19 Months old!

Brynn is 19 months old today!  She is something else.  If you leave the room, Brynn will be on the chair, or on the ottoman, or on the table-she's our climber.  She's all over the place and a ball full of energy, but a cute ball :) She has all 4 of her eye teeth now and had a bout with a nasty stomach bug last week, but she's all good now.  She is starting to string her sentences together and talk so much. It's fun to listen to her and Kate "talk" to each other.  She is really into her baby dolls- she has 3 cabbage patch kids that she has taken to.  She loves her monkey or her "ha ha" as she calls it.  She plays with Kate's barbies- more with their hair than anything.  When she's tired or trying to calm down, she sucks her fingers and plays with my hair. She'll say, "hair down please" and when I do, thank you follows.  We've been noticing that she is really polite and uses her manners.  She was going through a bit of a picky eating stage, but just today she ate chicken fingers.  Her favorite food is spaghetti.  Her favorite shows are Elmo or Melmo, as she calls it.  She calls Dora "DD". We are having a ball with her, a tired out ball, but it's still fun.

As you can see from the picture, getting a picture with the bear is getting harder and harder. Fortunately for her, I do yearly pictures starting at 2, so she's almost there :)  She kept pulling the sticker off, or running around her room, laughing hysterically.  Love her blonde curly hair too. :)

Snow Much Fun!

We woke up this morning to 2 inches of snow. While this may not seem like a lot, to an almost 5 year old and a 1 1/2 year old, it was perfect. After dancing, I got the girls all dressed up and we went out to play in the snow.

Kate was SO EXCITED to get outside.

 YAY!!!

 After Brynn saw Kate outside, she was crying at the door to go out and play.  So, I got her suited up.  The boots are a size 8- Brynn wears a 5.  Oh well!  She did GREAT! She didn't look up- just down the whole time at the snow.  The last time she saw it, she was 6 months old so this was a new thing for her.

Having fun!

The snow was very icy because it was so cold.  Kate didn't seem to mind at all. She kept picking it up and making snowballs.  And Molly can't get enough of it!

SNOW ANGELS!

This is so much fun!

It was FREEZING outside, but it was so much fun!!

Playing Sisters

Kate & Brynn are starting to really play together.  It is the cutest thing.  When we get home from work, I make dinner. They go into the TV room and play and come in dancing around the house.  First comes Kate, and after is Brynn, doing exactly what Kate did.  But, Kate tells her to do it.  It's adorable.  They love playing under our dining room table and chasing one another.

Here they are doing dance together tonight:

 And ending the dance with a big hug.

I love watching them play together and love each other so much.  I keep telling them how lucky they are.

Weekend with my little ladies

So, I mentioned in my previous post that Rich was in Vegas.  He went with his friends to celebrate his 40th birthday, as well as another guy's birthday. This group goes every other year.  How fun for them!?! But even more fun for me! Friday wasn't too much fun because we were all recovering or sick.  Saturday, we went to dance lessons, then I took Kate to her BFFs birthday party.  It was Mermaid theme party and my friend Bri did an amazing job.  Here is the birthday girl with Kate:

These 2 are just so cute together and we love that they are such great friends.  They can go weeks without seeing one another, but you would NEVER know it.  They are 2 peas in a pod.  That evening we had dinner with our good friends Lauren and Evan.  They were Vegas widows also.

On Sunday, I braved it and took the girls to church alone.  Probably wasn't the best idea in the world, but I did it.  I took this picture because Brynn carries this baby doll with her that her Aunt Amy got her.  We usually have a pink Monkey from Aunt Crystal too, but I only let them bring 1 toy into church.

Later that day, I took Kate to see Beauty and the Beast movie with Bri and AF.  The girls wore their Belle costumes and looked absolutely adorable.

That evening, we had a full house. A bunch of the wives, who are some of my closest friends came over for dinner with their children.  We had 5 little ones and 5 adults.  It was a fun pizza party and I definitely loved having the company.

And, yesterday was our last day without Daddy.  Our last girls' only dinner for a while. We were talking about this and the next time Rich goes away, Baby Boy will be here so no more just girls.  We went to Friendly's again and the girls were so well behaved. Here they are eating their sundaes.

