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.

Halloween!

I love when it is Dave's turn to give the girls a bath.  Partly it is because I don't get soaking wet, and partly because I can take pictures.  The girls love it when he drops water over their heads.  For the past several bath times Samantha has wanted to keep her towel over her head.  She runs around upstairs and Dave says she looks like Batman.  I think she looks like the kid in the Darth Vader car commercial.

They've been enjoying Dave's vacation, but I'm beginning to wonder if he is looking forward to going back to work, simply for the quiet.  The other day he had just Catherine awake for over and hour, and then just Samantha awake for an hour and he was bored, so maybe not.  It is so weird.  We were so nervous about the twins and if we could do this, and now know that this is what was meant for us because anything else wouldn't be good enough.  However, I do enjoy having one on one time with each girl every now and then, it makes it really special.

Halloween: I'm not a big Halloween person.  I don't care if I dress up or go to a party or have a creative costume.  However, Maleficent is my favorite Disney character and Dave found me a costume online for $20.  Greatest thing ever and now I don't have to think of another costume ever again.  Dave's cousin Adrienne made the girls Sleeping Beauty dresses, one blue and one pink, and we were all set.  Next year we'll have to get Dave to be Prince Philip, but that involves tights, so we'll see.

We went to my school's Halloween Carnival and the girls had a blast just running around in the courtyard and dancing to the music.  Needless to say, we were a big hit.

Mommy isn't scary at all!

Happy Halloween everyone!

85 to 45

Wow!  We've gone from our last foray at the beach in one weekend to new coats and 45 degrees the next.  Here's your list bathing suit picture for a while.  We did get to wear our new long-sleeve outfits from Nana and Grandpa and snuggle with Daddy.

At the beach we got to play with our new beach toys.  We made seahorses and castles, and they were much more fun to take down then put up, though daddy did try to make a fort with a moat.

At the beach shelter there were lots of butterflies, LOTS!  They were everywhere on the flowers.

This is what we look like on the way home.  It was way past nap time.

We've spent some time recently trying on hats.  Hats, and anything that could be a hat.  We're exercising our imagination.  Apparently Catherine is going to be a fencer and Samantha is going to be a chef.

The girls now have an Elmo's restaurant with a shopping cart and play food.  Maybe Catherine will be a chef too, and the girls will have their own place one day.  I'm sure it will have lots of healthy food because that's what Catherine loves, and lot of tater tots, because that's Sam's favorite.  However, I don't think it will have spoons.  Catherine thinks she doesn't need them.  Below is a picture of her eating mashed cauliflower with a fork.  We tried giving her a spoon and showing her how to scoop.  She calmly put the spoon down and kept going.  Any help was immediately pushed off.  She yelled at me for helping.  She's a big girl.

Stretch tall for the dunk!  Dave is so proud of them.

  

football and fish

I'm fully back to school now, even spent a night away from the girls on a overnight retreat for the middle school.  We're beginning to settle down at school, but the girls have just gone right in stride picking up with our nanny Chelsea.  The girls love her and it makes me so happy to know that they are so loved during the day.  Although, when I was gone and Dave came home, Catherine brought Chelsea her shoes, put them down in front of her, and said "bye!" and waved.  Poor Chelsea didn't know if she should be offended, or proud that Catherine knew that it was time for Chelsea to go.  I'm going with the latter.  They are both so smart.  They now empty the dishwasher for me, handing me the plates to be stacked and put away.  They both are bouncing now, especially Catherine.  She can hop all the way across the living room!

In the meantime, we've been cheering for the Gamecocks.  The girls get so excited when we play 2001 and the fight song.  They cheer and wave their arms.  Every time the crowd cheers they clap their hands and hold them up for a touchdown.  I'm so proud of them.  I can't wait until I can take them to campus and see a game.  I think I may cry when it happens.  Sometimes I am so amazed that I can have such an emotional reaction to a place, especially one that isn't my home.  But it was my home for a time, where I met some of my best friends, and where I met Dave.  It is a place that changed my life and I want the girls to know it.  So Go Gamecocks!  I don't care if people stare at us when we all go out wearing our jerseys.  We are proud!

We recently went to a family party and my cousin took some beautiful pictures of the girls.  They were so good while we were there despite the fact that they barely slept all day and were up way past their bedtime.  I was proud of them.

There were fish in the pond behind Aunt Eleanore's house and we had to rush to keep the girls from getting in the water.  Shish!!!  They are trying so hard to say that word.  They love the fish in my dad's tank too.  So we bought the girls some betta fish and you can see their pictures below.  I picked them out and personally I think they are beautiful.  There were also ducks, which the girls noticed but didn't care a whole lot about.  That is, until they began quacking.  Then Catherine did this...

They just love animals and wildlife so we watch a lot of Jack Hana on TV in the mornings and go to the science museum a lot.  Thank goodness it is free on Wednesday afternoons for Durham residents.  I do see a family membership in our future, good thing it is cheap.

This is Cocky.  He is a halfmoon betta fish.

This is Pete.  He is a halfmoon double tail betta.