12.16.2012

Tea Party 2012

Matt & Tania hosted a Tea Party for the kids today.  We had a lot of fun! 
 
Tania made cups with the kids' names on them and served apple juice.
 







They had lunch together..PB&J, grapes, cheese, crackers, veggies..

And then they decorated Christmas Trees!  (Ice cream cones with frosting, M&Ms, marshmallows, peppermints.  I'm pretty sure they ate more toppings than they decorated with).  Cute idea!


 
Fun activity!  Hopefully we can make it an annual tradition!

Gingerbread House

We had nothing planned for Saturday night, so we had Trisha, Travis, and Tali come over for Pizza.  And then after dinner the girls decorated the Gingerbread House.  Fun to just hang out at home with friends!
 






12.08.2012

Christmas dresses 2012

The girls got a package in the mail from their GG (my gramma) this week with these cute dresses.  So we got them dressed up and made an attempt to visit Santa.  We're still 50/50 for the girls not crying.  This year Natalie was willing and it was Rhys' turn to cry.  Maybe next year we'll be 100%!  (And next year we might have to find a different Santa - one who doesn't sit in the direct sun!)

Natalie was so cute.  We've really been talking up Santa in hopes that she wouldn't cry and as we walked up to him, she was waving and saying "HI Santa!!"  She was a little more shy when the time came to actually sit, but she didn't hesitate to hop up there.

 



 
We've had plans in the garage to make this train cut out for about 4 yrs now.  David (&Natalie) have been working out back on it for a few weeks and it was finally ready to assemble.  We haven't put up any other yard decorations this year...not sure if we'll have time.


 

11.15.2012

Check-ups

The girls had check-ups this morning. (They were originally scheduled a few weeks ago but had to be rescheduled).

They did soooo good! Natalie was kind of excited to go because she remembered that you get lollipops!

The nurse told her to take off her shoes and stand on the scale and then took her to measure height. She listened so well!

Rhys got a little restless just sitting in my arms, so I ended up letting her down for a bit.

Clean bill of health for both!

Then came the vaccines. Not too fun, but they did pretty good. Natalie went first. She kind of got mad about the shot, but was over it when I let her have her lollipop (at 8:45am). Rhys cried for a few seconds too, but I brought fruit snacks and gave her two and she was happy as a clam.

Stats:
Natalie (37 mo)
Height: 38.75in (75%)
Weight: 31.5lb (60%)

Rhys (15.5 mo)
Height: 29.5 in (20%)
Weight: 21 lb 2 oz (30%)

11.04.2012

Big day for Rhys

This was a Big day for Rhys. I was able to get the back of her hair into a baby pony tail! She totally has a mullet!!

AND she peed in the potty! We were getting the girls ready for bath, so I sat Rhys up there. She hopped off but came right back, so I put her on the potty again and she peed!! I figure we'll start the introduction and see if we can catch her before the terrible, defiant, twos start!

10.31.2012

Happy Halloween - 2012

Happy Halloween!
 


We took this picture on Sunday.  Natalie decided she didn't want to be a Poodle for the day - she wanted to be a Bumblebee instead.  So, keeping our fingers crossed we get a good sibling picture tonight.  And if not, the Poodle / Bumblebee siblings are still adorable to us :)

10.28.2012

Natalie's Fairy Party

We celebrated Natalie's birthday on Sunday, October 14th this year.  We had a little rain mid-week, but by the weekend, it was boiling hot.  I was keeping my fingers crossed it wouldn't be too cold, but it turned out to be a little too warm.  This is the 3rd year in a row that we've had great weather...I think next year we'd better plan to be in doors - the luck has to run out sometime, right??
 
Natalie really likes Tinkerbell, so we went with a Fairy theme...Wings & Wands (Patty made these awesome wands for the girls.  Love them!)

The boys had pirate hats and eye patches, but they weren't as big of a hit, and I realize I don't have one single picture of them!

My little mini-fairy!

Anna came ready in her princess dress!
 Rhys with her Papa.  She had just woken up and was taking it all in.

Tinkerbell Cupcakes!  (I just set these outside at the last minute because they would have melted on the patio)

Birthday Girl!



Our Host!


The Great-Grandmas. So glad they were able to celebrate with us!!

A Fur Coat - what every girl needs when it is 90 degrees outside!  It will be perfect for winter though!

Her prized Cinderella dress!  She puts it on almost daily.  So far we haven't had any battles about wearing it outside of the house, but she definitely notices when we put it away!


Thanks to everyone who was able to come and celebrate with us.  We are so lucky to have such great family & friends!

10.09.2012

Happy 3rd Birthday Natalie

Happy 3rd Birthday to our sweet Natalie! 

Today was a pretty fun day, even though David and I both worked all day.  We sang Happy Birthday this morning, got the girls ready for daycare and sent them off with cupcakes to share with her friends.


Tonight after dinner we gave her her presents.  She was having fun opening everything. (and lesson learned, gotta make sure toys are accessible come Christmas - waiting for mom & dad to open the packaging is no fun!)

