Merry Christmas!!!

I love a white Christmas!  There is a fresh dusting of snow outside (which is perfect since the old stuff was starting to look kinda dirty and gray).  It is early Christmas morning (7:30ish) and our house is still quiet.  I'm going to enjoy this "we sleep in because we don't know any better" year while I can.  :)   I figured while I have a few minutes to myself, I would share these pictures.

Santa came to visit Plain City the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Both Amelia and Penelope did better than last year (as in, neither of them cried!). 

 I'm not quite sure what happened with Penelope.  She was fine the whole time we were in line.  Then the minute she was handed off to Santa, her face went to the "blank stare" look.  But hey, at least we got a little smile out of Amelia!  Who knows what next year will bring (smiles, tears, refusal to sit on his lap...) but one thing I am certain about, we will try for the nicer, little more real Mr Claus at the mall.  I'm kinda disappointed in how the photographer set up the lame blue curtain behind most of the shot and barely managed to get the tree in the picture.  Paul says I'm too picky considering it's Plain City and cost us all of about $10.  Of course, he also agreed that we'd try somewhere "nicer" next year.  :)



And since Santa was kind of mediocre this year, I thought it would be fun to try to have the girls pose in front our tree.  I think Paul took close to 40 or 50 pictures.  We got about 3 or 4 "good ones".  Thankfully, those good ones really are good. 


Checking out the lights and ornaments..........

And my absolute favorite......
I don't think our girls could be much cuter!

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE CLOPTON FAMILY!

Kicking off the Holidays...

...with a few pictures from Thanksgiving.  For some reason, we didn't have our camera with us when we went to Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Clopton's house.  So I ended up using my phone for these pictures.  Not the best quality and when the girls start to run and play, they can get pretty fuzzy............   So anyway, we celebrated Turkey Day at the Clopton's house and while the adults enjoyed a big meal, Amelia and Penelope dined on the rolls.  :)  I'm pretty sure they like turkey and green beans and will often eat mashed potatoes from our plates at home, but when we get in a big family setting like that, I think they are way too distracted to eat.  I feel a little bit bad for them, but figure if they are hungry enough, they will eat!  Here are a few of my favorite shots...

Penelope modeling one of the adorable jumpers that Grandma Reinke made 

And Amelia modeling hers (sorry for the blurriness)

Coloring Time (look at that nice mark on her cheek...glad the crayons wash off so easily!)

Play Time with Aunt Sarah

Taking a rest

Amelia ready for Black Friday!

Somebody (not real sure who) found a better use for the shopping bag

Crashed!

Because we spent the afternoon eating and playing, the girls didn't have their normal nap.  It was dark by the time we headed home and I think both of them were asleep within a minute or two of leaving.  When we got home, I carried Penelope in and set her in her chair and went back out to the car to get Amelia.  Penelope was awake by the time I got back in the house, so I put Amelia in the chair.  And she didn't wake up, even with Penelope talking and playing nearby, which is so not Amelia!  At least 5 - 10 minutes passed and she was still sleeping, so Paul snapped this picture.  Shortly after, Penelope started placing toys on and around her, which I guess was Penelope's way of trying to wake her sister up to play! 

Looking forward to my next post - a picture with Santa (so-so) and a couple pictures in front of our tree (really cute)!

Fun in the Kitchen

This is a continuation of the birthday post.  Paul said I had entirely TOO many pictures for 1 post so here's Part Two....

For their 2nd birthday, Paul and I got the girls a pretend kitchen from Ikea.  It's pretty basic but considering the size of their playroom, it fits well.  Besides, I'm the one that wants to get them the Pottery Barn Kids kitchen...They have no clue (yet) that bigger and better kitchens are out there!   :D

Anyway, we decided to not give them their big gift on their actual birthday since there'd be so little time to play before bed and also not on the day of their party because of all the other gifts and activity going on.  So after their party and after they went to bed, Paul assembled the kitchen and I took all the kitchen accessories and pretend food they got at their party and voila....

