Concentration

Hannah loves to do crafts.  We recently got another pair of 'children's' scissors and Sofia has now entered the world of crafts.  Here they are hard at work.

I love the concentration!

Funny Faces

I love some of the faces they give:

Playing Together

Recently Hannah and Sofia have started actually playing together...and they're both happy about it.

Hooray!!  That makes me smile!

Sew Much Fun

I decided to make Christmas dresses for the girls this year.  I'm not sure I should admit that to anyone before they're finished...just in case they don't turn out, but too late now.  If I never post a picture with the girls wearing them...don't ask about it!)  Sewing only happens during nap time and since Hannah doesn't nap, she has become my designated helper.

Here we are pinning the lining for Sofia's dress:

Here she is very intently pinning away...I think this might be the most pins I've ever used at once.

Can I just say I'm not a fan of any slippery materials....so much harder, but we did successfully cut out Sofia's lining.  Wish us luck for the rest of it!

The Zoo

Here are a few pictures of our most recent trip to the zoo.

Hannah plugging her nose as we came to the "stinky flamingos."

 The "stinky flamingos"

Climbing on the gecko....almost as much fun as seeing the real geckos.

Sofia's trying to get the the alligator

 Hannah admiring the zebras through the telescope that doesn't work because we didn't insert a coin...she didn't seem to mind.

My 3 monkeys:

I know the sunlight was way too bright for good photos, but I'm not quite sure how to combat that when there's no shade nearby!

Happy Halloween

It was extremely difficult getting the 2 of them together in their costumes...but here are a few pictures of our friendly witches this year.

Finally, both of them at the same time somewhat happy:

And..to prove that we even have a few friends....here are a few of them that came over Halloween day to decorate cookies:

For the Record

I anticipate our next move (after James is done with school and hopefully has a job) will be to a bigger apartment with a washer and drier.  I know I'll be excited about it, but I know eventually there will come a day when I complain about laundry.  It's inevitable, I know it will happen when we have more kids and more laundry to do....I'm sure I'll complain.  So, I just want to document what laundry day is like right now so I can always look back and realize it could be worse.

There is a laundromat just across the street from us, so we can walk there.  This is how we get laundry.  Sofia still gets to sit in the stroller, but Hannah has been booted out of her seat to make room for the basket.  

Luckily it's only a short walk because I feel pretty ghetto and get a few odd looks.  Once we arrive the girls are pretty good about helping load the laundry.

It's an awful picture, but it's kind of dark inside and I only had one hand, and neither of the girls stay still for very long.

I didn't get a photo of their favorite part - getting quarters.  They love when I put the bills in and they get to pull out the change. The next favorite part is putting quarters in the machine:

I was holding Sofia so she could reach to put quarters in and Hannah was rather impatient, so she pulled the stroller over to climb up and reach on her own.

While the clothes wash we go for a walk.

We come back to switch laundry to the drier.

We go on another walk then come pick up our laundry to take home.

This is what the apartment looks like as I try to fold all the laundry:

The girls usually do pretty well through the washing/drying of clothes, but someone usually looses it while I'm trying to get everything folded.  Today it was Sofia:

Luckily Hannah was happily entertained making a bed for her doll:

So....for future record, I have nothing to complain about!

Favorite New Trick

I found something this week that is changing my life.  Shredding chicken in the mixer!

It must be a sad life to be excited over something so lame, but I really am so excited.  I had no idea you could do this.....I usually cook my in small amounts and shred it by hand, but now I can cook it in bulk, shred it in 20 seconds in the mixer, and freeze it all.....I now have 6-7 meals worth of chicken already cooked in the freezer....and it only took a few minutes.   Yay 

Sweet Tooth

She comes by it honestly....there really was no hope for her:

In case you can't tell, that would be 3 bags of chocolate chips she's holding.  She has discovered where they were hidden....luckily she can't open them just yet.

Possessive

Hannah has a bike she's fairly possessive of.  Sofia decided to take it for a ride.

 If you notice Hannah in the background....she was running the opposite direction until she spotted Sofia on her bike...

....then she came running to get it back.

Notice Anything Different?

Ok...so it's kind of hard to tell in this picture, but I'm wearing earrings for the first time in about 5 years.

I got my ears pierced in high school (I think my prom dress had really cute earrings to match, so at age 18 I finally broke down and got it done).  And I wore earrings for a few years until they got infected.  We were about to leave for Thailand so I decided to let the holes close and not have to deal with it.

Fast forward 5 years and I've thought a few times about re-piercing them, but priced it and decided it wasn't worth the $35 the mall charged.....or having to accessorize (not in my skill set).

