Merry Christmas!

We started the season with a book advent. It was awesome. I loved collecting the books. (Thanks to both grandmas for helping!) The girls loved opening a present each day and reading a book. This is definitely a keeper tradition.

We also added another tradition. Last year, by random chance, John and I went  to a cool diner we had heard of near a university. The university had a ton of beautiful lights. So this year we took the kids to the diner and walked around the lights. 

This picture definitely doesn't do the loveliness justice. 

John got out his chimes on Christmas Eve. Almost all of our invited guests has to bow out to sickness. It was sad but we still played some songs. Aubrey turned the chimes into violins and insisted that the entire family followed suit. 

It was cute. 

The kids got new jams. 

I couldn't resist the matching. "Tweet Dreams."

We wrapped the presents. 

Aubrey thought it was a house before she unwrapped it. 

We had fun. And then we ate. 

It was a great Christmas. 

Santa

We took the girls to visit Santa at Bass Pro Shop again. This time Beth was scared and Aubrey was super excited. 

Happy Halloween

Aubrey has been really into trains lately. Randomly, on the way to a Halloween party at John's work she yelled out "I NEED a choo-choo train!" We've been trying to help her understand the difference between needs and wants so we had a little conversation about it on the car. 

Little did we know all our good parenting was about to be undermined: there was a train at the party! 

Both the girls were pretty into it. Even if you can't tell by their faces. 

They also played some games. 

And posed with Mom. 

Happy Halloween!

Bethany-Boo

Beth had her first birthday. She had a pretty great day. We went visiting to some families in our church in the morning. In between we went to Toys R Us to look at some toys. Then the kids had naps in the afternoon and I made Beth's cake. 

She had a lot of fun busting into her cake. Aubrey was pretty upset that she didn't get to break into the cake right away, but we did let her join in eventually. I did get a video of it, but it's too long to upload. So I'll have to see if I can figure that out. We ended up all breaking into it and I think Aubrey even danced in it! It's a fun little tradition for our family. 

Beth did get a chair to match her big sister. They have really enjoyed sitting together. They both love their signing time. 

These two are pretty adorable. Beth had a good birthday and we are thrilled that she was born!

June with the Harrison Girls

Aubrey is really into shoes right now. She is surprisingly good at walking in mommy's shoes, which she loves to try on. 

You may also notice her short haircut and cool new glasses. She is growing up really quickly! She helps with the silverware.

Beth is starting to feed herself. She wants to grab the spoon all the time and took to the sippy cup with no problem. I was dreading introducing it because Aubrey was so resistant to it. I should know by now that these two have their own personalities and do things their own way!

Grandma Janis sent a Little People Ark to the girls and they love it. They both play with it almost everyday. It has given us a reason to teach Aubrey the word, "Peacock."

Aubrey loves "Signing Time" and she has learned a ton of signs. It has really helped boost her confidence with communication and build her vocabulary. She watches it (at least) once a day. 

She loves cuddling in blankets and cocooned herself here even though we have the AC going non-stop. 

We once got a book from the library about a cat who made a train out of colored chairs. That was months ago, but I guess Aubrey remembers it because she has been making trains with her colored chairs. 

Climbing Beth

Beth really loves finding little spots to stick herself. This picture was taken a few weeks ago, so she has now moved on to a lot more adventurous spots. She is a big climber and, unbeknownst to me until it was happening, learned to climb the stairs. Luckily our baby gate had never even been put away from Aubrey's unsteady climbing period. 

My Girls Playing Together

This scene doesn't always play out like this, but it is getting more frequent. These little girls are learning how to play together. As you can see they are great at making messes. Aubrey can be a little possessive of toys and her space, but she likes making Beth laugh and trying to help her with eating and other things that she thinks she needs help with. Beth is fascinated with everything Aubrey does and always wants to be right where she is. They are pretty sweet with each other most of the time and bring a lot of joy to our family. 

Coo-KIE? Coo-KIE?

I found Aubrey just like this one morning. She had pulled a chair up to the counter, opened this container, and was just standing there looking when I discovered her. She clearly knew that she had hit the jackpot based on that smile. But she hadn't touched the cookies at all. I took a video of her showing me the sign for cookie and after that she did start to dig in. 

Best Picture Ever

This is probably my favorite picture of Aubrey ever taken.  

It pretty much captures her whole self. She loves seeing what everyone is doing. She loves pretending to cook. She has the most darling little sideways glance. And the funniest smiles. She also likes the little apron Grandma LaVaun made her. 

These are some more pictures. Aubrey loves little spots that just barely fit her. She likes to hid in here and play peek-a-boo. And she's actually getting really good at cleaning up after herself. 

Library

What kind of Librarian-turned-Mommy would I be if I didn't take my little boo-boos to the library every so often? Not a very good one! So I decided to document one of the few times we get out of the house. 

Our library branch has a great selection of board books. 

Aubrey likes the fish tank. 

She climbed right up on this couch after she found a couple books she liked. It was the cutest thing. Except for how she was singing her delight at the top of her lungs. It activated my shushing reflex and I had to tell her to be quiet since there were a bunch of people working on computers behind her. 

Aubrey loved this carpet with letters and numbers. She can identify almost all the letters and calls every number 2. I call her a genius. She just turned two and she can practically spell! Too bad I can't really take much credit for it. She learned it all from SuperWhy!

We even found a book for Beth!

Happy Valentine's Day?

Beth has the most darling pink outfit with a little heart on it. 

I planned for her to wear it on Valentine's Day for weeks. I imagined darling pictures of my two darling daughters looking Pinterest-worthy in their festive-ness. 

Here's what I got: 

Yep, darling Beth and Aubrey having a tantrum for no discernible reason. Sigh. 

It is a cute Valentine's outfit, isn't it? 

I tried to get Aubrey to smile, but ended up documenting her tantrum instead. 

Luckily she perked up later when I gave her a cookie.