Christmas with the Cousins

I took WAY too many pictures over Christmas...and not that many of them are very good...and I still have not even gone through all of them. So I decided to break my Christmas post up. Here are some pictures of the girls with their cousins Kayla (5 in Jan) and Baby Paul (1 in March). They really had lots of fun playing with them this visit.

Blizzard of 09

For those of you who do not live on the east coast, the weekend before Christmas there was the great "blizzard of 2009." The area was foretasted to get around 24 inches of snow over Saturday and Sunday (which it did). Unfortunately, we were scheduled to drive to S.C. on that Saturday/Sunday so that we could have Christmas with D's Granny and his sister's family on Sunday. So thanks to weather alerts from Hazel, we decided on Friday afternoon that we needed to GO.
I am a last minute person, so as of Friday noon (when we decided to leave that night) I had nothing done other than most of the presents were wrapped. So in a flurry of activity we got all packed and loaded up and on the road by 7:30 - after our usual Friday night dinner of noodles and ice cream. We headed down 95 and by 8:00 it was snowing. It took us 5 hours to go the first 100 miles and then another 2.5 hours to go the last 120 miles to make it into NC and past all the snow! Driving on 95 was much harder than we thought. We just assumed that with all the traffic on the road, there would not be time for any accumulation - wrong. You could not see the lines on the road at all and you for sure could not go over about 30 mph. There were numerous cars that had slid off the road (yikes!) and a couple of times there were huge avalanche-like snow droppings where you could not see anything.
Thankfully one of our neighbors shoveled our sidewalk and walkways! D had to do a little shoveling so that he could have a place to put his car on the street. So I let the girls get into their snow bibs (so cute...even if I let them wear them over their PJ's) and play where he was shoveling. Hopefully there will be another snow this season so that the girls can really enjoy it.

Recent Trend

The girls are OBSESSED with two things lately - step stools and being naked - thus the picture below. They insist on standing on their step stools all the time. And we recently bought some little potties for their bathroom which are also step stools and they are in heaven....though it has been tough to convince them that they should leave the bathroom ones in the bathroom only.

The girls have been loving being naked (or as they call it "nay-nay" while patting themselves), though fortunately their naked has still included diapers. I am dreading the day that they realize that just like the baby doll diapers, all they have to do is pull on the tab to take it off!

Elmo

On Thursday Dec 17th we had part one of Christmas for the girls. We went to see Sesame Street at the GMU Patriot Center. We kept it a secret (though they actually went with me to buy the tickets from the box office) from the girls cause we were not certain that we were going to make it. On Wednesday the girls started feeling bad and had a slight fever. Thursday I took them to the Dr - primarily cause we were planning to leave for the grandparents that weekend and I just wanted to make sure they were ok. They were diagnosed with "a virus." - so basically nothing to be done. They did get an H1N1 test for which they were negative. So I decided that we were going to the show that night - to heck with a little fever for them both!

The show started at 7 pm - so I was a little nervous about a potential meltdown. But they were both little troopers and enjoyed the whole thing. It was over around 8:45. Audrey was super cute watching it. She would grab Darren and point his face to the stage. And they would both ask (repeatedly) about characters that would leave the stage. They were most obsessed with Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Baby Bear. Then there would be a cheer when they would appear again.

As a funny aside - when we got there we decided that we should change their diapers before the show started. I saw a sign for a family restroom and thought that would be the easiest thing for all 4 of us. So we rounded the corner and went in. We were amazed at how big it was! So we were changing the diapers when some other people walk in. They sort of looked at us funny. We said something about it being the family restroom and they said that we were actually in the ladies room and that the family restroom was next door. OOPS!! They did go ahead and use the potty while Darren was in there. We were totally cracked up about it.

I took about 60 pictures and they are all pretty awful of the girls. Here are the best ones that I got.

