Merry Merry Christmas

Christmas Day was another wonderful day! Everyone gathered at our house which, again I love! Chris's parents and I put together a delicious meal, with all the traditional family recipes Chris grew up with and loves. Well, minus me overcooking the ham, which is pretty hard to do since it was pre-cooked. Oops, just a few minutes too long in the oven. A huge thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for all the yummy food, the girls loved the meal as well! (Busia's famous stuffing was also present, thank you for that, my fave!)

We had a pretty relaxing day hanging out with the girls. They played like crazy and tired themselves out. We opened presents and again, the girls were more into the paper and ribbons than the gifts themselves. I think it may be different next year. Well, one thing will be for sure, another little Brockland will be a part of the celebration! These girls got a ton of cool stuff from all the Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles and Great Aunt. Thank you to everyone for being so generous with our little darlings! We love you all very much!

Dad watching the girls check out their new scooters...
Brooke loved the bows!

Awesome puzzles from Great Aunt Marilyn
Papa and Sydney chillin'
Grandpa hanging with Brooke

The girls liking the picture of themselves

Taylor sporting a festive headpiece
Brooke and another bow, or maybe it is the same one...
Taylor taking a ride in her new coupe car
Chillin' in the new igloo tent

Christmas Eve 2010: TheWigilia

A Wigilia is a traditional Polish Christmas Eve Dinner. It literally means "vigil". I remember as a small child going to my Busia and Gramps' house to celebrate Christmas Eve. It is one of my most fond childhood memories and although my Busia and Gramps have passed away, my Mom and Dad have continued the tradition. I look forward to this day all year long! The meal consists of mushroom soup, which is a blend of many imported mushrooms and is unlike any soup I have ever had. Then we move onto a lot of shrimp cocktail and perogies (potato, sausage and sauerkraut)! In the past I have helped my Mom make them and I know how labor intensive it is. That on top of all the other delicious food made for a fantastic festive meal!




This year was very special as well because Chris's parents joined us at my parent's house and it was just wonderful to all be together and enjoy the girls. The girls also were able to partake in the meal this year which was so much fun. We had them at the table with us and they had their first taste of potato perogies, they each seemed to really like them. What a change from last year when they were so tiny and spent most of their time sleeping!


I loved being at my parent's house with the beautiful decorations and the cozy feeling their house always gives me. I would be crazy not to share the special trees that Busia created for each girl this year. It was actually Papa's idea and Busia made it happen in a BIG way! She decorated one tree for each girl in their theme colors. Sydney, purple, Brooke, turquoise and Taylor, pink they are exquisite!!! The girls enjoyed looking at the trees with hundreds of ornaments and pretty lights.


The girls were not really into opening presents this year, but they did love shredding the paper and playing endlessly with the bows and ribbons. What a great day it was!

A Few Videos of a Typical Day Around Here

These are longer videos that I have taken of random play time. There is usually at least one funny or super cute thing that happens in each. Oh, and by the way, I AM aware that I am not the best "video taker".

Taylor Has an Announcement to Make

She said it...we are having another BABY!!!! The crazy thing about this is that she started saying baby over and over the week we found out that I was pregnant. The timing was insane, now I have come to realize that baby is the name she has for doggy. We will have to work on clarifying that for her, but we have some time!

So, number four child is on the way and should arrive at the end of June. Chris and I are really excited to bring home our baby like most people do, and to enjoy ONE child this time. And, to answer the ever burning question, it is only one this time. Whew! I couldn't sleep until we had our first appointment with Dr. Fait to confirm that there was indeed only one baby. I spent a short time worrying how it was going to effect the girls, they are at such an adorable stage right now, and I wondered how they would feel. Until...one of my best friends put it in perspective and I have not looked back. She said the girls will only be 21months old, they will never remember life without their little brother or sister.

Brooke Loves Her Books

Everyday the girls spend time pulling their books off the shelves and looking a them. They all read out loud a little, but Brooke seem to do it the most often. I love hearing her sweet little babble. She seems to be very serious about sharing the story to anyone who will listen.

This is a darling video of her in action:

Sydney's Hair

Nothing has changed much in the hair department. Sydney is still leading the pack buy a landslide. She is starting to get curls in the back and it is shaping up into a nice little baby mullet, the only acceptable kind! Brooke and Taylor are getting more, but it is so fine and light that it is barely there.

It is pretty cute when I run my fingers through Sydney's hair she will stop and sort of feel it and pat her head with a puzzled look on her face. I think the sensation of having hair was a little strange for her at first. Oh, and I have to mention, she had it pulled for the first time by one of her sisters the other day. Obviously that did not go over well, and someone ended up in time out!

Discovering Their Bellies!!!

All of a sudden the girls are loving their little bellies!!! It is so funny to watch, when you ask them where their belly is they each respond differently!

