Chef in training

Jill watched the girls for us the day after Christmas so we could check out the new outlets in Little Washington. (the outlets are not worth driving to..but that's another story).
When we returned Sarah was sleeping and Grandma was teaching Mary how to make Jimmies.
When Jude and his brothers were young, Jim and Jill owned their own pizza shop. They made Jimmies, which would be similar to a stromboli, but oh so much better.
These ones were even better b/c they were made with extra TLC from Mary. I have to say this was probably the highlight of her week...even better than the presents. She is still talking about it, and loves her chef hat and apron Grandma got for her.
Her job was putting on the pepperoni, but every once in a while she sneaked in a hand full of cheese, and on a few Jimmies, she added peppers and onions. Thanks Grandma for having the patience with this chef in training. I'm sure you could have had them made in half the time solo.
Who knows...maybe some day Mary will open up her own pizza shop...part time, since she will be a pastor. :)

Waffles & Gobs

Sarah-patiently waiting for her waffles. Pap always makes the girls waffles for breakfast when they are there. As soon as they wake up, they race upstairs to get Pap up and cooking. Christmas morning was no different-they actually wanted waffles before presents...but we changed that.

Eating waffles is serious business for this gal.

And Mary decided to have a gob for dessert. Grandma always makes gobs for Christmas. They were excellent as usual.

Christmas morning

Here are some pictures of the girls from Christmas morning.

I can't remember which gift this was, but I'm betting it was her sunglasses, since that is the only thing she asked for.

And if you ever asked Mary, you would know the main thing she wanted...a Gotta Go Doll!!!

Thankfully Santa found a reasonable one, in damaged packaging, but Mary didn't care. She got it!

Overall, the girls made out like bandits and had a wonderful Christmas.
I have to say, my husband broke the rules and got me a gift (we decided not to exchange amongst ourselves). I got a beautiful necklace and matching earings. I'll post them later.
(side note: today I found a waffle maker, like the ones you see in hotels, and Jude wanted one, so I got even...and bought it for him. stay tuned for pics of that one...can't wait to try it out!)

Shhh!! Santa is coming

The girls had a late night Christmas eve, because of company at Grandma & Paps house. When we finally got downstairs to our room, they were ready to crash.

"SHHHH!! Santa is coming, we better go to sleep"
(to me, it looks as if that is what she was telling Mary, and she just fell asleep mid-sentence)

And now...the time to see if Santa found Grandma and Pap's house. We left a note for him in Creekside telling him where we were. :)

Our cousins

Robert...happy with his Christmas gift from Pap and Grandma

Jack...he figured out the puzzle

Alex...She was giggling about her "personal" gift.

Jason...carrying his new bedding set

Warming up...

to the dogs that is. Aunt Renee and Uncle Tony brought their dogs, Ret and Scarlett to PA with them. Sarah has this thing against dogs. She just doesn't like them...whatsoever. And no, she has never had an incident to cause this fear, she just doesn't like them.

Finally on this trip, Sarah warmed up to their dogs.

We let her feed them scraps of meat, and she gradually began to enjoy that.

By the end of the week, you couldn't even really tell that she hates dogs.
Thanks Ret and Scarlett for your patience with Sarah.

My School Girl

This is just a picture of Mary before school. She was dressed up because it was their Christmas party.

I thought this hat was just adorable with this outfit.

Ret & Scarlett

Aunt Renee and Uncle Tony came up to PA for Christmas. They brought their dogs, Ret and Scarlett, with them. Mary has loved the dogs from day 1. She absolutely loves playing with them and feeding them "snacks". Here she is posing with Ret

Sarah, on the other hand, has not liked the dogs. Matter of fact she doesn't like ANY dogs. This trip was different, we finally convinced her that Ret and Scarlett were her friends, and that she was much bigger than them. It took Sarah feeding them a lit of scraps before we could convince her. Obviously by this point, the dogs truly were her friends. She still had moments of being startled, but we thought we did pretty good...especially since we could get her this close to Scarlett for a picture. I had to snap fast, and Renee tried to hold her a bit.

Been Busy

Just didn't want you to think I stopped blogging. :) I have a lot more Christmas pics to blog, but haven't had a chance. We came home from Pittsburgh Sat. morning, had the Martin Christmas party Saturday evening, Church this morning and this afternoon and evening I spent rearranging our upstairs. We moved the girls' bedroom into what used to be the playroom, and moved the playroom in to what used to be their bedroom. There were two motivations for this move, # 1: Santa must have also left someone else's toys around for our girls, because they got WAY too much this Christmas. :) So we needed a different set-up in the play room to fit everything. #2: and more importantly, we are hoping this room will be warmer and quieter. Their old room would get SO cold at night, and we think it is because of the closet, and it's connection to the attic. Plus their room was on the front side of the house, and they had to listen to the traffic.
So it is moved, and I am tuckered out. I'm grabbing a bite to eat, since I missed supper, and kicking back on the couch. Maybe tomorrow I will work at pics for you all.
Until then...

Family picture

Every Christmas we take a family picture in front of Grandma and Pap's tree. A few years back we got this really cool Christmas book, like a scrapbook. You put a picture on the page for each year and can write what you did, who you were with and memorable things from that year. It is fun looking back at it, so we try to update it each Christmas. It is neat too to see how much the girls are growing each year.
Here are a few of the "better" pictures we got.

Sarah was just not in the mood for picture taking.

The Urso's

Christmas 2008

Bad day for Bee

For some reason, Sarah has been out of sorts quite a bit recently. It seems every couple of days she is having a bad day. Unfortunately, today happened to be one of those days. We wanted to get a family picture, and she just would not cooperate.
Here are just a few cute pictures of her pouting.This face is priceless!!

Luckily as the day is going on, her attitude seems to be "perking" up.
It just seems wrong to be sad on Christmas day. She did go to Church with Jude and I this morning and seemed to enjoy herself. Maybe she just needed some "Sarah" time with Mommy and Daddy. (Mary stayed back with Grandma and Pap)

Presents for Pap and Grandma

For Christmas the girls got Grandma a new mousepad. (Her last one was from when Mary was a baby...Mommy is a little slow)They got Pap a calendar with lots of pictures of them in it (Grandma got a calendar of all the Urso kids from last summers family vacation)

and a Santa golfing ornament

Grandma and Daddy watching to see where Mary would place the ornament.

And Mary found the perfect spot for the golfing Santa on the Santa tree.

Merry CHRISTMAS!!!

Trash and Thanks

Sarah's favorite part about Christmas was cleaning up...She loved going around and picking up each little piece of paper...even ones that were still slightly taped to the packages.

Thanks PAP!!!

Sarah is out of sorts today...and this expression shows it. She was not in the mood for a hug.

A little better expression for Pap

Thanks Pap and Grandma for all of our great gifts...we got a V-Motion Active Learning Game, a puppet theater set with puppets, madjas (undershirts), barbies, peg games (like the ones you play at Cracker Barrel), boots for Mary, lined crocs for Sarah, books and new light up bath towels.
Plus lots and lots of great food.

V-Motion

For Christmas, Grandma and Pap got the girls a V-Motion Active Learning System. It would be the toddler version of a Wii.

Mary claimed, "This is what I have always wanted!!"

Jude and I picked up an extra controller and a few spare games. So far the game that came with it has been the biggest hit!!

Great gift Grandma and Pap

We Love IT!!!!