30 Wednesday Nov 2011
Posted in Bella and Norah
Tags
Bella, Cooking, Dumplings, Eating, Granddaddy, Grandma Duncan, Mimi, playing, Terrible Twos, Thanksgiving
This gallery contains 16 photos.
It has been a busy couple of weeks for the girls. The weekend before Thanksgiving my mother came up to …
01 Wednesday Dec 2010
Posted in Bella and Norah
Tags
Addisyn, Bella, Christmas, Daddy, Dining Out, Eating, Ellie, Granddaddy, Great-Mammaw, Lindsay, Meredith, Mimi, new word, number of words, Stacey, talking, Thanksgiving, Wes
Norah wants YOU to read this post!
This past week was a lot of fun for everyone in the Hufnagel house. We celebrated Thanksgiving different this year with the Snyder family, the Hufnagel grandparents and Mammaw Smith. Stacey (Snyder) is on bed rest, pregnant with number 3 and with that is a travel restriction. Jon and Paula (aka Mimi and Granddaddy) decided to come up and celebrate with us and the Snyders. I went over to Wes and Stacey’s early to help Stacey out and to attempt to get the girls to take a nap. They fell asleep in the car, but woke up as soon as we got there. After wrestling with the pack-n-plays and getting them set up in Cole and Ellie’s room I finally brought the girls in and put them down. They were not happy and fussed and cried for 45 minutes, but finally fell asleep. Aaron and the rest of the Hufnagels arrived about an hour or so later and Cole was so excited about the company that he ran and through the slightly open the door to the bedroom he woke up the girls. I crossed my fingers and hoped they would settle back down, but it was not meant to be. So I got the girls up after about 15 minutes. Bella was especially crabby and didn’t want to let anyone hold her. Norah was pretty much ok, but I knew neither one would last much past dinner.
Cutie Pie
We had an awesome dinner. Wes and Aaron deep fried a turkey. Stacey had made dumplings, dressing and mashed potatoes. Paula had brought up green bean casserole, corn on the cob, candied yams, along with pumpkin and cherry pies. Everything was so good and the girls ate pretty much everything, but they decided that dressing is fun to moosh between their fingers versus eat. When they decide their food is more fun than yummy, clean up is always fun. After everyone was finished and we cleaned up the kids, all the kids(notice I said “kids”) were playing and even Bella and Norah wanted to get into the rough housing with Aaron, Cole and Wes. We watched some football and then readied to leave around 7:30 that evening. It was a good time with family and friends.
Side by Side
Aaron had the girls all to himself on Friday as I had to work. He said that he had a great day with them as they become more sociable and willing to play not only with daddy, but each other. The hard times are when the jealousy sits in and they fight over who will sit on daddy’s lap. When I got off work we took the girls out to do a little light Christmas shopping. The nice part about having them with us is that we got to gauge their interest in things, but the bad thing is that Bella was interested in touching every single thing within her reach. She was pulling things off shelves and racks. We even managed to hear “Clean up on aisle 6″ while we were at the store…..whoops! We definitely put a good dent in our regular Christmas shopping. We also took the girls out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant and they did a great job. They love to dip their chips in the salsa and they were both really good about using their utensils to eat beans and rice.
Bella loving on Daddy
Norah wanting her Mommy
The next evening we had Samantha (our wonderful 2 houses down high school junior babysitter) come over to watch the girls so we could finish up our shopping and enjoy a dinner out without the girls. We had a nice time and managed to hit Best Buy, the mall, Toys R Us, Target, Menard’s and Wal-mart all in one evening. We ended up leaving our cart in Wal-mart because there were only 2 check out lanes open at 11:00 on a Saturday night…on the weekend right after Thanksgiving. Aaron went up to a lane where the cashier was ringing people up and she put the lane closed sign up right in front of him and after that we decided not to wait in the lines. Aaron said some very not-so-nice holiday spirit words such as BAH and Humbug littered with other four lettered variants. But we got 95% of our shopping done which is major plus.
This upcoming weekend we head out to St. Louis to celebrate our Thanksgiving/Christmas/Addisyn’s birthday-all-crammed-into-one-weekend dinner and festivities. It will be fun this year because the youngest grandkids are Bella and Norah and their next oldest cousin, Lindsay is a month older and now that everyone is walking and talking I am sure the kids will play and interact more. The girls are becoming more shy in new situations, but once they begin to open up they both talk quite a bit. I haven’t figured out how many words they are using, but I would guess that Bella uses well over 50 words right now and she can repeat words like there is no tomorrow. She has said, “horrible, ridiculous and some other words that I would rather she forget:) Norah is probably closer to 20 words. However she is more the studious of the two. She is inquisitive and always trying to figure things out and their logical processes.
Calling Mommy
They both are starting to like talking on the phone. They will say “hi” and wave to the phone which is so cute because they associate saying hi with waving. They also love to blow kisses into the phone as well. It still astounds me how quickly they catch onto things.
