Rub a dub dub

One day this week, mid afternoon, Abigail and Ellie insisted on a bubble bath.  They were cracking me up, playing in the bubbles and pretending to be hippos.  They are playing together more and more these days and I love it when they do.  I can't say they have this much fun all the time, they can get pretty catty too- but as they are getting older it happens less and less.  Abigail has been begging to share a room with Ellie, and can't wait until Ellie is old enough to sleep in a big girl bed and share a room with her.

2 Months

Special Day

A couple of weeks ago we got to bless our sweet Hallie with lots of our family gathered together. 

I am mad at myself for not taking more pictures, I didn't even get a family picture! 

I did get a few quick shots of Hallie though, mostly before she was in her blessing dress.  

Hallie has been such a blessing to our family already, she is just perfect.

Happy Valentine's Day

Glad I get to share my day with these little love bugs.

One month Old

Welcome Hallie

This post is a little overdue- almost 7 weeks over due actually.  Hard to believe our little Hallie is almost 2 months old!  She came to us on December 21st at 2:07 pm after about 7 hours of labor.  Seven hours sounds a little weak when I type it for as miserable as I was... Hmm... They were 7 grueling hours, I assure you, but totally worth it.  She is perfect.  We know how to do girls.

She was 7 lbs 7 oz and 18.5 inches.

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.  I had fun playing photographer with her :)

Somebody got a new bicycle

Now, before you go judging us for getting Abi a new bike a month before Christmas... hear me out.

Our girls play outside and ride bikes just about every day.  I say ride bikes, but up until now they would ride bike.  We only had one.  They would share, or fight, or pile on together.  With Ellie's bday coming up, we were planning on getting her a bike of her own, but decided it would be smarter to move Abigail on to a bigger bike since the one we have is perfect for Ellie now, and Abigail is big enough to move on.  We debated waiting until Christmas, but we had already gotten the girls Christmas present, and are trying to keep the gifts to a minimum this year so we can focus more on what is important.

So alas, Abigail got a new bicycle (Be warned: It is not a BIKE. She is adamant that there is a difference and hers is most definitely a bicycle.)  She loves it :)

"Pops, do you have any wood?"

One of the many reasons I just LOVE my dad:

One of the mornings that we were visiting for Thanksgiving, Abigail got up and went to my dad and said, "Pops, do you have any wood?" He told her he did. So she asked if he could make her a bed for her dolls.  They went to work and a few hours later, she had a rocking cradle to take home and play with.

It was fun to watch her help him, and fun to see my dad just whip it out in no time.  I haven't gotten a good picture of the finished product yet, partly because it isn't totally finished.  We still need to paint it with the pink and glitter paint she picked out for it.  This week we did make a mattress, pillow, sheets, and a blanket for it, per her request, and she is loving it.

This little girl had a birthday

I can't believe Ellie is already two.  And on the other hand, I can't believe she is only two.

It is hard to recognize how fast the time goes with these little girls, but Ellie is so independent and adventurous, that in my mind, she has been 2 for a while now.  We had a fun day with her for her birthday.  Charles took the day off work so that we could have some fun as a family.  Abigail was so excited for Ellie.  She went in to Ellie's room first thing and woke her up singing Happy Birthday.  By the time me and Charles got in the room, Ellie was asking for birthday cake for breakfast.  I had to laugh... I actually hadn't planned on doing a cake, because I didn't think anyone would eat it, and thought we would do some other treat instead.  And of course I thought, Ellie wouldn't know the difference.  Well, she proved me wrong, asking for it before she was dressed for the day.

We opened presents first, which she was really excited about.  I didn't get many pictures because she was too quick for me.

After presents we made crepes for breakfast, a family favorite.  Then we got dressed and the girls went outside to ride bikes for a while.  I had to head to the doctor for a quick checkup, so Charles took the girls to their favorite place, The Big Bounce.  They love jumping around in the bounce houses, ESPECIALLY if Daddy is there to play with them.  When they got back, I had redeemed myself and had a cake ready, so we had lunch and then birthday cake, followed by a long nap :)

For dinner we got Ellie's favorite- Beef and Broccoli.  This girl LOVES broccoli.  In fact, the girls were fighting over the last of it.

We always say she is crazy- not in a bad way, she is just so extreme about everything.  She isn't afraid of much, very unlike her sister.  She is hilarious.  She makes us laugh all the time, and loves doing it. She is obsessed with shoes.  She loves them. She also loves purses and chapstick. She is such a good eater. She eats a ton, but she eats really well, she will totally sit and eat raw veggies and hummus all day long. It is one of her favorite snacks.  She loves cows.  That is a serious understatement.  See video to know the extremes we are talking about. She is very strong willed.  She has a hot temper, and fast growing fingernails- I have a few scars to prove both to be true. She is slowly getting a softer side, that loves to snuggle, give hugs and kisses, and tell me she loves me.  Today she has been particularly sweet and I just want to gobble her up. I particularly love when she comes and give my belly a big hug and kiss for the baby.

Ellie, How old are you?

This is a video, one of many like it, of Ellie seeing cows while we were driving.  She seriously does this any time we see cows, and living out in the country, is pretty much any time we leave the house.  This time, she was getting fussy because we were driving to my parent's house, and had been in traffic for a long time.  Abigail chimes in here too, not to let Ellie have the spotlight, but you get the idea of how she goes from tears to joy.

  We love our Ellie, and can't imagine life without her.