Visitors

We were fortunate to have some lovely visitors this past week! First, we had Grandma and Grandpa to visit and it was so good to see them! The girls thought they were in dreamland - G & G must have read 50 books over the course of two days! They also crawled into playhouses, willingly played Candyland, snuggled with both little and big people (see below!) and cooked lots of yummy food! Thanks for nice weekend!

We also had some of my work friends over to play and here is a group shot of the kiddos (minus Isabel who somehow managed to nap through the mayhem!) Fun was had by all - the kids played really well together!

Finally, Papa was here today just to hang out and he also willingly played the Hungry Caterpillar game and Candyland...which Alex claims is a special form of punishment...but which Abbie absolutely loves...so it seems all the grandparents indulge in her game-loving! Isabel did try to play...that didn't work so well - but wait til next year you guys!

Passing the winter days

Besides some library classes, playdates, museum trips, etc...the girls have found ways to entertain themselves - and me - in this long winter month!

Isabel's new favorite activity is doing dishes (i.e. emptying the entire contents of the silverware drawer into the dishwater, drinking the dishwater, then dumping it all over the floor but having great fun while doing these things!)

I came into the playroom and there she was! How did she manage this?!

Playing "sleep" - one of their favorite activies...why isn't it this easy at nap and bedtime?!

Friends are over to play, and yes, we are playing "sleep"

Doin' a little dance...in Mama's slip - Abbie found this in my drawer and since she is so into "fancy dresses" lately, she promptly declared that this was her new fancy dress for when she gets married!! Do I save this slip and produce it when she is shopping for a wedding dress someday?!!

Playing in the snow...kinda handy if I can get Abbie to pull Isabel while I do some shoveling!

Mom and Dad have been staying busy cutting holes in walls and ceilings to fix all of the leaks we seem to be recently developing here...:-) For now, we've resorted to the old "bucket under the leak" method!

Belated Blog

It seems that we still haven't blogged about the rest of Christmas, we're so behind!! - it's been on both of our to-do lists for weeks! We've been delayed by bad colds and ear infections for the girls, the stomach flu for everyone, oodles of snow (fun though!), playing catch-up with work, an incident with the bathroom floor that resulting in the gutting of our entire bathroom, teething for Isabel and MORE colds for the girls...oh, and a burst pipe tonight that tried to flood the living room...and somewhat succeeded!
Hopefully we can recover during the rest of January - and finish the bathroom! And turn our water back on, if we can fix this pipe...we're getting thirsty!
Here are some pictures for the rest of Christmas - a wonderful time was had by all!! We really savored the time we got to spend with everyone...

The girls got into the present opening this year - it was so fun to watch them!
Four-wheeling at Grandma's and Grandpa's - I was slightly worried, for how young they are, that they were this good at it!
Izzie loves apples...
Family picture
4:4 is a nice ratio of parents to kids - there has been a new grandchild every Christmas thus far...it just keeps getting more fun :-)
Grandma and Grandpa and their grandchildren - oh, the matching outfits are courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa as well...:-)
Sisters

Christmas at Nana's - Dan's girlfriend, Beth, also joined us but was so kind as to take this picture...

What a sport, Uncle Dan!
It was good to see you, Ali!
Nana helping the girls to saddle up on these horses that were found under her Christmas tree!
My grandparents - we should've had my Mom in this one to make it a four-generation photo
Good thing there were lots of goofy uncles to hang out with at Nana's!
We were also lucky to realize that our friend Carl lives almost next-door to my Mom! So we had a lovely visit from Carl and the Gubbins'
It was a pajama party for the kids :-)
Hope you all had a great start to 2009 - Happy New Year!