Merry Christmas!

We hope that everyone has a wonderful day filled with family, laughter and happiness.

Merry Christmas!

I think this year's holiday photo turned out very well. Getting that photo was certainly a challenge though. I seriously underestimated how hard it would be to get two one year olds to sit the way I wanted them to, keep their hats on, look the same direction and smile all at the same time. After a lot of work, a few tears, and some good old fashioned cookie bribery, we finally had some success. Here are a few of the photos that didn't make the cut.

Boowwwwl

Caitlin's newest word is bowl. It is so funny when she says it because she pronounces it with a sharp b and exaggerates the ow. I love this learning stage they are in!

In honor of the addition of bowl to their vocabulary, I am posting some pics of them playing in a bowl. They were in the kitchen playing by themselves a few weeks ago. I walked in and saw Isabella sitting in this container I let them play with. Caitlin thought it was too cool for her to be left out so she tried her hardest to get in the bowl with Isabella. Isabella on the other hand had no desire to share her new found spot with her sister. After a whole lot of pushing on Caitlin's part, Isabella decided there was something else more fun for her to do and left Caitlin to enjoy the bowl. Oh, by the way. If you look closely, you will see that Cheerios stick to fleece jammies very well. :)

First taste of snow

I meant to do this post back in October, so I'm obviously a little late. :) We had a big snow before Halloween. Halloween day was a beautiful day though. We took the monkeys outside for their first real chance to explore the snow. They had a lot of fun playing with the snowballs and eating the snow. They liked eating it so much that they wouldn't put their snowballs down even when their fingers were freezing.

Look mommy, rays from Heaven appear when you hold it up! It's magical!

Num, num, num.

My fingers are so cold!

Whoa, if you hold it long enough it turns to ice!

I love snow!

Can we play outside every time it snows?

Daddy, where are our snow tires? We can't drive up the mountain with these!

Now this is a snowball!

Joined at the hip

Our entire living room has been commandeered as the monkeys' play room with the exception of the corner I use as my work area. Our area rug was replaced with the lovely green foam mats that you see in so many of our pictures and there are toys everywhere. Everywhere. Despite having the whole room to play in, the girls spend a great deal of time playing very closely together. As you can see from the pics of this one particular day, they spend plenty of time literally joined at the hip. Someday when they are running around crying "sissy is touching me!" I will pull these pictures out and remind them that once upon a time they liked it.

Door with a view

We replaced our front door a couple of years ago. Our old screen door was one of those ugly ones with two half panes of glass that you can open. It was nice to have a breeze flow through, but I never felt safe with it. Our current door has a solid pane of glass. Little did I know when we bought it how important it was going to be to our family.

The monkeys' favorite place to play is in that doorway. They happily spend hours watching the world go by. They smile and point when someone walks by with a dog. They love doggies! Every time someone walks by and waves they get so excited and wave back. When it is snowing, they like to sit there and watch the snow fall. Even if the air coming off of the glass is freezing cold. They love to sit there and wait for their daddy to come home from work. Now that it is getting dark so early, they go to door as the sun starts setting knowing that it means daddy will be home soon. That simple door frames the world that means so much to my monkeys.

Thanksgiving

Happy late Thanksgiving everyone! We had a nice, albeit very low key, day at home. This year it was just us and mom. She made a very nice dinner for us. It is one of only a couple of years in my life that I haven't spent the day with a handful of family and/or friends. I must say that I much prefer having a gathering. It just didn't really seem like Thanksgiving without the hubbub of people around. Next year it will be back to ordering dinner from Tony's and inviting people to join us.

We spent black Friday at the zoo with our little monkeys. It was a beautiful 70 degree day. We had such a pleasant afternoon. The zoo was quite busy, so I guess we weren't the only people who preferred to be outside over shopping with the vultures. I finally remembered to take the camera along this time. Unfortunately, I missed a fabulous photo op provided by one of the grizzlies. Just couldn't get the camera out and ready in time. I did get some pics of a big bear and some monkeys though. Check them out!