Uncle Donald's Farm

I know I've blogged about Uncle Donald's Farm before, but we made another trip there in early November.  Becki and her girls, me and my girls, Gi, and Mim all headed out there.  Once again it was a big hit! 

Here are some pics of the girls on the hay ride feeding the cows.  They pulled us out to a cattle field and the cows come up to the trailer and we get to feed them hay.  It's pretty cool... 

Halloween

Here are some pics of the girls on Halloween this year.  I guess I'm guilty of posting more pictures of Addy this time...  Well, I "took" as many of Carly as I did of Addy, but Carly was not overly thrilled about her costume and her pics didn't turn out very well.  But, as you can see, Addy was right proud of hers. 

Carly's BIrthday

I know I'm still behind in blog posts, but I'm working on it.  Here is some footage of Carly's first birthday.  Thanks to all who attended (and traveled) to make her first birthday so special.

We let Carly open some of her presents the night before her party.  Here the girls are playing with Carly's new puppy dog...

...and what is it they say about kids liking the box better than the toys?  Well this was a great (big) box and they had a good time playing in it.  

Here's a video of the girls playing in the box.

Carly had a great time with her cake.  Below are some pics to show the progress of her eating/wearing it.

Opening more presents in, as you'll notice, a different outfit.

More birthday festivities...

Here's a video of Carly pushing her new shopping cart she got from her cousin Harry.  She loves it and is pretty good at it, too!

A busy October

We had a lot going on during October this year.  Jeff had a birthday and Carly turned one.  Addyson started a dance class and of course, you cannot forget Halloween.  They won't all be captured in this post,but we'll get to them. 


Here's a couple of videos of Carly with her (very) early Birthday present.  We didn't want to take a chance of it being too cold on her birthday, so we found a good excuse to give it to her early =).  We also got some good footage of her walking.  At the time of the video, that was a very big deal. 

Here a couple of pics of Jeff's birthday party.  Happy birthday honey (only 2 months late)!

That's a lot of candles...so it's a good thing he's got a helper!  

After the party...
One of Carly's new favorite things is to sit in chairs.  She thinks she is a big girl now =)

Our beautiful girls!

Here is Addy on the morning that she began her first dance class.  It is called a "princess" class and how fitting.  It is a class of 8 2-3 year old's and they are too cute!  

She is learning tap, ballet, and tumbling and she LOVES it! 

Here's a little clip of Carly and Gi reading...

Addy's is loving riding her scooter lately, and she's getting better on it.  Here's a little clip.

A couple of videos

Here are a couple of videos from August 27 of the girls playing.  They are cute, so I thought I'd share.

At some point I realized that I had no video of Carly's progression from crawling to walking.  By the time I realized it, she was almost primarily walking.

This one was taken Sept. 27

And this one on Sept. 29...

September 2011

Only a few weeks later, the cousins meet up once again, when Allison, the girls, and Kai, come for a visit. Addyson and Avery are taking a spin in the Jeep.  We wanted to document this picture so we can compare it to them in an actual car 13 or so years from now.  I imagine it won't look much different than this! 

 Brantley, Becki, and the girls were in for a few days also.  Here is a picture of several of the cousins together.  Do you have any idea how difficult (impossible) it is to get 5 young girls to look at the camera at the SAME time! 

 And, minus Harry, I think this is all of the 2nd cousins together.  (I stole this from Allison's blog). 

 Here's a cute picture of Carly.

We've only been here a couple of weeks and Addyson has already found my tiara that I wore in our wedding.

Carly thought she was a big girl sitting in this chair all by herself.  

A little QT with Papa

 This is Carly's 11 month day picture.  Yes, I actually got a photo of her taking a step...go me.  

Or better yet...Go Carly! 

"I'm 11 months old...I can wear make up now also".  

Life at Gi and Papa's house!

So, here we are back at Jill's parents!  Here are some fun pics of the girls as we are getting settled (or from my parent's perspective...being invaded =). 

 

Here's Carly on her 10 month day.  This was her first time sitting on the train.  She thought she was hot stuff!  I'm pretty sure that at 18 months, Addy's feet barely touched the floor.  Carly certainly does not have that problem! 

Love this picture...

 Here are a couple of shots of the girls taking the Jeep for a spin.  I just love Carly's face in this picture.  I feel like she is saying, "Who put me in this car with this crazy girl?" 

 And yet again, "Oh my goodness, what is going on?"

 In all actuality, Carly really likes to ride in the Jeep, almost as much as Addy likes to drive it. 

Saying Goodbye

Things happened rather quickly, so in short, we left Jill's parents, went home and ten days later, we were back...for good!  It left little time for goodbyes.  We enjoyed our time in Virginia and will never forget the friends we made while we were there. 

 Allison, the girls, and Kai came for a quick visit to pick up Kai's crib and to help get a little packing done.  Well, I think we packed one box, but the girls, as always, had a SUPER time. 

 Here's Addy saying goodbye to her friend Grace.  It makes me sad, looking at these pictures now (11/27), to think that Addy will likely not remember her first friends from VA.  Hopefully, over the years, she will get to see some of them again.  (We miss you Karen and Grace!)

 As we were packing, Addy had plenty of time to try on all of her shoes!