Anyway, the other day Hannah got out my little jewelry box that has my 'pearl' earrings from our wedding day....so I decided to see if I could get them in.  It took a few minutes, and a tiny bit of pain, but I was able to re-pierce my holes.  So...I saved $35.....now I just have to buy some earrings.

Hard at Work

This is what they do around here to earn their keep!

For the record - those knives are out of their reach, despite how it looks in the photo.

Morning Girls

Our girls are up by 5:30 or 5:45 every morning, but they're usually happy.  Here's a picture of them playing together at about 6 this morning:

A Week of Photos

We got a DSLR a while ago (I'm ashamed to admit how long we've had it for how little I know about using it).  Anyway, I spent some time learning how to use it and felt like I was getting comfortable, but then forgot.  Sounds lame, but I didn't use the camera enough....so it was just easier to leave it in "auto" mode.

I've been back in auto mode for a while, but finally decided to learn how to use the camera for real this time.  So...I got a new book from the library, did some reading, and lots of practicing.  My goal has been to use the camera every day so I get practice and don't forget how to use it (thanks for the idea Rhonda).  

I did pretty well this last week.  I used the camera all but 2 days.  I had strep throat, so I figure that was a decent excuse.  Anyway, here are a few random pictures of the past week.  Keep in mind, I'm focusing on getting the hang of the camera, so they're definitely not award winning photos.

Hannah suddenly took a new interest to her USU t'shirt and refused to wear anything else.  I have no idea where it came from, but figured Grandpa would be happy to see it.

 Sofia's playing with her sand toys in the rocks.

 The girls were playing in the 'office' and giggling up a storm....they both had huge grins on their faces....which I missed because it was so dark I was trying to figure out how to change the ISO on my camera...I missed the smiles, but did find the ISO.

All I've read says that bright daylight is actually bad for pictures...I figured the photographers were probably right, but I wanted to test it out for myself just in case..........and I now agree it's not the best, but that's when we spend most time at the park, so we'll just make do.

Sofia has the funniest expressions

 Here's Violet, our cute friend we played with at the park this day.  She's not too happy about the swing, but it crack's me up how tightly she's holding onto the sand toys.

 Here's Hannah hard at work on play dough

Sofia is really serious about her pom poms.  I love the concentration.  I took the pom poms to church hoping they would keep her entertained like they do at home...no such luck.  Bummer.

After a week of photos my verdict....I'm never going to be professional, but I would like to take better photos and I think I'll get there eventually.  In the meantime....we need to convince James we need a new lens.  :D

Bath Time Fun

They used to love bath time....


.....apparently not anymore.

Sofia has has too many bad experiences in the tub, this is now her reaction when she has to get in.  Hannah really does love the bath, but she was scared because Sofia was screaming, so she started to cry to.  So much for playing with toys and having fun...it's now in and out!

It's Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas

Last Christmas I found a tutorial online for a quilted advent calendar.  I must have been in an optimistic mood because I decided I wanted to make one.  Really optimistic.  Right after Christmas I bought some fabric and started cutting.  I knew it would take a long time to get it done (I choose to blame the fact that I have to pack up the sewing machine after each use rather than blame my sewing abilities!).  I figured if I did a little work here and there it would get done before Christmas.  Like I said....I'm slow.

Earlier this week I actually finished it.  It's actually done.  100%.

I'm not a perfectionist.  I think piecing and quilting require a lot more perfectionistic abilities than I have....but it's done.  There are a lot of things I don't like about it: I should have used different batting, I did an awful job quilting it with my machine.  And, I HATE binding, so I did a cheater method of binding.  I knew it wouldn't look great, but I figured it was better than hand sewing the binding on.

I guess this means we're reading for Christmas....with the exception of all the gifts!

Car Trip

When I clean I take the high chair and booster seats off of our kitchen chairs so I can clean them and dust the chairs.  Here's what Hannah and Sofia did with them:

 They went on a car trip.  I'm not entirely sure who was driving, but they seemed to have fun.

They played with them for at least 20 minutes.  It was a heaven send.  We had just gotten home from the beach and Sofia slept in the car for a few minutes, so she didn't want to take a nap.  My entire cleaning time disappeared, but they played together long enough to let me get at least a little cleaning done......and they had lots of fun.

Fetish

Sofia has several fetishes (Is that how you say it?).  Anyway, she loves shoes...in particular shoes too big for her.  Usually it's my high heels, but she also likes to wear anything that is Hannah's.  She also really likes socks....used as mittens.  Here's a picture to show:

When she was still a small infant we had lost all of the baby mittens (or maybe I just didn't keep any since Hannah never wore them).  Anyway, to improvise, I always took a pair of socks and stuck them on her hands to keep her warm.  Maybe that's the cause of it?!

A New Use

Who knew there was so much you could use exercise bands for?

They seem to like it.  And it's a good workout for James....so I guess it works!