Indoor Park

We met some friends at Indoor Park today. I was pleased that with all of the toys, bikes and slides there the girls spent most of their time working on their dribbling (and no, I wasn't making them!)

"Hey Eli, I saw that picture of you and Vera cuddling up in that chair together, I know boys down here too you know." Love Ashlynn

Runner Girls

These are their sweet little running outfits the Lacey fam sent them for their birthday. They really didn't want to take them off last night when it was time for bed, so they each folded them up and put them in a special spot so they would see them when they woke up. They both put them on as soon as they were done with their cereal this morning. Thank You Lacey's!! Last night Eliza told me "my new runner girl clothes suuuure make me happy"

Birthday Party #1

The day before Adie and Eliza's birthday my family came over for corn dogs and pink cake. Just like every time these cousins get together - they are all running around wildly with their shirts off and the mom's are just waiting and wondering who is going to melt down first (I think I won with Eliza). We're happy everyone made the drive out to the farm for us again - we love having everyone here.

Seriously, cute cute cute

Ila trying to figure out how to reach the legos on the top shelf

Cheers Ian!

The big gift this year was flashlights

Tired Ashlynn loving on Kayla

Birthday Party #2

We spent Thanksgiving and Adie and Eliza's birthday with Ryan's parents, Melvena and the Kauffman family. It was a great day, very relaxing - thanks to Shanti taking care of Ashlynn and Saroj playing with A and E all day (and the fact that I didn't do any cooking and we weren't at our house!). THANK YOU GRANDMA AND GRANDPA NISLY AND VENA!!!!!!!

Shanti is quite amazing with this one. Driving home Ryan and I talked about how calm and relaxed she is with Ashlynn. And, Ashlynn LOVES her.

Saroj is a good sport - He plays hide and seek, colors, chases and even snuggles with the girls.

Ashlynn figured out how to push this little toy and just wanted to go back and forth between Shanti and I. It's the closest thing to running we'll probably ever see and 8 month old do.

Snow Day

We took advantage of the less than an inch of snow and got some good playing in today. This is likely the last picture with Delilah in the background, her days are numbered...

While the big girls were outside, this is what Ashlynn is into doing these days. Finding any door she can open and emptying the contents of the shelves

The sun is rising in these pictures, Adie and Eliza were very excited to get out there when they woke up. I'm glad I can send them out and stay inside this year.

Ashlynn wanting to be out there

Billy, Danny and Alex came over to sled. We could get going pretty fast even without much snow

Adie and Eliza LOVED sledding

I didn't think about how tiring it must have been for them to walk up that hill (and we stuck to a small path) for 45 minutes, they don't usually nap these days but Eliza crashed on the chair this afternoon.

Ashlynn and Opal

Just stole a few pictures off of my mom's camera... Ashlynn whispering to Opal that soon enough they will be dominating the toy room at Grandma's together

This is my mom's house, but is what our table looks like these days. Adie and Eliza love to color and paint

Ashlynn trying to get in on the fun. One of her nicknames it "the destroyer" because she always wants to be in the middle of what ever Eliza and Adie are doing. Her other nicknames are "puddy-puddy" and "The Little Lord of Jesus" Ryan and I were laughing pretty hard the night they started calling her The Little Lord of Jesus. It must be because they are learning the song "Away in a Manger" at Sunday School. They play where one is the mommy and the other is the sweetie. This night they were taking care of their Little Lord of Jesus. Then it stuck, today Adie came to me in tears. When I asked her what was wrong her answer was "The Little Lord of Jesus messed up my toys..." Ryan and I can call her puddy-puddy but we just can't call her Jesus...

The latest

We're without a camera again, Jim took this one the other morning when we went over there. Their outfits remind him of when one of his daughters was their age and he always gets a kick out of them. Here Adie wore a skirt under her pants all day. It seems like we've been really busy but when I think about it, we really haven't been doing much. One little outing is a big deal these days though. I'm coaching, and going into it an hour practice a day seemed manageable. It is manageable (and fun) it just takes up way more than an hour. I have to start getting everyone ready around 2:00 to get out the door with everything they need while they're with the babysitter by 2:45. They love the babysitter, I get to take them to the school and one of the highschoolers hangs out with them in a classroom while we practice. They also LOVE getting to run in the gym when practice is over - reminds me of when we got to go to practice with my dad. Ashlynn is great, funny, sweet...and we had one good night of sleep! I know better than to hope for a good one tonight but at least I feel good today. One event the girls like talking about right now is the butcher. I took Ryan's deer in last night and thought there would be an office or something that I would go to and they would take the meat. Nope, I drove up with the girls and I had to take it into the room right where they are cutting up all the huge chunks of meat. I was grossed out but they were fine. I didn't even tell them about the deer, and they saw a picture of it this morning and I told them that's what we took to the butcher last night. "oh, can we eat it and put cheese on it?" That same butcher will be coming to get Delilah pretty soon here and they can't wait to "eat her in a hambagur" Don't think these girls will ever turn into vegetarians...