The last of Christmas...

The week after Christmas, the girls were excited to be home and playing together. They are always like this after being out with other people for a while...they love coming home and it just being the two of them playing. I love it because I can plan ahead and get A LOT done around the house during this time since I know they will be absorbed with each other and happy.
Below is their day with Sarah after Christmas. (Lily with the glasses)














Here they are playing together in a tub of toys. This picture is so characteristic of their little personalities...Lily is looking in a mirror at herself while Katie is trying to figure out how the telescope works!


















And then...
The BIG one...we gave them our Christmas present. They were soooo excited! Notice how Kate is driving in most of the pictures. Of the first 4 hours of driving over 2 days, I think Lily only drove for 10 minutes. And the crazy thing is that they were both fine with that. Maybe Lily just got tired of Kate's persistent, "MY TURN!!!" requests every 60 seconds of her time behind the wheel. :)



















































































































I made a big bowl of tabouli that morning and since I couldn't get them off of the bikes/jeep, I let them carry it around in a bucket with a fork. They ate the entire bucket!














































Warning... when you see this scene on the road in front of you...get out of the way!!!

Christmas at Grammie and Grandpa's

Grammie always has fun family traditions around the holidays. Here is Kate learning to prepare collards for cooking and freezing. Man, did she get into this task. She loves taking things apart, so ripping the leaves from the stalk was quite the thrill.














Lily uses her organizational gifts to arrange the presents under the tree.




















Aunt Carol helps Lily decorate her gingerbread house.














Kate is more interested in eating the candy!
















Lily doesn't stop until ALL the candy is on the house.

















Baking chocolate cupcakes
















Kate hanging out with Grammie














Watching the Disney Christmas parade with Daddy













On Christmas morning, Kate would take one piece of candy out and eat it completely before reaching back to see what else was in the stocking.














Lily flew through her stocking and then organized it all back into its place.




















Kate and her candy.... Lily eventually gave Kate half of her candy since Kate was so excited about it.




















Sorry Michael...but you just look too cute in this picture, so I had to post it!















Kate and Lily loved playing with their cousins


































Marissa and Megan even taught them how to ride their new bikes!










































Their favorite gifts of all were their stockings. Not wanting to part with them...they decided that they made good bed buddies as well.

Kindermusik anyone?

We are starting a Kindermusik group at our church, Oak Mountain Presbyterian (in North Shelby County). If you are interested...it is for 3-5 year olds. But hurry...it starts this Tuesday at 12 pm! Call Miss Connie at (205)926-4298 or (205) 310-4081 to sign up. The session is 15 weeks and is the "Imagine That" series. There is not another Kindermusik on this side of town. The girls and I have been driving all the way downtown until now! I'm hoping it fills so we can keep it going. Let me know if you are interested. Hope to see you there!

Getting ready for Christmas

Here are a few photos of the events leading up to Christmas. The first one is our family portrait with Santa. There was NO WAY Kate (right) and Lily were going up there without us. We went to see him at the zoo. I was thinking this would be the least scary since the girls are so comfortable at the zoo. It didn't really matter after all.














Happy to be away from the hairy red monster, the girls enjoyed the rest of the morning at the zoo with Mommy and Daddy both there! Lily has on the glasses (yeah!).

We left the house one day to look at artificial Christmas trees and ended up at a tree farm where we chose a POTTED Christmas tree! What were we thinking?! 2 physical therapy sessions later (I threw out my back getting it out of the car)... we had a beautiful tree that now is planted in our yard. I'm trying not to get too attached to it...we don't have a great track record for keeping plants alive, much less a tree. But I wanted the girls to be able to keep their tree from the first Christmas that I think they will remember.
Lily and Mommy on the wagon ride to pick out the tree:














Daddy and Kate:














We got to see a live reindeer at the tree farm.














Lily (right) and Kate's first hot chocolate!














One of our Christmas highlights....the Gardendale Christmas parade with Jonah, Ella and Emma!














Lisa serves up the hot chocolate.














Grammie provides a tasty Christmas craft with the Eddins gang!

Just an all around great day

This day was, truthfully, before Thanksgiving, but I love these pictures. And since I'm already so behind ....

We spent the morning at the zoo with Laura Joy and her mommy. Thankfully Lily has Laura Joy as an encouragement since she wears glasses and a patch, too. Lily often looks in the mirror and says, "I look like Laura Joy!" As well, I have her Mommy to comesurate with over the woes of preschool patching.

Kate's so stinking sweet in this picture...I could just sop her up with a biscuit! If Phil and I had a dollar for every time we say, "Kate is so cute!" we could adopt 10 more.

...and my ever-so-sweet Lily. This is a rare photo of Lily in pants...she has been a "dress only, please" girl since 18 months.

Here is our beloved, Laura Joy...vivacious and fun-loving.

First time helping carry in the groceries. Finally, a little pitching in around the house...thought I'd never see the day! Take encouragement, all my blogger friends with younger twins...it does get easier! Here's a photo to prove it.

"Helping" Daddy check the mail.

These are my favorites! I love the above one for their sweet, teeth over the bottom lip, smiles. I never stop being amazed by their similar physical appearances. I love the below one because it is so them. They love each other so much. Lily is much more verbal about it...looking for Kate if she has not seen her in the last 24 minutes. Curently, Kate needs more space, but at the same time, wouldn't want Lily to miss out on any fun. She would definitely be missing her like crazy if separated for more than 24 hours. Their interactions towards each other are so different. Lily is more prone to manipulate Kate, but wouldn't dare hit her. Kate will knock Lily in the head with a bat, but wouldn't ever manipulate her. Hmmm....wonder how this will look in the teen years. Never mind...think I'll just stick the the present and worry about tomorrow another day. For now, I'm going to enjoy watching these little hugs!