Curls, dressing up, and dancing

My girls are definitely girly! As I go through the pictures for the month, it's mostly about hair do's, dressing up, drawing hearts, and dancing. When we have managed to get out of the house, we've played in the snow, been swimming, played at indoor playplaces, and watched gymnastics. Here are some pictures of all the fun:

I put curlers in Leah's hair one morning, just for fun
After a couple hours here's what I got

Doesn't she look like Shirley Temple?

Playing dress up in their castle. Notice the little flags on top, totally Abbie's idea!

Dancing in their dresses after church



Valentine decorations Abbie made a couple days after V-day. We forgot to put up paper pink and red hearts like we usually do so Abbie made her own.

We've gotten a bunch of snow in the past few weeks and the girls ask me daily if they can go out in it. Here they are on one of the warmer days that I did let them out for a while.

We took the girls to their first ever gymnastics meet and they had a great time.

Abbie had fun drawing pictures of girls on the beam and bars

Leah had fun with the free glow sticks

We also went swimming again at an indoor waterpark for the day and had a great time. Abbie finally dared go down this little slide by herself and did it over and over the whole time we were there.

Leah had more fun pouring water out of this cup than anything else.

Porter slept through most of it and I had fun chatting with friends but it sure made me miss summertime and the warm weather. I'm so glad February is over!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you all had a wonderful day with those you love!

What do you do when it's cold outside?

Play indoors a lot at places like this! We went to the Hands-On Museum a few weeks ago and the girls had a great time. Abbie loved this light table with magnetic shapes.

Leah loved the water area and played there for over an hour!

They both loved the bubbles

And huge piano (this always reminds me of the movie "Big" with Tom Hanks)

The next weekend we went and stayed at a hotel about an hour away that had a great indoor waterpark. It was warm and humid in there and it felt so good to pretend it was the middle of summer, even for just a day or two. Hope you don't mind our white pasty skin!

The girls loved being carried around in the lazy river

And "swimming"!

Porter was just happy to be there. I love his smiles!

I think this boy will love summer time at the pool. He hardly cried the whole time we were there and just was glad to hang out and watch all the action.

Who needs sleep? Apparently these two do, after a long day of fun! They crashed after getting to our hotel room and slept like logs until 8 am!

It's going to be hard to wait FOUR more months for summer to come after this weekend!

Where did smiling Porter go?

Porter is 11 weeks old now and he's just the cutest thing ever! I love trying to get him to smile and stick his tongue out. He's starting to sleep through the night, 7-8 hrs or so at a time every couple of nights and he's gaining weight a little better now. At his two month checkup he was 10 lbs 11 oz and 23 inches long. Here he is in one of my favorite newborn outfits, which he was drowning in at birth. This is probably the last time he'll be able to wear it. :(

Where did Porter go?

.

Our magic disappearing baby!

We love this little guy, he's just so happy and fun to have in our family!

No Toes on the Table!

A couple months ago Leah was putting her toes on the table during dinner. After several attempts to try to get her to put her feet down, we established our first "Family Rule": No Toes on the Table. Everyone in the family had to obey the rule and we talked about how it was yucky and you wouldn't want to see Mommy or Abbie put their toes on the table and them touching your food. Anyway, thus started a long list of family rules, most coming about because of something one of the kids did that day. Often, after getting in trouble for something, Abbie would pipe up "I know another family rule" and then she would state "No...(whatever she or Leah just did)".

After a month or two of this, we accumulated a long list on the fridge and when read in succession, they are pretty hilarious. Here they are:

Family Rules-mostly from Abbie Sep. 2009

1. No toes on the table!

2. No standing on your chair

3. No throwing food off the table

4. No standing on the table

5. No touching the blinds

6. No screaming at the restaurant

7. No talking during the prayer

8. No toys at the table

9. No touching Mommy with dirty hands at the table

10. No throwing food at Mommy's computer

11. No throwing food at people at the table

12. No eating your toes

13. No hitting the TV

14. No putting your feet on other people

15. No crawling on the table

16. No sticking stickers on the table

17. No spitting on people

18. No throwing toys at your sister

19. No coloring with markers on yourself

20. No dipping your fingers in the Ranch

21. No more making family rules!

Porter's 2nd month

A lot has happened in the past two months! Here is a random assortment of pictures in no particular order:

A friend of mine came over and took some newborn pictures of Porter when he was 4 weeks old. Here's one that I took with my little Kodak but I'm sure the ones with her nice fancy camera are waaaaayy better. I can't wait to get them back...

I took this one the day after the photo shoot, my friend gave me the idea but we didn't have time to do it that day. This little wagon is probably only 12 inches long or so. Isn't Porter so tiny?

Abbie, Porter (8 weeks old), and Leah enjoying time together

Little feet and toes

Leah being a great big sister and helper

Abbie helping out too, thank goodness. I can't possibly keep up with how often Porter needs to eat!

And sleep! Catching a little nap with Daddy.

Leah playing outside, the first big snow of the season

Abbie was so excited to finally be able to play outside in the snow

Cleaning off the car, I wish they wanted to do this every day!

Abbie's preschool holiday program. They sang some cute songs and Abbie even had a little speaking part. She said towards the end of the program, "After you open your presents, you can have a snack."

Leah making snow angels in the "pretend snow"(carpet). Since it's been in the teens or colder most of this month, I wouldn't let them go outside so they made up that the cream colored carpet is snow and they get all dressed up in their hats, gloves, and boots and pretend. It works for me, no cold and wet snow to deal with!

Do they look like sisters or what?

Leah already knows how to spell and write her name and on this day, she did it with pretzels. I came into the room to clean up and noticed this on the couch. Abbie was at preschool and I didn't write it so I know Leah did. What a smart girl!

Jared got this idea for an add on to a baby helmet a few weeks ago so he made a prototype and has been showing it around the office. It's a little big on Porter right now but maybe in a few months, I'll show a picture of him in it!

Jared also got a new suit for Christmas. We ordered it after Christmas during a sale and then I just hemmed the pants myself and we got a great deal on a very nice suit. It's the first one he's had since his mission, almost 15 years ago.

My handsome boys! :)

A smile can brighten the darkest day

I know I haven't updated in a while and I have a bunch of posts planned that I need to write first but I just had to post this picture of Porter smiling. Isn't he just the cutest thing ever? I love it, he started smiling just a few days ago and now we try to get him to do it all the time. It just melts my heart and makes all the pain and sleepless nights worth it!
Porter's first smile at 8 weeks old