Zoo Time

Since the weather has been getting nice we have been on the go. Here are daddy and the girls walking at the zoo. I cannot get over how big they look. We have been to the zoo a lot lately with our zoo pass. What a great invention for people with children. The girls are really starting to notice the animals and enjoy the outing as much as I do. Their favorite so far are the chimps and the seals. I must say I agree with that as well.
Reagan walking with our niece.
Renna walking with our nephew. Aren't they cute holding hands?
We got to try the carousel since daddy was with us. Renna loved it as you can see. Reagan got very scared so I couldn't put her down to try and get a picture.
He we are loving the elephant show! It was great to see the elephants up close, they kept the girls attention for at least five minutes, and that is a lot for them!
We love that Daddy has one day off during the week since he works Saturdays. It is fun to go visit places during the week that are normally packed on the weekends. Renna was totally done with pictures as you can see.
Checking out the elephant statues.
Over spring break we got to go to the zoo with my mom, sister, and my niece and nephew. We had a great time even though the zoo was packed. It was fun to have my mom go with us because she hadn't been to a zoo since Amy and I were little.
Renna enjoying a little time with cousins Sara and Gage.
Are those really my big girls walking all over the zoo? They have gotten a little spoiled about being able to get out of the stroller since we have went with family recently. Usually when I take them it is a rare occasion to let them out of the stroller. We love having our families close so that we get to spend time with them. Everyone check out your local zoo, it is a lot of fun.

We're Learning to Swim and Growing up

One of our best friends, Amber, invited us to go mommy and me swim classes with her and her sweet daughter Paisley. We were so excited at the opportunity for the girls to get a little water exposure before summer comes. This picture is us right before our first class. Daddy was able to leave work early and make it to the class. We were really glad he made it. However we need to thank Amber and her mom Dawn for helping me get the girls dressed and ready. We love spending time with you all and are looking forward to the rest of our classes. You can see Reagan was already a little hesitant about the situation.
Here we all are in the pool. Renna has loved the water, which is shocking because she is our little shy girl. Reagan who is our more outgoing daughter was really scared at first. I guess they are just trying to keep me guessing! Anyways they did really well and Reagan eventually warmed up to the idea even though she seemed a little troubled about the cold water.
Family pool time!
Here is Amber and sweet little Paisley. Somehow we managed to get no pictures of Paisley's beautiful face. You can see Renna and I in the background practicing swimming on her belly. We have three more weeks of swim classes so we are excited to see how the girls gain some confidence in the pool. Our favorite part so far has been socializing with Paisley and her parents!
I had to post a few recent pictures of the girls. They look so grown up to me in these next few pictures. I cannot believe my little ladies will be turning two before I know it. I am loving this stage as they are now starting to really communicate and repeat everything! My little Reagan may be small but she is very good at loudly expressing her emotions. She is also my little sweetheart and readily shares her toys with others. This most of the time leads to her getting pushed around by her sister and others but it is so sweet to see how giving she is. She is usually pretty confident in new places and trying new things. Love our little sweet Pickle!
Renna is our little talker. She repeats everything and continues to repeat the word until you understand what she is trying to tell you. It is so cute! She is very in to details and immediately notices and comments on what she sees. She is a very determined child and continues to push the limits at every corner. Our Punkin is also our little shy girl. She gets very overwhelmed at strangers talking to us and getting too close. The girl just needs her space and needs her mommy and daddy close by. I am also proud to report she has started using her potty periodically! She started asking to go so we got some potty chairs and let the fun begin! Of course we aren't officially potty training yet but when a girl asks she needs to sit on her potty.
I just love this picture of Reagan. She looks so happy! Notice the stick in her hand. She loves gathering sticks outside. Luckily we have lots of trees so an endless supply of sticks to play with. Reagan is also our little singer. She loves music and just has to sing and move to the beat....I wonder who she could get this from? It makes her momma so proud.
Renna giving Daddy the look! Seriously dad, more pictures?
We stopped at a boot store after church one day and the girls fell in love with some boots. They looked so precious in them and they both cried when we made them take them off. We didn't get any real cowgirl boots yet. We are enjoying the hand-me-downs from the cousins right now.
Renna rockin the hat and the boots! Everyday with these girls is something new and wonderful. I am so lucky to be their mom! We can't wait to see what adventures are in store for Spring.

Sledding in the Snow

It seems weird to be posting this now when it is 75 degrees outside. We are definitely not complaining about the rapid change in temperature. About two weeks ago we finally got to get the girls out and do a little snow sledding at Grammy and Papa's house. I was a little concerned they would hate it but they actually had a great time. Here are a few pictures of the snow fun.
Renna getting ready to check out the snow. She was a little unsure at first.
I love this one of Reagan and her huge smile! This is an action shot of them going down the hill. She wasn't scared at all.

