Catching Up

One of February's highlights was getting a visit from the Indiana Smiths. The girls loved spending time with their grandparents, and they were gracious enough to let Jeremy and I have a few nights out together. We even saw a movie, which was a special treat.  Richard took the girls for their annual pink sprinkle doughnut run. Somehow it's better if he pulls them in the wagon too. We were sad that Grandpa got sick again this year, but are hoping that he will still visit us next year!

Happy Olivia

 We stayed pretty close to home for the week. Our big outing was a trip to the Oakland Zoo. Had a great time together and even got to the see the baby giraffe. Caraline is really into petting animals so she was thrilled to get a chance to see the goats. I didn't get any good photos of Connie but she was here too! It was a treat to have them out!!

Girls at the Zoo

More Zoo

And More Zoo

Valentines Day Cake

11 Months

Here are Caraline's 11 month shots. It's getting really hard to get a good photo of her on the couch since she is so mobile. She's taking steps and getting closer to walking.

10 Years and 10 Months

Jeremy and I celebrated 10 years of marriage last month. We had a quiet dinner with the kids that night. I am sporting the dress that Abigail picked out for me for Christmas. I guess she really wanted to get me a dress for Christmas and so Jeremy took her to Goodwill to pick something out. She was insistent that this minty prom dress was the ticket. Thought that counts! Caraline also turned 10 months January 1st. She is a sweetie and quite cute too!

Christmas

Here are some photos from Christmas. We had a great time, with the extra treat of having Ruth and Adam in town as well for the holidays. The girls had such fun with their aunts and uncles!


As usual, my kids are incapable of taking 'normal' photos with the Sidors. This is the best we got! They took the girls to see The Muppet movie, which was a hit. Olivia sat through the whole thing on Aunt Ruth's lap. Both clutched their tickets tightly during the show, well at least until Olivia ate hers. No joke. That next day all of us gathered at our place for hanging out and decorating Christmas cookies and Zacharys. Olivia is sporting her new Elmo pjs from the Wilsons below. We spent the next several days either in Novato or Concord and really had a blessed time together as a family celebrating Jesus' birth.





Abigail excited to see Christmas lights.

 

Quick Post

Here's Caraline as we found her during dinner one night - she had the teething biscuit stuck to her head! The girls, of course, thought that was hilarious.


Abigail was Star of the Week before Christmas. It involves various duties, one of which is to pick a special guest to come into the classroom. It was so sweet that she picked Olivia, who is here proudly dressed up (she picked this out) and wearing her visitors badge. Both girls stood up in front of the 30 kids and Abigail gave a presentation on Olivia. Here's about how it went: Today I want to introduce you to my sister Olivia. She is two years old. She likes to wear bathing suits. Her favorite song is God Made Me. I like Olivia the most because she tickles me. Thank you for listening. Then, the whole class told Olivia hello and thanked her for coming in. The worst part was that Olivia thought she was staying the whole day and was a bit miffed at me to leave. She had sat down next to Abigail on her carpet square after the presentation! Even today at dinner she was asking when she could go to school - that girl is ready!


Abigail did a great job at her school performance. Olivia was pretty excited to attend as well.


Probably our best Christmas type photo of the girls. All looking at the camera and pretty much happy!

November and Some December

So, my updating is getting worse these days. I will try and jam a month and a half into this short posting!

First up...Thanksgiving. We had a great time together. The day of we had a quiet day at home, with a yummy breakfast together and then opted for a pizza dinner. The next morning Jeremy was out at 5am for a black friday deal. It wasn't anything exciting, just an external harddrive. Anyways, a truck ran a red light, crashed into the passenger side and front of the Saturn, and the car was totaled. We are VERY thankful he's okay, though. As of today, we are the owners of a 1999 Mercedes Turbodiesel as the replacement car. We are hoping that it lives up to the long life reviews and it can be Abigail's to drive around someday. On that Friday, we still made it to Novato for two days with the grandparents and my mom (dad's overseas). The Wilsons also joined us on Saturday which was great. Caraline was fighting a fever and cold that day so that's why she looks a little dopey. Also had to include a photo of all of the girls fall crafts. Oh, and then while we were in Novato getting ready to sit down to the big dinner I was looking for Olivia. She was, no joke, in her undies running circles around the outside table. Don't know why that was her best use of her time but she was having fun.



We just celebrated Abigail's 6th birthday. It was a lot of fun. The day of we got ready by making the dessert. Abigail got to wear a crown at school. She was quite pleased. The next day we had a party in the park with a sort of rainbow theme. The weather was amazing and all of the kids had lots of fun.









Caraline also turned 9 months. She is quite the mover. She can pull herself up on all sorts of things and gets into lots of trouble. She is also getting her first two teeth.



Got a few shots before Sunday of the girls in some Christmas gear. They weren't smiling until I took a stuffed Santa Claus and bounced it in Jeremy s head. They thought it was hilarious.