Christmas with Mimi and Popie

Since we were going to Connecticut for Christmas we had a nice Christmas dinner with Rob’s parents on Sunday night (12/20/09).  Mimi brought over a delicious meal and there were lots of nice gifts for everyone as well.

Here are some pictures of the girls.

Caroline was NOT interested at all in opening the gifts.  She spent that time going from toy to toy in the bonus room and loving every minute of it!  Taylor was so helpful and was able to open Caroline’s presents.  What a nice big sister :)

I wish we had this on video…Taylor got a piano book and Popie was the only one who agreed to read/sing the songs for Taylor.  Priceless!

How sweet...

I just peeked into Caroline's room to check on her during her nap and found these two...

Seriously, HOW SWEET is that!!!

Just melts my heart!

The other day we were all busy running around trying to get ready for some family pictures that my good friend Emily was taking for us. Of course I was crazy over getting the girls' outfits ready, coordinating it with something Rob and I could wear as well and just getting to Winston on time. It was a crazy morning and I am sure I seemed a little stressed...I know you are saying, "Not Kristen!" :-) Actually I wasn't too bad, but enough for my sweet Taylor to notice and take time to brighten up my day. We were finally all in the car, seat belts on, outfitted from hair bows to boots, and ready to go...Whew! Then all of a sudden Taylor said to me,
"Mommy, you really are a good Mommy!"
I mean seriously, that was the sweetest thing I have heard. It just melted my heart!!!!

Fun at the Zoo

Rob and I took the girls to the zoo a couple of weekends ago and I completely forgot to post about our family trip.  It was the weekend of “Boo at the Zoo”

We didn’t dress the girls up in their costumes but we sure did see some cute and interesting ones throughout the crowd.  We had a great time visiting with all the animals, riding the tram, the “grounded” helicopter and the carousel. 

Taylor said her favorite animal of the day was the gorilla and I am sure that Caroline’s favorite was the dog :-).  Caroline loves dogs and every animal we saw she would point and say “DOG!”  I thought it was pretty funny when Caroline and I were looking at the sea lion along with another family and she yelled, “DOG!”  The people around us, just turned and looked at us funny.  Not sure why I felt it necessary to explain to them that my 14 month old thinks everything is a dog right now.  I thought it was funny but they didn’t seem amused.

This was the closest thing to a pumpkin patch that we saw this year…

Caroline was ready to fly!

Pilot Taylor all ready to go too.

Quick picture with Daddy

Taylor was excited about riding the gorilla

One day we will get a shot of them looking at the camera and smiling at the same time.

Yummy!

 

SCORE!  Caroline loves to use her fork and spoon ALL BY HERSELF!  It definitely leaves more for Mom to clean up though.

More fun pics...

Our first and unsuccessful attempt to photograph the girls together

Taylor is still a little rough...
Mom I am just not too sure about this thing on my head!

Prettiest Princess on the block!

Caroline's first trick-or-treat was from Mr. Dennis who the girls just adore!

Love the back of this costume!

What is this candy stuff and why won't Mommy let me have any?!

Helpful Taylor and sweet Mrs. Kristen for giving them ALL the good candy

Hapy Halloween!

