12.25.11: Santa brought us...

TRICYCLES...and thankfully we have no furniture so there was plenty of room to ride in the house (daphne/snowflakes, fiona/hearts, stella/deer)

Then it was time for riding outside with our family (fiona/green, daphne/purple, stella/pink).  Aunt Kelly, Uncle Rob, Nene, Kelly boy and of course Brant and I all helped push the girls around the cul-de-sac.  The girls learned to steer and pedal a bit, but definitely prefer to be pushed at super speed around the neighborhood.  This is exactly why we bought a house in a cul-de-sac and we look forward to years of bike riding.

After riding bikes for over an hour, we moved inside but the girls still wanted to wear their helmets.  Inside they enjoyed reading (fiona/pink, daphne/green, stella/purple), looking at camera pictures of themselves and playing their new matching game.  Daphne took a special liking to feeding cookie monster her 'alphabet soup' (aka magnetic letters).  

It was a wonderful holiday and the girls were absolutely spoiled by all of our friends and family.  We are thankful to everyone for their generosity.

12.24.11: Jumping on christmas eve

After a late arrival from family on Friday, the girls woke up very excited on Christmas eve to discover everyone was still here.  Then they went into their playroom (where the Kochmans were sleeping) and found a new toy (aka the blowup bed).  Oh boy did they LOVE jumping on the blowup bed, I think you can tell from these pictures (top to bottom, daphne, fiona, stella).

The girls were very excited to show everyone their bear crawl train.

In keeping with our maternal family traditions, the girls opened some presents on Christmas eve.  We all tried to open presents with the girls, but it was a bit chaotic with thirty little fingers trying to open every package in sight.

The crew:  Kelly boy, Nene, Uncle Rob, Auntie Kelly, Kari/Daphne, Brant/Stella, Fiona

12.20.11: Cheese face

After breakfast this morning, Fiona and Stella decided to play on the couch (while Daphne was still eating).  Sure enough there was a lot of giggling - too much giggling.  We discovered Fiona was sitting on top of Stella and they both thought it was hilarious.  This squishing was followed by a long conversation they had with each other - about half of which we understood.

Behold the 'cheese face' aka the two year old exaggerated smile.  It has become very common in our household pictures.  Each girl has one.  Daphne's cheese face is the least frequently seen, so how could I resist taking a picture when Daphne wanted to show me hers.

12.17.11: Lights

(left to right: fiona, daphne, stella)

Tonight we adventured out with the Marrones to see the Winterhaven lights.  It turns out there is a neighborhood tradition to go bonkers decorating your house in lights for the holidays.  So much so the neighborhood closes down the streets, policeman direct traffic and spotlights are added to ease street parking.  People from all over the city come to see the houses and some of the them were amazing. One house even mimicked the Bellagio water fountains in their front yard. The girls had a great time pointing out the colored lights, snowman, reindeer, snowflakes and their favorite - santa.  The lights were pretty amazing and I look forward to taking the girls next year.

12.13.11: Gingerbread house

Today the girls (left to right: stella, fiona, daphne) decorated their first gingerbread house.  Oddly enough, it was decorated with 'decorations' and 'glue' and not candy and frosting - thus not confusing anyone into munching during assembly.  Definitely something we'll do again next year.

Have you ever bought a house over a weekend?  Well we did and sure enough we didn't realize that we had thriving fruit trees in our yard.  We were thrilled to discover the grapefruit and orange trees were actually producing fruit (not to be said for the sad lime tree).   We also discovered that our pool water heater was not broken (contrary to the prior owner's disclosure) and after some simple cleanup, we were able to enjoy our hot tub - a wonderful treat given the cold weather.  Two pretty fantastic discoveries during one weekend.

12.11.11: Two and a half years old

(left to right: daphne, stella, fiona)

Today the girls turned two and a half. There is a common theory that doubling the child's height at two and a half years old is a good indicator of how tall that child will be in adulthood. If this is in fact the case (reinforced by their current shoe size), we are going to have some very tall girls.

