These Girls They Are A Changing

I don't always realize how much my girls are changing from day to day until I come across something that reminds me of how different they used to be. This is a picture of Abby from July 2009:

And here she is in the same dress in May 2010!

Thank goodness she finally got hair, hm?? Also, it's hard to tell in the recent pic, but the dress that was below her knees now only falls to her mid to upper thigh. Let me tell you, these girls are tall and skinny! It's pretty nuts. I hope they enjoy it now, though, because if they're anything like their parents, they'll be tall and chubby by the time they're preteens. Don't you just love genetics?

Speaking of Abby, here she is helping me make some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. Where is Claire, you're wondering? Well, my very dutiful daughter Claire was napping, but Abby just wasn't feeling it. After hearing Abby goof around in their room for about 45 minutes, I gave up on her napping and opened the door to find her like this:

Note: she did not have the headband in when I put her to bed. Claire was fast asleep in her bed with two baby doll car seats next to her {her sister's doing I believe}.

As for Claire, she'll really been enjoying applesauce lately. That's her above licking her plate clean of it. Yum!

She also thoroughly enjoyed the drive in movie we went to this past weekend! Uncle Jason, Aunt Jill, Uncle Greg, and of course Cousin Lily were all there too. The girls got to run around in their pjs before the movie started, then actually did quite good during the first movie {Shrek Forever After}. Then we laid them down in pack and plays in the van and they went right to sleep, so Ryan, Greg and I could enjoy the second movie {Iron Man 2}.

And the drive in is just one exciting thing we're enjoying with this summer weather. We also got to run through the sprinkler today!

Claire {above} stuck to mostly just running around screaming while Abby {below} preferred going right up to the sprinkler and sticking her head in it.

It was quite a good way to spend the hot afternoon!

Hope you are all having as much fun as we are! Stay cool...

Big Girl Beds!

So a couple of weeks ago, I begin hearing massive amounts of giggling at the end of the girls' nap time. I went into their room to find Abby in Claire's crib. The climbing had begun! The girls, very impressed with their new skill, took turns showing me how they could climb over their adjoining crib side into the other one's crib. Sure it made me slightly nervous but I figured they weren't doing anything too dangerous yet.

The next day, about 20 minutes into their nap, I heard very sad crying coming from the room. Abby had climbed into Claire's crib and woken her up and Claire was not happy about it. So Ryan and I decided it was time for Big Girl Beds, and here they are!

The girls now sleep across from each other in the room. This is Abby's bed above and Claire's below.

The girls were pretty excited about it! And so far it's gone very well. They each fell out of bed a couple of times but all in all, no major upsets. They still go to bed very well and stay in bed fairly well too. I'm sorry to all you mothers with kids who don't sleep well! I honestly don't know how you survive. Nap/Bed time is the only thing that keeps me sane!

Here's Big Girl Abby trying out her new cozy bed. Don't let the nonchalant look on her face fool you - she's happy as a clam.

You Know Your Child Is Tired When...

...she falls asleep on the couch - sitting up!

Poor Abby was pretty exhausted after a day filled with swimming lessons, playing with Uncle Scott and no nap. She slept this way for about 45 minutes!

Easter Egg Excitement

We hope you had a happy Easter!

Full of hidden treasures...

And time with ones you love.

God bless!

Guess Who Got Their Bangs Cut?

It's Claire!

And Abby!

Daddy did the honors for our first ever haircut. Pretty momentous, even if it was just the bangs. Oh, and guess who also learned how to say cheese and smile for the camera?

It's Claire and Abby!

Oh, we're adorable.

Terrifically Two

Okay, for some reason I can't get the pictures to move around so we'll just have to go in the random order that I uploaded them, okay?

Since I've posted last (it's been a while - sorry!) we've been doing lots of fun things! One of them was going to the Hot Air Affair in Hudson with Grandma Gwen, Grandpa Rich and Cousin Alex. (BTW, if you want to google this event, don't forget to type the "air" in the title like I accidentally did. You will get some very different results!)

It was so cool to watch these giant balloons - probably 20 or so on one big field - get blown up and take off. They are so huge when you are standing next to them!

Ryan and I also went to the "Moon Glow" that night where they all get blown up on the field and lit up. I felt a bit like I was in War of the Worlds with all these huge balloon things around me (we were literally in the middle of all of them at one point) but it was pretty awesome looking!

There's Grandma Gwen and Alex cuddling up while the balloons were getting blown up. We went inside to warm up with some hot chocolate and look at the craft fair right afterwards.

The first night of the event there was a parade where all of the baskets from the balloons came down the road lighting up their fires. It was amazing how huge of flames there were! Even standing on the sidewalk, we could feel the warmth of the flame as the baskets passed.

When we weren't looking at balloons and such, we got to swim in the pool at the hotel where Rich and Gwen were staying. We had a great time and I think this event may even become an annual tradition for us.

Another weekend, another fun adventure with grandparents! These pictures are from last weekend when we went to Little Chute, WI to visit Grandpa Wayne and Grandma Sharon. They took us to Appleton's Building for Kids which the girls loved!

Their favorite part was the water room where the kids get to put on little raincoats and play with all kinds of water things. The girls especially loves this water slide thing. They would put a rubber ducky at the top, watch the water carry it around, and then they screamed with delight when the duck plopped off the end of the slide.

