2008 - Year in Review

A quick Q&A session for 2008's year in review....

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’ve never done before?

Um, continued raising twin toddlers!

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I can’t remember the resolutions I made a year ago, but I’m I'm working on them for this year.

3. Did anyone close to you get pregnant this year and/or give birth?

Oh wow, yes! A few friends…Alisa, Jennifer, Amy.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

No.

5. What countries did you visit?

None. I am hoping to change that in 2009 and hoping that Paige & Taylor come along too. (Gotta’ get their passports…I see a warm, sunny South of the Border beach vacation in their future).

6. What would you like to have in 2009?

A lot less stress.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

May 3 – My five year wedding anniversary! A moment of reflection here…Five years of marriage and look at all that has come to pass…a move from the East Coast to the West Coast, buying a new home, buying two new cars, starting a family (and, at the time, thinking we’d just have one baby and getting 2), raising twins, on and on and on.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Being a good mommy to Paige & Taylor.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Because I’ve been focused on being a mommy to Paige & Taylor, sometimes that has come at the expense of being a really GREAT wife to my husband.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

No.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

I won’t answer that. Sorry.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Ok, weird question, but I'm going to go with the twins Paige & Taylor.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and frustrated?

Doesn't take a genius to figure this one out, but it’s the same answer as in question #12.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Bills, twins, bills, twins, bills, twins, bills, twins, bills, twins.

15. What did you get really, really, really bummed out about?

Easy one. The lost campaign of Presidential candidate John McCain.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?

Most of the songs I sing now involve nursery rhymes, sing-alongs for kids, so I think I'll have to go with those.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) More happy or more sad? More happy.

b) Thinner or fatter? Exactly the same - thin.

c) Richer or poorer? Richer for the love in my life and the experiences of being a mom and wife. Poorer only in material things…come on, this should be obvious, we're raising twins and I'm a stay-at-home mommy, the most IMPORTANT, yet most underpaid job that exists. So, I may be poorer but only because our beautiful daughters lives are richer!

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Hung out with my friends, made "me" time more of a priority, and work out harder and more often at the gym.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Less reality-show t.v. watching at night after the twins have gone to bed.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

I spent Christmas with my favorite people – my husband and my daughters. We opened presents, then took a little family getaway to Monterey Bay.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?

Oh yes, times two, all year long in two ways everyday – Paige & Taylor.

22. What was your favorite TV program?

The Unit

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

I don't have time or energy to hate people.

24. What was the best book you read?

Oh goodness, I read SO many books this year. But I'm going to go with Dr. James Dobson’s “Dare to Discipline”. It’s a must-read for every parent in my opinion!

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

That two toddlers who totally sing loud and off-key really is music to my ears.

26. What did you want and get?

To pay off our Jeep Grand Cherokee and we did. Up next, our BMW 3-series…yeah, only 5 more months to pay on our BMW, and then we’re totally car payment free!

27. What did you want and not get?

An uneventful year, and that just didn’t happen this year.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

The Traitor

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Well, on my actual birthday I had to clean house, make meals for Paige & Taylor, wipe bottoms, do laundry, etc. so in that respect it was just another typical day in the life of, but only turning one year older. Mike did however let me escape for a little bit of “me” time to get a nice, relaxing pedicure and I did get some nice presents.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Let’s see…if I had my ultimate wish list…I guess winning the lottery. Oh what else, maybe some plastic surgery….nothing major, just a little nip, tuck here and there. Ha, ha.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

Jeans and tank top/t-shirt wearing mommy in flip flops mostly.

32. What kept you sane?

My family, friends, and fellow moms of multiples who give really good advice on raising twins!!!!!

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

My girl crush on Edward Norton has not faded.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

Listening to uninformed, disillusioned people talk about the election. Ugh. But, to be fair, I know that others found me to be also uninformed, disillusioned about the election. I guess that's just how it goes with politics.

35. Who did you miss?

Old friends and family members I've not seen in a long time, especially from the East Coast where I grew up and lived for 20+ years.

36. Who was the best new person(s) you met?

Well, some of the medical specialists who manage the care for my daughters, and there are a lot of them. I really appreciate each of them in my life and in my girls' lives.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.

