The Maxted Family

Costumes and Christmas

2012-01-10T21:09:00.007-05:00

Phew, almost caught up with the past 6 months of blogging. Next up is Halloween.

Remember our home-grown pumpkin? Vanessa decided that she wanted to design a jack-o-lantern. So she drew the lines and I did the cutting. I think that was the right parent order there...

She poses with her handiwork.

Now the girls love Rapunzel and Tangled. In fact, they told Sarah that they both really wanted to be Rapunzel for Halloween. So Sarah, being the costume guru that she is, makes perfect Rapunzel costumes for them. And what does Vanessa decide on Halloween morning? That she wants to be a witch. Needless to say, we convinced that she could fly around the house as a witch for a bit, but that she should really wear the Rapunzel costume at night.

That ended up being a good compromise.

Don't they look cute?

Of course, at the last minute they insisted that Sarah being Mother Gothel. So Sarah threw this together in a couple of minutes. I'm impressed.
Of course, playing dress-up is a year round activity in this house. Here, the two cowgirls ride off into the sunset.

Love the boots.

Jumping ahead a little bit, we were lucky to have my grandparents in town for Christmas. We had family and friends over to make gingerbread houses, well graham cracker houses.

Here my grandma and mom help the girls with their houses.

On Christmas morning, Vanessa was very excited to get purple handtowels in her stocking.

Elizabeth is digging deep for hers.

After Christmas morning at home, we went over to my parents for more presents and lunch.

Elizabeth waits patiently while Sarah helps open her and Vanessa's new collection of Disney princess dolls.

Elizabeth really liked the Christmas tree.

We even got a couple of pictures with them in my grandparents. We're always bad about taking photos when family is over, so we were glad to get a couple in.

Sarah and I join the picture while we let my mom use my camera phone. That's always an adventure.

Then Vanessa wanted to show off her balancing skills.

During that week off from Christmas, I took the kids down to Williamsburg to hang out at my parents' place there. We went to Christmas Town at Busch Gardens. The girls waited patiently with me in line for over an hour to go on the Skyride through the Christmas lights at night.

Finally, Elizabeth got some bouncing time with her grandpa. We're so thankful that Grandma and Grandpa Webb make the time to see us so frequently!

Baltimore, Richmond, and New York City Part II

2012-01-10T20:39:00.007-05:00

In the spirit of Back to the Future (see the DeLorean at the end of these photos), we're going to jump around in time a bit.

We were trying to think of something to do one weekend in August and we decided to head to Baltimore. Of course, by the time we got there we learned that they were running an Indy car race through the city (the first Baltimore Grand Prix), and that traffic would be a mess. We managed to find parking on the southside and walked over to the science museum.

The girls loved the dinosaur bone excavation exhibit.

Vanessa wanted just a couple more minutes every time we told her it was time to move on to the next exhibit.

The girls really liked the green screen exhibit where they could see themselves on TV.

And of course, what are cooler than dinosaurs?

We were able to watch a little bit of the race. The girls were amazed of how fast they were going and how loud they were. I tried taking a picture with my iPhone, but I couldn't press the button in time before they car zipped around the corner. Maybe next year.

Skipping ahead to December, Sarah has started working part-time in IT. She worked a couple of days over Christmas break, so I took the girls to the Children's Museum in Richmond.

Here Elizabeth gets some practice working on the farm.

Vanessa gets a little practice on the farm too.

Truck is all loaded up, ready to go!

Hmm, where did the other half of this picture go?

There it is!

Besides playing farm, the girls enjoyed playing at school. Ah, to be young and still enjoy being at school. ;)

Vanessa takes over the classroom.

When school was out, it was time to put on a show. But before the show, we had to have an opening act of reading a story.

Elizabeth didn't like the first costume, so a change was in order.

It was a pretty good show, even with the boys in the back trying to mess it up.

Now that we went forward in time for more kids fun, let's go back in time to October where Mommy and Daddy went to NYC again, this time with James' high school friend Dean. We went to the New York City Comic Book Convention and saw two shows, the Book of Mormon and Anything Goes. Not many people have wives who are willing to be dragged to an epicenter of geek culture, but Sarah was game.

Of course, being in NYC meant that Sarah could play with Muppets at FAO Schwarz. This one was trying to make a move on my wife. Muppets, just can't trust them.

Walking around, we stopped in front of the New York Public Library, also used in the beginning of the movie Ghostbusters.

Ah, now we get to the real geekiness. NYCC was about as interesting people watching as one could get. Many people came in costume. Here, we got to pose in front of one the original DeLorean cars from Back to the Future with some well dressed extras.

This is Batmobile from the old 1960s Batman. POW!

Here is the sleaker Batmobile used in Tim Burton's Batman from the 90s.

Of course, what is a comic book convention without Star Wars fanboys. Here is a working remote control replica of R2-D2 that someone built in a year in their free time. It moves, spins it head, lights up, and plays all kinds of sounds. Very very cool.

Of the course the coolest part for me was meeting Mark Hamill for about 30 seconds. For those who are failing pretty much any geek test out there, Mr. Hamill is best known for playing Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars movies and as the voice of the Joker in the Batman Animated Series of the 1990s.

Summer ends and fall begins

2012-01-10T19:49:00.019-05:00

Elizabeth and Vanessa's birthdays sort of mark the beginning and ending of summer respectively. This August Vanessa turned 5 and started Kindergarten while Elizabeth started preschool. They're growing so quickly one can hardly believe it.

Vanessa's birthday party is always a good time. This time, Sarah had the idea for the kids at her party to create their own Rapunzel tower since V and E love the movie Tangled.

Elizabeth gets in on the tower action.

Of course what's a party without some cake?

Right after Vanessa's birthday was the first preseason game of the year, so we took Elizabeth to her first game.

Elizabeth hikes the ball to Sarah as Vanessa goes out for a pass.

I made the mistake of mentioning to Elizabeth that there would be fireworks before kickoff. She proceeded to cover her ears for 20 minutes in anticipation. We lasted about a quarter and a half, which was about enough time to get some chicken fingers and ice cream. ;)

The start of fall means the start of school. Here the girls explore Vanessa's kindergarten class on back to school night.

They really liked the open space in the gym for running. Vanessa also liked the idea of using that rock climbing wall at some point.

Here are both girls on their first day of school.

And of course Vanessa is a model student.

Besides starting school, they also started new activities. Here Vanessa shows off her new karate robes.

Elizabeth opted for dance class and shows off her beam work.

Vanessa gets to work doing push-ups.

Time to stretch. If only Daddy could stretch that far.

Elizabeth doing some more beam work.

And finally, the end of summer marks the end of the harvest season. This year was a bumper year for squash.

The girls loved picking carrots for their dinner.

I'm not sure what we did differently this year with carrots, but they turned out much better than in years past.

We even managed to grow a 6 foot tall sunflower.

Lots of squash, including a huge pumpkin. We harvested the pumpkin a bit early in August as we were worried about the deer eating it while we were out of town at the beach. If we had let it grow another month it would have been enormous!

Here are the deer we had to worry about. Not all of them can be seen in this picture, but there were 6 of them in our backyard when I took this photo. I routinely had to chase away groups of 4-6 deer every couple of weeks. A tamborine was much more effective than my dog barking ability.

We even got a stag back there. With horns like that this one, I let it find its own way out of our yard.

Beaches, earthquakes, hurricanes, oh my!

2012-01-09T23:15:00.009-05:00

In August we rented a beach house in the Outer Banks for the Maxted clan. Our trip ended a little earlier than we would have liked as we had to evacuate due to Hurricane Irene. We also felt the earthquake in Virginia all the way down there. Sarah was taking a nap and thought the girls were rocking her bed. I thought the wind was just blowing the house around a bit since it was on stilts. The girls were oblivious and the rest of the family was at the beach and didn't feel it.

On the first day, the girls decided they were going to build a sand castle.

The finished product.

Vanessa wasn't so sure about those waves though.

Elizabeth is never silly.

We decided to go play mini-golf at the beach. Here's Vanessa in action.

Vanessa and Sarah posing during mini-golf.

The two sisters at play.

Elizabeth and Sarah take a little break for a pic.

Vanessa gives her Aunt Kalena a high five after a good shot.

Elizabeth in action.

This time Vanessa has Sarah for backup.

Vanessa and Elizabeth chill in the shade.

Elizabeth decided she was going to try to make a basket from the upper deck of the house. Really she was just throwing the ball off the ledge.

Elizabeth really liked that game.

Here's the whole Maxted clan the night before we had to evacuate.

We ended up getting off the Outer Banks without a problem and got home in time to watch Hurricane Irene sweep through our neighborhood. Amazingly we didn't lose power.

This tree was knocked down during Hurricane Irene and managed to fall right in between the fence and the shed and not really break anything.

This was the pile of debris that fell in our backyard during Hurricane Irene. I moved it to the front for the trash company to take away.

Been a long time...

2012-01-09T22:39:00.014-05:00

One thing about having two kids and both of us balancing work and school is that something has to give. Apparently that has been our blogging as it has been almost 6 months since our last post. I'm going to try to catch us up.

We'll start with this past summer when Sarah and I took our niece Katelyn to NYC with our brother Zak and his girlfriend Mary. We saw two shows, Wicked and Billy Elliot which were fabulous.

Here is Sarah at the top of the Empire State Building.

Katelyn gets to show off her cool shades.

We also got to meet up with Sarah's old high school friend and my college roommate Tim. Tim showed us around Greenwich Village and posed for a photo in front of the fountain.

We got to go play/dance on the FAO Schwarz piano.

The weather was so nice we needed to walk around Central Park. Here we stood by the fountain near the boating area.

The next cool thing we did when we got back home was have Sarah's sister Hannah stay with us for a week. We took her and the girls out to the Lego Show at the Expo Center.

Here the girls are building cars to race down the ramp.

Don't you wish you could build something like this?

How about a 3 ft tall Voltron made out of Legos?

On the way back, the girls decided they wanted Friendly's, and with Friendly's comes running around outside afterwards to burn off the ice cream.

Hannah shows off her 40 yard dash.

Vanessa wants in on the action as well.

The girls really liked playing T-ball in the front yard. Here a single by Hannah brings Vanessa and Elizabeth home. Apparently the single took off my left arm below the elbow.

Zak and Heather came over to hang with us as well.

Of course, Bosu exercise might be the girls favorite, especially when Grandpa K gets to help.

And finally, you can't ever have too many stories read to you by your Grandma K.

Elizabeth's 3rd birthday, Melanie's wedding, and more

2011-07-20T20:21:00.013-04:00

I was pretty sure I would have more time to post on the blog after I had graduated, but somehow we've been just as busy. Here is a picture of some reading time with Grandma that must have been taken sometime in April!

Here is a picture of Elizabeth when Grace came to visit and brought the dress that Elizabeth loves to wear best when we visit Grace's house!

The girls playing dresss up with Grace. Ah, the joy of dresses!

We've recently been harvesting the carrots that we are pictured planting here. Yep, I need to keep up better with our pics!

Vanessa decided one day to dress up like her daddy, complete with glasses, hat, button-up shirt, and belt.

This picture is from Easter. (Hey, at least it's not from as far back as Christmas!) You can see some plastic eggs with special treats, Elizabeth's new Totoro book, and some Winnie the Pooh Duplos that were some of their surprises that morning.

Aunt Heather and Uncle Terry brought some triple color-changing cars. They change one color when they get cold, and they change a third color when they get hot.

They pretty much played with these cars for an hour or so! In fact, they liked them so much that I decided to include cars like these as part of Elizabeth's birthday party later.

Just some cozy bedtime storytime with Daddy!

How cool is it to open a present bigger than yourself? Thanks Grandma K and Grandpa K, for this dollhouse castle!

Elizabeth spends some time with her Grandpa on her birthday. Elizabeth has been getting very particular about making sure she gets enough Grandpa hugs lately.

Hannah was super helpful in getting my house ready for a party, and here she is pushing little ones in the swing during the party. Is it really possible for someone to be so helpful and fun in just one person? I can't wait to see Hannah again when she visits soon!

So, those color changing cars are making a reappearance in this picture. I got lots more of them! Bridget is rolling one down the big ramp, while Sabi rolls one down the little ramp and Keren waits for a turn. My dad made a couple of awesome improvised ramps at the last second because I decided I wanted some.

Elizabeth said she wanted a strawberry shortcake, so she got one! Made by me and decorated by Nana. Elizabeth did a great job blowing out the candle!

Paige and Caroline enjoy some cake!

Just some simple marker time with Paige and Tess as the party started to wrap up.

Well, actually, it was unwrapping time! Many birthday parties wait until afterwards to open presents to limit the chaos a little, but actually, I think it was pretty fun to do it this way, and I know Elizabeth liked it too!

Aunt Joanna was able to make it to the party too! And here are Vanessa and Nana, of course!

Uncle Zak giving a superman back ride! It's a good thing Zak has so much energy because Elizabeth never seemed to tire of this excitement! I seem to remember Aunt Heather also giving a good number of adventurous back rides to Vanessa and Elizabeth that day.

Vanessa gets a back ride from Grandpa K.

A big family picture! James, Mary, Zak, my Dad, Hannah, and me across the back, with Vanessa, Donna, and Elizabeth across the front.

Fast forward a month or so to Melanie's wedding in Michigan! Here are Grandpa, Aunt Kalena, Uncle John, and Angelique.

Grandma Lou and Grandpa Phil arrived by horse and carriage! So sweet.

Here are Brian and his Grandpa, seeming to enjoy the music and stunningly beautiful weather that day.