Enjoy the pics!
20 Saturday Nov 2010
Posted in Bella and Norah
Tags
Addisyn, Bella, Bella corner, Chastity, Granddaddy, hitting, Meredith, Mimi, Norah, potty training, shy, Stacey, Thanksgiving, timeout, Wes
Sorry it has been so long between posts and pictures. Aaron and I have been really busy with late nights and work.
Going to the Bella Corner
This past week we have had lots of time outs (mostly for Bella). She has been a cranky, drooly mess almost every day this week and she has been taking her frustrations out on everyone. She had one day at daycare where she screamed (just to scream) for most of the day. Needless to say she spent some time in timeout that day. At home she has been in time out numerous times for screaming, biting and/or hitting either Norah, Aaron or me. She has been there so many times this week that Aaron and I have unofficially started calling it “the Bella corner.”
Grandma Duncan with girls
The other night she had already been put in the corner a few times and she got in trouble another time and Aaron told her to go to time out and she went, sat down and cried all on her own accord. Norah always wants to go over to her when she is in time out and try to make things all better, so we spend more time trying to keep Norah out of the corner than we do getting Bella to stay there. Norah is also eager to imitate Aaron or myself when we are disciplining Bella. Norah will do this through words and gestures and is often so cute and funny that it is hard to remain in the moment or even stand pat. So in essence, Norah has actually saved Bella a few times because we cannot remain firm. Her gestures and especially her facial expressions when trying to imitate us is so humorous that we can effectively carry the discipline out. I guess that is what sisters are for….
Little Houdini
An update on our little Houdini AKA Norah: We have not had to turn the crib around yet because she has not climbed out since last week. I don’t know if she has tried and failed or if we haven’t left her in there long enough in the morning for her to try to escape. I am kind of glad because it would have been rough to get them in and out of that crib if we had turned it around. It is very high on the sides and higher in the back, so we would have to pull it out to access the front in order to get the girls in and out.
Bella is continuing to show signs of readiness for potty training. She doesn’t quite tell us 100% of the time when she needs clean diaper but each passing day seems closer and closer. She pretty much says poop for any type of wet/dirty diaper, but she is becoming more and more aware of her bodily functions. We are still debating when to try to start and if we are going to use a little potty or get a seat for the big one. I am thinking little seat because they both have acted terrified of the toilet when I have held them over it before baths to see if anything happened…nothing did, except for the fussing and crying.
Our First drink of Orange Juice
You want some OJ Daddy?
The girls also had some visitors last week….well actually the went outside and next door to our neighbor Chastity’s house. Chastity has always come to see the girls a lot, played outside with them and is an active reader of this blog. So much so that her mother now reads the blog too. So when Chastity’s parents came up for a visit, Aaron took them over to see Chastity and her parents. Both girls were both very shy in the beginning. They hung around daddy’s leg clinching to them. Norah was the first to open up and then she was off to see everyone. It took Bella a little while longer, but she also eventually came around and started to talk, play and interact. I hope they had a good time with the girls and I know they got quite a few pictures too. It is a blessing to have good neighbors like Chastity and her parents are about the most friendly people you will ever meet. I know that Aaron enjoys talking to Chastity’s dad when he is up.
Aaron’s parents will be up for Thanksgiving this coming week. We will then be going over to our friends Wes and Stacey’s house to eat Thanksgiving where Wes and Aaron will deep fry a turkey. If you have never had one, it is quite delicious. The first time Wes and Aaron did was their worst and it seems each time is better and better. I know that Wes and Stacey are excited because Stacey who is very pregnant with #3, is on bed rest and thus restricted travel. I am happy that we and Aaron’s parents are so flexible and willing to have Thanksgiving with them as they cannot travel as they usually do. It will be a new experience with friends and family. Then in a couple of weekends after that, we will be off to St. Louis to see my sister Meredith. It will be quite a weekend as we celebrate Addisyn’s birthday/Thanksgiving/Christmas with my family. With three grown children and everything that is going on, we decided to try and combine and fit everything into a weekend. This will be the first, so we will see how it goes.
Below are the rest of the pictures from the last few weeks. As always, all of them are on Flickr. Also, is a quick video of Mommy painting Norah’s piggies! That was the topic of the last post and if you did not read it, be sure to click here to check it out!
29 Sunday Nov 2009
Posted in Bella and Norah
Tags
Addisyn, Bella, first real food, Granddaddy, Grandma Duncan, Great-Mammaw, Hope, Kurt, Meredith, Mimi, Monte, St. Louis, Stacey, Thanksgiving, travel, Trey, video, Wes
Isn't Bella just cute?
