Another Year at the Fair

A little events catch up...

One might not suspect, but we're a good fair kind of family.  Lucky for us, the county we live in hosts the best around when it comes to cleanliness, games, friendly people and things to see and do.  One thing that's become a tradition that we look forward to is checking out the latest batch of piglets in the kids barn.  The same farmer is there every year, and we usually come at a quiet enough time that he smuggles one out for the kids to get a closer look.

If they didn't grow up to be so huge and gross, I might have snagged one to take home to this little farm I have going on over here.

Of course we had some disgusting but awesome fair food, rode rides, people watched... but this is really our favorite part.  We spent a good while at each animal (almost all were mama's and her babies).   All my girls were entertained, and that's really all I can ask for!

annalise checking out the sheep

Happenings in July

My quick little update on the happenings around here lately.  

The twins turned 11 months old and the party planning is in full swing.  Josie is super disappointed it's not her birthday first, but I think she's going to have more fun at the 1st birthday than anyone else.   Alivia at 11 months old is sweet as could be, and a mama's girl most definitely.  Her bottom two teeth finally popped in and she was none to happy about it.  It was a rough couple days, but now her little toothy grin is adorable.  My girls had a bout of sickness requiring doctor visits, so I know they're 18lbs and growing quickly.  I expect at their one year checkup they'll be on the normal growth curve and holding their own. 

Alivia 11 mo

Josie can't wait to be 5, she talks about it all the time. She's also full of sass, bossiness, and then there's the crying.  I reminded her 5 year olds don't throw fits and if she can't act 5, we just can't have a party.  That usually works to snap her out of it, but sometimes not.  She's a handful, but a handful that I know will serve her well someday.

 Annalise at 11 months lead the pair in popping in the teeth, and was equally unhappy about it.  We're getting some mumblings of "mama" and "dada", but we assume it isn't exactly directed at us yet.  Soon we hope.

Annalise 11 mo

We've been brave lately, taking day trips and enjoying the summer.  Taking twins anywhere is a handful, but worth our efforts to have all the kids see and do fun things.  Our couple trips to the beach were a lot of fun!  Josie is the perfect age to enjoy wading in the water without too much worry (we're very close by), and the babies hate the sand so they stay put on the blanket and actually prefer the beach chairs.  They're happy as clams just watching all the people.  Huge bonus, the arrival home is always met with a good bath and long naps.

Josie buried waist deep by dad. That's one way to have her stay put ;) And if life wasn't hectic enough around here, we decided chickens would make a great addition to our brood. Little Ms. below will one day be laying blue eggs, with the rest of our chic family laying brown eggs.  They're proving fun to watch, quirky personalities, easy to care for, and a lot of fun for Josie and the other kiddos around here.  So we patiently wait for fall to arrive so we can be on the look out for our first eggs! 

My Little Shining Star

Josie is a little shining star, that's her dance song for her first recital.  It is indeed recital season, and lots of excitement has been involved as we lead up to this Saturday. 

Try as I might to explain what she's going to be doing on Saturday under the big lights on a big stage with a BIG audience, I don't know that she's understanding of what it will be like   Her group of  "shining stars" are all the same age group, same antics, same attention spans.  For the fact that I know and have seen the routine informally at least 100 times, I can imagine the potentially adorable show that is ahead of us.  

But there's an even greater chance they all get on stage and go completely blank with fear, confusion, intimidation or just plain silliness from having to sit quietly for 1-2 hours back stage before going on. 

 These photos are from last week's dress rehearsal, brimmed with excitement as full makeup was required.  After admiring my "painted eyes" for so long, Josie finally had painted eyes of her own, with blush and pink lipstick to boot! 

And maybe the most important piece of all, the ballet bun. Not an easy feat with whispy four year old hair, but we nailed it!  It stayed perfectly in place the entire day, so I'm relieved to think it has a prayer of surviving back stage butterflies through to the finale. 

Break a leg, baby...

At 10 Months

Ahhhh ten months.  The big first birthday is looming on the horizon and I'm trying to soak up all the babiness I can for as long as possible.  Here are my girls at 10 months (only a few days late)....  



Livie

Alivia, Livie, Livs and many other combos, my smiley sweet little girl.  While she's on the go go go, Annalise just enjoys the view.  We've unfortunately been to the doctor recently for persistent runny nose and goopy eyes, so I know she's currently 17.5 lbs!  And she's my babbler, there are some "mama" and "dada" sounds in there, but nothing we can truly say is a first word.   Sleep, ever so elusive... some nights good, some nights bad. It all blurs together anymore, I can't say Alivia or Annalise is a better sleeper b/c every night is different and luckily it's usually one or the other that's a stinker and up for some reason.  Thankfully it's not usually both on the same night. 


Annalise&Alivia - 10 mo


Annalise, Lise, Lili any variation thereof - my goofy girl.  She's fun, funny always ready for a play date.  I love her sideways smile, her smirk.  She largely watches contently as Alivia crawls around the house.  When she does get in crawl position we get excited and cheer her on.  But as of today she just flops down on her belly and goes into army crawl.  But don't be fooled, she's fast - sometimes faster than Alivia.  Who knows, maybe she'll never be a crawler. 

Annalise

It's time for us to take a look around the house and sort through Josie's toys that come will a million and one little pieces and put them away somewhere safe.  And the basement door, have to remind ourselves over and over again we have to keep it closed.  The baby gates never came down from Josie, so those are up and ready to go.  The cribs have been lowered a notch as the girls are getting stronger and stronger, yet they aren't pulling up to standing yet - it's not too far off.  Especially for Alivia. 

95 out of 100 photos are mostly like this :)



"No no Annalise...."

  



In this 10th month, they're back together in the same room again.  Through so many months of sleep experimenting, crying it out, colds, etc... we've had Annalise in a crib in the play room at night and nap time.  Knowing I didn't want this to go on forever, I want them to share a room, we put them back in the same room a few weeks ago.  Interestingly enough, this has been great!  If one is up in the middle of the night, the other sleeps through the noise unbothered.  Naps are a different story, and we nap them separately.  But night time success! Now we just need to keep them asleep for 10 ideal hours so this mama can get some sleep.



Annalise



Alivia



And She's Off

And off she goes, Alivia is officially crawling.  She's off and running, almost literally.  Seems interesting as baby B, she's always the first to reach the milestones.  We're told this is common for B babys (second born of twins).  She slept through the night first, rolled over first, sat first, and is now crawling first.   

 Annalise probably isn't far behind. But as of today she's still immobile, except for the reverse scoot she has going on.

Alivia may be the smaller of the two, but she sure is quick. 

Exploring