Elizabeth couldn't be happier to see her Grandpa!

Vanessa gets a hug from Uncle Brian!

Here are James's Great-Uncle Gordon and Great-Aunt Jean.

Cousin Cynthia with her boyfriend Mike.

Time for a Mommy and Elizabeth cuddle!

Melanie and Derek, the happy couple!

I and the girls got a lift back to the reception in the horse-drawn carriage. What a treat!

A little daddy-daughter dance time!

Vanessa is dancing near the very young ring bearer Landon and his daddy, cousin Philip. What a cute and well-behaved ring bearer Landon was!

A very sweet daddy-daughter dance!

Vanessa danced many of the dances with her second cousin McKenna, the flower girl.

Me, Elizabeth, McKenna, and Vanessa!

Here are James's cousin Matthew and his daughter Clare.

Elizabeth also had a turn dancing with McKenna!

And she had a turn dancing with Aunt Joanna!

On our way back from Michigan, we stopped for a couple of nights at Niagara Falls. Here we are with the falls in the background.

My turn to take a picture! Everyone say Niagara Falls! We also went behind the falls through the tunnels, and enjoyed a closer and mistier view of the falls.

The girls are looking out of the window in our hotel room to see how the falls glowed at night.

We stopped by my friends Sara and Lee's house in Pennsylvania on the way back from Niagara Falls. Here is their littlest daughter Adalyn carrying around a grown-up purse. My girls had so much fun running around in all the lovely open spaces in the house.

Elizabeth standing in front of some of the riding toys she tried out while we were there.

I was so glad that Vanessa and Aryana got along like two kids who have been friends for a long time (which I guess they have!) We went to a theme park called Dutch Wonderland the following day, where all the girls enjoyed merry-go-rounds, sky rides, train rides, and even roller coasters for the bigger girls. Pictures to follow if I can get around to posting some!

So here is one thing that has been keeping us super busy lately -- home renovations! We hired some contractors to help us tear up the carpet in the basement, and had our shower retiled upstairs. We are glad to get rid of that old carpet and tile, and we are enjoying our new spaces! We've also been repainting all our rooms, and the girls room is bright pink now!

The girls are in Spanish camp this week, and I am pleased to say that they are enjoying it (although they are definitely worn out quite a bit each day). Grandma just visited and helped entertain the worn out girls on some very hot days good for playing inside. She brought new 18-inch dolls and hand-made doll clothes which the girls have been enjoying immensely.

Disney, Jake's wedding, and more!

2011-03-01T21:40:00.043-05:00

So, it's finally spring break from my class, and now I have time to post about something that happened three months ago! Hopefully I can remember. James helped out by posting all these pics and some of the comments. If you are interested in what we have been doing in February, look at the next "older" post -- somehow I got these last two posts out of order.

Road trip day 2. Downtown Disney. Playing at T-Rex.

Moving on to the Lego Store at Downtown Disney.Road trip day 3. At the Magic Kingdom. Time to meet Daisy duck

We decided to buy autograph books for the girls this time. They were fascinated by the different signatures that the characters used (and so were James and I actually -- the characters each have to be so consistent, quick, and artful).

Then onto Mickey Mouse! Elizabeth wasn't quite ready to meet Mickey yet, because she had her mind set on playing on the playground first, but she met him later in a different costume. Vanessa was ready though!
How DO they sign with those big gloves?

Here is Elizabeth contentedly hiding at the playground.
Then to meet Pooh and Tigger!

What big smiles! You can tell that the girls really adore these characters.

But the best is yet to come, the princesses!

Elizabeth was in such awe of Sleeping Beauty, her favorite princess.

Vanessa and Elizabeth were so excited to pose with the princesses.
And best of all, to give hugs!

Vanessa's favorite is Cinderella, if you can't tell by her great big grin!

They also had such a sweet time with Belle!
What nice hugs! The girls afterwards kept asking me, "Why do the princesses keep calling us 'princess'?" Hard to explain...

Here is the weird pic where the diffraction erases part of our heads and about half of the man walking behind me.
This was our Christmas card photo. My mom's presence not only improves the picture above by adding her cheerful smile, but also eliminates the diffraction issues. If you didn't get one of these, we have lost your address!

Vanessa keeps asking me: "Why is Minnie Mouse so beautiful?" Truly, why? Such beauty is seldom found in mice.

The girls are getting ready for a parade at Hollywood Studios. Parades usually mean ice cream, as the girls well know.
Woody!

This Mr. Potato Head costume was my favorite. I can't imagine how uncomfortable it is though, especially to walk in those oversized shoes. The costume wearer is kind of my new hero.
There is a playground there from "Honey I Shrunk the Kids." All the giant stuff making us feel small is kind of lost on our girls, but they enjoyed playing on it just the same.
They played in these caves with their Daddy for what seemed to me like half an hour! I was so glad to see their faces when they surfaced to the light!
Sitting in a dog footprint. Luckily, that is the only giant dog artifact the designers decided to include in this exhibit.
Vanessa loved stomping on these vine stumps, which make different bell tones when you step on them.
Elizabeth remembers not wanting to slide down this slide, but for Vanessa, it's just a little slide! Now Elizabeth doesn't mind going down slides, so next time we visit Disney, she'll tackle this one and more!

They really enjoyed riding the gi-ant.

Here Vanessa is meeting with Mickey again. Do you think he remembers her?
Maybe he signed her book twice, I'll have to check.
Elizabeth was feeling brave enough to meet him now.
Well, I have to admit, Mickey, you do look pretty good in that sparkly hat.

Shhhh.... it's later that night, at the Hollywood Studios firework show. Elizabeth has no idea (yet) about the loud noises, flame bursts, explosions, and music that are about to happen.

James liked these signs, and thinks "Really, really tippy top secret" should be added to the security clearance system in the US government workings.

Lightning McQueen and Mater! Who would have thought you could actually meet a car? And a truck? Awesome.
Here's a better shot of Mater.
I can't completely describe the Christmas light display at Hollywood Studios.
It was like nothing I had ever seen, and I dare anyone with a grinchy feeling to walk through all these lights, music, and tiny falling bubbles that seem like snowflakes without emerging with a distinctively positive Christmas spirit.

Chip and Dale. I'm not sure Vanessa really knew who they were, but she was excited to meet them anyway.
Here's Vanessa meeting Snow White!
I think Vanessa might be excited to show off her Superman shirt in this picture.
I love this picture, because the girls have nearly identical smiles! And I love the color composition too. Lots of bright colors!
Hug time! Elizabeth also got a very red ruby kiss on her forehead, but I don't seem to have a picture of it (partly because I didn't notice it for a while!)

Who is best at waiting in lines? The girls, their Daddy, or me? From this picture, I guess you could say the girls are probably better than me!

This time, we were waiting for Jasmine. Jasmine had some beautiful jewels on her crown and costume. Elizabeth was mesmerized.
Yay for Jasmine!
Donald Duck was the goofiest one of the characters. He played around with the girls by balancing their autograph books on his nose! They thought that was so, so silly.
And it worked to get some great smiles!
Completely exhausted. When they sleep in a pile like this, they remind me of puppies!
Universal studios was our last full day at a theme park. Two words. Harry Potter!

After traveling through Hogsmeade, we actually got to go IN Hogwarts! It has lovely talking paintings and some close-up tours of the classrooms and halls. There was a roller coaster ride (well, and part movie ride, kind of a combination) at the end of it. Our wait wasn't too long for the roller coaster, but I wouldn't have minded it being a little longer of a wait so we could have had a little more time to look around the castle!
We HAD to stop and get our picture taken with Spiderman. I mean, SO cool, right?

Vanessa found a tall rock she wanted to climb up on to enjoy the view. Time to climb down now, Vanessa... (I guess she did ride on several roller coasters at Disney, so no wonder she isn't worried about a little height!)

She could also get a good view from the Dumbo ride on our last morning at the Magic Kingdom. Grandma was more than happy to ride along.
Elizabeth, on the other hand, was perfectly happy to "ride" in the stationary Dumbo car that was there for photo ops.
What could this look of pure joy and excitement be about?
Meeting none other than Ariel, of course! Just look at Elizabeth's face too, such excitement! It's those looks that keep parents coming back to Disney, I think...

Awe, simply awe.

And that hug was the last princess hug of Disney (and maybe even the best!).

We spent the rest of Christmas at James's Grandma Lou and Grandpa Phil's house in Lakeland. The girls got candy canes in their stockings!

Ooh, and money. It was actually pretty cool to let the girls pick out toys at Disney for their own Christmas presents with their Christmas money. I was surprised at how much they enjoyed buying things! (They get any joy from shopping from their father, as James will concur.)

What cool presents they opened! James's parents were so kind in carrying our presents back to Virginia so we could have a little more space in our van, because our trip was not yet half way over.

Vanessa is showing off a new Christmas ornament.

Elizabeth took up Grandpa Phil's offer to go pick a tangerine from the tree in the back yard. She pulled so hard, she nearly fell over.

But oh! Her joy at really picking the tangerine, and then opening and tasting it, too! What a cool experience.

And she loved sitting in Grandma Lou's lap, too!

SO many interesting things to see at their great-grandparents' house. Elizabeth loved the little figurines of Christmas trees and ice skaters.

Here is a family picture of James's mom's side of the family (a few missing, but a pretty good number of them!). That's Cynthia on the floor, and her mom Kathy to her right.

One of the other great things at this house is all the wonderful Christmas decorations that make noise! The girls' favorite was Frosty, who sang songs and twirled a short string of lights, and took off and replaced his hat.

There is nothing like an open, carpeted floor for dancing around in brand new dresses!

Our next stop was Atlanta. We saw many, many sharks and rays. One of the rays was doing somersaults in the water.

Here are 2 of the whale sharks that the aquarium hosts and rightfully boast about -- these sharks are huge!

Here's another picture of a whale shark from the side.
There was a traveling mermaid show in town, and the mermaids got in the water with the sharks to do their show. Very intriguing.

The girls loved the little photo op characters at the aquarium.

Especially the mermaid, I think.

Here's the whole crew (I must have been taking this picture).

These belugas were playing with a big green rectangular blanket.
The belugas came up so close to the glass. I think there were also some seals in this tank. You can see one right near Vanessa's head, swimming upside down.

Here's one beluga seemingly reaching out to touch Vanessa's hands with a flipper.

Me and Elizabeth watching the tail of a whale!

I think this is another shot of the belugas.

And here is one coming up nose-to-nose with Vanessa!

This was a great, big, colorful tank full of coral reef fish. We could have watched for an hour, I think.
Back at the hotel, there were many Christmas trees set up to earn money for certain charities. Vanessa loved the purple one, of course.

On to Texas! The girls were SO excited to play with their cousins. Here they check out the Zhu Zhu pets that Jadyn and Bryn got for Christmas.

Jadyn was very kind to share her new ipod with Vanessa!

Elizabeth LOVED the bunk beds. She especially loved being tall enough to touch the ceiling!

Trampoline, trampoline, trampoline! Pure joy, encapsulated in a toy.

James lifts Elizabeth for a slam dunk!

Vanessa and Bryn pose on the back of Katelyn's truck. Did I say Katelyn's truck???? Yes, she has a truck!!! Too cool.

Zak attempts to keep Bryn from making a basket. Zak, I hope you're prepared to defend against a girl with some serious b-ball skills!

Gotta get my picture with the truck! Well, OK, and I'll share with my daughters and my mom too.

Elizabeth, is, you guessed it, back on the trampoline!! This time, playing with the leaves.

Mary and Elizabeth have some quality coloring time together at the hotel in Texas.

Here are Vanessa and Daddy just before the wedding. I love this picture, what a cute kiss!

And such a sweet hug! Now there is a little girl who loves her Daddy!

Vanessa loves her Uncle Zak too!

"Mommy, Uncle Zak is crazy!" Vanessa always tells me. Child, you don't know the half of it... (just kidding, little bro!)

Now for some Elizabeth and Daddy resting time.

Hmmm.... time to do some thinking. I wonder which part of the wedding she is thinking about? I don't know, but she was definitely paying attention, because weddings are now a big part of playtime for us at home!

Time for some tickles from mommy!

I sure do love my Elizabeth.

Now for the star of the show, Britni! A beautiful bride, and quite funny too! I was so glad to be able to see this wedding! After so many stops and trips, how lucky we made it all the way there and got to be a part of it all.

Officially married! Welcome to the family, Britni!

And here is the family you get, Britni! I hope you enjoy being a part of it. We enjoy you!

Here's even more of my family, featuring my Dad's side of the family this time, and plus Katelyn, Jadyn, and Bryn.

You thought she was in for it with the new family, but now she's REALLY in for it!

Well, they both got it!

On the way home, now, and our last big stop. Memphis, to see Grammy Dee, James's Dad's mother. We really enjoyed staying in her home and visiting Aunt Lynn's house, where this picture was taken. The girls remember the magnets and the rocks best from Aunt Lynn's. I remember the company (well, and also the magnets and rocks, they were cool!)!

Here's James's family in Tennessee. Always a treat to visit with them!

After we got back home, Elizabeth had a bit of a cold and was actually napping (which she pretty much only does when she is sick). So, Vanessa was allowed to go out in the snow in the back yard alone for a few minutes. I think she was especially happy to be allowed to bring her umbrella!

Snowfall!

This picture is a little out of place, but too much trouble to change it -- this is a picture of the Mr. Potato Heads that the girls created at one of the Disney stores. They had a blast playing with them.

And, for my birthday, my Dad and Hannah came to babysit the girls while James and I went to a show! What a gift, truly. The girls had fun and so did we! Thanks Dad!

