Christmas Cookie Baking

I completely forgot to mention our Christmas cookie baking extravaganza in the last post, but I believe it's worth its own post anyway. A few weeks ago, my prayer group got together at one of our member's house to make and decorate cookies. Although one of our friends could not make it because her little girl was sick, the girls and I had a great time with Grandma (my mom) and two of Addie's Godmothers :)

Addie loves to help me in the kitchen, so she got a huge kick out of being a part of the cookie making. She got to sift the giant amount of flour...and said it looked like a "flour mountain" in the bowl.

Linda let her pick out what color she wanted to make the dough and the first color she picked was PINK, imagine that. She also got to pick the design for the first batch of spritz cookies and she chose a flower design.


Using the Spritz gun was a bit challenging at first, but she got the hang of it quickly. I love her face in this one, squeezing with all her might!


While the spritz cookies were baking, she got to decorate a gingerbread girl cookie with lots of icing and sprinkles. In this picture, she is deciding what color of sprinkles she should add next (as if it needs more).


Lydia took part in the decorating as well....her first task, UN-decorating a gingerbread man cookie! I decorated it and encouraged her to add more, but she had a better idea: to eat the M & M candies as I kept putting more on ;)


While big sister was focused on baking cookies, little sister practiced her dance moves on Dana's kitchen floor!


She had the time of her life running around and keeping me on my toes! I think her favorite part of the evening was when Dana's dog, Maggie kept making appearances in the kitchen...and she even got to pet her. Maggie was quite the talk of the evening once we got home!


Very special thanks to Dana, Linda, and Grandma (Ma) for making the girls feel so special! I was sure worn out by the night's end, but we all had a blast!

A Blogging Hiatus...well sort of

Wow, I haven't blogged on THIS blog forever! I HAVE been blogging, a lot however, on our school blog so if you'd like to see a little more of what we've been up to and more pictures and videos of the girls, visit Sharing Our Learning Adventure.

I will try to sum up the past two months by using some of my favorite pictures. Our little baby girl, who is just about to turn 14 months, is growing and changing SO fast! I just love this age when her personality is REALLY starting to shine (although she's been showing us her strong personality for quite a while now!). Lydia actually says more words at this age than her sister did...she says, "Mama," "Dadda," "Addie," "Joe," "Papaw," "Amen," "baby" (her favorite), "bird," "ball," "bear," "bowl," "snack," "Pot" (for potty), "bye-bye," "hi," and a few others I'm forgetting at the moment. She is walking like a pro and rarely lets anything get in her way! Our chunky little baby has thinned down to be a miniature replica of her big sister, skinny Minnie :) Here are a few of our favorite pics from her one year photo shoot (taken by our wonderful friend Leisa of Candid Xpressions):
This little sweetie pie has started becoming a Daddy's girl, just like her sister. She has always favored Mama until recently when Daddy started to become her favorite snuggle buddy. I could just EAT HER UP! She's so snuggly and loving, giving kisses and hugs frequently....SO much different than Addie ever has been.


The girls just love each other so much...and pretty much do everything together now. Bath time is their favorite playtime together, one a little wilder and more "splashy" than the other (if you know my girls, you can guess who the *wild* one is!). Everyone has been telling us lately that they are looking more and more alike....well these next two photos show their similarities and one big difference: their skin tone! Addie is fair like her Daddy and Lydia has an olive tone like me. You can't really tell just by looking at them with clothes on so here they are being silly in the bathtub :)

So sweet and innocent :)

Wild and Crazy Girls!

The tiny one had a bit of a run in with our coffee table a few weeks ago and managed to give herself a pretty awful looking black eye. It had cleared up a little by the time I took this picture, but you can still get the idea of *who* won this battle. The day I took this picture, we were at a friend's house baking Christmas cookies and I found Lydia in the spare bedroom ON TOP of a little kiddy table....hmmmmm, wonder how she gets hurt so often!?