I mean, just look at our excited faces!! That's Abby in the very first picture above and the ones directly above and below this are of Claire.

We also climbed in giant pumpkins (Claire below), went down the slide, looked at frogs...

... and played in Clifford's dog bowl (Claire below)! It was a great time.

During our visit, we also discovered that putting Daddy's hoodie on the girls makes them look an awful lot like Obi Wan Kenobi.

I also got to see my incredible friend Amanda during our trip as she lives way over on that side of Wisconsin, too. It was great to have a couple of hours to just chat with her without babies and whatnot to distract us. Hooray for grown up time! She sent a belated bday gift for the girls - the games Elefun and Gator Golf. For any of you with young ones, I highly recommend them! The girls LOVE LOVE LOVE playing them.

Speaking of playing, we got to have a couple of playdates with another friend of mine, Kira, and her daugher Zania. I hadn't seen Kira in about five years so I was very excited when she told me she' d be in town helping a friend who was having a baby and I would finally get to meet the adorable Zania. Despite Abby's reluctance to share some of our toys, the three girls seemed to have a good time and I really enjoyed seeing Kira again!

On a random note, Grandpa Mike recently got back from a golf trip to Laughlin, Nevada and brought back these Tinkerbell shirts that Abby is modeling above. They are our new favorite shirts. Thank you, Grandpa!

The girls (Abby in stripes and Claire in red) were great helps packing for our big trip to Little Chute!! They have been quite adorable and snuggling lately. Since we're two now, we've given up having pacifiers during the day and when we don't have our fingers in our mouths, we are talking much more. I love hearing what they have to say!

Speaking of turning two, you may have noticed there's a post missing about that. Well, we had a very low key celebration at Chuck E Cheese on the girls' actual birthday and of course, I forgot my camera. Luckily Grandma Gwen and Grandpa Rich took lots of pics, so before you call Child Protection, factor in that the girls have three sets of wonderful grandparents who help take good care of them. :)

Happy almost spring, everybody!

Party, Party, Party, Party, Achoo, Party

Let the fiestas begin! First up, Cousin Lily's second bday party on December 13th. Man, those two years have flown by! Lily is such a big girl and can talk like nobody's business. (Maybe it has something to do with her favorite show, Word World - notice the Word World cake!) Such a cutie!

The next weekend, we got all gussied up for the annual Christmas party at Lisa's Aunt Joy and Uncle Joe's house. It was the girls first time going and they ran all over the place, playing with everything in sight. One of Lisa's favorite things, though, was the Tom & Jerry made with Aunt Pat's homemade Tom & Jerry batter - yum!

A few days later was Christmas Eve and we spent the entire day at the Campbell's house (and actually also the night before in an attempt to avoid travelling through the snow).

We got to hang out in the newly renovated family room, complete with a game area (below).

It was very nice, fun and relaxing, and I enjoyed spending an extended time with my family. The girls also enjoyed the family time, but even more so, the presents! We got Lily this horse shaped bag (below), but all three girls took turns trying to ride it - silly girls!

Christmas morning brought more fun and more presents! For the first time, we spent Christmas morning alone at our house. The girls got some fun gifts from Santa. Abby was quite excited about this Cookie Monster doll!

They also opened some bigger gifts from Grandma Gwen and Grandpa Rich, like these strollers. The strollers are actually for the Cabbage Patch dolls they got from Grandma Maggie and Grandpa Mike, but the girls thought it'd be best if they tried them out first...

On Christmas afternoon, we headed over to Steph and Andy's also newly remodeled house (they added an entire second story!) for a celebration with Grandpa Rich, Grandma Gwen, friend Linda, Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Andy and Cousin Alex. Their furniture wasn't in yet, which actually ended up perfect because the girls could run around like crazy fools, which they enjoy!

Alex's new room was all set up, though, and the girls got to play with her and her train set. Actually, it was more like Alex watched in horror as the girls kept knocking apart the tracks and sending trains flying everywhere. Oops! Guess we're not quite old enough for train sets. Alex was a great sport, though, and all three girls had a great time playing together.

Another weekend - another party!! We headed to Eau Claire, WI to hang out with our friends and to celebrate New Years. On our way there, I turned around to peek at the girls and saw this adorable sight:

Hooray for holding hands! Ryan and I both just melted. Unfortunately, the girls spent most of their time in Eau Claire sick, but they did get lots of good snuggles with Grandma Gwen and Grandpa Rich while Ryan and I ran around the town. It was nice to have such a break!

The next weekend was another party - this time a birthday party!! Grandma Maggie threw a party to celebrate Claire, Abby, Lily and Uncle Greg's birthdays (all in Dec/Jan). We got lots of great gifts, like name plaques from Great Aunt Pat, snuggly clothes from Great Aunt Joy and Great Uncle Joe, books from Cousins Kim, Larry, Kirsten and Jenna, and lots of things with our favorite characters - Elmo and the Wiggles - from Uncle Great, Aunt Jill, Uncle Jason and Cousin Lily.

We even got a swing set from Grandma Maggie and Grandpa Mike! We were so excited, we started climbing all over the box. We can't wait to have Lily over this spring to play on it!

Then came another highlight of birthday parties, cake! Here's Claire digging in...

...and Abby, too!

Uncle Great and Cousin Lily agree...

It was a great bday party! Thanks Grandma Maggie and Grandpa Mike!