crazy bdays and mourning naptime loss

well. i have been busy. the last few weeks we celebrated 2 bdays in my little family. billy turned 30 and samantha turned 1! man this yr flew by. i remember last yr having billy's 29th bday party like it was yesterday, we had his party early bc i was so pregnant and good thing we did bc i had sam the next day i think. anyways, highlights of all we did so far (we still have to formally celebrate with the tkaczuk side plus it was my dad's and amber's bday too) are:

-decorated sami's room with crete paper, something my mom did that i always loved and i am doing with my girls, we sang to her and got her little toys and clothes and just spent the day remembering and being together the 4 of us.
-celebrated with the hemmingson side, had everyone over for billy and sam's bday, i made a big lunch and cupcakes. everyone hung out, talked, played ping pong, ate and looked at pictures of billy and sami
-billy and i went to piccolo pete's, an old steakhouse in downtown that is supposedly good.. we don't agree though :-)
-had a husker party at a sportsbar with friends for billy's 30th also, and that was alot of fun
-for billy's bday i got him a snowblower (also benefitting me!) and a trip to vegas, which we were going to do in december, but i think we will wait until after the holidays.

we did alot of other little things too, but mix in going to see Curious George Live with jamie and me being sick, then jamie being sick, then hosting playdates and other randoms and i am tired! we did have a small thanksgiving this yr, just the 4 of us. i made my first turkey and it turned out great, but i am not a fan of handling a whole bird.. grossed me out alot. now i can say i've done it though! i missed our families alot. as much as i can be negative and get totally overwhelmed on holidays, i do like having places to go and family to be with. the one negative thing that happened over thanksgiving wknd was the loss of naptime. idk what happened with jamie, but she just started whining everytime we laid her down for a nap. i got soo mad and frustrated with her bc it was the same everyday, i'd lay her down as normal and 1min later she'd whine and be loud and so i'd try to calm her, but she'd do it again and again and obviously wasn't going to nap. and since i didn't want to let her wake up sam (who naps like a champ) i let her come down, but she knew momma wasn't happy. so after fighting it for awhile i have embraced it, mainly bc if i don't, i'll cry. :-) so i've only done this for a day, but now we have quiet time. when sami goes down, jamie has to be quiet. i usually put a movie on for her and i still do my thing. i don't let her run around and she has to whisper. i encourage her to lay down, but i think she's too excited for that at this point. naptime was bound to end.. i will miss it. i lived for it. there's always wknds when billy is home for me to have a nap if i need. but she's growing, can't nap forever. we're going to transition her to a big girl bed soon and i'm sure she would climb out of it anyways pretty quick. i'm sure there will be days where she will fall asleep on the couch or in the car bc she is still quite little, but i think this is for the best for her. plus earlier bedtime!!!!! wooohooo for that! i will post some pics soon! until next time!

halloween!

Halloween this year is over. Although we basically had to force jamie to trick or treat (what kid wouldn't want free candy? MINE) we had fun. jamie went as strawberry shortcake and sami was a strawberry. aren't they cute? next year i think jamie will be some sort of princess bc every little girl she saw in a frilly dress she loved.

here's a few sweet shots of the girls today. i love that they are finally starting to play with eachother and be on the same level. love my girlies!