family visits and more snow!

Before you check out the snow images I wanted to catch you up on Sam's latest sleeping escapades.  This time she took off her pants, put on panties (but put 2 legs through 1 leg hole so they were around her waist) then put her pants back on.  Backwards.  Another time she put on another pull-up inside out on top of her pants.  Sigh.  Can't wait for that video camera.

Sliding down the street with Daddy!

Here's our crazy shrimp and her chocolate milk mustache.  She refuses to drink regular milk unless it is warm and in a bottle.  That is no longer acceptable to us, so chocolate silk it is (do NOT call it 'milk'!).  Part of her motivation to drink is so she can be done and look at her pirate mustache in the mirror.  Recently she's also been singing a lot, and has told me that "Sweet Caroline" is "her song" and not Samantha's song.  Yes, she's barely 3 and she has a theme song. 

Doing the twist with Nana and Grandpa to the Beatles.  They are dancing fools!

Catherine with her Godmother, who also happens to be the daughter of my Godmother.  Here's to Aunt Robin and Cousin Christine.  So glad we got together!

Uncle Bobby, Aunt Heather, and cousins Hannah, Samuel, and Amos came to visit and we showed them our new park by the new house.  We also managed to take a family picture with everyone sitting still, I think it is our best attempt yet.

Catherine is flying just like Daddy!

All the girls, including Heidi, attacking Uncle Bobby.

Not a bad bunch, though there's a heck of a lot of blonde hair in there!

Then, Uncle Mike and Aunt Alyssa came on an adventure to visit with cousin Lily, who is only 2 1/2 months old.  They were troopers, squishing into the back of the car to go to the park and birthday shopping.  We were so happy to have them here!

Lily's first time on a swing.

Nana and all her granddaughters.  Next post: turning 3 and a new house, we can't wait!!!!

extremes in weather

The last two weeks have been kind of crazy.  We were at my mom's and it was warm enough to play outside in a tent that we found looking for something else.  Isn't Nana silly?!

Catherine also helped Grandpa fix the sink.  I think my dad was having some serious deja vous.

Then, whatever nasty sickness I had the girls got.  Catherine wasn't that bad, just really tired, but Samantha got it bad with a fever, my poor little thing.  Her nose ran for over a week.

But they got in some good snuggling time with their Daddy.

So pitiful!

And then it snowed!!!  We had snow suits that were just the right size of the girls from Shalana's twins so we stayed nice and warm.  Also, these mittens from my aunt matched the ones Dave and I had gotten when we went to the Olympics in 2010 (can't believe that was 4 years ago!).  They were huge but they are fleece-lined and kept our hands nice and toasty.

We didn't even have to explain to them how to make a snow angel.  Samantha was not a fan of lying down in the snow but Catherine did a great job.



Sledding was Sam's thing, and taking off her mittens to feel the snow.  She didn't mind walking on the deck where the snow made crunching noises, but Catherine absolutely refused.

Catherine's favorite part was throwing snow balls, especially at Daddy.

Got him!

(Insert maniacal laugh here! )

The problem of having a huge car, but with the baby coming I'm glad we did this rather than a 'normal' car.

As close as we got to sledding.  Hope everyone else has as much fun on their snow day!

January silliness

Look at my strong acrobatic girls!  They call this 'swinging'.  We had a lot of fun hanging out just us girls over Christmas break.  Lots of fairy tea parties and costumes (hence the tutus during the bowl game) and endless games of Candy Land.  It was wonderful!

Can you see Catherine?  She did this to my dad while we were in NY, only she hid behind the curtain on the other side of my closet.  This time she was behind my clothes and was silent as a mouse.  She thought she was so funny.  I was just glad she was wearing neon bright socks or I wouldn't have seen her.  As it was, I didn't see her the first time I looked in the closet, my only hint was her stuffed animal on the floor with my shoes all in a row.

Samantha has been up to other tricks.  There have been several nights when she was too hot and unzipped her pjs.  Then she got really hot and took them off completely, then went to the closet, got princess boots, and went back to bed.  Fortunately, in our search for her pjs and a blanket (all of which were underneath her) we discovered that she had also taken off her diaper!  The next night we made her promise not to take off her pjs and she didn't…but she did take off her diaper and put her pjs back on.  We checked her, saw pjs, and didn't look any further and she woke up soaking wet.  Sigh.  Now we pat her down every night once she falls asleep.  

I will say I love these girls to pieces, but they do keep us on our toes!

Touchdown!  Go Gamecocks!

Story time at night is my favorite time of day, whether I'm reading or Dave is.  I just feel the love emanating all around us.

Uncle Mike, Aunt Alyssa, and our new cousin Lily gave the girls a lot of fun play dough stuff for Christmas and they absolutely love it!  They roll logs, make gum balls and lollypops, and use the cookie cutters.

We're doing a better job potty training, especially Catherine.  She stays dry most of the day and we are so proud.  Samantha is so excited when she does 'two things!' on the potty, and so are we!  Catherine was such a good big sister when Sam and I were sick.  She stands by Sam's bed and says 'shhhh' and told me I needed a check up.  We're still working on the attitude she gives us when she is in trouble or when she doesn't listen to directions.  Wonder where that comes from?

Samantha has been using the strangest phrases recently!  She says 'whoopsie!  Sorry 'bout that!' and 'hi ya cowboy!' and 'coming through'.  She gets so excited about little everyday things and it always brings a smile to our faces and shows us the joy in the small things, too.  For example: we have these glow in the dark bears my aunt gave them.  They love them every night and when I get them from the window where they've been charging all day she loves to make it dance and says 'Oh!  You found my glow bear!'  Every time.

Then we went to a family party and got dressed up and took a bunch of pictures.  Here's one with cousin Paige, but when I get more, I will.

Holiday fun!

Merry Christmas!  They girls were so excited to see what Santa brought them.  We opened presents at our house, jumped in the car, stopped for donuts, and went to Nana and Grandpa's for more.  They were so sweet, saying thank you and telling us what was their favorite toy.  They wanted to play with one toy and not open any more so we were able to have the adults appreciate their presents between the girls sessions.

They got Tinkerbell and Periwinkle dolls.  I was so happy to give these to them because these fairies are sisters born of the same laugh with lots of similarities but a lot of differences, just like my girls.  They got lots of books that they devoured, fairy houses, huge puzzles, dolls that they named Sally and Maggie, a Mr. Potato Head that they love but only put together properly and get mad when you put it eyes in the mouth spot and such.

Here they are dancing to my parent's musical clock.  It plays music and has moving parts on the hour.  They LOVE this thing, it is one of the first things they look for when they get to the beach.  So, my parents bought us one for Christmas so the girls can dance every hour at our house too.  I can't wait to move and put it up!

My dad, being the man that he is, bought them a keyboard and a recorder for them to make lots of music (noise) with.  They really like both of them, and they aren't too bad at controlling their volume when you remind them.

Helmets for our tricycles!  Samantha is still working on her pedaling but Catherine is just motoring along.  She does, however, need to work on her steering.  Isn't that the cutest little face under that huge helmet?  It will fit her for years and it was the smallest one I could find.  She's wearing her jacket hood under the helmet to help it fit better.  Sam's is still big but better.

And last but not least is our favorite holiday picture.  My mom was watering the tree and Catherine saw her and thought she was stuck.  She started to pull her out and Sam joined in to help and my mom was laughing so hard she couldn't get up and out even if she wanted to.  Hope everyone else had a holiday full of smiles!