Pic-A-Day {february}

I have really not been very good about taking pictures for the last little while. I'm not even sure why. I think it's mostly because it's so hard to get the girls to look at the camera. Heck - it's hard to get them to hold still long enough for a picture to be taken! They are very busy little girls! And it's so fun!

We are finally done with all the sickness at our house -- knock on wood -- and now that we are ready to do more outside, the weather has turned sour again. It was so nice for the entire month that the girls weren't feeling well, and now that they are better, it's too cold. I'm not sure what I did to deserve that! Haha!

 cuddles for Mo

 they are so excited for Daddy to be home

we took a trip to the aquarium on a whim. the girls LOVED it

painting Valentine's cards ... and toes

 we had to make our own snowflakes this year

apparently they don't need the baby swing anymore

 the doctor's office isn't so bad when you get balloons

 twins in matching clothes are pretty stinkin' cute - especially when they are having a "best friends" moment

Pic - A - Day {January}

               taking good care of Kitty-Kitty 

 

stranded in the house

 

they never both look at the camera at the same time

 

 a girl and a stick

other things are more interesting than mom

 

helping mom in the kitchen

 

a little walk after lunch

 

bookworms

 

"choo - choo"

 

sleep tight little ones

 

sometimes we get crafty - but who needs paper

 

my little painter

 

ice castles at Fish Lake

 

holding fish

 

first time ice fishing // feeding fish fishies

 

coolest chicks on the lake

 

making sugar cookies for Valentine's Day

 

her first ear infection has been pretty rough - snuggles with Care Bears make everything better

Munchkin

Miss Alya,

My sweet baby girl! You are the most patient, outspoken, busy, funny little girl I have ever known. You always make me laugh and are so loving and forgiving. If your sister does something mean - like steal your toy, or push you down - you get upset for a second but forget about it and move on - most of the time. Sometimes you will yell and scream and push her or pull on her clothes. If you get in trouble for something, you try to understand what you did and all you want to do is hug me - as if to apologize. I LOVE your hugs! You give the most sincere hugs!

You love your mama! I was trying to nap on the couch one day, and had my back to the room. You noticed that I wasn't watching you and you came over to me, tried to roll me over and said "Mom!" My heart felt so full!

You are so content to be doing your own thing. You don't need to be constantly entertained. You have a pretty long attention span and enjoy playing with the same toys, or doing the same activity for weeks at a time. You especially like to do the same things as your sister. When Lyla starts to play something you will usually stop what you are doing so that you can play with her.

You love to go to the park and play on the swings and the slide. When we go swing, you almost fall asleep in the swing every time. It must be so relaxing for you.

I love watching you play and run around. You usually put your arms straight out behind you like an airplane and tilt your head to one side and run back and forth across the room. It is so cute!

You have 5 little teeth and I love to see them when you smile and laugh. You like it when I blow raspberries on your tummy when you lean backwards against the couch or a chair. You laugh so hard! I think it's one of my favorite things.

I have been trying to get you girls to say please when you want something. One time, I signed "please," trying to help you learn the word. Just from seeing me use the sign once, you always use the sign when you are asking please. It's harder for you to say the word, but you are so good at signing. It makes me so proud!

You girls love doing puzzles, and you are both really good at them, but you are especially good at them. You can pick up a piece of the puzzle and usually put it in the correct spot right away. You are even learning to twist it around until it fits in it's spot.

You are such a smart little girl! I love you to pieces, Munchkin!

Love,

Mama

Minnie

Miss Lyla,

You have such a crazy personality! You are funny, you are caring, you are moody, you want to be good at everything the first time you try it and you get pretty frustrated when you can't do something that you want to do.

Lately you want to take care of everyone. You like to bring me a blanket and a stuffed animal - usually Kitty Kitty - and you want me to wrap her up in her blankie, then you usually try to give her a binky or a bottle. You want me to make her a crib in a laundry basket that you can lay her down in. 

Sometimes, when I give in to your demands, you bring one of your stuffed animals to lunch with you so that you can feed it. You will get a bite of food on your fork and pretend to feed your friend, and then you eat that bite.

You have 6 little teeth that I can always see when you laugh - and I love it! You love it when I rub my feet on your tummy while you are laying on your back on the floor. You laugh and laugh and it's a lot of fun!

Your favorite movie right now is "Tangled." Sometimes dad and I try to put something else on for you and your sister but you always bring us the movie case for "Tangled" because you would rather watch that.

You are so much like me, it's almost scary. When I say you are caring and moody and want to be good at everything the first time you try it...you get that from me. You are even like me in that, when something isn't going as well as you want it, you kind of freak out. If you can't get the lid on a toy - you freak out. If you can't open a movie case - you freak out. It's kind of funny!

