The beach in January

That's right folks, the beach in January.  I was so excited to get there and it was a perfect day.  The girls didn't run towards the water nearly as much as they usually do when wearing the appropriate clothing and, amazingly, didn't get upset when they weren't allowed in. We did take them to the indoor pool the next day to make up for it.  They love it!  Their most favorite part is jumping into our arms.  Poor Catherine gets so cold that we take her over to the hot tub.  I sit on the edge with my feet in and she sits on my lap.  Just the steam is enough to warm her up and I splash some warm water onto her suit and she stops shivering.  I would say she really needs some meat on her bones but I have a feeling that she's just like me and is always going to be chilly.

Drawing with shells.

Oh the talking going on in this house!  Catherine tries so hard to say everything you do.  Samantha does too if you ask her, and when she does talk she is so serious about what she says.  Catherine, on the other hand, runs color commentary to herself.  We're also so proud of all the new things they can do since Christmas.  They can go up and down the stairs without help (downstairs makes us so nervous but they insist on trying), they point to all the correct letters when you ask and they can name them too, and their attempts to draw straight lines with crayons are getting better.  They love to color and often do it with both hands.  Samantha is mostly right handed and Catherine mostly left handed, but often Catherine will color with both simultaneously.  

Sea foam!  It must be the little Mermaid.

We pretend cook and eat, shaking and stirring in ingredients, rolling and cutting cookie dough, and they make the silliest slurping noises.  More and more they play with each other, read to each other, get each other toys, and one of their favorite things still is to chase each other around the house.  They make us smile and laugh more and more every day!

Christmas 2012

Yes, this was our tree.  We were going to Nana and Grandpa's and didn't want the fuss of a tree this year, so we got out my Gram's LED tree and got a wreath and brightened the house up.  Every time we turned it on the girls would say "Oh WOW!"

We couldn't believe how generous everyone was for Christmas and the girls had a blast playing with their new toys and seeing family.  It was a wonderful break, we wouldn't have changed a thing!

This is our new kitchen set that fits INSIDE our new tent!  It is 5 feet tall and Mommy and Daddy can lay down inside it.

Mmmmm!  Ice cream is so yummy, especially when shared with Grandpa.

Nana helped us play with Heidi, she's still a little too strong for us to play tug of war by ourselves.

We went to the park with Aunt Mary Anne and got to play on the slide, one of our favorite things.  We also got to wear our new hats, which are so cool!  Mommy has a matching one, too.

Samantha was chillin' in the car on the way home from visiting more family in Wilmington.

Then we came home, relaxed, and went to the science museum, woo hoo!

This is one of our favorite exhibits; the sound garden, where we get to bang on all sorts of things and make lots of noise.

There's a butterfly on my jacket!

Bye bye, see you soon!

Thanksgiving weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with our family in Fayetteville.  The girls were on their best behavior, though they didn't eat a whole lot of turkey and potatoes.  

After Thanksgiving we went to Nana and Grandpa's house.  Catherine helped Grandpa do yard work, raking pine straw and putting it where it belonged by the flowers.  She's such a good helper!

We danced and sang and laughed.

We tried on new hats.

We went to the aquarium.  The girls had their first boat ride on the ferry.  It was a lot of fun, but so windy that they preferred to be inside jumping off of the seats.  They both had a blast at the aquarium, I didn't think they could go through there so quickly, but they did it looking at every tank and saying 'oh wow!' or 'fish!' and then moving on.  Their words are starting to come fast and furious now.  Catherine asks 'where are you?' and they tell Heidi to sit and stay.

Megalodon is so big and we are so small.

We practiced our dribbling skills.  Catherine is going to be a point guard and Samantha is going to be a soccer star.  They will both be architects too.  They've already started making Duplo towers with Grandpa.

We're looking forward to a wonderful holiday season!

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!