The Battle of the Rattle

This was one to two minutes of my night tonight while sitting on the floor with Amelia & Caroline as I folded laundry. 

As the "Battle of the Rattle" begins please note the following two rules:

1) the girls usually start out side-by-side on the blanket

2) no children were harmed as these two minutes unfolded

*captions are typed above the photo being referenced*

In the top right corner is Caroline wearing the white shirt & bib.

In the lower left corner is Amelia wearing a purple shirt.

The rattle is spotted in the middle!

 Caroline rolls over trying to kick Amelia out of the picture. 

Caroline says "Oh shoot, I rolled on top of the rattle".

"Let me roll back off of the rattle" Caroline continues.

Amelia (in purple shirt) says, "Maybe I can roll towards the rattle."

Caroline says "I'll step on her to keep her at my feet!"

Caroline's arm flung the rattle more towards her head so she rolls again to get closer.

Oops, Caroline quickly changes her mind and returns to her back grabbing the rattle

while Amelia plans her attack.

"Ooh, this is my chance!" says Amelia as Caroline flings the rattle across her body. 

"Wait, let me take out the competition first!" struggles Amelia who is now on the top of the picture.

"Ya, take that!"

"And that!"

"What do you say now??  Huh?!?"

(I repeat that no children were harmed during this battle)

The taste of sweet success.

Amelia might be littler, but she is mighty.

That is an honest representation of how their playing usually goes.  They smack each other, roll on top of each other, kick each other, and never seem to hardly flinch.  It's pretty funny to watch. 

And really amazing to experience. 

Tangled tootsies

Happy Girls

Now that the girls are rolling around I thought I'd share some pictures of them playing.

Caroline in the walker, although she can't touch!

Oh...my toes are just SOOOOO gooooood....

Both girls seem to find their way under the trees.

First Amelia.

Then Caroline.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Upon getting out our Christmas decorations this year Royce and I could not decide if we wanted to change around the location of the tree, possibly to a different room, in our home.  Our living room is bigger and where we usually have opened presents in the past.  But a tree by the fireplace in the hearth room sounds good too.  Such a problem...two rooms that could host a tree...so what do you do? 

You get two trees!

I honestly think this is maybe all I need to get Royce for Christmas.  Two real trees in our house. 

He is in HEAVEN.  (But I am too...just don't tell him.)

We decided that I would decorate the tree in the living room with my decorations that I have gotten over the last few years that have a repeatitive color scheme.  The tree in the hearth room would be for the kids Disney ornaments, school projects, and for them to have free reign on.  *I must note...they already have their own trees in their room as well!  Yes, two trees in their room, too.*  But Chloe got to work right away on making some more decorations for their tree. 

Nothing says "Kid Christmas Tree" like paper garland!

 And paper snowflakes!

Still more garland...

LOTS of garland!

It stretched the length of our living room!

Here is a picture of the tree, with the garland, and snow falling in the background.

And here's a picture of the tree in the living room.

I feel like pictures never do trees justice unless they are packed with ornaments.

I used big outdoor bulbs on it and there are bright colors of purple, blue, red, green, & fuscia.

Both trees look really nice.

And SIX stockings hung by the fire.

Wow.  Six.  Plus Lexi and Charlie.

History on the stockings-

My mother made these for us.  She started with Royce and I's the Christmas we got married and she used materials from our wedding.  Satin from the bridesmaid dresses, strap (hook) from the bridesmaid dresses, pocket square from the mens' tuxedos, and netting from pew bows.  Plus a little K-State flair which is always welcome.  So mom continued with Chloe, and when Isaac was born she cut out one additional stocking as she knew we wanted three kids someday.  Ha!  Fooled her!  This winter she got to make another one with the arrival of two more babies instead of one. 

Did I mention we have our own Red-Nosed Reindeer?

Yep, we do!

His name is Isaac Royce Reindeer.  And he takes his job quite seriously.

Royce will say "Oh no, it's too snowy for Christmas this year.  Nobody can see outside!"

And Isaac Royce Reindeer will say "But wait--I can see outside (while turning on his light-up nose)!"

In this picture Isaac Royce Reindeer had picked out a tree but I was quickly informed that

"the daddy has to put up the tree". 

So this is what they are doing.

Did you also know that Isaac Royce Reindeer can help do dishes?

He didn't let his daddy get too far out of sight. 

 I love these boys.

Even if we don't have a white Christmas, we have a beautiful winter so far.  

Cozy toes by the fire.

Six Months

Amelia and Caroline had their six month check-up yesterday.  Part of me can't believe they are six months already but the other part of me feels they've been in our lives for a long time now.  They are such sweet girls.  They FINALLY got on the non-preemie growth chart!  Just barely!  And Dr. Pope said that developmentally they are right on track with non-preemies for six months.  That's what we like to hear!

Amelia 11 pounds 11 ounces, 24" long (less than 2nd percentile)

Caroline 12 pound 1 ounce, 24 1/2" long (5th percentile)

Amelia has really had a jump in her weight.  She's determined to stay bigger than cousin Stella who on this same day weighed 11 pound 2 ounces at two and a half weeks of age ;)  As Robynn said, guess Stella is the runt of the family.  haha! 

We were also given permission to start on baby food so today we tried rice cereal.  It was fairly non-eventful but of course I'd be a terrible mother if I didn't have pictures of the occasion.  Hopefully we'll get some better pictures as we introduce flavors to them. 

Amelia tore it up!  She loved this stuff and figured out the open mouth, scoop,

and swallow very quickly!

Caroline was a little more timid.  She wasn't sure what to think and had a harder time consuming.

"Will it work if I just lick the food?"

"If I keep my tongue out will it eventually work?"

Ice-Skating!

Last year for Thanksgiving we went to Colorado to my dad's, also known as Granddad to my kiddos.  I was about 8 weeks prego with the twins but hadn't told the family yet as I couldn't get into the doctor until 10 weeks.  But while in Colorado we saw the ice-skating rink while shopping and Chloe wanted to try.  I obviously couldn't take her, and Royce didn't feel comfortable taking her.  So nobody ice-skated.  This year I was bound & determined to get the girl on the ice.  We had so much fun!

The first lap was a little rough.  Okay...a lot rough.  It took at least 10 minutes.  Chloe and Isaac spent more time on their bottoms than they did on their feet.  But Royce was really patient with Chloe and helped get her on the right track.  Isaac and I kind of goofed off :)  But several laps into it and both kids had made huge improvements.  By the last lap, Chloe was skating by herself.  She did great.  And Isaac went from skating between our feet simply steering his skates straight, to skating beside us only holding one hand. 

 Skating by herself!

Arms out for balance!

 I love this picture of Chloe and I looking at each other.