Oh what personalities!

Every day brings us laughs and challenges. The kids are full of life and personality and we are loving this age!

Quirky! She is so silly and loves to do things that make us laugh. She saw my glasses and put them on while eating her snack.


Check out that lump on his right side of his forehead. That was the result of Elaina chucking her Elmo bath toy (which is hard not soft and cuddly) over her shoulder and hitting him. Immediately this bump came up, tears followed, and a certain girl was taken out of the tub and put in time out because she had been asked not to throw her toys already.


Having lunch.


They love to sit at the counter in our kitchen and eat. It makes it easy for me because I can clean up while they eat.



Our little artist hard at work on her painting which she was so proud to show her MoMo when she came over.





This is soooo Skylar. He is always trying to figure out how things work. It took him awhile to manuever the stroller into the climber but he did it.






Such the caretaker, feeding her baby. It cries when you stop feeding it and Elaina rocks her and kisses her and even gives her "bunny" which makes everything better!

He loves to wear his shoes around the house. You take them off, he brings them to you to put back on.

Christmas Day!

Christmas morning started with Elaina waking up at 3...not from excitement but I think because her stomach was upset from all the spicy Mexican she ate the night before! So she and I watched tv and read in the basement until Skylar woke up. Then we got up Jon and let the kids see the tree...

Elaina getting her first look at the presents.


Skylar spies the kitchen set.


This was a big hit!!

Elaina loved her art table (she always asks for "colors" when she wants to draw).

Opening her bassinet for her doll.

Big girl undies, Elmo of course, to go with the potty she got. We are just introducing it for her (Skylar is NOT ready!). But she seems to like to sit on it but doesn't quite get the idea of actually going on it.

We finally got him away from the kitchen to open another present...his cash register!

Lots of buttons, sounds, and a drawer that pops out...cool!!

Unfortunately, this is pretty common when one tries to use the art table.

Our little music girl

The Christmas card picture we finally got!!

Then they moved to Elaina's room to rock in the chair.

Giving hugs:)

Checking out the snow we got Christmas morning...yay, a White Christmas!

Tired from opening presents she decided to rest on the floor with Vaughn.

Christmas night at our house. Erika and Olivia

Skylar opening a present

My mom got pictures of the three grandchildren painted from photos we had. They turned out GREAT!



Elaina and Grandpa P

Pretty girl drawing on her Etch and Sketch (looking cute but refusing to wear tights and shoes)


Of course we have a picture of him on the ground:)

Thanks to the Grandmas, Jon and I got to eat.

Jon and Olivia

At home with me during my winter break, Elaina and I had a tea party.

She loves to try to fit into small boxes and here, the wagon. Luckily she is so small that she usually does fit!

Wild Man!!

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at Tim and Erika's. It is getting so fun to see Skylar and Elaina interact with Olivia. She is definitely an advanced one year old and she loves trying to keep up with the older kids. Elaina was very resistant to Olivia for awhile...I think because she didn't want to share her MoMo with anyone! But now they are starting to play more and it is really fun to see. We put all three kids in the bath after dinner which was hilarious to see. Finally we got them matching PJs when mom and I were at the Ozark outlets and hoped to get a cute picture of the kids all together. What were we thinking...they are one and two year olds?!?

Giving Olivia a "drink". Lots of pretend play these days.

Olivia dancing to the Taylor Swift video on Tim's phone. Hilarious!!


Attempting to get a picture...

Love how my kids are the ones not cooperating...

And they are out of here.

It is more fun to play with the toys:)

Visiting Santa

A week before Christmas we took Skylar and Elaina to see Santa for the first time. We got to the mall about a half hour before he was set to appear and we were about the fifth family in line. The kids were antsy so we took turns letting them play while the other parent waited in line. To make a long story short, somehow the key to the camera was lost and the people working were not going to let anyone in to see Santa until a replacement arrived. NOT OK! After many people complained we all finally got in to see Santa and were able to take our own picture. Good thing we didn't pay for the picture we would have gotten!! Skylar was ok...he had been so busy playing with the hooks on the stroller that I don't think he really knew what was happening when he got on Santa's lap. Elaina, on the other hand, would not let go of me to sit by Santa. So I sat down with her...but she still would not even look at him and clung to me. When he gave her a coloring book at the end, she gave him a sideways look, like maybe you aren't so bad after all! Oh well, maybe next year!

Second Birthday Party

Because Mom didn't plan ahead very far like last year, we had Skylar and Elaina's birthday party a week after their actual birthday. It worked out well though because on their real birthday we celebrated just as a family and then got to celebrate with friends again. Elaina loved having everyone over. She twirled her dress and loved eating her cake (what a surprise). Skylar seemed a bit overwhelmed by all the people. He clung to his MoMo and was pretty fussy. He did enjoy the blowing out of the candles and finally got the hang of eating cake (he is NOT like his sister who LOVES sweets!!)

The spread (we had so much leftover...it is hard to remember that when you have 25 people and half are kids, they don't eat as much!!)


Sesame Street theme with an Elmo cake, of course!


Happy birthday girl!


She seemed a little unsure of what to do and climbing into my lap soon after this was taken.


Skylar with Grandma


She loved eating her cake but especially the ice cream. After she finished hers, we caught her moving to the next chair and finishing her friend Alex's ice cream.


Mmmm, icing:)