Only 2 more sleeps!

The girls have gotten to the point on our Advent calendar that they're marking the days until Santa's visit by the number of "sleeps" they have to get through before he arrives. They are TOO excited about it...it's so fun. I'm still not even that sure they understand what is about to happen. I can't wait until Christmas morning to see their faces!
We leave in the morning for Hilton Head and then Kiawah...and so the girls were able to open up some presents here today before we go! They got to open up presents from Auntie Ronna...some adorable new outfits and pajamas and the cutest little monkey stuffed animals you've ever seen. The girls are currently sleeping in their new pjs and hugging their monkeys. A BIG hit!!!! Cousin Scott sent the girls Old Navy gift cards which is HUGE and will be such a big help to me!!!! We love Old Navy! Aunt Kylie, Uncle Matt and Grace and Greta sent the girls some Princess Ballerina t-shirts which are so cute and gave them each a personalized book. They loved reading them before bed with Daddy and thought that it was awesome that their names were in the book! Then...they opened up their presents from Nana Susan! They got a Playmobil Zoo which they had so much fun putting together tonight and the best gift of all...an easel with all of the paint and paper and supplies that we will need to create many, many masterpieces! They were in heaven and didn't want to stop painting! It was another beautiful day and so we put the easel outside and let them go to town painting on the driveway. They had a ball.
The girls are SO blessed to be SO very, very loved by so many people! Thank you so much for picking out such thoughtful gifts for our girls! They were so happy today! Merry, Merry Christmas to everyone...will do a post when we return from Kiawah! And we can't forget...as Reagan and Riley keep saying "Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus!!!"!

Gingerbread Houses!

Our neighbors across the street, Beth and Dave McCarthy, are just about some of our favorite people. They have an amazing family and we are so lucky to live near them. They have 4 kids...ages 8, 10, 11 and 13.  Two boys and two girls and all of them are crazy about Reagan and Riley and the feeling is very mutual. (Reagan and Riley are in LOVE with Patrick and Danny). They help the girls all of the time and come over to play with them and just take such good care of them. We took the girls to see Cara and Patrick and Danny play in their basketball games at school and ever since they've wanted to play basketball! (which they now can thanks to Uncle Ron and Aunt Conni!!!) Today, Mary (the youngest) asked the girls to come over and make a gingerbread house with her. They had everything all set and Reagan and Riley had an absolute blast. They ate just about as much as they helped, but it was too cute and they loved every second of it. Having such great neighbors is such a blessing. Today was an awesome Christmas memory for me and definitely for the girls!

SANTA!!!!!!!!

The PGA Tour throws a huge party every Christmas for all employees and their families. They hold it at the clubhouse at TPC Sawgrass. It's all decorated for Christmas and absolutely beautiful. They go ALL OUT. Fabulous food, tons of activities for the kids to do and of course, the main attraction...SANTA!!!! Now...just in case you have forgotten our previous experiences with Santa, let me remind you.....

YEAR ONE

YEAR TWO

Needless to say, our expectations were pretty low. We'd been prepping the girls for about 2 weeks. Seriously.While the bad mom in me was secretly hoping for another epic picture to add to the collection, the good mom in me didn't want my kids to have nightmares about their visit to Santa.  While waiting in line, I actually had butterflies in my stomach. Ha!!!! Last year the girls screamed so loud that the entire upstairs of the clubhouse (read...all of Matt's new colleagues) were hysterically laughing and staring at our girls. While it was pretty funny (for us, not them) I was praying for a good experience! And while both girls talked a BIG game all week...they sort of started to get nervous in line. But...once we made it to the BIG GUY, they were so excited to talk to him and tell them what they wanted for Christmas (both want a "blue scooter with sparkle wheels and princesses on it" and a camera) that they did AWESOME!!!!!!!!!  I got a little choked up realizing that my little babies are growing up! I don't have the professional pictures (yes, they take professional pictures) so I'll add it once I get that...but I did take a video....

The Tour had also set up an entire room dedicated to making gingerbread houses. The girls got really into it (really into eating the candy too) and Riley especially loved every single thing about it. We have them at the house now and I've had to move them around a few times because some of the candy and pretzels started "mysteriously" disappearing. 

So...while I don't have a picture of the actual visit to Santa, I did take one in front of our beautiful tree which the girls helped to decorate. (they really did!).

It was such a fun morning....they are so excited for Santa to come!!!! We're using our Advent calendar from Nana Mimi every morning to count down the days! Only 9 more days until Christmas Eve!!!