So, that was our crazy, crazy trip. Thanks James for planning it all out, Mom for providing transportation, food, help, camera work, and more, thanks to James's parents for lugging gifts and for child care along the way, and thanks to Britni for marrying my brother and giving us a really, really good reason to visit Texas. Thanks for all the family members along the way for putting up with us, feeding us, entertaining us and taking care of us. What an amazing experience.

Slow and steady

2011-03-01T20:40:00.007-05:00

February has been a month of mostly playing around inside, waiting for this great weather that is just now coming! We've had a great time though. Here's what we've been up to:

Wearing matching aquarium shirts...

Jamming away on Rock Band (even drawing in friends and Nana!)...

Stamping our feet (a play on words perhaps?)...

Enjoying the snow...

Making some chocolate chip cookies...

Riding a roller coaster on the couch...

Playing at the building museum with Uncle Brian...

And with Aunt Joanna...

Turning a pile of legos into...

... quite a construction!

Here are the girls in their every-three month pic with their Dee dolls. Elizabeth is now 2 and 3/4 and Vanessa is 4 and 1/2. Elizabeth is getting good with scissors and tracing lines, somersaulting, and even a little bit of pumping on the swing. Vanessa is getting good at listening, helping, being considerate, and focusing -- she is really growing up into something beyond the stage of toddler. I am really, really excited to see what they are going to do next!

Thanksgiving and more

2010-12-11T22:04:00.008-05:00

I realized that I hadn't posted any pictures of Halloween on the blog (I think I was just lazy and posted them on Facebook instead). So here are our heroic caped avengers from Halloween!

And, so fast forward a month to Thanksgiving. The girls were very excited about the food. Mostly all the fruit! Yummy!

Here comes Nana with the big turkey. I have to admit, the turkey was pretty tasty.

Elizabeth loves all the open spaces in Nana and Grampa's house for dancing. Plus she had her Aunt Kalena to dance with her!

I can't remember if Grandpa was actually dancing with Elizabeth in this shot, or if he was just passing through. I'll assume that he was really dancing because that's a better story!

Zak and Mary came to visit our house around Thanksgiving time. Zak is wearing those bunny ears so he can hear the story better, I think.

On the day after Thanksgiving, we visited Brian and Joanna's house for a night of tacos and family togetherness. Here are both our daughters and both our moms. And Winston, of course! I love how the girls have both warmed up to dogs again (they were a bit shy there for a while).

Elizabeth pretends to talk to the shower head. She kept fiddling with the knobs -- I half expected her to give herself a bath or a shower any minute, but she just had a blast playing in the dry tub instead.

The girls helped with the Christmas lights...

Did a little jumping in there just for fun...

And helped with the ornaments too.

Here's a Maxted family portrait. It's great to be a part of this family!

Here's one with Callie in there too (in Uncle John's arms).

We visited Zak's house that following weekend. Zak and Mary and a couple of Zak's roommates (and Vanessa too, in the bottom left, sorry to cut you off a bit sweetie!) were singing after UVA managed to score something on Virgina Tech (in an otherwise VT-dominated game).

Aunt Heather and Elizabeth share a goofy moment! All of us went ice skating that day. Elizabeth fell down and wasn't too happy, but afterwards was proud of how far she went and said she wanted to go again soon, and Vanessa stayed on her feet and had a great time. It was cold but I think the adults all had a pretty good time too! We had dinner out at a really cool and fairly fancy (fancy=no explicit kids menu) little restaurant where my children actually ate their food and had fun! AND I liked the food (especially the dessert). Win-win.

Elizabeth wanted to dress up like Piglet from Winnie the Pooh, so I cut some paper ears for her. She's been having fun with that lately. Meanwhile Vanessa has been dressing up like a cowgirl (but it is a little more tricky to get that one to hold still for a picture these days).

Well, we have had some uninvited visitors lately! These two deer and two others have pretty much made our backyard their home lately, in spite of James or I periodically chasing after them, waving our arms, and howling like coyotes. (Maybe they're just staying for the entertainment, now that I think about it).

Now for some very, very welcome visitors! Adalyn and Aryana stopped by for a little play time not too long ago. I can't believe how much they have grown since last I saw them! They're both getting so strong, so bright, so beautiful, and so much fun! Plus it was just great to see my friends Sara and Lee too.

Aryana checks out the castle which we had put on Elizabeth's bed. They all tried to pretend to sleep in it at once but it was a tight squeeze. We can't wait to see Adalyn and Aryana at their new house on our trip next summer.

Last week, we had Mollie and Fred visit for a while. Mollie and Fred were so helpful to entertain and babysit the girls off and on so for a few days I could rake, tutor, and even go grocery shopping all unencumbered! The girls and I all had great fun with Mollie and Fred.

Here are the girls with their Ms. Dee dolls. Vanessa is now 4 and 1 fourth and Elizabeth is 2 and a half (as either of them would proudly tell you). Elizabeth is wearing the princess costume that she has completely fallen in love with (to the point that she will put off eating meals just so she can wear it a little bit longer). The girls insisted getting their picture taken in front of the Christmas tree because they knew that they had had their picture taken in front of the tree for their corresponding Ms. Dee doll picture last year. Over the past three months, I'd say that one of the girls' greatest achievements has been greater independence and cooperation in getting ready in the morning. Yes!!!

Brian and Joanna's wedding

2010-10-27T22:52:00.008-04:00

Haha, I managed to post pictures from Brian and Joanna's wedding in September before Halloween is upon us!

The girls LOVED staying in the hotel in DC. Is this abstract art? No, just the girls being goofy in the hotel towels after a trip to the pool.

The window was arguably the best attraction of the hotel room. Plus it was right next door to the National Theater, and the girls were able to go with their second cousin McKenna to a little show for kids there on the morning of the wedding.

The rehearsal dinner. Yummy bread and good company!

Elizabeth is meeting James's Aunt Helen and a handful of Maxteds!

Here's a picture of James with several other sophisticated gentlemen.

Very sophisticated. :)

Here are the girls with Grandma on the day of the wedding. They had a lot of fun together!

Brian gets used to the feel of his new ring in the foreground while Vanessa and Daddy happily hold hands just after the wedding.

Vanessa is enjoying being all dressed up with her aunt Kalena.

It was so great to see Vanessa bonding with her second cousin McKenna, who is just a year older. They danced and played quite a bit together.

The family having appetizers at the reception.

The lovely bride and groom.

Vanessa and Grandma hanging out at the reception.

James's Grandpa Phil played some jazzy swing music in the band at the reception.

Here Vanessa is chasing James's uncle Jim across the smooth dance floor. Run, Jim, run! (Vanessa told us later that she had been ice skating all night long.)

Nana and her sister Kathy, both with their grand-daughters.

Nana and Vanessa! Vanessa stayed up almost to midnight dancing with Nana, McKenna, and Daddy. (I could have danced all night, I could have danced all night....)

Now, just for a few pictures at home... James bought the girls some new puzzles recently. Vanessa put together a puzzle that had some pretty small pieces, and she handled it fine.

Elizabeth also surprised us by being able to pretty much complete this new puzzle all on her own.

When I was studying for a midterm the other weekend, James took the girls out to Dinosaur Land. They always like to go inside the giant shark!

James says Elizabeth kept kissing all the frogs there!

The girls pose next to a stegosaurus.

I like this picture because it looks like Elizabeth has just made a new friend!

The styracosaurus is one of my favorite dinosaurs.

Vanessa is getting old enough now to understand that these dinosaurs are not touching affectionately.

Hissss!

And what better way to end a day at Dinosaur Land than to curl up in the hands of King Kong?

Elizabeth has been making her own dinosaur lands at home lately.

And just a picture of the girls having fun with dress-up and Tchaikovsky music!

Vanessa turns 4

2010-09-14T21:08:00.010-04:00

Wow, 4 years old seems like more than a year older than 3, somehow... Vanessa is getting to be just such a little lady. We had the opportunity to spend her birthday with so many of our family and friends.

The week before Vanessa's birthday, we were so lucky to have my sister Hannah come stay with us. She helped get our house more organized and helped the girls (and ME!) have a blast in the process. Hannah and I played Nancy Drew computer games at night and organized and traveled around during the day -- to the pool, park, and zoo!

The girls have never before had their nails painted, so Hannah brought fingernail polish. She also brought all kinds of dress-up clothes and accessories. Elizabeth's favorite things were the shiny red shoes!

Vanessa also got in on the dress-up fun. She liked the pink puff-ball shoes best. I guess my girls like shoes! Thanks to Hannah for providing so much great stuff.

Hannah also brought a bunch of sombreros and other hats. Elizabeth tried out a cowgirl hat with her cowgirl boots. She looks pretty rootin' tootin' to me.

Grandma K, Grandpa K, Vanessa, and Elizabeth all don't seem to mind being a little goofy and trying on some rather large hats!

Hannah was still around on Friday when the craziness started -- Vanessa's birthday party! This was Vanessa's first party with several of her friends over. You can kind of see Vanessa, showing how excited she is to be the birthday girl and getting to see her friends.

Paige, Susan, and Vanessa got the castle first.

Elizabeth, Tess, and Kai got it next. I think in this picture, Elizabeth is reminding Paige that she already had a turn... She can have another turn, Elizabeth!

Well, Elizabeth was really good about sharing her kitchen stuff with (from left to right), Paige, Grace, and Susan. After the party, she told me she did a good job sharing, and to her credit, she did!

Craft time! We had glow-in-the-dark stars, glitter glue, and sparkly outer-space foam shapes. James prepared the food and the crafts -- and he was home from work and taking pictures of the party. Hmm... there must have been something I was doing at the party... I guess I couldn't have asked for a more helpful husband.

Here's another craft-table picture.

Then on to cupcakes! We are "limiting food coloring" in our diets at the moment, but you would never know from looking at how colorful the sprinkles were that we were putting on our cupcakes! Oh well, birthdays are days for exceptions to certain rules...

Rules like not licking knives...

(Here's another look at those blue cupcakes. VERY blue.)

Or rules like cleaning your child's face before taking a picture!

Then on to opening presents! She got all really, really great ones.

And she also really enjoyed opening the cards, too!

On our last full day with Hannah, we did some bowling followed by a visit to Aunt Heather's and Uncle Terry's house. I didn't get any pictures of Aunt Heather and Uncle Terry's house this time, for some reason, but we all did have a great time. Anyway, I did get some pictures of the girls' first bowling experience (in a real bowling alley, that is).

Thank goodness for bumper lanes. Not only did they artificially inflate my own score (what fun!) but they also allowed almost every ball rolled to actually knock over some pins. (I say almost every ball, because there were a few times when the ball was rolled so slowly that it stopped before making it to the pins.)

I think this one might juuusssst make it.

We also had a party for Vanessa actually on her birthday (whereas the little kids' birthday party was a few days before). Here is my attempt at a cake for her. It was decorated, of course, at the very last minute, after the guests had arrived (thank goodness the guests were James's parents, and quite understanding!)

Well, Vanessa seemed pleased with it in any case. She blew out the candles, no problem!

The birthday party! The girls were so happy to see their Nana and Grandpa.

Vanessa wanted the number 4, of course, especially because it was purple. Elizabeth, on the other hand, insisted on having the frosting writing of Vanessa's name!

Vanessa used her fork, and you can see how Elizabeth ate her cake...
Cake was followed by ice cream, which seems to be one of the primary reasons for having a birthday, in Vanessa's mind.

Where was Daddy? Well, he got to see Vanessa on the morning of her birthday, but then he had to go away on a business trip. BUT, the cool thing is, he got to see our nieces in Texas and this was especially cool because it was actually very close to Katelyn's 16th birthday.

We were also very excited to get a visit from Uncle Brian and to-be-very-soon-Aunt Joanna. They are so busy preparing for their wedding this Saturday, but they were able to come by and just play with us! James and I and Grandpa spent the whole weekend blowing cellulose fiber insulation into the attic and cleaning up afterwards, so the girls were especially starved for attention. Then to get all those hugs from Brian and Joanna -- ah, heaven.

Here is Elizabeth's 2 and 1/4 year-old picture with her Dee-Dee doll. She also seemed to remember that her bunny belongs in these photos sometimes (although I can't remember him making an appearance since she was a very tiny baby). Elizabeth has recently dubbed this bunny Knuffle Bunny, after the bunny in the Mo Willems book.

Here's Vanessa in her 4-year-old pic with her Miss Dee doll. Vanessa was 40 inches tall, 37 pounds, and really brave at her 4-year appointment at the pediatrician's. She got a vision test, a hearing test, and six vaccines I think. She really does seem so grown up. She reads fluently, and usually in her head, and she writes or types a lot of thoughts every day. She can count to 100, and does (frequently when stalling on something, but what the hey). She can read the beginning piano lesson book we bought for her, so she'll practice lessons from it entirely on her own. She knows how to pump her legs on the swing, she can get dressed without sitting or holding onto anything for balance, she is getting pretty good on her strider bike, and she can get from one side of the pool to the other with flotation (although she still isn't too comfortable getting her face wet). I'm also really proud of how she can actually talk to people she has just met now, without being overly shy. Go Vanessa! You have officially left toddler-hood and you are now a big girl!

And here are the girls together!

August

2010-08-17T20:46:00.006-04:00

So, you might wonder what we've been spending the summer doing, apart from hanging out with friends and going to the pool. Well, when we're inside, we:

...rip apart Styrofoam packaging just for the fun and mess of it...

...make goofy faces...

