Snow Day

We've had a couple of really heavy snowstorms out here that shut a lot of things down for a couple days. Tuesday, we were supposed to have a check-up for the twins, but we got a call at 7 am saying that they were closing the office for the day and would call to reschedule later this week. School was cancelled as well, so after shutting our alarm off, Jeff and I went back to bed, dreaming that the babies would happen to sleep in absurdly late.

An hour later, we woke up to Paige running around the living room shouting, "Everybody! Wake up! It's Christmas! It's Christmas!" She jumped onto our bed and all sleeping was ended.

With no where else to go, we spent the day reading books,

(Okay, this is from last week when Jeff's dad got to come visit us for a couple days, but it's too cute not to share)

Playing dress up,

Eating (while playing with our toes),

And sometimes just sitting around.

Anna and Boo

It was a pretty good day.

I love my Boo

Anna is crazy wiggly lately, crawling after everyone and everything. For example:

When she gets tired of swimming across the floor, she takes breaks with her favorite blankie:

Thanksgiving!

We were this close to spending Thanksgiving by ourselves in our apartment this year. Luckily, we remembered that Jeff's Uncle Dave and family live not too far away, and quickly invited ourselves over dinner. (Let's have a turkey dinner! You bring the turkey! All in favor?)

We also coerced them into coming out in the cold and taking a family picture of us! ...Manners are not always our strongest suite.

At any rate, they handled our 3-ring circus gracefully, and we had a very fun time. They even put on an ice show! Dry ice in apple juice is awesome, by the way, as is spending Thanksgiving with physics nerds. Ah, science! 

 

Paige had a grand time. She cried when we had to come home.

Shmile for the Camera

Guess who is 6-months-old! We wanted to document the occasion, since we're kind of amazed that we've all survived this long. Plus, Grandma Tucker sent the girls some super cute blankets that make good backgrounds!
This is what most of the pictures of this girl look like these day. Anna is too wiggly to catch right now.

And Emma usually walks a thin border between happy and upset.

These girls are so charming. They both are very well-tempered and smile a lot. For some reason though, even at this age, the camera seems to coax out the most fake, goofy, or over-the-top smiles possible.

Put the two of them together and you either get this

or this

This is the current favorite toy. They fight over the wipes bag almost as much as they fight over binkies.

And, like most all-girl photo shoots, somebody has to show a little leg. Scandalous!

 She's not even sorry. Punk. 

Not Quite, But Almost

Paige announce the other day that she learned how to wink. Mostly, it involves turning her head and blinking. It's pretty cute.

P.S.--I made that shirt!

Both girls are almost sitting up on their own. They'll wobble for a few seconds, then faceplant into their toes. Neither seem to mind very much. They both also can almost feed themselves! Emma's not quite as steady as Anna, but they'll both get a couple ounces in before getting distracted and dropping the bottle. Anna even fed herself most of a bottle after church the other day, saving me a half-hour of crying since Jeff wasn't home (they're too wiggly to feed simultaneously). I think she would have finished the bottle if a box hadn't been more interesting and she had to stop eating to wiggle over.

I can't remember how to turn it back when the camera auto-turns it.

Speaking of wiggling, these girls are movers. Anna especially has people to see and places to go. She rolls and wiggles her way around most of the living room. We had put a box in front of the futon because she would roll under it and kick the mattress. She army crawls a little bit, but hasn't figured out how to get up on her knees.
Emma, on the other hand, has decided that if she has to eat solid food, she'd rather do it herself, thank you. She tries to take the spoon, so I give her another one, but she gets frustrated when hers has no food on it.

If the spoon isn't accidentally dropped, the meal quickly turns into a sword fight, complete with (somewhat) witty banter. 

One thing we're trying out this year is a Thanksgiving tree. Every day we write down something we're thankful for on a leaf, then hang it on the tree. Paige seems to enjoy it, and it helps her practice writing and sounding out words. She wrote 'Mom' and 'Dad' all by herself! She can also write her name, though I couldn't find an example to show off. I'm super impressed

Borrowed Happiness

Forgive the bad focus, this was right before bedtime. Our friends loaned us this bouncer thing since the girls outgrew their rockers. Boo's pretty indifferent, but Anna, well...

Casualties of Sleeplessness

I poured Paige some milk and cereal this morning, told her she could put in a TV show when she was finished, and went back to sleep. It's been kind of a rough week.

The girls haven't been sleeping well this week, and it's hard to tell why because there's a lot going on for them right now: they're teething, they just started solid food, they've switched from rockers into their cribs, and it's suddenly very cold at night. Whatever the reason, no one here has gotten more than a couple hours sleep in the last 5 days. Awesome.

