Gardens & the zoo

It has been too long since I've posted.  Sorry.  We've been up to a lot.  Below is what happens when our cousin Paige comes in to babysit so we can go see a movie.  The girls were so excited when we got home and saw them like this.  Paige tried to help them but they didn't want/need help.   Figures.  Can't you tell they know what they are doing?

We went to Duke Gardens to capture the best tree ever and our timing was again perfect.  There were professionals there taking pictures of families, but I think we did pretty good all by ourselves.

Catherine is doing an amazing job talking the last few weeks.  You can tell when she says all the Disney character names and she babbles more, though still not as much as Sam.  Her latest thing is to stack things, usually books.  She'll take them from one place to another, making a new stack as she transfers them.  It occupied her for quite a while in church last week.

Samantha is incredible at matching.  In her books if you point to one item she can find it elsewhere on the page.  I'm amazed!  Her other new thing does not thrill us.  I think she will be very good at eating competitions one day.  She sticks so many pieces of food in her mouth a once I'm afraid she'll choke but if you try to slow her down she gets upset.  Eating is still her job after all this time.

We also took Nana and Grandpa to the zoo.  Once again the elephants were a big hit, but so were the birds.  One of the best parts for the adults was to see the mommy gorilla with her baby born in August.  Now we're getting ready for Thanksgiving with pretty dresses and lots of pictures of turkey and mashed potato faces to come.

I love when the girls play together, one one of their newest and most exciting games is to chase each other down the hallway and then play hide and seek around the house or their Elmo kitchen.  They laugh and scream with delight.  Of course, every time I try to video this they stop what their doing and either stare at me or try to touch the camera.  So helpful.