My big 2 year old!

My sweet girl turned two last week! She is growing up so fast. She amazes me with all that she knows. I'm sure every parent thinks their kid is so smart, but WOW, this girl is a quick learner. She loves to cuddle, read, SING and twirl. She loves snacks, her baby doll, Pacarina, baths and her dog, Rhema. She is such a good big sister and gives Buddy lots of kisses and hugs. She likes to go with me to greet him when he wakes up and I know she is going to love it when he can crawl, walk and eventually run around with her. I LOVE this little two year old!!!
                         All dressed up in her party dress!                        

  Opening her first package.

                                                    "Happy Birthday, dear MJ!"

                  

Indulging in ice cream cone cupcakes with her cousin.

First Santa Pictures

It has not been a priority of mine to make sure we get pictures with Santa every year. Seems to me like more of a headache than anything. And to tell the truth, I don't really think it is that fun to subject you child to such a traumatizing experience just so you can look back at it later to laugh at how scared your kid is. My daughter was born in December and I wasn't going to take my not so tiny newborn to get Santa pictures in a germ-filled mall. I try to stay away from the malls at this time of year. Anyway, since we missed the first one... I felt like it wouldn't be complete to start the next year because we didn't have one from the first year... So, we don't do Santa pictures. However we went on a hayride around downtown Gig Harbor this week and Santa was on the hay ride. Josh drove the tractor that pulled the hay wagon.  MJ was not a fan of the live Santa, even thought she points him out every where. Here are a couple pictures "with Santa" that we took on the hay ride.

That was about as close as she would get at first. At the end of the hayride she warmed up a little bit, but still not all that happy. She did enjoy the little candy cane he gave her. She ate it on the ride home while asking, "Where Santa Claus go, Mommy? Santa has a hat. Daddy has a hat, too. Daddy drive the tractor. Where Santa Claus go, Mommy?"

My little ballerina

MJ's new love is Angelina Ballerina. She asks to watch her all the time. She likes to wear her tutu, often only the tutu as her other new love is going naked as much as possible. Here is her twirling like a ballerina while watching Angelina Ballerina.

One of EJ's favorite acitivies

One of EJ's favorite activities is to jump in his jumperoo. He loves it when I am watching him or at least in the same room. He is not a fan of jumping as soon as I turn my back. He's not a fan of much of anything these days if it doesn't include me holding him, looking at him or at least within arm's reach.

I hope this works. I am trying to see if it works with my camera or if it would be better with the flip video.

Snow Play

We loved the snow last week. Snow is so much better when you are home to just enjoy it instead of have to worry about driving in it, although I am sure it wouldn't be nearly as bad in the jeep as my old mustang.We had some fun outside while it was still snowing, before the wind and the branches ruined the beauty and the power outage. No pics of EJ. We waited till he went to bed before suiting up to play outside. He can sit out this year.
                                             Here she is asking,"Where my boots go, Mommy?"

Here we are trying to catch snow in our mouth, like Baby Bop when she sings, "...standing out side with my mouth open wide, ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah."

Her favorite part was eating the caked snow off her mittens.

 When we were cold enough, I enticed her to come inside for one of her other favorite activities... a nice warm bath... no pictures included.