Just wanted to show a picture of how you dress when you have a big sister who is into fashion...pajama shirt, brown leg warmers (or warm leggers as A calls them), and big sister's swim suit. And just to clarify, this was all Lydia's idea (well the leg warmers were my idea to keep her warm). She sees Addie going through numerous outfit changes daily and wants to be just like big sis! She will grab an article of clothing that Addie has recently thrown off and bring it to me and raise her leg wanting me to put it on her (yes, even if it's a shirt, she'll still raise her leg!).

We received a package from some very special friends of ours yesterday and among many WONDERFUL gifts, was Addie's birthday present from them: a Princess Book/Playset!!! She immediately got it open and set up at the table...and said, "Oh I love my Princess Bible!!" I guess she knows how important the Bible is and this Princess book/playset ranks right up there with it! She makes me laugh so hard! Oh, the helmet was an early Christmas gift from Gma and Papaw and it was worn the entire evening also.


Merry Christmas from our family to yours! We hope everyone enjoys the blessings of the season and the true meaning behind CHRISTmas! I suspect I will take lots of pictures of the girls over the next week, as we have a big birthday celebration coming up right after Christmas...and I won't make any promises, but I will try my best to post some of the favorites :)


I'll sign off with our tiny singer in the family...singing a song I sing all the time and Addie loves it, the "Amen song"

Loving her big sister to pieces!

Random Funnies

I think I'll start a little "series" of blogs and title them "Random Funnies." Addie has always had a funny personality, and we are happy to say that her little sister is following in her foot steps. Although Lydia can be shy and reserved at times (only around others), she is a HOOT around us and we have the pictures to prove it! We feel so blessed to have these adorable little beings in our lives who make us laugh DAILY! Enjoy :)

Addie has mastered the art of dressing herself: her outfit this particular day included her baby sister's swimsuit top (to be used as a baby sling for, not 1, but 2 animals) and her beach hat...and more than likely, she didn't have pants on...it's fall. Oh and she is mailing her "yucky nummy" (pacifier) to Alabama in this picture :)

We are extremely lucky to have a Butterfly Fairy Princess who comes to feed our little baby for us every day...just wish she'd do all the laundry and cleaning too ;)

Anyone interested in having a Tiny Baby Girl for dinner? She does this often and is very proud.

There is nothing more exciting than receiving a package in the mail...even if it is just used as a dancing/jumping stage!

I see this face MANY times a day and I LOVE IT!

Second borns must be more adventurous...she is ALWAYS climbing in/on something!

Several weeks ago, we did an Apple Unit for "school" and Addie became obsessive about making Apple Cider and Apple Juice....she tells about it here: (yep, she has on her sister's swimsuit top again)

Little Tiny is growing up SO fast! She is such a little talker, always repeating words we say. This video was taken when she was not feeling well last week, but she still manages to do some jabbering :)

Celebrating A Sweetie

We can hardly believe that a year ago today, we were meeting our sweet baby Lydia for the first time. She has absolutely been a blessing to our family since that day! We love her dearly and can't wait to spend MANY more years celebrating her birthday with her!

I'll let the pictures do the talking, but keep in mind she did not feel well at all so she didn't smile for too many pictures :( We'll start off with a smiling one though:

Maracas from Big Sister Addie

She LOVED her shape sorter, thanks to Grandma and Papaw and Uncle Jake

A special snuggly kitty from Uncle Mikey

King Size Cupcakes, Mmmmmmm!

Wondering what to do with the cupcake :)

Getting a little taste

Checking out the icing on her teeny fingers

Big Sister enjoying a chocolate cupcake!

Thanks for all the cards and gifts for our baby girl! We are truly appreciate to have so many wonderful people who love her as much as we do!

A Treasure Hunt?

Nope, just a *few* couch finds from when I decided to vacuum under the cushions ;) Can you identify ALL of these random objects?

I couldn't help but add these fun pictures taken of the girls yesterday. Lydia woke up from her nap with the fluffiest, sticky-uppy hair and she was just so happy that I was amused by it. The pictures really don't do it justice...it was pretty wild!

