Friends

Iris and Evie (friend who lives across the street) hanging out!

Girls' Day

I took a day off today to spend time with my girls and we had a great day! Love this picture of us at Como. Love you girls!

Our 4 Year Old

Our Iris as a newborn and at age 4. We love you Iris!

A little sample

20 seconds of Iris on stage...

Preschool Holiday Show

This year the holiday show was much different than 2010! No longer terrified of school, this year our Iris appeared to be auditioning for Broadway! I was a proud mom watching her sing her heart out with no fear. She even surprised us with a solo of "All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth" We had no idea it was coming. Both Iris and her teachers kept it a secret. Thanks Grandma Carrie for the fancy dress!

Sleigh Ride

Family sleigh ride at our bank of all places! Tom's comment when I said what a great outing it was "And you wanted to stay with Wells Fargo."

Santa 2011

The girls visited Santa after the Macy's Holiday display (one of my favorite traditions!) I am not sure how many years we will be able to keep the Santa Secret...Iris is an awfully curious little girl. Yesterday she asked me "Mama, how do the days pass by?" And today she asked "Why do things have an end?" I am not sure if she is looking for a concrete answer or something more philosophical!

3 Kids Down the Slide

This post is late...I think this was back in October. Anyway, my girls love the "bumpy slide" and here they go with Cousin Will! Next year you can go too, Ben!

Cousins

Well, here are examples of my attempt to get one good photo of the girls with their cousins Will and Ben. Think we need to try again!

Our Family

Thank you to my dear friend Cheryl who was so kind to take photos for our family. Iris is nearly 4 and Georgie is 14 months. Obviously neither of our daughters managed to escape the curls!

Family Dancing

We just might be one of the dorkiest families...we have family dance time on weekend mornings...

Flower Girl Starring Iris

Brief clip of Iris's big role...turn your head or the monitor to watch!

Casey's Wedding!

My brother got married on Saturday! It was a beautiful day, Casey was so proud... so happy for you guys! Iris was the flower girl, a natural for the role!

Quick trip to Grandview

Had the absolute BEST time with Tom and our girls at Grandview Lodge last weekend. A 2.5 hour trip each way went relatively smoothly - only 30 minutes of screaming from Georgie - and Iris was completely entertained by a pair of binoculars. Perfect WARM weather, yippee! We loved cabin 135 and will absolutely go back. Also loved the restaurant Zorbas (and this mom loved the margaritas!) Too bad it took us 75 minutes to get there (it was across the street from Grandview) but we went the wrong way around Gull Lake - oops! Margaritas are good thing for curing post-lost grumpiness! Notice Georgia's hand me down swimsuit - Iris wore it at age 6 months...here is Georgie at nearly 10 months, "swimming" in it, haha. Such a little peanut!

Frog Hopper!!!

Went on this ride MANY times at Como Town.

A doll named French

Iris loves to talk, and she loves to narrate stories with her dolls. I am continually amazed at her creativity and ability to entertain herself.

A really great day

I had such a great day with my girls on Friday. Despite the disappointing cold weather (will spring ever really be here? This is inhumane!!) we found so many ways to enjoy the day. In particular we went to the conservatory where it is always warm and tropical! Iris put on a show for several ladies touring the flowers who then took pictures of both girls - not to brag but they do get a lot of compliments on their eyes! I find Georgia's eyes especially striking. Iris got a kick out of watching the fish in the conservatory "kiss" each other - seemingly, they were! There was even a smooching sound to go along with it. What made the day especially nice was that Georgia was not crying 75% of the time. Dear Georgia: I just know this first very tough 9 months is going to have a huge payoff later in your life - you'll be a spirited and energetic person just like your sister.

Cute Girls!

Here are my girls with their cousin Addy. By the way Happy Birthday little niece! Someday these girls will be best friends! I am so excited my kids have cousins to play with - my cousins were like 40 years old when I was a kid! Couldn't manage to capture the 3 girls in a photogenic moment simultaneously, these are the best ones we got!

The last month...

The photo of Georgie on my bed was taken after she slept from 7-2:30AM -yes, this is 7.5 hours!!!! This is a FIRST. Now I must say that at 2:30 she stayed up for the day - what a way to start my Monday...BUT I was encouraged by the longest stretch of sleep I have had since before she was born. Tom has now officially made a bed in the basement because his side of the bed creaks and I need to avoid any possible thing that could wake up Georgia. He didn't hesitate for a second when I asked him if he would mind - this means he gets uninterrupted sleep every single night! Also featured in this post: Iris in a Tinkerbell costume for her first stage performance in "Peter Pan" - she stood backwards nearly the whole time! My little social butterfly has a shy side on stage perhaps? Thank you to family who came to see her! Don't be fooled by the photos of the girls outside. We did have one glorious 70 degree day a couple weeks ago but today it snowed. Its April 20th. I may go insane if it doesn't get warm ASAP.

Happy Georgie! (Iris calls her Gigi)

Love this little clip of our Georgie...she has a great laugh! A happy baby following several reasonable nights (to define reasonable I mean we are up with her only 2-3 times!) Dear Georgia: some countries use sleep deprivation as human torture. Perhaps we are now turning a corner?! Not sure, too soon to tell... but spring is coming, I've been outdoors, I am more rested at the moment, and my mood is emerging from the gutter of the longest winter of my life.

Doing Her Own Thing!

While I can proudly state that Iris is normally a very cooperative student in her theatre class - that is she does what the group does- here she is definitely with her own agenda. This clip is about 2 minutes into the display as it took me a while to dig my camera out...
Oh, and those are goggles on Iris's head. She wore them all day.

Jump Jump

I have fond memories of Iris loving this thing we always called the Jump Jump. Here is her sister starting to enjoy it. This clip makes me smile, a smile being much needed right now as I am going through severe sleep deprivation. If the posting stops it is because I have run away (hopefully temporarily) to get some sleep.

Dancing

After hours of blood, sweat, and tears, I finally convinced the computer to allow videos. We will now be featuring short independent films of two very cute girls!

Hodge Podge of Pics

Photo #1 features Georgia modeling our new Nap Nanny. For $130 you get a piece of foam covered in a soft fleece that is designed to help those babies that don't like their crib sleep. I am happy to report that at the age of 6 months Georgia can now sleep 2 hours straight over night. This is an award winning accomplishment for her given that many nights she wakes every 35-45 minutes and may scream for up to one hour straight before going back to sleep. Last week at work I answered the phone "This is Jan" because I was so tired I clearly could not think straight. We are hoping the Nap Nanny will be exceed our expectations and produce a child that begins to sleep long glorious periods of time.

Photo #2 features Iris on her first roller coaster ride. Loved it.

Photo #3 is just cute.

Don't Be Fooled

This little person may look innocent enough, but this little lady has become quite the monster at nighttime! Apparently I don't produce children that sleep! Only 5 months old, Georgia already owes me dozens of hours of sleep and I am keeping track! Surviving the sleep deficit by extra caffeine and by going to bed sometimes as early as 7:30 to maximize the potential hours of sleep one can accumulate by 5AM! Dear Georgia: Mom will give you more money for college if you start to sleep more than 45 minutes at a time.