Things definitely don't always go as planned, but that is okay. It keeps life interesting.

38. Quote a favorite thought or expression that sums up your year.

Adversity introduces a person to him/her-self; and it's how a person responds to such adversity that is the measure of a man/woman.

Taking A Time-Out

This week, I'll be taking a time-out from blog postings...family from the East Coast is visiting our family, and our week will be chock-full of all things twins, grandparents, sight-seeing, etc. Twinsanity posts will resume again in a week. Have a great one!

No Time to Write

No time to write much right now...we've returned from a couple of days in Monterey to a post-Christmas house in much need of some tidy-ing up. And, the laundry to do, ohhhh, don't get me started on how much laundry I have to do. So, just a few pictures to post today from our visit to Monterey. Paige & Taylor loved the Monterey Bay Aquarium! It was C-O-L-D though so being outside wasn't much fun...


I have some pretty good videos to upload too, which I'll have to come back to do later on....Be sure to come back to this post to check out the videos I took of Paige & Taylor at the aquarium!

Christmas Eve - Pictures & Presents

Our Christmas Eve began tonight with our family attending a Christmas Eve service at our church...following the service, we came home snapped a few (mostly posed) family photos together...later, made some cookies to thank Santa Claus for his "long trip to Paige and Taylor's house"...and finally, the girls got to open just a few of their presents tonight. Talk about toy overload!!!! I am posting some of the random and various pictures taken throughout the evening at our house. (And, in case you were wondering, yes, that's me, only as a recently dyed brunette and with bangs).


It's now getting late, so I'm turning in soon because Paige and Taylor are now soundly tucked into bed and there is much more Christmas celebrating in store tomorrow, so I will definitely need a good night's sleep!

Baking cookies for Santa Claus....

Opening a few presents on Christmas Eve...

Christmas Eve

It’s Christmas Eve…Taylor and Paige are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Christmas.... we've been talking about Santa Claus, and a lot about Baby Jesus. They understand that Santa brings presents and that Christmas is Baby Jesus’ birthday. Most of what we talk about with the twins as far as Christmas goes seems to be sinking in…the twins even got to open one of their Christmas presents early this year. It’s the Fisher Price Little Nativity set and the girls love it. They love perching the little angel on top of the nativity set…they love moving the sheep, the shepherds and the 3 wise men around....and, if you ask them to show you Baby Jesus, they’ll point right to his little manger. It’s very sweet! We’re sure to have a fun Christmas with Paige and Taylor this year. What a great age this is. There will be some pictures posted here in a few days for your viewing pleasure so be sure to check back!

Until then, Merry Christmas!

Festivus - It's Not Just For Comic Relief Anymore.

Frank Costanza (Jerry Stiller, left) stands next to Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards) and holds the aluminum pole his family has used in past Festivuses, while talking to Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) and watching his son George Costanza (Jason Alexander) race out of Monk's Café, at the mention of the Festivus tradition "Feats of Strength."

Now, I’m a long-time enthusiast of Seinfeld and a big fan of nearly every Seinfeld skit….even, the Seinfeld episodes that are dedicated to Festivus. Oh, you know Festivus…it’s the annual holiday created by writer Dan O'Keefe and introduced into popular culture by his son Daniel, a scriptwriter for the TV show Seinfeld. The holiday includes novel practices such as the "Airing of Grievances", in which each person tells everyone else all the ways they have disappointed him or her over the past year. Also, after the Festivus meal, the "Feats of Strength" are performed, involving wrestling the head of the household to the floor, with the holiday ending only if the head of the household is actually pinned. These conventions originated with the TV episode. (Wikipedia) You might remember some of these episodes…if not, watch them here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQFLqMyo0fo&feature=related

Weren't those funny? Yeah, I just love Seinfeld too.

Well, some people today, I guess either influenced or inspired by Seinfeld, now celebrate the Festivus holiday in varying degrees of seriousness. Yes, seriousness. (And, if you think I’m kidding, well you should just check out the businesses on the internet actually manufacturing and selling the infamous Festivus metal poles that coincide with celebrating Seinfeld’s Festivus). What was intended to be comic relief in Seinfeld is now becoming a serious practice for many thanks to the spread of Festivus in the “real world” chronicled in the book Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us.

