"Swinging Sisters..."

We actually got to get outside this week and enjoy the brief sunny weather. Ashton got to try out our play structure - Big sister Alyssa showed her how to swing for the first time. Alyssa got a little frustrated that Ashton wouldn't pump her legs though...soon enough she'll learn.

Sisters playing "dress-up"

Alyssa is just a wee-bit over anxious for her baby sister to be able to play with her. This morning she decided that Ashton would play "dress-up" with her in her princess stuff. Luckily, Ashton has grown into a fairly easy-going baby and lets her big sis do pretty much anything with her and actually laughs at most of Alyssa's antics. Mommy, on the other hand, is still just trying to adjust to double-duty pretty pink princesses...Girl Power, eh??

Ashton's first tooth!

Don't know how well you can see it, but it's there. Actually, it's been "breaking through" for about the past 2+ weeks, but it is finally visible. She has her good days and her not so good days with the teething process...but as the song goes "we've only just begun..." We just think her one tooth (snaggle-tooth) grin is pretty darn cute though - wouldn't you agree?

Ashton is sitting! Well...

Okay okay, she's not sitting very steadily - but she can sit unassisted for like 30 seconds or more, that's something isn't it? :) She gets pretty proud of herself when she does it too. It's just amazing at how fast they grow up and all the changes that happen to them in this first year of life. And Ashton's milestones are SOOO different than the ones we are experiencing with Alyssa. With Alyssa, I could say "she's learned how to mock her Mom & Dad and back talk to us!" Ohhh, how proud we are of her. Ashton smiles when we walk into her room to get her up - Alyssa has hand written signs on her door stating "no boys allowed" and growls at me when I try to wake her up in the morning for school. Ohhh, the joys of parenting - gotta love it! Relish the happy little things like your 4-month old sitting up. ;)

From Snow to Sand...and back again

Alyssa went from building snowmen and snow castles one day...and the very next day was building sand castles on the Charley Young beach in Maui...then just a few hours after getting back home, she had more snow to play in. Talk about your extreme weather changes! What a lucky girl to have had a both a White and Warm Christmas, eh?

Maui Wowie!

We all had a fabulous Christmas and New Year's in Maui. Luckily, Santa found us in Maui and Alyssa was pleased - "Santa got me EVERYTHING I asked for, he must think I've been a very very very very very good girl." (Santa's a softy, if you ask me). The weather, sand and waves were perfect. Alyssa is fearless of the ocean and enjoyed boogie boarding and building sand castles with her cousins and friends she met. She also wants to take Hula lessons now, instead of ballet. Ashton thoroughly enjoyed just chilling out on the beach with us (thank goodness!).

We are SO sad we missed the "white out" over here - NOT! But Mother Nature greeted us with a few more inches of snow just hours after we landed - so we had to quickly adjust from 80 degrees, back down to freezing! Brrrr...

Nutcracker and Angels...the essence of Christmas

Alyssa and Paige are taking Ballet from the same teacher who taught me, Miss Kathy. (many many moons ago!) And yesterday at class they learned about The Nutcracker. Alyssa was quite captivated with the story...Paige, not so much - she danced around the room and showed off her ballet talents.

After ballet, we had to rush to Alyssa's school Christmas program - where she was an Angel. (I'm not sure you can create a bigger oxymoron than that). Thanks to her "Mannie" Krista, she was by far the cutest Angel there - not to mention she stole the show with her extra twirling and sign language skills. I had a few people come up to me afterwards and tell me how "captivating" and "entertaining" she was...one lady even said "talk about a star!" Not exactly the words we use to describe her on a daily basis, but we have to admit, she was pretty darn cute singing and signing every word to songs!