Hope you all had a very Happy Halloween. I know it was a BIG two days for our girls. Yesterday the girls had parties at daycare and Taylor got to fill up her Hello Kitty Halloween basket from trick-or-treating around the different classes at Village Kids. Seriously I haven't seen so much candy come from one little Halloween bucket. Taylor's was filled to the rim and it wasn't even Halloween night yet?! This morning we were planning on going to a pumpkin patch with a hayride and a mini petting zoo...well that didn't happen because of the nasty weather. It rained most of the morning putting a damper on our original plan. Once Caroline went down for a nap, Taylor and I headed out to get some errands done and then the next thing we knew it was almost time to get dressed up for round TWO of trick-or-treating!
I am thinking that this is Taylor's favorite Holiday. She LOVES candy and let me tell you it has NOT BEEN EASY trying to keep all of it away from her. We did a good job of keeping candy out of her diet for the first 18-24 months but she now knows exactly what it is and just can't get enough. As soon as she wakes up in the morning until the last minute she is awake she is asking if she can have some more candy because her belly is hungry. Seriously?! I think her belly is saying please no more candy. She must be confused or just hasn't figured out that those are not hunger pains :)
As for Caroline, she only got to do a little trick-or-treating tonight. Poor Caroline is still fighting that ear infection from two weeks ago! We had to take her back in on Tuesday as she had pink eye again and ear infections in both ears. The Dr. gave Caroline a medicine that didn't really agree with her little body and she ended up refusing to take it. We were back at the Dr. on Friday for another check. Her ears were still infected and they put her on a different med and said the next step would be to see the ENT since she has had so many infections within the last year. With all that said and with the rainy weather, we didn't keep her out too long. Plus she was totally ready for bed and was fast asleep by 7---now that sounds like a good night to me! :-)
The girls looked adorable in their costumes and better yet, these costumes were already paid for!!! Taylor was insistent that she be a PINK princess. Luckily we already had a "dress up" princess outfit that Taylor could use and Caroline wore the giraffe costume that Taylor wore two years ago. Hard to believe that it has been two years Taylor fit into it? Can you see the resemblance? I put a pink bow on the giraffe this year for Caroline. She totally didn't get the whole trick-or-treating thing but she still looked adorable as did her big sis all dressed in pink!

Taylor Halloween 2007

Caroline Halloween 2009

Caroline was definitely infatuated with the candy in the wrapper...

Not sure if we got a SINGLE one with both of them looking in same direction?!

End of Soccer Season

This is several days behind schedule, but at least I did finally post something!!! Taylor had her last scocer game a week ago. I think she had a great time. We met some nice new friends (and their sweet parents too), the kids all ran around a lot, picked some flowers during the games (practice too!), visited the port-a-jon several times (NOT sure WHY that was a fascination!?), and even improved some soccer skills :)
Overall it was a great experience for all of us. I know Taylor had a good time and has been a little upset that the whole season is over.

Taylor wearing #1 on her jersey and so proud of her trophy!

Team United NUMBER ONE!!!

Market Week

Twice a year I usually take a week of vacation from Polo to work the furniture market in High Point. It is great extra cash for us; like the bonus that I DO NOT get from Polo :)
It is definitely a stressful week at the house though since our schedules are all thrown off and I am not there to help out too much. I swear it seems like every time I work the market someone gets sick too. Last spring I came down with a nasty bug and then unfortunately this week Caroline has been sick. I started on Thursday working at the market and around 9 that morning I got a call from daycare. Caroline had pink eye in both eyes, an ear infection and one nasty cold that seemed like a bad sinus infection. Poor little girl. I felt awful as I just wanted to be with her while she was so sick. Fortunately Rob was able to take Thursday off from work to take Caroline to the Dr. and take care of her at home. We were so lucky that Rob's parents (Mimi and Popie) were able to help us out on Friday. Popie had lots of quality time with Caroline on Friday morning while Mimi was at work until 1 pm.
I got a funny email from Rob on Friday morning. He said Popie just called saying, "Caroline just pooped, how does this diaper thing work?!"
Everything and everyone seemed fine when we got home, so I know she was in good hands!
Thanks Popie and Mimi for helping us out and taking such great care of our little girl. I am sure she had a great time with you two and got lots of loving!

Go Team United!

Taylor's soccer season is almost half way over so only a few more games to go. Here are team United's pictures. It was raining off and on the day of pictures so the photographer set up in the gym. I think this team photo is cute...not an easy task to get a group of 3-4 year olds to look at the camera and smile at the same time!

Just for fun…

We don’t have too much to report.  The girls are growing like weeds and keeping us entertained and on the go!

