January

We have no dull moments in the Lang household thus January has been no exception...

Amelia is wanting to grow up way too fast for our liking. She constantly wants to do what I am doing; put on make-up, put on chapstick, etc. Although I do wear clothes. Mark and I were starting to get excited that we were nearing the end of Amelia's latest "naked" phase. However the naked phase has been replaced with the change outfits phase. On weekends we can go through at least six outfits in one day. All of which are hand selected by Amelia. None of which match.

Seriously? It was nice enough in Chicago in January to go to the park. It was heaven for all of us to get out of  the condo, feel some sunshine and run off some energy.

GranAnn and her little girls ready to race down the double slides.

She is mobile! No more leaving Juliet for a moment to run and throw a load of laundry in. She is  crawling all over the place and tries so hard to keep up with her sister.

Play cooking and taking care of her dolls are  at the top of Amelia's favorites list these days.

The girls fighting over string cheese. Never mind that we had a full package of string cheese so there was plenty to go around. Being a sister to a sister I know darn good and well that this is just the very beginning of many years of pointless fighting....

Amelia making real pizza dough with her daddy so we could host Sophia and her family for a pizza party.

"Baby J what's wrong?"
We do try to give our girls nothing but the best nutrition; nursing, homemade baby food, organic milk, etc. However at some point you just have to introduce them to Kraft mac-n-cheese. So what was wrong with Baby J? We wouldn't give her any more baby crack aka Kraft mac-n-cheese. Watching her eat Kraft mac-n-cheese for first time was hilarious. She had Mark, Amelia and I all in tears. We would give her the bowl full, she would tip her head back, dump the mac-n-cheese on her face and shovel it in her mouth as fast as her cubby hands would move. I think the onesie is trashed and we have a carb and fake cheese addict in our house! Strike two against us in raising kiddos with healthy eating habits....

Christmas 2011

We celebrated Christmas in style with my dad in from Phoenix, Merrill from Lawrence, JuJu/Poppy from California and their favorite cousin's Georgia and Charlie. The girls were good and spoiled. I was feeling very cleaver after I put a bunch of their gifts away in a closet and thought I would just pull them out over the next few months. Amelia didn't ask for the hidden gifts so I figured I would get away with this move for one more year. Then out of the blue yesterday she starting asking for specific gifts. So much for that idea.....

Thank you grandparents for all the wonderful gifts!!! We have two very happy girls with all their new loot.

Gingerbread houses are becoming an Amelia/Papa tradition.

The final masterpiece.

Hitting the road to JuJu/Poppy's for Christmas Eve.

Ah, a family photo. Now we just need to all be in the same place at the same time, all showered, with someone who has a camera and actually get the girls to look at the camera.

Those four grandkids can turn a room upside down in 2.2 seconds. Add a room full of presents and platters of JuJu's cookies and they can really do some damage!

EE's favorite present this year, a new niece!

Merry First Christmas baby! All she wanted were her two front teeth and they came in just in time.

Amelia preparing her first beef tenderloin in "Papa's Kitchen" or so we allow him to believe.

"Papa's Sous Chef" was taking her lessons very seriously....

All Amelia wanted for Christmas was a Dora kitchen. I didn't want a Dora kitchen sitting in our small home so we opted for the IKEA version and were a bit nervous she would have a meltdown Christmas morning. Low and behold she had long forgotten the Dora kitchen she saw at Target and is in love with her new kitchen. She takes her cooking very seriously and pizza is her latest specialty. If you are wanting a pizza with pepperoni, M&M's and orange watermelon (aka cantaloupe) you know where to come....

Trying out a new hair style.