Home Tour: Our Bedroom

I've finally taken the time to organize my room.  The girls have been keeping me busy!

I just repainted my jewelry box and love it.  So cheery.  The zebra toy was originally Noelle's--but she was a little harsh with it and after gluing him back together I took him.

What you are all wondering is what is on your walls?  Just kidding, but here they are anyway.

I've stacked a number of Corey's books on the floor to try to get it high enough to see myself in.  I still can't see my head, so I'll probably swipe a few more books :)  Some day I'll get it hung on the wall.

We have a few random nails in our walls from the home owners.  One day I stuck this picture up on a spare nail and later that night Corey had put up a self portrait next to it on the other nail.  It was so funny.  I'm going to frame it I think.  Makes me smile.

House Tour: Living Room + Christmas

Continuing on with my very slow tour, here is our living room.  The curtain rod branch is from our yard--it was needing to come down and I needed a curtain rod.  Perfect.  Next to the tree is our TV.  I forgot to take a picture of that.  

It was fun pulling out the Christmas decorations.  Two of my favorite things are these kind of scrunchy looking Christmas mice.

I tried my hand at chalkboard lettering that's so hipster this year.  I need more practicing.  Funny story this is one of my favorite Christmas songs...and one of Corey's least favorite.

The girls love looking at the tree lit up at night.  

Noelle can't help but touch all the ornaments, and loves to play "i-spy" saying the different ornaments she finds.

I updated my tree skirt (aka, hacked up the old one and refreshed it).  I love it.  Pom-poms make anything more cheery.

It's fun to hide little things around the house (he's in our cupboard).

Here's what's on my walls.  Count on me to be a little off the wall with my decorations (that is an old mailbox  if you were wondering).

And here is the other wall.  Corey and I have jokes about me needing more picture frames.  I say frames add character and life to your house.  And they are cute.

Oh, Hello

Is anyone still reading this?  Teasing.  I know you are.  It's me that's slow.

We're still here.  If that's what you wanted to know.

Noelle the past few weeks has really started playing more--what I mean is she's using her imagination to play different things.  Many things she does are from movies (like being Fairy Godmother, or swimming like a fish), or she loves to play cooking in the dirt (she makes me cookies).  It's super cute and fun to see what she comes up with.  She has also decided quite suddenly that she must wear a dress all the time.  I'm trying to still be the boss, so she usually has play clothes underneath.   And the dresses stay inside unless we're going to church or somewhere nice.  Also she has decided not to look at the camera anymore.  What a goose.

Ivy is such a cutie pie.  Everywhere we go people want to pinch those cheeks (luckily most often they don't).  Her two bottom teeth are visible now.  She finally said my name!!  She can say "mama" or "mom", the later I think she learned from her sister saying it 500 times a day :)  She loves sitting up, and is dying to move forward.  She can sometimes inch a little bit forward on her tummy if she really wants something.  Ivy loves to give big smiles when mom or dad look at her from across the room.

Corey is in his second to last finals week!  One more week to go.  Also, his graduation moved up 1 day so that's almost interesting news. :)

Anyway, my precious free time is over as Ivy has woken up from her nap.  Until next time...

Blanket Fun

One of the girls' favorite activities to do together is playing with a blanket.  They particularly like peak-a-boo.  

Look at these darling sisters.

Ivy is such a cutie.  She is doing well rolling and pivoting around--but is dying to be able to crawl forward and sit up on her own.  This week things have clicked and she's able to sit for as long as she wants by herself.  She said her first word last week--"dada".  We're pretty sure she knew what she was saying to as she said it right to Corey.

Housekeeping note:  Pictures may be slightly lower quality going forward as I seem to have hit my free blogging photo limit.  If I keep photos to a certain file size I can keep loading them without troubles.  If anyone has a photo they would like in a higher quality to print just email me and I'll send you the original file!  Also, I plan to try to upload all the older videos again because they seem to not work anymore...

Practice Makes Perfect

Noelle loves birthdays.  She cannot wait until it's her birthday again.  

One of her favorite games is to sing "Happy Birthday" to different people.  After singing she'll ask whoever we're singing to blow out the candles, and then take a bite of the cake.  We know she's just practicing to make sure her next birthday is perfect.

Home Tour: Girls' Room

So months ago I had planned to show you around our house.  Long story short I kept waiting until the whole house was clean, and realistically that almost never happens around here.  So I'll start with the girls room and hopefully make it around the rest of the house in upcoming weeks.

Here's Noelle playing on her bed.  I made her bedspread.  I was going for an over-sized gingham/buffalo plaid look.  Something not obviously girly, but still cute-sy.  I know later on I won't have a choice and she'll have princess everything.

Here's a wider shot that show's ivy's crib.  They are doing pretty well most nights sharing a room.  Noelle has figured out that she gets into trouble for turning on the light at night so she'll turn it on, play a bit, then turn it off again before calling for us.

Hey, where did Ivy go?  Oh there she is!  She is moving ALL OVER now.  She often rolls under her bed and loves kicking the mattress with her feet  (she also loves kicking the door, couch, or wall with her feet too).  If you leave her on one side of the house and go to a different room she can roll to the other side of the house pretty quickly if she wants.

P.S.  Happy 7 months Ivy!