And a view from the back:

Addie has been quite the little Mama lately, as in feeding her babies (no bottles involved, if you get my drift) and carrying them around on her back in her "Ergo carrier" as she calls it (that's the brand of our carrier we use for Lydia). This scrap piece of Minky fabric actually works perfect for a wrap-style carrier for her dolls...her baby looks pretty happy about it, don't ya think? Please excuse the pajama shirt, Lydia is really the only one who got dressed yesterday :)

Pretend Camping and REAL Camping

PRETEND CAMPING:
A few weeks ago, we had a last minute urge to pack up the camper and head to Harmonie State Park for a weekend away. So that's just what we did...slaved all day Friday getting "ready" to go camping. We grabbed some McD's on the way out of town and got ourselves all excited for a weekend under the stars. To our disappointment (HUGE disappointment), one of the cables snapped and broke when Chris was trying to pop up the camper and we had no other choice but to head back home. We had 1 really sad girl, 1 girl who didn't know what was going on but loved eating her dinner at the picnic table, and 2 really sad parents (who were probably more sad for our girls than for ourselves).

So.........to make the best of the weekend, we decided to take our already packed cooler and make the trip back to New Harmony on Saturday to spend the day. It turned out to be a WONDERFUL day, filled with bike rides, picnics, hikes and lots of playground time. We couldn't have asked for better weather and the girls were both GREAT, even though Addie seemed to be coming down with a cold and there was no time for napping. I'll let the pictures do the talking......

Momma and Lydia after a walk along the river

Daddy and Addie near the river

My favorite

Eating her first Smore

You have to open wide to fit it all in!

Bike riding, loving their new "car" as Add calls it

Sunday, we headed over to Chris's dad's house so we could take a look at the camper to see if it was fixable. We took our lunch and had another picnic and even pitched two small tents for the girls to play and nap in. So even after a huge disappointment, we made the most of the weekend and had some much needed family time together!

REAL CAMPING:
This past weekend we were invited to join some friends for camping at Patoka Lake. Rather than trying to rush and fix the camper, we decided to revert back to tent camping but we needed a much larger tent to house the four of us, plus all of our "stuff." We ended up purchasing a wonderful cabin tent from amazon.com and I would highly recommend it if you are interested in a good size family tent that will keep you dry. Yes, dry. After a little drizzly rain on Friday night and a LOT of heavy (and even sideways) rain on Saturday night, we only found a few spots of water that dripped in.

The weekend turned out to be pretty relaxing and nice, despite the rain. We were very thankful our friends were renting a pop-up camper and welcomed us in out of the pouring rain and gusty winds. The weather was beautiful during the day on Saturday and we went on a pretty good hike and did some bike riding too. Lydia did so well on her camping debut! Addie kept herself entertained and didn't even touch any of the toys I brought for her. She was very helpful with the two babies and enjoyed every bit of being outside the entire time.

Lydia getting ready to slide!

On the hike to Totem Rock

I think we'll call it "Trusty the Tent"

Sleepy girl after a bike ride

If you look closely, you'll see the green inchworm reaching out off the wood right by Addie's nose...she was so excited about all the "nature stuff" the whole weekend. Lots of deer tracks and various animal "scat" (poo). We even saw this on our hike:


Yuck...it was about 3.5 inches long...gave me the heeby geebies ;)

Little Tiny is 11 Months!

This little baby is not going to be such a little baby much longer! One more month until Little Tiny turns one! She does not always have such a serious expression, but I couldn't resist playing around with this beautiful picture of her :) Those pouty lips are irresistible.

Lydia is our more adventurous daughter by far. She climbs and bounces and wants to be in the center of the action at all times! I've recently started taking the girls to a place called Pump It Up about once a month and they play in the inflatable "bounce houses" and slides. This past week, Lydia went down the huge slide with me and loved it. She was fearless when it came to climbing up on things and bouncing by herself in the bounce house. I just have to keep reminding myself to allow her to explore and enjoy her independence.

