Photo Friday-Sports Center

It's great when we go to Papa's house. Everyone gets a little sports conditioning...

And everyone plays baseball in their grandparents' garage, right?

Everyone uses the inside of the garage door as a backstop (complete with cardboard target) while wearing totally inappropriate clothing, right?

We are so normal.

Happy Friday.

And welcome 2011.

New Skillz

There's a lot of things Kate wants to do for herself lately. I just wish they were the same things I want her to do by herself (like find her pjs and clear her place). But I'm usually willing to take the ones that she gives me. A new skill that she decided she was capable of earlier this month was cutting her own apples. So, me being the busy mom I am, I said, "Great! Here you go." and gave her a cutting board, a butter knife and a peeled apple.

Silly me. I assumed she'd cut a few chunks and be done with it. But no. Not Katelyn. Twenty minutes later, this is what I found on the counter.

She'd already consumed about half the apple. This is what was left of the massacre.

Catching Up

Clearly I've been on a vacation from blogging lately. Somehow I just haven't been able to find the time. So we'll start with something easy...Christmas.

Christmas came a bit early this year. The girls' first present actually arrived before Thanksgiving, but it was a couple more weeks before we could put it together. These awesome bunk beds have literally doubled the size of the girls' bedroom. They are super excited about their new beds. But clearly, it hasn't really helped keep the room tidy...Another early present for the girls...tickets to the Nutcracker ballet. Surprisingly, both girls enjoyed it. I wasn't sure since they are so sensitive to anything slightly suspenseful or a tiny bit frightening. Kate did ask me to cover her eyes while she covered her ears when the Nutcracker was fighting the King of the Mice. And other than wishing it was over about 15 minutes before it ended (because she was bored), she thought it was great. Padyn also loved it. When I asked her what her favorite part was, her reply was, "All of it."

Here they are demonstrated what they had seen that afternoon. Oh, and Robbie wanted to get in on the picture, too.

Christmas continued to come early. We let the girls open their present from Uncle Greggie and Aunt Hezzie the day before Christmas Eve. Thanks, guys, for our AWESOME new game!

I skipped a day of photos, but we celebrated with Grandma and Auntie and Bella and Trevor on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day found us at home in the morning opening our presents from each other. Still in our jammies. We were all a bit tired as Katelyn was up coughing most of the night and Robbie was awake every couple hours with, what we figured out a few days later, was hand foot and mouth disease.

Only an hour later, the house was in complete chaos...

Christmas continued...more presents, more houses, more family. Kate and Robbie didn't get to participate in all of it since the were ill. But they didn't mind sitting around watching TV with Daddy while Padyn and I celebrated at Grammie's house.

And after it all...all the presents I mean, the clear winner for Katelyn was the last one she opened at Papa and BonBon's house. Can you tell what it is from the picture?

Even when I tell you it's a unicorn pillow pet, you still might not know what it is. But don't worry. If you come over, it will be the first thing she shows you.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas.

Definitely Has His Own Drummer

Robbie is really starting to bust a move. Up until last night, he needed music to get in the dancing groove, but now apparently all he needs is a command. This morning, he was swaying his hips so hard to "Little Drummer Boy" that I thought for sure she was going to fall over.

It's worth watching the video until the end, just to hear the exit line for Kate.

Happy Friday.

True Story

Padyn has been bugging me lately about the tooth fairy. When she lost her sixth tooth this weekend, she again asked me about the reality of the tooth fairy's existence. I pushed her question off and told her we would talk about it when Kate was not around.

Today she had her chance. Just she and I were in the car when she said, "Mommy, tell me about the tooth fairy."

Not looking forward to this conversation (it's never fun to shatter your child's views on reality), I asked, "Tell you what?"

"Is the tooth fairy real?"

"What do you think, honey?"

"I think you are the tooth fairy."

"Sometimes I am. Is there anyone else that can be the tooth fairy?"

"Daddy."

"Yes. Sometimes Daddy is the tooth fairy. Anyone else?"

"I don't know."

"Well, every parent is the tooth fairy sometimes."

Thinking we had cleared this up, and one small part of my daughter's childhood existence was now shattered, I as quite surprised by her next question. Wait for it...

"Mommy, how do you get so small?"

Ah. Innocence safe for another day.

More Pictures from Thanksgiving

Here's a few more pictures from Grandma's house...

Playing with snow when there isn't even any on the ground. That's pretty tricky...

Photo Friday-New Shoes

Well, they are almost new shoes. And they are Mommy's. But Robbie clearly thought they belonged to him this morning. We were amazed at how well he could walk around in them.And just for something different...here's the little man having a fit yesterday. Who knows why.
Happy Friday.

Peace

There was a moment today when the girls were playing together without bickering, screaming or tattling. Of course I had to take a picture of this miraculous event.
Yes, those are pajama bottoms that Kate is wearing with her dress. And yes...she did wear them to school. But hey-she wore pants. So you will hear no complaining from me.

What was Robbie doing while his sisters were so nicely working together to solve a work puzzle? Sitting in his new chair, playing with his cars and Little People, of course. Ok, it's Mommy's new chair, but we haven't put the legs on yet, or really decided where it and its sibling chair are going to actually go, but nevermind. It's a new chair, and it's Robbie height, and he loves it. Loves it. You should see how pissed off he gets if anyone else sits in it.I had to include this picture because you have to see how many silly bandz my eldest wore to school today. Her right arm, the one she's writing with. How many is that? Like 30? I don't get it, but I'm sure I felt the same way about jelly bracelets or something when I was her age.