One of the few nights that they went to bed without too much of a fuss, I spent making (very, very simple) Halloween costumes. That night I woke up at 2:30 and flipped out because I'd forgotten Paige's dentist appointment. I checked the calender, then woke Jeff up, sobbing about how we schedule it 2 months ago, and the insurance would be mad, and they'd kick us out of the dental practice, and all of Paige's teeth would fall out because she'd never see another dentist. It took me a couple hours to calm down and go to sleep. When we woke up the next morning, I braced to call the dentist and apologize while Jeff checked the calender...the appointment is next Tuesday.

Today we what I thought would be the ward Halloween party, but which turned out to be just trunk-or-treating. No games, contests, or socializing, just a dark parking lot with hyper children. Dumb. Why did I even make costumes? They only wore them for like, 20 minutes, and no one even saw them. Anyway, Pictures! Yes, these are the best pictures I got.

Anna Banana and EmmaBoo the Ghost

 Anna was the wiggliest banana I've ever seen. And Emma kept staring at her hand, which in her costume, made me think of Lady Macbeth and Hamlet all night. Doesn't she look Shakespearean?

Paige was a butterfly, but she refused to have her picture taken in her full costume of black clothes and a tutu. She wanted to wear her candy sleeper with her wings. Whatever. Happy (almost) Halloween.

Indoors

 It's been raining a lot lately, so we've spent a lot of time inside. We've all been going a bit stir-crazy, but the other day, Paige just couldn't take it anymore. She put on all her rain gear, grabbed her umbrella, and stood out on the balcony in the rain, just to be outside.

 One thing that I did while facing the rain was try to fill some holes in the kids' wardrobes. Paige got this grandpa-cardigan that she's worn every day since I finished it. She loves that she can do the buttons herself. Honestly, we do too.

She's showing off her painted fingernails, if you can't tell

We're trying to foster as much independence in her as possible, since most of the time we're busy with the little(r) girls. This means though that she's allowed to go to church in a sparkly blue ballgown, her red cardigan, pink and green striped tights, with half-brushed hair and shoes on the wrong feet.

Meanwhile, these kids are sucking on each others fingers and not wearing any clothes at all! Well, they do at church. And occasionally at home.

Not now, Emma, there's a camera!

Sometimes though, I get them dressed and realize that they look more like little boys than little girls. But, the pants I made for free, the onesies were on clearance for a dollar each, and I really love the shark bait onesie. It makes me think of Finding Nemo all day.

 Shark Bait, Ooh Ha Ha!

Drool Factory

Happy 4-months-old! They've both rolled over front-to-back and have some awesome head strength. They're so excited about it too, can't you tell?

Emma's in white, Anna in gray

 Yeah, guess who both started teething this week? We are not currently winning the happiest campers award. I've never more ardently wished for opposable toes.

Cabana Anna trying desperately to eat both hands at once--check out the interlocking fingers!

Hip to be Squared

As of yesterday, I am once again, a perfect square! Yay 25! It was a good birthday. After doing some morning chores while the babies slept, Paige and I made banana muffins, and ate lunch while feeding the babies and watching Despicable Me. Paige is such a good helper lately.



 Jeff came home from school with pretty flowers, and a fun ice cream cookbook I'd checked out from the library a couple weeks ago called Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. We really liked the lemon cream ice cream, and lime cardamom frozen yogurt. We're thinking of trying the roasted strawberry and adding basil or balsamic vinegar into it. We're also interested in the salted caramel. For the record though, the chocolate curry ice cream is fun to try, but not one I'd crave.






After dinner, Paige came running up with these candles she'd made out of bristle blocks. What a sweetheart. I also got calls and presents from my family and my visiting teachers!






Plus, Jeff and these two girlies let me sleep in this morning. What a good birthday!

Before School Starts

Realizing that summer is coming to an end, we've spent the last little while trying to get out a little bit before all our playmates are in school and the weather goes sour. Our activities include, but are not limited to...

The county fair!

 They had pig races and a petting zoo that were way fun. Paige's favorite was the cows. My favorite was this charming and valuable animal:

Yep. Charming is the first word I think of when I see a shaggy llama.

We also went to a water party, and to pick peaches at a local farm.

 The farm had this really cool slide that all the kids loved.

 Not pictured is our trip to the fabric store, which was a result of my own very poor judgement. For some reason I thought it would be a harmless, easy place to test taking all three kids out for a bit. And it might have been, except that we missed a nap because of our timing. Oops. Two screaming babies and a crying toddler do not a happy (or productive) trip make.

Luckily, these kids are pretty quick to forgive. And they're so smiley that they're easy to forgive too. Plus they put up with being dressed up in silly headbands. Jeff says she looks like chiquita banana baby.

Spot the Difference

We get asked a lot if we can the twins apart, and over the last couple of months, we've found a couple little things. How many can you spot? (different outfits don't count, since those change a couple times a day.)

Da back a yo' head is ridiculus

Ready for the answers?

It's not just the angle, they really do have different head shapes.

In case you're curious now, here's a close-up of Anna's scar:

And...here are other pictures that I love this week:

I love that gummy smile!