The perfect little kitchen - ready for them come Sunday morning

 

The following day, Penelope pulling off the sheet for the "big reveal"  :)

Checking everything out

I love that you can see Amelia's raised eyebrows and surprised expression as she looks in that little bowl. I can just hear her saying "whoa" in that sweet and funny way.

Time to see what's behind the doors

The apron is a nice touch...

Trying to figure out how to turn the handle on the mixer

Just a cute picture I wanted to include (I think she's pointing to a leftover monkey balloon floating by the ceiling)

Playing together quite nicely

 

Check out the mess around them...I'm pretty sure while I spent a good 15-20 minutes setting the kitchen up and organizing all the dishes and food, it took Penelope and Amelia a mere 3-5 minutes to empty the shelves.  I should have known right?!?!? 

Ok, that wraps all the birthday pictures (finally!).  That next week the girls had their 2 year doctor appointment.  Let me just say, I am SO glad that Paul was there to help wrangle them.  They were everywhere, and into everthing, that morning.  It was an exhausting hour!   :)     And of course, this was the morning where we had our longest wait yet in the waiting room.  And then another long wait for the doctor once we were in our room.  Ugh - don't they understand??  We've got two 2 year olds here people?!

Everything checked out fine with their exams.  Amelia weighed 27lbs 14oz (60th %ile) and was 35 1/4 inches tall (85th %ile).  Penelope weighed 28lbs (65th %ile) and was 35 inches tall (80th %ile).  I find it pretty amazing that even after 2 years, the girls are still awfully close in size.  When I pick them up, I always find myself thinking that Amelia is so much smaller but with only a couple ounces between them, I guess it's just my imagination.  The doctor felt all was good growth-wise and development-wise, they are just a little behind in speech.  I'm a worrier by  nature and I've been stressing over their speech (or lack thereof) since they were about 15-18 months old.  At that time, their doctor just said to be patient.  This time around, she gave us some places to go for an evaluation to see if either girl needs therapy.  We have that coming up in a couple of weeks...  After doing a little reading up about speech delays (I really do limit how much I read about it so I don't go completely overboard fearing the worst!), I think both girls are just "late talkers" but I still want the evaluation so make sure.  Considering that I think they understand most of what I say to them, respond to commands, seem to hear and react to all kinds of noises, I think they just need some coaching on sounding and saying the words.  The worst is when something is clearly upsetting them and they can't verbalize it to me.  I can't fix the problem and then they just start crying and melting down.  I cannot imagine how they must feel - wanting to communicate something so badly to us but the words just aren't there.  So they grunt and whine and reach out, but we still don't understand.  Yeah, those are the worst times when it comes to the lack of speech.  Their tears alone can make me want to cry... 

On a much happier note, at the end of that same week and just a couple days after my birthday, both girls started saying "Momma" and "Mommy".  What a wonderful little gift that was!  For so many months, it has only been "Dada" and "Daddy".  It's about time right!?!  :)   And now Amelia has added "wow" and "yeah".  "Whoa" and "wow" are super cute when we see Christmas lights around town and at our house.  She also has some great facial expressions and both girls do have their own sort of sign language.  Or I guess, our family does.  They use their hands to communicate some things to us and Paul and I have gotten pretty good at figuring out what they want (we usually see those signs at meal times).  Penelope seems to try a little harder to repeat words back when we ask and we all think she's trying to say "Amelia" but it comes out "dor-da" (or something like that).  Pretty funny!  Don't get me wrong, they do have a few other words, but it really is only a few.  And when you consider that the average 2 year old has 50+ words and starts using short sentences...  Well then you understand the reason for the concern.

Ok, enough of all this "speech" talk.  I've got some Thanksgiving pictures to look through and post!

Happy Belated Birthday

According to my little counter over there, Amelia and Penelope are now officially 2 years, 1 month, 1 week and 4 days old.  So yep, this post is a tad "belated".   :)  But I'm getting thisclose to being caught up and I'm determined not to fall so far behind again!  Anyway, the party was lots of fun and minus a few tears at cake time, I think the girls really had a great time.  Amelia especially seemed to like running around, acting silly and just being a little entertainer.  Here are just a "few" of my favorite pictures... 

love love LOVE the super cute monkey cake!

