Winter fun!

The weather is in the 30's today so we couldn't resist taking Regan outside to play. That was, of course, after the biggest ice chunk in the history of ice chunks fell off our chimney bounced on the shingles before landing on the side of the house, scared the daylights out of me and woke Regan from her peaceful nap. With that out of the way, we had loads of fun making snowmen and penguins! Papa and Grandma Jan are on their way back from TX right now and dreading this weather, but it's not so bad we promise :) Can't you see the sun shining?

Cute hat...

...wrong spelling.

We ordered this hat for Sidney, based on having one for Regan when she was little. It arrived last Monday with the wrong spelling. I called in and on Friday, a second hat arrived.....again spelled Sydney! I called in again and we're now awaiting one with the correct spelling. So if anyone knows of a little girl-Sydney, let me know as I have TWO adorable hats!

Santa?!

So this morning we headed to the mall to get out of the 4 walls of the boring house. I was feeding Sidney a bottle and letting Regan run around the stage area at the middle of Southdale Mall. She looked over (about 100 yards away) and said "hey mom, I see Santa". To which I replied, "no honey, Santa's not here this time"; figuring she was referring to the place Santa is set up during the holidays. I glanced up and, much to my surprise, there was Santa at the Qwest kiosk!! He saw her looking at him and gave a little wave! A few moments later, he appeared right in front of her and asked if she liked all of the toys he brought her at Christmas! It was so cute :) Then he handed her this picture and said he'd bring an extra toy for her next year because she's a big sister! The whole experience definately made her day!

Yes Ryan, I am only 12

So I am being sent home from work today. What for?, you might ask.... Pink eye! Ryan asked me if I was 12, because who gets pink eye when they are 30!! Especially when you can't blame it on your kid! So home we will go. I can't say I mind though :) An extra day off with my girls! I think it'll be a nice day to hit the mall!

It's cold out!

Sidney is definately stylish in her adorable hats this winter :) So much so that we had to keep this one on for a picture tonight. She was just too cute!

I like it up here!

Another try...

...another failure. It's been 5 days since we first tried to give Sidney cereal. We tried again tonight, but this time we mixed it with sweet potatoes. Well, she still won't eat it. She gagged and we quickly gave up. The girl spits up enough, we don't need to be force feeding her. We'll give it at least another 5 days before we try again, maybe longer :(

Sleeping Sidney

As long as she's in our bed, she sleeps just fine....

Regan is such a good mommy to her baby "Madison" (although Ryan thought she called her baby medicine tonight). She likes to put her in all the spots that we put Sidney: the swing, bouncy chair and even under the Baby Einstein Playmat! As long as Regan doesn't try to breastfeed her, we're alright with sharing Sidney's favorite spots :)

Pony tail!

Regan's hair finally looks good in one big pony tail!

Guess who got them dressed...

If you guessed dad, you're right! Well, actually he just got Regan dressed and when I saw her outfit, I knew I had to put Sidney's pink skull shirt on her :) Needless to say, we didn't go to the afternoon mass at church today!

Sidney tries cereal

And she's not a big fan of it either. We'll try again tomorrow but she gave us some "I don't like this" looks. We felt so bad for her we gave up on it tonight (besides the fact that she kept pushing it all out of her mouth anyway). Stay tuned to see how she does again!

Happy Brithday!

to me :) Yesterday I joined the 3rd decade club....it was bittersweet. Everyone keeps telling me the 30's are great and 40's are even better. I hope they're right! I got lots of flowers, food and great presents! Ryan even cleaned some of the house without me nagging!!

Unfortunately, Sidney had her 4 month check up yesterday so I spent part of the afternoon crying as she got her shots. Thankfully she did much better this time around. Her new pediatrician said "she's perfect"! She's in the 50th percentile for height and weight; 24.5 inches long and 13.45 oz. Considering Regan was always in the 75th-97th percentiles, Sidney seems like a peanut to us! The best part of the visit was learning we can finally start feeding her baby food. I think Sidney will be the most happy out of any of us, now she can join us at the table rather than just sadly watching everyone's fork go into their mouths.

Lions and Tigers and Bears....

OH MY!!!! We got this picture this afternoon of Regan; I'm not sure what she'll look like when I pick her up in a few minutes! They're learning about different types of animals this month, can you tell?

Sidney's teachers sent us more pictures from her at school; as you can tell she's loving her new school! I love the bibs they have each baby wear, it covers her entire shirt so she always comes home as clean as we sent her. Plus there's no extra bib/burp rag laundry for me each night; that's a huge plus! We asked her teachers how she has been doing and if she cries much and they said "she's one of our favorites" and only cries when the acid reflux gets too bad. Music to our ears!

More fun!

While Grandma Jan and Papa bask in the warm sun of Texas, Grandpa and Grandma Friederich took an extra Monday watching the girls. Hunter even got to come along because of the school holiday so Regan was in her glory with the extra attention! Sidney gave everyone a run for their money with her enormous blow-out; grandma swears it was up to her neck! Grandpa got Sidney to sleep in his arms and followed my golden rule "ye who gets her to sleep, gets to hold her while she sleeps". Who doesn't love holding a sleeping baby?

Just because...

...I'm cute! Sidney is such a happy camper these days and loves to laugh and smile for the camera.

Dollhouse fun

Regan got a very elaborate dollhouse from Grandma and Grandpa Friederich at Christmas. She adores playing with it and wants anyone who comes to our house to play with her dollhouse. (Unfortunately she didn't want to sit still long enough for a picture next to it)

Sidney did it

I had just vacuumed the floor and dad did this; of course, if you ask him, Sidney is to blame for popcorn all over the floor!

Sidney talking

We love to hear Sidney's adorable voice as she talks to whoever (or whatever sometimes) is listening!

Just like a stool

Tonight, Regan and daddy were playing in her room and Regan said "hey daddy, you're just like my stool" and climbed up onto his chest to reach the light switch! She asked me if I wanted to climb up there too...daddy didn't like that idea so much!

Stinky!

Little Miss Blowout (as we've nicknamed her) has a tendancy to need at least one change of clothes per day and therefore, I insist on daily baths. She loves her baths and likes snuggling up in her towel even more. It's a good thing her teachers at school are used to other breastfed babies doing the same thing and just take it in stride! Not so much fun for us to get a bag full of dirty clothes everyday when we pick her up.

Mommy's little helpers

We've been a little busy lately, but this picture is from last Friday when the girls were helping me do laundry. I have a picture of Regan in the laundry basket when she was little so I couldn't help but take this one. Besides, it's easier to carry the basket of laundry if we just put Sidney inside :)

Centennial Baby

http://www.cityofrichfield.org/cabletv/Archives.htm

Follow the link above, click on "November 10" and you can watch Sidney's recognition as a Richfield Centennial Baby. If you want to fast forward throug the beginning her name is announced at about 8 1/2 minutes into the program. If you have the time to watch the beginning, you can see me struggle to feed her a bottle and hear Regan talking throughout the woman's reading....

Fun with friends!

We had a sleepover on Saturday night and the kids sure had fun :) Thomas and Natalie came down for a visit and the kids played so nicely together it sure made for a relaxing evening for all of us parents!

4 months old!

Sidney turned 4 months old on Saturday! Such a big girl she is getting to be. We introduced her to the Johnny Jumper and she had a wonderful time. Soon enough she'll get the concept of jumping, but for now, she just likes to hang out in it!

Snug as a bug!

Sidney's teachers took this adorable picture of her at school this week. She's done really well. Today her note home said she spent a lot of time "snuggling with Ashley" one of her teachers ! We know she gets a lot of attention there; they all love her as much as we do!

As for Regan, well, she definately likes her school. Today when I told her we were driving home, she said "not home, I want to go back to school!". She was excited tonight telling us all about her day and learning about Tiger sharks.

First day of school!

The girls started at their new daycare ("school" as they like to call it) and both did very well. Regan refused to take a nice picture for me, but that was the worst of her day. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to fall asleep at nap time at school so she was pretty unhappy by the time dinner rolled around. We managed and she promised to take a nap tomorrow. Sidney did very well on her first day and is loving all the action she gets to watch. She gave her teachers a very nice surprise at the end of the day....one extra large messy diaper, onto the onsie and then the clothes! Isn't she nice?!

Big girl

It's only a matter of weeks before we start feeding Sidney cereal so we busted out her new high chair. With our tiny house, and Regan's love of toys, we decided we needed a "space saver" highchair instead of the extremly oversized normal highchair. Sidney loves her new chair and loves having her own seat at the table! Once we take her to the doctor at the end of the month, we should get the green light to start serving her baby cereal.

YIKES!

Marker drawing all over our kitchen windows! Not to worry, Regan got "window markers" for Christmas. What will Crayola think of next?! Now we just have to make sure she only uses those markers on our windows.