One other thing worth mentioning...

When the girls woke up this morning, I went upstairs. I asked them if they were ready to come down and see what Santa had brought. Audrey said, "First, let's get dressed." What?? Huh? This does not compute in my head. Get dressed first?? I'm 34 years old and I STILL don't want to get dressed before I open presents. =) Anyway, I can say that they got dressed faster than normal, so at least maybe there's a little proof that they are my children. =)

A few pix

Here are some pix from our stint as Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus and two adorable sheep at our church's live nativity last week. Also a couple of pix from the girls' school's year-end celebration, playing outside last week, making smores in our living room campground, a few from yesterday (round one of presents, making sausage balls, and playing Little Blue Riding Hood, where Avery is the wolf pretending to be the sick grandmother and Audrey has come to visit), and of course, some from today.

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Merry Christmas

I have some grat pix and video, having technical difficulties. Hope to get them up soon! In the meantime, two funny stories... Avery LOVES to sing. A couple of weeks ago, she was singing Angels from thr realms of glory, and near the end, instead of saying "now proclaim Messiah's birth," she said "the siah's birth". Audrey said, "it's not siah's BIRTH, It's siah's EARTH." Today, they were playing with their new easel and Avery said, "I need to rase the chalkboard." Audrey said, "it's not RASE,it's UNRASE." Love it and love our kids! Kai went in for a 6-month checkup last week and was 17 lbs and 27 inches. He is big and happy, and especially loved the crinkly tissue paper this morning! :-)

Halloween

From Halloween. Their official costumes were butterflies, but for school, they were an angel and Snow White because pants and jackets wouldn't fit over the wings and tutus. =) Also, Ryan passing out candy (thanks!) and Kai playing with Avery.

I Almost Felt So Loved ...

Iain put the girls to bed tonight and when he left, Avery started crying, "Mommy! Mommy!". So I went upstairs and she was lying in Audrey's bed (tonight is opposite night so the girls are sleeping in the other's bed). She said through her tears, "I needed to see you." I felt so loved. So I kissed her and told her I was here and asked her if she needed anything else. She said, "I needed to see you." So I reassured her again that I was right next to her. And she said again, "Mommy, I need a tissue." Ahhhh, and the super special moment that I thought we were sharing ended with me going to the bathroom and returning with a tissue. =)

Ballerinas

Yesterday, the kids and I took a long walk around the neighborhood. We stopped to listen to the highschool band practice (Audrey says she wants to play the tuba when she gets older) and were on our way home by the elementary school when the girls started splashing in some left over mud puddles on the sidewalk. If you know our children at all, you know that Audrey is NOT our mud-lover. Well, yesterday, she went through the puddles slowly, then started walking through ones in the grass that were ankle-deep, then started running through them, then accidentally fell in one. She looked shocked for a minute, then started laughing and then started running and sliding into them on purpose. She had mud from head to toe. Literally. Avery was a bit more cautious yesterday and, while happy to walk in them, did not want to be splashing in them. I told them we were going to come home and rinse off in the waterhose outside. As we were walking home, Iain called and said there was a tornado warning. So we started walking a bit faster. But Audrey knows that tornadoes are dangerous and she could not get home fast enough. She told us we needed to go straight to the basement (Iain has done drills with them =) ). So now I have two very muddy girls who need to go into the house. Fab! Thankfully we have a shower in the basement so they got bathed down there. But Audrey was still worried about the tornado, so she wanted Iain (who was now home) to go upstairs and bring her jammies down to her. Very cute. Anyway, we had a fun basement party, complete with eating dinner down there, spread out on a picnic sheet. Here's a video of the girls dancing after dinner (you can see that the jammies were discarded in favor of more appropriate dancing attire)!

Kai Rolling Over

Today is Kai's 4-month birthday! He's becoming quite a laugher and talker, and yesterday, we saw him roll onto his side for the first time. Below is a pic from a few minutes ago, where he rolled all the way over to his tummy. He still hasn't figured out how to get his arm out from underneath him, but he's well on his way. Smart boy!

Also a cute pic of him smiling this morning.

Audrey's Food Choices

Just a funny memory for me. Last week, Audrey said, "there are only 2 things I don't like. Crust and peas." Steamed clams, okay. Crust on a PB sandwich, bad news!

Standing on the Promises

From last week.

Connecticut

Iain spoke to a couple of classes at the Coast Guard Academy on Friday, so we took the opportunity to have a family vacation over the long weekend. Here are some pix from our trip to Mystic Seaport with my super friend Christian from Switzerland. The girls made little wooden boats (Audrey's was a motorboat, Avery's a sailboat). We also had a great time with Iain's Aunt Siz and Uncle Ralph and cousins Kaethe, Mike, Alison & Jessie ... unfortunately, our camera battery died before we arrived there so we have no pix.

The kids had a great time. Of significant note is that on Friday morning in the hotel pool, Audrey just turned over and started swimming on her back. What a little fishy we have!

Iain in Brest, France

I'm here in Brest, France, as a member of the U.S. delegation to the North Atlantic Coast Guard Forum. Tonight we enjoyed a dinner at a beautiful castle. The scene was simply breathtaking. There were horses in the field behind the castle, it was quiet countryside, and the night sky was super dark and clear and I could see thousands of stars. I wished I had Allison here to walk along and look at the stars!

Apple Picking

We went to an apple orchard yesterday and had a SUPER time. The girls are great apple pickers and Kai was a champ in his stroller. =) Here are a few pix, very few which actually have apples in them. =)

BFFs

So our very favorite Virginia friends, the Tewells, are moving to San Diego and we are going to miss them sooooo much!! Audrey and Avery adore their children (who, by the way, are about the best-mannered 6, 9, 10 and 12 year olds I've ever met), and we had a fun "breakfast for dinner in our jammies" party tonight. Here's a pic of everyone together (minus Kai, who bailed for bed about 2 hours prior).