The cuteness

I just had to write down a few cute things the kids did today before I forget!

At nap time Mark was jumping in his crib and I'm pretty sure he bit his tongue because when I went in there to see why he was crying he stuck it out and said owie. I got up close to see if it was bleeding and he leaned in and made me kiss his owie/tongue!! It was so funny! After he woke up from his nap he said 'Daddy at work?' in the saddest voice...he really wanted his Daddy to be home already. He was putting Little People animals inside this small airplane and when it got filled up I told him to take the animals for a ride so he sat on top of the airplane and tried to go!!

While writing on the chalk board today Elizabeth started telling me which animals she was drawing. It started with a snake and then an 'ider'...she was saying spider but I didn't understand her so she started doing itsy bitsy spider with her fingers so I could understand! It was so cute. Then she started drawing a teddy bear and she said 'eye' then drew eyes, 'mouth' and drew a mouth!! I can't believe how quickly she learns new things! She also enjoyed pointing out all the body parts on her Little People animals, even the zebra's bum! Elizabeth likes to 'encourage' Mark to do things now. I have noticed the past couple days if I'm telling Mark to come and see me and he doesn't respond she will either push him on the back and say 'come on' or try to pull his arm in my direction, it makes me smile, but unfortunately he didn't listen to her either (it was getting dressed and going upstairs for a nap, can't blame him I guess!). Elizabeth loves cereal (just like her mommy!) and I have noticed lately that she tries to spoon up all her milk after she has eaten her cereal. So today I introduced her to the concept of lifting the bowl up and drinking as if it's a cup...it blew her mind and she was laughing and making a mess, it was so funny!

Poor Annie had a rough sleeping day today. She couldn't fall asleep easily and when she did it was only for a very short period of time. She was happy when she was awake though so I don't know if she's having some separation anxiety or what! She did drool through at least 2 shirts today since I kept forgetting to put a bib on her. She loves rolling around and exploring her crib and, well, everything for that matter! It is getting tricky changing her diapers! She is such a good baby, so fun to play with and will always, always smile at me!!

24 hours

We have had an exciting 24 hours go by. Mark and Elizabeth discovered the joy of jumping in rain puddles for the 1st time!!!! It was SO MUCH FUN to watch them. It started out by us all being crazy grumpy with cabin fever and it was just raining a little bit when I decided we should walk to the mail box. I got Annie all bundled up in the stroller and off we went. Mark was still being a bit grumpy and didn't want to walk so he was in the stroller too. As we got across the street Elizabeth spotted the water flowing down into the sewer drain. I could literally see her eyes get bigger and her brain make the connection within 10 or so seconds!! Sure enough she was stomping like crazy and that made Mark want to get out immediately! Mark came home from work about 10 minutes later and we all just enjoyed the moment, at least until it started pouring. They were soaked and muddy but oh so happy! It was a memorable moment for sure.

Here is Elizabeth stomping away:

And them looking into the sky asking where the moon is:

Elizabeth feeling the rain!

Mark checking out where the water is going:

And his big splash after jumping off the curb onto the street!

I had to sneak in a picture of our cutie trying to enjoy some milk and keep warm!

Speaking of this cutie, she pulled herself up to her knees last night while playing!! She is so smart and I'm trying to wrap my brain around the fact that this summer I will have 3 walking toddlers (well 1 walking, 2 running..at least I hope Annie won't be running!) to chase!!

Tonight Elizabeth recognized and pointed out all the letters in the word BROWN. It was amazing!!

This morning the sun was shining and for the first time in years I (with the 'help' of the twins) pulled weeds in our flower bed. And got really excited to see the tulips we planted in November starting to poke out of the ground! It's my first time planting anything in the dirt, which Mark politely pointed out that technically I didn't get my hands in and plant...but I did go to the store and pick the bulbs out and tell him where to place them! I'm not a huge outdoor, get my hands dirty with worms and bugs kind of girl..but I'm going to try! Also Mark is refusing to do ALL the flower bed work himself, so, ya.

A little bit of everything

Here is a collaboration of pictures that sum up the end of January and what else has happened in February besides birthday stuff!

We took the kids to Imagine Childrens Museum (or something like that) and it was so fun and there was so much to see that we barely covered a 1/3 of it. Mark just wanted to practice jumping off an airplane wing the whole night. And Elizabeth was just happy to run around looking at everything, as was Annie, minus the running part! She enjoyed the view from the Bjorn. Here are some low quality pictures from our camera of them sitting on a horse:

And playing for a really long time on this fire truck slide/play area:

Here is Mark wearing Daddy's boots one morning. He was looking out the window saying Daddy work, car (as in Daddy went to work in his car).

At the very end of January we went to our friend's birthday party! It was the twins 1st official birthday party and it was so much fun!!!! Here is Elizabeth with one of the birthday girls Lexie (her twin sister's name is Kenzie):

And now the pictures get sideways for some reason, sorry! I don't know how to fix them or if it is even fixable...but I tried and failed, so here they are anyways. Mark and Elizabeth eating cupcakes at the party. Mark loves them so much he ate at least 5 and kept yelling as loud as he could 'CAKE,CAKE,CAKE'!

We have come to an interesting point with the twins and coloring. I use to be able to entertain them with shapes and letters but now they want animals and other weird stuff and I am not a very skilled artist! As you can see from the following side walk chalk pictures we drew one day when it had stopped raining for more than a few hours! In case you need a hint, I was trying to draw the Little People animals:

I made a Chex Mix thing for the first time! You can find it here (also this website is awesome, thanks to my friend Nicole for introducing it to me!) and it was DELICIOUS!!! Obviously I had to add chocolate, which I didn't realize until I was pouring the hot liquid in that it probably wasn't the best idea...but the M&M's held up well so it all worked out!!

Annie and Mark cuddling/wrestling:

We went to another birthday party for our dear friends Gabriel and Julian! It was so much fun, the kids had a blast playing with all the fun toys and...well you can guess..eating cupcakes!!

Happy Birthday boys!!

Annie loves pushing the things down on this toy. Every time I go to take a picture the flash makes her eyes close, I probably have 40 pictures of her just like this:

Mark is super into organizing, stacking and grouping things together and he gets really, really upset if anyone interrupts him or touches his things (which Elizabeth quite often does, sometimes accidentally:)

The other day they were jumping in Mark's crib. They love to act like it's a trampoline and they jump in it like crazy! Anyways during one of their breaks Elizabeth let Mark play with her stuffed animals. In the following picture he is doing patty cake with the bunny's ears:

Elizabeth gets a kick out of feeding Annie and one day I looked over into the room and saw her doing this with Cheerios:

Mark is a crazy eater, so, so, so messy! In fact a few months ago we FINALLY got them to stop throwing food and dishes on the floor. It has been so nice. But for some reason they have regressed and do it all the time now and it drives me absolutely crazy!! Anyways, here he is spooning yogurt in with 2 spoons:

And Elizabeth loves to do the 'splits'!!! It's so cute!