Taylor loving on Duke

This is Taylor’s old bike and she was “showing” Caroline how it is done :)

Caroline is super excited about this ride that was passed down from Taylor

  

Caroline is most definitely on the GO these days!  She is a quick little thing and into everything too.  She still only has four teeth but will eat anything you give her.  We when out to eat last week with both sets of grandparents and we were all amazed at her appetite.  She really enjoyed anything that was on Mommy’s plate…salad, mushrooms, broccoli, and the yummy crust of my veggie pizza. She isn’t saying too many words but she sure is trying to chat it up too.  She squeals and yells a lot and is trying to communicate to us what it is she really wants.   Although with going through the THREE’S with Taylor, Caroline might be learning that screaming from some of Taylor’s out bursts :) Taylor is discovering her independence and learning her boundaries with us.  She is one smart little girl and likes to test her limits!

Taylor is learning so much at Village Kids.  She came home a couple of weeks ago and spelled her name!  We were so proud of her and she is very proud of herself as well.  At soccer practice last week, I over heard Taylor telling her coach in the middle of a drill that she could spell her name and then off she went shouting it out!

I am also excited to know that I have a future shopper on my hands.  We got the Pottery Barn kids book last week.  Taylor sat in the kitchen thumbing through it and stopping at different pages and turning to me to say, “Mommy this is SOOO cute!” and “Mommy Caroline would be so cute in this little Halloween costume. Can we get it for her?”  She went on and on.  Of course I loved it but I don’t think Rob was too excited thinking about the future shopping trips with TWO girls!

Love my girls and my hubby too!!

Bird House

This week at school a few parents came in to talk to Taylor’s class about their jobs.  On Friday they talked with Aiden’s Mom and had a Home Depot kids workshop.  They built their first bird house.  They all got those cute orange aprons and then their very own bird house to take home and build.  This weekend Rob and Taylor built hers and hung it up out in the back yard.  Taylor was super excited about this project!

 

Great Saturday with the girls!

Today was a busy day for us! Rob was lucky enough to go to the ECU/Carolina game although those Pirates let us down!! Taylor, Caroline and I had a full agenda. This morning Taylor had soccer pictures and her second soccer game. I am happy to report that the second game was 100% better than the first! Taylor did a a wonderful job during soccer pictures and was really excited about the game (I am not sure if it had anything to do with a little bribe I enticed her with this morning?!) I told her if she listened well all morning, smiled for the pictures and played the whole soccer game then we would get ice cream after the game. (Whatever works, right!)

Getting ready for pictures…

They are all paying close attention to what Coach Robbie has to say

Seriously looking back at these pictures I laugh even more. It is a funny sight to see 3-4 year olds playing an organized sport. I am not sure what little Ian is doing here (blonde hair little boy?)

A real ACTION shot!

Group huddle…GOOOOOO Team United!

Taylor got to be goalie in her soccer game for a little while and did a great job. I think she only let one goal get passed her. We keep telling the kids not to touch the ball with their hands so they are having a hard time understanding that they can actually use their hands though if they are in the goal…yes I guess that is confusing and especially for a three year old! Taylor liked the goalie position, although I think that might be because she could hang on the goal like a little monkey. I had to explain to her that it wasn’t a jungle gym and that she needed to pay attention. Overall she was fabulous the whole game and played the full 60 minutes!

Goalie…

Hey Taylor…You CAN touch and grab the ball as a goalie!

After the game, we had lunch with Grammy and PawPaw and then the girls and I headed to the grocery store. I normally go on Sundays and now I know why; that place is packed on Saturday afternoon! The girls were really well behaved though and that definitely made the trip easier. Taylor was even allowed to pick one prize on our way out. She chose these Tinkerbelle keys that look like regular car keys. I am not sure that was the best decision on my part as she kept asking if she could start the car with her new keys?! Oh goodness, I had to explain over and over again that those were just pretend keys and they should NEVER be used in Mommy or Daddy’s cars. Let’s hope that was noted and understood!! The girls and I came home and played outside with all the neighborhood kids until Rob got home. We had a great “girls day” but sure am glad that Rob is home now too!!

Guess who was blowing me kisses at dinner…

And playing Peek-a-Boo!

My Caroline who is not so petite any more and LOVES to eat!