She has started walking with a little push mail cart that Addie used when she was about this age. It's funny to watch her little brain process each step as she goes across the room :) I know that once she has walking mastered, we will be in for all sorts of fun! The poor girl already manages to get a new bruise or scrape just about every day from all of her courageous maneuvers!

I usually do school time with Addie while Lydia is taking a morning nap, but sometimes we extend some of our activities later in the afternoon to involve Lydia. Just today, she helped pick up the blocks by putting them back in the bucket one by one. I was kind of surprised she let go of each one, but she wanted to mimic her sister and was very helpful :) A new trick she started today is to put her head on the ground and bottom up in the air as if she's about to do a somersault. I then flip her over and we cheer. It became such a fun little game and she did it over and over and over again all around the living room. I'm just getting such a kick out of how quickly she is changing.

Even her food is changing...she wants to eat what we are eating now and refuses to take a bite of her food until she gets a taste of what we're having. She's still mastering the pincer grasp and practicing with a LOT of Cheerios and goldfish crackers. I think if I let her eat them all day, she would. With her new food habits, we are working on the sign for "more" and she has almost got it down. She would actually rather say it than sign it, which is just fine with us! Some of her newest words are "grandma" (which sometimes sounds like Garmin), "papaw," and "amen" after we say our prayers. Addie talked at a pretty early age, but I'm starting to think that Lydia might have her beat by the time she turns one! She definitely wants us to know what's on her mind!

Along with her adventurous side comes a very loving and snuggly side. I love every little thing about her, but this is probably my most favorite part of Lydia. She LOVES to snuggle...always has and hopefully always will :) Recently, she started giving kisses and snuggles when we ask for them. I just adore her open mouth, gentle smoochies! She is a sweet sweet girl :)

A Friend Named "Mim"

One day a few weeks ago, Addie mentioned something about her friend named Mim. Hmmm....I thought for a minute and wondered if this could be her first imaginary friend! After asking her a few questions about Mim, I realized that Mim is indeed imaginary.

Addie informed me that Mim lives in a place called "Basanta," which she says is in Indianapolis. We're not sure where she came up with Basanta, but she does have an uncle and lots of good friends who live in and around Indianapolis :)

Mim has blond hair and always seems to be wearing an outfit that matches Addie's :) She is the same height as Addie too. I have never heard Addie talking to Mim, but apparently Mim tells Addie things like, "Mim said I need to send my yucky nummy (her pacifier) to Jamaica." I think I like this Mim character very much! Of course Mim is totally WRONG when it's naptime or bedtime, at least that's what Addie tells me for now.

We asked if she had any other friends who live in Basanta with Mim and one other character has been mentioned. This friend is a boy and his name is "Kylophone"...you know, like xylophone with a 'K' :) We don't know any other details about Kylophone, other than he's a boy. I almost fell over when she said this, but I'd never laugh at her! I don't EVER want to crush her beautiful little imagination!

2 Months and Counting...

....that is, until Lydia turns ONE! We can't believe it, of course. Mostly me. We are having SO much fun lately! While Peek-a-boo is still a favorite, she has figured out how to do things that make everyone laugh, especially herself. She'll do things like knock over a stack of diapers or wipes I've just folded and when I pretend to "get mad" (of course in the most playful way) she just laughs her head off...and so do the rest of us. Then she does it over and over and over and over again.

I keep thinking she's just going to take off and walk somewhere because she has learned to "cruise" around the furniture and even stands by herself for a few moments. I can't wait to have 4 little feet running around the house, instead of just 2 :) I also can't wait to hear 2 little voices chattering back and forth! Lydia is starting to mimic words after us and she says, "Hi," "Addie," "Momma," "Dadda," and "Uh Oh." I know she has tons more to say and I love watching her little brain work to try to figure it all out :)

Peek-a-boo!

I'm not going to say much about it, for fear of jinxing myself, but Little Tiny's sleep habits have shown great improvement in the past month. Even with her little teeth breaking through, she has been such a trooper. Speaking of teeth, she has 2 on the bottom and 2 on the top now. You can almost see them all in the cheesy funny face she's making here:

Say cheese!