Our Christmas

Here are a few pictures from Christmas.
Adam got this onesie from his sister Laura for our little boy. It says "My Dad is Mr. Strong". It's perfect!

Emily and Carinn got superhero capes. Here's Emily trying hers out:

She thinks it works very nicely.
Both of the girls also got baby dolls. I don't think Carinn could ever have too many. She loves every doll she finds!
And the happy couple. I'm not smiling because I look like a cow, but because now Adam will make his own waffles!

Christmas Sunday

Here are our cuties with their Christmas dresses on. I love having girls to dress up! And they enjoy it too.

Christmas Preparations

The kids both really enjoyed decorating this year. I was so good too - I didn't even "fix" the ornaments once they were up. I just let them be where the kids put them. (Well mostly. Carinn did put a few together on one branch, and they were falling off, so I spread those out a little bit.)

Getting ready to decorate the tree.
The finishing touch.


The kids got into the stockings and knew just how to use them:

Emily's Christmas Program

Emily's preschool put on a little Christmas program for the parents. Emily's class made cute little Santa hats and learned a couple of Christmas songs to sing to us. Just before it started, Emily's class started filing into the room, but then after just a few kids, the line stopped! That's because our Emily was scared and didn't want to walk out there. Her teacher kindly held her hand as they walked out.
Then while Emily's class waited to perform she sat there looking down and to the side.
That's how she looked the whole time her class sang too. We were just happy she stayed up there with her class the whole time though. She was all smiles when we got to her after the program, especially because there were cookies to be eaten!

Photo Shoot

Emily, Carinn, and cousin Grace all matched on Thanksgiving Day so we tried to get a good shot of the three of them together. This is how it turned out:
I especially like how my two-year-old was the least cooperative of them all!
But hey, this is real life right?

Paper Trail

I believe I was napping on the couch while Emily did this. It brings a whole new meaning to the term "paper trail", does it not?

Swimsuit Season

Like I've mentioned before, the girls like to play dress up. These were their outfits of choice for a cold, blustery day in November:They wore this all afternoon and evening - even for dinner!

Lake Tahoe

We took a family trip to Lake Tahoe with Adam's parents. It was perfect timing. We had some cold, snowy weather and some warm, sunny weather while we were there - the best of both worlds! I couldn't believe how beautiful it is up there. I hope we get to back many more times. We had a great time. One thing I would change though, is that next time I go I don't want to be pregnant!! I want to be able to sled and ice skate and all that good stuff!

Here's one attempt at a family picture. (And, believe me, it's better that the first one.)
Adam taking the kids down the hill.
The "after" picture. The kids weren't too happy about the fast trip down the hill. Carinn went down with him again, but Emily called it quits after the first try.
Making snow angels - Emily's preferred snow activity. She learned it from the Backyardigans, since her mommy doesn't like lying down in the snow.

This is how much Carinn enjoyed the snow (that is, when she wasn't sledding with Daddy).

Just some fun pictures we took at a beautiful place on the northeast side of the lake.
That's Adam trying to impress his daughters with his brute strength.

A pretty nice picture of the family.The kids with Grandpa Davies.

Styling in their "shades".

Halloween

"Happy Halloween!"
Or was that, "I hope your Halloween is better than mine"?

Here they are, Belle and Cinderella, all dressed up and ready to go get some candy!

Has This Happened to You?

I went outside one morning, and this is what I found on our front walkway:


We don't know where they came from or why they were there. It was the strangest thing!

A Rainy Day and a Wedding

Here's a picture of Emily and Carinn during the first "rainfall" of the season. (It only sprinkled I think.) They were very excited to stand out in the rain.
And here they are getting married one morning. They love to dress up and play make believe. This was their choice of the day. If you'll notice, Carinn already has a baby too. I think we'll have some work to do, teaching her the correct order of things!

