February 2015

A couple decent snow storms late in the month rolled through, dumping almost 2 feet of snow over two weeks, which was quite a contrast with the first half of the month with record high temperatures.  It made for some good snow fun and some warm weather for playing outside!

Kara has been really improving with her reading skills.  She's been reading through some of our books at home (we mostly figured she'd just memorized the words); however, she really impressed Mom when she picked up a book at the library (Pete the Cat at the Beach) and read through it all by herself!  Kara has started Tae Kwon Do lessons.  She seems to enjoy it and is catching on quickly (see the videos).  It's great fun!  On the less fun side, however, Kara got her first cavity.  None of us are excited about that...

Emily has been continuing her swim lessons every Saturday.  She loves getting in the water and playing. Emily is speaking in 2-3 word sentences and impresses us every once in a while with a new word or phrase ("one more book").  She has started counting and frequently counts to 2 (as in "1 2 ears" or "1 2 eyes").  She knows the words for higher numbers, but she doesn't understand the concepts yet.  Emily has regressed a bit with potty training.  She's fighting Mom and Dad when they try to remind her she should use the potty.  Although, she has been getting better about feeling she needs to go and letting us know (usually after she's already peed in her pull-up).  Ah, fun times!

Cousin Cassie and her husband Scot welcomed their twin babies (Bryn Oliver and Amelia Rose) in January.  Kara and Emily got to meet their second cousins early in February, though they were more interested in playing with the toys than they were in the newborn babies.

Kid Quotes:
- Kara loves making up jokes and songs.  Here's a joke:  Kara:  "What do you call a hairless monkey?  A cold monkey!  hahaha"
- Kara: "Thank goodness Valentine's Day only comes once a year." Why? "Because of all the work I have to do to make my Valentine's card box!"
- Kara: "Gah, I talk as much as Papa.  I'm turning into Papa!"
- "Emily do!" Emily's favorite saying.
- "Step stool!" Emily usually demands to have the step stool, so that she can help out with things in the kitchen.
- "One more time."  Emily is always asking for just one more...
- "Love you"  ahhh, Emily now says these words.  With a sweet look and a hug, Mommy just melts!

Link to pictures

Farewell to Mr. George

Sadly, George was put down Tuesday, February 17th.  He had a rough night the 16th (he collapsed and wouldn't walk to his bed).  On the morning of the 17th, his body just started to shut down.  He was nearly 13 years old (not bad for such a big boy!).  George was a great dog and will be missed.  Here's George's Featured post from when Kara was a baby.  Also, here are all of George's Blog Posts (where he was mentioned).  Hope you enjoy the pictures of George.

Link to pictures

The Little Potty Returns

Emily has started to show some interest in potty training.  Mommy and Daddy were a little hesitant at first, but Emily was quite insistent.  Potty training is probably the most frustrating, grossest task for a parent of a young child.  Emily has actually been doing quite well with the potty training so far.  She still hasn't gotten a good grasp on the feelings, but if Mom or Dad guide her to the toilet, she knows how to take care of business.  She's still a little inconsistent, but has been showing improvement.  She has kept her diapers mostly clean and dry (except for nap time and bedtime) for the last couple of weeks.  Maybe she'll be one of those kids that more or less train themselves. *fingers crossed*

Emily has also started swim classes, which she does every Saturday morning with Dad.  She gets really excited every time we put on her and says, "Swim diaper, go swim."  The class mostly just focuses on getting the kids comfortable in the water, but Emily especially enjoys blowing bubbles and jumping off the side to Dad.

Emily is trying to do more and more things herself.  Whether it's helping get dressed, putting on shoes, or brushing her teeth, Emily has decided she can do it herself.  One day, she even helped Dad cook up some eggs.  Dad cracked the eggs and then just let her take care of it from there (under close supervision, of course).  She was so excited to eat her eggs!

We have started the process of getting Kara registered for Kindergarten.  She's pretty excited about the prospect of going to a new school, though it won't be much of a difference from the preschool she's already attending.

Kid Quotes:

"Come on!" - Emily's favorite saying these days as she drags Mom, Dad, or Kara somewhere.

"Tinkle, Tinkle, Toot!  Yay, I did it! Undies!" - Emily quoting the potty book after successfully using the potty.

"What are you going to do about it?" - Kara when Dad told her clean up her mess.  Oh, they start early these days...

Link to pictures

Mimi and Papa's Snowy, Frigid Visit

In addition to the 6-8 inches of snow we got Christmas night, we were also treated to another couple of inches followed by an arctic blast (the high was 4°F one day) a couple days later.  We had plans while Mimi and Papa were visiting (the Denver Aquarium, the Butterfly Pavilion, or maybe the Denver Museum), but with the snow and the cold, the roads were just a little too dangerous for unnecessary driving.  The girls started to get a little wild after a few days of being cooped up inside (see the videos).

Kara has started to really get into games.  She has learned Uno and must have played it 100 times with Mimi and Papa along with Operation, Trouble, and Let's Go Fishin'.  She's also showing an interest in more complicated card games.  Maybe she'll be able to get into the annual Christmas family card games next year!

In other news, Emily has found her scream.  She will often scream at us if Kara does something she doesn't like or if we won't give her something she wants.  Oh, it's gonna be fun with TWO screaming girls...

Link to pictures

Christmas 2014

We got the Christmas season kicked off the day after Thanksgiving by putting up the tree and the decorations.  Emily had a good time looking at the decorations and enjoyed putting the star on top of the tree.  Kara particularly enjoyed putting decorations on the tree.  She even made quite a few decorations to add to the tree (see the pictures)!

A couple of weeks before Christmas, the city puts on a Dessert with Santa event for all the little kids.  Both girls enjoyed snacking on cookies and sipping on hot chocolate.  Eventually, we made our way up to talk with Santa himself.  Kara asked Santa for an electric toothbrush with Ariel on it that played music.  She was very specific. :-)  Emily didn't know quite what to think of Santa, but she knew she didn't want to sit on his lap and wouldn't let go of Dad when he tried to put her down.  Maybe next year.

On December 23rd, Mimi and Papa flew in from Alabama.  They spent Christmas Eve making gingerbread cookies and generally preparing for the Christmas festivities.

Christmas day started early this year.  Daddy suspects Kara was listening by her door for any little noise because she popped out as soon as Dad stepped out of bed.  She did go back to her room but kept popping out.  Eventually, Dad went and sat with Kara in her room (we didn't want her to wake up Emily since it was going to be such a busy day) until about 7.  Once we let her out, she quickly ran downstairs to check out what Santa brought her.  She was excited that she got an electric toothbrush, but she was a little disappointed it didn't play any music.  We made Kara wait on the rest of the presents, though.

Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Amy, and Cousin Jennifer showed up around 8:15 and brought another carload of gifts.  Kara was really into opening presents this year.  She had a great time sorting the presents into piles and would have torn them all open if we hadn't made her wait.  Emily, on the other hand, understood what was going on, but she wasn't too interested.  Mom and Dad started to feel bad after a while since she just wanted to play with her new presents, and we were just handing her presents to open. In the end, Emily just decided she was done and walked away, which was okay. Emily's favorite new gift was a Curious George stuffed animal, which she carried around with her the rest of the day.

In the afternoon, the snow started to fall, so we did have a white Christmas in Colorado. The snow came down pretty quick, so Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Amy, and Cousin Jennifer had to leave right after dinner (without eating any dessert).  Of course, they did take plenty of dessert with them.

A very merry Christmas was had by all.  Until next year!

Link to pictures