cool kid awards

At Abby's school, they pass out "cool kid awards," when someone does something recognizable. Then once a month they have an all school assembly, they put all the awards in a cooler and pick one name out. This month, Abby's name got picked. She was SO excited!! They announced her name in front of the whole school, and everyone clapped for her. The person whose name gets drawn gets to sit in the special colts chair for that month. As you can tell in the picture, she is very proud!

Easter

Here are our Easter pictures this year. It was so nice out we got some good shots outside in the sun. We went to church, then over to Ryan's parents house for dinner and an egg hunt. The girls get so excited over collecting eggs, they ask to do it again and again. (which of course Nana obliges to). The rest of the day was spent sitting in the sun and playing with the girls.

Spring Break pictures

For spring break this year we just hung around Indy. I had to work my 2 days and Ryan just needed a break to relax around the house. We had a bunch of stuff planned, but didn't end up doing any of it because it was so insanely nice here. We were outside the entire break. It felt so nice to soak up some Vitamin D!! The girls had a great week playing together and got to have a slumber party at Nana's house. Abby got to go to another one with her cousin over at grandma's house. She has declared that this was the best spring break ever! Do you think she will always be this easy to please? (doubtful :)) Here are some pictures of the week.

Pigtails!!

Finally after 3 years...I can get Claire's hair into pigtails!!

Snow

The girls have had so much fun this winter playing outside in the snow. Claire will actually stay outside for more than 2 minutes, which is a major accomplishment. I have tried to keep Ryan away from shoveling the driveway, since he has mono. But, he insists on doing it, which usually results in a long nap afterward. Maybe it is time to invest in a snow blower!! I have to say I really enjoyed all of this snow, but I am now officially OVER winter! I went to Target and saw all of the cute clothes for spring and summer and that ended my enjoyment of the cold. Come on Spring!!

Whoopie cushion

Claire: (with utmost passion and sincerity) "Mom, I just LOVE the sound of a whoopie cushion!!"

First loose tooth

Abby lost her first tooth last week, and is so proud!! She was brave and let Ryan pull it out. Of course she had to run into school the next day and tell her teacher and the entire class! She was lucky because the tooth fairy brought her a five dollar bill (because it was her first tooth). She has five more teeth that are loose.

Gymnastics

Claire started taking a gymnastics class at the place where we go to open gym. She loves it and talks about it all the time so of course her sister got jealous. Abby decided that she wanted to quit girl scouts and do gymnastics instead. They happened to have two classes at the same time, one for 5's and one for 3's. The girls ask everyday if it is gymnastics day. They are so cute. We may not be ready for the 2012 Olympics, but they have a good time.

Birthdays

Friday was Claire's 3rd birthday...crazy!! I can no longer say she is a baby! We went to Gymnastics unlimited's open gym and out to McDonald's for lunch with some friends. My camera's battery was dead so I didn't get any pictures, but Clarie had a blast! We had her party on Saturday, which was Ryan's 30th birthday. Claire loves anything Dr. Seuss, I think she has Green Hams and Eggs (as she likes to call it) memorized we have read it so many times. So that was the theme for her party. She was so excited when she woke up on Saturday to Dr. Seuss decorations everywhere!

Here she is on Saturday it her new tutu from her friend Carter.



The Cat in the Hat cake. It took 4 bottles of red food coloring to get the icing that red.




She had a hard time getting the candles blown out. It was so funny!



Poor Ryan spent his 30th birthday celebrating Claire's . I don't think he minded much! He still got to go out that night for his birthday.


Claire and her best bud Carmen.



Claire is OBSESSED with Alvin and the Chipmunks still. We got her the soundtrack to the second one and the girls were dancing to all the single ladies. We got video of it that I (meaning Ryan) is going to put on...hilarious!!


Here is Claire on her actual birthday wearing her new Dr. Seuss pajamas. I told her to hold up how many fingers she was.

We had a much needed 2 weeks to relax and enjoy each other. The beginning of December up until Christmas break is always insane with all of Ryan's school activities. This year we had Abby's school activities added to the mix and we were all burnt out. I took the two weeks of work. We went to several movies, went out to eat, and enjoyed all of the fun stuff their is to do in Indy around Christmas time, but mainly just hung out. I got tons of pictures from break and just couldn't resist posting a bunch...



Here are several from decorating cookies with my mom, the girls, and my nieces. The girls love to bake and decorate and they were troopers and helped with the billions of cookies we made that day.

Olivia, Carmen, Claire, and Abby so proud of all their decorating.


Ryan was just so excited to help (this was the only 5 seconds he was in the room)!





Here are the girls before Christmas Eve service at out church.


The whole fam before church.



It did not take long to get through all of the presents!


Both girls were so excited they could barely stand it. I don't think I have ever seen Abby so excited in her life. I wish I could have gotten a picture of her when she peeked over the banister and saw all the presents!



The girls both wanted babies for Christmas. Claire got one that is sick, and Abby got one that pees. They love to play with their babies. I think this was their favorite gift! The girls are at such fun ages, and they made Christmas so fun this year! We opened all of our presents, left the mess at home and went over to Ryan's parents for the afternoon. After their house, we went to Leslie's and opened gifts at her house.



Later on during the week, it snowed (or was it before Christmas, I can't remember) The girls had a blast playing in it. It was SO cold out and Claire did not last that long. Abby was a trooper and I had to make her come in.