So, I figured I’d weigh in on this issue since it appears that the rest of the “real world” is already. Don’t get me wrong, these Festivus episodes in Seinfeld were very funny. They made me laugh. They made me smile. That’s what comedy should do. But, in this Christmas season where it seems that nearly everywhere I turn, happy, shiny faces at the stores are wishing me “Happy Holiday”, “Happy Winter Tree Holiday”, or some other concocted variation to Christmas such as “Happy Festivus”, I find myself thinking how ridiculous our society is becoming. Really.

Call me antiquated, archaic and old-fashioned, but I still say “Merry Christmas”. To me, it’s not about some silly little saying that is uttered once a year while we’re all out shopping. To me, wishing someone a “Merry Christmas” is inexplicably tied to my faith as it is for many thousands and millions of others and the “good news of great joy for all people…there has been born for you a Savior…” (Luke 2:10-11).

So, this year, you won’t be hearing me say anything but “Merry Christmas”. It’s okay to say “Merry Christmas” no matter what those big box retailers are doing and saying. Paige and Taylor are also saying and wishing the people they meet “Merry Christmas”. And, that’s okay too.

Besides, somehow the explanations I can offer to the young minds of 3-year old twins come far more easily when sharing with them the story of Christmas. Explaining Festivus to 3-year olds? I don’t think I could even begin to try…there's this pole thing, there's this list of grievances you say, and so on. Nope, I don't see that coming very easily to 3-year olds.

Brrrrrrrrrrr.

Okay, so the title doesn't really have anything to do with the post, but it's been SO COLD around here over the last week that it's hard to ignore. As I type that, it occurs to me that I’ve really become spoiled by California weather because COLD to me is when it’s 50 degrees, whereas where I grew up on the East Coast in Virginia, COLD used to be when the temperatures were in the teens and with the windchill factor made it feel like it was a horrible 0 degrees.

So, I suppose I’ve become very spoiled by the fair weather here in California, but even so, 50 degrees still feels really COLD to me these days. I feel like COLD should be a caption under every picture I post to my blog. We were at a birthday party over the weekend. And it was cold. We were at the mall Christmas shopping yesterday. And it was cold. We were playing around the house today. And it was cold. Anyway....

Paige - COLD

Taylor - COLD

We are getting ready for our Christmas holidays. Today, my husband is at work and making arrangements for lodging/travel for our family for a short family getaway and is also trying to decide whether or not we let our dog Tukker tag along with us or send her to a boarding place while we’re vacationing over the Christmas holidays. Yesterday, Taylor, Paige and I went Christmas shopping to pick up a few last-minute items before Christmas….I have no plans of being at the malls tonight and most definitely not on Christmas Eve so I think I’m officially done shopping now! YAY!

What's In A Dream?

So, last night, I dreamed of taking care of a puppy. Weird, I know. I woke up this morning and could still vividly remember me tending to the tiny creature…I remembered wrapping the puppy in little blankets…yeah, it sounds crazy and ridiculous. And, it is. But here’s the kicker: the last time I dreamed about newborn puppies, or caring for a puppy or some other fuzzy animal was several years ago. And, if my memory serves me correctly, it was around the time I was either trying to get pregnant or already pregnant.

Now, I admit that I’ve toyed with the idea of getting pregnant again. I mean, come on people, I’m not getting any younger and I figure if I’m going to take the pregnancy plunge again, perhaps it should be sometime within the next year.

So, in light of this puppy dream last night, I started thinking and reflecting upon the last few years which then led me to backtracking down memory lane to a little more than 3 years ago to a time when my husband and I decided to get a puppy. We got this little puppy not just because we wanted one, but deep down, I think we got it just to give the whole taking care of a little creature thing a test-run before we embarked upon the task of taking care of a little baby, or in my case 2 babies.