You are such a good big sister! You pick on Alya a lot, but it's easy to see that she is your best friend. When I give you a treat or a drink, sometimes you will go give it to Alya and then ask for one for yourself. You have learned to say Alya's name, too! You call her "Aala."

You are definitely my little buddy. You don't like it when I leave the room that you are in. You prefer that I am holding you, no matter what we are doing. You don't like it when dad holds you. It's made things hard for me, but deep down, I love it!

I love you so much, Little Minnie!

Love,

Mama

{December}

I honestly feel like December skipped a week. I had all these projects I needed to finish by Christmas (hence why my blog was put on the back burner) and I know that I had enough time to finish all of my projects when I started them, but then December played a cruel trick on me and skipped a week! Either that, or I just didn't plan my time wisely, but I don't really like the sound of that! :)

Fortunately I was able to finish all of my projects, and I am pretty happy with how all of them turned out.

Perhaps my favorite of the projects (and it only took me a little over 3 months - haha) was the girls' quite books that I made! I had so much fun making them, and they already enjoy playing with them!

My second favorite was the blanket I made for my nephew. He just turned 7 and loves the ninja turtles!

We had a really good Christmas! It was so fun with the girls this year! They had a lot of fun tearing open paper and playing with bows!

Christmas has always been a wonderful season, but it is a different kind of wonderful with kids. I can't wait until they are a little older and start to get into all of the Santa excitement. And even more when they start to really understand the reason for the season. My mom has a tradition for us girls that I love. Each Christmas she gives us a new Christmas book, and a lot of them are books centered around the "reason for the season" and the life of Christ. I am so excited to read those stories with my kids, and I love that she has started the tradition and I look forward to passing it on to my kids.

When you ask the girls what Santa says, they (even Lyla has started to do this) will put their arms out in front of their tummies to mimic the size of Santa's belly and say "ho, ho, ho!" Every time they see someone in a Santa hat, they say "ho, ho, ho!" or they like to put on a Santa hat and walk around saying "ho, ho, ho!" It's pretty adorable!

They each have their top two front teeth. Getting these teeth was pretty hard on them. They were pretty miserable for what felt like 3 weeks...in reality it was probably about 3 days! They are getting big enough that I can almost see them under their top lip when they smile.

I'm kind of glad that it took them so long to get more teeth...I really have LOVED their gummy smiles! Plus, I think it made them seem more like babies for a little while longer!

Hopefully I can get back into my routine and manage to post twice a week! :) But don't worry, I have a lot more pictures for you to finish off this post! :)

My beautiful Christmas cactus blooming.

Walking in mom's new slippers // "A" for Alya

Have you ever seen a cuter Rudolph!? // Or a cuter toddler in glasses!?

Loving the chair she got for Christmas (I promise!)

Christmas jammies // Crazy hair day

Johnny Appleseed

Lovin' some goldfish and fuzzy socks!

"Fiss" are the favorite snack at our house right now.

Eating from a spoon...out of a bowl. It's kind of a big deal.

Helping with the laundry one sock at a time // One binky is not enough

I love these girls

We love park days (especially in the middle of December!) -Alya // -Lyla

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Pic-A-Day {12.1 - 12.7}

This has been such a great week! Matthew and I had a little get-a-way for a day, and I celebrated my 28th birthday. It was really hard to pick just one picture for each day this week. (That's why there are two pictures for one of the days!)

 

My mom made me a chocolate chocolate cake for my birthday! It tastes amazing! I wasn't able to eat a lot of chocolate while I was nursing Lyla and Alya, so now that I'm done, a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting was the perfect cake for my birthday!

 I was able to get the lights on my tree! I LOVE Christmas lights

 Playing in the boxes that their new car-seats came in

"Let it Snow!" Lyla loved taking ornaments to Dad (one by one) so he could put them on the tree. Alya loved walking around the living room with the ornaments, and did NOT like giving them to Dad.

P.S. I really hope it does snow soon! I am not sure how I feel about 50 degree weather in December.

 Milk in the morning. They have been LOVING the Care Bears blanket. They like it when I spread it out on the floor - it gives them a nice cozy spot to roll around!

 My favorite buck that we found while driving on the Henrys

One of the many beautiful views we had while looking for big bucks.

 Out for a drive in our new car-seats

Lyla loves to take things out of their original spot and put them back in. She will take all the condiments out of the refrigerator and then put them all back. She likes to un-stack and re-stack toys that fit inside of each other and that stack on top of each other, and now she has found that she can rearrange all my pots. I honestly love it! She takes them out and puts them back. Then takes them out and puts them back. Then takes them out and puts them back. Over and over and over and over again. And not only does she find the perfect spot for them in the drawer, but also on the floor while she is pulling them out of the drawer.