The Mitchell Sisters

April showers bring....

....mud puddles. The girls have had a very busy month.  We welcomed spring by planting two blueberry bushes in the backyard.  If all goes well, we should have our first "harvest" in June.  We have also had our fair share of rain.  This means puddles, which = muddy children.  Yes both girls LOVE to stomp in mud puddles. 

We had our first cookout of the season with our friends Monica and Roger. They came over for a fabulous dinner to help celebrate Mark's birthday.  We went to a second cookout just last weekend to visit with some of my cousins (thank you Al and Ann for your invite...great to see you Bill, Carol, Doug, Marisa, Kate, Charlotte, and Irma).  The girls had a great time!!

This month did have a bittersweet moment.  It marked the demise of a loyal friend. Abby's good friend, and teething toy, Sushi, was discovered in the backyard, while conducting our spring cleaning.  Efforts to revive him were fruitless.  Sushi, we shall miss you and thank you for your many months of loyal service to Abigail during her teething. R.I.P. my friend.

 

Abby started her second session of ballet with Tiny Dancers. This week they dressed up like bunnies in preparation of Easter.  She continues to LOVE dancing.

Natalie's verbal skills are accelerating every day.  Last night she even said, "Bless you, Mommy" when I sneezed.  I can hardly believe that she will be two on the 16th!!

The girls have been much more interactive lately.  They will play games together, read books to each other, and of course try to steal each others toys, and antagonize each other. On a sweeter note,  we overheard Abby talking to Natalie last night in their room.  She asked Natalie, "We are best friends aren't we?"  Although we did not hear Natalie's response, I imagine it was a yes, as she always wants to sleep in Abby's bed with her.

Here are some photos from the past few weeks. (And yes, they are wearing sunglasses while eating their pancakes).  More updates to come soon.

Another month bites the dust.

Wow.  I know February is a short month, but REALLY?  I cannot believe that it is March.  We have had a very busy past few weeks. We have mostly thawed out from Blizzard #1 and #2, and cannot have spring arrive fast enough. 

Last weekend we were able to go out and visit our friends Monica, Rob and baby Brynley. We had such a great time helping baby B. celebrate her (belated) first birthday.

Mark took the girls on his annual Daddy day trip to the Jefferson memorial.  But no trip into D.C. is complete without a quick stop to the American History Museum (a.k.a. "The Emerald City") to see Dorthy's ruby red slippers and Kermit the Frog. (I swear Abby has been there at least four times in the past year).

Abby continues her weekly ballet classes, and has expressed interest to continue.  Mark was even able to skip out of work for an hour this past week, and come watch her dance. 

Natalie is really starting to talk now, and I believe she may have entered the "terrible twos" a bit early. She is putting more words together, and is "reading stories" to her baby-dolls.  She has also figured out how to escape from her crib (she has been climbing out and wanting to lay in bed with Abby), so I foresee a toddler bed in the near future.

They both LOVE playing dress-up, dancing, reading, playing games, singing, and coloring.  They continue to fill or home with love and laughter.

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks.  Enjoy!

 
 
 

Blizzard 2010 in pictures

 

Rolling through the year...

So January is almost behind us. The girls have been quite busy the past few weeks.  Abby continues her weekly "vallet" class (she calls it vallet not ballet). This past week the story was Aladdin, and they all dressed in Jasmine princes costumes, with their only little Apu (the monkey).  It was painfully cute to watch.  We have also just registered her to start a 3 day pre-school program in September.  So hard to believe the she will be starting "school".

On the liver front, Abby's last labs were stable, but they want to get an MRI of her liver and abdomen to monitor blood flow and look for any possible signs of cancer.  This is just precautionary, so we are expecting (and hoping) things will be fine. She is scheduled for Feb 3, 2010, so please keep her in your thoughts.

Natalie is very close to surpassing her big sister in clothes size.  All she needs is a bit more height. She is really starting to talk more and put words together.  I have a feeling that once she "really" learns to talk, we will all be in trouble. She is really getting into puzzles and LOVES to dance.  She also continues to be our little climber.  She is now able to climb out of her crib.  YIKES. Looks like it is time for a toddler bed.

Here are some of the more recent pics of the little ladies.