Santa Part 2

Well they don't look really convinced that this is a good idea, but at least they are not screaming NO SANTA LAP. Though clearly they are still not 100% on board with sitting in his lap as they are standing. I must admit that bribery was used on this outing. No crying = candy cane.

More Snow Pics

Here are a couple more pictures of the girls in the snow as it was melting. They really liked to pick it up and throw it at each other...though they would both yell "cold" quite a bit during this activity! And they would only pick up a small amount. No snowballs...yet

Snow

Count to 10

All of a sudden this weekend, the girls were able to count to 10 all by themselves! So here is a video of them doing it. Originally I wanted to do videos of them separately (and did one of Audrey, but she kept wanting to get in on Brooke's) so here they are together. This is with no coaching at all and it is in their own little language using only a small portion of the alphabet!

Picture with Santa

This past Friday we went to get our picture taken with Santa with our friends Erica and Spencer. The girls were super excited about it and kept talking about Santa's lap. I was psyched! Here is the best picture:

(think crickets chirping)

That's correct. There is no picture. The girls just yelled "NO SANTA!!!" and refused to get anywhere near him. Since then, whenever Santa or a lap is mentioned, they are again adament that there is to be NO SANTA LAP!

Oh well, here is a picture from the play area that at least shows them in their Christmas dresses:

Call me Martha

We are being so crafty (for me!) Here are the girls doing a Christmas art project (how cute are they in their little "smocks"):

My craftiness

Cause I am proud of myself...Here is my door decoration that I made all by myself (including the bow)

The Elf on the Shelf

My friend Lisa got us the Elf on the Shelf last year...but as previously mentioned our household didn't really do much for Christmas last year (and the girls were probably a little too young) So this year I was really excited to break out the elf (if you don't know about it, here is a summary: an elf comes to your house, you name it, it leaves each night to talk to santa, comes back the next day to a new spot, you have to find the elf). The girls LOVE it!!

D explaining the concept...they pretty much just know that they are supposed to find him each morning and then not touch him.

When they find him, they are supposed to run up to him and point at him and yell his name...which the girls cleverly came up with..."Elf."

Christmas is Coming...

The day we got back from Thanksgiving, we started our decorating for Christmas! We did not put up any decorations last year - it was really quite depressing. So this year we decided to risk it and go all out. The girls LOVE it! And they have been so good (knock on wood) about "No Touch" for most everything. We do have one are that it is ok for them to touch and that seems to help. Unfortunately I cannot currently locate my camera so this will be a short post, but I wanted to have a little Christmas spirit on the blog.

Misc. Thanksgiving

Not only were our flights to and from MS wonderful, but our entire visit went great! We split our time between Gramma and Gary (or in A&B world where they really do not utilize all 26 letters of the alphabet "Gah-gah" and "Gah-gee") and Granddaddy and Jane (Gee-daddy and Gain). We also got to see my sister and her family Amy, Ed, John David, and Will (May-mee, Eh, Da-da-da, and Wuh) Perhaps the most excitement was for the cat Max...the girls LOVED him and fortunately he was quite tolerant of them as well. We also got to visit with 2 of my friends from high school who I had not seen for years so that was very fun for me. The grandparents babysat and we got to go to dinner and see the movie The Blindside (very good - I cried extensively throughout the beginning)

Here is a recap in photos:

Girls gone wild!

Ducks gone wild!

Fun at the zoo...we think the animals were lonely cause they kept coming right up to the fence to visit with us.

Brooke: "Don't worry Awe-ee. I've got your back!"

Learning how to play a "big nano"

Brooke is a princess!

Making the topping for the sweet potatoes

John David "Now, Audrey...have you seen Charlie Brown?"

Brushing the very patient Max

One more, cause I just wasn't certain that we had gotten a picture of them in their striped jackets!

Thanksgiving Travel

I am feeling overwhelmed that I am so far behind...

