Wildlights 2010

It has been terribly cold this year, so it was tough finding a decent night to go to the Wildlights at the Zoo. But we made it the last semi-warm night there was right before a storm rolled through. The lights were beautiful, the kids had a great time and we left right when it started to rain. It makes me sad to think it might be our last trip to the Columbus Zoo in a long time. I love this place!

Christmas Tree 2010

Madeline is really understanding Christmas trees and Santa this year, so I couldn't wait to get our tree up. Here is the requisite forced-smile picture.

She loved looking at all the different ornaments.

Fia had some fun playing with the lights.

Fia snapped a good picture with her Momma.

Madeline tried her best not to smile.

With this being Fia's first Christmas, I got them both new stockings. Madeline never had a decent one to begin with anyway. I just need to get their names embroidered on them. It's looking very festive around here.

After all of that, I decided I was still in the Christmas spirit and wanted to make Christmas cookies. At 7 o'clock at night. And not just any cookies. The famous Lair Christmas Cookies.

Umm, not the brightest idea I've had in awhile. But we had fun! Madeline was a great helper as always.

Of course the decorating was her favorite part.

I'd say they turned out pretty good. They even tasted great too!

Random Photos

Every kid has a photo of themselves with Daddy's shoes on, right? Madeline added in the hat and gloves as well. Silly girl!

This picture of Sophia cracks me up! She had so much fun putting these ears on.

This photo melts my heart. My two beautiful baby girls.

Update on Madeline

I've been doing the monthly updates on Sophia, but I haven't had an update on Madeline in awhile. When I was taking Fia's pictures, Madeline wanted a turn. So here are her shots. hehe

- Her vocabulary has taken off and she speaks in full sentences. A funny story....Andy likes to joke and says to her all the time, "That's not appropriate." Well, she said it one day in context and Andy and I busted out laughing. It was hilarious! It still surprises me when she says something and I can actually understand every word.

- She has regressed with her potty training. :( She was all the way in underwear all day long and staying dry and now we are all the way back to pull-ups all day long. It has been so frustrating. Part of me wonders if Andy's back issues were throwing her off. She is very sensitive to things going on around her, especially when it comes to her Daddy. She is moving up to the pre-school room at daycare in January. So we are hoping this change will make her want to be a big girl and not have diapers anymore.

- She is really in touch with her emotions now and says what she is feeling. "I am very happy to see you" and "I'm sad" said with a long face.

- She loves to help with Fia. She will bring her a toy or console her when she is crying. It is so cute. She has also started hugging her a little too much. She basically tackles her. I can't leave them alone together anymore because I'm afraid of what she'll do. Like the other day when Sophia was happily laying on the floor playing and Madeline walked up and jumped over her! Yes, she leaped over her sister and didn't quite make the landing. Sophia wasn't too happy but she was okay.

- She is definitely two. The power struggles are exhausting. She will purposely not do something just because we asked her to. Like when she had been telling us she was hungry for a half hour and then when we said it was time for dinner, she refused to come to the table. After we had sat down and begun eating did she come to the table.

I didn't realize a two-year-old could get so far under your skin. She was doing something bad and I asked if she wanted to go to timeout and she said yes. OMG! My blood was boiling.

- I am reminded all the time how much her personality is like me. It's kinda scary.

- This isn't new, but she is most definitely a daddy's girl. Even her teachers comment how she acts differently with him than me.

- She has started picking out her own daily outfits, much to our dismay. The combination of clothes are sometimes quite interesting. But she insists on wearing what she picks out and I don't want to squash her independence. Yesterday she picked hot pink pants, a bright orange shirt and purple socks. I guess she wanted lots of color that day.

10 months old!

Where has the time gone?! My baby girl is already 10 months old. And with Christmas coming, this next month is going to fly by. Before I know it, I'll be planning her 1 year birthday party. She has a little cold but I hope you can't tell in the pictures.

She's had some fun developments this month!

- She started clapping her hands together. It isn't hard enough to actually make a clapping sound, but she looks so cute doing it.