I’m not alone in this approach. I’ve known several other girlfriends who have done the exact same thing – got a puppy, or a kitty cat or some other little critter to love and care for – before getting pregnant and starting a family. And, I’ll have you know also that interestingly enough, I recently had started talking about getting another puppy again a few weeks ago. Yes, we still have our first puppy – Tukker, and she’s great – but she’s no longer a puppy. I mean she’s house-broken, mostly well-behaved the majority of the time and certainly doesn’t have that cute little puppy breath anymore. (Oh, come on, you know what I’m talking about – who doesn’t love puppy breath?) And, more importantly, she’s pretty self-sufficient and doesn’t really need me other than to let her outside, feed her and hang out with her while watching t.v. at night. But, a puppy, that’s a different story – it’s cute, snuggly, playful and is in many ways just like a new baby.

And, now we come full circle - back to the dream I had last night. If I dreamed of caring for a puppy again last night, does this just mean that perhaps I’m interested in getting a puppy or could it mean something more? Could it be the precursor to me actually wanting to get pregnant again? Hmmmm, who knows.

Just for kicks though, I looked up on the internet on some pregnancy-related/baby web sites some keyword searches of what dreams might be associated with starting a family; and oila, lo and behold, according to one web site, “to see a puppy in dreams symbolizes a blossoming interest in getting pregnant” and “to see a litter of puppies in dreams is indicative of the amount of time that an idea of getting pregnant has been developing” and the site goes on to say “look to the number of puppies in your dreams to give you some further insights”.

Heh. Very interesting. While I don’t put a lot of stock whatsoever in dream interpretations, this was a pretty fun exercise to do today and it really did get me thinking. I guess I’ll wait and see if I have any more dreams in the days to come about a puppy, or perhaps in my case, since I’ve been a mom to twins, I should pay far more attention to precisely how many puppies might be appearing in my dreams.

A Busy Saturday

I've been pretty busy today - first, mailing out the last of our Christmas gifts to family, then off to my favorite outlets to look for some steals for me. I found some great shirts at the Polo outlet store for waaaaaay cheap on the sale rack. Since I'm a stay-at-home mommy, I'm usually just running around in jeans and tees...the Polo ones at least give me some style. And, hey, I always love a bargain, so seeing my favorite long sleeve Polo tees on sale, well, I couldn't pass it up.

Anyways, later in the day, the girls and I went to one of my good friends houses to celebrate her daughter's 3 year old birthday. Paige and Taylor had a great time. I snapped a couple of photos of them in the bounce house - sorry but the pictures are a little blurry. (I guess I need to upgrade my camera to the latest Nikon camera that Ashton Kutcher is promoting on t.v. when he snaps away all these great action shots and says "BooooYa".)

- Taylor in foreground, Paige in background -

- Taylor -

- Paige -

- Paige -

Looking ahead to next week, I can't wait for this Christmas! Even though the girls are still so little, I hope the pictures we take will be meaningful to them in the future. I have always loved looking at family photos from Christmases past and I hope the pictures we take this year will be enjoyed by Paige and Taylor as they grow older.

TV Show to Offer 4-D Imagery of Identical Twins Journey

This information was just emailed to me so I’m posting it here since there are some of you out there, in our world of mommies to multiples, who will probably find this really interesting…

The National Geographic Channel is airing a show on Sunday, December 21, 2008 at 9:00 PM “In the Womb: Identical Twins” where they’re going to trace the awesome journey of one of nature’s most fascinating miracles – identical twins!

If you want more information, check out the National Geographic Channel web site at:

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/in-the-womb/all/Overview

New Photos

I wanted to post these pictures...these were taken a week ago during our trip to the mall where the twins turned out to be not so nice to Santa for their picture on Santa's lap...most of these pictures are my botched attempts at getting some cute pictures of the girls next to the mall's Christmas trees and ornament displays because as you'll see, you just can never (well almost never) get both girls to sit or stand next to each other long enough to actually snap a photo. And, get them to look at the camera? Forget that. Ah well, maybe in a few more years.

Taylor

Paige

- Paige (L), Taylor (R) -

Paige

- Taylor (L), Paige (R) -

Paige

- Paige (L), Taylor (R) -

- Paige (L), Taylor (R) -

In other fronts from our house, tomorrow, Paige, Taylor and I will be going to one of their little friends' houses for a 3-year old birthday party...Mike will basically have several hours all to himself tomorrow (lucky boy)...and, Tukker, well I imagine that she will welcome the quiet and calm of the house since Paige and Taylor won't be around...so, Tukker should have a good day tomorrow too!

