Indoor Gardening

Just love this picture and had to post it. This is a little "garden" that used to be Brad's niece's when they were young. Our girls love it and it worked great to keep Iris "entertained" and Isabella "contained."

"Thanksmas"

Saturday we went to Nana's to celebrate an early Christmas at Nana's. Grandad was a big hit with Iris all week....

and the girls got plenty of attention from their cousins...

What a "ham!"

All I Want for Thanksgiving....

All I wanted for Thanksgiving was a picture of the girls together in their matching Turkey shirts (the feathers were made from their handprints) and their Thanksgiving dresses. One would think that is really not too much to ask. However, due to some "unforeseen circumstances" I did not get a picture of Isabella in her Turkey T-shirt. I was able to capture a quick one of Iris though.

Then it was on to the Thanksgiving dress photo shoot.... "Iris, arms down! Isabella, look at the camera!"

"Too close..."

"Too far apart!" "Ugghh, that will have to do."

I also tried to get a decent family photo. This was the best one... We were able to get a very cute one of the girls with their Nana!

I am not looking forward to the Christmas card photo shoot. It should be very interesting!

Turkey Day

We flew to Indiana for Thanksgiving. Both girls did great. Iris loves planes and always points them out when we are driving and she sees one in the sky. I thought she would be super excited to be on one. She didn't really get it though. We walked on the plane and buckled her in her seat and she said "Wow! Dis is a BIG twuck." She behaved very well on the plane ride. She sang songs and said , "bless you daddy" everytime someone sneezed or coughed. After Thanksgiving dinner all the kids decorated gingerbread houses. I think more candy may have ended up in Iris' belly than on her house... Isabella visited with her cousin, Evelyn, while the big kids decorated houses. Evelyn is about 3 weeks younger than Isabella. They got along great... Except when Isabella got a little touchy feely with her nose....

Isabella is 7 Months!

Happy 7 month birthday! She can yell at me later for the effort I put into this picture but it was late, I was tired, and did not want to change her just for a picture. I tried to spruce her up a bit with the cowboy hat. It's kind of cute, the drool soaked oneise doesn't help much though. Isabella is doing great, she is now rolling over. Her top 2 teeth have also cut through. She is still sleeping well but not always through the whole night. I think it has to do with the top teeth coming in.

Festival of Lights, Part II

Misti and Matthew came down this weekend and we all went to the Festival of Lights together. Brad and Iris rode the carousel. Iris LOVES riding a carousel!

Isabella watched from the comfort of John Howard's stroller since her own parents are irresponsble and forgot her baby bjorn and stroller...

Thank goodness the "newbie" parents have it together and remembered both. John Howard stayed "snug as a bug" with mommy and daddy...

After the carousel and roasting some marshmallows we all rode the train ride through the lights. Hard to tell but that's us below on the train.

Cute Colts!

Just wanted to share this picture of our little Colts fans!

Tis' the Season!

We officially kicked off the Holiday season on Thursday night. My parents came over and we all went to James Island County Park to do the Holiday Festival of Lights walk. It seemed to take forever for them to close the park to traffic so we could start the walk through the lights.

Papa helped to keep Isabella entertained...

while mom tried to keep Iris from eating her toxic glow in the dark necklace....

At last it was time to go. Isabella got all snuggled in and stayed awake for the whole walk even though it was well past her bedtime. She enjoyed looking at all the lights and if there was a moment or two when she could not see any she would start fussing until we got to the next set. Iris enjoyed it as well. She sang most of the way and played with that darn toxic glow necklace.

Here's the whole gang....

After the walk we stayed for a hot chocolate to roast some marshmallows. Iris loved the roasted marshmallows. She squished them in her hands and made a mess. I had to peel one out of her fingers before putting her into the car. She was a sticky mess but we had a great time!

Where's Waldo?

If I had a pair of glasses she could have been Waldo's twin sister. I was trying to get her dressed in festive colors for our Holiday Festival of Lights walk but when I tried to put her hat on she looked more like Waldo and less like Christmas.

Both of my children inherited their large melon size heads from their fathers side of the family. I refer to it as the "Steele head." This hat is a size 6-12 months but I could just set it on top, it wouldn't go down near her ears at all.

Iris even gave it a try but it was no use...

Nana, I may need you to knit some more hats this winter!

Windy City, sans the Kiddies

Brad and I went to Chicago last weekend without the kids. We had a great time. We visited the Hancock Building shown here... Here's a self portrait of us at the top of the building listening to our audio tour (yes, we are dorks)... Brad, being the neat freak that he is, thought the windows looked dirty so he decided to get some scaffolding and go clean them himself... It was my first time leaving both of the girls for more than one night. They seemed to have a good time being spoiled by their Nana and Papa though. So much so that when I picked up Iris from school her teacher verbally informed me as well as handed me a written daily status report that stated, "Iris had some trouble listening today. At one point I questioned whether or not she could hear me because she just ignored me all day." Then she told me that they had to put her in Time Out for the first time for refusing to help clean up. I should have been mad at her but it was the first part of that statement that caught my attention, "time out for the first time." I just assumed that Iris was put in time out on a semi-regular basis and they just never reported it to me because it was for the usual minor 2 year old offenses. I had no idea she had never been put in time out. I tried to show that I was disappointed in her but on the inside I was really feeling quite proud. I then did the only rational thing any mother would do. I explained to her that Iris spent the last three days being spoiled by her grandparents and just blamed her behavior on them.

Kindermusik Graduation

Isabella graduated from her 1st semester of Kindermusik. She's the wee little one sitting in Mrs. Carol's lap. All the kids are gathered around a big drum.

I tried to get a picture of her with her certificate but she was so proud she couldn't stop looking at it herself.

Good Job Isabella!