Daddy giving the big push off. He was so proud of his brave girls. They hung on really well.
Grammy and the girls playing with a snowball. They just wanted to eat it of course. I guess the snow ice cream we made earlier could have put that idea in their head.
Here we are getting all suited up to go out. I guess I posted a little out of order. We wanted to say thanks to our two sisters for giving us some hand-me-down snow suits and boots so we didn't have to buy any. We love all the hand-me-down clothes!
I just had to post this picture of our little Reagan reading the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association! She grabbed it and just had to have it in her highchair with her. She obviously needed to catch up on the latest in veterinary research...it is always good to keep yourself informed of the latest medical breakthroughs! I guess she is just a little veterinarian in training. Now I need to get her a little practical experience at the clinic to go along with her research reading!

Blizzard of 2011

This picture is of the girls with their first snow on Dec. 24, 2009. Can't believe how tiny they were and they are 6 months old in this picture. This was basically the only time they have ever seen snow until Tuesday.
We recently had a blizzard!! Crazy! That doesn't happen here very often. And just one week ago we had 75 degree temps and were playing outside in shorts! Now on to 0 degree weather and blizzards! We enjoyed Daddy being home with us for one day off work during the worst of the storm. We decided to let the girls stay in their jammies all day. Here they are playing with some snow Daddy brought inside. You can see the towering sheets of white outside the door. We decided due to the very very low temps and the fact that the girls currently have a cold to play with the snow warm and safe inside the house.
Renna holding some snow. She kept saying Cold, cold, over and over. So Cute!
While the girls were napping we had to drag ourselves outside in the 3 degree temps and blizzard snow to shovel out the drift from the garage and driveway so Adam would be able to get to work the next day. Here I am all geared up. Needless to say Adam shoveled about 4 times more snow than me but at least I was out there trying to help right? I am pretty good and feeding animals and pitching hay in the snow but not a great shoveler.
Here is Adam just getting started. Did I mention he had the huge stall cleaning shovel and he gave me the tiny metal one? Probably a good move on his part. He wanted to get the job done. Thanks Daddy for working so hard and going back to work in the bad weather to provide for your family. You are a wonderful father and amazing husband. Saving the world one dog and cat at a time...right?
When the girls got up from their nap we played with the bowl of snow and made our first ever snow ice cream! It came out pretty good and we all ate some with a little chocolate syrup of course!
Reagan wasn't to happy about being fed the ice cream. She wanted to do it herself.
Renna loved the ice cream.
Just a quick shot of the end of the day with Reagan eating some Chicken Enchilada Chili for supper! Yummy!
A few more pictures of our cold days spent inside. Before we had kids we would try to do a date night on Friday nights, now on Friday nights we always do a movie night after supper. I know we are pretty wild and crazy, dinner at home and a Netflix movie. But we actually really enjoy this tradition. Usually it is just a movie for me and Adam but the girls stay up for the beginning. Anyways this is Daddy enjoying the movie when Renna came and joined in. I thought it was so cute I went to get the camera....when I came back I found this...
They were all three sucked into the movie!! How cute is that. I think Reagan was frustrated she couldn't see as well. Doesn't daddy make a good recliner? Precious family memories.
It has been so cold and miserable we have barely left the house. Here are both the girls enjoying riding their Ozzy! Did I mention he is the most patient dog in the world? He has pretty significant arthritis in his hips so I am sure this can't feel good, but he never complains.
My two favorite girls enjoying some time in the baby strollers while drinking their "Cokes." Don't worry it is just milk but those of you who know how much I love Coke won't be surprised that they call their milk Coke. Makes their momma proud! It could be much worse, they could be really asking for Coke. I wonder how long before they figure out they are drinking something different from Mommy? It cracks me up they always want to sit in these strollers themselves with their babies. Good thing they don't weigh too much. Not sure how much more these strollers can hold. So here is hoping for no more snow! These three ladies are ready for spring so we can play outside.

Rodeo Time

We recently took the girls to their first rodeo!! Yeah! This was a big deal for many reasons. First it was the first time for the girls to ever go to a big public event center of any kind. We were a little worried about how they would react, be scared or just really cranky and not wanting to sit still. They did wonderful! We were so proud of them, we did have to leave and walk around some but overall they were great and we didn't even leave until ten o'clock at night! Renna has had a lot of stranger danger in the past but it seems to be improving. The second reason it was such a big deal to me is that I have always loved rodeo. I used to ride barrels and rodeo when I was little and I grew up always going to the rodeo and watching them on TV. So I was pretty excited to let my girls experience it too. I must say the girls actually really enjoyed watching the animals and even the loud music. Thirdly our outing was a big deal because for the first time in over a month that we were all four well with no fevers!! We hope the healthy streak can continue. A big thank you to Grammy and Papa for taking us to the rodeo. We probably wouldn't have even thought to attempt it by ourselves and it is always nice to have extra hands to pass the girls around.

