Child's Play

I have really enjoyed watching the girls grow and play lately.  Last weekend while my mom was here, the girls wanted to go shopping with the money that they had been saving.  Sidney has a grocery cart that my sister had gotten her for Christmas a couple of years ago and it has recently broken.  So when I asked her what she wanted to buy, she said a new shopping cart.  I explained that is was going to take every single penny that she had and it would be the only thing that she could purchase.  She acted as if she was okay with that.  I was certain that once we got to the store, she would change her mind.  We stopped at the Dollar Store first and Kendall bought a ton of little trinkets.  Sidney kept eyeing things and picking them up, but she would put them back promptly.  Kendall paid for her purchases and on the way out Sidney said, "Can we go buy my shopping cart now?"  I took her to Fred Meyer and we found the very last shopping cart.  She was ecstatic and pushed the cart around the entire store.  My mom and I were amazed at how well she got the concept.  Her first big purchase!

Sunday after my parents left, we decorated for Christmas and the girls spent the entire day playing.  If you could only hear them.  They were holding up their barbies shouting, "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the main event."  I promise you we do not watch WWF around here.  Again, something that I have no idea where they picked it up.

"Cheers!".  Kendall has been wanting a nutcracker very badly.  She was super excited when I unpacked these.  I bought them 20 years ago (I must have been only 3 or 4 when I purchased them)!  Who believes that one?

Sidney brought down all of her farm animals.  About 10 minutes after I took this picture she turned on the music box and laid all of the animals on their sides.  She told me that they were taking a nap. 

Kendall sat for nearly an hour just listening to the music box.  Grandma Terrell gave me this music box a few years ago.  There are little skaters that move to the music.

Kendall is an extremely giving girl, so I was slightly shocked when we set out to make Christmas gifts for her Aunties and Grandmas.  She spent much of the time trying to talk me into keeping them.  She literally cried at one point.  I tried to explain the concept of giving, which I thought she had already understood.  After a few minutes it dawned on me that she was not being selfish, per say, she just enjoyed making the gifts so much that she just didn't want to give them up.  However once she saw the cool packaging that we were going to wrap them in, she got over it.  Here are Sidney and Kendall carrying their creations to the Christmas tree.  Now they cannot wait for the recipients to open them.

  

A Very Yummy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.  My parents arrived last Wednesday.  We were very excited to show them our new home.  My mom brought down my re-vamped drapes.  These were the drapes that my mom made for me last Christmas.  They were in the master bedroom at the old house, but we wanted to put them in the dining room at our new house.  The only trick was that they were about 18 inches too short.  My mom came up with a great idea.  She used some very nice trim and then used the reverse side of the same fabric to add a bit of contrast.  They turned out very nice.  Her talent never ceases to amaze me.  Thank you mom!

We started off Thanksgiving with Cinnamon rolls and yummy appetizers.  My dad made his famous bacon-wrapped water chestnuts!  Don't look at the clock too closely, you may see that it was not even noon before the wine corks were popped.

Kendall even got in on some of the action as she helped my mom with some of the appetizers and prep work.

Sidney mostly enjoyed eating the fruits of our labor.  Here she is with the last two olives on her fingertips. 

The Brandt's joined us for dinner.  It was a great time.  Emily just came right in and started playing with the girls.  As she was leaving that day, I heard her invite the girls over to her house to play.  She told them, "You should come over to my house.  We have different toys we can play with."  Such a sweet girl! 

Claire got to sit at the kiddie table with the bigger girls.  I think she thought she was pretty hot stuff!

My girls got to have their first taste of "real" cranberries courtesy of Kristin (as opposed to the kind that come out of a can).  They absolutely loved them.  Later that evening when I asked them what their favorite thing was, they both told me cranberries.  My favorite thing was most definitely the sweet potatoes that Chris brought!

The girls got a lot of snuggle time with my parents. 

My parents dragged me to Walmart at 10pm on Thanksgiving Day to get one of the door busters.  After nearly watching two grown adults break into a fist fight, we left empty handed.  We all agreed that was a very dangerous place to be.  After returning home, I logged onto the computer at midnight and was able to get the "door buster deal" online, no problem.  We did a lot of eating, a lot of sleeping, a bit of shopping and took quite a few long walks exploring the new neighborhood.  It was a great weekend!

I'll take one of everything please.

This weekend Kevin and I decided to rent a hotel room and take the girls on a mini-vacation.  We chose one with a very large swimming pool and requested an early check-in.  It was VERY fun!  We all played in the pool and oscillated from pool to jacuzzi for several hours.  Kendall practiced her belly-flops (at least that is how it appeared) and Sidney was actually jumping all the way into the pool by herself.  Kevin and I had a lot of fun as both of us are pretty strong swimmers, but rarely take the opportunity to do so nowadays.  Kevin impressed us all by swimming from one end of the pool to the next without coming up for air.  Both girls were amazed that their parents could do "stop bad guy, stop" and "ice cream scoops".  Oh what skills we have! 