48 Hours Later

Well, just 48 hours after my "Ugh. Sick - Every One of Us." posting (http://ashley-twinsanity.blogspot.com/2008/12/ugh-sick-every-one-of-us.html), did my predictions prove true for Paige.

Tonight, Paige started throwing up. Ah, yes, the throwing up, how well I know it when it comes to Paige. It's the first indicator to me that she's on her way to an ear infection. Whenever Paige gets sick, whether it be a sniffle, slight cough or a cold, it ALWAYS leads to an ear infection. You can try to prevent the onslaught of the ear infection by treating the first signs of sickness, runny nose, cough but alas, with Paige, you just can't keep the ear infections from happening. The ear infections are always accompanied by multiple episodes of throwing up, neither of which are good for Paige since she's our finicky little eater. She eats like a bird when she's 100% healthy, but if she is even slightly sick, well you can forget about her eating...it's just a lost cause.

And, of course, we're about to go into the weekend so I can either get lucky and manage to get an appointment to see our pediatrician on short notice on Friday or I can spend a good 2-3 hours in the waiting room at one of these walk-in clinics over the weekend. The former is my preferred choice, however, it may not be the likely scenario leaving me no other choice than to go to one of these walk-in clinics on Saturday or Sunday. Yuck.

If there is an upside to this, it is this:

If Paige does have an ear infection, then her pediatrician has already indicated to me, during a previous visit with him, that if Paige has 3-4 ear infections during this winter's season, he's going to (FINALLY) consider her as a candidate for tubes in the ears. (I guess she's approaching that magical, mysterious minimum # of ear infections required by the medical community making her now eligible for tubes). Well, all I can say to this is finally, finally, finally, finally. I certainly don't wish for Paige to have an ear infection ever, but if she's going to be getting them anyways, I at least want to know, that the pediatrician is finally going to consider taking the next step towards getting tubes in her ears. I've been inquiring and asking for tubes for Paige for a while now, but alas, no tubes. As Paige's mom, after wrestling with what seems like a zillion ear infections during the Fall/Winter months for the last 3 years, I for one am all for tubes in her ears! (Can't you just hear me now, "tube her, tube her, tube her, tube her")

Hopefully, tonight will be a peaceful night's sleep for Paige (and the rest of us) and that she won't wake up wretching and throwing up in the middle of the night. I've already set out a fresh pair of new pj's and a new change of bedding in her room however just in case....and, tomorrow morning, I'll be making the calls to the pediatrician's office and keeping my fingers crossed that he can squeeze us in lickety-split for an appointment so we can get Paige a RX for her ear infection (if that's what she has) and be on our way.

Funny

Paige...she's just too funny.

Today, she had a little pee-pee accident at the house. On one of our nice sofa throw pillows. We're already down one throw pillow on our sofa from a beyond-salvageable poop mess from Taylor several weeks ago. Okay, so maybe that pillow could have been salvaged if I'd really applied myself, but given the mess I was contending with, I wasn't about to avail myself to that task so instead, I just tossed it in a garbage bag.

Well, after I discovered the wet spot on the pillow, and observed it to be Paige who was the obvious culprit since her britches were damp, I asked her, "now, where do we need to go pee-pee?" (this lead-in question was my effort at prompting Paige for that hopefully desired response back from her "in the big girl potty" or to at least allow me to initiate the familiar ol' conversation of reminding her that we go in the "big girl potty"). Instead, Paige simply said, "I go pee-pee on the pillows." Funny, huh?!

So, later in the day, several hours after we'd had a chance to chat about how "big girls go pee-pee in the big girl potty", I asked Paige if she had to go potty and she said, "no, thank you". I'm not kidding. She actually said that - "no, thank you." So, I followed it up with, "well, when you do need to go potty, where do we need to go?" (Again, just trying to take advantage of the opportunity to hopefully elicit that "in the big girl potty" response back from her to validate to me that yes, she understood that next time she would go in the potty.) Well, instead, Paige said back to me: "I go pee-pee on the pillows." Uh-oh. That was not what I was hoping to hear. Uh-oh.

