Lights, camera, SNAP

You are all my witnesses! In 2011 when Jared is working on the Christmas/end of the year budget the money for new Christmas tree lights comes out of HIS pocket! I confess that when Christmas is getting close I am already getting antsy and ready for the decorations to be put away. I know that once Christmas morning arrives I'll have a ton of new things to find homes for and I can't stand the mess! So, I try to start cleaning up the non-essential decorations just before Christmas Eve so that the tree and mantle are all that are left Christmas morning. Seriously, I know that sounds bad but no one is paying any attention to dish towels or candles, etc when there's a room full of new gifts. Last year the tree came down Christmas day. This year I managed to make it until the 26th. Aren't you proud?

Since the girls were sick I was constantly on the couch holding someone and Jared ended up in charge of taking off the lights. Let me tell you that I put them on the tree every year and I like a lot (a whole lot) of lights. It makes it look pretty. Jared apparently didn't care for the way I put them on (I wind up the tree on the inside first and then back down putting more lights near the outer branches). First we heard him complaining, then the door to the garage opening, and then SNAP, and tug. Yep, he went and got pliers and cut my lights into small pieces that he could easily remove from the tree. And I think he rather enjoyed doing it. Sigh. Anyone want to donate to the "2011 Tree Light Fund"? Pretty sure Jared is going to tell me that our next tree doesn't get lights!

link to playgroup

I have some cute new posts coming but am trying to get so much done (ie, cooking, cleaning, playing dollhouse, changing diapers, everything for Matney's 2nd birthday party, etc) before we leave for Vegas that it may be the weekend before they make it up. So, I thought I'd send you over to another playgroup kiddo's website for pictures his Mommy did of all our cuties. And before you even see the picture of Matney let me just tell you that I don't know why she was wearing two bows except that she is turning into more of a girly girl each day. If she sees a bow she has to have it in her hair...which is nothing compared to our trip through the shoe section of Target yesterday where she wanted to try every shoe on. And I mean every shoe. And then screamed "more shoes" all the way to the checkout. Lovely, Matney. Just lovely!
Check out these cute kids...and lifesaver Moms. I don't know what I would do without playgroup!

PINEAPPLE

I was eating pineapple the other night holding Halle Kate and she totally dive bombed my hand to get to it! I am pretty sure that she liked it...notice the drool and juice dripping from her chin. Ha!

At a loss for a title

I am at a total loss for a cute title on this. Matney's favorite person? Matney loves to wear a hat? OH MY GOODNESS, LOOK AT THAT BELLY!?!?! All of those would be appropriate titles so you just pick what you like best.
Rose and Abby were over to hang out while Jared was out of town last week. Matney decided she wanted to be "neckie" (sounds like I spelled it and means naked!). We made her happy by taking off her shirt and adding a hat. She is a MESS. She and Abby curled up and read books for a long time. Matney loves Abby. Abby and Rose are even going to come hang out with the girls when Jared and I are in Vegas. I am positive it will be totally alright with Miss M that we're gone as long as Abby is here to play. We have such wonderful friends!

PUFFS!

Halle Kate is moving on into the world of solid food. I gave her Puffs last week (smaller than a Cheerio size food that dissolves in her mouth so that she really doesn't have to chew) and she loves them! What a big girl. I don't have a picture of it yet but she learned to clap this week and is so proud. She claps for everything. Jared's favorite is that she is a TOTAL Daddy's girl and she claps like crazy when he comes in the door. Isn't that cute?!?!




I didn't do an update but HK just hit 8 months. Man, time is flying. She still loves banana baby oatmeal cereal and really won't eat other baby food. If I feed her a bowl around 7:30pm there is chance she'll make it until 6am or later before she wakes up to eat a bottle. How exciting is that?!?! Then she eats about 7oz and goes back to bed until 8am. I LOVE HER! That's the only time she drinks much formula though. During the day I'm lucky to get 2oz in her at a time. Such a peanut. Her bottom two teeth are totally in, along with one on the top. The other top one is there and keeping us up at night but hasn't broken through yet.

She's still in 6 month clothes (some of her 3 month clothes still fit fine) and I'm really torn about what to buy as we head into spring. Last summer M was in 18-24 month clothes already so there is nothing HK can wear. Buy 9 months and hope she doesn't have a growth spurt halfway through summer? 12 month clothes are way too big. I just don't know and there is cute spring stuff on all the rack already!

