2014 Year Beginning Photo Dump

Mark wonders why I still do blog postings and really it is selfish. Well I do know that the grandparents can't see their girls enough but it is also for me. I just know when the girls grow up and move away that I will have books (that I create from these blogs and that yes, I'm about 3 years behind on) to sit and cry over… So here are some shots of how our year began.

We rang in 2014 at a water park with the Cates. There may be a story involving locking our children in a hotel room….

Their first picture together! 

and the biggest news of 2014 as been welcoming baby Vivian!!!! Juliet insists on holding her  whenever she sees her. She is SO  serious when she holds her which is darling since it so uncharacteristic. At this rate Vivian will weigh more than Juliet by the end of the year :)

Amelia looking all fashionable at the Art Center's William Burroughs exhibit

babysitting so their mommy and daddy could go cheer on the Jayhawks!

tumbling or something like that

that is how we felt about our Jayhawks this spring

Sweet, wild Juliet turned THREE. We got a pretty good size snow storm the weekend of her birthday so we stayed nice and warm baking her birthday cake.

she has turned into a feel trained Montessori kiddo and insisted on washing her own birthday cake dishes.

a snow storm and halter dress, Juliet is LOVING picking out her own clothes these days!

In fact this is what she picked out to wear to Raintree on her birthday… She was just so excited about all the clothes she got for her birthday that she had to wear them ALL the next day.

a selfie, is that what they call these?

Is she really this big???? AND she can read!

Christmas 2013

Yeah, so it is almost the end of February and I'm just getting updated from Christmas… Life has been pretty wild since the beginning of the year with Mark and I both putting in lots of extra hours in the office. I think the only picture that needs an explanation is the final one. Amelia's teacher Ms. Lisa texted me the picture with the caption, "Amelia's favorite holiday song." It just so precious and although she didn't exactly get the words spelled correctly it is pretty easy to follow along!

Amelia is Five!

Wow! Yes, I say this every single birthday but I cannot believe that Amelia is five! This past year has been a great year for Amelia. Some of the things that she loves: her little sister (especially when she follows her orders), Raintree, her new Junie B Jones books, one on one time with mom or dad, Shirley Temple drinks, going to Johnny's for tater tots, family runs in the big red stroller, the color purple (still!), pepperoni pizza with ranch and her new Minnie Mouse stuffed animal.

She got a custom cake made by EE. It was the character she requested and EE let her pick out all the toppings. Yum, a strawberry cake with candy on the top :).

A few friends came over to celebrate with her!

Thanksgiving festivities always coincide with Amelia's birthday. After the Raintree Thanksgiving feast Amelia was very concerned that we were not going to have dinner rolls at Thanksgiving. The night before Thanksgiving mom, Amelia, Juliet and I made dinner rolls from scratch. We quickly learned to just give Juliet some of the dough and let her do as she wished with it....

The five year old and daddy!

This photo made my week! Amelia's teacher send it to me with the subject, "Amelia's Favorite Holiday Song." I think it was JuJu who responded, "absolutely adorable" and I could not agree more!

Fairies!!!

This year's halloween costumes were seriously the easiest. Both girls wanted to be some sort of a fairy however the "type" of fairy they wanted to be kept changing but with we have enough wands, wings, etc to accommodate almost all types of fairies. I believe they settled on a purple butterfly fairy and a rainbow fairly. We had a great Halloween trick-or-treating with some other families in Lawrence!

Art for Baby

The girls had a blast making custom art for their new cousin's room!!! And it took me so long to post these that said cousin is already but here but we will save that for another post :). I don't think it will surprise anyone how Juliet chose to paint. Obviously staying within the lines is not a motto Juliet follows....

Pumpkin Patch

A colleague of Mark's lives on a beautiful piece of land north of Kansas City and happens to have a pumpkin patch as a "next door" neighbor. Her family hosts a party each fall that starts with a hay ride to the neighbor's pumpkin patch and then returns to their land for a campfire cookout. It was an awesome way to spend a picture perfect fall Sunday!

Well she has been a Kansas resident for  coming up on a year so it was time she learned to jump hay bales. Amelia was slightly unsure at first. Many of the other kids at the party have been in the past years so they all could hardly wait for the hay ride to start before they were jumping off and onto the hay bales.

Juliet was NOT unsure.

With the land being north of Kansas City they get plenty of airplanes flying over to/from MCI. The kids were all in heaven with the wide open space, hay to run on and watching planes fly over.

We were able to get the girls off the hay bales and over to the pumpkin patch.

Thank goodness Juliet was there to pull our pumpkins. Yes, she desperately needs a hair cut which I took care of tonight. Her bangs are by no means straight but at least we can stop calling her shaggy.

Happy 70th Poppy

We spent a weekend in Galena, Illinois to celebrate Poppy's 70th birthday. Of course since Mark and Tom share a birthday it was also Mark's birthday but the big 70 overshadowed Mark's big 35...

getting ready for the alpine slide

mission: beat Georgia and Uncle Tomme

Amelia's first chair lift ride!

Sadly, all the iPad's may have been the cousin's favorite part of their weekend together.....

a quick trip into Chicagoland for a much missed Sunday Super with my Chicago/Kansas Girls! The guest of honor was Ms. Bernadette!!!!

Amelia's darling drawing from the car ride home! She said the top pink triangle is her bedroom and the bottom one is my kitchen.