all the Disney princesses!  ALL of them!  Even Pocahontas.  Wow.

The princesses were a gift for Riley and Noelle, so Riley, being older and more on top of the hoarding game, grabbed her favorites and went to play.  I laughed out loud at the reject princesses.  Snow White... Mulan?  Who are those chicks?  

 

The girls also got Wuggle Pets, which I had never heard of.  They're basically mini Build-a-Bears in a box.  Yeah.  We're going to love that.  Well, we already do.

And Brooks got this super sweet book with a coordinating soft, squishy bear.  Love it.

Oh, dog...  How you wish you were a human.

And this has nothing to do with anything, but will you please check out Brooks' socks?  He's a little dinosaur!  And his onesie also says, "Dino Squad".  Mini dino courtesy of Photojojo, where we got one of Stephanie's gifts.  If you like fun photo stuff, check 'em out.  They're pretty cool.

On an entirely different (except for the whole Christmas thing) topic, I decided I wanted to try to whip up some little hats for the tiniest cousins.  I had a green t-shirt that I wasn't going to wear anymore, so it became fair (sewing material) game. 

And voila!

But, of course, hats always look better on cute babies.  Presenting Santa's little helper. :)

We're very excited for family time which will begin in roughly 24 hours.  Oh boy oh boy oh boy!!

Hilarity

The girls have been nothing short of hilarious this morning. All of this has taken place within the last two hours. Merry Christmas Eve Eve to me!

As I made a turn in the car, Noelle yelled out, "Whoooooa!"
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During the same car ride, Riley all of a sudden scoffed (yeah. scoffed.) and said, "Mom! You forgot to bring my cup!"
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We pulled out of the Starbucks drive-thru, and Riley told Noelle, "Mommy's getting coffee, so she's not crabby."
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I put a present for Stephanie under the tree, and Riley almost fell over with excitement as she screamed, "LOOK! It's under the tree!!!"
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And a conversation between the two little ladies--

Riley: I know you're okay, but do you have poopies?

Noelle: No.

Riley: Yes. I smell you, Noelle.

Christmas Playdates

We have been social butterflies, this week leading up to Christmas.  Yesterday, we had a ridiculously fun playdate with Bella and Vinny.  These kids are just so cute and fun.  We had a blast. 

We went over to Wheaton Bible, so Riley could show us all how to rock out in the play zone.  Bella and Riley loved it, enjoying themselves while climbing and sliding.  Noelle climbed up at one point and inadvertently made her way down the slide.  I think that-- besides being quite a shock-- she bonked her head, too.  So she pretty much refused to go within three yards of the play zone from that point on.  Oh, my little chickens. :)

After dashing through the play zone, we went out to the cafe area for a "picnic" lunch.  That's when I realized that I hadn't gotten a picture of all the kiddos.

Mmmmm... Delicious!

I needed something better than that, so Amanda and I had them pose in front of one of the many trees.  Bella needed a little coercion... thus, the silly faces:

 That distracted her long enough to get this shot:

Wait, Riley, we said that this wasn't a silly face! :)

Then, tonight, we got to see one of my dear friends-- Jennifer Marie!  I'm always really excited to see her, but I was even more pumped tonight because she and her husband just announced that they're having a BABY!!!  We like babies around here.  And she and Kent are going to be phenomenal parents.  See, they're totally ready for the "(s)he's here!" picture already!  Ha!

The Hrivnak women:

Brooks, posing like the little angel he is. :)

Loads of blondes!!

And I'll leave you with this-- a sister pic with two smiling girls! :)

Homemade Christmas

I wrote this a few days ago, so pretend that it's before Christmas... :)

I've been making some Christmas decorations and presents this year, and I've been pretty excited about how they've turned out. There's just something wonderful about looking at a finished product and saying, "I made that!"

I'll post pictures of the gifts after they've been given, just in case the receivers read this. However, I can put some of our decorations on here!  With the arrival of Brooks and the chaos of life, it was not a very elaborate Christmas season, but we couldn't go without stockings! The girls had stockings already, but they were just cheap red felt stockings that I had bought and embellished. Brooks, of course, is experiencing his first Christmas, so he was stocking-less. I decided that all three kids, therefore, needed new stockings. I let the girls help me pick out the fabric, and here's what we came up with!

Our next piece of decor was inspired by something I saw on my new best Internet friend, Pinterest. :) I knew the girls would love it, and I was going to show paint who was boss! I'm not afraid of your messiness, paint!!  This isn't a picture of the one we made, but you get the idea.  I use Noelle's hand as the star and Brooks' foot for a tree trunk, too.  It's a little handprint Christmas tree like this one.

And there's one gift I can post on here because the recipients can't read yet. And, to be honest, I've been making it in front of them because, well, otherwise, there just aren't enough hours in the day. I think they're adorable, and I'm so happy I found the idea here for these magnetic paper dolls. I think the girls are going to love changing up the outfits, and since the dolls/clothes are magnets, they're more durable than just paper.