Diaper Trouble

One of Carinn's many "talents" is getting all her clothes and her diaper off, usually only when she's in bed (when we can't see her). Well, sometimes this results in a wet bed, and sometimes it results in a really messy bed. Not my idea of fun!! We started putting her in a onesie for her naps, and under her pajamas at night. That worked for about a week. Then we got even smaller onesies that are really tight and hard to get out of. She figured how to get those off without even unsnapping the bottom! Well, I asked a friend if she had any helpful advice, and she knew the answer right away! (She has five sons and lots of nieces and nephews.) The answer is (drumroll, please): zipper jammies put on backwards. I'm so grateful for parents with experience!! Anyway, this has worked so far. I hope it works for good. Meanwhile, Carinn doesn't mind at all. She just likes her new pajamas.

County Fair

We went to the fair last week. We were all set to spend the afternoon there. We tried putting Carinn down for an early nap. She fell asleep after just a little while, but the problem was that before she went to sleep she took off her clothes and her diaper. When I went to check on her I decided to turn her over and put her diaper on so we wouldn't have to change her bedding later. Well, that woke her up, and she didn't fall back to sleep.

We picked Emily up from preschool and drove straight to the fair. First we looked at the animals. The kids got to see some cows walking right next to them in the stroller. They saw the sheep and some pigs. They loved seeing all the animals. Then we went to the carnival area. The kids got to pick some rides to go on. They each got to go on a pony ride. Emily rode all by herself, only a little tentatively. She even leaned over near the end to pet the pony. Carinn insisted on holding my hand the whole time, and was content with that. (I guess I can count that as exercise right?) They also went on the kid train and a little canoe ride in real water. Everything was going well until then. Emily was happy and Carinn was happy but tired. Well, Carinn loved, loved, LOVED the canoe ride, but I guess it was just too short for her. She started screaming as soon as we took her off the ride, and she just kept screaming. We got into the stroller, left the fair, changed her diaper, got into the van, and drove halfway home before she finally fell asleep. It was fun while it lasted!

Good News!

For those of you who haven't heard, I'm pregnant again. I'm already 20 weeks along - just 20 more to go! We found out last week that we're having a boy this time. Adam was so happy he was almost crying. (I can't say he was crying because he never admits that he was.) He's been happy for several days now too. It's been awfully nice. Emily, on the other hand, was very sad. She wants another girl baby. She pouted a lot that day, and almost cried when we would mention it. But we went to Build-a-Bear a couple of days ago to make a bear for the new baby. I think that helped a little bit. No news on a name, except that Adam wants to name him Clark, and I don't. He's due January 16th. We're looking forward to his arrival.
(Sorry there aren't any pictures. We got some good ones from the ultrasound, I just don't have a scanner to put them on the computer.)

First Day of School

Emily started preschool two weeks ago. She goes two mornings a week and is really enjoying it there. She is learning to cut and paste and draw straight lines among other things. She is also making some friends there. She gets to make her lunch and pack her lunchbox each morning. She's growing up so much!

Vacation at the Beach

Adam's family has a vacation tradition - every year we go to a beach house in Southern California for several days. It's always a lot of fun spending time with everyone and going to the beach. We spent a couple of nights at a campsite. We went to a small water park. We had a picnic at a park and played some softball. We also spent some time playing at the beach. The weather was great! (Almost anything is better than the summer heat where we live though!)

Emily at the campsite in her warm jammies - which we actually didn't need because the weather was so nice!

Carinn eating some breakfast from a cup at the campsite.

Carinn and Adam walking on the beach.

Emily playing at the beach playground.

The kids had help from their daddies for the softball game. Emily got to pitch for a little while. It was fun to watch the kids "run the bases" because they went all over the place.

It's kind of hard to tell who's concetrating harder here. Adam sure loves his sports.

One of Carinn's favorite activities on vacation was chasing the seagulls. She got a lot of exercise doing that. (That means I got a good amount too, since I got to chase her down and keep an eye on her.)

Carinn and Grant playing in the sand. What a nice picture, right?

Here's the front view. Their faces are so funny! I think I like the other one better.

We went to Ben and Jerry's our last night on vacation. As you can tell in this picture, Emily really enjoyed her ice cream cone.