 After a long pool time, the girls and Kevin went up to the room while I ran out and grabbed some food for dinner.  We gorged.  Then Kevin did the biggest party foul of them all.  He dropped a brand new bottle of Bailey's on the tile floor.  WHAT???  Of course that was totally unacceptable, and he quickly ran out for a replacement bottle. 

The girls snuggled up into the bed and watched cartoons while Kevin and I sat in the other room and watched football (Kevin) and developed a landscaping plan (Heather).  The Bailey's turned on my creative side and I came up with an outstanding plan.  We'll have to see what we think of the Bailey's infused yard arrangement in a few more days...

This morning Sidney's eyes were open at 6am and her first words were "I am ready for breakfast".  So, I took her down to show her the buffet.  She was in awe.  In fact she literally sampled everything on the buffet.  I will list just a few:  oatmeal, french toast sticks, waffles, banana nut muffin, bagel, sausage, froot loops, apple juice, milk, etc.  It was hilarious.  She literally ate one bite of everything.  I have never seen anything like it.  When we returned to the room, she complained that her stomach hurt.  Gee, I wonder why.

After breakfast settled, it was time to hit the pool again for a few more hours of swimming.  When we got home Kendall sat on the couch and fell asleep in about 2 minutes.  It was a great time.  Something so simple, yet so much fun!

Miss Marissa

Marissa is one of the swim instructors at the Y.  She is in fact Kendall's first swim instructor.  She seems to have a special fondness for the girls.  We see her often at the pool either life guarding or instructing and she always comes to say hello.  Sidney has just recently started swim lessons and she is not too sure about the whole thing.  We have been very fortunate in that we are essentially getting private lessons as Sid is the only one in her class.  Her teacher is Miss Sara and she has been incredibly awesome and patient with Sidney.  In fact, Miss Sara has been inviting Kendall in the pool to be her "helper".  Kendall demonstrates to Sidney what to do or helps Miss Sara round up the rings for another game.  It has been a lot of fun.

Last week we had a fun surprise.  Miss Sara was not able to make it to swim, so who took her place for the night?  Marissa.  The girls were ecstatic and Marissa grabbed the bull by the horns.  She has a certain comfort level with the girls and myself so she just jumped right in.  She had Sidney putting her entire face in the water, blowing bubbles and even jumping around in the middle of the pool.  Sid even stood on the side of the pool and acted as if she was going to jump in, but not quite yet!  It was great to spend the evening with Marissa.  After about 5 minutes in the pool, Marissa started laughing and said, "Sidney is just like Kendall was when she first started and look at Kendall now."  It is hard to believe that it was just 8 short months ago that Kendall was terrified of the water.  These young ladies that teach swim have been amazing.

Here are a few pics of Kendall and Sidney with Miss Marissa.

Go Griz!

Grandma Terrell spoiled the girls with these cute little cheerleader outfits.  The only thing is we had to sneak them on while Kevin was at the store.

I have to say that when we received them in the mail, Kendall was ecstatic.  She had been asking for a cheerleader outfit.  She did say there was something wrong with it though.  She pointed to the dress and said "This should be blue."  Then she pointed to the pleats and said, "This should be orange."  Grandma is going to try and turn her into a Grizzly yet.

Lots of Happenings!

Well we are finally settled into our new home and finding our groove again.  It is really nice to be out of the boxes!  Last Saturday we had the Nelson kiddos over for a sleepover.  The kids had a blast.  We frosted pumpkin cookies, watched movies, played with the dogs.  It was a good time for all.

The kids cookies...

Mom's cookies....

Speaking of Halloween, it kind of snuck up on us this year.  Kendall decidedly wanted to be a ballerina so she wore her recital outfit.  Sid wanted to be a princess.  I thought she would wear her Snow White costume or even one of the velvet play dresses.  Instead she picked out black sweater tights and a pink leotard.  I must say it was much better than the first outfit she tried on.  Picture Princess Jasmine with a belly bearing top and teeny skirt to go with it.  I much prefer her second choice.  In fact Sidney is following in her sisters footsteps and has become quite the fashionista.  Check out the awesome footwear choice!

The girls had a fantastic party at their school.  They played bingo, had a cakewalk, made Halloween ornaments, put their hands inside creepy boxes and did a bit of trick or treating.  I could not tear them away from the bingo table.  I think we were the last ones to leave.  Like mother, like daughters.

We started swimming again this fall and Kendall is doing phenomenal.  She has graduated to an Eel.  Her class starts in the middle of the pool.  No more steps to sit on for her.  She is loving every minute of it.  It is a miraculous change from her fear and panic last spring when we first started.  I started Sid in swimming last week.  She was very excited, but did her first "bob" (aka dunk) last Wednesday and is not so sure about it anymore.  We will finish out the lessons and see how it goes.  As it turns out, she has the whole class to herself. 

Last night we went to Monkey Business and they had a guy there that was operating the rock climbing wall.  Kendall jumped right in.  I did not think we were ever going to leave.  Just think how fast she would have been if she was wearing tennis shoes instead of high heels.  We had a ton of parents commenting on how brave she was.  Crazy girl!