Cutie Girls

Okay, I don't have any pictures, but I have a couple cute sayings for you. Well, the first one isn't cute, but I think it's my favorite thing that Rayley says!

Rayley- calls her sippy her "pissy"

Apple- when I ask her if she wants help and she doesn't she says "NO. I'll help you" (like she's telling herself she'll help her)

Rayley- yesterday we were driving and it was SUPER foggy and she was looking out the window naming all the things she normally sees out the window saying "tree, where are you?" "cars, where are you?" "tractors, where are you?" (there's lots of road construction lately so we hardly ever go anywhere without seeing tractors).

Apple- climbed into my lap this afternoon and looked at me and said "hanging out"!

The Mischeivious Sleep-fighter

So, the girls take turns going through phases of being our "sleep-fighter" (which is exactly what it sounds like, fighting sleep) and it is currently Rayley's turn. We put them down for naps this afternoon and Apple went right to sleep. After about a half hour I realized I hadn't heard Rayley for a while, so I peeked into their room and saw this:

Look carefully and you can see Apples hand next to the railing. Yes, Rayley crawled out of her crib, and was busily (but quietly) covering Apple with toys. If you need proof that Apple was really sleeping under all of that, here's a different angle:

Tide Pool Time!

This afternoon was such a beautiful day, and low tide was in the middle of the afternoon, so my friends Laura and Kali and I walked the girls down to the beach to check out the tide pools. We saw countless anemones and a handful of sea stars. Not to mention all the rocks, shells, hermit crabs and, Apple's favorite, dogs (they were on the beach with their owners, not in the tide pools!) My theory that Rayley likes animals that are smaller than herself has some further evidence, as she loved to touch the creatures. Apple, on the other hand, my child who fed an alpaca out of her hand and begged to go into a corral with huge horses, wanted no part in touching them. I handed her a sea star and she threw it and then cried!

Fingerpainting

First of all, I'd like to update those of you that read about the "big girl beds" in my last post. Pretty much two seconds after I published the post, Carey went out to the garage and got Rayley's crib. So, yes, she got demoted! She's much happier in her crib. Oh, and on a similar note, we finally had TWO nights in a row during which they BOTH slept through the night. We've had LOTS of nights where one of them sleeps through the night, but very few when BOTH of them do.

Okay, enough about sleeping. Onto the real reason for the post. I had the girls fingerpaint today and, of course, they loved it. I think the pictures really say more than anything I could write, so I'm gonna let them do the talking!

Big Girl Beds

Well, the girls have "big girl beds" now. They are super cute (the beds and the girls!). Apple is doing great with it! Rayley, on the other hand, might have to go back to a crib. Originally we just set up a bed for Apps, because Rayley tends to not like change, so I thought she wouldn't want to switch to a big girl bed. Then, when Rayley saw Apple's bed, she was so sad. She kept saying "Rayley bed?". So, the next day we set up Rayley's bed, which she was SO excited about until it was time to actually sleep on it. Then she wanted her crib. Tonight is her second night in the bed and Carey went in there to check on them and Rayley was off her bed busily putting all of their baby dolls on top of a sleeping Apple. Now she's screaming because I basically swaddled her because she kept getting off her bed and bugging Apps. Oh boy! Anyway, here's pictures of them with their current beds.

Christmas

We had such a fun Christmas with the girls. On Christmas eve, we went to Carey's parents' house for Christmas with his family. Then, that afternoon, the girls and I went over the hill to a Christmas eve party that my family always goes to. We left from there to go to the Christmas eve service at our church. The girls were STARS at the service. They had had such a long day, plus the service started right at their bedtime. Apple sat on Carey's parents' laps the whole time:) Rayley was a little more busy, coloring on post-its I had in my purse, and running up the aisle to see our friend Mandy. She was also pointing out everyone that she knew that was on the stage. "Laura! Carey! Rob!" Oh, and they both REALLY wanted to blow out all the candles!

Then, Christmas morning we had scones from TJ's (the girls actually weren't big fans) and opened their stockings over the course of a couple hours, because they wanted to stop and play with everything. Rayley got new crayons, so she wanted to stop and color. Appie got a "Wiggles" DVD, so she wanted to watch it. They both got cookie cutters to use with playdough, so we got out the playdough. Then, they got some bath toys, so we stopped to take a bath. The grand finale, though, was bikes:)

(Eric and Stacey, notice who is riding in their baskets!)

The girls went with their grandparents from 10:00-4:00. When they got home, we played a little, fed them dinner, and then had a birthday cake for Jesus. They sang happy birthday with us, and then blew out the candles!

My family came over for dinner that evening. The girls did so good with all the activity and people over the two days of Christmas! They really are wonderful girls:) We love them!

A Day At The Farm

On Sunday we took the girls to ERMCO in Prunedale. ERMCO is my friend Stacey's paretns' non-profit. It's an awesome piece of property with tons of animals: horses, alpacas, chickens, ducks, sheep, an emu, a donkey, a miniature cow and a miniature horse. Let me tell you that Apple was in HEAVEN. She was literally screeching with delight. This is what she looked like pretty much the whole time:

She kept saying "in, in, in, in, in" because she wanted to go in with all the big animals. She fed them out of her hand and sat on the miniature horse.


Rayley wasn't so sure about it all. She was definitely concerned about all the large creatures around her. This is what she looked like most of the time:

I think the rule of thumb with Rayley is that she likes animals smaller than herself (I don't blame her). She loved the guinea pig and the rabbit at ERMCO, and she likes cats and chickens and mice and such.

Stacey's sister, Kristy hooked a cart up to the miniature horse, and both the girls really liked that. Apple got the hang of it quickly and was telling the horse to "giddyup". It pretty much sealed the deal that she is DEFINITELY a horse girl. Hopefully we can afford having a horse girl.


Stacey, Kristy and the girls with Foxy the horse!