It's December again!

I realised I haven't blogged much this year, due to the busyness that is life :) And believe it or not, it's December again, how time flies.

Over the weekend, we took the girls to Queensbay Mall to have a look at the Christmas deco, and I must say that the mall has certainly stepped up this year in comparison to past years. The Christmas display at the centre court was enough to set the kids off with "oohs" and "aahs", or like Heidi would say, "wow!" And what would be the use of admiring the pretty decorations without some pictures?

Later on, we had a drink and something to eat at Coffee Bean (Citibank platinum cards 20% off - good deal). The girls love their cake and hot chocolate, so they were competing as to who could be the biggest "dinosaur". Hannah is bigger, so definitely her mouth can open wider, but Heidi is not too far behind!

We also took the girls to watch Disney's new animated movie "Frozen" and this was Heidi's first time in a cinema. We were contemplating whether or not to bring her as we were not sure if she would cry or make a fuss when inside.  After all, Hannah was almost 3 years old during her first time at a cinema. Surprisingly, Heidi sat still on her Daddy's lap without making a fuss and ate her bread (which I smuggled in lol) and some of her sister's popcorn. Also I suppose Disney princess movies appeal to girls of all ages (myself included :p) so all 3 of us enjoyed it (not too sure about Hubby though haha).

You can check out the trailer here.

Another new hairstyle

Over the weekend, we took Hannah to cut her hair since the last time her hair was cut was in March last year. Now that she has started school, it is quite a battle early in the morning to tie her hair as she dislikes tying it up, so Hubby said might as well cut it short and save the hassle.

So anyway, we happened to be at Queensbay Mall so we decided to cut her hair at one of the salons there. The first one that we asked said that the price to cut her hair would be RM48.00. That was way too much money to pay for a little girl's hair cut so we declined politely and walked away.

We asked at another shop and they told us RM15.00 only. That was pretty reasonable so we sat her down and the hair stylist put the cloth over her. She seemed to enjoy it and the stylist gave her a nice modern cut and even blow dryed her hair (why is it at home she doesn't want to let me blow dry her hair I wonder :p)

This was her first time cutting her hair at a professional hair salon. Usually her Ah Mah will DIY at home or take her to her own hairdresser.

He did a pretty good job with her hair and this is the finished look:

New look for the new year :)

Christmas celebrations

Since my parents and my sister are around for Christmas this year, we have had quite a lot of different celebrations, starting and ending with plenty of delicious food! Plenty of photos taken, so I will just let the photos do the talking :)

Hannah followed my parents and sister to Suffolk House for lunch one day. It was her first "fine-dining" experience :)

As can be expected, the highlight of her meal was the dessert!

My aunt (my mother's sister) and her husband who live in the Philippines joined us for early Christmas lunch on one of the days.

Look at the amount of presents they brought!

My mother really outdid herself in the lunch we had. Lots of yummy food on the table, and we managed to finish almost all of it!

Hannah with all her presents!

On another night, my father's sisters and their children/grandchildren came over to my parents' place for dinner. Hannah found some friends to play with.

Heidi also had a really good time. Look at how excited she was, taking pictures with her 3 grandaunts.

The kids had a ball doing the craziest things :p

On Sunday (the day before Christmas eve), after church we had lunch at our favourite restaurant, Mario's at Batu Ferringhi. It was Heidi's first time there and she was her happy usual self after a nice long nap all the way up to Batu Ferringhi.

Christmas decorations were everywhere so we took the opportunity for a nice family photo.

I love this one of my father and Heidi - pure joy in her face.

The highlight of our meal was the lobster thermidor - my sister was waiting to eat this for the longest time as it is so very expensive in Australia. It definitely did not disappoint and was worth every cent!

I seldom get to take pictures with my big girl so this is one of me and her.

We also had their specialty dessert which is not on the menu - crepes suzette. The waiter prepared it right by our table.

On Christmas eve, after work, we had a small dinner at home together with Hubby's family. We did a gift exchange, and even little Heidi got a gift too!

The girls loved opening their gifts.

And the rest of the evening was spent wearing party hats and silly "ears" :)

On Christmas morning, we had breakfast at my parents' place. Look how nicely my mother decorated the table.