We flew to MS to see my family for the week of Thanksgiving. I was quite nervous about flying with the girls. The last couple of flights had been hit or miss (oh I will never forget the flight on Mother's day where Brooke was crying hysterically in my lap and I was crying hysterically as well...)

But I am pleased to announce that the were SUPERSTARS!!! on Both flights. They could not have been any better. In fact, at one point I told D that I thought I could probably handle them on a flight solo....but I won't go crazy or anything and actually test that out.

We flew Southwest with 4 tickets. We sat 3 and 1. And the 1 was me!! perhaps that is why I felt like it went so great...I pretty much had minimal responsibility. Though they seriously were perfect little angels. That was certainly one giant prayer answered.

Ready for takeoff!!

Doctor's visit

This past week we went to the Doctor's office for their 2 year old check up. The girls were VERY excited about going. Brooke especially kept talking about going to "MY doctor" (I think this is because a few weeks ago we went to the derm. for a follow up for Audrey and she was quite upset that the doctor was not for her.)

Brooke with her pager on her PJ's!

We had been talking up going quite a bit. And then for their birthday they got some pretend doctor's kits...which are a huge hit. They love to doctor each other, their dolls, their animals, and me. Their favorite thing to do is give shots. And we packed up a little kit to take with us to the doctor's office.

Temperature, check

So I had high hopes for the visit. But let me tell you, they exceeded all my expectations. They were PERFECT!! Their only whining was when they wanted to get the shot - that is right they were whining to GET the shot. They thought that the Dr. should do it immediately, not the nurse at the end of the visit. And fortunately the girls each did get to get a shot in their thighs (seriously I am not sure what they would have done if they did not get one.) and no lie - not one single tear or whimper.

Shot, check

This was their first "big girl" appointment where they weighed them on the stand up scale and they did not have to get naked for the appointment (sort of sad for me!) They seem to be doing great - on track for everything.

My friend Leslie had her twins on the girls birthday. So here are one week old twins with two year, one week year old twins!
Amazing that they grow that much in 2 years!

Audrey is 34.5 inches tall (just under the 75th percentile) and weighs 27 lbs (just over the 50th) Dr. was quite pleased to see that she has continued to maintain (and even exceed) her weight curve after her plateau from 12 - 15 months.

Brooke is 36.75 inches tall (just over the 95th) and weighs 30 lbs (just under the 90th). So the girls have maintained their 3 lb buffer since birth. It is interesting that Brooke is over 2 inches taller than Audrey. I wonder how that will play out in the future.

Birthday Bash

This will be a rather lengthy post - so I apologize in advance. I will try to be relatively witty and sprinkle in some adorable pictures.

Here is an unrelated, but adorable picture of the fam. How cute are the girls in their leopard!!

This past Sunday evening we had the girls birthday party. We had it at a Rec Center that has a soft play room for kids 5 and under. The kids seemed to have a blast playing in there. Poor little Audrey was running and playing so hard that her face got super red (I think she may have gotten that from me, though I try hard not to exert myself that much!) As always my pictures are only so-so, but they seem to capture the atmosphere pretty well. The ball pit was a HUGE hit!

A picture that shows the overall feel of the room.

Ball pit fun!


Future engineers/architects building structures in the room

After the hour of play, we moved to the party room for pizza and cupcakes. We had an Elmo theme which was a huge hit for all of the kids. How did our parents entertain us without Elmo's World (la, la, la, la)?

Chowing down on the pizza


Red Elmo icing seemed like a good idea...


But not so much!

We ran out of time to open presents at the party (in retrospect, Thank Heavens as it is not a quick process with 2 year olds!!) So Monday after work(D's obviously) the girls opened their presents. They loved every single thing that they got (thanks so much!!)...though I have secretly hidden some of them to parcel out over the next 12 months to keep our lives exciting!

Audrey yelling COOKIEEEEEEEE


The girls hosting their own little cooking show. Audrey is yelling HOTTTTT.