...play Little Red Riding Hood, or Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, or Billy Goats Gruff

...read a lot. This is what my girls do for rest, since I can't seem to convince them to nap (and if they do nap, then they can't go to sleep at a reasonable hour at night). I find them like this most days when I check on them while I'm making dinner, although sometimes they prefer to read by themselves. If you haven't noticed already, I seem to have left my flash off for this last set of pictures (ah well, the next set should look better).

Well, Vanessa DID get to go on a very exciting adventure with her daddy and Nana. Her very first professional sports game -- a Redskins preseason game! They only stayed for the first half and James says that the crowd was very family-oriented that evening.

Here are Vanessa and Daddy in their Redskins jerseys.

I know my husband better than to really believe this, but when I look at this picture, I like to imagine that a really important moment is happening on the field, and Vanessa is watching it unfold on the big TV nearby, while James is busy smiling for the camera.

This is a picture of the field from the seats that James has this year. A good perspective for watching touchdowns, I'd say.

These next few pics are from Joanna and Uncle Brian's birthday party. When Elizabeth wasn't racing around in circles, she paused to get some kisses from her Nana.

The biggest attraction at the party was the hammock. It's like a swing, but BIGGER!

Elizabeth plays hide-and-seek behind a tree.

The girls and me have a little break.

Vanessa and Elizabeth and the birthday boy.

We've had some time to hang out with family lately. Molly and Fred came up to visit us for a couple of days, and we also got to visit Uncle Zak at his home for the first time. I forgot to bring my camera to Uncle Zak's place though, so I have a really good excuse for going back and visiting sometime again soon! As always, the girls just love all the attention they get from family, and I love to see my family too!

Grandma also came by to visit, and brought toys!! Thanks also to Heather, who helped pick out a lot of stuff to keep my girls busy while I bring them along with me two days a week while I tutor. We had a fabulous time with Grandma and the girls already have plans of games to play with her when they see her next.

Lately, Vanessa has been picking up quite a bit from sneaking some peaks over my shoulder when I am tutoring the subject of reading. She's found some of the extra homework sheets I printed out, and has been doing them! This has required her to practice writing smaller, and with lowercase letters. She has learned a lot of the phonograms that I have been working on -- for example, she told me today that sometimes an "a" sounds like the "a" in "cat," and sometimes it sounds like the "ah" in "ball." I'm not sure if listening to my tutoring is the reason, or if having the privelege of using her daddy's old iPhone for writing notes on is the reason, but for whatever reason, Vanessa has REALLY wanted to type lately, and also write on paper. She asks a lot about how to spell words, and figures out or remembers some spellings herself (or in some cases, she is helped out by the iPhone's auto-complete feature). Here is something she wrote today on James's old iPhone:

Vanessa*s birth day is august 31st
And there is IcE cream and so every=

Body can come to my birthday

Be cause it is so beautiful

That I want my friends to come

And it is so exciting and that is that

And I love ice cream

Vanessa has also recently learned how to count to 100, although she still makes mistakes sometimes while doing so. Not to be outdone, Elizabeth has learned how to count to 12, and has been working on writing and typing her first name. Elizabeth has been reading more and more sight words, so that I am beginning to wonder if she has started to acquire a sounding-out capability. She has such a good memory for stories that it's hard to tell when she is reading or just remembering. Elizabeth's favorite activities seem to be singing, dancing, and pretending. If she ends up loving musical theater as much as her daddy and I do, I wouldn't be surprised! Both girls also really love to run. I took them for a short jog with me today and they loved it!

colorado

2010-07-16T19:37:00.008-04:00

We had a great trip to Colorado for a Kaylor family reunion. We were there for just about a week. We started the trip out on our own for the first day, and visited the Denver zoo.

The girls check out a mongoose and porcupine exhibit (Elizabeth is in the background).

Vanessa's favorite animal we saw were the polar bears. This polar bear had just been in the water, showing off a very nice back float. Elizabeth liked the lions best, and wanted to see them twice!

The next day was a day for meeting up with family. Elizabeth and Vanessa were so excited to see their cousins Bryn and Jadyn.

Vanessa still sometimes expresses her affection through squishing... Good thing Jadyn is so patient with little ones!

I had so many pics from so many places (thanks especially to my uncle's brother Rick), that I didn't manage to get them entirely in order. Oh well. This series of pictures is from the low ropes course at the Estes Park YMCA, about half-way through our time in CO. Vanessa was a little slow to warm up to all of the folks in my family that she didn't know yet, but by the end of our time at the ropes course, she allowed uncles and second cousins to help her over this six foot wall (the objective was to get everyone in our party over it). Here, her uncle Jake is helping Vanessa get down as my cousin Brett looks on.

One of the activities involved walking on a wire, supported by a partner and monitored by spotters. The wires that the two partners are balancing on get further and further apart as the partners progress along them. Here Jadyn and my cousins' cousin Megan are getting pretty far along the wires!

Bryn was kind enough to partner with Vanessa when Vanessa got up the courage to try out the wires for herself.

Vanessa even tried out the rope swing that was part of the most difficult of the challenges on the ropes course that day. Also in this picture are my cousin-in-law Mark, my brother Zak, and my Dad. Low ropes courses seem to be all about people supporting each other -- I had my hands kind of full so I felt like I was even more grateful for the support of all of my family there. Vanessa also thrived in all that support!

Here is the rock-climbing wall from the day before the low ropes course. James is climbing up on the left side while Jadyn is scaling the right.

Here my cousins Mark, Sean, Nick, Danielle, and Brett, interspersed with my Dad, my Aunt Teri, and Jadyn and Bryn all harnessed and waiting for their turns on the climbing wall.

Me. :)

I certainly wouldn't have been able to go up a climbing wall without several sets of hands to watch Elizabeth and Vanessa. Here Elizabeth is basking in the attention of ladies from three generations (from left to right), Oma Phyllis, Grandma K, and Hannah.

Four cousins on a rock. Because they have such great rocks for climbing in Colorado! This one overlooked a river with a few small waterfalls.

One of our last activities in Colorado was going up a cable car to the top of one of the mountains in Estes Park. Here are Jake and Bryn on the cable car ride.

Not only were there fabulous views from the top of the mountain, but they also had a large population of very tame chipmunks which were accustomed to getting fed peanuts by the tourists. This was a very great joy for Bryn, Vanessa, and Elizabeth. (Jadyn was off having fun riding a horse on this day!)

Here are Vanessa and Daddy waving from one of the rocks where we fed chipmunks. Elizabeth is busy looking for chipmunks among the lower rocks.

Here is Elizabeth feeding one of the chipmunks. If you look closely you will see that this chipmunk, like most of the others we saw, already has his cheeks crammed full of peanuts!

We had a blast in Colorado. James and I also flew to Chicago last weekend to see Paul's wedding. What a treat to have a trip just traveling by ourselves, and with adult friends to celebrate with! For now, we are quite content to be back home for a while, and finished with our big trips for the summer.

Two weeks on the move

2010-06-19T21:28:00.007-04:00

This week were are back in town after stops in Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. The girls had a little more trouble getting to sleep than usual because of all the excitement, but when they did sleep, they slept in a cuddly pile like a couple of puppies.

Here are the girls sleeping in the hotel where James had his conference in Baltimore.

The first day in Baltimore, I took the girls to the Children's museum. The girls liked the mock-up grocery store area best. Vanessa got to choose all the cereals I don't let her choose at home...

Elizabeth took her groceries to the nearby exhibit wherein children could pretend to drive a car. I guess she wanted to pretend she was taking her groceries home. She's clutching a can of baked beans (she loves all kinds of beans!)

Vanessa knew just what to do with this jester cut-out. Behind her was a craft room where the girls played with some paint and glue later on.

But of course we went to the aquarium! This Megladon jaw never ceases to amaze me. Elizabeth seemed to like the ray and shark exhibits best. Vanessa definitely loved the dolphin show the best. Some of the other highlights were crocodiles, a frilled lizard, rainbow lorikeets, and a golden lion tamarin.

And the bubbles! These towers of bubbles are an endless source of wonder for them!

I am glad that we were in Baltimore long enough to give us an excuse to check out the science museum. It was definitely worth it! I liked it about as much as the aquarium, especially because it had such great exhibits for little kids. Here, Vanessa and Elizabeth get cozy in some dinosaur footprints.

The girls loved unearthing this dinosaur fossil. There was also a pretty cool three-dimensional skeleton of another dinosaur that they could put together like a puzzle.

The little kids area of the science museum has a really great pin board right at the beginning. The girls would have been content to play with it the whole time, I think! Except for the fact that there was an amazing water table area (I didn't get out my camera for fear of drenching it). The water table had pipes and fountains and a stream with moveable dams. Plus there were legos, trains, and rooms of a model ship and submarine to climb inside. I think we could have stayed in the little kids' area all day if we didn't have to break for food!

Next after Baltimore was our trip to New Jersey to see our fabulous grown-up friend Vanessa and her family. Not long after we arrived, we took a trip to Sesame Place just a little ways into Pennsylvania. I think Elizabeth was feeling a bit under the weather, because she seemed like she might be ready for a nap (which she rarely takes these days). But she absolutely loved this pretend store in the Sesame Street Neighborhood area. It had painted-on food and signs -- nothing real to put in any baskets like at the children's museum in Baltimore, but I think she liked it even better!

Here are Vanessa and her toddler Samantha. It was so cool to see my girls playing with Samantha -- they ran around the house and had just a fantastic time.

Elizabeth and Vanessa really loved the carousel too!

The day after we visited Sesame Place, Elizabeth was acting kind of sick, so we decided to head back home. It was definitely hard for us to say good-bye. After a day or so, though, she seemed fine, so I decided to continue on with the next part of the trip we planned -- to Princess Anne, Maryland, to visit their Grandma's house for the first time.

I decided to visit my friend Sara whom I'd really been missing, because she was vacationing in Delaware just an hour or so from my mother's house. I had the idea of going to the beach, which I think would have been a perfect idea, except for the wind... oh, and except for Vanessa spending a good portion of the time going back and forth to the potty. As it was, it was still cool to see the girls dipping their toes in the water, building sand castles, and finding interesting things in the sand.

Here are Vanessa and Elizabeth with Aryana. They were pretty patient with my beach idea, but they had a really much better time back at the house! There, they played with toys, read books, and giggled together.

The girls were all jumping up and down in the sand in this picture (well, Elizabeth hasn't quite learned how to jump yet).

Here's a picture of my friend Sara taking a picture of Adalyn. Adalyn truly is such a beautiful baby! I can't wait to see Sara and her remarkable family again soon!

Here is a picture of Elizabeth and her Grandma. Elizabeth loved Grandma's hair, and immediately decided to use the end of her braid as a paintbrush to paint Grandma's head "pink."

Grandma made lots of balloon animals for the girls to play with. Vanessa decided that this balloon flower made an excellent Grandma-bopping toy. Ah, well, I guess my kids show their affection in strange ways.

Grandma took the girls swimming and to lots of playgrounds. They also really enjoyed their hike through the cypress swamp!

I'm so glad we've had so many opportunities to spend time with people who are so important to us. It's been a busy June, and it's not over yet!

Elizabeth turns two!

2010-06-03T19:25:00.006-04:00

Elizabeth had her second birthday on Tuesday. She truly is a toddler now. She amazes me every day with all the things she can express and do!

But first, our trip to Massanutten, Virginia! Jamie and Sandra were so nice to invite us to vacation with them. We played on the playground and took a brief hike in the morning, followed by the waterpark in the afternoon. Maybe we were already a bit tired by the time we got to the waterpark, because it was something of a comedy of errors -- I forgot my swimsuit and had to go back to the cabin to get it, and James slipped on the side of the pool and fell in with a great big splash (I was busy retrieving my suit at the time or else I'm sure I would be able to further embelish that event).

But we enjoyed ourselves immensely nevertheless. Elizabeth fell in love with these yellow bouncy seats. She spent a good portion of her water park time in them. Vanessa meanwhile put her life jacket on and took it off twenty or so times. It's like dress-up, but with a safety twist!

I was able to convince Elizabeth to take a break from the bouncy seat to explore the fountain area of the kiddie pool. She liked that part too!

Sandra, Vanessa, and I took a ride down the lazy river ride. Even though Vanessa got fairly drenched, she kept a pretty cheery attitude for the ride.

Saying hi to Daddy!

Sandra said she had fun trying out the boogie board ride at the water park. So I gave it a try too. I didn't wipe out, but I still couldn't quite figure out how to stay at the bottom of the wave. Maybe next time. All the grownups also got to try out some of the big water slides, which was SO much fun!

The next day, we took the girls Frisbee golfing. They liked throwing the Frisbees, and when they were a little worn out, a deer provided further entertainment. (Although, we don't have to go to Massanutten to see deer -- James saw one in our garden the other evening, and deer have definitely been sampling our fine vegetables.)

This picture we took back at home. Elizabeth and Vanessa have both reached new stages of drawing. Vanessa has started taking an interest in coloring (notice the Cinderella). Elizabeth has taken an interest in drawing representations of objects (balloons, birthday cakes, letters of the alphabet), rather than her previous random squiggles.

Wow, don't they look grown-up in this picture? As soon as Elizabeth and Vanessa woke up on Elizabeth's birthday, they donned birthday hats and started singing "happy birthday!"

A little later in the morning, and still just excited about her birthday!

Nana and Grampa celebrated Elizabeth's birthday with us.

Elizabeth may never really know how she was able to blow out that candle all by herself.

Elizabeth tried to eat the whole cake with her fork at first.

Well, she was still SUPER excited to eat her piece of cake with red frosting.