Last weekend we went to St. Louis for my family’s Thanksgiving/Addisyn’s birthday party. The trip there was not as bad as I had feared because we got home from work, changed the girls into their pj’s and fed them so they would sleep most of the way there. The first night there was more than a little rough. We were sleeping in the guest bedroom and put each girl into their own pack-n-play beside the bed, Jasmine was in her crate and Sadie was in bed with us. Bella was not a happy baby about the accommodations because she ate at 11 and fell back to sleep, but woke up again at midnight. So, I rubbed her back and she fell back to sleep only to wake up again at 3:00 am. She did not want to be held in bed with us, she did not want a pacifier, and she wasn’t happy being put down with Norah in her pack-n-play. No, I had to stand up and hold her up again me with her head on
Addisyn
my shoulder…sitting down was not even allowed. I took Bella downstairs and finally calmed her enough to let me lay her on the floor and I laid down with her. Finally got her to sleep after about an hour and I slept on the couch close by. Meredith got up around 6 and her dogs woke Bella up, so we were all up for the day. Norah and Aaron ended up getting a pretty good night’s sleep.
We didn’t do much that day. We went out to lunch…four adults, a four year old and three infants. Surprisingly things went smoothly and Bella slept almost the whole time. When we returned to their house my mom had arrived, so the guys ran out to get some last minute things and Mere and I took a nap while Mom watched the kids. Kurt and his kids, Hope and Trey, arrived later than night. Natalee wasn’t there because she had to work the next day. That night the girls got baths and we put the
The Sisters Hufnagel
twins together in Lindsay’s crib and Lindsay slept in her pack-n-play in the same room. They all slept great! I couldn’t have been happier about that.
The next day Monte’s parents, Ron and KayAnn came up and we did the big Thanksgiving thing. The food was delicious as always. The only hitch was the dog poop that came in on Hope’s shoes after the kids went out to play, so it had to be cleaned up before we ate. We did Addisyn’s cake after later that evening and Monte had bought the trick candles that relight, so it was hilarious watching Addisyn and Hope both trying to blow the candles out! It was a good day and a smooth evening. Monte’s parents left after that and Kurt left a little later that evening. We stayed until Sunday.
The Sisters Willard doing "Big Buck"
We love each other
Sunday was not a good day. The dogs decided to act up. Jasmine pooped on Addisyn’s blanket and Sadie was jealous (I guess) because she peed on the floor right in front of Meredith. It seemed as if Monte was chasing them with his little steam cleaner. The trip back was smooth until we were about an hour or so from home and Bella started fussing because she woke up from her nap and was just done with her carseat. Norah slept the whole way up until maybe the last 20 minutes or so. We were happy to be home and I think the girls were too because they have slept great every single night this week.
Grandma Duncan aka "The Babysitter"
On Thanksgiving Aaron’s parents and grandmother (Mimi, Granddaddy and Mammaw) came up to celebrate with us. They came up and brought most of the fixings, but I cooked my first turkey. I guess it was ok…it could have tasted worse and I didn’t burn it which is always a plus. We had green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, dressing, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy and it was all so good! Mimi had the opportunity to feed the girls their first real people food. Norah went first and wasn”t really sure about the mashed potatoes, but Bella loved them and couldn’t get enough. The girls really enjoyed seeing them, but they were only able to stay up for the day. As usual, Mimi, Granddaddy and Mammaw had a great time holding, kissing and loving on the girls.
This past weekend we did Thanksgiving at Wes and Stacey’s on Saturday. Greg and Jill were also there. The guys almost burned the house down (or so I was told) because Wes didn’t make sure the turkey was completely thawed prior to sticking it into the deep fryer and it overflowed all over the
Mammaw and Bella
garage floor! I know we have told him on more than one occasion that it would do that, but he isn’t known for his listening skills. We had a good time and the turkey was only a little dry:) I ended up leaving early to bring the girls home because they did not nap well and were getting really tired and cranky. Today we took the girls to do their 6 month pictures. We had some cute ones, but Norah was not willing to smile for the camera. Bella was all smiles, but we had a hard time trying to get her focus off of her shoes. We will have them back next week and will bring them in with us when we come in for Christmas.
I'm not too sure about this Mimi!
All in all it was a pretty busy last week for us and the girls. It was trying at times and great at others, but I guess that is what being a parent is all about. We are super excited about the girls’ first Christmas upcoming. We bought them there stockings which are absolutely gorgeous. They each have a little charm on them that say, “Dear Santa, I have been good!” We also got them the first Christmas ornament which are sterling silver baby Mary Janes that say their name and all that good stuff. We have got them a few gifts here and there including their first teddy bear, which is a lot bigger than they are! We will have some more traveling obviously around Christmas and hopefully all will go well with that. I am glad to say that we are very glad, although it was enjoyable, to be done and get back to some normalcy. We hope to have all the pics uploaded to Flickr in the next few days, but enjoy the nice sample (about 45+) of pics until we get them all. Also enjoy the video!
