mountain weekend

the girls and i headed up to the mountains this memorial day to spend some time with grammy, pappy and the watterson family. (also trying to give daddy some time to get some stuff done around the house without us hanging all over him.) it was an amazing weekend. aubrey followed the girls around and leah just loved running back and forth trying to do everything the big girls did. to my pleasant surprise leah did great taking naps and sleeping in a new place. it was so great to be able to get away.

happy birthday to me.

i thought thirty would feel....old.
thankfully my children make me feel young.

leah learning how to walk

a day at the park to practice her new strides. now she can get away from mommy faster.

longwood gardens

strasburg railroad

everybody's birthday

what a perfect way to spend a rainy day...celebrating everyone's birthday.
we spent thursday with our friends...gifts, cupcakes and balloons. the kids had a blast!

my dog thinks shes a cat

she also thinks that she weighs 5 lbs. crazy thing likes to curl up ON TOP of my sofa, right under the window.

spring...we are waiting!

still a little to cold to go out with out jackets... but the ground is dry. that call for play time at the park. just a short walk away from our house...a little park with slide and swings. the perfect distance away from home.

daddy's baby

our little cuddle bug, the bean, peanut, sweetie pie.
whatever you want to call her... she is her daddy's baby.

spring planting at grammy's

my little horticulturist loves to help grammy in the garden. she was out there playing in the dirt and watering the plants the first spring that she could walk. nothing much has changed. you can still find her outside as often as you will let her. leah likes to help too....

lazy saturday afternoons

a day at the zoo

spring is just around the corner. you can feel it in the air. it's just warm enough, with coats on, to spend the day outside at the Philadelphia Zoo. it's quiet. no one is around. we have the place to ourselves.

aubrey was more interested in the plants then the animals. i now have decided to call her my little horticulturist. leah loved the animals, she pointed and waved and could spot the ones we couldn't see. it's fun to see how different they are.

fun with little girls

Tired of the dull, drab days of Winter...Tired of the SNOW. We trecked out to Lancaster to visit Hands on House with friends. Nothing is better then a day of face paint and "food shopping" (at the little pretend grocery store). Leah had a blast playing on her own...and following her big sister around. Aubrey is getting so independent...she played around with her little buddies instead of just Mommy. We finished up the day at McDonalds...what's better then chicken nuggets to end the perfect day?

Christmas Day

Christmas Portraits.

What should only take a few minutes takes about an hour. Picture after picture....some with the dog some without. Aubrey on my lap, Aubrey on daddy's lap. Mom, dad changing places...some pictures of kids crawling out of the photo. Photos where dad's not in the picture because the timer went off to fast. FINALLY....something. Oh, the joy of family photos.

Bonus....a cute one of me and my hubby.

ONE

when does this...

become this?

our little peanut is huge! well, huge for her. she is still a little peanut to us. leah bean just turned one and i cannot believe that it has been a year already. feels like they just placed her in our arms. the little baby girl that we brought home from the hospital is now toddling around furniture....saying words and has one spunky personality. we are trying very hard to teach her sign language (like we did with aubrey). she is signing "milk", "night-night" and sometimes "more". she says "daddy" clear as day.... and also says "duck" "doggy" and just added "aubey". still no "mommy" can you believe it? she even calls me daddy sometimes.

she love playing with her little people and putting them in and out of things....she'll also dance to anything that makes noise. her smile lights up a room and she brings us such joy!

cannot believe my baby is ONE.
happy birthday leah bean!

aubrey girl is growing up

i cannot believe that my pumpkin pie (oops, can't say that...i am always corrected. "no, i am pappy's sweet petunia".) i cannot believe "pappy's sweet petunia" is growing up so quickly. our days are filled with playing house, school and doctor. it's hard to believe the little bundle we brought home is now a preschooler with quite an imagination. just yesterday morning she came downstairs and announced "when i grow up, i am going to be on stage." that's my daughter!

we just celebrated aubrey's birthday about a week ago. the big THREE...pretty pink princess costumes included. we are officially allowed to play with barbies now (although mommy has had them out for a while already)...it's like we've graduated from baby to little girl.

aubrey is so smart. she knows her whole alphabet and can identify almost every letter. she can write an "A" for aubrey and an "M" for mommy. her favorite thing to do with mommy is cut and glue pictures on paper....and she can use the scissors herself. she spends hours painting and doing art at grammy's house.

aubrey has become quite the little helper. she loves her little sister and takes good care of her. it's nice to be able to watch them play together and i get excited for the friendship that they will share.

i cannot imagine our lives without the precious little girl. we love her desperately.

happy birthday aubrey girl!

hats off!

mommy's newest endeavor.... trying to knit. poor aubrey has become my model. i have finished three hats (i think) and am trying to make a sweater. just kidding.... just a scarf. who knows maybe i will actually have a hobby i am good at.

front porch accident

and if that wasn't enough.... our front porch had an accident with a dodge RAM.

forced house projects

not really what we had planned on working on next but we ran into some problems in our downstairs bathroom. yuck. seems our former homeowners didn't fix the rotten bathroom floor they just covered it up with plywood and another round of flooring. guess we got to get working on that.

bathroom floor

matt