Well, at least she's totally honest. I just hope that she doesn't think she always gets to go pee-pee on the pillows now....ha, ha, ha, ha, ha....time will tell.

Ugh. Sick - Every One of Us.

So, after making it through all of November and the first couple of weeks of December pretty unscathed, well, sickness around our house is back and rearing its ugly head.

First, let’s talk about me. I’ve had a persistent cough and a really raspy voice. It’s actually a sexy sounding voice, and I kinda’ like it, but since it is accompanied by a terrible sore throat, I’d rather not sound sexy so that I could actually feel that way instead. But, there is just nothing appealing or sexy about spraying my throat every night with Chloraseptic spray just to try to keep my cough at bay while I sleep. And, there is definitely nothing sexy about my baggy sweatpants I'm slumming around in, even if they are from that infamous Pink line.

Now, let’s talk about my husband. He has just begun to complain about what he describes as a slight sore throat. I tell him that I’m sorry, knowing he most likely caught my cold, but assure him that I have all the Chloraseptic spray and cold medicine he could ever need once he goes into full sick mode.

And, now for the twins. Taylor has been waking up the last couple of mornings with a gunky, crusty nose and throughout the day has had a runny nose. I suspect she has now caught my cold as well. She has coughed a few times, but has generally been fine otherwise. This is pretty typical for Taylor when she gets sick. She’ll just get a teeny bit of a bug and then be over it in a matter of a few days. Unfortunately, the other half of this sickness equation is that Paige will also likely get sick now too. And, let me tell you, by the time Paige’s symptoms show up, Paige will have this godforsaken version of the exact same bug as Taylor but it will manifest itself in a far, far different way. I’m already anticipating what Paige’s sickness will look like – it will likely start with just a runny nose and I will be hoping against hope that it won’t progress to more, but deep down in my heart, I know better. Sadly, I know that it likely will turn into much, much more. For Paige, it will likely turn into this fierce little cold accompanied with a fever and vomiting. Rats, that blasted vomiting! Vomiting for which there will be no predictors for when and where she will throw up. It could be in the car, in the store, in the bed, on her sister, on the couch but happen it will. And, so I wait. Wait for Taylor to pass on her benign little cold to her sister Paige. And, then brace myself and wait for Paige’s version of the same cold to become this raging little sickness.

Christmas Pictures - Part 2

So, last week I took the twins to the mall to see Santa with high hopes of the girls sitting on Santa's lap and telling Santa just how nice they'd been all year long. Well, as it turns out, they turned out to be not such big fans of Santa, and wanted absolutely nothing to do with that jolly St. Nicholas person. I did manage to get a couple of really great pictures though as Santa's elves and helpers tried their best to coax Paige and Taylor into taking a picture with Santa...

This is how the photo session started.

And, here Paige and Taylor are cooperative, but remain very cautious and are not quite buying into this just yet.

Taylor sits now at attention, and Paige begins to ready herself to bolt.

Santa's elves and helpers, sensing that Taylor and Paige are on the brink of ditching this photo session, bring in some visual aides - fuzzy, rainbow colored dustmops - in an effort to get them to sit and smile for their photos.

Dustmop distraction thingie seems to work and buys Santa's elves and helpers a little extra time to click away on their camera as Taylor and Paige sit for just a few seconds longer.

And, another click or two of the camera.

And, then it happens....

Smiles no more. Laughter no more. It's a full-on meltdown. So, what was it that set Paige and Taylor off exactly? Well, if you look closely at the photos, Santa was always positioned behind the chair well out of view of Paige and Taylor. The ticket to getting them to sit and cooperate was tied directly to whether or not Santa was anywhere near them. So long as they couldn't see or hear Santa, they were good. They didn't know that Santa was around. Well, near the end of the photo session, one of Santa's little elves told Paige and Taylor to look behind them and they'd see Santa coming to visit them. And, when they did, lo and behold, there was Santa, standing waaaaaaaaay to close to them for their comfort. Immediately, both girls broke out in their loudest shrieks and the tears started flowing and as you can see from this last photo above, they were crying for their "moooooooommmmmmmmmy"!!!!