Pajama party

Sometimes the girls are the cutest when they are getting ready for bed or just waking up in the morning - PJ time! Here are some cute pictures...

Isabella waking up in the morning - she wakes up and plays with her "lovey" a little hippo blanket
We never cease to be amazed at the crazy positions we find Sophie in during the night when she is fast asleep - here is how I found her one morning

Sophie getting ready to crawl

"I don't know who did it, It wasn't me!"

Isabella playing with her little table

Time to baby-proof

Sophia has started crawling! It started last Tuesday, when she dropped a ball she was playing with and it rolled across the family room floor.... She looked up at me then did the army crawl over to get it and then brought it back! I could not believe my eyes! Since then she has gotten much faster and more efficient, and we have to be very careful where we leave her if we are leaving the room now :) She is getting up on her knees quite often and I think she will do the official baby crawl any day now. She also has got a few more teeth in the last few weeks, her top 2 finally broke through and a third one on the bottom. She is handling these teeth much better than her first two and we barely noticed she was teething this time, whew!

Isabella finally has her two front bottom teeth! We didn't notice the first one coming in but with the second one she has been pretty fussy, poor thing - we can tell she is in pain :( She did much better today so hopefully we are done with that for awhile now. She has been taking a few steps lately with us holding her hands and she is starting to turn around when she is on her tummy. Still not signs of crawling, but she will get there soon enough. James also saw her go from sitting to her tummy yesterday. They are getting so big so fast lately, it's crazy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW JAMES STOLZ!

We are so happy to welcome our nephew Andrew James Stolz into the world! He finally made his grand entrance almost one week after he was scheduled to on Friday, February 20th around 4:30 am... Happy Birthday Andrew! He is absolutely adorable and looks a lot like Joseph did when he was born. He weighed 8lb 6oz!
I am such a proud Auntie, and we were so lucky that he was awake almost the whole time we were there visiting :) I seriously can't describe how adorable he is. I also hear that he is a champion cryer with quite a set of lungs on him! Rumor also has it that he has already slept 9 hours (what!?! my girls never got the memo that babies should be doing this until they were at least 2 months old!)

I've seen him make this face alot - so precious!

I didn't take any pictures of Bradley and Jolene but they really looked amazing in the hospital - they were both so happy they were glowing! Such a beautiful family they have...

The girls and I went to visit them again today and we had a great time! It was so much fun to see Joseph and how much he loves "new baby" as he calls him, so cute.

Andrew has gotten so big in the last week

As always, Joseph LOVES to see SushiBewa...or is it Sofa and Belly, like Papa says :) In any case, they love to see him too and it is fun to watch them play together...

If you look close you can see how tightly Isabella is holding onto Josephs with her arms and her legs - it was pretty cute

We all made it to the park by Bradley and Jolene's house for a little while as well, I was pretty proud of us for making it with all of the kids - even though we got held up a few times to feed babies and change diapers.

Fun with Dada!

James has lots of bonding time with the girls since 3 days a week I am working and he is home alone with them from the time he gets home from work until the time they go to bed. I am continually amazed at easy he makes it look....when I know that it is no easy task getting them fed, bathed and put to bed all by yourself!

He figured out the most efficient way to carry them both up and down the stairs - and they love it!
Whenever I call him during babies dinner time I hear lots of giggling - they love their daddy and all of the crazy faces and things he does to make them laugh!

Dinner time with daddy may get messy but it is lots of fun!

Another Ski Weekend!

We had so much fun the first time we went skiing with mimi and papa we decided to go again :) Just call me green lightning, I am getting so fast! It was pretty funny on my way down on schoolmarm I shouted out to James "This is the fastest I have ever gone!" and right then a little 5 year old kid went flying past me - how embarrasing is that!?!

The girls have so much fun in the big bathtub together they can hardly stand it, they start breathing really fast and flapping their arms around, so adorable!
My little cutie pies

Home with Mommy

I am so lucky to be able to be home with the girls 4 days a week. I try not take any of this time for granted and just enjoy every minute with them!

