Mr. Nolan helping us ring in the new year.
Victoria looking smashing in her New Year garb.
Izzy tooting her own horn.
Liz showing the girls how to make noise makers with plastic bottles, confetti, beans and stickers.
Mark and Brock cheersing to another great year.
This time of year it is hard to keep the girls entertained. I'm constantly hearing, "Mooom, I'm booored!" So today we got out the Play Doh.
Here I introduced them to Silly Putty. Apparently sticky, squishy things keep them occupied. Oh, and this Silly Putty glows so they spend a good 20 minutes in the closet.
A rare nice day in January. We took full advantage of it. We played on the swings in the back yard and then that afternoon we met our friends, Courtney, Avery, and Emery at the park.
Here is my copy cat. She sooo, looks up to her sister.
Climbing the rockwall. A feet she couldn't accomplish a year ago.
A little house cleaning in the play house.
Well, we got the year off to a great start with our good friends the Smiths and the Jones's. Smiths have two little guys, Hudson and Nolan, and Jones's have, Xavier and Victoria, that all get along really well with Izzy and Addie. Jones left a little early and Smiths made it until midnight and then headed home. Liz, the school teacher she is, brought over stickers, and stuff to make shakers along with masks and horns. The kids had a blast, as did we big kids. We also had a couple other friends stop to just wish everyone a happy new year. Izzy is growing like a weed and doing great at soccer and gymnastics. We had a little hiccup with swimming lessons, but after two weeks it was all smoothed out. Izzy moved up a class and her new teacher was a guy. We had a bad experience with a "boy" teacher at our last swim lessons, and ever since, a guy teacher is out of the question for her. So, we went through two weeks of her not getting in the water. The first time she wailed that her teacher had a bun and she didn't like that on boys (he has long hair and it was pulled back). She said this really loud in front of the entire observing area. The next week she wouldn't even let go of my leg. So Mark and I took her to open swim night and Tony, the swim instructor, lifeguards on those nights. He got in the water and let Izzy just swim back and forth between the two of us so she could get use to him. Also, a small girl got a little too far from the wall and Iz saw Tony jump in and get her. She was convinced he was awesome then. Swimming lessons have been a breeze ever since.
The next hurdle we had to jump was Izzy's first boyfriend. Izzy and I were in my bathroom and she was watching me get ready for the day. She asked me when we got to go to Gamma's next.
I said, "I'm not sure, "why?"
She said, "Because we need to go get your dress."
"What dress?," I said
"Your princess dress, " she stated (which is aka my wedding dress)
Of course I wanted to know why she wanted it and here was her explanation.
"Well, Cooper said he likes Violet now and if she had a pretty dress, maybe he would like her better."
WOW! How do I deal with this? I started explaining to her that she was too little for a boyfriend anyway and she'll find someone other than Cooper to marry. I told her Mommy had other boyfriends before Daddy and I married him. Then I thought, "Am I explaining way too much for this little four year old brain?" She's only 4! I have a long road ahead if it's starting now. She's turning into such a big girl.
Addie is doing awesome. We are still working on potty training. She is hit and miss, but does tell us if she has to go every now and then. If she is too busy she could sit in a dirty diaper for hours and not care. She is copying everything Izzy does and says. Hopefully Izzy will be a good role model as they get older. Her colds seem to be getting a little better but she is still drooling like crazy. Hopefully she will grow out of that soon.
In the middle of the month Mark and I had a date night and then met up with a bunch of our neighbors. We were suppose to have a party bus that night but is was really cold and many people were sick. So we cancelled the bus and just met out together. It was a lot of fun. Our neighborhood has turned out to be a great place to live.
Hope everyone is happy and healthy. Love, Ariann
