Another first - self inflicted haircut

For some odd reason, Becca's hair on the crown of her head grown straight down into her face. So I must always have it pinned back or else it is in her face, and she is forced to wear a vial of blond hair. And she is pretty good at keeping her ponytail holders or other hair accessory in (oh you know there is a but coming), but for some reason on the night of February 1, 2010 she decided to take out her Whoville-girl ponytail and chop off that pesky hair in front of her face. Was momma mad? Momma was more mad that Becca had grabbed the scissors because quite frankly, Becca didn't do too bad a job on her hair. Although when Todd said such a thing, I told him it wasn't too bad if she was Farrah Fawcett and it was the 1970's (Becca also managed to tapper her hair at the sides). We had to brave the cold and ice to get Becca a real haircut the next day.

And perhaps it was cabin fever setting in that cause Becca to make bad decisions on consecutive nights (these events occurred during the previously mentioned Winter Whiteout of 2011), because Becca made another egregious mistake by tearing off all the flaps on her lift and flap books. Becca's punishment was sever: All books were taken out of her room for one week. Many tears were shed since "reading" books to herself at night is how Becca puts herself to sleep. She has been caught sleeping on top of her precious books or holding them in her had while she is fast asleep. A co-worker of mine shook her finger at me when I told her that I withheld books as punishment. I say, you gotten know what hurts, which makes the destruction of her precious books all the more baffling. If she starts writing "redrum"in lipstick on the mirrors, I'll know for sure cabin fever has set in.

Winter Wonderland

I don't have many pictures from the big snow event of 2011 that nearly whited out the Super Bowl that was hosted here in the Metroplex. In fact I just have some from when it first started snowing. We had around 11 inches of snow! So much snow that it shut down the city for almost the whole week before the Super Bowl. The kids were off from school for 4 days. Initially it was too cold to go play in it, but we did manage to go sledding one day, and it was so much fun. Too bad Todd missed all the fun since he felt it was his duty as a Michigander to go to work in the snow. Too bad the rear end of Todd's truck paid the price for his heroism.

Bella's Princess Birthday

Since Bella had a big birthday party at ASI last year, I decided that we should do something a little smaller at our house. Thus began my campaign of trying to convince her to do a princess party. She didn't need much convincing, although she was torn because she did want the boys to come. In the end, I think it was a big success, although I might have forgotten the "do something small" part. I had a couple of young ladies from our church help we with hair and make-up for the girls. I borrowed princess dresses from a friend of Bella's, and we had made princess crowns and colored our own castle. I think Bella had a great time, and so did her friends. Really, what more can you ask from a 4th birthday. Bella loved playing the hostess to all her friends. The excitement of a four year old is something of a gift to those of us that love them.

New Years Eve

This was the first year that we really celebrated New Years Eve with the girls. We went over to Popo and Grammy's, and Grammy had fun hats, noise makers, and even bubble for everyone to toast in the new year. The girls made it to midnight (NY time), and loved, loved, loved that they got to drink a grown up drink (sparkling grape juice for them) in champagne flutes. Who knew champagne flutes could be so much fun. Oh, wait a minute, me did, me did.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning we continued the tradition of having Popo and Grammy over in the morning for present opening and brunch. This year Santa was very generous to a couple of very excited little girls. Last year we added the tradition of having an Elf on the Shelf. Our Elf's name is Polo (thank you Cristina for remembering his name). Polo reports to Santa on whether you have been bad or good. This new tradition may be too much for the girls. One night I was reading to the girls and Bella was turning the pages, and she accidentally tore one of the pages (destruction of books is a big no-no). So Becca told Bella, "Uh oh. Polo is watching." Bella immediately began to cry uncontrollably. Thankfully it looks like all reports to Santa were good. The girls were really excited about the pillow pets that Popo and Grammy gave them. Apparently they are all the rage with little kids and big kids alike. Also new this year were the specific requests for particular toys. Thanks to Nick Jr., which does not have commercials, the girls had not really ever seem commercials, and boo to The Hub - which does show commercials. Thus the random request for Penbo - a talking pink penguin. You will see he made it into Santa's sack. However, the enthusiasm for Penbo far exceeded his actual fun factor, as he has seen little playing time (I know this because I am writing this in September).

Christmas Programs

This year Bella was old enough to participate in the Christmas programs at church and school. I was someone embarrassed by Bella's performance during the church program. They performed Jingle Bells - no problem. But as the program continued, Bella got more and more fidgety and by the end the Music Minster had to stand beside her. My embarrassment didn't come as she flashed everyone...over and over... no my embarrassment came when she refused to listen to the Music Minster. So when it came to the Christmas program as school I had little hope. But we had a big talk about keeping the dress down and about listening to what her teachers told her. I think it worked because the school program was really cute. They sang several songs - complete with hand motions and had a little party afterwards. Even Popo was able to make it. I was really impressed that the teachers were able to get that many children singing and doing the same thing at the same time. And the best part - there was no flashing - at least not by Bella.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I feel like Christmas really just came and went at the Dyer household. I didn't get to take the day here and there like I wanted to just enjoy some Christmas activities. And when I did, plans didn't quite work out - our Santa visit was a flyby to the least busy Santa I could find on quite possibly the hottest day in December. But we still managed to ride the Christmas train at the local outside mall - which make no mistake the girls thought was GREAT fun. I know this because I could hear them howling with laughter

every time they went by. And we did go to the Christmas on the Square in downtown Garland, which was really just an excuse to eat funnel cake (always a win with the B girls). And Bella, my mom, and I saw the Nutcracker at the Windspeare - fancy - so I thought I'd better not take Becca, but in hindsight, she would have been better behaved than the grade school girls that

sat behind us. Bella was so well behaved that at intermission we went downstairs to get her an ornament. So now it's officially a tradition. The Nutcracker and an ornament every Christmas. And this Christmas Bella learned a little about giving to others. When I told her that we had adopted angels from the angel tree because some people don't have presents at Christmas, she suggested that we also get gifts for our Karen friends. Of course I'd already planned to do that, but she recognized on her own that they have less and it would be nice to get them something, too. She also recognized that her sister didn't have a piggy bank like she did, and she decided that a piggy bank was the perfect Christmas gift for Becca. The girls also gave generously from their stuff animal bins for the clothing closet at church. In fact it was me that saved some of the animals from the donate pile because of my own sentimental value I'd attached to them (sniff...like the little bear I put in Bella NICU crib).