Holiday photo outtakes

Mission accomplished: we took and edited photos of the girls today for our holiday cards, and I actually got them designed and ordered.  It’s ridiculous that we wait this long to do it every year, but this year we had 2 valid excuses: 1) we had lost both of our “good cameras” (recently located one) and 2) we’ve been passing around a cold, so both girls have had perpetual chapped lips.  Both of these hurdles behind us, we finally got outside on this 70 degree December day!  Some outtakes below; I didn’t include anything that actually made it into the card.  🙂

Sisters!

In front of the tree

Peekaboo Camile

Peekaboo Adele

Jumping!

Pointing!

Running!

Lots of recent stuff

The girls keep getting bigger and crazier, and I keep getting lazier about posting. They’re both occupied in swim class now, so here’s a download of some recent stuff on my phone!   
    
    
   

Our little sunflowers

We’re trying to pack as much as we can into the end of summer, so this morning finally ventured out to Burnside Farms in Haymarket.  They have different flowers and crops throughout the year, and we were lucky enough to visit during sunflower and gladiolus season.  So beautiful!  The girls had a great time wandering around the rows of flowers, picking out which ones we would take home, and blowing bubbles:

Other big developments at our house:

• Adele just learned how to snap her fingers, so she is snapping all day long.  She has already figured out the best uses of snapping, like looking at us in the middle of a conversation, saying “I’m an expert!”, snapping, and walking into the other room.  We’re still not sure what she’s an expert in or of, except apparently snapping.
• We finally got our front flagstone walk redone!  It had started to really become an eyesore and a safety hazard, so we’re really grateful to Jesus and his crew who did a great job (in this pic it’s still wet from the final wash they did):

• Camile has a ton of great new words, but her favorite one is the same one that every toddler loves:  “no!”.  Except for when she says it, it sounds more like “new!” and it’s kind of cute and more bearable.

• We’re getting ready for Adele to move over to kindergarten in a few short weeks!  She’s going to do great, but the transition from Kiddie Academy, where she’s so comfortable, may be challenging.  Fingers crossed!

Tomorrow is swim lessons and maybe a pool party–so much to fit in while it’s hot, hot, hot…

Camile takes me for a walk

 Not exactly a relaxing stroll anymore!

And trying out the bike…

  

Sister time

Our lovely, well-behaved girls taking a quiet walk in the rain together:

Until Adele sets Camile straight on the realities of the world:

And then they eat rice krispie treats and dance to their favorite song about a hamster eating popcorn on a piano:

Quality sister time indeed.

Fantastic at 15 (months)

Camile had a great day 15 month checkup yesterday. She’s still clocking in at 90th percentile for head circumference and height, and 50th for weight.  She’s doing everything she should at this age, and the doctor said verbally she’s a little ahead (which is no surprise–the kid is vocal).  She was no fan of the 3 vaccinations, but recovered quickly.  I got her take on the day:

Camile on tour

 
And wrestling…

Adele, our little graduate

Lots going on here, including Adele’s fifth birthday and “graduation” from daycare (a little confusing, since she’s going to still be there until September).  For her birthday we rented out one of our favorite movie theaters and hosted Adele and 20 of her crazy 5 year old friends to a showing of Despicable Me 2, complete with cookies and popcorn and cupcakes.  And graduation went really well; as you can see from the videos below these kids sung their little hearts out and Adele really nailed the choreography.

We also just had Adele’s 5 year checkup.  The doctor said she’s doing great–passed her vision and audio tests with flying colors and still clocking in at 90th percentile for height and 50th for weight.  And best of all for mommy–she didn’t even flinch when they gave her the 2 required vaccinations!

Ah, spring

Once again, it’s been too long since I’ve posted.  It’s been busy here!  Camile started walking right before her 1st birthday, took a hiatus, and is now back at it.  So we’re going to have to actually start babyproofing.  Adele has been keeping busy at school with new projects every week and we went to her kindergarten orientation last Friday.  We’re looking forward to her birthday party with friends next Saturday.

Joe is in the time of year when he is spending a lot of his working hours outside, doing “benthics” and “site scoping” (I don’t know what these things actually mean, but they sound pretty important).  And I’m doing the usual balance of work, kid, and non-profit stuff, while training for a half marathon (coming up on May 30th)!

We took advantage of having all of the grandparents here for Easter weekend, when we did a little joint birthday party for the girls, by having a photographer come out to do family photos.  There are lots of great shots, but here are some highlights:

Everybody, behaving

Me and my girls

With Grandma and Grandpa Allen

Reading the the grandmas

Reading with the grandpas

Piling up on the bed

Baby big eyes

Hi Adele

Baby snuggle

Quality time with daddy

News flash: Camile does great at her 1 year checkup!

Camile had her one year check up on Friday and (while she was a bit cranky, but who wouldn’t be) did a great job.  She’s now clocking in at 90th percentile for head circumference and height, and 30th percentile for weight.  Joe insisted that I add this clip from the movie “So I Married an Axe Murderer”, which talks about a kid with a giant head that’s like an “orange on a toothpick”.

I can take full credit for that one, since I have a giant head myself and Joe has a tiny pea head.  And the doctor is not worried about her weight because she loves to eat and this is consistent with her growth curve since she was born.

Anyway, she is progressing well in all things baby and her four top front teeth are about to all break through at once (that can’t feel good).  We’re convinced she can walk at this point since she does it well just holding one finger and can stand on her own; she just needs to build up some confidence!

She had to get two vaccination shots and then they also pricked her finger to get blood to test for anemia (that one was hard to watch).  She was angry but fully recovered within about 15 minutes.  That’s our tough girl!