Christmas came early!

Grandpa David and Stephanie came this weekend to celebrate an early Christmas and we had such an awesome visit! They arrived on Friday night and brought the girls some things from their trip to Italy...including a Pinocchio ornament, the Pinocchio book and the movie! The girls loved it and we started to watch the movie but haven't gotten all the way through just yet. They've read the book about 943 times at this point. On Saturday we went to the PGA Tour Family Christmas party and the girls had a ball. (see previous post). We played outside, Stephanie brought some fancy Christmas nail polish and gave the girls manicures and we even introduced David and Stephanie to their favorite restaurant (besides Bob Evans), Bruccis! It was a BUSY, fun filled weekend! They brought the girls some absolutely perfect presents (which Grandpa David picked out by himself!!! so impressed!) and laughed a lot all weekend and the girls were thrilled when we told them we could all go to Bob Evans for breakfast this morning. (Grandpa David loved it too!). We had a fabulous visit and can't wait to see them again!!!!! What a great kickoff to Christmas!

DATE NIGHT!!!!!

Tonight was Iofredo Date Night....Daddy and Reagan had a date and Mommy and Riley had a date! It was so much fun! We told the girls last night that we were doing this, which may have been a mistake because they didn't talk about anything else ALL DAY LONG. They were so excited they could hardly stand it, which proves that we need to do this again soon! We let each of them choose whatever restaurant that they wanted to take us to. (We gave them a list of about 5 of our usual spots). Riley didn't need 5 choices...she shouted out "BOB EVANS!!!!" the second we told them they could choose where they wanted to eat. So...our date was set. Reagan wanted to go to one of our other favorite spots, Bruccis. It's a little Italian restaurant right by our house (and next to Bob Evans) that is SUPER family friendly! Matt and Reagan dropped Riley and me off at Bob Evans and went to Bruccis, but it was dollar pizza slices tonight (and dollar beer and dollar wine night too) and Matt said they could hardly get in the door. So...they changed plans and went to the Mexican restaurant next door. Reagan could have cared less because she was just so happy and proud to be with her Daddy! Matt said that she didn't stop smiling and hugging him the whole time they were there. Riley was just as happy but I'm not sure that she wasn't more excited to be at Bob Evans than to be with me. That kid LOVES Bob Evans. Matt and Reagan finished their meal in about 6 minutes (typical Mexican restaurant!) and came back to Bobs to have dessert with Riley and Mommy! It was an awesome night and the girls really did have so much fun. It was so nice to sit and talk with our girls alone for a bit...and Matt and I both agreed that we'll be doing this a lot more from now on. I told Matt we had to make sure and take pictures at dinner tonight...so here they are!!!

And...one of my friends sent this to me the other day. It's from the movie UP...if you haven't seen it, you should. It's so awesome! But I thought it was especially fitting for our day today and something that everyone can benefit from every once and awhile!

School Christmas Party

Believe it or not, even though it's only December 9th, the girls had their class Christmas party this morning! Their last day of school is this Friday. Yikes for me! (Just kidding...sort of!). We continue to feel so blessed by their amazing school, the friends they've made there (and the friends we've made too!) and the girl's teachers, Ms. Janet and Ms. Kelly who love our girls so much! Here are some cute pictures from this morning. (I tried to get pictures of Reagan and Riley together...but they just weren't having it!). Matt snapped a couple on the way out of the party but they were so excited at that point because their teachers had given them each a present and they were dying to get to the car to open them! Riley had put her present down for the picture...that's why she's looking at the ground. She couldn't take her eyes off of it! Such a fun morning!

Mary Had a Baby

We've been reading a lot of books about the real meaning of Christmas and the girls talk about the Baby Jesus all of the time. Nana and BopBop sent a Playmobil Nativity playset and that's been a huge hit! So when the girls started singing this new song last week and I'd never heard it before, at first I thought they were making it up as they went along. But then I realized it was just a little too good and they kept singing it sort of the same way each time!  They didn't have all of the words right but kept singing nonetheless. When we were at school today I asked the teachers about it and they showed me that they had it written down and that the class sings it every morning together. I took a picture of the words so that you could see what they really are in case you can't tell. (sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb!)! Reagan put on a show for us in the car yesterday on the way to the playground so I grabbed the camera to try and get it. Here it is....quite beautiful, don't you think?!?? My favorite part is when she talks about the "swaddling clothes". We love it.