Fiona: 28lbs 6oz, 35.75", shoe size 9
Daphne: 32lbs 2oz, 36.75", shoe size 10
Stella: 28lbs, 35.5", shoe size 9


(left to right: fiona, stella, daphne)

Given the girls' weights above we have finally reached a break even point with my total pregnancy weight gain. That's right given their current weights, together we (fiona, daphne, stella, and I) weigh the same that I weighed during the final days of my pregnancy. Hard to imagine that something so cute can come from this. Too bad I can't carry them all at the same time anymore (perhaps if I duct taped them to my body....nah, probably not even then).

12.9.11: Arizona snow

(left to right: fiona, brant, stella, daphne)

In an effort to attempt all things Arizona, we adventured to the outdoor mall which provides weekend 'snowfall' in the courtyard. We thought the girls would be excited to have snow (albeit human made) falling from the sky (albeit second story) into a courtyard (albeit containing patches of AstroTurf)....oh, it is very different here. Turns out Fiona was a little scared of the snow while Daphne and Stella seemed to embrace it.

Then the band started playing music, picture this:
A decent high school band playing music in a courtyard. A semi-circle of people around said band enjoying the music. Daphne jumping in the corner behind the crowd to the music, Stella joins in jumping to the rhythm. Then I squeeze our way up to the front of the semi-circle so Daphne and Stella can see the musicians and instruments (Fiona was cuddling with Brant). Sure enough, turn on the super charm and Daphne starts jumping to the music in front of the crowd. It was ridiculous and I wished more than anything I had a video, but she insisted that I hold her hand while she jumped. We asked the girls what their favorite part of the whole evening was and got a unanimous answer.....music!

12.5.11: First snow

(left to right: stella, fiona, daphne)

Okay, let's not be overly critical here. We live in Arizona there is 0% chance we will ever have real snow falling at our house. I define real by our previous Boston/Chicago standards (no Seattle and LA - your 'snowfall' doesn't qualify either). Given our locale, this may be the closest thing to snow that we get at our house and therefore I dub it the girls' first snow....at least until we make a trip to the mountains.

12.3.11: Llama Llama

(left to right: fiona, brant, daphne, stella, and peter - trying to run away)

Instead of our normal Saturday story time we opted to go to a story time that promised Llama Llama would make an appearance. After three books and too many songs, he finally did. Daphne and Peter were more than happy to give Llama Llama a hug while Fiona and Stella needed their daddy with them to say hi.

11.23.11: Playing with Kelly and Jen

(left to right: kelly/fiona, jen/stella, kari/daphne) Stella is proudly displaying the welcome sign they made for Kelly and Jen

Thanks to a well planned visit to see family, Kelly and Jen were able to visit us during their brief vacation. The girls immediately began asking Kelly and Jen to read them books and our new visitors obliged very patiently. I think Kelly read the same book four times in under five minutes. In an attempt to save our visitors their sanity, we spent some time in the sunshine coloring the driveway with sidewalk chalk. Jen taught the girls all about shoes. Previously everything (animate or inanimate) had to have a hat and now, thanks to Jen, everything must also have shoes. After our fill of coloring, we moved inside for a tea party.


Above Jen and Kelly are toasting their wonderful teacup cupcakes, that's right the cupcakes go inside the teacups. We like to think outside of the box here.

11.19.11: Singing books

(left to right: fiona, nana, stella, daphne)

I think the morning went something like this: Hi Nana (hug, hug, hug)....now read us a book, please.

Nana was a very good sport during her recent visit and even 'sang' books to the girls as requested/demanded so they could jump to the rhythm of the song. They sure love jumping, reading and their Nana - combine all three and we had some very happy girls.

11.18.11: Just like daddy

(left to right: fiona, stella, daphne)

The girls really enjoyed playing drums at our multiples playgroup this week. They even continued drumming long after the music stopped. I wonder when they'll discover Brant's drum set setup in our guest room? Hopefully not for a very long time....or at least until we meet all of our neighbors.


(left to right: daphne, fiona, stella)

The girls have magnadoodles that we keep in the car for those special times when I need some help entertaining during longer car rides. Somehow these magnadoodles made it into the house one day and the girls got really excited. They all rushed over to the chair to 'email daddy'. I'm not even kidding. I drew on a < send > button so they could make sure their emails made it to daddy at work.

11.11.11: Game on!

(left to right: stella, daphne, fiona)

That's right - we started potty training. We think they are ready, they think they are ready, and we have been talking about it for weeks. Bracing ourselves to be home bound for the three day weekend. Game on!