Addy and Carly

I know we say this all the time, but our girls are growing up SO FAST!  Carly just turned 15 months old...how is that possible???  We have such wonderful little girls (or as Addy would say, one big girl and one little girl).  They bring such joy to our lives and are always surprising us with new and exciting accomplishments!  So, I had the camera out the other day, trying to capture our beautiful girls!  Here are some of the shots I came up with. 

Carly is in that phase where she's hard to capture because she is ALWAYS on the go.  She is a very busy girl, exploring all the time, learning as much as she can.  She loves to copy her sister and learn from her.  She is such a sweet baby and she gives the best hugs!  She is in that phase, where she is overjoyed by any new discovery or accomplishment, so she is so happy and loves to laugh (except when her teeth are bothering her).  Addy is such a happy girl, too.  She is always smiling or laughing (or at least most of the time).  She has so much energy and she loves to laugh, dance, JUMP, and play.  She is loving having a little sister that she can teach.  She is always trying to share her excitement with Carly and loves when Carly copies her.  They are quite a pair together and my favorite is when they laugh together.  It just melts my heart!!!

Happy Birthday Gi

We celebrated Gi and Megan's birthdays over delicious lasagna at Mim's house.  Part of the festivities included the girls trying on Mim's hats.  Here is a cute one of Carly. 

and here is a cute one of Addy and Gi getting ready to blow out the birthday candles.  

Here is a video of the girls on the morning of Gi's birthday.  There is so much wrong with the video.  The girls are eating cookies BEFORE breakfast.  They are eating crumbly cookies in the carpeted playroom.  AND, you will notice Carly swipes her hands together in an effort to get any excess crumbs off.  Sorry Gi and Papa!!!  There was no permanent damage to the room...I promise =).  If it helps, they are having a great time!

Monkey see, monkey do...

Carly is adding words to her vocabulary almost daily.  She is pretty interested in trying to say new words.  Here she had just learned to roar like a lion...it's too cute.  You'll notice, I am trying to get her to demonstrate her vocabulary, but all she is really interested in doing is coloring with her sister, which leads me to the other video. 

We are very much in monkey see, monkey do mode at our house right now...and it's not always Carly.  Pretty much, what one child does, the other wants to do it also.  This includes playing the piano, and not particularly my favorite, squealing! 

Here are a few cute pics of the girls...

The girls love this giraffe, thanks Aunt Donna!   They are always cuddled up with it =)

Addyson has recently been taking naps inside her princess tent.  I just put it up on the bed for her.  She LOVES it!  Here she is inside her tent. 

laptops

Among so many other things our children do, we think this is just priceless!  The girls love to pull up to their table and work on their laptops.  It is just so cute. 

Not entirely sure what Carly is doing here, but it's cute =)

 Later in the day, Jeff took the girls for a walk.  Here they are all suited up and ready to go!

Lots and lots of manatees

We made a trip to Blue springs in January hoping to see some manatees.  Thanks to a cold spell, they had come into the spring to escape the colder water and we got to see lots of them! (I find it interesting that the spring water is the warmer water, since they are a constant 72 degrees year round.  From our standpoint, we always think of the springs being super 'cold', but I guess we don't do much swimming in the winter.)

Probably more important to the girls, there was lots of room to run around!  They had a ball =).  If you will notice, Carly on has one shoe on...foolishly, we put Carly's brand new shoes on her to wear.  And, while looking at the manatees at an overlook, her shoe fell off into the water.  As you will notice in the video, Addy was very distraught about us not being able to get Carly's shoe back.

In addition to Addy's concern over the shoe, the lady next to me provided the narrative for the video.
 

Christmas Part 3...

...Back home.  We made certain to make arrangements with Santa to drop off some presents at our house, even though we weren't home on Christmas morning.  They were waiting for us when we walked in the front door when we got home!  The girls were so excited to see MORE presents =).  I cannot believe we didn't think to have our video camera ready, so I'll try to describe it to you instead...  Aunt Kelley and Uncle Joe left Princess chairs for the girls, unwrapped, in front of the tree, with bows on them.  Addy went inside, while Jeff and I worked on getting the car unpacked.  She came running down the front sidewalk screaming...look, look, look!!!  She had her chair and was carrying it down the front walk to show it to us!!!  I cannot believe we didn't get it on video.  It was awesome.  Then we took the girls out back to show them the playhouse Em had sent for them...Thanks Em. (and thanks Papa for putting it together while we were gone).  It has provided hours of entertainment for the girls..Thanks again Em!

Here's a few pics of the girls opening gifts.  Please notice...it was very important that Santa use princess paper to wrap the girls' gifts, per Addy's request. 