Here is Reagan sitting with Grammy, she loved pointing at the horses. She especially loved the bucking horses. Her face lit up each time one came out of the shoot!! It was so precious. It made me so happy to see her feeling good again and enjoying herself. Doesn't she look precious in her cowgirl hat?

Here they are trying out some fancy saddles. They loved sitting in them and looking around. I think Renna looks like a natural horsewoman!
Reagan in the saddle pointing to the next one she would like to sit in.
Renna and Daddy enjoying the rodeo. She loved wearing her cowgirl hat. She didn't want us to take it off! Such a stubborn cowgirl but how can you say no to that face?

Christmas 2010

The weeks leading up to Christmas and the weeks after have been a total blur of fevers, antibiotics, breathing treatments, and various doctors visits. The girls both had strep as I said last time and Reagan was off antibiotics for 24 hours when she woke up Christmas morning with another fever! She was miserable most of Christmas day and just wanted to be rocked and wasn't interested in her presents for more than a few minutes. The next morning she was worse with a high fever and began making a horrible honking cough sound. This rapidly proceeded from coughing, to wheezing, to gasping for breath. Mommy made a speeding drive to the ER with a very distraught baby girl. We were told Reagan had croup! Ugh! Her upper airways were swelling shut and she had to be given an Epinephrine breathing treatment and steroids. After about six hours in the ER they finally released us when she began breathing easier again. Talk about a very scary day, it was not a fun Christmas weekend for us. Renna proceeded to get a fever and cough about five days later which lasted for another week. Now I have been diagnosed with strep...so I guess the illnesses continue! We are just so glad to have our little Reagan be breathing easier. My side of the family had a bad case of stomach virus they were trading around all through Christmas so we did not get to celebrate with them until New Years Day. We did get to spend some time with Adam's family on Christmas afternoon it was just hard to enjoy because little Reagan was feeling so bad. Here are a few pictures of the madness!

Here we are Christmas Eve night right before bed putting the cookies out for Santa. The girls were pretty excited about Santa's cookies and couldn't understand why they couldn't eat all of them. This was the last evening with no sickness we would have for about 2.5 weeks.
Christmas morning fun! Santa brought the girls a Cozy Coupe which is pretty much still the hot toy item that they fight over daily. Believe it or not they both fit in there with a little bit of screaming involved. Doesn't it look great in our living room?
Santa also brought a Barbie Four wheeler! We are officially girls on the go. We have ridden it a few times outside but mostly in the garage right now. They know how to make it go by themselves but no steering is happening yet so you must be on your toes to prevent run overs and collisions! Can't wait for warmer weather to really get it broken in.
More Christmas morning fun with stockings and Kitchen utensils!
Here is Reagan at Grammy and Papa's house with her new babies. She was such a little trooper with her high fever, she managed to have a little fun here and there. As you can see she also thinks it is perfectly normal to always carry two babies around and rock them at the same time. My little ladies are going to be great at multitasking!
Grammy and Papa Ron got the girls these precious little chairs for Christmas. The girls absolutely love them. They are perfect for rocking their many babies. Although even though we have two of them somehow they always want to be in the same chair!
My dad, Papa Jim, made the girls a little tower thing that they can stand in at the kitchen cabinet. They are thrilled with it and love helping me cook and playing with their cooking stuff while I cook. He put their names on each side, it looks so cute. Thanks Papa Jim.
Here is another look at the tower. Their new favorite thing is throwing toys on the floor and saying uh-oh until I pick them up. Good times! On a different note the girls are really starting to play together and talk to each other a lot more. It is so cute and always makes me smile. The girls have also recently started leaving their hairbands in! Yeah!! Such an accomplishment for us. Aren't their pigtails hilarious?
This is Renna opening gifts with my family. The girls really loved opening presents and tearing the paper. My parents and grandma came to our house on New Years Day to celebrate Christmas since the rest of the family was still sick. We really missed not seeing them for Christmas so we will have lots to make up for soon with extra playtime.
Meme got the girls baby strollers and as you can see they are a big hit! They are constantly little mommies on the go. I guess my little girls are growing up. Hopefully we will get to start leaving the house a little more and will have more adventures to post. Here is hoping everyone has a healthier 2011! We were so blessed beyond what we deserve in 2010 and we thank God for all he has done in the lives of our little ladies. I continue to be amazed at something they do everyday and have to remind myself they are my little babies! I am so lucky to be their momma and I cannot thank my husband enough for allowing me to stay home with them.