And I snapped a couple pics of the girls, post-present opening.  They loved it.

I've just been wrapping almost all the presents while watching Muppets Christmas Carol, and boy oh boy, am I getting excited! I can't believe Christmas is almost here!

Big Man

We got an adorable outfit in the mail from Chuck and Pattie Olson, and I couldn't wait to get Brooks into it.  Sure, it's a little big on him, but he doesn't complain.  I decided that a little photo shoot was in order.  And since the big guy is lifting his head like a champ-- and I love his squishy little face!-- this may be my favorite set of pictures so far!

 

 Little hot rod!!

 

No one has ever accused me of having a lack of expression.  Looks like Brooks may be following in my footsteps. :)

 

Can you believe how big he's getting?  Nana and Granddad, betcha can't wait to get out here, huh? :)

Scooping Snow

Ever since we had a little dusting of snow, a little over a week ago, Riley has been asking to "scoop the snow."  I'm not exactly sure how "scoop" got substituted for "shovel," but there it is.  Lucky for her, we got a heavier dose of the white stuff this weekend!  Both girls were pretty excited to get outside and help Daddy with the clean-up.  So as Brooks and I headed up to Arlington Heights to bake cookies with the girls of the family, Daddy and the little ladies headed into the cold.

 Riley's hard at work.  Noelle looks like she's lost. :)

I'm guessing she's catching the snow?  Maybe?  Or she could just be acting like her normal self.

Man... pretty soon, Mike and I can just put our feet up and relax while the girls take care of the snow.  Won't that be the day?! 

If I were on top of things...

Our Christmas cards are scheduled to arrive "by end of day" today, so hopefully, that'll mean I start getting them sent out tomorrow.  Since I'm already behind schedule, there will only be the Christmas card-- no nice write-up like the ones I've been reading in my overly put-together friends' cards.  Girls, you give me a lot of aspire to.  In lieu of a note enclosed in the card, here's what I would and should have written for our end-of-the-year update:

Michael-- Michael has been doing an amazing job this past year at Investortools.  As a family, we love the company, which puts a wonderful emphasis on caring for its employees and their families.  As is no surprise to this proud wife, they are beyond pleased with Mike's work.  So much so that, as of January 1st, he will become co-manager of his department.  This promotion came really (REALLY) fast and is an honor and a blessing.  I'm so thrilled that Michael is in a place where he can thrive and grow, and a place that truly appreciates how blessed they are to have him! 

Heather-- It's been another fun year of stay-at-home-mom-ing!  My days are filled with laundry, dishes, sippy cups, diapers, and-- recently-- lots and lots of spit-up.  But they're also filled with three amazing and gorgeous kiddos.  Despite the seemingly thankless chores that come with it, I love my job! :)  I continue to adore sewing-- more and more so each day.  I find that I feel a little sad at the end of a sewing-less day, so I try to snag at least of few minutes, each afternoon, during naps.

Riley-- Riley started in preschool at Wheaton Bible Church.  She goes two days a week and LOVES it!  Her mom loves it, too, because I get to see her growing and thriving.  She's become more social, more interactive, braver (she'll go down slides by herself-- woohoo!) and more self-motivated.  Outside of preschool, she's shown a clear desire to figure out letters and words.  She knows her alphabet and is getting better and better at identifying what letter words start with.  I love seeing her love of knowledge, and-- my goodness-- kids at this age are little sponges!  She learns so fast!

Noelle-- Noelle loves doing everything her big sister does.  She tries to sneak into the classroom whenever we drop Riley off, and she even tried to make a cameo in the teachers' Christmas card picture. :)  She's talking quite a bit and can form sentences.  Last week, for example, she very clearly told Riley, "No!  That's MY Lego!"  Kudos for the sentence, though maybe not the sentiment...  She also graduated from physical and occupational therapy and walks/runs/struts like a champ.  Noelle is a little ham and is constantly cracking us up.

Brooks-- Brooks joined us on October 27th, and we love him to death.  He's a great baby-- pretty happy and low-maintenance (though at the time I'm writing this, he's going through a growth spurt that's requiring feedings every two hours... yikes).  He's super sweet and has just started smiling!  Those big gummy grins make my heart soar.  And he's a roller extraordinaire.  He rolls at almost every tummy time, and he's been doing that since about 3-weeks-old or so.  Not bad.  He also is able to produce a significant volume of pee, so much so that he literally exploded 8 diapers or so--  the little absorbent "beads" became so saturated, they exploded out.  We had to move him to size one diapers at about 3 weeks.  We're so proud.

All in all, a good year for the Green family.  We thank God for so many blessings  this past year and pray for his continued provision.  We hope you and yours were as blessed by his love and grace!