Merry Christmas!

Sister love!  Or iPod love, take your pick.

We went to the live nativity, Stella pet the sheep, but Leila wanted nothing to do with it!

The girls like to hide between these cupboards, they are super sneaky!

Christmas pictures - they were not in the mood at first.

Leila had to get the funny face picture out of the way first.

Then we could have a nice smile.

Stella did pretty good too.

And finally, a good one of both of our girls!

Virginia Park

The weather was pretty nice again this week so I decided to take the girls to Virginia Park.

They really enjoyed it.  I thought it would be a good idea to get out before baby brother comes and we are homebound for a bit :)

It took Stella a couple of tries to get the slide right.

Big sister Leila was happy to help her.

Not a huge improvement, but this is a twisty slide.

Stella did great on a straighter one.

Leila climbed in there all by herself!

The other night we went to visit Duie and she asked Leila what she wanted for Christmas.  Leila answered that Stella was getting presents from Santa, but she was not expecting to receive anything.  When asked why, she responded that since she had cried on his lap, she didn't think he would bring her anything. :)

Christmas is coming...

Leila decided to teach Stella to play Trouble, even though she doesn't really follow the rules herself.

Stella moved up to booster seat at the table, most days I do not regret this decision.

Leila is still deathly afraid of sitting on Santa's lap.  She informed us that she does not like Santa because he has a white beard.

After visiting Santa we went for a short walk downtown.

Leila really likes this Christmas tree, probably because it is the largest decorated one she has seen yet.

Last night it was so nice out we had to grill.  Jer got adventurous and made bacon wrapped hot dogs and an egg bacon cheeseburger.  I did not eat an egg burger, but I did have a bacon wrapped hot dog.  The girls also enjoyed the grilled bacon along with hot dogs and cheeseburgers.

Stella's 18 month words!

Stella is 18 months old as of yesterday.  She is getting so old!  She knows even more words than Leila did at this age - she has 110 plus animal sounds.  They are:

all done, all gone, apple, arm, baby, banana, bath, bed, beep, bib, bird, blocks, book, boots, bottle, bread, breakfast, broken, brush, bubbles, bunny, bye, cereal, cheese, chicken, chips, Cinderella, clock, coat, cookies, dada, doggy, down, ears, eat, Elmo, eyes, happened?, hat, hello, hi, horse, hot dog, hungry, ice, ice cream, in, ketchup, Leila, lights, lotion, mama, milk, mine, monkey, morning, napkin, nice, no, Norah, nose, nuh-night, off, on, open, ouch, out, page, pants, peek, pj's, please, poop, pot, potty, puppy, raining, raisins, see you, shirt, shoes, shout, socks, sorry, spoon, Stella, sweatshirt, taco, thank you, thanks, there it is, three, toast, too, toot, Tootsie, tractor, train, turtle, two, uh-huh, uh-oh, up, waffle, wake up, wash, water, welcome, where are you?, yes

Her animal sounds are: baa, hee haw, hoo, meow, moo, neigh, oink, woof.

Happy half birthday baby!

Halloween and more

On a warm day, we took advantage and went to Maplewood park.

We were the only ones there and the girls had a great time.

Especially in the tubes!

And the slides!

And the swings...oh let's face it, they love all playground equipment :)

A post-halloween visit to Duie with the girls in costume.

Leila and Stella building a tower...together...I couldn't believe my eyes!

So I had to get the camera :)

 

Grandma and Grandpa with the girls in their costumes.

Stella wanted to take a bath pretty badly!

Fall Fun!

Jer helped the girls pick the pumpkins we grew in the backyard this year.

It was fun to have some that we grew ourselves!

 

We set up the bunk beds in Leila's room, she goes back and forth between top and bottom, usually top for naps and bottom overnight, but last night she bravely tried the top for overnight...it only lasted until about 2AM, but she did try it out.

She thinks she is pretty big stuff up there :)

Stella in her Sunday best.

Yesterday the weather was so nice we had to play outside and blow bubbles!

And decorate the driveway with rainbows.

 

Adventures on a Saturday

Leila picked up these mystery glasses and I just think that they are hilarious!

She looks so funny.

Stella doesn't want to show me how she looks with them on.

She does like to dip her chicken nuggets in ketchup...sometimes she misses her mouth.

Story time!

Leila likes to read to Stella too.

This past Saturday we went out for breakfast and then to the Grand Rapids airport lookout to watch planes take off and land.

It was cold and misty, but it was really neat to see them.

They were pretty loud!

Then we went to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum and let the girls play!

They loved the grocery store.

There was lots to see and play with.

Leila set the table and made dinner.

Leila took Stella out for a drive, Stella tried to climb through the windshield.

Stella LOVED the fish!

I tried to enclose Leila in a bubble, but this is about as high as we could get it without popping.

The girls got their sleeves wet playing with the bubble table, it was entertaining for quite a while!

All in all a very fun morning!