Picture Picture

I realize I don't send updated pictures of the girls out to family as much as I maybe should. I'm never sure who really would like a picture or not sometimes. If you would, just holler and I'll shoot one your way. :) For those that would just like to see them here, I'll try to scan and post new ones as we go. The one of Skylar is from her 4 yr shoot (she turns 5 next week - oh my goodness!) and the one of Annelise is from this past October. She, her sister and 2 cousins had pictures taken for Grandpa and Grandma for a Christmas present. Turned out really well!! So without further ado....

Skylar 4yrs old

Annelise 2 1/2 yrs old

For anyone curious, these are the Christmas pictures with their cousins, Alexis(7) and Dylan(6).

I will be back hopefully in a few weeks to update with Skylar's birthday pictures. At the very least I'll try to get it in before we start seeing more pool pictures in the back yard. :)

Happy HalloThanksChristmas!!

Okay, I know it's been awhile (ahem) since I've blogged so I thought I would add some pictures of what we've been up to the last couple months. In my defense, we have been fairly busy. Skylar goes to preschool 3 mornings a week. (Kindergarten next fall, oh my goodness!) She's also in dance class and has been taking swimming lessons. Loves swimming! Annelise has ECFE (school) on Friday mornings and swimming lessons on Thursday. I get in the water with her. She can't take swimming by herself until 3 yrs old. Wednesday is the only day of the week we don't have anywhere we 'need' to be. So that's what we've been up to (oh and we've been remodeling the basement since Thanksgiving, but that may be another blog post).....now, on with the pictures!

I'll go waaaay back to Halloween. This year the girls were a witch and a clown. It was relatively mild night and the kids only had to wear winter coats but no mittens. Clear sky and a full moon - perfect trick-or-treating weather.

Skylar wore that same clown outfit, a few years back too. Quick flashback, in case you'd like to see what she looked like. :)
Back to Halloween 2009. This is a picture of Skylar and her classmates. They had a 'Pumpkin Day' party. All the kids were so cute in their costumes. I think there were 3 Snow Whites. The 2 little girls on either side of Skylar are her good friends Sailor (Snow White) and Ava (Cat).

Thanksgiving was fairly low-key. We stayed home, sat in our pj's and watched the Macy's Parade on TV. The girls thought it was great. Our local paper has a turkey coloring contest, so Skylar spent some time (15 minutes, smirk) coloring her turkey. Finished product.....she was so proud.

Christmas
For Christmas we get a real tree (long needles, easier to pick out of the shag).

The girls loved having all their favorite holiday toys out again. There's the whole collection of talking/dancing characters, as well as their Little People Nativity set. They also have a full set of small, plastic Rudolph and Misfit toys, but I don't have a picture of those. Skylar likes to re-create the show and have Santa deliver all the misfit toys. It's fun to watch.
Also made a fun gingerbread house. The girls thought it was great and kept sneaking treats off of it. Several times I'd find them and ask, "What are you eating?!" "Nothing." :)
Christmas morning was beautiful. We had nowhere to go and it snowed ALL day. First we opened presents, had breakfast, went outside made a snowman and went sledding. Looked a little something like this....
Since we're almost to the end here (for now) and I haven't posted any pictures of Ani yet, some New Year's Day pictures of the cutie posing in her new Christmas duds.
Hope everyone is doing well and had a wonderful Christmas!

First Day of Fall

What a better way to celebrate the day than to make a leave pile and jump in! This is one of the girls' favorite new activities.

Playing in the leaves.

Preschool

Skylar started preschool this week. (Next stop kindergarten, wow!) But for now, 3 mornings a week she has fun with her friends. 7 of whom we know from last 2 years of school. It's nice seeing familiar faces. And while I do miss her while she's at school, it's a nice break for both of us and I know she's in good hands. They do a wonderful job. Here are some pictures from Tuesday morning.

(The slippers stayed home.)

Strike a pose.

Skylar and Ani. Growing up so fast.

Pure Imagination....

Skylar loves art. Cutting, pasting, painting, coloring - you name it, she loves it. I like that she likes it too. It's fun to see her imagination and creativity. Summer school created a enormous amount of art projects that are currently hanging on her bedroom walls. And her room looks something like this...

never mind the snowman in July. (That was from earlier in the school year.) This is one of my favorite's she's colored. Gotta love Bert and the Figgy Fizz. (Also notice the 50 pieces of tape it takes to hold everything up. I'm buying stock in 3M.)

The other day however she came up to me with this and I asked what it was.

Can you guess?

It's the girls and I in the mini-van. I'm driving; they're in the back. This may be taking Bert's spot as my favorite. Yes, I do love that she loves art. Keep 'em coming little girl.

Happy Birthday Annelise!

Annelise is officially 2!  Time does fly.  Even faster with the second, which I didn't think was possible.  For anyone interested in her stats, she's 37" tall (Same as at 18 months.  There was a wrong measurement somewhere.  The girl has to have grown in 6 months.) and is 31 pounds.  (Much to my back's dismay.)  She talks up a storm and seems to pick up several new words everyday.  Which is fun and also challenging when I can't figure out what she wants.  It can turn south quickly when I don't get it right.  :)  But that's 2.

Other fun activites for Ani include swinging, playing in the sandbox, the swimming pool and keeping up with everything big sister does.  For the most part they get along fairly well, but they do have their moments as with all sibling relationships.  Ani is a quick learner and picked up several 'tricks' from Skylar I rather she didn't know.  Keeps me on my toes.  I leave you with a cute picture of the 'partners in crime.'  How I do love them.  Happy Birthday Annelise!

Fake Lake

There's a man made lake not far from here that we took the kids too last summer.  (See "Beach Babes" post from last June if you need a memory jog.)  We just call it 'Fake Lake'.  There are permanent umbrellas, combed sand and filtered water.  No seaweed, fish or other 'nasty' stuff.  What's not to love?  So we'll be going again this year.  (Get ready for some repeat blogs.)  All last week it was 90+ degrees, but we weren't able to make it.  So today it's 70 degrees, but "We're going to the lake!"  We met out friends Melissa, Ivy, Jude, Dawn and Alex.  It was cool, but everyone had a good time.  Here's our first 'camp' of the summer.  We think that a spider nest hatched shortly before we arrived.  There were quite a few baby spiders crawling around.  Oh well, they really only liked you if you had food.

  Last year Dawn would bury the kids in the sand.  This year was no different.  Today however they were doing it to stay warm.  Skylar is patiently waiting her 'hole'.

  Ivy waiting for her hole.

Here's Alex, Ivy and Skylar all buried.

  Skylar pretending to 'bust-out' of her hole.

  And then there's just some random shots.  Jude looking cute, eating sand.  Yummy?

  And Ani pausing for a drink, trying to stay warm.  All in all, it was good day.  Thank you friends!