Ladybug Hunting

Spring Fever is in full swing at our house! The girls are obsessed with new things these days - going for a walk (aka ladybug hunting) or going to see Lylah and Matthew, their little friends a few doors down. We have had so much fun taking the girls out for walks on the trail behind the house, looking for ladybugs, ducks and bunny rabbits. They like to yell out "Duck, Duck, Where are you!?!" as loud as they can and Sophie especially likes to catch ladybugs and carry them around with her. Bella likes to pick out pet rocks and carry them with her. Matthew is so nice he always brings her rocks back if she leaves them at his house, so funny how these kids look out for each other!

Lylah, Sophie and Bella on a walk in this picture, the three amigos...

The girls had fun having their friends over for lunch

During Spring Break we took the kids to the Childrens Museum of Denver, they had such a great time fishing in a pond, playing house, planting a veggie garden, running through a meadow with bridges and tree stump slides and even climbing around on a real firetruck!

Here are Bella and Lylah at the park by our house on St. Patties Day. James and I also took the girls downtown that weekend for their first St. Patties day parade, it was lots of fun with the sun shining and plenty of cool things to look at like clowns, horses and of course all of the other kiddos. We went to lunch at Earls afterwards and sat ouside on the 16th street mall, Bella was cracking up and trying to get everybodys attention who walked by, she is a little ham these days! Too bad I forgot the camera that day :(

Sophie is holding her little pet ladybug, she took such good care of that ladybug all morning! Even now, weeks later she will tell you all about her ladybug if you ask her :)

James and Sophie watching the ducks behind our house - Donald and Daisy :)

Goodbye Eclipse and Hello Durango!

It took us two years but we finally gave up on the idea that we can still use my old Eclipse :) It's just a slight logistical problem what with the two carseats we have to put those kids in to go anywhere! So a few weeks ago we purchased a 2000 Durango that holds our whole family and we just sold the Eclipse today. It was a bit emotional for me to get rid of that last memento of those pre-children years, especially with the big 3-0 coming up this summer, man I am feeling old! Anyway...here are some pictures of us cleaning up the Eclipse getting ready to put it on craigslist

Ski Weekend

I was able to get Auntie Geri's camera chip a few months back and decided it's probably a good idea to get these pictures posted from our ski weekend in March!

We had such a fun weekend with Geri and Stacie! Hope we get a repeat this year :)
Little cute patoots at the top of Keystone!
The 3 amigos Papa, James and Stacie were all in it to win it, skiing like crazy!

All the ladies so excited to Ski the Beav!

Geri and Stacie at the top of the Super-G run

Of course Geri had their hair in rollers when she babysat!

We managed to hit Keystone twice, Breckenridge and Vail... what a weekend!

I'm going to back-date this post to March since that's when our trip was :) Nevermind that it's September now!

Play Play Play

Yes, they are girlie girls and playing dress up is their hands down favorite thing to do! They will dress up in anything, their clothes, our clothes, blankets, Sophie came out the other day wearing a pair of James shorts like a dress with one leg on and the other leg hanging off the side :) Here are some of our favorite outfits.... Bella striking a pose!

Little ballerinas! They already love to dance and when we were watching the ice-skating during the olympics they both started spinning in circles :)

They just learned to hold hands so now they love to hold hands and giggle everywhere they go, they crack up the whole time :) So funny to watch with the giggling and the clacking of their high heel shoes!

Time for an outfit change

Bella

Sophie

Bella putting together her animal puzzle, she sings "e-i-e-i-o" every time she puts a piece in place

Sophie taking a break to sit in her dump truck

They finally learned that reading is fun! For a really long time it was almost impossible to read them a book because they wouldn't sit still and whoever wasn't interested would keep trying to grab the book - but now they love to sit and be read to or just look at the pictures and talk to themselves!

Their favorite book by FAR is "If you give a pig a party" they want to read it all day! The first time I read it to them I laughed at a couple of the pictures so now they turn to those pages and fake laugh :)

Picking out a book to read. They are very good at taking all of the books out all the time and we are working with them to learn to put them back!

Sophie looking at herself in the mirror

Bella giving her dolly a ride in the stroller

Our living room on a typical day - trashed beyond recognition!

Valentines Day

Valentines day was lots of fun this year with our little sweethearts! Dada gave them both a little box of chocolates and a card, then we all went to their first Monster Jam! We were lucky enough to sit in a suite which made their first time at the Pepsi Center so easy :) They were able to walk around and play with Papa, Uncle Bradley, their cousin Joseph and friends Adam and Mike and of course eat popcorn! At first they were scared of the big monster trucks but after awhile they were having a blast. They saw Monster Mutt, a truck that looks like a dog with big ears and a tail and even a tongue that sticks out, Bella was cracking up and clapping along when he came out to that song "Who let the dogs out?!" After Monster Jam we went home and made and decorated sugar cookies..








They learned the word "cookie" that day and now they say it constantly - cookie cookie cookie - very cute! They also learned about chocolate but they say "caca" instead :)

First Dance Class

The girls just finished their first dance class last week at the Garrison Street Sports Center. The class was called Movin with Music for Tots and was one night a week for 1/2 hour for 8 weeks. At first they wouldn't even let us set them down on the floor they were so scared! But after 2 classes they got down and started to run and play with the other little ones. They learned songs like Wheels on the bus, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes and the Hokey Pokey and got to shake pom poms to "shake their sillies out" and did lots of tumbling, balance beams and running in circles :) We enjoyed the class so much we signed them up to do it again after a month off...

Here is Isabella getting ready for the last class
Sophie doing the balance beam all by herself!

Bella doing the balance beam all by herself, the teacher said she is the youngest one she's ever seen to pick it up as quick as she did, maybe she will be a gymnast someday!

Our little hanging monkeys!

Their favorite part of class is the obstacle course

Sophie having fun running around on the gym mats

At the end of class they all sit on the edge and get their hands stamped and a sticker!

Fun in Keystone

Ski season is officially underway here in Colorado and we are enjoying every minute we can on the slopes! James has progressed to doing black diamonds and moguls and I am comfortable on most blue runs now and doing the snowplow less and less every day. I don't know if I'll ever be able to keep up with my husband but it feels good be picking up some speed finally. We got the chance to try Beaver Creek last weekend and it was an amazing experience, so beautiful there that we were sad to Leave the Beav at the end of the day! Here is our home away from home - the top of Dercum mountain at Keystone... James, Mimi and Papa took the girls, Joseph and Andrew on a sled ride while Bradley, Jolene and I went skiing - looks like they all had fun! Here is James pulling Sophie, Bella and Joseph...

The little kids all sledding together

Sweet little Sophie enjoying the snow

I almost wanted to say that this is the whole crew - but we are missing Mimi and Papa in this picture, no wonder the people who live below us think there is a herd of elephants in the condo - we have a rather large group :)

Ah, nothing like some Captain to warm you up after a long day on the slopes!

Andrew, Bella and Sophie in the tub - so fun watching the cousins play together

Our new obsession is "nigh nigh" time to go to sleep, but just for pretend, they never actually want to go to bed!

The kiddos all really enjoy playing together and it is great that we finally decided to put Andrew in with the girls for naps and bedtime, although the room is crowded with 3 pack n plays we are all sleeping much better now! Unfortunately Sophie learned how to climb out last weekend... so far she has only done it when she is done sleeping and not in the middle of the night so we are hoping she can stay in there for a little while longer. It was quite a shock to open the door and see her standing there the first time she did it! Andrew and Bella were just looking at her like "whooah that is cool, can you let us out now!"