23/366

I think sleep training works.  Just look at my two children...Maddie fights all of her naps and finds every single excuse to come into our bed at night.  Allie will willingly crawl into bed and entertain herself until she falls asleep.  I love hearing the songs and stories wafting through her door.  Even more I love coming in to see what she's stashed in bed with her.  On this particular day there were at least five stuffed animals, four plastic horses, her hairbrush and a book. 

22/366

Today was our first day this year up at the mountain that we had actual weather to contend with.  We made it a half-day and skied with Maddie instead of putting her into a lesson.  It was C-O-L-D and W-I-N-D-Y.  Nothing makes her day more than a bad parking spot that requires a train ride up to the lifts though.

And for the record, this girl can hang.  She will be beating us down the hill in no time.  She was shredding through the powder like nobody's business.  I was really impressed.  Impressed enough to buy her a hot chocolate and then drink most of it trying to warm back up. :-)

21/366

Hours and hours of entertainment

20/366

The novelty of the snow has worn off and thank god it's warming up and the streets are drive-able.  We spent the morning unwrapping the chicken coop, scraping snow off of decks and bushes, gently shaking trees to get the ice off of them (and then feeding the ice to Rudder) and topped it off with a much needed trip to the gym and hot chocolate for lunch.  I am so ready for summer.  I want to complain that I'm too hot.

19/366

little mama

When I went to get Allie from her bed this morning she was already up, feeding her baby.  The lights were off, the house was dark, and she was shhh-ing her baby, rocking her and giving her a bottle. It was adorable.

18/366

17/366

I'm a fretter.  What can I say...  This cold weather has had me a bit worried about our little ladies.  Like waking up at 3AM worried.  I came back yesterday to see that Kip had wraped them up in a nice warm layer of roofing felt.  I think he loves our little ladies too. 

Magnuson Park

School was cancelled today because of the snow so we headed up to Magnuson Park to have ourselves a little photo shoot.  It was a long drive for a short shoot.  It was snow/rain-ing and FUH-REE-ZING.  Maddie finally broke down into tears because her feet were so cold.  We drove home with the heat on the hottest setting...heaven if you ask me.  No one ever lets me do that. :-)

16/366

No school for Maddie because of the holiday. Tons of snow on the roads meant no one showed up for class which meant Mads got to swim with baby Allie today.  It went great.  Until it was time to go...

15/366

The snow is coming down in giant flakes and we're all a little giddy around here.  The house is toasty warm and smells like yummy soup, Maddie and Allie have had about 30 outfit changes to warm up after coming in from the cold and Rudder has had his ball thrown to the point of exhaustion. It's perfection.

14/366

We spent the day with friends.  Maddie and Allie couldn't have been more excited.  Well, that is until we told her that we were going to the train exhibit at the science center.  If you ask me, the trains sucked.  But she was happy. And so she gets the picture of the day.

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My favorite exhibit was the butterflies.  I was a little freaked that they'd touch me though. I am just NOT a toucher.

Kip had an awesome time too.  Shocking. :-)

13/366

We could so be those people that upload our own "episodes" of Thomas on YouTube.  I love listening to her little stories.  I sat for awhile today and watched her play, listened to her play.  And then I had to grab my camera.  She didn't even notice.  Choreographing all of those trains requires concentration.

12/366

Another beautiful day of flying. You 100% cannot beat the view I have from my "office."

Pretty much how we spend our morning and night

I really need a good chaise lounge because between the playground and the ladies I've got my babysitting covered.

11/366

These little ladies are bringing Maddie out of her shell. (haha)  Yesterday I let Maddie bring Daniel out to the front yard to wait for Kip to come home and she spotted our neighbor.  I heard her yelling across the street LEONARD, COME SEE MY CHICKEN! This is totally atypical behavior for Maddie.  She always wants to say hi to Leonard but then will choke when the time comes to actually have to talk.  I was shocked.  And pretty much all of kids club has been invited to our house to play with the chickens.  Now, if only the weather would warm up by about 40 degrees...

10/366

She was totally willing to oblige me and have her picture taken

But then she spotted one of her 18 friends and that was that

9/366

She wasn't lying

When she said she didn't want to go to the dentist.

8/366

This little girl (Maddie), does not like to sleep.  And when she's really, really, really exhausted and can't fight it anymore, she will make sure you don't actually know she's taking a nap. 

Skiing

It was supposed to be a whole cadre of people.  It ended up being Kip and I.  Which was fun.  Except for the fact that we kept losing each other, despite being twinsy dorks, and despite me getting us a tad lost and pulling out of our run about a mile from the lodge and having to hoof it until we caught a shuttle.  That was mostly funny. 

Another gorgeous day spent with an awesome guy, who thankfully had his cellular device on so that we could reconnect after he failed to keep up with me. :-)

7/366

Plain and Simple, she loves her ladies. 

I'm not sure if they love her yet, but they will. 

6/366

Day 6 and I'm already cheating.  I couldn't decide which picture to post.  Nonna got Allie and Maddie baking supplies for Christmas and they've been itching to cook.  Today we made some pretty darn tasty chocolate chip cookies.  They each had their own baking sheet.  Maddie dug right into the dough, all ten fingers were covered.  Allie used one finger to slide the dough off the spoon.  Night and day these two.

5/366

Maddie and Allie LOVE to sleep together but most nights they hear "nope, it's a school night."  Tonight is the night.  No school on Fridays.  And so begins my night of telling the girls to BE QUIET.

4/366

My little swimmer.  She jumps in with her eyes open and pops up with the biggest grin on her face.

A photo per day?

Probably a bit too ambitious of an undertaking since it's already the 3rd day of January but heck, I'm down with failures so here we go!

January 2, 2012
Flying with a student over Renton

1/1/2012
Driving home from the cabin

1/3/2010
Post-lunch treat

Happy New Year!

Pizza in Roslyn
Sledding at the cabin
Lots of time with Zaide and Baba

No one wanted to go home and face reality