Holiday "Vacation"

A new nice little tradition has started in the Hochberg house. Both Hallmark and Ryan Lawn are closed the week after Christmas which makes for a little "staycation" at the Hochberg house. This year proved to be some good family time mixed in with getting a lot done. Christmas decorations came down, the basement and some closets got cleaned out, movies were watched, Christmas gifts were enjoyed, I enjoyed a shopping day with Emily and and pink castle was made! A good time had by all!

Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning was rough this year, all but Grace had been up most the night with Clarie's ear infection, but Santa and family presents saved the day! Santa brought Claire a Barbie Car, Tiana Dress/Purse and a Leappad + some stocking stuffers. Grace was also a good girls and got a Dog that sings and knows her name, a truck that launches cars and a mini learning kitchen and her share of stocking stuffers. Some of the other favorites from family include baby doll gear, hopscotch rug, guitar, little pony remote control airplane, musical lantern, racing cars and trucks, rolling suitcase and bathtub letters and numbers...thanks everyone!!

Christmas Eve

We spent the day at Mom and Dad's on Christmas Eve with the Barkemeyers and Jake and Meredith before heading to Christmas Eve Mass to say Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus. We ate A LOT, opened some presents and at the end of the day survived having 4 kids under the age of 4 hyped up on Christmas and Santa. Grandma Fields joined the crazy house for a while as well!

Water Addict

Grace is a pro at the sippy cup, can put her head back and will down the whole thing if she wants to, so getting rid of the bottle should be no issue right??!! WRONG! We have a water addict on our hands, and she refuses to drink any sort of milk or formula, warm or not from the cup. She will take a few sips and chuck it away from her. This ought to be fun.

First Gingerbread House..

.....AND Last!

I don't remember ever making these when I was young, and this is the first year Claire and I made one. Yes, it was fun (kind of) to decorate, but Claire was much more interested in eating candy that she didn't need. Then it sat, taking up precious counter space, for 2 weeks to get so hard and gross and it would never be edible. We will stick with decorating cookies....much more fun and edible!

Home Bound

In her usual fashion Claire likes to over achieve when she gets sick. She was sick from school the whole week before Christmas with the grand slam to come on Christmas Eve night with massive ear pain. In all her ear infections, never has she been this inconsolable and miserable. As a result, we don't leave the house much, no one else needs our germs, and we certainly don't need any more! Trips to Grandma's and Target are about as brave as we have been. Here is Claire with some of her many "activities". It's hard for a girl who is used to going to school all week to be home bound for so long, we are on day 12...5 more to go!

Grace 11 Months

Here we are a few weeks before Grace's first birthday and I ask myself everyday how in the world did she get so big so fast. I have to remind myself she really is almost 1, as she still is my baby and feels much smaller than I remember Claire being at 1. The truth is my little thumb sucker has turned into a mover and a shaker! She likes you to chase after her and will speed crawl away, giggling the whole time. She pulls up, cruises a bit and will move between the couch and the coffee table,

and even stood on her own yesterday for the first time. She figured out how to get up the stairs on Christmas day, so up the gates are going at the bottom of the stairs. She is is a quick learner when playing and figuring out how to work her toys and and can push the right buttons, put pieces where they are supposed to go and then claps for herself to make sure she gets the necessary attention. Her recent cough this week and efforts to elevate her head to help her sleep has turned her bed more into a big girl bed with pillow and duvet, she loves it so much she sleeps without moving from the pillow. Grace has 4 teeth, with 2 more about to burst through and cauing a lot of pain this week which has turned her into a 24/7 thumb sucker!

Warm Winter

It's December 28th and we have had NO SNOW so far, and in fact many days have been in upper 40's or 50's. Mike welcomed his Christmas present of not having to shovel over a foot of snow on Christmas day, and we have also been enoying the ability to get the girls outside to play a bit in the afternoons. Forty degree weather is nothing a coat and hat can't handle! Here the girls are out for a swing. Grace doesn't quite fit in the baby swing with that coat on!

Cocoa and Candy Canes

Claire's school had an evening party in December with crafts, storytimes, songs and hot chocolate and candy canes. Here she is listening to stories with some of her friends.

All Aboard!

If you ride on the Claire train there are strict rules including: 1. "Daddy you are the caboose" 2. " No Talking" 3. "Hold the purses like this" Mom quickly decided the Claire train and rules were not for me, not to mention my legs hurt from trying to sit in the space alloted to me!

Christmas Spirit

Tis the season....today cards got ordered, decorations are going up, we visited Santa and the girls dressed festive! Here is my attempt at a pic of the two of them together...now if it would stop raining we could go get a tree!

Christmas Party and Santa!

Our church had a Christmas party today for families and we had a blast! Santa was there, carnival games and lunch! Grace sat on Santa's lap and Claire stood next to him with me which is an improvement over last year when she wouldn't get within 50 feet of him!

Grace 10 months

Grace is almost 11 months, but not quite, so I am going to take the opportunity to capture what fun Miss Grace is at 10 months She is my party girl and has lots of fun in life. She likes music and dancing, she pretends to talk on the phone, she crawls around with toys in her mouth, she is committed to getting into all the things Claire doesn't want her to, she knows the sign for "more" when eating, she mimmic's her mom, dad and sister, and is such a ham and likes to be the center of attention. She is also my snuggler, who is constantly crawling over to snuggle up and bury her head in me..what a sweetie. The last month + hasn't been all fun, Grace has had a constant cold and has been dealing with her top 2 teeth coming in, like always she is a trooper and we love her so much!

Dance Party!

Lots of dancing is going on in the Hochberg house lately. Claire has always loved to dance with one of us holding her, has loved the two dance classes she has taken, but never been much into dancing on her own or with anyone watching her. Things have changed in the last week, lots of dancing. Grace on the other hand, dances everytime she hears music, and in fact knows how to turn the on the music on the sit and spin toy and does it every chance she can!

Virginia & Baltimore Visit

We headed East the week after Halloween for a much overdue visit to see our Family. Flying with 2 young girls was interesting ( I will leave it at that), but we had a great visit. We got to see Dave & Kathy's new place in the Baltimore Harbor area, and also were honored to watch our Godchildren Mikaela and Graeme get baptised, how special! Once again I didn't do a great job with pictures, but did get a few....