HK is just starting to push up on her knees so we're headed towards crawling but not quite there yet, thank goodness. I know once they are both mobile I am in big trouble. Halle Kate's favorite thing is Matney. She loves her sister. Her second favorite thing is her Daddy. She likes me fine but when Jared is around she is all over him. She also loves to sit on the floor with a box of blocks we have and dump them all out. It takes her a while since she has to "taste" each block so it is an activity I like because she entertains herself for a good amount of time.

As long as she has her naps (about 1 hour in the morning and a longer one in the afternoon) she is the sweetest, happiest little girl ever. Of course, we really can only compare her to Matney and we all know Miss M has rolled, crawled and marched to the beat of her own drum from day 2! Somehow it came up this weekend and Jared and I agree that having Matney and Halle Kate, at exactly the ages they are, was the smartest thing we've done. Maybe not the easiest but our family is perfect just the way it is!

Laughing on the stairs

One of the best places to hear little girl laughter is at the bottom of our stairs. Matney bounces her way down and Halle Kate thinks it is just halarious. Here we are playing last Sunday afternoon. Watch the progression...

Matney plays on the stairs...


Halle Kate hears her so we go to join her. Everyone likes company, right?


Not Matney. Thanks for coming to see me but now that you're here I think Strawberry Shortcake and I will find somewhere else to go.


Um, thanks, Matney. Glad we came to join you!

Love

These sisters love playing together and they love their blocks!

Ponytails make me cry

With the lack of humidity in the air Matney's hair has been all over the place. Last week I thgouht maybe it was long enough for a ponytail so that I could get it all out of her face...and, sniff, sniff, it was. Look at my big (old) baby girl. I couldn't get a great picture but doesn't she look so grown up?

*POOF!*

POOF! I'd like to steal my sister's magic wand and wish for her to take a nap so that I get all my Mommy's attention.





TA-DA! Wish granted!

Brussel Sprouts

I just wanted to say that in trying to be healthy I roasted brussel sprouts. I even ate one. I've always imagined them to be gross but now I know for sure. Brussel sprouts really are nasty. I recommend another way to try and be healthy. Just so you know.

Oh the drama!

The toddler years are proving to be fun times around our house. Ignore me in my no shower nastiness and look at Matney. What do you think she could be pitching such a fit about? Take a glance across the room....what's that? A squealing Halle Kate so excited to be playing with Elmo, Matney's Elmo. Oh my, we have lots of work to do teaching someone to share!





And now look at these. This is 2 minutes later. We gave Halle Kate another Elmo and she was more than happy on the floor. Matney got her Elmo back and she didn't even care. After 30 seconds she'd pushed him aside and was moving on with her day. We are working on sharing but MoMo has already remmided the situation and both girls now own their own plush Elmo. Matney has been so sweet too. She'll go grab both Elmo's and hand Halle her's (it is obvious because it isn't as nasty as M's). I guess that will work for now!

More Cawwots!

Matney has finally found a vegetable she'll eat and we're not surprised to see what it is...CAWWOTS (carrots)! I don't know how many carrots I consumed while I was pregnant with her but Jared was at Kroger every few days making sure we didn't run out. And how awesome was that, to be pregnant and want carrots? With Halle Kate I only wanted chocolate, ribs and pizza. Anyway, Miss M has been chowing down on some carrots recently. Getting to be messy with dip may have something to do with her fun. Either way, I am so happy that she's getting at least one veggie!

(much HATED) snow days!

We had snow about 10 days ago and I was so excited to take the girls out and get a picture. Matney wakes up in the morning and heads to the back door asking to go "bye, bye car". If it is raining outside that is even better because she thinks it is awsome to get wet. I just knew she'd love the snow, especially after her snowman obsession over the holidays. Once again, I was wrong. Matney FREAKED OUT and hated the snow. We snapped these pictures quickly because she was screaming "NO SNOW!INSIDE!!!" You can see her pointing and crying. She hated it. Halle Kate thought the whole experience was funny. The bottom picture is our deck 5 days after the snow fall. Notice that not one flake was disrupted. Matney wouldn't even let us open the back door. Every morning we'd ask her if she wanted to go out, or go in the car and as long as there was snow on the ground her answer was "NO!". Isn't that funny?!?!










The deck 5 days post snow.

I am so behind on the blog! I've tried a couple of times to update but either our computer wasn't working or the blog site wouldn't upload pictures...or I had two tiny, screaming girls at my feet more concerned with having lunch than blog updates! Anyway, I'm here and giving it 30 minutes tonight to try and fill in the gaps from the past two weeks.