Vanessa was almost as excited about the birthday cake as if it were her own birthday. She's pretty much ready for her birthday to be here too!

One last picture of the birthday girl! She was 33 and a half inches at her 2-year appointment and 27 pounds. She's getting to be quite independent -- she insists on climbing into her car seat by herself, she can put on some pants and other clothes by herself, and she is fully potty-trained now. She talks and sings when she is by herself too, sometimes putting on a little finger puppet show to entertain herself. But even though she is very independent, she loves to be with her sister, her parents, her extended family, and her friends!

The calm before the storm...

2010-05-10T21:03:00.004-04:00

We have so many things scheduled for the coming few weeks, I can hardly keep up with them in my head even with the use of a calendar. I'm much more used to our rather slow pace at home. We just spent a couple weeks in potty training with Elizabeth, so I've spent even more time at home than usual. But Elizabeth's doing great with the potty and now we're venturing out again. Well, even though I can't really remember exactly what we're doing when, I can't wait to do all of it! Woohoo, bring on the summer!

Elizabeth gets a turn with Dean's storytelling.

We're still in a big dress-up phase. Grace came over to join in the fun.

Just another picture of dress-up!

Elizabeth and Daddy take a cuddle break.

Trying to fill their parents' shoes.

Vanessa was excited to be able to visit with Grace for a birthday party. Vanessa wore her flower girl dress. Aside from playing with Grace and (after getting over a bit of shyness) the other kids, the best part for Vanessa was the cupcake decoration (and consumption)!

Well, and you can always win Vanessa's heart with some grapes and strawberries!

I took this picture of Elizabeth the other day just as a reminder to me why I spend so much time cleaning up under the table -- it's all for them! I mean, just look at those cute little toes!

Easter and spring

2010-04-11T21:09:00.005-04:00

Ah, spring. We are all healthy and can play outside almost every day! Elizabeth is like a little puppy, begging to go outside as soon as she wakes up in the morning, even before breakfast. And once we get outside, it is quite a tricky business getting the girls to want to come inside at all! We've definitely been enjoying playing with lots of friends and family lately, inside the house and out.

Here's Daddy dancing with the girls in their pajamas. It's one of their favorite activities to play and dance to music with their Daddy.

We had a visit from grown-up Vanessa, our friend from NJ. Her little girl Samantha is the cutie next to Elizabeth. Samantha was a very gracious sharer, taking the ride-on car for a spin while she waited for a turn on the bike. And she reminded Elizabeth of all the fun one can have throwing all the balls around and hiding in the princess castle. Elizabeth was quite happy to have a peer in our house for once, especially such a fun and friendly one!

Toddler Vanessa also had a great time with Samantha. Finally, another little girl to explain the rules to! And I enjoyed the time with grown-up Vanessa and Samantha too. I can't wait to see them next time.

Here are Vanessa and Elizabeth dressed up in their bat costumes again. I think this is the first time though that I've managed to take a picture of Vanessa in her bat girl costume. For some reason I think she thinks it's a game not to get her picture taken while she's wearing the costume. Haha, I win!

I decided quite at the last minute to take the girls to an Easter egg hunt. I'm really glad I did. They had a blast! We met up with Vanessa's friend Paige, on the left in this picture. All three girls were so excited to have so much green grass for running around on!

Vanessa found five eggs. She asked me, "Did I win?" I told her that everyone is a winner in this kind of hunt. She told me, "I didn't push anybody." I told her that made her the BEST kind of winner, and she shouted "Yay!" and ran off excitedly.

Elizabeth did a great job with her hunt, which was inside just after Vanessa's hunt ended. She found 9 eggs, but I did get to help direct her a little. I thought it was interesting that both Elizabeth and Vanessa had to learn that they couldn't pick up a second egg while still holding the first egg. Here is Elizabeth about to learn just that lesson.

There were some crafts to keep the kids busy before and after hunts. Here is Elizabeth having entirely too much fun with a purple glue stick. It took some convincing to get her to move on to something else.

There were also some white eggs to decorate with foam stickers. This is a GREAT idea. We also dyed some eggs at Nana's house on Easter the next day, but it was a little messier. The girls stayed pretty clean remarkably, but I got to be quite colorful.

Here's Vanessa just being goofy about Easter. She's wearing a scarf, mittens, and a basket.

Grace and her mommy came to visit one afternoon last week. I think it's so sweet how Vanessa and Grace love to give each other hugs. And Elizabeth and I look forward to Grace's and her mommy's visits so much too!

Dressing up!

2010-03-06T21:07:00.006-05:00

Since Valentine's Day, the snow has begun to melt and we've been sick less of the time, but we have still spent a considerable amount of time inside waiting for spring! The girls have responded with a lot of dressing up. Some days, the dressing up game lasts almost all day.

Here are the girls with their Valentine's Day balloons from Daddy.

My brother Jake taught me a cool trick of writing notes to kids when trying to convey especially difficult emotions to kids. I use notes occasionally when I'm feeling frustrated, but mostly if I'm feeling very proud of them for doing a great job. I usually put them in an envelope with a pretend stamp. Vanessa did a pretty good job at trying to write a note of her own for Elizabeth.

When the snow finally stopped enough for us to have a visit, Uncle Zak visited with his girlfriend Mary. In the eyes of our little ones, Zak = fun. If you're wondering, Vanessa is wearing part of the number mat as a tutu.

Vanessa loved learning some Spanish words with Zak and Mary. Vanessa forgot her shyness and warmed up to Mary with record speed.

OK, now on to dressing up! The girls have had oodles of fun with the purse of jewelry and hair ties that Aunt Hannah gave us. The adhesive rhinestone earrings actually last for days -- they're quite durable.

Here's a close-up of their weird little pony tails sticking straight up. One of these days they'll have longer hair that's easier to work with (a mother that knows how to do hair would probably help too).

If I've talked to you recently, I've probably mentioned that Elizabeth is obsessed with Batman. You know I'd like to claim full responsibility for her gaining this obsession, but believe it or not, there's someone else who has been instrumental in developing this love of the caped crusader... But the bottom line is, she LOVES to play with the little Batman action figures we have and she thinks that the sole purpose of a laptop is to play the theme to the 60's Batman show, as well as several other superhero jingles from that era. Vanessa likes Batgirl best because Batgirl wears purple, so we got her a Batgirl costume, but she won't let me take a picture of her in her new costume yet. We don't have a Batgirl action figure, so Vanessa improvises by playing with the Batman action figure, saying "he's changing into Batgirl."

Other costumes that have been popular this week include the swimsuits. Vanessa and Elizabeth have spent a lot of time jumping into the "pool" that is actually our exercise mat. Oh boy are these girls ready for warmer weather!

Elizabeth is 21 months old now, and Vanessa is officially 3 and a half. Every three months, I try to take a picture of them with their special Dee dolls. At 21 months, Elizabeth can count to ten and recognize several words without context -- no, yes, up, my, boots, boo, and many names, maybe including yours! The girls insists on my writing the names of their friends and family on the sides of every box of Kix that we open. That way they can look at the names of the people they care about every day. Elizabeth can climb up into her booster chair and buckle herself, and climb from the ground into her car seat. She can dress and undress herself with very little help. Vanessa at 3 and a half can defeat the child safety door knob covers (that didn't take long), repeat patterns of 3 or 4 notes that someone else plays on the piano, tie the knot on her shoe (but not the bow), and follow simple written directions. Both girls are also really great at singing, making messes, and getting into trouble. :)

Ballet time! Vanessa and Elizabeth are already anticipating the ballet class I promised we would enroll them in this summer, when their ages align such that they can take a 2-3 year-old class together. So, they've been practicing their moves and making sure their ballet clothes still fit!

Here's another picture of Elizabeth with her Dee-Dee doll.

Here's Vanessa with her Miss Dee doll.

Elizabeth tries out Vanessa's old tap shoes.

Time for a bow!

Texas and the biggest snow ever

2010-02-10T22:35:00.012-05:00

It's been quite a whirlwind of activity this month. We took a chance with some good deals on airfare to make it down to Texas to see Jake and our nieces. We made it there and back without any trouble due to snow, although some snow fell here while we were there. After we got back, of course, everything was buried in about three feet of snow! I guess snow fell in Texas shortly after we got back too. I guess we were lucky to be able to make our trip when we did!

We saw some amazing basketball played by Bryn and Jadyn's basketball teams. Bryn's game was first. That net was so high and they looked kind of small in comparison, but I vow never to underestimate 6-year-old girls playing basketball again. It was a really action-packed game, with well-executed plays and good teamwork, and with an incredible shooting percentage especially on Bryn's team. We even got to see Bryn make her first basket in a game! Here are the girls warming up for the game.

I think Bryn made this basket in warm-up.

Vanessa was a little shy around Jadyn at first, but Jadyn won her over in short order with a shiny plastic ring.

Elizabeth is equally excited about her own shiny plastic ring.

Vanessa definitely didn't take too long to warm up to Jadyn! Jadyn sure has a way with little ones!

Elizabeth is ready to make friends too!

Later at the mall, Jake was kind enough to carry a sleeping Elizabeth. Jake said he liked the baby time (and I have to say I enjoyed the break)!

Jake kindly shared some of his Build-a-Bear gift certificates with us. Vanessa went straight for the Hello Kitty doll, which she named Texas. She was SO excited to go to Texas to see her cousins! Before Elizabeth sacked out, she chose a little red purse rather than a stuffed animal.

Jadyn and Bryn discovered that if they pooled their gift certificates, they could get a very cool dalmation, which I believe they named Cutie. (I think that was Katelyn's financial advice that helped them figure out how to get more than just the basic bear.)

Here's Jadyn making one of the three baskets we saw her make in her game later that afternoon (Jadyn's best shooting of the season!). Jadyn played point guard and did a great job controlling the ball and setting up plays.

We also saw Jadyn make some great steals!

Our two girls and their three cousins make this a complete set. The best collection of girls I know!

We whisked Katelyn away for an afternoon and went to the skating rink at the mall. The first pair of skates we got for Vanessa were just too small (darn wide feet run in the family!).

Katelyn helped me get Vanessa to the ice.

When I first got on the ice with her I thought I would slip for sure! It took me a while to figure out how to balance myself AND a three-year-old! Thank goodness Katelyn was there.

And the wall helped too! Vanessa and I made it about half way around the rink before Vanessa started to get a little tired. Some encouragement and a helping hand from Katelyn helped us get all the way back around to Daddy!

Well, of course Elizabeth wasn't about to let Vanessa get away with doing something she couldn't, especially where any type of shoes were involved. So we let Elizabeth try on Vanessa's skates.

Vanessa tries very hard to let Elizabeth share the ice-skating limelight. Once Elizabeth had skates on, she had us where she wanted us... it took only a little more persistence on her part before she had convinced us that she should have a short turn on the rink!

We stayed behind the cones, and went out for just a couple of minutes, but she did pretty good!

She kind of figured out how to balance. Not bad for having oversized skates on.

Back at Uncle Jake's place, Vanessa played her own version of Superman with Uncle Jake. This version, as near as I could tell, involved pretending to fly around the house and then pretending to crash to the floor.

Bryn joined this game of Superman.

Some family time relaxing on the couch!

Jadyn's turn to join the Superman game!

Bryn and Vanessa have a little computer time.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth takes a little snooze on Jadyn's lap.

Vanessa and Jadyn played a little bowling on the Wii. Bryn observed while she waited for her turn. Jadyn and Bryn were seasoned Wii experts, and Vanessa learned quite a bit from them.

On Monday we visited the children's museum before heading out on our flight. The girls take a minute to pose in an alligator's mouth.

The girls tried to make sure that their Pooh Bears had a great time at the museum.

There was not just a train table, but a train ROOM at the museum. The girls were in heaven.

Ooh, and there was an ambulance to pretend to drive in a hospital-themed room.

Elizabeth helps one of the baby dolls wash her hands in the neonatal unit.

There was a dinosaur exhibit complete with skeletons and interactive games. The girls probably spent 20 minutes sitting in this dinosaur footprint.

We saw a 3-D movie about natural gas. Only the big energy companies could find a way to make this such an action-packed heart-thumping sequence so as to scare the heck out of Elizabeth, poor thing! Well, she did really enjoy the glasses, in any case!

There was a great exhibit for playing with engineering toys. Elizabeth made a birthday cake with candles out of some tinker toys.

Both girls enjoyed the wind tunnel that floated paper helicopters or parachutes straight up and out the top!

Elizabeth and Daddy play with some mosaic tiles.

Vanessa drags a finger through the sand on a rotating table.

Elizabeth was fascinated by this display too.

Soon we were on our flight back home. Grandma stayed with us after we got back, and the girls enjoyed some great story time with her (this time story time came with props!)

Not long after Grandma had made it safely back home, the biggest snow we had ever seen in Virginia came! And kept on coming! Our first attempt at shoveling the driveway left enough snow to have a little sledding fun on.

There's a smile!

Vanessa's favorite activity was knocking the snow back into the driveway....

We built a snow cave to keep the girls entertained and a bit warmer.

It bears noting that we didn't have to build up to make this snow cave -- James just dug a spot out of the giant wall of snow lining our driveway.

I should have tried to get a car in this picture for scale -- when James's car was parked in the driveway earlier it nearly disappeared behind the snow.

Vanessa sits on the floor of the kitchen looking out at the snow at her shoulder level outside.

Here's a picture of the high winds blowing while additional snow fell during the following day.

James was away on a business trip during a good portion of this storm, unable to get back because of canceled flights. I'm just so glad that he's back safely and I'm so glad that we were able to see our family in Texas with out any travel trouble.