Queen for a Day

A book I randomly picked up from the library is about a girl who dresses up as a queen.  Noelle thought it was fun and wanted to be a queen too.  So we picked out a cute outfit and I let her have a little lip gloss (queens are fancy like that).  Despite our niceties something was missing...a crown!  

So we decided to make one.  She helped paint the glitter on it and I did the sequins.  She had fun putting it on and talking about it all day.

Here's a long-ish video of just Noelle and I chatting (Ivy was asleep).  I think these will be kind of fun to look back on.  When we're filming her normally she can be a bit hyper, so these are a fun look at what she's like most of the time.  

Right now Noelle is definitely a little parrot.  It's super cute but sometimes hard for general communication.  "Noelle, do you want milk or juice?" "Milk... or juice!" "Noelle, do you want to play or read?" "play...or read!" See what I mean?  Noelle also has a funny way of talking.  When we ask her a question she likes to repeat the question and then answer.  So I might ask her "Noelle, what does a doctor do?"  She'll say, "what a doctor do? Doctor check Ivy".  Right now she loves answering questions about what things do and how they work.  Maybe she'll grow up to be a scientist.

Tidbits

I'm trying to pull out the camera more when we're just hanging out at home (which is most of the time!).  Here are the girls enjoying a book with dad.

Ivy got her first tooth last week.  We think another is on it's way.

Here's a clip of Corey getting Ivy to giggle.  I can't resist a good baby giggle.

Ivy has taken to eating tags, just like her sister.  Who cares about the giant fluffy pink elephant?  I want the tag!  We've been contemplating trimming the sides of her hair--it can be pretty crazy some days.

Noelle looked so grown up today.  I decided I should take a picture before her hair fell out (which usually happens after lunch, if not sooner).  She was having so much fun holding Ivy.

Ivy wasn't having as much fun, but sure loves her big sister.

A Holly Day

We enjoyed our holiday break yesterday. We did a little shopping (Sabrina your present is almost on it's way!) and spent some time outside at the park.

It was kind of chilly.  We almost don't know how to dress for cold anymore.  What?  I have to pull out socks?!

Ivy has only swung a few times but seems to like it so far!

 Noelle doesn't really care what the temperature is, if she's in a swing she's happy.

The awkward moment when you say "everyone make a silly face!", and only you do.

Ivy was bundled in her sling most of the outing due to the chill air.  Burr mom!

Look, family picture!

Happy Halloween

Although my posting has been very sparse lately I didn't want to miss Halloween.  I hope everyone has a fun day.  I got my teeth cleaned by Wonder Woman.  Halloween makes even the most unpleasant things mildley amusing.

What you are really here to see are the girls.  We had a trunk-or-treat over the weekend so we don't really have any plans to go out tonight.  Noelle was so excited to be Elastigirl.  She could hardly hold still.  Ivy is sporting an incredible shirt too--she's Jack-Jack.  My time is limited so I'll just cut the chit chat and share some pictures:

We told Noelle to stretch like Elastigirl.

Best Shirt

One of the best shirts I've made Noelle is her green shirt.  I made it out of a cheap stretched out shirt I had. Little did I know she'd still be wearing it two years later.  Originally it was more of a dress but she's grown into it.  It's funny to see how small she was when I first made it.  

Why don't they make all kid clothes that versatile?

I need to remember to make more shirts for the girls out of stretchy stuff so I they can sport them for a while!   

This and That

I always have a hard time thinking about what to report when I finally sit down to blog.  It couldn't be the two awake girls who should be sleeping distracting me (Noelle is currently knocking on her door)  :)

Ivy loves to stand.  Noelle is getting better at smiling cute in pictures.  If you ask her to give you a "beautiful smile" she flashes a pearly white smile.  Sometimes she asks Corey or I to smile and says "good job" or "oh, beautiful".

Noelle is often sporting a fruit punch mustache.  Why must they put so much food coloring in the punch?  It seems a bit overdone.  Ivy isn't so sure about sitting.  She likes standing much more.

Here's a video of nothing really, but Noelle was acting cute.

Life

We are a busy bunch around here, leaving me with not nearly as much time to blog as I'd like.  But here's a few glimpses of the girls.

Ivy appears to be teething.  Who knows when some cute pearly whites will show up.  In the mean time she loves to chew on anything (our fingers are her favorite).  She hasn't had any solid foods yet.  We will probably introduce them in the next month.

Noelle loves to be in pictures with Ivy.  Look how grown up she looks next to her sister!  Also, she is getting very tan from all her outside escapade-ing.

Ivy is dying to move.  She's always doing little baby crunches while lying on the ground.  She wants to be walking already!

I took these this afternoon.  We really love our house, but it has terrible light for indoor pictures.  That's part of my excuse for why I can't seem to get pictures taken as often as I'd like.  I love how happy Ivy is a good portion of the day.  It's especially nice on afternoons when her sister is being a stereotypical two year old (in other words a pill).

Ivy has the cutest cheeks ever.  As her hair is getting longer she sports some crazy bed-head much of the time.  Just after bath time is when it's the tamest.

Noelle requested a photo of her playing in the blinds today.  She's not supposed to play in them but is often found rattling around behind them.  This week has been better for naps (we feared they were going away completely), but they still aren't a daily guarantee.

Just for fun here's a look at Noelle and Ivy about the same age.  They definitely don't look much alike do they?!  Both cute in their own way.  They have similar noses and both have darling smiles though.