Here's a cute shot of the girls hanging out in their chairs watching a little tv before bed.

We realized the next morning, that we had forgotten to give Addy her present from Gi and Papa, a new bike.  So, they set it out in the foyer for her to see when she woke up from her nap.  Here she is riding it for the first time.  I'm sure we will have many more pictures of Addy on her bike as she LOVES it.  It's hard to get her off of it sometimes...and she's pretty good at it.  Notice it has no pedals.  She has to push it with her feet.  She already will push with both feet and coast a little ways.  (It is supposed to take the place of training wheels...so we'll see.)  Thanks Gi and Papa! 

 Here's a video of her on the bike.  She was reluctant to ride it at first, so Gi had to get on her bike and demonstrate how to do it.  After that, she was ready to go! 

Christmas Part 2

Christmas day was pretty busy.  We started with presents at Jane's house.  Then we headed to Wayne and Kim's for a wonderful Christmas dinner.  (On a side note, I wish I had taken a picture of Jeff eating.  He fed the kids while I ate, and then he sat down to eat.  He was still eating as food was being put away, savoring each bite.  It was awesome.  I love you, honey!)  Then we headed back to Jane's for a visit with Donna, Joe, Justin and Ian.  We couldn't have asked for a better day!

The girls had a really good time playing outside, especially with Elvis.  The weather was beautiful, so we spent a good part of the day outside. 

My new favorite picture!!!  

Wayne and Kim have a rock/stone wall, that Addy loved to walk on.  Here she is jumping off one end.  


...and again.


And here she is cheering because she walked from one end to the other. 

Here are a couple of cute videos of the girls on Christmas day at Wayne and Kim's.  Addyson was rendered speechless on two occasions today.  Once when she received :Tangled", a movie that she loves, and again here when she received "How to Train your Dragon", her other favorite movie. 

Here's a video of Carly getting to know Elvis.  She LOVES animals and thought Elvis was super cool, a feeling we all share. 

At this point Addy has gone back outside and is waiting  for someone to come and play with her...how cute!

We went to visit Josh and Lori (and the boys) while in town.  Here is a pic of the kids together...are they all looking at the camera???  

 ...and here is Carly, in case you didn't recognize her in her disguise! 

Thanks to everyone for making our Christmas super special!  We had a wonderful time!

Christmas 2011

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with Jeff's family this year.  We had a very busy few days, but it was terrific to see and spend time with everyone.

The girls are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus!  I cannot say how blessed we are to have these two wonderful little girls.  They are truly the light of our lives!!!  They had such a good time this Christmas. 

 Addyson woke up first on Christmas morning and Jane was stalling her until everyone else woke up.  Finally she said, "I cannot wait any longer".  She was so excited!!!  She had a great time opening gifts.  She opened everyone's presents for them.  I'm not sure if she ever looked up...

 Carly had fun too!  She's still in the "play with the paper and the boxes" stage, so she had a ball opening presents also. 

Carly LOVES to carry bags/baskets on her arm.  Isn't it just too cute!

I think this is Addy opening Uncle Tim's gift for him =)

Goldfish for breakfast???   Best Christmas present ever!!!

In case you are wondering, yes, Carly has food in her mouth...as always!  The girl eats constantly =)

More to come soon...I hope...

The Polar Express

Once Addy's birthday celebration was over, we shifted our focus to Christmas. 

First item of business...to take the girls to see Santa Claus!  Addyson was super excited to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas (Belle stuff), that is until we got there!!!  They both took one look at the jolly man in the red suit and that was enough for them...Carly started crying and immediately turned to find an escape.  Addyson cooperated...she reluctantly sat on Santa's lap, her legs stiff, stuck straight out in front of her, with a look of fear on her face.  The closest Carly got was to sit on my lap, with me on the floor next to Santa.  We snapped a quick photo, which I decided not to post here.  When Jeff got home, we tried again, this time with no Santa, just the four of us in front of the Christmas tree.  This picture turned out much better! 

Since the first experience wasn't traumatic enough, we then decided to torture our kids once more, with another visit with Santa.  This time we took them to the North Pole via the "Orange Blossom Cannonball" otherwise known as "The Polar Express"!  This visit went a little better, maybe because there were cookies and hot chocolate involved =) 

 

The girls were willing to sit with one of Santa's elves for a photo op...like I said before, notice they each have a cookie in their hand!

 They even were excited to have Santa take his picture with us. 

 Gi with the girls...

And we'll end this post with Addyson's first published photograph.  Pretty good for a 3 year old!