Christmas and New Year 2010

2010-01-16T21:59:00.009-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and is enjoying a great new year. I'm just now getting around to posting about our holidays!

The girls enjoyed the enormous amount of snow that fell in December. They couldn't exactly go sledding -- in fact, they couldn't really leave the path that James shoveled out, because they would sink up to their waists in snow! But they enjoyed it nonetheless -- touching it with mittened hands and stomping on bits of it with booted feet.

Stockings on Christmas morning!

The girls exercised a sharing method to opening just about all their presents this year -- very sweet. This is a really great play-dough set from my friend Sara that has been entertaining them almost every day lately!

Our big gift to the girls was a train set and trains. They were just as excited about the trains as two spoiling parents could hope.

Ooh, train...

Elizabeth and Vanessa both wanted a turn "being cute" in the special kid-size rocking chair on Christmas day.

Vanessa's turn to be cute.

The girls played "going on a bus ride" with Uncle Brian. One of their favorite games!

Elizabeth was in the mood for doing a few of her tricks!

Here's Vanessa opening Candyland -- a present from Uncle Brian and Joanna -- Vanessa loves this game, despite the very hard lesson of not always winning. Winning most of the time makes up for it!

Vanessa played Santa by delivering everyone's gifts, but she was a little shy about giving presents to Uncle John and Aunt Kalena... she settled for dropping the presents at their feet and scooting quickly away! Next time she sees them I'll bet she'll be a lot less shy... she's so funny sometimes...

In my opinion, the best present Brian got this Christmas, from Kalena and John.

Vanessa evaluates the appropriateness of James's pair...

I wish I could remember exactly what Elizabeth said that made James and Nana crack up!

One holiday, four dogs. Quite a houseful!

Grampa and Elizabeth enjoy the new castle that we got from Grampa and Nana this Christmas. Hours and hours of fun have already been had in these cool castle pieces.

The girls couldn't have been more excited about Grandma visiting this Christmas. They loved playing with her, reading with her, and riding on her!

Elizabeth helps Vanessa open her new bike helmet and bell from Grampa K and Grandma K. Vanessa has had renewed interest in her bike because of her new bell especially and she can't wait until I let her take the bike outside when the weather warms up.

Vanessa and Elizabeth had a great time at Aunt Heather and Uncle Terry's house. Balloons! Pure joy.

Heather seemed to be having a blast preparing the balloons for them!

Hannah and Elizabeth (and Vanessa too, in this picture only as a shoe in the background) spent quite a while in the room at Aunt Heather and Uncle Terry's house known only as "the Lego room." Seriously, could there be a cooler place for kids to play than this house?

Vanessa goes for a ride on Hannah while Elizabeth checks out her own reflection in a mirror that Hannah gave her. The girls just love their Aunt Hannah!

Vanessa and Grampa K have a good laugh about something.

Vanessa and I are having some fun with some "homework" books that she likes to work on. I wonder for how many years she will beg to do homework!

We decided to enroll the girls in a music class. The bubbles alone definitely won them over.

And I'll end the post with a picture of our muppet puppet fun!

Thanksgiving

2009-12-22T22:24:00.010-05:00

Woohoo! I managed to post about Thanksgiving before Christmas is upon us!

Thanksgiving was just as it should be this year, full of lots of friends and family. We even got an early start on Thanksgiving, celebrating with my Mom and Heather and Terry and Zak on the weekend just prior to Thanksgiving.

Aunt Heather has many talents, but one of my favorites is making my girls laugh! Elizabeth loved playing peekaboo through Heather's hair.

Thanksgiving can be a bit of a nondisjunction of holidays, because it tends to be the beginning of the Christmas season as well as a holiday in itself. Vanessa decides to add Easter into the mix, by discovering her egg basket and pulling it out its storage place.

Now it's time for Aunt Heather to give Vanessa the giggles!

And Uncle Zak gets some good goofy giggles from Elizabeth too!

Grandma gets a big Elizabeth grin with a rubber ducky toy.

Ah, this picture is mostly to remind myself to bring a CAMERA to Thanksgiving, for Pete's sake. This picture was taken with my phone, alas, the resolution is not so great. On Thanksgiving Day, we joined James's parents and Brian and Joanna (and their dog Kyra and new dog Winston) for our big meal. Oh, and if you are wondering who Vanessa invited to the table (and carried all the way down the stairs and into the dining room), that's Nana's doll from when she was little!

Just after Thanksgiving, it was time to put up the Christmas tree. I don't think Daddy could have done it half as quickly without help from his little elves.

We were so fortunate to have a visit from our friends Janet, Ryan, Peter, and new baby Evan. I tried to take some pics of Ryan and Evan, but the red-eye was beyond touching up. But this picture of Janet and Peter is very cute, isn't it? Peter and Evan are such little sweethearts.

Can you believe that they were sharing a turn on the piano for a few minutes? See, I told you Peter is a sweetheart.

I was a week or two late with my every-three-months-with-special-doll pictures. Well, here is Vanessa at three years and three months, and Elizabeth at 18 months with their special dolls from Grammy Dee.

Elizabeth just had her 18 month appointment today. (Again a little late, but just you wait, I'm going to be much more prompt about things now that I won't be taking classes until the fall!) She weighed 23 pounds 10 ounces and she was 32 inches tall. She had an ear infection so she was given a short reprieve from her shots. For Vanessa on the other hand, our trip was a bit of a dis-appointment -- I decided to let her have the H1N1 vaccine. Ouch!

Elizabeth is doing just great developmentally -- I think my favorite skill of hers is singing, because I think she has a better memory for tune than I do, and a pretty good memory for lyrics too! The other day when I sang "Frere jacques, frere jacques" for the first time to her, Elizabeth sang out the next line "Here I am" from "Where is Thumb-kin?," which shares the same melody. And she has a good visual memory too -- when she saw the word "National" today, she pointed and said "Nana," because it starts with the same letters, I guess.

Here is Vanessa holding her Miss Dee doll.

Vanessa's new skills include being able to write letters in small spaces (she was practicing putting a few of the simpler letters inside the squares on a crossword puzzle), and writing her name and a few other words. She's finally breaking out of her "must only color with purple" phase, and just in time, because our purple paint is almost gone and our purple markers are exhausted. Vanessa has been working on her enunciation -- she can say her hard G and K sounds now and is better about her double consonants in words like "spoon" and "school."

Vanessa can now enter a password and log in to an account that James set up for her on our laptop, change her account picture icon, open up MS Paint and do some drawings, open up MS Word and type some names, and log off. She calls this "checking her email." Ah, Vanessa, how dangerous you will be soon...

The girls' great-grandmother Grandma Lou sent some light-up snowman ornaments for the Christmas tree. Elizabeth and Vanessa were both excited the minute they opened the package, and that was only just because they found the bubble wrap... they could hardly believe their luck when they discovered that there were also ornaments inside!

Now how does Grandma Lou know that red is Elizabeth's favorite color and Vanessa loves blue and purple best? I guess grandmas just make that kind of stuff their business.

After trying to make sugar cookies at a friend's house with some success, I thought I would try it out at home as one of our snowed-in activities. Only now with practice, Elizabeth and Vanessa were even faster with cutting out the cookies and even trickier to keep up with. I'll get ahead of you girls one of these years, just you wait...

Here is one picture of some of the snow that fell on our back yard this Saturday. Snow was still falling, and I think about 3 more inches of snow fell than is pictured here. I like this picture because it shows the lovely snow gumdrops that our little round backyard tables made! Right now I can hear the plow going past in our street, three days after all of this. I'm very thankful that we and everyone we know is safe and not stuck anywhere because of all this snow. Instead, it just makes for outdoor fun! The girls and I plan to attempt a snowman tomorrow. We'll see if we make it into our snow clothes and outside before someone needs to use the potty...

Mollie's wedding (and related adventures)

2009-12-20T15:03:00.011-05:00

I have two posts to get through before Christmas... let's see if I can do it!

When we traveled to the Eastern Shore just before Thanksgiving to see Mollie and Fred's wedding, we stayed in Virginia Beach. I decided to start this post with the pictures from our adventure on the day after the wedding -- we visited the beach and the aquarium in Virginia Beach. I'll save pics of Mollie and Fred for this post's big finish.

We saw turtles, sharks, and fish. Many of them about as big or bigger than Elizabeth!

Last time we saw one of these steam tornado demonstrations (possibly actually a waterspout demo), Vanessa refused to touch it and Elizabeth was the one who was interested in it. Funny how things change for no apparent reason.

Elizabeth was feeling brave enough to try to touch a ray.

Both girls loved the seal exhibit outside the aquarium. I think I could watch seals for hours, myself!

Later on the beach, the girls spent some time digging in the sand and making sand castles (really sand piles with bits of sticks in them).

Not sure why Daddy and Elizabeth were headed in opposite directions in this picture. Looks like they're running from each other! Actually, probably James is headed to check on Vanessa and Elizabeth is running to find me, I imagine.

Now Elizabeth and Daddy are holding hands. We saw a surfer accompanied by a speedboat. I think Elizabeth may have been watching them in this picture.

I just like the composition in this picture. I think this may have been just before or after I convinced Vanessa to touch the icy water with her toes.

There's something very peaceful about this picture, I think.

Vanessa is showing Elizabeth a shark or ray egg case that we found.

OK, now on to the wedding pictures from the previous day:

Bubbles. In some young hearts, the best part about weddings. By the way, Vanessa plays "getting married" quite often now (mostly involving finding some kind of bouquet). So apparently she really enjoyed Mollie's!

Uncle Zak helps Vanessa take some pictures with the cameras that Mollie and Fred distributed for the purpose of filling out their photo album. I bet they had no idea that some of their pictures would be taken by a toddler...

Fred and Mollie and Mollie's folks. Happy wedding!

Have I mentioned the joy of bubbles? Yay!

Thank you Uncle Terry for watching my girls! There were times during the reception when someone would ask, "Where's Vanessa?" or "Where's Elizabeth" and I would have absolutely no idea. Thank goodness Terry had things under control!

I thought I'd end with a picture of the happy couple dancing. What a beautiful bride!

October

2009-11-02T23:59:00.005-05:00

We had a very lovely October. The leaves changed beautifully and the weather stayed warm for the most part. We've had lots of opportunity to play outside, and we've had fun with Vanessa's school and we've seen lots of family and friends.

I think Vanessa has grown 3/4 of an inch this month. And she looks so grown up with her fancy hair ties. This was my first attempt EVER at putting up her hair, so no laughing. She wanted one of each of the six colors of hair ties I had, and it was a bit of a challenge to find enough space for all of them.

We had a great time at Clifton Day. I think one of the highlights for the girls was feeding the pony. The pony ate right from their little hands!

Later, we met up with Brian, Joanna, and Kyra. A great day, all around!

Here's another picture of the girls feeding the animals. I think this is Elizabeth's first experience with a cow. She must think they're all this size!

On Nana's birthday, Vanessa and Elizabeth got to hang out even more with Uncle Brian, Joanna, and Kyra. The girls are definitely enjoying having their uncle and soon-to-be-aunt living nearby. Aunt Kalena and Uncle John were also up for Nana's birthday. It was wonderful to see them too!

Vanessa and her Nana. Happy birthday Nana!

Elizabeth tasted her first chocolate cake, and... liked it!

For Halloween, Vanessa wanted to be Cinderella. So of course, Elizabeth did too! I happened to have this light blue dance costume on hand because I had bought it for Vanessa's dance class. Elizabeth decided it was close enough! The girls had some serious practicing to do in their costumes before Halloween.

They had to practice all their ballet moves.

Especially those arabesques! I don't know if you can tell that Vanessa's heel is reflective, but both girls' feet were completely covered in glitter by the time they finished dancing. Vanessa's dress shedded glitter all over the house. A few days later when Elizabeth danced on the mat (out of costume), she kept checking to see if her feet were getting shiny.

This is really kind of a private joke -- I'm using a lot of SQL in my database class right now. Vanessa inadvertantly combined these letters while trying to group together purple letters. Purple, by the way, is Vanessa's new favorite color. I think changing favorite colors is just a tactic to get all new clothes...

Silly girl number 1.

Silly girl number 2!

Singing and telling stories

2009-10-27T19:53:00.002-04:00

Elizabeth and Vanessa have been singing, singing, singing. I think preschool helps with the singing -- I often hear Vanessa sing "Wheels on the Bus" because they practice that one at school.

Elizabeth on the other hand has been singing "Happy birthday to you," I think because of Nana's recent birthday. Vanessa meanwhile has been playing the Happy Birthday tune on the piano (she has stickers for the letters of the notes on the piano keys to help her out). Elizabeth's other favorite parts of songs to sing are "Row, row, row your boat," "ashes, ashes, we all fall down," "moon, moon, moon," and "up above the." Incidentally, she calls stars "up above the"s.

Vanessa wrote and illustrated a new story today. Here is what she told me to write: "Stegosaurus dived into the water. He got out of the water and then he jumped! And then he turned around and scratched to make these lines."

Vanessa is here with me and she says she wants to write more. Here is what she wants to type (with only a very little bit of spelling help from me):

VANESSA CHLOE MAXTED ME AND MY BABY

Remembering Jessica

2009-10-17T23:30:00.002-04:00

My sister-in-law Jessica passed away a year ago this month. I think about her quite often. One of the most painful things about losing her is the loss of that illusion that I had since I was young, that death is too far away to worry about. The truth is that loved ones can be lost and that grief can be very real.

