A trip to the dentist

 This is the girls 3rd official visit to the dentist and we had a blast playing in the chair and hanging out with our favorite dental hygienist, Debbie.  The girls were hilarious.  When one was in the chair the other was all up in the mix and barely giving Debbie any room to do her job.  Besides crowding Debbie, the girls did wonderful and their teeth are looking good!  We did Xrays and they said that they will probably get their 6 year molars early.  Our kids seem to get their teeth in early and they will probably fall out early too.  I forgot my camera but these are a few photos I snapped with the camera phone.

Reese goes first.

Open wide!

Ryan getting all up in the mix.

Ryan's turn.  We made balloons out of the gloves while we were waiting for Ree to finish.

Time for Reese to sneak a peek in Ryan's mouth.

Christmas decorating challenges

Ryder is Mr. Mobile.  I mean he is all over the place and it's nearly impossible to try to stop him.  Perfect example is the photo from Thanksgiving when we had to trap him in a Bumbo seat to try to get a photo.  We love decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.  It's become our family tradition since we've lived in this house.  I don't remember it being an issue when the girls were this age but holy cow, Ryder is professional at tearing down the decorations.  Cory tethered the top of the tree to the drape rod just to be certain that it wouldn't fall down.  It looks real classy.  Every ornament from the bottom of the tree has been removed and put back on at least 3 times.  We call him the destroyer (in a joking, sweet way).  He's such a riot to watch.  You can just see his eyes light up with excitement thinking of what he'll destroy next.  Anyone got a superyard gate they want to loan out?  We could use about 3 right now :)

Thanksgiving

I am thankful every day for all the blessings in our life but today is all about gratitude.  We have an amazing family and it's so fun to see everyone come together, especially now that most of cousins now have kids.  It's the fun and crazy family get togethers that we always look forward to.  We couldn't resist getting all the babies together for a cute shot.

All done!!

Zoo lights

We did Zoo lights with the entire family.  I think there were 26 of us total.  Gammie has the uber zoo membership and we were able to go on the preview night and eat dinner.  It was such a chilly night but we had a blast walking around the park checking out all the lights, sipping cider & hot cocoa, and riding the carousel a few times.  I hope we continue this tradition with the entire family each year.

A few missing from the photo but still a good group shot. 

Jango, the talking giraffe that scared the girls.

They loved the camel ride.

Santa told us that he is a twin.  He got a big kick out of the girls.

Planting a gift

Auntie CeCe gave both girls a Gerber Daisy pot for their birthday and they are such beautiful flowers.  What a great gift.  Our flower bed out front has been looking a little sad so we decided to plant these little beauties out front so we can watch them grow.  I hope they can weather the cooler evenings that are approaching.  R&R were so excited to plant the flowers with Daddy and they did a great job with their gardening tools.  Here are a few shots from our adventure with the flower bed:

Hello, lovely Gerbers.  We have a new home for you.

Prepping the dirt.

We found some wormy friends along the way.

One down, one to go.

Daddy's little helpers.

Ryan's flowers are planted.  Only Ry would garden in a dress.

Ree with her plant.

All done!!

Angel Tree

We were at church today and I was really excited to see they had an Angel Giving Tree set up.  I was paged out of the church service because Ryder was a bit fussy in the infant room so I scooped him up and was hangin' in the lobby waiting for service to end.  While I was waiting I had an opportunity to browse the giving tree and see so many children's needs written down on paper.  It was tempting to grab a handful of cards but we chose two little boys to buy for this year, ages four & six.  Each card requested one outfit (shirt, pants, underwear, & shoes) and one toy.  We headed to Kohl's after church and picked out what we thought were some cool outfits & underwear (hoping that a 6 year old will like Spider Man boxer briefs).  We picked out a 3 pack of Nerf sport balls because I despise junky toys and you can't go wrong with sports stuff.  It was fun for our family to all be together and experience the joy of giving back to others.  I look forward to continuing this tradition every year with our family.

Fashion Show

This is our 3rd year doing the Nordstrom Holiday Fashion Show.  We went last week to pick out the dresses that the girls would wear and Ryan had a distinct opinion about what dress it would be.  Reese didn't seem to care what they wore so it was all on Ryan to decide.  She has great taste and picked out cute black dresses with sequins and then we chose different headbands for each girl to wear so they could each have their own flair.  We brought Haley along with us and she was such a good helper.  It was a great way to kick off the weekend and get in the holiday spirit.

