NYE

I love love loved Sylvie's little outfit. :) Mimi got her this adorable fuzzy candy cane sweater for Christmas and I coupled it with her Santa pants. It was supposed to be her Christmas outfit, but I never got around to changing her out of her jammies that day. So little sister rocked it this NYE!

We chose what we thought was a neat seafood place for dinner b/c there was no wait to be seated. Uh, but then there was a ridiculously long time to wait to be Served! We're pretty sure the waitress forgot to put our meals in. The kids did totally awesome, but were getting a little stir crazy after waiting over an hour for our food. The sweet older couples near us actually offered their bread basket to us and noted that they were seated after us and had finished their meal. We took the hungry kids and the food to go and ate in our room before heading to the pool for the night.

Cheers! Happy New Year's Eve!

Hmm, maybe Sylvie's got the right idea...
eat your toys, hungry patient girl!

Elephant

Elephant is so loved...although it doesn't always seem that way. Lately Brady expresses his love for his best pal by squeezing him and patting him against his face (as he is in this picture). I was laughing a few weeks ago while watching an old video of Brady as a baby...and Elephant as a "new" toy. As I was thinking, "Oh, look at how sweet Brady is- all chubby and babbling away." I was also thinking "Oh, look at how young Elephant is- all plush and un-matted!" :)

Ice-capades

We spent the first half of this last day of 2010 at an indoor ice rink at another hotel. This was Brady's first time on skates. At first it was just him and me while Daddy sat in the car and allowed Sylvie to finish her morning nap. As he is with all new situations, he was very clingy but then started to have a really good time. The little walker-bar thing was helping us both out. :)

Daddy and Sylvie joined us and took some better pictures. Then the real fun began b/c Daddy is much better on ice skates than I am.

We all took an afternoon nap. The boys were so tired neither one flinched when I snapped these.

Kickin' Back with the Kids

We had a great time hanging out with our kids at dinner tonight. They are fun little people. :)

Sylvie was entertained by the "caution cone" the Entire time. She just kept pushing it back and forth and making her happy sounds.

The Room

The kids found various ways to entertain themselves in the hotel room.

But mostly Sylvie played with the room's kitchenette serving utensils or found something random to carry around (like her socks in the picture below) and Brady watched the Thomas DVD that Mimi got him for Christmas about 247 times (as he is in the picture below).

Getting them down to sleep was a little tricky the first night. Sylvie is an awesome sleeper at home. We put her down sometimes totally awake and she just blinks at us and smiles from behind her paci. In the hotel room, there were just too many distractions. So even as tired as she was, she kept popping her head up out of the crib to see where her brother was and what we were doing. After a crazy first night, we worked it out. I stayed in the room with Sylvie and got her ready for bed and put her down without any issues. The boys went out and did something fun- they either stayed at the pool (like they did on NYE) or went to the hotel's arcade to play air hockey and go dinosaur hunting with the claw game.

It also took us a bit to figure out Brady's place. The first night he thought it might be fun to sleep on the floor. That lasted about 2 minutes. He slept with Daddy for 2 nights and then with me for 2 nights and it worked out fine.

The Pool

The pool was a hit! So super fun- for us All!

All these chairs at the pool...
and yet they both have to pile on top of me.

I do love it. :)

Our Little Family's Getaway

A few weeks ago, Brett decided that our little family needed a little family getaway. We've taken a few trips this year, but it's not ever been just the four of us. Brett's request was "someplace where the kids can swim." We found this cute little motel in Ocean City, MD with a pirate-themed indoor pool and rooms with kitchenettes- perfect! The less than 4 hour drive was the debut of the kids' new car seats. Brett was working in the car and I was driving. Both kids looked so comfortable in the back that I had to pull over to take their picture. Brady was thrilled- to have a roomy seat, wear his new Diego sunglasses, have Elephant riding along with him...and be able to enjoy the Awesome view. (I was looking for a good place to pull over on the Toll Road and found one with two giant cranes across the street.) Sylvie was happy to be stretched out in her new roomy car seat (Brady's old one) for her AM nap in her jammies (a pair of Brady's old ones)- she doesn't mind the hand-me-downs and enjoyed the day. It was an easy ride there.

We stopped for a potty break and for after-nap snacks. Sylvie had a blast eating Brady's chosen snack- cheese and crackers. It was hilarious. The boys weren't paying attention and she just kept shoveling in as fast as she could. :p

The boys loving on their little lady

Snow-girlie Glee

Sylvie's been enjoying the snow-girlies so much so, that even though we cleaned up Christmas this morning, we left these decorations out for her. They sing and move and make Sylvie SO happy!

The 12/20's and Their Little Sisters

The Consers are back for the holidays and squeezed in a visit with us. Becky and I were both pregnant the last time we met up. Our little girls are 1 month apart (Bowie just turned 1) and our first-borns just turned 3 and 4 (Gybson and Brady were both born on Dec. 20; Gybson is 1 year older). We had another really awesome visit...Love them all!

"Hi Bowie, are you coming over today?"

The little girls meeting each other.

All Sylvie wanted to do was pull out Bowie's hair clips and her paci.
(Remember that she just learned how to remove hair clips one week ago...I think she was just trying to help her new friend out.) ;p

The kids @ play

When asked what they were doing here,
the reply was "building a birdhouse."