Look Who's 3!!!

Happy birthday sweet Madeleine!

(and Jamie Sue)

The Mouse

We were successful in keeping our trip to Disneyland a secret for Madeleine. We didn't let her know till we got to the gate at the airport. She's still so young that she wasn't exactly sure what was going on. When we woke her up and put her in the car she was very excited and said, "We're going to my birthday party!". Heehee. Kind of. She did have a great birthday celebration at Ariel's Grotto where she got to be the honored guest and meet every princess and have her own birthday cake. She had a lot of fun.

We all had a lot of fun. But we're very tired from the busy weekend and the germs that have invaded our bodies. Can the sun please shine down on us so we can be sanitized?! We're going to have to quarantine ourselves from everyone else till we're better. The poor girls. Maddie as you can see was not quite the right color while at Disneyland because she had a bad reaction to the medicine for her ear infection (or she just had a rash with the illness, it's hard to know for sure). And Annora apparently has pneumonia. I just thought the fever was from teething. And...I must say, that I am disappointed in myself because I meant to get her back on the vaccination schedule for Prevnar and didn't, and most likely this could have been prevented had she been up to date on that. Vaccinate people, vaccinate! Your kids won't die and they'll still be able to spell backwards when it's all over. It was purely by accident that we got off schedule, and then thought I was smart and would "save" her body from one more invader...hmmm...I was wrong.

Enjoy the pictures!

Love Affair With Our Girls.

We had a merry Valentine's day with heart eggs and heart toast and heart cake balls and heart dresses and heart crowns and big heart "hugs" and heart stickers and heart games...but apparently I have no heart cookie cutters! How can a person of my baking stature have NO heart cookie cutters! I'll have to remedy that, but in the meantime, we had to make "lovie the lobster" cookies to decorate. :P

Thank you to Uncle Kyle and Auntie Beth for the fun gifts from Japan. I think I'm going to dust up on my Japanese now so I can read the wrappings. Maddie fell in love with her pig. For the rest of the morning she took it everywhere with her. She took it riding on her horse, showed it what was out the window...just a merry ole time! Annora was enamored by the the little cup. She is obsessed with little drinking vessels at current. Pretends she's drinking out of them and everything.

My captain underpants had a problem with hair in the face. Often I remedied it with pigtails or other fun rubber band hairstyles. However as of late she has been kicking and screaming when I try to add these lovelies to her hair. And I think I found that part of the culprit was that they were uncomfortable at nap time or in the car. So, we amended the situation. It was a hard decision to cut her bangs, but it's very sweet. I think Daddy gulped real hard the first time he saw it, but we're both OK with it. Cute as a button.

Nuts and Such

We continue on with our dinner time saga of eating "one bite". Some people think we are too kind, but I figure if she'll at least eat one bite she'll realize that she likes it...such as in last night...

We're sitting down to a lovely dinner of cashew beef stir fry. Maddie is gobbling her rice as usual, and then turns stiff when she sees Dad put 2 veggies on her plate. That's her "bite". But she's pretty unsure about it. Then she sees something on MY plate. "What's that mommy?"..."It's a nut, called a cashew"..."I want a nut"..."OK, I'll get you one"...(Picks it up and chews it), "Sure, I can try it and I like it, more nuts please"...(Ryan and I eye each other and we agree on the reward system)..."OK, you can have another nut but first you have to eat your carrot"...(from the child who hasn't eaten cooked carrots in a year and a half) "Sure, I can try that"...anyway, this goes on throughout dinner she ate everything in the stir fry! Actually, I take it back, I knew she didn't like onions so I didn't make her take a bite, but she did asparagus...and the big shocker...beef! She actually ate a whole piece. So...we might be entertaining a lot of nuts for dinner from now on...asides from ourselves.

And my "little nut" is showing more and more of her "person" these days. So animated she's become! And hilarious! Today we had a nice light dusting of snow and she was sooo excited to go and play. So I told her she first needed some warm clothes. THIS is what she brought me to put on her. I can't believe she even brought accessories!

Thankfully I convinced her to wear pants later on for the sledding. Of course she's wearing pants under a dress, because we're still a little confused about if we're a girl or a boy without the dress. I've really got to find a good body parts book. And look who's really enjoying the snow! Annora! She loved it. Practically dove into it! Or rather did on occasion. I know she'd love it a lot more if she could move in that coat and her boots didn't keep falling off. So, pretty much all she can do is just sit there helpless and get wet and cold. She's looking forward to next years snow. Of course this year we are getting next years snow...Quite a pile up from our light dusting this morning.

Mustache Madness

Maddie's (and my) dear friend Julia had an extra mustache in her pocket one day this week. Both girls think it's pretty fun. Maddie even got her "hook" out to be a pirate :)

And then there is the cutie pie Annora Jane with her jeans and tutu. Life is so Maaaavelous.

Birthday Photos

Here are some pics of Annora's first birthday party.

Spring Already?

It's the beginning of February, and by my standards, it will be winter for another couple months. But today was a very nice early "spring" day. Maddie shed her coat, Annora ate rocks, and the Mom got a little bit of weeding accomplished. Maybe tomorrow I can post some birthday party pics...unless the weather is balmy again, which means you can find me in the dirt again.