On the other hand, this reminds me to love life and be happy NOW, because you never know what might happen. And that the parts of my loved ones' lives that I have already shared are true gifts, never to be taken for granted.

I miss my sister, but I am so humbled and grateful to have been a part of her life. What an amazing mommy and truly outstanding friend!

October is breast-cancer awareness month, go out and make a difference!

Elizabeth wows us!

2009-10-02T21:39:00.002-04:00

The other day, James said he felt like he's been away for a week and Elizabeth grew up while he wasn't watching. I feel the same way -- it's like I turned my back and all of a sudden she's a toddler! Since I was so good about trying to use this blog as a "baby book" for Vanessa to keep track of her milestones, I will also try to keep up with Elizabeth's. Elizabeth is now 16 months old.

Elizabeth speaks in full sentences now -- not all the time, but a few times a day. Today for example, she said, "I need help" and "I'm running," and other memorable sentences have been "I see bubbles," and "I want to read book." She says ALL kinds of words, including "fountain" and "arabesque." One of her favorite words is "match" when she finds things that do, and she starts counting "one..." when she sees many things that are alike. She knows, says, and signs all her colors and she knows most of her letters. When we read "Where's Spot?" she says "No" when I point to the word "No," and she can identify the word "up" in another book.

She hugs and pretends to feed dolls and LOVES to stack duplos, drive matchbox cars and make toy airplanes fly. She loves playing dress-up, especially with shoes. She can help clean up and especially enjoys sweeping. One of her relatively new skills is blowing her nose -- I just wish she wouldn't blow her nose and then practice one of her other skills, cleaning the table (with the same tissue, argh).

She loves to be just like her big sister, whom she recently learned to call "Sessa" (previously "Yah-yah"). She really loves Vanessa's preschool and I think she would love to go. She also misses tagging along to Vanessa's dance class... I can tell because when she sees a picture of a ballerina, she says, "dance class, go!" and gets up to leave!

Preschool, Mickey, Shamu, and Radars

2009-09-24T22:38:00.016-04:00

I decided to take Vanessa Halloween costume shopping in an effort to give mommy some more free time. In a mild upset, she chose Cinderella over what I thought was a lock in Ariel. Here she models her costume for Nana in preparation for her visit to Disney World.

Vanessa has also started school! She goes to school literally a half a mile a way, so Sarah and Elizabeth can drop her off and pick her up in a stroller. Vanessa goes back and forth about being excited about school and not wanting to do it. Usually if we remind her that you have to be 3 to go to school she gets excited about it.

Elizabeth on the other hand loves school and its hard for Sarah to pull her away. She wants to be just like her older sister. Here they hang out after school on the playground.

Switching gears here, as part of my transition to new responsibilities at work, I signed up for a Basic Radar Concepts course in Orlando, Florida. It's an introductory radar course offered by Georgia Tech. I figured that since I'd be in Orlando for three days, I might as well extend my stay, bring the family, and visit some famous theme park in the area.

We stayed at the Disney All-Star Music resort. Because we were going during their "offseason", we got a great deal of $69 a night. Here we are riding the free bus to Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios).

No sooner had we walked into Hollywood Studios than a Block Party Parade broke out. Vanessa decided she needed an aerial view of the festivities.

One thing about Florida during the summer/fall is that you should expect some form of rain every day and lots of sun, very little in between. Here you can see that as one smart soul heads for cover, our girls head on out to play.

They really liked playing in really warm rain. I enjoyed a nice sheltered view.

Here is a perfect example of the difficulty of taking pictures of our girls. Right now they look absolutely soaking wet and miserable outside Mickey's hat.

Just 30 seconds later they look so happy! I don't know what Sarah did to elicit that response.

Day 2 of Disney took us to the Animal Kingdom. Here the girls enjoy the tram ride from our car to the front gates.

This was my first trip to the Animal Kingdom since it had been built more recently than I had visited. As you can see, this day's weather was much more typical for Florida in the summer.

Animal Kingdom is sort of a combination zoo and theme park. Here we are on the way to check out some birds.

While waiting for our safari ride, we walked through one of the animal exhibits. We spent a good time here looking at the fish and the hippo (not appearing in this picture).

Here we are on the safari ride. This was really cool. You basically are on a Jurassic Park style ride through the wildlife reserve.

Here the girls check out some elephants. Elizabeth loves elephants.

After getting off the safari, we stumbled upon some drums. My girls are never one to pass up playing some music, so we took a break for a brief jam session.

Walking a little bit down the road, I saw a small sign that said Pooh, Eeyore, and Tigger. I knew that Vanessa was just fine with meeting larger than life characters as she had previously tackled the Chick-fil-a cow. She was SO excited to meet Pooh et al. Elizabeth was a bit more tenative.

Vanessa actually smiled for the camera here. Elizabeth is still a bit unsure.

She seemed to like Eeyore a bit more. Here she gets in some peek-a-boo with him.

Once again, Vanessa snuggled up close. Elizabeth was still keeping her distance.

I think of these three, Vanessa was most excited to see Tigger.

Elizabeth also warmed up to Tigger. I suspect she'll inherit Vanessa's Tigger costume for Halloween, so this was a good meeting for her.

One thing Disney does well are their variants of Dumbo the Flying Elephant. Here Vanessa demonstrates that she knows how to make her Triceratops go up and down.

Tuesday was the first day of my class, so Sarah took the girls to the pool at the hotel and headed out to Epcot later in the day. I think they spent most of their time in the water fountains. I headed over to Epcot for dinner, but we spent the least amount of time there. It's a bit much for the youngins.

Wednesday marked the arrival of Nana to Orlando. She arrived around lunchtime and took the girls to the Magic Kingdom while I was in class.

By the time I got out of class, I found the girls playing in Ariel's grotto.

Think Elizabeth likes the water?

I decided to give Nana and Sarah a break and take Vanessa to meet her favorite little mermaid.

I think she's a bit excited and happy to be sitting next to someone special.

Ariel was very nice. Vanessa was hopping up and down so much it was difficult to get her to sit for a photo.

Elizabeth loved the extra time with Nana.

This is my favorite picture we got there. We're all smiling, looking at the camera, and you can tell where we are. Good job Disney photographer!

On Thursday, Grandma Lou drove over from Lakeland and took the girls to Magic Kingdom while I continued to get firehosed with radar range equations and electronic countermeasures. Vanessa sure loves her Nana.

Apparently Sarah couldn't get the girls away from these cactus statues of Goofy et al in Mickey's backyard.

One thing I really like about Disney is that they let you bring in your own food and drinks if you want. Sarah and the girls took full advantage of this. Just don't try to take those crackers away from Vanessa.

Vanessa enjoyed taking the family for a spin in tea cups from Alice in Wonderland. She insisted on doing the spinning all by herself.

The girls loved all the playgrounds at Walt Disney World.

Vanessa and Elizabeth loved chasing each other in a nice shaded area.

Right near by were there of the princesses. Here we are with Princess Aurora, aka Briar Rose, aka Sleeping Beauty. Vanessa was a bit shy and insisted that Daddy sit with her.

That shyness completly disappeared when we met Cinderella.

Very excited. VERY excited.

By the time we had gotten to Belle, Vanessa was willing to be more open. After telling Belle her name, she also tells her how old she is. Belle shows her that there are many ways to sign three.

Vanessa really enjoyed her visit to the princesses. They were very polite, kind, and patient.

Here the girls wear their matching outfit while in line for the Jungle Cruise. Aren't they cute?

They do love each other so much.

My cousin Cynthia and her daughter McKenna drove over to see the electric parade with us. Here Grandma Lou is laughing as Vanessa decided to eat her ice cream like a cat. It was pretty silly.

On Friday we headed back to Hollywood Studios to see what we missed. Vanessa was a bit scared of the bad guy. That hasn't stopped her from continuing to ask to see him everytime we scan through these pictures.

This was part of the same Jedi Academy show. Basically they pull 12 children from the audience, put them in Jedi robes, give them a lightsaber, teach them how to swing it, and then each in turn gets to fight Darth Vader. Then they get a Padawan diploma. The family in front of us had seen the show six times because their two daughters had already gotten chosen but their son hadn't. Good thing this wasn't around when I was kid, I would have driven my parents nuts.

We finally found Mickey hiding out in the Animation gallery. The girls were very excited to meet him. This might end up being our Christmas card photo this year.

Nana agreed to get in one picture to prove to her coworkers she was at Disney and not just playing golf.

On Saturday we went to Sea World. It's hard to see, but here Vanessa and I are feeding the Dolphins. She LOVED this.

I think Elizabeth liked Sea World even more than Vanessa. She loved watching the rays and sharks whenever she got a chance.

Finally, on our last day in Florida, we went to the Magic Kingdom one last time. I had taken Vanessa on Goofy's Barnstormer the first time, but Mommy loves roller coasters. Here you can see them just coming around the bend.

Finally, on our way out we ran into Jasmine and Aladdin. Vanessa was so excited she couldn't contain herself.

I love this picture because she looks terrified. In reality, she's doing her smile combined with overstimulation because she's so excited. Overall the girls were amazing and definitely encouraged their parents to take them again in a couple of years.

I also highly recommend that Basic Radar Concepts course if you're looking to learn about radars. The professor who taught the class was one the best presenters I've seen, and trust me, I've sat through several degrees worth of college classes at this point in my life. ;)

Vanessa turns 3 and the Maryland Renaissance Festival

2009-09-24T21:14:00.007-04:00

So we're very behind on updating the blog. Hopefully we'll get caught up this week.
As Vanessa will tell you any chance she gets, she is now three. Technically this picture here is from our trip to Michigan. We asked her on the morning of the 31st before we flew back how old she was.

Vanessa is obsessed with sequences and order. Here she has arranged her numbers in the right order more or less.

Vanessa insisted that for her part that we wear hats. Elizabeth loved this part.

We had a small get together for her birthday. We had been in Michigan for the previous 5 days, so luckily our guests were willing to overlook any small messes. Here Vanessa hangs out with her friends Abigail, Isabelle, and Nickie as well as Nana and Grandpa.

Aunt Joanna and Vanessa do a little dance. Not sure which one, but it sure looks funny.

Johnny and Liz brought one of Vanessa's favorite things in the world over, Riley! You think they get along alright?

Vanessa was very excited to get a cake with candles.

What you don't see here is that she wanted Daddy to help and he was no help in trying to blow out the candles the first time. Even Daddy's get older I guess.

It wouldn't be a party without presents. Vanessa was very excited to get her own doctor kit.

Isabelle and Elizabeth were excited to help Vanessa open presents. Riley helped too.

Brian and Joanna made it too. We're so glad that they're up in the area now and we'll get to see them more often. They left Kyra at home this time as they figured it'd be too much of a party with both Kyra and Riley.

After a busy weekend of travel and a fun birthday party, Vanessa settles in for story time with Nana and Daddy.

Okay, fast forward a week. In an attempt to give Sarah some time to do school work, I took the girls out for a day trip to the Renaissance Festival in Maryland. Of course, we had to stop at Chick-fil-a. Elizabeth loved the bubble dome.

One of my favorite acts from last year was here once again. Michael Rosman is a comedian/juggler/acrobat. You definitely need to see his show if you're around. Hysterical.

The girls were entranced by his act. One of the few shows at the festival they were willing to sit through.

I think they were most excited about seeing the elephants and the ponies. Being an army of one, I figured trying to hold two girls on an elephant just isn't a good idea. But I suspect next time we go I'm going to have to pony up for the elephant ride. And get in line for the free pony rides.

Elizabeth loved going down the slide in the play area. She's at the age where she wants to be just like her big sister. I also realized here that watching two girls on a crowded playground in the middle of a festival and trying to take pictures just doesn't work all that well.

As a three year old, Vanessa enjoys showing off any skills that a three year old can do that a two year old shouldn't. She keeps this up and we'll give her a go on the rock climbing wall with the bungee cords.

Vanessa also wanted a floral "mane" like the other girls. She calls it a mane because that's what we called her headdress when she was a flower girl.

Of course, what Vanessa does, Elizabeth wants to do better.

We tried watching a sword fighting show, but Vanessa had other ideas. I decided this was "the sign" that we should leave. I think they had a good time though.

Finally, here's my wonderful family sporting some excellent colors. Well, except the oldest one, but at least that's a W&M t-shirt.

Michigan and Grandparents' 60th Anniversary Celebration

2009-09-10T21:40:00.019-04:00

My Grandma Lou and Grandpa Phil celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this year. They decided to hold a belated family celebration up in Northern Michigan at the end of August. I wanted to go up a couple of days earlier and take my family to some of my favorite spots from when I grew up and visited up there. Our first stop was Mackinac Island. Mackinac Island is located where Lake Michigan meets Lake Huron. There are no cars allowed on the island and the only way to get there is via boat, helicopter, or in the winter, snowmobile.

The two girls are ready to go on the ferry to Mackinac Island.

Vanessa checks out the water from the upper deck.

Once the boat got going, it was pretty windy. You can see the Mackinac Bridge in the background.

Vanessa insisted on trying ice cream in a cone for the first time. It worked out alright.

One of the best ways to get around the island is by bike. Elizabeth gets strapped in for her first bike ride.

Daddy and Vanessa take the lead to go around the island.

Sarah wanted more of an action shot this time.

Elizabeth enjoyed the bike ride as long as she stayed warm. Luckily the trip around the island is only 8 miles and there was a restroom halfway through.

We stayed at the Boyne Mountain Resort which is about 10 miles south of Petoskey, MI. In the winter it's a huge ski resort. Attached to it is a giant indoor water park called Avalanche Bay. Vanessa decides to show Daddy her b-ball skills.

