Fiona's Christmas Program

Fiona had her dance recital last weekend.  Pictures pretty much speak for themselves here.  It was so strange to drop her off backstage, entrust her to some high school drill team girls and not see her for a couple hours. 

Evie was enthralled for pretty much all 25 routines.

So stinkin' cute!!!

And actually performing!

Evie kept inching closer and closer to the stage.

Side Note:  So they didn't have a rehearsal or anything.  We'd talked about her recital for weeks beforehand, but there is no way Fiona could have possibly anticipated getting up on a stage in a dark high school auditorium doing those little dance routines in front of bright lights and a couple hundred people.  Crazy.  I was ridiculously proud. 

Happy Birthday, Jon!!!

The girls were SO excited for Jon to get home from work on his birthday for cake and presents.  Evie spent most of the day singing "Happy Birthday" to him in his absence.  It was good practice.

Hard to believe he's now closer to 40 than 30.  Lucky for us girls we don't need to worry about him acting like it anytime soon!

Ah, Mornings...

Usually the girls will play really well together in the morning--for hours.  Seriously.  It is awesome.  Especially if I want to finish cleaning up the kitchen from the day before or get laundry or other housework done or something.  Or more likely play on the internet, look at Facebook, and pretend to look at news headlines for the day.

Then there are random mornings that sound like this:


Evie:  Aahhh!
Silence.
Evie:  Aaaaahhhh!
Me:  Fiona?
Silence.
Evie:  AAAAAHHHHH!
Me:  Fiona!
Silence
Me:  FIONA GET IN HERE RIGHT NOW!
Pat pat pat pat.
Me:  Why is Evie screaming?
Fiona:  I don't know.
Me: Yes you do.  Why is Evie screaming?
Fiona: Probably because I'm doing nothing.

On the bright side, they forgive each other VERY quickly.   I sure hope that lasts into their teenage years.

Superficial Preperations for Christmas

We spent a good part of last weekend getting the house all Christmas-y.

The advent calendar Emily sent last year was filled and ready to go December 1. 

I put it up overnight so it was a surprise for the girls...and what a surprise it's been!  I overheard Fiona yesterday saying, "Me, Evie, Me, Evie, Me, Evie..." I had no idea what she was talking about until I realized she was standing in front of the calendar.  She was pointing to all the numbers saying who got to open which ones.  At least I know there will be no confusion... 

Saturday Jon put lights up...

and let the girls help with the finishing touches. 

We got our tree...

 and made a pit stop on the way home.  God Bless Texas and 75 degree December weather!

Sunday we pulled out decorations...

Apparently, Evie knows what stocking are really for.

and broke lots of ornaments trimmed the tree with the girls.  (For anyone with a 1 and 3 year old who hasn't done this yet, I highly recommend having a broom and dust pan handy and making sure everyone has on shoes.  Or use shatterproof ornaments.)

I love all the ornaments grouped together at the bottom of the tree. 

Strangely enough, my OCD self isn't even tempted to rearrange them.

It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas...can't wait for all the Birds to get here!

We're baaack!

Typical

So after five months (doh!) our point and shoot has FINALLY been replaced.  With it's purchase has come a renewed commitment to blogging.  So much so that Jon even said if the only way I'd start blogging consistently again is if we made a dedicated time each week for him to take the girls and me have some alone time to do it, he'd be more than happy to.  That completely contradicts my procrastination lifestyle (people actually blog when they aren't supposed to be doing something else like watching children, buying groceries, cleaning, etc?), but I must say it was quite a sweet offer.

Anyway, just thought I throw up a few pictures of everyday life before I dive in.  On any given day, you can find the girls doing this for hours. 

Yes, they're saying grace first...

Or playing, "Scar, brother, help me." 

Just the murder scene from The Lion King...NBD.

I tried to get a nice picture of both girls together, but Evie had other plans.  See first picture.  And this one.

And then Fiona had to get in on the action.

 Oh well.  I've got a fun new camera now.  I'm sure we'll get one one day.

While we were camera-less, I should have been better about posting the random funny things the girls have been saying.  Oops, I didn't.  So here are a couple recent favorites.


Fiona's been playing with a little "Hot" Solo action figure.

Sick of listening to the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack every time we get in the car, Jon has started trying to get the girls into rock 'n' roll.  Fiona's off key Fly Away by Lenny Kravitz sounds like a mix between a lullaby and ballad--super awesome.  And I LOVE that when Evie sings along to AC/DC's TNT she yells "OINK! OINK! OINK!"

Wow--it's been a while.

ABCs from Katie Bird on Vimeo.

Procrastinating while packing the girls and I for a little trip to DC, I found this little gem.  Sorry it's been so long since any new posts.  I WILL get back on track and into a blogging rhythm before #3 makes his/her debut.  I'll try to do some update posts when we get back next week.

P.S.  This didn't get published until after we got back due to video upload issues on blogger.  So much for doing updates this past week.  I blame our second kitchen remodel this year...

Before I forget.

Our camera is broken.  Not that that's really an excuse for not blogging since I have plenty of pictures I can post with to update anyone who reads this on the last three months.  But since that seems kind of daunting right now, I just want to jot down a few things about Evie that I adore right now and I'm sure will be gone in the blink of an eye.

Every time someone sneezes she quietly says, "bless you",  clear as a bell.

Whenever she hands you something, usually if she's trying to get rid of it, she's say, "thank you."

If you're in her way when she's trying to get by she'll say, "'scuse me."   If she hears anyone belch or pass gas, she'll do the same.

She loves brushing her teeth.

She's loved putting on shoes as long as I can remember.

She loves knowing the names of things.  In the morning, she'll sit in her bed before I get her out and do an inventory of her crib--blanket, blanket, NUK, baby, monkey, Evie--then keeps going once she's out so proud of herself for knowing the words--diaper, Momma, jammies, cream, clothes, shoes, Fiona, chair, book, etc. 

She combines "I" (and want) with her verbs to create what sounds like one word:  Iawan it. (I want it.)  Iaget it. (I wanna get it.)  Iaclose it. (I wanna close it.)  Iolike it.  (I don't like it.)

I love how she answers Fiona with OK, when Fiona tells her how they're going to play as if she really gets what's going on.  And then I love it even more when they actually are playing a pretend game that the two of them somehow made up and understand together. 

I LOVE how come 7:00 if you ask if she's ready for bed she'll say yes, and start heading to her room to start her routine...and be excited. 

I love the way she curls in to be rocked at night right after we've read her book. 

And I absolutely love, love, love the snuggles.  She has the perfect amount of delicious baby chub that I can already see is slowly going away.  But for now I'm going to enjoy the coziest baby on the planet every minute I can get.