Happy New Year!

We spent the last day of 2012 and last day of my maternity leave (sad face) cuddling, playing in the snow and eating snow cones. It was perfect. Love my girls so much it hurts a little.

Bowl-O-Rama

We took the girls bowling for the first time today. Lotus was so excited to try bowling and then she took a tumble down the lane with her ball and was pretty much over it after that. According to her the best part of bowling was the soft pretzel with cheese dip acquired from the snack bar. Despite having Juniper strapped to him the whole time Jeff still managed to beat me by 10 points! Next up, adventures in roller skating and ice skating.

Xmas

Here are two more Christmas pictures. The first is Lotus and her new favorite doll "Addie" (named after her BFF) that Mimi and PopPop gave her. Notice she is sitting on her parent's new favorite present a six person tent also from Mimi and PopPop. Can't wait to take the girls camping this spring. The second picture is Lo and Juniper on Christmas Eve. Juniper is looking like she's had a few too many. We had an excellent holiday and we hope you all did too. Merry Christmas!!

Happy Early Christmas!

And happy first Christmas to Juniper and Penny! We celebrated Christmas early today with Aunt B, Uncle Wes, Ollie, Penny, PopPop and Mimi, since the Wedman's will be in Oklahoma for Christmas. We had an Asian themed meal with homemade Uncle Jeff sushi, potstickers and edamame. It was fantastic! My favorite part was watching the kids open all of their presents and the pure joy on their faces. The best was when they heard the news that one of their Christmas presents was a ticket to Sesame Street Live, as seen on the video below. Lotus' favorite present was a camp set that Mimi and PopPop bought her. In fact at this moment she is in her princess tent in the living room sound asleep with all of her "gear". Juniper's favorite were the diapers she got from Santa, girl loves a dry diaper!

Snow Day!!!

I woke up to screams of "Mama,it's a snow day, Shawnee Mission is closed!" (If SM school district is closed, so is Lo's school) We only had one tiny snow last year, so Lo was SUPER excited when she woke up and saw the white stuff. She got two separate play sessions, which her sister slept through. After she got her snow gear on she went sledding, made a snow angel, a snowman named "Frosty", and had her first snowball fight. Her Dad made her come in for breaks to get warm. She would be inside for not even 30 seconds and say, "OK Dad, let's get back out there." The best part of finally having to come inside was the hot cocoa!

Junie Laughs (kind of)

Juniper had a real laugh yesterday morning. Unfortunately, by the time I got the camera she was pretty much over it. If you listen really hard right from the beginning you can hear her hoarsely chuckle a little which is nothing compared to what she was doing before I started filming. So cute!

Holiday Express

Pop-Pop got us tickets to see the Holiday Express train "Rudy" at Union Station this weekend. Thank goodness he did because we got to bypass the line, which was crazy! The train is packed wall to wall with Christmas decorations. Lotus liked the Barbie and Grinch displays the best. Afterwards we walked over to Crown Center and played on the climb on toys underneath the Mayor's Christmas tree. Then we went to Science City and it was the perfect time to go as hardly anyone else was there (I think every other family in the city was in line to see Rudy). We really had one of the best weekends on Blizzard McClure record. Thanks to everyone who was a part if it!

Our Christmas Tree

Here is Lo in her beloved new sweater dress her Great Aunt Stena got her for Christmas in front of our Christmas tree. Lotus had a great time putting on all the ornaments and can't wait until there's more than one present under it!

Christmas Partypalooza

We had a busy day today! Lo and I started the day off with a long walk, then preschool yoga and then two different Christmas parties. The first Christmas party was with our family from St. Joe. There are tons of kids so Lotus had a blast playing. Juniper loved all the arms there wanting to hold her although she didn't get her usual four hour afternoon nap and was a bit fussy before passing out on the ride home. Her big sis also passed out on the ride home which very rarely happens nowadays, but she was exhausted. It was a short nap for Lo as we went right to our next party which was a work friend of mine. Lotus LOVES her two girls Anisa and Aniya. They are super sweet and excellent dancers as you can see from the videos. Oh and they LOVE Lotus which is a plus. We are having such a fun holiday season!

Winter Recital

Lotus had her winter ballet recital tonight. There was some ballet dancing happening on Lotus' part, but I think she was choreographing for herself as the recital went on. She did a great job of smiling, staying on the stage and graciously accepting her flower bouquet at the end. In the video, she is in the back row third from the right. We can't wait to see our little ballerina again in her spring recital!

Happy 2 Months Juniper!

We love our Juniper Kay! She is a super sweet baby. She is an easy smiler and we've gotten a couple tiny giggles but no full blown laughs yet. Her favorite people to smile at are Lolo and Mimi. Lotus says "her so smiley." Although you can't tell from the picture, she has HAIR! Way more than Lotus had at this age. However, she is still keeping up with Lo in the measurements department. She gained two whole pounds in one month! She weighs 13 pounds 7 ounces (97th percentile) and is 24 1/8 inches long (97th percentile). For head circumference she is 75th percentile.
She sleeps through the night most nights, sleeping from 7:30pm to 5:30am. She likes her sleep that's for sure! We can't wait to watch you grow June Bug!

Christmas Fest 2012

Today we took the kids to Bass Pro Shop to visit Santa. Juniper asked for warm bottles always at the ready and Lotus asked for "a toy set that plays and sings. (?)" Both of the kids did great with Santa and we even got to ride the carousel. Then we took Mimi and Pop-Pop to the "penguin house" in Olathe. This house has hundreds of blow ups, mostly penguin themed, covering their yard. You can walk though it as a snow machine sprinkles "snow" on you. At night the movie Happy Feet is projected on a big screen. Then Mimi and Pop-Pop took us to lunch at Good Taco. What a fun morning!

Wildlights

We went to Wildlights at the St. Louis Zoo Saturday night. It was a fun walk through Christmas display. However, the highlight for Lotus was that the Penguin exhibit was open and she got to see real live penguins (she's been into penguins lately). At the end Lennon gave Lotus a stuffed baby penguin which she named "Lucy Aurora." Juniper slept through all of it bundled up in her stroller snug as a bug. Here are Lo and Elizabeth with the Swan, Lolo with a pretend penguin, Lotus sleeping with Lucy and Harrison (the bear), the kids in front of Santa, Lotus with a real penguin and listening to a skunk tell a Christmas story.