Getting in the Christmas spirit!

Thanksgiving is over so the Christmas decorations have come out! This morning we took the girls for their Christmas portrait, which you'll all see on our card for this year. They turned out so well it was hard to choose between all the great shots. Afterwards Audrey had her first Christmas photo with Santa. Ellie stayed far away as she is not so fond of the big guy :-) After nap time, we unpacked most of our Christmas decorations and put some of them around the house. Ellie loves it and can't stop touching them! Next weekend we'll get the tree, our favorite part.

Mimi gave the girls Santa buckets. Ellie loves hers...

but Audrey isn't so sure about it!

Mimi also gave them a stuffed snowman with a little bell on top.

"Hhhhmmm, what is this?"

"It doesn't smell like food."

"But it sure tastes good!"
(Have I mentioned that she's really teething!?)

Audrey meets Santa!

When we're at Mimi and Boppa's house, Audrey now sleeps in the crib and Ellie sleeps on a little bed on the floor of our room. Ellie thought it would be fun to join her sister one morning in the crib. The two of them had a great time in there together for quite a well. They were both laughing!

Ellie learned how to play "Ants in the Pants" this weekend (one of my super buys Friday morning!). It was a little tricky for her and for us, but we had a good time playing it together!

Thanksgiving weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday and are all still stuffed! This morning, Mimi and I hit the Black Friday sales and got lots of good deals on necessities (baby food and diaper wipes) as well as fun treats for the girls (board games, toys, and other Christmas goodies). Now we're hanging out and enjoying the chance to relax. Audrey is taking a nap with Boppa, Ellie is watching the Macy's Parade on DVR with Mimi, and Lori is reading a good book. Ahhh, life is good!

Our little turkeys!

Ellie taking a bite out of each her three dessert selections. She decided that apple pie was the best....

but then decided that she would rather just have a real apple!

Audrey had Thanksgiving dinner, too - her first taste of applesauce....

which as you can see she wasn't crazy about!

Mimi helped Ellie make snowmen pretzels. Ellie loved it!

Mimi and the girls

Audrey visiting with our friend Linda

(Lorraine, we expect you to join us next time!)

Giving thanks

We are spending this weekend with Mimi and Boppa and giving much thanks. This year we have so incredibly much for which to be thankful including...

Our beautiful girls - they have brought us greater joy than we could ever imagine and completed our lives in an indescribable way!

Our health - we are thankful for all of our continued good health, but this year we are most thankful for Lori's lack of lymphoma progression!

Our extended family - we are thankful for our family who values and supports us for who we are, not just because we're related!

Our job security - in this unstable economy, we are thankful for stable jobs with good benefits, which we also happen to enjoy!

Our good friends - where would we be without good friends?!? We treasure the new friends that we've made in our area as well as "old" friends from places and experiences long ago!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A very thankful mama and her precious girls

My First Thanksgiving!

"I'm Stuffed!"

Five Months Old!

Our sweet Audrey continues to grow and amaze us! At five months old, her purpose in life appears to be trying to coordinate her body movements. She's picking things up with her hands, putting everything in her mouth, and flapping like a bird when she's excited. She's had a few days of rice cereal and although she's still spitting out a lot of it, she gets better every day. She is also teething like crazy!

Audrey is laughing more and more, especially at her big sister's antics! She's not sitting up unassisted but she loves to sit in her Bumbo seat and watch Ellie play. Our sweet blue-eyed girl brings so much joy to our family!

This is a video of Audrey celebrating with her five month balloon. She loves playing with this balloon and don't worry she only get to play with it under supervision! :-)

Audrey's first taste of "real" food

I'm not sure if you can count rice cereal as real food for the rest of us, but I think it counts when you've only had one other food choice your whole life! Yesterday I took both girls to the allergist and then to the pediatrician for routine follow-up visits. We learned that Ellie is still very allergic to egg, but her skin is looking great with little evidence of eczema. She is also developing well and on target with her abilities. She is now 38 inches tall and weighs 33 pounds (75th percentile for both). Both doctors gave us the go-ahead to start giving Audrey solid food. She's been grabbing our plates and trying to take food from Ellie for a few weeks so she's definitely ready! We wanted to make sure that starting now wouldn't raise her risk for allergies any more than it is already is, but our allergist didn't seem concerned about that. We got the approval to give her soy formula if needed in the future, too. She is now 26 inches long and weighs 18 pounds 6 ounces (95th percentile for both).

Ready for some food!

Audrey's first taste of rice cereal...

Mmmmmmm!

"More please!" After the first few bites, Audrey started opening her mouth for more whenever I put the spoon near her!

Ellie was very excited about Audrey eating food! She took these two pictures...

Next week, applesauce! hold on tight, little Audrey, your world is about the expand!

Butterfly birthday party

This weekend we had Ellie's birthday party and what a party it was! Our (small) home was filled with 10 kids ages 7 and under as well as even more adults. Ellie wanted a butterfly theme so there were butterflies everywhere! She had a fantastic time playing with her friends; she told us that was her favorite thing about her birthday.

Aunt TT and Uncle Ty drove 7 hours to be here for Ellie's birthday party. Ellie was so happy they were there!

Once everyone was here, we started with a "pizza picnic". We were trying to minimize the pizza mess!


After pizza we had a few activities for the kids. One was decorating a frame with foam stickers. During the party my mom took pictures of each kid and put it in the frame for the goody bag.


Another activity was making a pair of butterfly wings. We ordered these thick paper wings and let each kid decorate a pair. It was so cute to see lots of kids running around with wings on! You can also see one of the other activities in some of the pictures - Mimi painted everyone's face with a butterfly (or any other special request!).

Butterfly cake!

A very happy Ellie with a bright blue tongue

The goody bag - a butterfly activity book, butterfly stickers, a butterfly ring, a butterfly ornament, the decorated frame, a Smarties butterfly (paper wings taped onto a roll of Smarties), and of course their butterfly wings!

Ellie opening presents after the party

And of course, Audrey found the party quite exciting.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Ellie!

Our baby turned 3 today and we just can't believe it! We asked her this morning if she just wanted to keep being two, but we couldn't talk her into it! It was quite an exciting day for all of us. Ellie started the morning by finding her new fish waiting on the dining room table. She came up with a list of names, including Pumpkin, Grass, and Miss D (one of her teachers). She finally settled on Blue. At school today, we threw a party for her during snack time and she had a blast. This weekend is her big butterfly party at home.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY GIRL!


Ellie and Blue

Ellie making birthday pancakes, wearing her new apron from Grandma.

The birthday girl at school

Backyardigans cupcakes