What a fun weekend we had, but yes, it was difficult.  But we made it through and Rich is now home!  Next up... preparing for Kate's birthday!!

Stomach Bug

This nasty stomach bug was going through the girls' schools.  I was hoping and praying they wouldn't get it, but no such luck.  Tuesday night, Brynn got it and she got it bad.  Our poor baby girl.  She took the day off on Wednesday and we spent the day watching shows and coloring:

 Brynn was up at 5 am probably because she was so thirsty.  She was wiped out and here's how I found her after I went out of the room for a minute. Poor girl :(

On Thursday, Rich was supposedd to leave for Vegas, but he was offered free flight credits if he would leave on Friday. So, he was thinking he'd get some sleep.  Not quite.  The stomach bug hit poor Kate :(  So, she was home with Brynn and me on Friday.  We took Rich to the airport and I started feeling sick.  #3 down.  UGH!  This thing hit us hard.  I didn't have it nearly as bad as the girls- thank goodness.  Kate and Brynn were watching shows and I came in the TV room and this is what I found:

Her wipes were everywhere. Who needs toys when you have wipes!?

We are all better now.  phew!

65 in January? Yes please!!

Rich found out on Wednesday morning that he has pneumonia.  He's on meds and on the mend Thank goodness!  He was getting house happy so we were able to get out a little today- nothing crazy!

We took my charm bracelet that my Poppy bought me in 1998 to add a charm to it.  Rich added a charm with Kate's initials on my first Mother's Day making this bracelet even more special to me.  On my first Mother's Day with Brynn, Rich got me a charm with her initials.  Since the summer flew by and the fall too, we finally went to Tiffany's today  The girls had their first Tiffany's experience.  When we walked in the guard asked Kate if she wanted to try something on.  She'll be 5 in a month. My first time there was with my Poppy in 1998 and I was 22.  :)

We came home and had lunch and then went to the park.  It was 65 degrees today so we wanted to get outside.  We headed to the park and had blast:

And Brynn did the slide alone again- she picked right up from where she left off:

After the park, we headed to dinner.  Brynn loves to feed me and she LOVES french fries

What a great day we had!!

2012-Week One contd

The girls went back to school on Tuesday, we went back to work, well sort of.  Here are the girls, busting at the seams, to go to school:

 Because the temperatures dropped so much, Brynn was all bundled up in this sweet little outfit:

2012- Week one

Happy 2012! We hope everyone has a very happy and healthy year!  We are very excited for 2012 to welcome our son- can't wait!

We spent our last hours of 2011 with some of our best friends and their children eating, laughing, telling stories and just hanging out- exactly how I wanted to spend New Year's Eve, which is quite different than 10 years ago.  I'll post a picture on here once I forward it to myself, but this is our group and it's only growing as there are 3 pregnant ladies!

We left our friends' home and came home, put the girls to bed and Rich went out and got us an egg roll. We weren't hungry but for as long as I can remember, Rich and I  have had Chinese food on NYE and since I'm all about tradition, that's what we did.  He also stopped and got some sparkling cranberry and apple juice and made us fauxmosas.

We saw the New Year come in and went straight to bed  We're getting too old. LOL

On New Year's Day, we celebrated Christmas at my mother in law's house with Rich's family.  It was fun to see everyone on a holiday and celebrate Christmas with them.  

Here are some pictures of the kids opening gifts

 We did a polyanna and Amy had Brynn and got her this baby doll and a booster seat that holds the baby.  And Scott had Kate and got her a peace sign bear with a rapunzel dress and squinkies and an ornament with her name on it  

Jane got these stockings for each of us last year.  Rich made the holder and there are extra hooks for the 2 new babies that will be here next Christmas

 Brynn wanted to help anyone she could to open their presents.  She was yelling "Opie" again to open.  

 Jane got Kate this minivan, but if you look closely, minivan is crossed out and it says Crossover.  See, everyone is using my term now!

 And, Kate got real drums. She wanted a real camera, a barbie doll house and real drums and got each of them for Christmas.  I love her thinking and that she thinks uniquely.

 Brynn absolutely LOVES Uncle Scott- maybe because she looks so much like him? Who knows, but he is so great with her

Jane made all of the kids a pillow with their name on it and one for each family  Here is everyone with their pillows:

What a fun time we had with everyone!  Thanks Jane!