Go Beavs!

 This past weekend the OSU women's basketball team had a home game and Mark put it on the calendar so we remembered to go.  The girls had a great time, Heidi was fascinated by it all and sat in our laps just taking it all in.  Allison was very disappointed the girls in black won (ND) and the beavers lost because she didn't like the girls in black.  We told her we'd try to come watch again and hopefully the Beavers would win!

 Allison's buddy Annie, and her family (including both sets of grandparents!) were at the game, too.  The girls' favorite part of any OSU athletic event is seeing Benny the Beaver, of course!  Although this time Allison was a little shy and wouldn't pose with him.

 The girls got signs at the game.  Allison came home and taped it up on our back door.  She makes us proud!

 The girls were thrilled to get a chance to walk up to the top of the coliseum.  It is the little things that keep life exciting, I suppose.

These two have so. much. fun. together.  As a side note, we need to track down some OSU gear for our girl, everything she had was too small!!

December Snapshots

 Nothing reminds me how quickly the month went like downloading all the pictures from my phone.  Here are some glimpses of our December.  Heidi is a happy girl - doesn't even need a shirt to tell folks that but it doesn't hurt to have one!

 I went on a girls' weekend to the beach - we picked Natalie up at her place and she had a huge holly bush - I had to take a picture for my Mom!

 Heidi is wearing one of Allison's outfit in this picture and it looks so much like her.  Both girls have some seriously long eyelashes!!

 The girls got to open one HUGE present early thanks to Nana & Papa.  Heidi loved the bows as much as we expected.

 I had to send this picture to Mark, it may not look like much but there is a baby bib in Allison's doll diaper bag.  It was a bib that Mark & I had been looking EVERYWHERE for, for over a week.  I had ordered a new set from Amazon the day prior to finding this.  Oh well, now we have plenty of bibs!

 We went shopping for a nightstand for Allison.  The wood furniture shop we were at had stuffed beavers all over the place (OSU).  The salesman walked up to Allison playing with one and she said 'GO BEAVS' so he gave her one.  She loves her pet beaver and takes it everywhere!

 Heidi-bug was helping me wash broccoli one day; she decided she'd rather eat it raw than let me cook it.  Thankfully she gave up on that pretty quick!

 One last stop at Starbucks before the holiday treats were gone!

 Allison's first thank you note she wrote entirely by herself.  For her cousin Ella.  She sure loves Ella.  As a side note, I enjoyed helping her write all of her thank you notes this year, I learned all sorts of things about why she loved certain gifts.  Judging by the amount she had to say about it, I think her favorite gift was a copy of 'Puff the Magic Dragon' from Nana & Papa.

I had to send this photo to Jodi, who is Allison's only real exposure to real horses.  She had some Playmobil all set-up and pretended the two characters were Jodi & Bekah.  Apparently Bekah has a propensity for running off; Jodi & Bekah had a lot of conversations about how that is not safe. 

Heidi - 11 Months

 Our Heidi-bug turned 11-months-old just before Christmas.  I can't believe she will be a 1-year-old in less than a month!  She is still generally easy going and cheerful, however, she definitely has her own ideas about certain things and she is not afraid to express them.  Here are our general updates on Heidi:

 Eating:  Heidi is an eater!  And we are thankful.  She loves to eat - just about anything.  And she her top two front teeth broke through on Christmas Eve.  Her favorites are mandarin oranges, beans and foil pouches of baby food or applesauce (if she sees on she definitely has an opinion about eating it!).  She also takes after her mother - one should not mess with her when she's hungry!

Moving:  Heidi crawls everywhere and gets into anything she can.  Her favorites being the laundry room, dishwasher and pantry.  She pulls up easily and walks about a room.  She loves her little walker and is pretty adept at steering herself around the house even when she runs into something.  She isn't walking yet but we're fairly sure she will be soon.

 Social:  Heidi loves being with people.  She is thrilled to go to daycare and see her buddies and she enjoys the church nursery.  She has become less of a Mommy's girl and really loves Daddy just as much now (probably because he actually lets her play in the dishwasher).  And her all-time favorite person seems to be Allison of late.

 Other random tid-bits:  She loves her pacifier and has a knack for finding them (her dishwasher fascination seems to hinge on this - she finds them in the silverware container) or getting Allison to bring one to her.  She loves bath time and seems to have gotten over her fear of riding in the car in the dark.  She sleeps well at night, generally, and often plays happily in her crib with her pacifiers (one in the mouth and one in each hand) until we come to get her.

This is her other 'precious'besides her pacifier - brand new pencils (Allison has quite a collection of them - none of them sharpened since we haven't had a pencil sharpener for quite some time).  She loves carrying a pencil around with her and will cling to it for dear life if you try to take it away!

Christmas Day

 We had a very relaxed Christmas Day here in Oregon.  We started the day with green smoothies and gifts.  We read 'The Story of Christmas' before opening gifts and then the girls tore into them.

 They got handmade, personalized pillowcases from Miss Anita, pretty special!

 Grammy & Grr gave Allison her very own suitcase.  I'm sure it will not surprise anyone that she is THRILLED to have a suitcase to fill up with STUFF.  When she first opened I wish I could have videoed her laugh - she was delighted with all of the space she had to stuff things.  Look out, world, this girl does NOT travel light! :)

Heidi likes the suitcase, too.  She's small enough to ride in it! 

After presents we had time to play with toys.  Heidi got a new train & switching track for Christmas.  Mark & I may or may not have had more fun than the girls putting together a train route.  

 And then we had Christmas brunch.  The girls & I had cinnamon rolls (I gave most of them away so they wouldn't continue to tempt Mark - don't worry, he had a pretty yummy gluten & dairy free apple crisp baked especially for him that morning).  Heidi was a BIG fan of cinnamon rolls!

 We went to Jon & Janelle's for Christmas dinner with the Curtis family.  All six kiddos were there.  We'll need to work on the whole 'look at the camera' concept with our two! :)

 The Heidi-bug was a bit dazed and confused about it all but she loved watching everything.  And playing with all of Lauren's toys!

Allison was SO excited to get this book & CD.  She is constantly trying to sing the song and gets frustrated when Mark & I don't know it, so we're glad we now have the book so we can actually know the words, too.

Christmas Eve & Cookies!

 Many of the Dads around here had to work on Christmas Eve (either real work or unpacking work in the case of Nate) so the women and kids got together for lunch & Christmas cookie making/decorating.  The kids were old enough this year to actually do quite a bit of decorating themselves.  Although they didn't quite look the same, either, the girls were a bit too fond of sprinkles :).

Allison wanted me to take a picture of her hands with frosting all over them.

Logan was the meticulous one, carefully applying his sprinkles - all normal Christmas ones (as opposed to the pink, purple & spring themed ones Allison got a hold of!).

 Later in the day we went to our church Christmas Eve Service.  Heidi was all dressed up and loved seeing her friends in the 'toddler' nursery for the evening.

We wrapped up the day with a Christmas movie and a cookie.  Allison got to wear her new Christmas PJs from Auntie Brittney, too!

Gingerbread Houses 2013

 Allison made her 2013 'Gingerbread' house this past weekend with her buddy Annie.  This year we skipped the edible ones and picked up some fabulous foam kits from Target.  We loved them.  The girls were able to put them together fairly independently.

 Mark played some Christmas carols for the girls - they loved it.  Especially Heidi.  Mark hasn't been playing the guitar at home much so Heidi was absolutely fascinated with it.

 And we wrapped up the evening with cupcakes from our favorite grocery store.  They were so cute I had to get pictures.  They tasted good, too!