Isabella was being so cute when I took this picture...I was trying to get her dressed and she ended up with her pjs stuck around her head and no clothes on for awhile - she was the happiest I have ever seen her :) She was waving her clothes around and cracking up! Sophia kept trying to take the clothes away from her and eventually she got them, but then Isabella just started looking at her belly and pinching her chubby belly and cracking up about that - so darn cute!!!
They are really starting to fight over their toys these days. Sophia seems more likely to steal Isabella's toys - but Isabella is getting really good at keeping the toy she is playing with away from Sophie by putting it behind her back or to the side...pretty clever! But since Sophia is getting more mobile I think Isabella is in trouble - Sophia is going to be able to take her toys and run!

This is our favorite pastime these days - standing on the couch, especially when Chili is up there - they absolutely adore Chili dog

Sophia can stand up all by herself and she is starting to pull herself up on things. She also loves to walk with you holding her hands - it is so much fun to walk with her all over the place - she's getting to be such a big girl!

Isabella has to work a little harder to stand up and she isn't able to lift her legs and walk yet, but she thinks it is hysterical when you pull her up from sitting to standing :)

Milestones

Isabella finally has her first tooth! She is such a good baby we never even noticed that she was teething. Sophia is showing her third tooth as well.

They are both starting to enjoy eating the baby puffs, although Sophia likes them way more since she can chew them better. Isabella tends to take awhile to get used to new things so I'm sure in her own time she will grow to like chewing on the puffs.

Sophia is also getting really good at taking steps, if we hold her hands she can walk across the room! I'm not sure if I'm ready for this yet :)

9 months

The girls are officially 9 months old already - where is the time going!? They are sitting up great on their own and rolling back and forth easily. Sophia seems to be more interested in moving around, she rolls and scoots all over the place, where Isabella is content to stay in one place and work on talking instead... she must get that from her mother :) Isabella likes to talk and giggle all day long - and her favorite thing to do is to bonk her head with stuff (toys, my forehead, her sisters hands, anything that bonks her head makes her crack up!)

They both say dadadadada and babababa all day long. It is very cute when Sophia is in her crib at night we can hear her clearly say "dada." She has always been so attached to her daddy, she probably wants him to come in and snuggle with her at night.

They both love to stand in their cribs or next to the couch. Sophia loves to practice walking and she always wants to pull herself up from sitting to standing - she will sit there with her arms out and holler at us to come help her - so cute! They started eating baby puffs the last few days. Even though they start out pretty small I have to break them up into little tiny pieces or else the girls gag on them (especially Isabella - she is very dramatic when it comes to trying new things!)

Baby Parade!

We put them on their little ride-on toys tonight (Thanks cousins Emily and Tyler for the hand-me-downs!) and they had a blast! Isabella looks like she is leading the conga line...

She loves this toy!

Sophia likes to hold onto the steering wheel

Look at that - room for one more baby...if only we had triplets :)

"I, Isabella, raise my right hand and promise to never run over my beloved sister on this or any other vehicle I may ride on in the future"

Weekend Getaway

We spent the weekend up in Keystone with the girls and mimi and papa. We rented a 2-bedroom condo in river run village that was less than a block to the base gondola with a beautiful view and plenty of room for all of us. It was so nice to be able to walk to the lift, we don't want to stay anywhere else next time! I made chili beans ahead of time for dinners and mom took care of breakfast - so we never had to venture out of the condo into a restaurant to eat, it was really nice.

They put pack-n-plays in our room and the girls took most of their naps just fine with the exception of Sophia needing James to lay down with her to fall asleep a few times (she isn't a big fan of sleeping in strange places). We had a naked baby parade one night when they were getting ready for bathtime :)

Bathtime was a blast...It was their first time in the big bathtub and they LOVED it!! They were so excited they could hardly stand it! They have never taken a bath together before so I'm sure it was fun for them. Mimi and I might have had more fun than they did though - they were being so cute!!

These are their hippo towels they got from Santa for Christmas - adorable

We found a nanny to come into the condo and watch them while we were skiing. She fell in love with the girls and said she would come back to watch them anytime - they did great...

Speaking of nannies... as of this week we are no longer having Stephanie and Jolene watch the girls on Mondays and Wednesdays for us. We appreciated their help so much and will miss them terribly! But we are also looking forward to having the nanny come to our house to watch the girls so we don't have to get up extra early to cart them around in the morning - hey, every extra minute of sleep is precious right! So, starting tomorrow we will meet the first nanny, let's hope they like her and it goes well. Mimi is still watching the girls for us on Fridays, she enjoys the time with them so much and they love spending the day with her - her only complaint is that the day goes by too fast - don't I know!

Learning to ski

My parents and James took turns teaching me to ski on Saturday. I made it until almost 4pm but by then I was EXHAUSTED!! And I only made it down the mountain twice the whole day. Hopefully next time I will be brave enough to pick up the pace, but this time I stuck with snowplowing the whole time :) It is really scary once you start picking up speed and don't know how to stop!
We were all bundled up but it ended up being pretty warm that day - lots of fresh powder thanks to a huge winter storm that dropped 6" on Friday and continued to snow most of Saturday.

I'm so glad everyone was patient with me and stuck with me all day - I'm sure I tried their patience but it was worth it...although my legs still hurt today :) It was great that my brother came up for the day on Saturday as well. He made it in time for breakfast and made it a point to harass me the rest of the day (just kidding Bradley!) But it was pretty funny when he tried to ice me and ended up flat on his butt! Overall I think I had a good first day skiing and am excited to try again (when my legs aren't bruised and swollen and barely able to walk) We are hoping to try it again next weekend at Beaver Creek.

Of course James did fantastic once again. At the end of his first day skiing last year he was keeping up with the rest of my family, and this year he worked his magic once again, conquering blue runs like it was no big deal - what a guy!

My turn

Last year we spent a few days in Keystone with my family and Carrie and Christian. Carrie and I went shopping and James learned how to ski....he loved it! So now it is my turn, this year I am not carrying two babies around with me so I can learn as well. We are planning on going up this weekend for a few days. It is going to be a blast! Keystone here we come!

Playtime

The girls have been so cute lately - their personalities are really showing. Here are some random playtime pictures from the last few weeks...

Sophia usually ends up with the entire stack of toys when they are playing. Isabella doesn't seem to mind but it is pretty funny to watch Sophia take each toy Isabella picks up!
Isabella smiles and giggles constantly. She is most giggly when she is sleepy - she cracks up if you just look at her when she is tired. Her favorite thing to do right now is to bonk foreheads with me. She looks up and leans forward and starts giggling as soon as I lean forward - so cute!

These balls are there favorite toys - they will spend an hour just holding them and clacking them together to make noise. Sophia almost always ends up with one in each hand and spends the rest of the time trying to figure out how to hold all three! Isabella likes to grab one and set it down or try hitting it against other things to make noise. She also likes to give the one she is holding to her sister.

This is what Sophia looks like most of the time these days - one in each hand or....

...trying to hold all three!

We are starting to work on sippy cups these days. They get a sippy cup with water after each meal...most of it ends up on their bibs or the floor though!

When mimi watches them she fills up this drum with toys and lets them unload it - again and again and again... you get the picture :) They absolutely love it!

Sophia's eyes are so blue! She is always smiling and looking at you with her big blue eyes - such a beautiful girl...

Sophia learned to put her feet in her mouth just a week after Isabella did

It's so hard to believe they are almost 9 months old already - time is flying by! They are also starting to roll around on the floor and moving towards a toy if they want it. Sophia can go from sitting up to lying on her tummy pretty easily. They both love to stand up and rest their arms on the couch or the side of the crib. And they are pulling up from lying to sitting to standing by pulling on us. I think it's time to start baby-proofing the house!

More pictures

I added some pictures on the slideshow links to the right.... The first 5 months and 6-8 months are new - enjoy!

Papa's new ride

Papa's new '09 Challenger finally arrived yesterday - he was grinning ear to ear all day long! It is a beautiful silver color with black racing stripes. And it has a rare 6-speed transmission that is no longer available since the company that makes it stopped manufacturing due to the economy. So it ended up being a very rare edition. Nice!
It looks like it's going 90 mph just sitting there!

Now Papa can say he is Ridin' on 20's


He drove around aimlessly all day picking up more and more people...by 6pm there was quite a crowd at their house! Mimi, Papa, Bradley, Jolene, Joseph, Mike, Mel, Adam, Will, Lisa, Larry, James, Sophia, Isabella and I were all there to check out the new ride!