After swimming, we decided to use our free tokens. Vanessa finished in 13th place.

Not one to let her sister do something that she can do, Elizabeth goes for a spin.

The resort had some acrobats outside so they could tether guests and do some swinging. Vanessa gets some good ideas for her next trick to show us.

This is about as close as we'll get right now to all of us looking at the camera and smiling with open eyes.

We got a kite from the local toy store and showed Vanessa and Elizabeth how it works.

As I said in the last post, Elizabeth loves to play peek-a-boo.

Vanessa like having her own queen size bed. The sides were a bit rough because it was a sofa bed, but she like the game of only getting out of the bed at the base of the bed.

Grandma Lou and Grandpa Phil had a timeshare at the resort. We all got together for lunch on Saturday. Here Nana shows her great nephew Donovan how to play bowling on the Wii. I don't think he liked losing to his great aunt.

All my second cousins flocked to Sarah. I think the school teacher in her came out as they all read Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom. Here she reads to Vanessa, Clare, McKenna, and Elizabeth in the clockwise order.

Clare shows Sarah she knows her alphabet song really well.

Time for lunch!

After lunch it was time to play the Hokey Pokey.

The adults watch the Hokey Pokey continue.

Elizabeth sat this one out.

I'm not sure what they were doing here.

My cousins Laurie and Cynthia lead Clare, Donovan, and McKenna in a game of showing new tricks.

Elizabeth decided it was time for a snack after waking up.

My Great Aunt Jean shows her great great niece how to draw with an electronic game.

Now it was time to play Sarah's modified version of musical chairs. They play Gloria Estefan's Conga and move when its just music and sit down when she sings. It actually works pretty well.

Here everyone is scrambling for their "seat" in modified musical chairs.

McKenna was nice enough to let Vanessa color in some of her coloring books. I think both girls were excited to meet more cousins they hadn't met before.

Before the big party, we decided to feed the kids at Big Boy since they turn in to Gremlins if you don't feed them by 5:00. There was an indoor mini-golf course so we figured we'd kill some time. Elizabeth shows us how to put the balls in the hole and take them out.

Of course Vanessa had a blue ball with a blue club. She actually made this putt with that form. Nana will have to work on that with her.

We finally got to the restaurant for the celebration of my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. It was held in the town of Petoskey where my grandparents lived for many years before retiring to Florida. There were many family members and old friends in attendance. In this picture, Elizabeth loved meeting her second cousin Laurie.

My cousins Matthew and Cynthia play pass the Elizabeth.

I'm not sure exactly who Sarah was hiding from here.

My cousin Laurie entertained Vanessa during part of the festivities.

Aunt Kathy made a nice cake for their party.

Still together after 60 years. Very rare to see nowadays. Congrats Grandma and Grandpa!

Cutting the cake. Didn't they do this 60 years ago?

Not sure about the use of a knife as a serving tool, but whatever works.

Elizabeth had enough excitement for awhile and found a nice place to sleep in Bumpa's lap.

Grandma Lou couldn't quite follow the directions to the game of see which spouse knows the other better. She kept saying her answers aloud instead of writing them down.

This is the first wave of photos with Grandpa Phil and Grandma Lou and their great grandkids. From left to right, Sarah, Elizabeth, Great Uncle Horace, Grandpa Phil, Vanessa, Clare, McKenna, Grandma Lou, and Donovan.

The next wave of my first cousins. From left to right, Darren, Cynthia, Grandpa Phil, Melanie, Grandma Lou, Matthew, Sarah, Elizabeth, and myself.

Here's the wiser crew. From left to right, my Aunt Kathy, Grandpa Phil, Grandma Lou, Uncle Kevin, Aunt Dee, my Dad (Bumpa), and my Mom (Nana).

After leaving Petoskey, we decided to stop at the Sleeping Bear Dunes near Lake Michigan. This was always a fun stop when I was a kid. Most of the fun is climbing up the first hill and running or rolling back down. We decided to go easy on the girls and just go as far as they wanted. It was cooler up there so we left the jackets on.

You can start to see the scale of the dunes here. One of these days we'll have to make the full hike up and down to Lake Michigan.

Elizabeth loved playing in the sand.

Elizabeth loved helping Mommy build in the sand.

Vanessa still wasn't sure about this cool sand and getting our feet dirty. I showed her how you can write cool things in the sand, like her name.

I'd say Elizabeth really enjoyed this stop.

Once she got more comfortable, Vanessa showed Daddy the right way to lay in the sand.

Another great view of the dunes.

We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City the night before we flew back. They had a ton of kids things to do. Here Vanessa has her PJs on and is ready for the story hour.

Vanessa seemed to enjoy the story hour well enough, though I think she liked cuddling with Daddy as much as listening to the story.

That's probably it for tonight. I'll try to post birthday pictures tomorrow before we head out to Disney World on Sunday.

Long time no post

2009-09-10T20:40:00.008-04:00

I guess we've been busy this summer. We're going to Disney World next week so I figured I'd start getting us caught up.
Vanessa has decided that she needs to help with everything now. This apparently included vacuuming Mommy's car. I don't mind if she wants to pick up this job. ;)

One of the things that has kept us busy this summer is dance class. Vanessa is a bit introverted and took a couple of weeks to warm up to the class and everyone. The first half was ballet and second half was tap. I think she liked the tap better since she could make a lot of noise. Here she is with Ms. Christina and the rest of the class in a circle.

Elizabeth liked visiting dance class as much as Vanessa did taking it. She's much more outgoing and loved chasing all the other girls. Guess we have to sign her up next year.

Vanessa shows how she can be tall like the teacher.

Bustin a tap move here.

Both our daughters loved peek-a-boo. They play it with each other ALOT. Wonder what's underneath this blanket?

It's an Elizabeth!

With all the love of dinosaurs in our house now, we decided to take a trip out to Dinosaur Land in Front Royal.

Help, a shark has swallowed my family whole!

This is Vanessa's favorite dinosaur, a Stegosaurus. In fact, if you see Vanessa, she'll probably want to know your name, your age, your favorite color, and your favorite dinosaur.

Vanessa stands next to a baby T-Rex, Daddy's favorite dinosaur. Ignore all this recent research that paints T-Rex as more of a vulture like scavenger, it was a vicious predator! ;)

Elizabeth loved running around the dinosaurs. Here she is next to a family of Triceratops, Sarah's favorite dinosaur.

Vanessa got in on the happy bouncing action.

Eventually Vanessa wanted a ride on Daddy's shoulders. Here the two of us and Elizabeth check out a Styracosaurus.

Elizabeth shows us just how tall this dinosaur is.

Mommy and Elizabeth pose in front of Mommy's favorite, the Triceratops.

One last photo in this set. Vanessa found one of my lightsabers and hasn't stopped playing with it since. I've convinced her that she can only hit the ground with it to make the clash noise, but we'll see how long that lasts.

Rachael and Edgar's wedding

2009-07-27T14:42:00.007-04:00

All the talk in our house this week is about being married. "Mommy, Elizabeth and I are married!" says Vanessa, excitedly holding her sister's hand. "Mommy, this frog, this frog, and Vanessa are married!" says Vanessa, holding up two frogs. And so on. Well, I guess Vanessa enjoyed being a flower girl! The whole family had a wonderful time at Rachael and Edgar's wedding.

But first, I just wanted to post a few pictures of happenings before the wedding. My friend Lisa came over to visit. Elizabeth was fascinated by her necklace, and made fast friends! Vanessa has been talking and thinking about Lisa's visit a lot -- she even spelled Lisa on the fridge with magnet letters this week (well, she spelled it Liza, but what the hey).

We took Elizabeth and Vanessa to a science museum in Roanoke in the morning before the wedding. They both thought it was pretty cool to play with the giant plasma ball.

I think my personal favorite exhibit was the TORNADO OF STEAM! Elizabeth thought it was pretty neat too, but Vanessa wouldn't go near it.

The girls enjoyed seeing themselves on a TV screen with a digitally inserted background.

On to the wedding! The girls both loved running around in the open spaces of the church before the ceremony started.

Vanessa and Elizabeth have been so affectionate with each other lately. My favorite is when they give each other a spontaneous kiss (usually when Elizabeth asks for one by puckering and saying "mmm?")

Vanessa made it down the aisle, no stage fright, no trip-ups! She took her job pretty seriously.

Elizabeth was mostly quiet during the ceremony, thanks to falling asleep part way through it. This is one of my favorite pictures of me and my girls!

And I'm glad to have gotten a pretty good shot of all four of us!

I can't fully express how nice it was to pass off Elizabeth to Grandpa while I went back in to prepare Vanessa for the photo shoot. That little girl is getting really heavy lately! Grandpa never seems to mind though...

A picture of the lovely couple. They both looked just radiant and happy!

I'm glad we had a chance to hang out a bit with Kalena and John! Uncle John kept Elizabeth entertained through a good part of the wedding ceremony. It was so sweet to watch Elizabeth bonding with her uncle!

At the reception (as opposed to the seriousness of the ceremony), we saw LOTS of smiles from Vanessa! Vanessa's always happy to be around her Nana!

These candles captured Vanessa's and Elizabeth's attention during the reception. They really were quite pretty.

Vanessa and her daddy do a little dancing on the sidelines, while Rachael and her dad dance the father-daughter dance.

A girl came to Rachael's wedding wearing a flower girl dress from another recent wedding. She took little Vanessa under her wing, passing the torch of flower-girl-dom.

On the way back home, we decided to stop at Luray Caverns. I think it was probably my first visit. It was definitely Elizabeth's first visit, but Vanessa had come there once before with James. In any case, both girls thoroughly enjoyed it. Vanessa said her favorite part was the formation that looked like sunny-side-up eggs. My favorite part was the "Dream Lake," where the water made a perfect mirror for the stalactites above. I think Elizabeth might have liked the stalactite organ best. This picture is one of Elizabeth running and dancing around in the open space near the organ.

Vanessa, Daddy, and Elizabeth in front of the organ (a little part of it is visible in the background).

When I watered our grass with a sprinkler last week, Vanessa decided she needed an umbrella. Of course she needed an umbrella, never mind that she was already soaking wet from playing in the sprinkler already!

Our garden produced corn this year! Yay! Squirrels 1, James 1. And very tasty corn it is. I don't know where our squirrels are this year, but I definitely don't miss them.

I wanted to end this post with a quote from the day of the wedding. James mentioned very quietly to Vanessa during the wedding ceremony that some of the writing in the hymnals was in Latin. "Daddy!" Vanessa exclaimed, "I have Aladdin on my underwear!"

Elizabeth's extra milestones

2009-07-06T23:30:00.004-04:00

Elizabeth has made some really cool progress this month. I seem to remember with Vanessa that there were a few weeks where leaps and bounds of development happened all at once. I think this must be one of those times! Elizabeth has been practicing more complicated communications of her thoughts. For example, the other day, she said, "close door," and then closed the door! Sometimes she shakes her head and raises her eyebrows, meaning, "I don't see it, where is it?" and makes a noise for a clock, or a fish, and then opens a book, finds a picture of the thing, and points to it. I love when she does this for finding her own bellybutton -- she shakes her head, says something that I guess sounds sort of like bellybutton, and then lifts her shirt to find it. She'll also play peekaboo now by covering her eyes with her hands (except for a teeny tiny space where she peeks through), and then takes her hands away.

We just took Elizabeth to the zoo for the first time -- too bad we forgot our camera! Her favorite animals were the gorillas and the elephants. I set her down just on the other side of one gorilla who had his back up against the glass. He eyes got SO wide, and she kept signing gorilla and staring. Then she got so excited she needed a hug! When we went to the elephant house, there was a little more room to maneuver, and she kept stomping around like an elephant, signing elephant, and pointing with gaping mouth and wide eyes at the ENORMOUS elephants! These ones really were huge, and they were quite close. I think I honestly have forgotten how big elephants can be! When we asked Vanessa what her favorite animal was at the zoo, she said the tiger. We didn't get to hear it make the loud "A-roo" kind of roar she was hoping for, but I guess she thought it was pretty cool anyway.

This was both girls' first time actually going to see fireworks. We went down to the Iwo Jima memorial and watched the fireworks across the river over the Washington Monument. Elizabeth was awake and in awe of the first burst of fireworks, and then promptly passed out. Vanessa stayed awake for the whole thing. Her favorites were the blue ones, of course!

Elizabeth and Vanessa with Jaeger, whom we dog-sat recently. They pretty much adored him, and kept trying to feed him his dog food.

Elizabeth and Vanessa playing dress-up in some of my clothes. Elizabeth loves dressing up just like her big sister.

Vanessa seems to be spending more and more time upside-down these days. I think this handstand of Vanessa's was part of James's motivation in getting a moon bounce for inside our house! (Well, that and Vanessa's new addition to her bedtime routine of doing 100 jumps on her bed every night.) It's a small quiet one -- the moon bounce holds the air without constantly running an air pump. I can't believe she did 100 somersaults in our moon bounce today. Maybe we need to give Vanessa gymnastics classes instead of dance classes! Vanessa has just started dance class two lessons ago, but is still too shy to try to follow along with the other kids. She gets SO excited about dance class at home between lessons (especially her noisy new tap shoes), so maybe this week she'll break out and actually do "I'm a little teapot" with the teacher this Friday evening.

Vanessa in the new moon bounce.

Vanessa in her snappy taps!

The girls and James and I have had a fun weekend celebrating my cousin Mollie's birthday! We're glad she chose us to spend it with!