And then took more family photos beside the Christmas tree (which Hannah helped to decorate).

After that, we headed for a fun day out at Queensbay Mall :) Hannah now zooms down the big slides like a pro and we don't have to accompany her inside anymore. They charge now per adult RM6.00 - it used to be free of charge for one adult with one paying child.

Lunch at TGIF - this was the cajun chicken salad and it was very good.

Lunch was followed by ice cream at Haagen-Dazs. We had this creation called "Seventh Heaven" which was "smoking" due to the liquid nitrogen in the centre of the plate. Hannah was quite amazed when she saw it.

Thereafter, there was a show in the concourse area - Garfield and friends! For days, Hannah had been telling us that she wanted a Garfield something for Christmas, but we never caught on exactly what she wanted. We  managed to get her everything else but not that Garfield something. So on Christmas day, her wish came true!

After dinner that night, it was time to open the rest of the presents! Heidi wore a new bib which said "My first Christmas" given by my mother. Hannah had a similar one which she wore during her first Christmas. In fact she was wearing it also in the picture below (can see in the background).

After so many Christmas lunch/dinner with presents, Heidi is quite a expert when it comes to opening presents!

Hannah got her long awaited water gun :)

Full of concentration when opening presents :p

From our home to yours, have a blessed Christmas and a happy 2013!

Sharing

Hannah loves ice cream. I always say it's because when I was pregnant with her I craved ice cream and was not allowed to have any :) So anyway, her grandpa indulges her quite often with ice cream and she knows that we do not approve. Nevertheless, we always encourage her to tell us the truth and not scold her, otherwise she may not tell the truth anymore. So everyday, Hubby will ask her whether she ate ice cream or not that day and she will truthfully tell us yes or no. However, the other day, her response was what we lawyers call "qualified" - it's a yes with a BUT :) Here's how the conversation went:

Daddy: Hannah, did you eat ice cream today?

Hannah: Yes, but I shared.

Daddy: Who did you share it with?

Hannah: With myself lor!

After a moment of stunned silence, Hubby tried to keep a straight face and asked her:

Daddy: How do you share with yourself?

Hannah: First, I eat half of the ice cream, and then later I eat the other half!

I posted this on my Facebook the other day and several people commented that she has the makings of a "lawyer" :) I commented further that she said it this way so that it doesn't look like she ate the whole thing by herself! Cheeky Hannah :)

Some updates on the girls:

Hannah:

At 3 years 2 months 2 weeks and 3 days, she can now poo poo in the toilet sitting on her training seat. She was off diapers very shortly after her 2nd birthday (fully trained for pee), but it took her more than a year to convince herself that she could poo in the toilet. Prior to this, she always asked us to wear diapers for her when she wanted to poo. That first day, it took her almost an hour for her to do her business because she was not used to sitting on the toilet, but hopefully it will get easier after this.

Heidi:

Heidi had her 4 month injections yesterday - 2 jabs and one oral vaccine for Rotavirus. She was her happy cheerful self, smiling a lot at the Dr and the nurses while they checked her. She could even smile after the first jab as if she did not realise that she had just been jabbed! However, she complained after the 2nd jab and the one that she disliked the most was the oral vaccine. She spit and tried to choke it out but the Dr and the nurse held her firmly so she screamed louder. After it was over she was fine again :) During the checkup, the Dr turned her on her tummy to see how steady was her head and she could lift not only her head but also her chest off the bed. She is not able to flip yet but Dr said it can be anytime now. Here are some of her tummy time pictures when at home:

She is now 6.3 kg and 64 cm long. Since she turned 4 months old, we have been taking her out more and she loves to go out. Here are some of her pictures last weekend at Queensbay Mall:

The dress and the hat are Hannah's - we hardly need to buy clothes for Heidi as she has a lot of Hannah's as well as her cousins' clothes which are hand-me-downs but in excellent condition. I guess this is the benefit of having 2 girls - they can share clothes, not only now but in future too. I hope Hannah's version of "sharing" next time will be to share things with her little sister, and not "with herself"! :)