North Park with the Jones Family/BassPro Shop with Mimi, Papa and LaLa

The weekend before Chistmas we headed to North Park with James, Sara and Emma to watch the trains. The mall was of course a big, huge mess but the train area in my opinion was worth it. The set up was really neat and we loved all the details that were set up. Luka had visited the same train station with Mimi a few days prior but he still had a great time. After North Park we headed to lunch at Chilli's. The kids behaved very well and we were able to catch up since we have not seen the Jones' for a while. I am very limited on pictures as I had to pull these from my Facebook account...It appears that I happen to have more than one walmart.com account where I have been downloading our pictures and cannot seem to remember the account infromation with the most recent pictures...I will post the rest soon! Daddy with the babies
Mia really enjoyed watching the trains go by...

The boys not too excited about getting their picture taken since we had to have more than one attempt due to our goofed up camera...

The girls - Mia was just too busy to stop and look at the camera

That same day we also headed to Bass Pro Shop with Mimi, Papa and LaLa to visit Santa anc check out all their cool Christmas decorations. We did not actually get to say Hi to Santa but we still had a great time hanging out with the family. Once again lots of cute pictures are stuck on walmart.com and will be coming soon...For right now here are a few picture I had from Facebook...

Luka and Daddy being such boys!

Sweet moment between all the fighting that day

Mia writing her first letter to Santa - " Momma how do you spell -every toy at Toyr R Us-?"

Luka writing his letter - "Dear Santa I like toys and candy...please bring me lots of both"

Here they go again - silly boys!

What a fun day that was! Thanks Mimi, Papa and La La for a fun evening together. We love you all!

Christmas with PawPaw & Judy - December 12th

This year we had our annual Christmas party with Mimi's side of the family in Keller. The kids were in a great mood and were very well behaved. They had a blast playing with their cousins and running wild in a very large room with lots and lots of space. The highlight of the day was of course the first of many rounds of presents for our two little munckins! Here are a few pictures from that day...Mimi helping Mia ope her very frist Christmas present this year...

When Luka heard it was present time he was one of the first in line to receive the goodies...


Our little family 2009

Our Little Soccer Stud

Pleaseeeee bare with me while I try to figure out our brand new laptop as I catch up everything that we have had going on for the past month. My original thought was to have everything in chronological order but as it turns out you might get a little bit of yesterday with a little bit of 3 weeks ago...Hopefully by the end of this catch up session I will master this awesome new laptop Santa brought us and from then on it will be smooth sailing.

Here are a few pictures from December 26th.... We have truly enjoyed getting to play around with all the awesome things Santa brought for the kiddos. We are super excited that the kids are actually playing with every new toy throughout the day. Luka has loved his new soccer goals and Daddy is enjoying them just as much. The boys were so stinkin' adorable when we were outside few days ago. I have to admit that Luka is even more excietd than we expected about playing soccer outside. At this point he is all about scoring those goals so if it means he has to pick up the ball and carry it all the way from his goal to Daddy's goal - that is what the kid does. My Dad was super funny today while he played soccer with Luka for the first time. A little bit of background information about my dad...he was a professional soccer player in Croatia so he is extermly proud his grandson owns his own soccer goals....he is also the man who would yell during my soccer games that my team was playing like"a bunch of girls" ( which of course we were yet Dad thought we could do better).. he is very hard core about soccer and is having a hard time processing that Luka likes to carry his soccer ball in his hands, set it up right in front of the goal and then take credit for an awesome goal....

While boys have been playing soccer Mia and I have been enjoying the new bounce house Mimi and Papa got for the kids after we fell in love with it at the McGrew's house several months ago.Thank you so much Mimi and Papa!

Mia getting her one on one lesson with Daddy...

If you want your child to nap really well - this is the perfect investment.

This is what they do after they score...every-single-time!

Luka is very serious about sports even at 2 years old...

Our little soccer stud...

Catch up? YES please!!!

Our computer crashed right after Thanksgiving and ever since then I have tried to post from our very old and messed up laptop. Well, the "old and messed up" part should tell you that has not been exactly easy.

We are doing well, staying busy and enjoying these two funny toddlers of ours. The kids are doing great... between breaking up their fights there are always sweet moments as you will see in pictures coming soon! They are pretty much your typical toddlers who have a very interesting brother/sister relationship. On daily basis you can either get the well mannered children who say thank you and please...who give each other as well as others tons of hugs and kisses...who love to snuggle and take nice naps....and say the sweetest night-night prayers

OR

you can get the "I-will-scream-in-your-face-until -I -get-what-I-want"...refuse to stay in the church nursery...have terrible separation anxiety...refuse to leave time out just to be difficult...cry,cry and cry on those very emotional days...hit, bite, scratch and pinch your little sister or big brother...fight over toys...annoy the dogs...beg for candy...say NO approx. every 1.5 seconds...