Little Besties

"Are we done yet?"

Little poser.

Waiting to go out on the catwalk.

I'm a proud mama

I love being a mother and seeing these amazing moments with our children.  Reese is very interested in letters and numbers.  She has memorized the letters in her name and has started trying to write it.  She ran up to me last night and said, "Mom!  I need a piece of paper.  I want to write my name."  She took the paper and crayon that I gave her and wrote this.  It's her first time really writing her full name out completely on her own.  I love how her lowercase e's look like p's.  She is awesome at writing the letter R, which I think is the hardest letter in her name.

 Then she took another piece of paper and went into Ryder's room and copied the letters off his wall.  I think it's hilarious how perfectly she wrote out his name.  I had to capture a photo of her writing projects.  I'm so proud of her.

Four year old stats

We visited TLC Peds today for the girls' 4 year check up.  I made Cory come with because I knew they were going to get shots and I wasn't about to go to that rodeo alone with 3 kids.  We saw Dr. M and she checked out each of the girls and asked us questions about how they are doing developmentally.  Things like riding a bike, do they know shapes & colors, potty trained through the night, etc.  They passed those tests with flying colors.  They also did a vision test and the girls each have 20/30 vision, which the nurse said was good.  Ryan is 35.6 lbs. & 40 1/2 inches, BMI is 15.3.  Reese is 35.8 lbs. (first time Ree has been heavier than Ry) & 40 1/2 inches, BMI is also 15.3.  They are about 50 percentile for BMI and weight and 75 percentile for height.  They are perfect in every way and it's always fun to see the doc for a well visit and hear how great they are doing.

The not-so-fun part was the shots at this visit.  They had to get five shots and we opted to do all five instead of breaking them up.  We talked about it with Dr. M and didn't want to drag out what can be a traumatizing experience, especially now that they have a distinct memory of certain events.  They were so brave and strong.  Cory took Ryan in another room for her shots while I stayed with Reese.  I'm so glad that part is over and we don't have to get any more shots until they are 11.

The festivities continue

We celebrated the girls' birthday with family and friends on Wednesday.  It was a crazy fun party that the girls enjoyed so much.  We played dress up, decorated cupcakes, played on the playset, opened presents.  It was an awesome day and these photos emphasize how blessed we are to have such wonderful friends and family to celebrate with.

Baby William looking so cute

Here comes Ryder.

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

Make a wish.

Cheese!!

Grandma & Ryder

Beautiful baby girl.

Reese's cake in her favorite color.

And Ryan's cake with her fave color

Birthday fun at preschool

The girls celebrated their birthday on Tuesday at preschool.  They received crowns and 'Happy Birthday' certificates from their teacher.  Both girls were so proud to wear their birthday crowns.  We have to bring store bought treats to preschool because of the food allergy rules so I opted for the ultimate indulgence, Krispy Kreme donuts.  I didn't know this until I got there that you get a free dozen donuts on your birthday so I scored free donuts for the class and bought 2 special sprinkle donuts for R&R.  It was so cute to see their happy faces when their preschool friends sang 'Happy Birthday'.

Birthday girl!

Wow!  This is great!

Proud girl with her certificate

Ree was a bit embarrassed when they sang 'Happy Birthday'.

Ryan is FOUR

Our sweet baby girl, Ryan, is four years old today, at 7:19am to be exact.  I can't believe she is four.  Our babies are growing up right before our eyes.   Ryan is such an wonderful little girl and brings an overwhelming amount of joy to our lives.  We have a special day planned for Ms. Ry and her sis and I can't wait to have a fun day of celebration with our girls.  Here are four things I love dearly about our little RyRy:

1) She appreciates beautiful things and knows how to give a compliment like no other.

2) She adds so much spunk to our family, delivering some of the best one liners I have ever heard.

3) She has such a contagious laugh.  She is sparkly and can light up a room.

4) She is curious about everyone and everything.  You can just see the wheels turning as she's getting ready to ask her next question.

And here are four pictures of our baby girl that I adore: