Olivia's Second Birthday

Olivia's birthday turned out to be a very snowy day!! Luckily we celebrated her birthday last night. We had my family (which totals about 20) over for dinner. Olivia had a great time and really enjoyed her Dora cake!! She received a lot of cute outfits, which is great because she decided to change sizes after I had already bought all her winter clothes!!

Here is Troy spending some time on his tummy!! He still really enjoys it and is getting quite strong! I can't believe that he is going to be three months next week!! He is starting to sleep a lot more at night, which is great, only getting up once to eat (ususally) and then going back right back to sleep until the morning.

This week, Paola and I tried to get a picture of all three kids in front of the Christmas tree to send to everyone. We got everyone all dressed up and tried for about a half an hour but to no avail. It was impossible to get all three of them together because either Ethan was jumping in front of the camera or Olivia was taking off!! Here is a picture of one of the attempts!!

Last weekend we decorated the Christmas tree and Ethan helped Scott put the star on top. It is a little bit lopsided, I think the star is a little bit too heavy, but we had a lot of fun decorating nonetheless.

Olivia is very interested in Troy these days. She loves watching him, smiling at him and laughing at him. Here she is smiling at him while he is in his car seat.

Last weekend we went to our friend Sydney's first birthday party. We attempted to get a picture of all the kids, but it was hard!! Olivia was having a nap and missed the picture. In this one, Troy is getting a little impatient and wants out of his car seat!

What a cutie!!

Ethan finished his swimming lessons last week and passed into the next level. I am kinda glad he is done because they were on Thursday nights at 8:00 p.m., not a great time!! Hopefully he will be able to swim on his own this summer. He starts lessons again in January - this time on Sunday mornings.

Ethan has done a couple of funny things over the past couple of weeks. About two weeks ago during dinner he asked Scott how he felt about having a baby (i.e. - Troy) that wasn't his....This prompted Scott to ask if I was having any strange male visitors during the day (which of course I was not). Ethan later explained himself saying that because I had the baby in my tummy and I feed that baby that Troy was mine and not Scott's.

The other thing was, sometimes Ethan doesn't like going to his preschool on T/T afternoons. He really enjoys it once he is there but he doesn't like going. Anyway, I have been telling him that we have to give it a try and that if after Christmas he still doesn't like it, then he doesn't have to go. Last week when I dropped him off the teacher pulled me aside and told me about their withdrawal policy and the requirement to give notice. Apparently Ethan had told the class during circle time that he wasn't coming back after Christmas, he was just going to go to his other school!!! Too funny - luckily he seems to be liking it more these days.

Here is Ethan and Paola decorating a gingerbread house. I am always amazed at how little creative/artisitic ability I have. I put the house together before they started decorating it and for a while it was in great danger of collapsing. The interior walls were collapsing and there was a large crack in the roof. Luckily with a lot of icing it managed to stay together!!

Two weeks ago Olivia was sick (just before the birthday party) and she spent most of the week like this - being held by someone. She missed school all week and was generally not very happy. By the weekend, her fever was gone but she was still very cranky and having some temper tantrums. I was worried that my happy, easy going daughter had been replaced with a terrible two. Luckily she was back to her usual self this week!

Me and my boys!!

Off to help with the baths...