Catching up: Day 15 - Visiting Granny

This past weekend, I took the girls to visit my Granny in Dorset. The timing worked out well as it meant that not only did we get to celebrate Granny's birthday with her, we also got to see my sister, 2 of my cousins, and my cousin's daughter (does that make us 2nd cousins? Never could figure that out...)!





After the playground, it was back to Granny's house for cake that was made by Isobel (my cousin's daughter) specially for Granny!

Day 13 - A Taste of Spring

The weather today was fairly mild, so the girls & I spent some time outside after Anna was home from school. Needless to say, bedtime was very easy today :)

Day 9 - Blue Skies

With the seemingly ever present grey fog that sits over the UK during the winter, you learn very quickly to embrace what little sun there is even if it is a bit chilly to be out at the park!

71/365 - A Day At the Park

Not sure who had more fun today at the playground: the parents or the children?







All 6 children together on the swings!

68/365 - Time with Friends

We were blessed with a beautiful spring day today, so Miss A's friend (another Miss A) came over to play today. Time was spent on the playground, running around, and even playing with bubbles!



After the play date, our friends kindly invited us over for another BBQ so I offered to bring brownies (still cleaning out the pantry!!). Of course Miss A jumped at the chance to help again and had move the stool to the counter before I could even grab the bowl! She then promptly instructed me to get my camera - I think I might be creating a cooking diva! :)



Also just for fun, I played with the processing on theses photos a little - I'm feeling a little nostalgic with the impending move and needed to reflect that in the pictures.

66/365 - The Quiet Moments

Lately I have realized that we 2 children under 3, we have very few quiet moments (big shock, right?!). Unfortunately this often translates to missing moments with Miss A or Miss M because the craziness of everyday life takes over. For that reason, I'm learning to really appreciate the few moments that I have one on one with either Miss A or Miss M. Today was one of those days with Miss M. Just a few quiet minutes during snack time while Miss A was off playing with Uncle Knute & Daddy.



And I have 2 questions for you: When did Miss M get to be so big and have so much personality? And to those who have daughters, where do all the hair clips go? With 2 daughters with CRAZY hair, hair clips are a must and I couldn't find any during the week so we went to Target and got 2 new sets of clips - well in the course of 1.5 days, we've already lost 2 and have misplaced one entire sheet of clips!!! How does that happen?

65/365 - Just a little taste

(Note: These were actually taken yesterday, just not posted!)

We our moving rapidly approaching, we are in the final "pantry clearing" phase. During that process, I discovered several baking mixes that needed to be used up so I decided to make brownies. Miss A very quickly announced that she would be helping to make them and pulled the stool right up to the counter to get in the mix! Even though she was still in her pjs, I though adding the apron would be a good idea. Plus it made her look even more adorable!



And, of course, she got to lick the spoon at the end and she made sure not to miss any of the chocolate!

64/365 - An Almost Daily Event

Most days when the girls wake from quiet time, Miss A insists that we call Ammie (my mum). Miss A doesn't mean that we should use the phone, instead she wants me to get out the laptop so that we can Skype with Ammie. Some days there isn't much talking and all Miss A really wanted was to say hi, but other days she tells Ammie about everything she can think!

63/365 - Family Fun

We went out tonight with some of the good friends we have made here at Wright Patt - with time winding down here, we're trying to get together as much as possible before we all go our separate ways! Today we went to an indoor inflatable play area - basically a big room filled with moon bounce set-ups! I'm not sure who had more fun, the children or the adults!





(P.S. Please don't judge the quality of the photos :) Sometimes it's nice to just have the quick snapshots without having to worry about all the settings, lighting, etc!)

48/365 - Baking & Time with Abuela

Today the girls had lots of fun spending time with Abuela (more affectionately known as WaWa). Miss M spent quite a while looking for birds and was hamming it up during snack after her nap - probably because Miss A was still sleeping so she had our undivided attention for a little while!



Later in the afternoon Miss A & I decided to make brownies together since we know they are one of WaWa's favorites!



This was the first time that Miss A really helped me in the kitchen so I figured she could have the fun of licking the spoon :)

26/365 - My Climber

Miss M has turned into a little climber. She gets into anything & everything these days... including some spots she then can't get out of!

25/365 - The weekend

Sunday was spent just enjoying the day with our friend Knute who was in town visiting. Miss A loves her Uncle Knute and spent most of the day asking him to read stories. Miss M spent the day showing off her new climbing abilities and can now get on the rocking horse without any help!

22/365 - A Birthday Wish

Today my baby girl Miss M turn one year old. It's hard to believe that it's already been a year and at the same time I can't believe it's only been a year. I can't imagine my life without her in it! Miss M is her own person in so many ways - I can already tell that she will be one to push the rules and will probably get into her fair share of trouble but will have a lot of fun while doing it.

Today we celebrated her birthday with lemon cupcakes - fitting because before she was born, we called her Lemon. Maya loved every bite of her cupcake and probably would have eaten more if we let her!









Happy Birthday my sweet girl. I wish for you a life full of love & happiness and for this to be only the first of many very happy birthdays that I can share with you.

21/365 - A Brief Thank You

I don't mention it much on here, but I have a wonderful husband. He frequently finds time in his crazy work schedule to help around the house and I just had to mention how much I appreciate the help - especially with the dishes!!!



So, in case I forgot to say it today Los, WOW :) and I really do mean that!

Innocence

Halloween Revisited

Although both Los & I swore that Halloween would not be as last minute as it was last year (got Miss A's costume the night before Halloween!), it didn't quite work out that way! It did end up being rather last minute, but between a good friend loaning us an adorable costume for Miss M and making a quick trip to Target to find something for Miss A, we ended up with 2 very cute costumed girls!





Since Miss A is now 2 we decided that we would take her trick-or-treating just around our circle of about 12 homes. She understood that she was supposed to knock on the door and say "Treat Please!" - unfortunately she now thinks that works all of the time!



Even though they only went to a handful of houses, she still ended up with a pumpkin full of treats!

A Boston Visit

I've been a little MIA from my blog this week because Los, the girls & I made a trip up to Boston because my wonderful grandmother made the long trip over from England to see all of us. Granny had the opportunity to meet Ms. M



And we got to enjoy a wonderful BBQ with my sister & brother-in-law. I of course used the afternoon to photograph some of the beautiful flowers in their garden.







And Just one more beautiful Flower!

A New Photographer!

My wonderful husband always comments that because I"m always behind the camera, I have very few photos of me with the girls so during this trip, he made sure to grab the camera from me occasionally. I'm so glad he did!

Photos are a wonderful thing

I know there are many reasons why having lots of photographs around is a good idea, but I was reminded of a very important one tonight. We decided to move Miss M into Miss A's room tonight as Miss A has been out of her crib for a few weeks now and Miss M was rapidly reaching the limits of her bassinet. Well, 3 hours later I finally got both girls settled. During those 3 hours, it was difficult to see my children as anything other than screaming, wailing, and throwing all out temper tantrums, however once I looked at my computer and a handful of photos I took of Miss M right before bedtime started, those thoughts quickly vanished and were replaced by the sweet faces that are normally seen!





It's hard to believe that this sweet little face could scream so loudly!

And who would think that Miss A could be anything other than a little Angel :)

It's been awhile

Just sharing a quick photo of Miss A. Hopefully a more expansive post with photos of what we've been up to this week will follow later today!