- Even though she isn't crawling, she can get around. She rolls and scoots all over the place. She isn't army crawling, but she can really scoot around on her butt when sitting up. You can tell she really wants to get moving so I think we'll have a crawler in the next month.

- She can roll back and forth like a champ during the day, but at night she forgets how to roll back. She wakes up at night crying all the time now because she's rolled on her tummy and can't get back. I'll be glad when this phase ends.

- She's eating more table food now and seems to like it. It's hard to get her to eat a whole meal of table food though. The little stinker gets tired of chewing and just wants to eat her baby food.

- Right on her 10 month birthday, she started babbling da-da-da-da. I gotta get her to work on ma-ma now.

Ashley Rose is here!

My newest niece arrived into the world yesterday. She looks just like her sister. And is cute as a button! Look at that hair.

Trick-or-Treat!

Trick-or-treat was a blast this year. Madeline knows what candy is so she was beyond excited to go get herself some. She was supposed to be an angel but she refused to wear her halo and wings. So she was a princess instead. It didn't matter. She was still super cute!

Andy showed her the ropes at first.

After a few houses, she was a pro at going it alone.

Fia fell asleep during the gathering phase, but she perked up when it was time to sort through it all. If you can't figure it out, she was a penguin.

Since Columbus does Trick-or-Treat on a weird night, we had the opportunity to do it again with the rest of the family. Alexis was a flower. How cute are they all together?!

Alexis got the hang of things pretty quickly.

She also had some help from her big cousin.

Papaw let Fia partake in the fun. For the record, I did not approve of this. But Grandpas do what they want to do.

Madeline was partly agreeable and let us stop for a photo-op. It was a great night!

Painting Pumpkins

We finally had some time this weekend for the kids to paint the pumpkins they picked a few weekends ago. We thought this was better for them than carving one at this age. And I think they agreed.

Madeline got very serious and focused on her painting. She had a vision!

Fia was a little more playful with her design.

I'd say they turned out pretty well.

9 months old!!!

Wow, what a big month for Sophia! Lots of developments to talk about.

- First, her new stats: 21 pounds even (75-90th percentile) and 28 inches long (50-75th percentile).

- Her left eye finally fixed itself!!! Mostly. She's had a clogged tear duct since birth and we've had to wipe her eye constantly. I was getting ready to make the eye doctor appointment to get it fixed when I noticed I wasn't wiping it anymore. It still gets kinda wet at times, but it's nothing like it used to be.

- Her two, front upper teeth are about halfway in.

- Her hair has gotten just long enough to where I can even comb it a little.

- She's rolling over!!!!! She can only do it from back to front but she does it frequently now. And she doesn't get mad right away that she is on her stomach like she used to.

- She can eat chunky baby food and has even started eating graham crackers. She loves them!

- She is still a messy eater. With her bottles, her mouth, chin and neck will be covered in milk. Naturally, with baby food she gets it everywhere too. And it seems like once with each feeding, she will sneeze her food all over us.

- And last but certainly not least, she is smiling a ton now. All we have to do is look at her and she'll smile. I love it!

Park and the Library

Sorry I'm getting behind on my posts, but things have been so busy around here. Andy's back has been getting much worse so the poor guy hasn't been able to do much. That leaves me with picking up the slack and I'm just plain exhausted.


So here is a quick post of pictures from two weeks ago. It was a beautiful October day and I just had to take the girls out for a walk. I had no idea where we were going, but it didn't matter because it was gorgeous outside. Our first stop was the park. Fia enjoyed the swing while Madeline ran around on the slides. I had my work cut out for me keeping them both entertained and chasing Madeline all over the place.

See Fia's left foot ever-so-slightly onto Madeline's side of the stroller. Well, Madeline wasn't in a loving mood that day. I had to keep telling her to stop kicking her sister. I didn't think the sister fights would start quite this early.

Our next stop was the library. Madeline was in heaven. Fia didn't know what to think, but she was having fun.

Madeline was super excited with her new books!

All in all, the trip was a little over 3 miles. We had a blast but I was pretty darn tired when we got home. Not so sure if I'll be doing that again anytime soon, at least not alone anyway.