Rhys was busy checking things out too.  She was digging things out of the bag faster than Natalie could open.


This is her surprised face - complete with ketchup from dinner.

The Rapunzel doll is a hit. (and see Rhys in the background? She is busy looking for more presents..)


Natalie modeling her watch with a mouthful of water.  Her friend at daycare has a watch and she talks about it a lot, so I thought she'd like one.  The first thing she said when she opened it was "I gotta show Daniel my watch!"

And, a little update about Natalie at 3:

The crazy tantrums have started to subside (and literally, just in time for Rhys to start. Oh Joy).  They are becoming more rare, but when she throws a fit, it's not pretty.  Since we've been at this since she was about 18 months old, I'm more than ready for these to become a thing of the past.  Here's to hoping 3 is easier...?!

Natalie has been counting everything in sight!  We were at the store the other day, and she was walking up the aisle counting the milk jugs, she counts objects in her books, food on her plate, anything that is grouped together she starts counting. 1-10 are solid, sometimes 11-20 are good, and sometimes they get a little jumbled.

She loves to sing the alphabet!  She's got the song down great; even the ending.  She recognizes the majority of the letters out of order when we practice her flashcards.  She gets a few of them mixed up (W &M, C & S), but for the most part she's got it.  She's starting to ask me "What's ___ start with?" when we read books.

Books, books, books.  She could listen to books for hours.

She also loves to color with crayons and her no-mess markers.  She will sit at the kitchen table for 30-45 minutes at a time just coloring.

She's really good at puzzles - we gave her some new ones tonight and she was able to put them together with a little help.  She picks up a piece (remember, to a puzzle she's never seen), and plops the piece down in it's spot.  Crazy!  The new puzzles are 25 pieces.  They take her a little bit to figure out, but she's starting to see that if she matches the colors or designs that she can find the matches.

She's also really good at the game Memory.  We have a version installed on the ipad and I set it up for 12 cards.  She usually picks 2, and then keeps picking the first one and another until she finds the match.  Along the way if she recognizes a duplicate, she goes straight back to the original and gets the match.  Good short-term memory!  Sometimes even I think they look familiar, but can't remember where it was.

Her night-time routine is funny.  We get PJs on, read books, she drinks some milk, goes potty, brushes her teeth ("Gets her sugar bugs out") and then she insists on "Getting her earwax out".  She doesn't want to miss any of these steps - If you try to skip any of these steps to hurry things along, she let's you know.

Natalie continues to be a picky eater at home.  She seems to eat just fine at daycare; we never hear complaints of her not eating what was offered.  But, at home she refuses to eat a lot of the stuff we suggest.  We need to work on getting this into more of a routine.

The girls are playing together more and more.  Rhys has realized that big sister's have fun toys, which doesn't always make Natalie very happy.  We are working on sharing and not ripping things out of other people's hands.  Fun stuff around here.

Natalie likes to ask me "what does red mean? STOP." And she puts her hand out.  "What does green mean?" and I tell her "Go, go, go" "What does orange/yellow mean?" And she tells us "Slow down and be careful".  She likes to narrate when we get to stop lights.

I think Natalie is starting to get into the Princess phase a little.  Sometimes we let her watch Rapunzel (well, I guess technically it is "Tangled") on the weekends.  She loves to put on her princess dress and spin around.  And tonight she seemed to really like brushing her Rapunzel doll's hair. 

Stats for 3 yrs:
Height: Forgot to measure! Will do this tomorrow
Weight: 30.75 lbs
Shoes: Size 7/8 **
Clothes: Size 3T/4T, some of her 3T pants are too small so she'll be moving to 4s soon.  She can comfortably wear 3T shirts for a while yet, but depends on the brand.

** Some 7 shoes are too small, and some 8s are too big.  She's had a huge growth spurt lately.  We got a whole bunch of 7 shoes from Anna at the end of April that were all too big, and the other night she found some that we rarely wear and was trying them on and most are too small now. So she went from a 6 to 8 in less than 6 months. Same with her pants.

So, now Natalie is 3.  And thank goodness because people give you strange looks when you say you have a "2 year old and a 1 year old!"  No idea how the time went so fast, but we are looking forward to these pre-school years!

10.06.2012

Pumpkins 2012

We visited the Barn today.  The weather was perfect and warm, Rhys had a good morning nap, and Natalie was in a good mood, so we thought we'd give it a shot!  We got there and gave the girls some lunch first, and then we went exploring...
 

I cannot believe Natalie is so big!  3 more days until she is 3!


Rhys was having a bit of a grumpy time...lots going on to look at.


Natalie liked the kid maze..


Natalie's First Pony Ride!  She really liked it, and talked the girls' ears off.



Rhys found herself a pumpkin.

Their faces crack me up in this picture.  No idea why they are puckering their lips.


Got our pumpkins and are heading home.

Fun trip...we also did the big hay maze...I didn't think it would be too hard, but after turning corner after corner and not being able to see my way out, I was ready to be done!  The space was tight, Rhys wanted to get down to walk, and we were trying to keep up with Natalie.  I was so glad when I saw the exit!

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