Oh the joys of parenthood! It is all a part of the journey and even during those challenging days we are having a blast expriencing life through eyes of our precious toddlers. They are such little hams and truly two of the most hilarious kids! They are mobile, they are busy and they are into everything these days. They talk nonstop...Luka we can understand but Mia speaks her own language and she does not like to keep her voice down. They cheer each other on, get so excited to see each other after being apart, they steal each other's food and drinks and sneak the paci while someone happens to be in time out....

Mia has been teething for a few weeks and that has been quite different from our teething experience with Luka. With big brother we never even knew he had new teeth coming in because he never fussed one bit. Mia Bear is a whole different story. She has been needy, clingy and very dramatic about every.single.thing. We think "dramatic" is just a part of her sweet and loving personality though. She is learning new words and this week the word happens to be CHEESE STICK. She says it and you just can't help but laugh - especially with her cheesy grin that follows the word each time. She has not been a great sleeper either- we think all due to the "teething mess". One post coming soon in regards to our cheesy grin little princess is going to be all about her favorite person - HER PAPA! Man OH Man -does she love her sweet Papa! Her face lights up, she can't say his name enough, carries his picture around the house, gets too excited when we pull up in front of grandparents house, and only wants to be held by him when he is around. You would have to see this sweetness to really understand how much Mia adores Gary.

Luka Bear is going through his own peak of "terrible twos". He has had wonderful days but there have been days when we have had one meltdown after another. I think the past two weeks have gone much better and we are hoping it stays that way. We are really cracking down on discipline and time outs with him. Currently we are working through screaming vs. talking in his "inside" voice, being patient, being sweet to sissy and listening to our directions. Okay, I understand he is two years old and all this happens to be a part of being a kid - BUT he is a smart cookie who has great manners and is fully capable of getting his temper under control. It definitley does not help that Mia is all into his stuff these days and happens to annoy him when he is having a bad day. We are also working on getting rid of the paci over Christmas Break. As of right now he has been 24 hours PACI FREE and is doing great! He has not had much of it for the past 3 days but he has not even seen it since yesterday afternoon. YAY!!! Tonight we also had another huge milestone while I put him on the potty (while getting Mia situated in the bath tub)...I turned around and Luka said " Momma, Luka poopoo on the potty". Sure enough he was telling the truth! YAY again!

Luka has really been into playing sports, loves to shoot his basketball, play golf, baseball or soccer...You would have to see to believe how good he is! Justin is of course beyond excited that his son shares his love for sports. He also plays with cars and motorcycles and L.O.V.E.S to sing. He sings all the time and his current favorite is KWINKLE KWINKLE LITTLE STAR....He sings it at the top of his lungs many times throughout the day. He also loves the Papparazzi song....can't remember who sings it though.... For a few months now he has been able to count 1-10 without any help in both languages and also knows to count backwards in English. He does very well counting 1-20 in English but still needs a little help. Knows all of his ABC's without anybody's assistance - he can sing it and slowly say it for you. Speaks both languages well and understands 100 % of directions in both Croatian and English. He is a little chatter box and daily cracks us up with his cute little sayings. Our favorites right now are:

"Look I deeeeeeed it! "- I did it!
"Give me piece of candy!"
"Let me help...."
"Good boy" ( to Mia) - when she does something we like....
"Momma/Dada please holde ( hold) Mia" - when he wants her away from him.
"Play in high chair "- which serves his getaway island from sissy.
"Kank you so much" - Thank you so much - when he gets something....

Luka also started saying " I love you Momma/Dada...or I love you too" when we tell him we love him. It just sounds so sweet and so grown up. Melts our hearts!

He still loves to read, watch Yo Gabba Gabba but is also willing to watch other shows on TV. He is slowly getting over his fear of taking a bath and is now able to enjoy bath time. He hated getting his hair washed and rinsed but we are doing much, much better. Tonight he did not want to get out and thinks it is hilarious when I pour water on his head.

We have enjoyed the month of December so much as a family. Getting ready for Christmas with a 15 month old and 2 year old is so much fun! We decorated our house inside and out, we had plenty of wonderful family road trips to check out Christmas lights, went to our first family movie night at my school, mailed out our cards on time, had quite a few playdates, celebrated Miss Sydney's first birthday, played at Kids Kingdom, visted the trains at North Park, checked out Santa and all the awesome decorations at Bass Pro shop, celebrated Christmas at PawPaw and Judy's Annual Christmas Party, played with cousins, survived a weekend without Daddy while he was away at Emily and Josh's wedding in Mexico, hung out with Uncle Tono, did some Christmas shopping, and now we are ready to enjoy Momma's two weeks of Christmas Break. We are also planning out our mommy/son and daddy/daughter dates in the next few weeks. So much to look forward to and celebrate this holiday season!

Posting many, many pictures in the next few days!