And loved the whole girly monkey theme

Keeping themselves entertained with stickers while we wait for guests to arrive

Ready for the party to start!

Amelia still working on those stickers....gotta place them in just the right spots...

And within minutes, all stickers moved from her arms to her chest.  Kind of takes away from the cute dress, but oh well...it IS her birthday afterall.  :)

Not afraid of the party hat after last year's "incident"...

"Let's open presents!"

Penelope acting shy

Working together

Penelope taking a cuddle break with Mommy (she's not so sure about the musical cards this year)

Penelope letting Amelia do the work on this one

Amelia doesn't waste any time!

Penelope "reading" one of her cards

Checking out the cool art easel

Digging into their kitchen accessories (and at this point, I'm impressed that the hats have stayed on so long!)

Got a Barney video and insisted on watching right away. 

I love that they are holding hands.  :D

Penelope playing with a balloon while we get ready for cake.

Amelia waiting patiently for her cake.

As soon as we started singing, you could see them both become so uncomfortable...

And then this happened

And this

It was almost a repeat of last year....except that Amelia seemed to settle down once she got her own cake and ice cream.  And in the end, Penelope opted to skip the cake.  I felt bad because I know she likes both cake and ice cream but that singing just got her so upset, there was no use forcing the issue.  It IS her birthday too afterall.  :)

Can't believe my neat and tidy Ms. Amelia enjoyed the birthday treats and wasn't bothered by the mess on her hands and face.

Tried to sneak in a quick family picture afterwards but should have done it before the party....both girls were pretty tired and uncooperative at this point. Maybe next year... 

All in all, a great 2nd birthday for our 2 little "monkeys"!

Picture Overload

I really wasn't kidding when I said we had a few hundred pictures in the camera from the past couple months.  I think this post alone has about 20 photos!  And I haven't even gotten to the birthday party.  :) 

Right after Halloween (and before their party), we took the girls to Cookie Cutters to get their first haircut.  While they both needed a good trim, Penelope was WAY overdue!  So anyway, if you've never been to Cookie Cutters, this place does up kid's haircuts like you wouldn't believe...  They have fun little seats (airplane, train, racecar), TV monitors at each station (with cartoons, video games, etc), a big play gym right in the center of the room and DumDums on the way out.  There was no way the girls could not have a fun time!  And at the first sign of trouble, I broke out the Smarties.  :D  For the parents, they do a certificate, picture and lock of hair for the "first time visit".   

Penelope Before

 (ugh, those bangs were so long!)

Snip Snip

(she's focused on Elmo right now)

Having a hard time holding still

Looks so much better already

Penelope After

(we didn't get any pictures of the back, but trust me, it's SO much better!)

Amelia Before

(she really just needed a trim in the back)

Eating Smarties and watching Elmo

Long right???

Amelia After

(again, we should have taken a picture of the back too)

Two days after the big haircuts, the girls turned 2 years old.  :)   I still have a hard time believing they are 2!  I think the second year went even faster than the first...  If each year gets faster than the last, they are going to be in school in the blink of an eye!    So while we saved the majority of the celebrating for the actual party, we did do a few little things for them on the 3rd - candles in cupcakes, a few gifts and extra playtime before bed. 

Watch out cupcake, Penelope is hungry!

Enjoying hers in a nice and neat way (which is so Amelia)

Can you tell whose cupcake crumbs these are?

And this one?

This is Penelope's response when asked "how old are you?"

(if you look close, she's holding up both pointer fingers)

Opening their gifts

 (definitely figured out right away how to "just rip it")

Checking out the Little People SUV

And the Little People Dump Truck

(and yes, the pink dump truck has a girl driver :D)

Amelia loves the Bumblebee Pillow Pet

 

And so does Penelope

"Hurry up Mommy!"

(I knew we should have taken the toys out of the boxes before wrapping...lesson learned for Christmas!)

Surrounded by all their new toys

Coming soon...a few of the favorites from the party and an update from the 2 year Dr appointment.  And someday in the near future, Paul should have the SmugMug galleries with all of these plus the rest that I had to edit out due to time, space, etc.