what else?

our little mady...she loves all things music. she loves to dance. and she loves to sing. tonight she was taking requests. this show went on for at least 20 minutes. it was great entertainment! by the time i got to the video camera she had already performed most of what she knows. and she most certainly wouldn't repeat a song she had already performed! she would sing a song, and then ask "what else?" so we would make our request, and she would sing...and on it went! but as you will see, she would let us know if she already sang a song that we asked for. so here is a little piece of old macdonald....followed by a few refusals. AH-dorable!

love,

shannon

Oh, Christmas Tree!

it was the wee hours of the morning...4:18am. i was stumbling through the house still half asleep on my way to olivia's room to answer her cry. i rounded the corner to go up the stairs, and this is the sight i saw. was I dreaming??? there wasn't a gigantic christmas tree here last night! as i wiped the sleep away, i slowly realized that i was not dreaming...there was, in fact, a huge christmas tree right in front of me! so i went to take care of liv, came back downstairs, stared at the new tree for a while, and reluctantly went back to bed. i really wanted to wake astro up to thank him for this wonderful surprise...but i didn't want to wake him up. sleep is precious in our house! so i went back to sleep and waited for the alarm to go off to tell him thank you. what a wonderful thing to wake up to! who wouldn't be excited to wake up and find a 9 foot christmas tree surprise?!

we already have a christmas tree in our living room. and i love that tree. it is a 6 foot tree we've had since we got married...this is our 7th christmas with that tree! which seems impossible! that is our fun, kid friendly tree! it's colorful and happy and full of bright ornaments. and i love it. but when we built our new house, i had visions of also putting a more formal christmas tree in the entryway. so this was one of my gifts from astro this year! what a good husband! i can't wait to buy the decorations for it, and next year actually decorate this tree!

thank you, santa!

love,

shannon

Christmas, the hokey pokey, and some buckeyes

Christmas is always a busy time of the year. Busy. But I love it! So in true Christmas tradition, we have been scrambling to get our Christmas shopping started...and finished! Every year I say I am not going to procrastinate next year. So...we'll see how that works out next year! Aside from Christmas shopping, we started the actual Christmas celebration with the Astrologes side of the family this past Saturday. Madyson had so much fun playing with her cousin, Kayla!

And doing the Hokey Pokey with Nonna!

And of course opening presents!

Olivia enjoyed her first taste of Christmas as well! Here she is with Pop-Pop!

We also had a small Christmas gathering with a few of our neighbors. We have been very fortunate to have some great neighbors! Several of our neighbors have children the same age. We had a little gift exchange with the kiddos among ourselves and a couple of our neighbor families. It was a fun time, and I think the kids enjoyed themselves too. Good food, good company! Here is Madyson with her friends Diem and Huxley.

And a picture of the babies, Olivia and Gage.

Aside from Christmas celebrations...Olivia has had an exciting week of firsts! She learned how to roll over from her tummy to her back finally! She has been going the other direction for weeks, but just couldn't quite figure out how to get herself turned over onto her back again. But she finally got it. And she also learned how to sit up on her own! Amazing. I cannot believe our baby is big enough to sit up on her own. It makes me a little sad honestly. Of course I am so excited and proud of her. But I told Matt that I just want to smoosh her a little bit so she stops growing so fast. If I could just slow it down a little....

And right now, at this moment, as I sit on the couch, Astro is in the kitchen carrying out another holiday tradition. He is making Buckeyes! Mmmmmm! If you've never had the pleasure, you should put in your requests with Astro now! As Mady would say, they're "Deeeeee-lissus!" (delicious...in 2 year old lingo).

How did these girls get so cute??!! And now...it's far past my bedtime. And I think I hear something...I think its a buckeye...calling my name...

night night!

xoxo

shannon

Silly Girls

I've been talking about starting a blog for months. But life is busy. Days go by. Weeks go by. Months go by. But this is just cute enough to force me to find the time. We took this video of the girls a few nights ago in the bathtub. Adorable! And I really wanted to share it. So maybe this will be the start to that blog I've been talking about doing! Now that I've actually created it, surely I can find the time to post, right? How hard can it be? Just type up a post, and add a couple pictures. So that's my new resolution...not quite New Year's...but close! I will keep up with this blog! Because I want to share the daily happenings of life in the Astro household. And because the girls are changing so fast. And because I love the idea of being able to look back at this in the future to remember the everyday moments that make our life what it is. Crazy. Beautiful. Blessed.

love

shannon