Merry Christmas!!

Here are emma and charlotte ready for Christmas breakfast. They must have known it was Christmas because they were an hour earlier then usual.

Excited to see Grammy

I was getting ready to take their photo when Grammy walked in. Their faces lit up when they saw her. I am so glad that my parents and my daughters get this time together.

Sick.

Sleepless nights.

Runny noses.

Fussy girls.

Tired mamma.

We have had our first round of sickness with Emma and Charlotte, and it is no fun at all. Of course, it could be a lot worse, just colds, but everything just seems harder when everyone is sick. Also, I never knew that little babies could make so much snot. Hopefully we will all be on the mend soon.

Grammy and Gramps are here!

We are so happy to have my parents here for Christmas. They have already had fun at the park and lots of fun holding girls.

My Sweet Girls

Lately Charlotte and Emma have become more affectionate with each other. Yesterday I found them like this. They had scooted so that their backs were touching. Today charlotte rolled over and laid on top of emma while they were playing. We also had their one month check up. Everything looks good except that Emma needs to go see a pediatric opthomologist for her clogged tear duct. Hopefully the process to clear that up will be easy. We are getting very excited for the arrival of grammy and gramps on Friday.

What a Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year.  It has always been my favorite holiday, and this year it was even more meaningful as we got to share it with Charlotte and Emma, who I am so incredibly thankful for.

We drove up to Missouri to spend time with my husband's family.  We first stopped at his Aunt's house and visited with his grandma and two of his aunts.

Sitting with Aunt Winnie

Wearing Daddy's hat with Great Grandma

Emma enjoying a water bottle with Aunt Jane and Keith

Charlotte loved this baby doll Aunt Jane gave them.  She also enjoyed Mr. Don's company.

Sitting with Great Grandma.

After leaving his Aunt's house, we headed to my husband's sister's house.  I was so glad that we were able to spend a couple of days there, including the actual thanksgiving day.  Emma and Charlotte had such fun playing with their cousins.  I am lucky enough to have great relationships with my cousins, and I really want that for my children as well.  On Thursday John's parents came in the morning and spent the day playing with the four girls.  It was wonderful because then I was able to help with the food preparation.  It was really enjoyable to spend time with my sister in law in the kitchen.  The meal was an incredible feast and there is just something so special about sitting around a table with family that you love.  Emma and Charlotte even got to have some of the turkey, potatoes and sweet potatoes blended in the food processor.  It was a hit.  Friday John and I left the girls in the capable hands of his sister's family and we headed out to do some black Friday shopping.  Again, such a treat to have a little bit of time for just the two of us.  We were able to get some great deals too.  A good friend of my came to visit that afternoon (more about that in an upcoming post) and then later that afternoon we all packed up and went to the mall to visit Santa.  I didn't know how Charlotte and Emma would react, but they did great.  We were able to get a good picture and it was fun to see them doing something that I remember really enjoying as a child.  Saturday John woke up with a fever, so he spent the day in bed and I loaded the girls up in the car and went and visited another friend (more on this in an upcoming post).  Thankful John was feeling better by that evening.  We packed everything up and left early Sunday morning.  Overall we had a really special time over the holiday.

Cousins!  

Madeline was so sweet with the girls and wanted to help with them and hold them all the time.  It was funny though because when she would hold one of them they looked like giant babies.

Emma and Elizabeth playing

This horse was a hit!

Cousins having fun together.  I love this picture.

Emma taking a ride.

The beautiful Thanksgiving table.

Here I was, thoroughly enjoying helping to prep the meal.

The whole group.  So thankful for this family.

Uncle bud watching Charlie Brown with his nieces.

Having a tea party.

Look at how well they were sitting at this table.

    

A fun play date!

I am very thankful to have met another new mom who has a daughter just a couple of months younger than Emma and Charlotte through our church.  We have been getting together every couple of weeks to let the girls play and spend time visiting.  It is wonderful.  On Tuesday we were able to get together for lunch.  While there Charlotte and Emma were able to try out this pink pedal car, and boy did they enjoy it.

Emma playing with her friend, who's name happens to be Emma also.  John calls her Emma "too".

Charlotte and Emma "too" watching Emma in the pedal car.

Getting even closer!

Emma heads ever closer to crawling. Today she scooted backward enough to get to their toy bin and proceeded to dump it out everywhere. I think she is also learning the benefits of being able to move around. Also notice charlotte's wild hair, it is looking like she might have some curl in that hair.

Playing together

Tonight I was busy making baby food and let the girls have some play time together in the playroom. They "talked" and smiled at each other and at one point I found them on each side of the exasaucer talking through it. It is really neat to step back and see how they interact with each other.

Drinking!

Both Emma and Charlotte have stopped drinking from bottles. This makes it harder to leave them for a while. We have been working on sippy cups with them for a while as another way to get liquids in them. Today Emma held the sippy cup herself and drank from it. It was exciting.