Picture Posers

Today I wanted to take a nice picture of the girls to make a Valentine with. Addie is great at posing, cute looks, nice smiles and all of that. Edith on the other hand wiggles about and only shows her cheesy squinty eyed camera grin. I do have a trick for Edith to actually have a normal face which is to have the girls yell Grandma or Grandpa because that always makes them smile.
Here is one of the pictures. Addie is trying to make Edie pose with teddy bears and smile. Edith has other ideas and is elbowing the bears away from her. We did get a nice picture but you will have to wait for your Valentine to see it.

Little Tenderheart

Brian took Addie on a little outing to pick up coffee yesterday and relayed this story to me. Addie is usually very close mouthed about school so it was wonderful to hear about it, especially such a sweet story.

There are two girls in Addie's class that are best friends and do everything together. One of them was sick so she wasn't at school. The other girl was then sad and playing by herself. Addie said that she went over to her and said she would be her friend and play with her. In Addie's own words, "My heart said she needed a friend."

And in Edith land...

Now that Edith has realized that everyone has eyes, heads, arms, etc. she is moving on to gender. She loves to tell me about whether everyone she knows is a girl or a boy. Often times this comes with skipping. To Brian, "you're a boy, you're a boy!" Skip Skip Skip. She is also working on other opposites as well.

Holiday Fun

Christmas Day Smiles. Look at those stockings almost as big as the girls!

Yesterday we completed our big drive back from Michigan. Leaving at about 5:30 am and arriving home at a little before 3:00 am we were quite tired. We got some rest and are feeling refreshed after a day of laziness. The kids were great passengers for the most part and Brian said the portable DVD player we gave them for Christmas was the best present ever.

We had a wonderful time visiting Brian's family. We even got to sneak in an evening out with one of Brian's high school friends. All the cousins had a blast together.

Events included the train festival, sledding, taking a 5 minute walk to the beach on New Years day and lots of game playing. Lots of fun. We did stop at Niagara Falls on the drive back so the girls could walk around and enjoy the falls.

December Fun

We have been having a wonderful December. We are mostly settled into our new house. The girls enjoyed their annual gingerbread house making with Gramma and Trekker. Edith had to be watched carefully because she likes to nibble on the gingerbread pieces as you help build her house. Addie and Trekker showed a little more restraint.

On Saturday we went to the Old Sturbridge Village 12 nights of Christmas celebration. We had a nice time finding neat things in each of the houses. We tried gingerbread, fruit cake and some cider. The cider was warmed with a hot poker dipped in the pitcher. The girls had a fabulous time leaving Brian and I behind to have fun exploring with Gramma and Grampa. One of the buildings had a bunch of gingerbread houses to look at. Gramma was showing them to Edith and then realized Edith had leaned over and started gnawing on one of the displays. Oh my!

Addie has been enthralled with the story of Jesus' birth and one of her new favorite games is to play "Mary and Joseph." Here she has the whole family set up with my nativity set along with a few extras, a sheep and some beads (cookies according to Addie).

Perfume

Well the people who lived in this house before us shopped a lot. Or at least I guess they did from the huge amount of catalogs and fliers we receive. Today we got a set of fliers with about 10 different little perfume inserts. I set them out so Addie could play with them. The funniest thing is how Addie describes the so called perfumes.

1: Stinky bathroom ick
2: Orange stink
3: Strawberry ickys

"They all smell bad."

An untrained and honest nose.

This reminds me of the last time we went in a port-a-potty. Addie opened up the door and went inside. Then she said something about how it smelled so wonderful. It was overly deodorized rather than stinky, but I just cracked up.

Sisterly Love

This evening while I am making dinner the girls are playing rather wildly. Then I notice it is awfully quiet. This makes me wonder what are they into that they are not supposed to be. I knew I had left a bunch of buttons and such out for a sewing project I am working on. Well what did I discover but the girls snuggled on the couch peacefully looking at a book together. Awww.

And another scene of love. Edith had fallen asleep in the car. Addie was then holding her hand and decided to pretend to be asleep herself. What a wonderful thing it is to have a sister. I know I will always treasure my own and I see that these two girls will have lots of memories together as well.

Little Shopper and The Best Doll

Addie continues to be an amazing shopper. I took her with me while I shopped for a new pair of jeans. She loved helping me pick out which ones to try on and telling me which pair looked the best. Then she wanted to keep shopping and shopping when I was ready to go home. She did complain that the kids' clothing store was boring and wanted to go look at more Mom clothes.

We went again today, this time with Edith. She had the best time and did not want to go home. "Let's keep shopping, Mom." The funniest thing was that she scolded me for taking too long in the toy store.

In other news, Addie has discovered that she can dress Mabel. Mabel is not thrilled with this but has learned to listen to Addie's commands and tolerate being made beautiful. What a sweet dog she is. I am so glad the two are such buddies.