Sydney is by far the most excited about her tummy. She pulls up her shirt, looks at it and pats her belly over and over. Randomly throughout the day she will do this without even being prompted. She recently started coming over when I am changing Brooke and Taylor and patting their bellies. They love it and giggle like crazy. She also says a word that sounds pretty darn close to belly. I love that this is one of her first words.

Taylor is not quite as distracted by her discovery as Sydney is, but she will quickly pat her tummy when asked where it is. She also will lift her shirt once in awhile, but not every time.

Brooke is the least interested in her belly at this point. She will sort of point to it but it sometimes is right on the belly and other times will be closer to her arm pits.

I couldn't a picture with Brooke doing the belly thing, so I just picked a cute one instead!

It is really fun to see them picking up on the words and body parts we are talking to them about. I love to see the learning take place before our eyes!!!

We Have Walkers

This pretty much speaks for itself, Brooke and Taylor are not great at it yet, but they are getting better everyday! Way to go girls!!! I have a feeling Syd is going to get the itch to be upright soon! It really started on their 14 month B-day, Dec. 3rd!

Two Peas in a Pod

Chris and Sydney looking cute with their bandages. Chris's was also a cyst but just a quick procedure at the Dermatologist office.

Sydney's was a little more in depth because of her age. She developed a cyst on her forehead when she was about six months old. It looked like a bite of some sort at first, then it turned darker and looked like a little bruise in the middle of her forehead.

The scientific name for it is Pilomatricoma. Dr. Lyon, the Pediatric Dermatology Surgeon, said it would never go away on its own but that it could grow in size. The sooner we could have it removed the better for scarring purposes. We wanted to wait until she was one year because of the risks of going under anesthesia go down dramatically. It is kind of crazy that she had to be put under for this, however because of her age, and the fact that it is on a very delicate part of her body, it was the only option.

Syd was a complete sweetie all morning! Her procedure was delayed about two hours and considering she had nothing but a bit if apple juice for 18 hours prior, she did amazing.

She was getting pretty sleepy while we were waiting so she zonked out for a good hour and when she woke up she looked so adorable, hair all messed up and rosy little cheeks! Then the nurse came in to give her a little sedative to get ready to take her in and get her prepped for the procedure. It was so funny, because after a few minutes with the sedative in her system she started babbling and chatting really loud. The Anesthesiologist came in to talk to us and then the surgical nurses and she was babbling non stop, they all got a real kick out of her!

Coming out of the anesthesia was a little tough on her, she seemed a little disoriented, but she downed two large bottles of apple juice and seemed a lot better. I think she was a bit sore from the tube being down her throat, but she handled it all like a champ!!!

This is how it looks now, not bad, I think the scar should be quite small and blend well. Fingers crossed!

Brooke and Wrigley's Bed

Brooke really got a kick out of rolling around on Wrigley's bed, I know it's kind of gross, but she was giggling and having a blast!





She is hilarious!

Giving Thanks for our Blessings on Thanksgiving

Taylor
Sydney
Brooke


We had a houseful on Thanksgiving and it was wonderful. We are so thankful for so many things this year! It is unbelievable to see how far Brooke, Taylor and Sydney have come in the last year. They are three healthy beautiful happy little girls. We had almost the entire family together for the holiday. Chris's parents and my parents, Aunt Beth and Justo, Auntie Ang and my Aunt Sissy from PA. Unfortunately Uncle Eric was unable to make it due to health concerns with his Mother. We are praying for her! There was a lot of activity around here with having a ball with the girls! Once again we split up the cooking which I am so very thankful for. Everything was absolutely delicious, a HUGE thank you to everyone, those cooking made delicious food and those who did not cook kept the girls very busy which I really love to see. In fact the food was so yummy, when I asked Chris what he wanted to do for Christmas, he said anything as long as we can replicate the Thanksgiving meal somehow. He LOVED it!!!!

Now that the girls have been eating adult food for awhile now, I was looking forward to seeing how they would enjoy the traditional Thanksgiving fare. (God knows I do not cook like that daily or really ever these days!) All three girls seemed to love everything from the broccoli cheese casserole to the stuffing (my fav) and even ate a bunch of turkey. I just love my little eaters! There was also a lot of steps being taken over the course of the weekend. No one is officially walking yet, but 4-5 steps on their own is getting close!

Here are a bunch of snapshots from the weekend:

My Family
Chris's Family
Great Aunt Sissy with Taylor, Auntie Beth with Syd, Auntie Ang with Brooke
Auntie Ang with her nieces
Auntie Beth and Justo with the crew
Great Aunt Sissy making faces with Syd
Story time with Auntie Ang
Auntie Beth managing the train
Mom's necklace was a hit
Syd admiring Dad's wedding ring