...Holiday Season...

We enjoyed the Holiday season, we spent a few evenings driving around town looking at Christmas lights. The girls really enjoyed looking at all the lights ooh's & awe's at each house we passed. Nyah became a fan of "Jingle Bell's" and by the end of the holiday season she knew all the words. We had a wonderful Christmas eve dinner with Grandma & Grandpa Benson, Wes & Rian, Karris, Tristian, Brynn & Rilee and Grandma Grace. We ate, played games and laughed until we were crying.

Christmas morning Nyah woke me around 0530 "mom, I had an assident". Can you help me change my nightgown?" So after she was all cleaned up she crawled into bed with us and fell back asleep. Around 0830 Justin asked Nyah if Santa had come? She jumped out of our bed, out the door and down the hall she went, turned the corner and ran to the front door... Justin was sitting in the living room with the video camera and asked her where she was going? With a disgusted look on her face she said "you told me to see if SANTA CAME!" She opens the front door and out onto the lawn she goes... looks up and down the street and comes back into the house "NOPE he not here"! At this point Justin tells her that he came while she was sleeping and to check under the tree to see if he left her any gifts... When she saw the gifts under the tree her eyes lit up and she shouted "he came, he came, lets open them!" So we went to Anastyn's room to get her and to our unwanted surprise she woke up with a cold! Poor girl, so we cleaned out her nose etc... and headed to the living room to open presents. She was such a trooper she didn't let the cold get her down, she enjoyed opening her presents and playing with all of her toys.

As Nyah opened each of her presents she would place them in a pile on the couch, she went through each one thoroughly to make sure all the of the wrapping paper was removed, no signs of tape etc... we think she has a little OCD :) She likes things to be neat and tidy!

Christmas evening we all went to Uncle John & Natalie's to visit with the rest of the family to see what Santa brought to them. Once we arrived the girls disappeared playing with their cousin's.

We had a great time visiting & playing Dance Party 3.

...5 years and counting...

On the 4th of November we celebrated our 5 year anniversary. To celebrate we planned a trip to San Francisco this past weekend with some good friends of ours. When Justin & I 1st started dating we went back to PA to watch Steelers play in Pittsburgh, for our 1 year anniversary we drove to Colorado to see the them play so it only seemed customary to see them for our 5 year. So that is what we did, we had great seats, great company and an unforgettable retreat!

Our 1st day in San Fran we adventured out to Union Square, visited a few local pubs and did a little shopping before we met up with Diana and Bill for dinner.

Day 2 we were the common touristy stuff visited Nob Hill, China Town, Little Italy, Coit Tower where we were able to see Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and all of downtown San Fran. We did all of this on foot...more exercise in 1 day then I have endured all year. Needless to say I was a little sore after our 10 hour trek which ended in a 2 hour shopping spree at H&M!!! Oh I was in love!

Day 3 we went to this little coffee shop for breakfast, we sat outside and watched all the people pass by. Down the road a could see this lady walking around looking at each of the parked cars and then she walked in between 2 of the cars and disappeared. I thought nothing of it and continued my breakfast... Well, as we were walked back to the hotel we walk past the parking stall this lady disappeared into and find a little white truck parked with an explosion of diarrhea on the door and running board. I was in shock, disgusted, appalled and a small part of me found it a little funny...WHO does this???? After this we headed to golden gate park, then back to the hotel to prepare for the game.

The game was amazing, its hard to explain the overwhelming feeling you get at a pro football game. From the moment we enter the field and the National Anthem is sung...the players enter the field and it all begins! We had great people that sat behind us at the game, the gentleman that was in front of us I could have done without. Every few minutes he was flipping us off, telling us to F-off. It just wasn't much fun to have to listen to that the entire game. But we didn't let him put a damper in our night, after the game we caught a cab back to our hotel. We had a great taxi driver, we laughed the whole way back to the hotel.

The next morning we caught a flight and headed home. We had a layover in LA and then from there flew to St. George. On our flight from LA we had a couple in front of us that had down syndrome. They had recently gotten engaged, they we were full of life and made us smile and laugh the whole way home.

We had a great trip, really enjoyed San Francisco, enjoyed spending time with one another and look forward to next years Steelers destination...

2 year Check Up

Today was Anastyn's 2 year checkup! She did well, barely cried when she got her flu shot! She well exceeds the "expectations" of a 2 year old. She said that she is advanced for her age, her vocabulary well exceeds 50 words, she can already jump, she has 2 or 3 sentences that she says on a regular basis, responds to and can say her own name, can throw and kick a ball, feeds herself with spoon and regular cup. Overall, the doctor said she is very healthy and we couldn't ask for more than that! We love you Anastyn!!

2 year STATS

Weight- 27 lbs (59%)

Height- 3ft ( 88%)

...Anastyn turn's 2...

We celebrated Anastyn's birthday this past weekend. It amazes me how fast time has gone by. It honestly saddened me to have her turn 2 she is growing up so fast. She is constantly talking, mocking Nyah, she is full of life. Some of her favorite things right now are:

Mickey/Minnie Mouse: when she see's them she shouts "Mouse, Mouse"

Christmas Lights: She is fascinated with the decorations on people's houses, as we are driving around town she tells Nyah " Ah there more, Nyah. There more Nyah!"

Dress up: she loves to put all of her jewelry on and push her stroller around the house. She also loves to wear my shoes!

Potty: at this point she tells us she has to go potty, so she pulls her pants down sits on the potty, pushes, grunts, makes lots of funny faces and then tells "i done!". Then the race is on, we are chasing her around the house trying to put another diaper on. The entire time she giggling and finds it to be a lot of fun.

Water: As she gets older she continues to love the water, she becomes braver and braver as each day passes. She loves to stand at the back of the tub and slide across on her belly.

Music: She loves to sing along to the radio, she loves Sugarland like her big sister. She loves to sing and dance.

She also has some funny little quirks/routines that must be done her way or she becomes a little upset. At night when she is getting ready for bed she has to brush her teeth, have her music on(if it is not loud enough, she will say "can't hear it"), have her binkie, blanket ( which has to have the giraffe facing upward), her stuffed animal, no socks on her feet and most importantly she has have given Nyah a hug and kiss.

Some of her most common phrase's lately are:

I get you! (As she is running the other direction)

I do it!

Where Nyah at?

Damn it!

I hold you momma

Where daddy at? work?

This year for her birthday we woke her up and had all of her presents in the living room surrounded by balloons. We had french toast for breakfast, which is one of her favorites. That evening we had dinner with Grandma & Grandpa Benson, Grandma Grace, Brynn & Dizzle. The girls performed for us with Anastyn's sing along boom-box she got for her birthday.

...thanksgiving...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, we celebrated at our house this year. My mother came from Pennsylvania to visit. A weekend full of fun and enjoying each others company. We ate early on Thanksgiving which was perfect, we had leftovers that evening while we put our Christmas tree up. We continued to decorate the rest of the weekend for Christmas, which I must say is a relief to have it all done! The count down begins until Christmas morning. We spent an afternoon at the park feeding the ducks, which is one of the girl's all time favorite places.

Here are some pictures from our Holiday weekend including this years Christmas Ornaments we got the girls...