 




 

Memory lane is an amazingly strange place... (yes this is a true story)

Over the past few weeks Mark and I had been talking about signing Abby up for some kind of class. As a little girl I took ballet.  While reminiscing about my own childhood, I remembered this little dance bag that I had, called a "ballet box". During my stroll on memory lane, I decided to search for a ballet box on e-bay.  After 45 minutes of searching (I know, great use of time) I came across 2 used ballet boxes for sale.  One was blue and one was pink.  My old box was pink, so naturally this is the one I choose.  About four days later my package arrived.  I literally felt like a little girl again, ripping open my package.  As I ooohhhhed and ahhhhhhed over my prize, I noticed that there were some stickers on the back of the box.  It was at that time that I realized that I was holding MY BALLET BOX. My brother had stuck NFL mascot stickers on the back of my box (these were the same stickers that I was staring at now).  About 25 years ago, this exact box and I had parted ways via a garage sale only to be reunited by Ebay many moons later.  I cannot even calculate the odds of this happening, but I am fairly certain that I have blown all chances of winning the lottery.  It is so bizarre how the universe works.  I suppose the box was "meant" to be mine.

 So Abigail started ballet class last Tuesday.  It is a program for 3 and 4 year-olds called Tiny Dancers. They focus on a story or fairy tale each week and dress up in little costumes and dance around.  This week it was "The Little Engine That Could", and they dressed in little smocks and conductor hats.  It is pretty darn cute.  As Abby has had no structured play or classes before I was a little worried about how she would fare.  To my delight (and relief) she had a blast!  The first thing she did was run up and give Ms. Teresa (her dance teacher) a hug.  I was expecting tears when I left the room, but she settled in quite nicely with the four other little ballerinas in her class. I have posted some pictures of "the ballet box" and of Abby in her class.

 

Happy 2010!!!

Wow.  A new year, a new decade.  The promise and hope of a new year is awesome. I cannot wait to see what experiences and memories my two amazing and beautiful daughters will bring to our little family in 2010.  Here are some cute photos from the first day of the new year.  (They are modeling some of their super cute Christmas wear from Uncle Chris)!! And a photo of Natalie wearing Aunt Kitty's glasses. (She looks so smart!)

Wishing all who read this blog a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2010!

Christmas 2009

It is so hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone.  The girls had a fantastic day, and Santa was VERY good to us this year.  We started the morning at Mark's parents house for breakfast and gifts.  Then over to Aunt Kitty's house for a Christmas visit.  We finally arrived back at our house around 2pm, and started our own celebration, to include a video chat with Uncle Chris. Needless to say the girls were quite tired after all of the excitement! Here are some pictures from the day.

December is here..well..and has been for 8 days...I am just a slacker.

Holy cow!  I cannot believe that it is almost 2010.  I have been super slack on my updates. The girls continue to be a beacon of joy in our lives.  they are starting to "play" together more.  Natalie is pretty much potty training herself, and may be fully potty trained before Abby.  It is quite feasible that we may be done with diapers by Natalie's 2nd birthday.

Abby is in to jigsaw puzzles and "I-Spy" books lately. She can solve many 30 piece puzzles all by herself.  She also continues her fascination with princesses (Snow White in particular).  Natalie is obsessed with all things baby.  She will pretend to feed her babies, and even comfort them, which I find quite adorable.

We had our first snow last weekend.  It was perfect timing as we decorated our Christmas tree last weekend.  It set the holiday tone just perfectly.  The girls were both very excited about decorating the tree.  Abby hung a majority of ornaments (mostly in the same spot) :)  We have had two ornament casualties so far, so now the tree is a bit ornament top-heavy. 

Here are some of the latest pictures.

 

Halloween 2009

We had a fantastic Halloween this year. Abby decided about 4 months ago that she wanted to be Dorthy from the Wizard of Oz.  She actually planned all of our costumes this year.  Natalie's costume assignment was the Cowardly Lion, Mark's was a flying monkey, and mine was the Wicked Witch of the West (of course).  For the second year in a row, we went trick-or-treating with our good friends the Latham's and their four boys.  Abby really got into it this year.  She would go up to a house, knock on the door, and promptly say, "trick-or-treat! May I have some dessert?" 

Here are some pictures from our fantastic evening. (The first picture is of Natalie trying on the Dorthy wig.)

The Great Pumpkin

The girls and I went to a local pumpkin patch over the weekend.  We ended up getting some little "baby" pumpkins and a whooping 16-pound pumpkin for carving.  The girls had a blast in the little play area, which was filled with toys, trikes, slides, swings, and random chickens walking around.  Here are some pictures.  I will post a picture of the beast of a pumpkin, once it has been transformed into a jack-o-lantern.