My Little Fashionista

Addie definitely has her own unique sense of style. She's been getting dressed all by herself since she was about 18 months old, and for the last year she's been very passionate about picking out her own outfits every day. This passion soared to new heights this school year. When she started the morning preschool class (which starts at 7:45am), I started encouraging her to set out her clothes the night before for school days. Now it's something she does every single night. She lays out the pants, shirts (usually two, a long sleeve under a short sleeve), undies and socks right alongside her bed.

When she's feeling extra ambitious, she'll pick out an outfit for Emily, too.

On this particular night she was feeling extra extra ambitious and accessorized her outfit with a scarf, bracelet, and ring.

She's started doing her own hair, too. Not often, but when she does, it's so cute to watch her focusing in the mirror.

This was a super cute outfit day, accessorized with a tutu skirt. Please ignore the spaced out zombie looks on my big girls' faces. These are their tv-watching faces. Luckily, Elizabeth hasn't gotten glued yet, and here she's happily coloring while her sisters sit zombified.

At the end of November, I started taking Addie's picture daily to document all the cute styles she was putting together. I was planning to do it for a month and then do a collage of the pictures. It only lasted three days.

For Saint Nick's Day, all three girls got boots, and Addie fell in love with her cowboy boots and began wearing them every single day. She's been asking for "clompin'" boots since the summer, so I knew they'd be a hit.

Addie has been carrying her backpack around with her these days, as it's easier than the grocery cart for toting her stuff around. This is a frequent scene...the two items always on her side by side.

Here she is in her "teacher" pose. She's talking to her kids, Emily and Elizabeth. Note the cowboy boots with pajamas...another popular look these days.

The girls were showing off the chocolate that JoJo had left out for them this morning. On most mornings, this is how the girls look...Addie all dressed for the day (it's the FIRST thing she does when she gets out of bed) and Emily still in her pjs.

And finally, a Santa hat to top off the outfits. :)

So Much Sweetness

Addie was pretty psyched after waking up from nap to find her new Dream shirt ready to change into. She's loving her new hat from CC. Check this blue girl out.

Emily was practicing her eye crossing skills. She can't roll her tongue and asks just about everyone she meets if they can roll their tongue, "you can roll your tongue?" but Chris showed her his eye crossing skills, and she's loving the fact that she can do it. She loves to tell the story about how when she crosses her eyes, DeeDee freaks out.

Like father like Daughter

Everyone showing off their tongue rolling and eye crossing skills. Queen Elsa has entered our home, her outfit became complete after Halloween, when the cape was integrated, the blue high heel shoes became more fully integrated, and the crown came into affect.

So Uncle Eric sent Chris a picture of himself (I wish I could link to this picture because it is hilarious!) with his arm around a cardboard Elsa. Addie was absolutely enamored and Emily said Cathy turned into Elsa. They both just loved that picture. One of them said something about Elsa being Eric's girlfriend.

Emily being her cute precious self.

Playing Go Fish with Daddy. Emily showing off her skills, Addie showing off the Elsa Braid that Dad had put in her hair (isn't it FANCY?!)

An Emily face. Intense Practice.

Addison lovin' all her blue.

Elizabeth, Entertaining all with her washcloth on the head pose. Smiling away after a DumDum after dinner. Ahhhh, the weeks after Halloween.

She's the cutest, and she loves making people smile. Elizabeth is talking so much these days. She is pretty much always joining in on the conversation. With her 4 or 5 "words" told so seriously and we all just nod and say, "yes, yes that's so true." and then she gets all excited when she has the opportunity to show off the words she does know. She'll suddenly nearly poke your eye out and declare, "eye." and then she'll laugh and squish your nose and say "nuhssss" We have some picture books that I have memories of playing games with the girls, "Emily, where's the shoe" and she'd point, "Addison, where's the ball? and she'd point. Elizabeth will not point. She really seems to want to focus on whatever SHE's focusing on rather than bothering to play my game. She likes to find the words she does know and say their names. She chats to herself when I put her down for nap, she chats with herself when she wakes up. She's a talkative gal. And she's sweet, and she's funny, and I love her so much!

November Fun

November was a busy, fun month for us. Here are a few of the fun things we did...

Painting! Many works of art were created during this painting session.

MumMums! Last month, Elizabeth was still content to munch on a MumMum for a snack. Now that she's tasted more solid foods, MumMums are a bit bland for her taste.

Riding Bikes! These bikes have been sitting in our garage for over a year. They were a hand-me-down gift from another twin family. Lately, Addie has been really into watching big kids ride bikes, and when she noticed that there were bikes in our garage, she started requesting a ride daily. Finally one weekend, we took the bikes down and rode around the back yard. Addie and Emily were so incredibly excited to ride their bikes. 

 

Elizabeth had a great time watching her sisters ride.

Addison is a bottomless pit these days, constantly asking for food. She'll come into the kitchen shouting, "EAT!" and when I tell her it isn't time for breakfast/lunch/dinner yet, she'll start jiggling the handle on the pantry saying "SNACK!" Within the last couple months, she learned to open the door to the pantry, and would go in and root around the bottom two shelves. I rearranged the food so that the bars and snacks were up a bit higher because she was getting in the habit of helping herself to a granola bar, either biting through the wrapper and spreading bar crumbs all over the kitchen or running up to me with a bar in her hand shouting, "BAR!" After Halloween, I bought myself some candy corn and had it stashed on the very top shelf, sure that it would be safe there. I was wrong...

Three girls in the tub!

We had some great warm weather in November, and started going on daily walks around the neighborhood. Elizabeth is big enough to ride in an umbrella stroller now, and when the girls saw that I was bringing their baby sister in an umbrella stroller, they decided they needed to start walking with strollers too. We had a little stroller walk scheduled into our daily routine for awhile there.

 

We made "Bottle Babies" from The Out of Sync Child Has Fun, a book Addie's speech therapist recommended for us.  The girls got to choose what color their bottle baby would be (naturally, Addie chose blue and Emily chose pink) and then they got to put googly eyes, sequins, seashells, buttons, and glitter in their bottles. I topped them off with a little mineral oil and sealed the tops shut with plumbers tape. They've had a good time carrying their babies around the house, pushing them in their baby strollers and grocery cart, and Elizabeth has had a fun time crawling to the bottles and rolling them while she studies the contents.

 

Really, what month would be complete without some good dress-up play?

Elizabeth got ahold of my sunglasses, and Addie showed her how to put them on.

And then showed Elizabeth what they look like on her. 

We had a picnic in the backyard.

We spent some time at EB Rains with Bree, Enslea, and Judah.

We spent some time up in Fort Collins with the Rices. Wendy and I got some amazing coffee at the Little Bird Bakeshop, and then all of us girls had did some great Old Town shopping while Dale was at school.

We had a visit from Jennica, Kaia, and Teeny Baby Boy Emmons ;)

Kaia's getting ready to be a big sister!

We spent lots of time with DeeDee, our number one all time favorite babysitter! Thanks for all the time you devote to this family, DeeDee!!

Elizabeth started standing to play. She still needs to be propped up (doesn't pull herself up yet) but she really enjoys being on her feet.

We had a little apple-themed fun. We cut a couple old mushy apples up, did some apple stamping, and then made applesauce!

 

Back in October, our favorite big kid neighbor, Berlin, who has given us some great hand-me-downs, gave us a Sesame Street nightgown. Addie immediately laid claim to the nightgown, and she wears it almost every night, unless it is in the wash, in which case she usually cries.

Elizabeth doesn't take a bottle often, but she surprised us in November with the skill of holding the bottle all on her own.

We had a bit of snow in November, and the girls loved getting all bundled up to go outside. The first day it snowed, Berlin came down to borrow a couple eggs, and she brought with her a pair of boots (to trade). The boots are three sizes too big for Addie, but she loves clomping around in them. I had found one pair of snowboots at a consignment sale a few months ago (Emily is very happy with these boots as they are PINK), and had been waiting to buy a second pair. I'm glad I waited, because when we get something from Berlin, there's no stopping Addie from wearing it.

 Elizabeth did not enjoy purees for long, and started eating lots of finger foods last month. She also learned the art of smearing food in her hair during meals.

Emily came down one morning with what I thought was blueberries smeared all over her face. As she came closer, I realized it had actually been a nighttime bloody nose, and I asked her to pose with the finger culprit.

The girls have been picking out their own clothes almost every day lately. Addie started picking her clothes all on her own, and always looks for something with blue. The best days are right after laundry has been done and there's a blue shirt to match with blue pants. She'll usually hunt through the sock drawer to find blue socks, too. One day she actually picked out blue undies too, so she was very literally blue from head to toe. Emily isn't as insistent on picking out her own clothes, but if she's in the mood to, she'll pick something completely pink. We own more pink than blue, so Emily is able to be pink head to toe even when we're getting close to the end of the laundry cycle. This picture was taken mid-laundry cycle, so Em had plenty of pink but Addie had to settle for her ballerina shirt (which she loves even though it's lacking blue), with her blue and purple striped pants.