Christmas Eve Day in DC

Here is my first installment of holiday pictures. Sorry for the number of pictures but it's so hard to decide what to include and if you could only see all the ones I haven't included! We hope you enjoy sharing and seeing how we enjoyed many of our family and friends over the holidays!

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We had a liesurely and enjoyable Christmas Eve Day at home Sourdough sticky buns made especially for Pa

Pa and his girls

Going for a walk with Pa in a new Penguin hat from Grammy

Christmas Eve after church

Daddy and Kennedy waiting to open some presents

Reagan loved all the Frosty the Snowmen we had and saw throughout the holiday season Time to open presents!!!

Reagan surprised us in how thoughtful she was in opening her gifts and enjoyed taking time to look at everything. Unfortunately this led to a very long process which ended in not getting all of our Christmas presents opened until we returned home in January... lol :)

Thomas was Reagan's primary gift this year and you can tell from the look on her face how excited she was about receiving different engines and tracks!

Putting the new track together with some help from Daddy and Pa on the special train board Grammy and Pa constructed for Reagan. One side is snow and the other is grass - what a smart idea Grammy!

Opening a Thomas bridge gift from Kennedy

Grammy was funny and bought Daddy 24 boxes of Quaker Oat Squares for Christmas!

Pa and Kennedy - this started out as a picture of Pa helping Kennedy open a gift from Reagan but you can tell from the final picture (minus Reagan and said gift) how cooperative Reagan was feeling at that particular moment... :)

Helping Pa and Grammy open gifts

Pa and Grammy with their girls

The girls reading bedtime stories ("Little Pea" from Stacy, Rich, Rory, and Riley - one of Reagan's favorites)

Ending the day like we started - with another quick cat nap! :)

Picture Time! :)

While I was taking Kennedy's 2 month duck pictures I thought I might capture a cute picture or two of the girls together. The challenge of course is getting Reagan to agree to that. With some help from a flying paci that was landing on ears, nose, belly, etc. we managed to get a couple of funny pictures.

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Do you seriously think I'm going to sit still next to Kennedy and smile for you???

Two sweet girls
I must have done something really funny here to get such big grins from both girls :)
Kennedy being super smiley without a wild and crazy big sister

Kennedy's favorite things

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We have three items which are necessities for Kennedy going to sleep; a paci, the incredibly soft and fluffy blanket Ms. Mo'mina and the boys gave Kennedy when she was born, and the musical seahorse Great Grandma Ruth gave Kennedy for Christmas. These items make for a very happy 2 month old baby! :)

Watch Me Grow - Kennedy - 2 Mon

Kennedy is 2 months old already and I can hardly believe it! She is such a super sweet baby and absolutely precious. In the last two weeks she has become so much more expressive. It doesn't take much to get Kennedy to smile especially when she is just waking up from a nap. She also loves to talk and has a lot to say. Kennedy is a wiggle worm as I've mentioned several times before and anyone who held her over the holidays can attest to as well! She is going to be a mover and a shaker! I have a feeling she won't be waiting until she is 10 months old to crawl as Reagan did since she's been busy rolling for the last couple of weeks (she hasn't made it from back to front yet but is good at getting herself up on her side from her back). I hope she doesn't grow up too fast since I love this little baby stage so much!

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Kennedy had her 2 month checkup this past Monday and is doing great. She weighed 11lb 5oz which puts her between the 50th - 75th percentile for weight. She's in the same percentile for height. So far it looks like she's going to be pretty average in terms of size just like Reagan has always been. That's fine by me because that makes shopping ahead a year super easy to do during end of season clearance sales! :)

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2 Month - January 2009

1 Month - December 2008
1 Week - November 2008

Thank you to Grammy for the sweet pink teddy bear outfit Kennedy is wearing for her 2 month duck picture! :)

Playdate

Today we had our first playdate with Harun, Musa, and Yusha since the babies arrived.

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Kennedy (2 mon) and Yusha (2 1/2 mon) managed to sleep through nearly the entire playdate despite all the wild and crazy noise their older brothers and sister made

In looking for this picture I discovered Reagan was nearly exactly the same age as Kennedy for our first play date with the boys. While Kennedy was exactly 2 mon today Reagan was just 2 days short of 2 mon the first time she met Harun and Musa who were almost 4 mon at the time.
And here are our three nearly 2 year olds having a yogurt and animal cracker picnic

When I told Reagan we were going to see Harun and Musa this morning she kept saying she was going to see "the guys." I don't know why she was saying that because I've never called them "the guys" before. lol :) When an adult is playing with Reagan (tickling etc) if she likes something they're doing she will frequently say "more." Well after we left the playdate Reagan kept saying "More guys, more guys, more guys." That said, thanks "Guys" for having us over this morning and we're looking forward to coming back soon! :)

Tummy time for Kennedy

Kennedy has kept rolling along and being a little wiggle worm in general. I caught a roll in action today when I put her on the floor for some tummy time.

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Sweet baby :)

Ready
Set
Roll!!!
Checking out some animals that Grandma Karen and Grandpa Jim gave Kennedy for Christmas. Reagan loves these animals and was not happy with me when I put them on the floor for Kennedy to look at.

Even though Reagan wasn't happy about sharing the animals and nearly sat on Kennedy's head when I first put her down I could not convince her to flop nicely next to Kennedy for a cute picture. Once I scooped Kennedy up, however, Reagan immidiately flopped down on her tummy. She's such a little stinker sometimes! lol :)

Thank you to Grandma Karen for the cute matching outfits the girls are wearing!

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I hope to get holiday pictures up on the blog this weekend when Tim is home to watch the girls. I have pretty close to a thousand pictures to sort through!

Great Grandma LaBar's Doll Cradle

Today Reagan was playing with a doll cradle her Great Great Grandfather Matthew made for her Great Grandma LaBar when she was a little girl. At first I was just taking pictures of her enjoying the cradle but as you can see Reagan got progressively goofy with her favorite characters (Sesame Street, Backyardigans, & Little Einsteins) and the cradle.

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Putting babies to sleep

Reagan has been getting increasingly good at using her imagination. She decided the cradle would make a good boat.
Having fun in the "boat"

Maybe more toys would enjoy the "boat" ride?

Just how many toys can we fit? Reagan just kept asking me to hand her more of her toys.

There's definitately room for Myrtle the Turtle!

I'm pretty sure there's room for the frog puppet too!

Then Reagan realized she couldn't get out or in her words she was "stuck in the muck." After a few attempts everything or rather everyone went tumbling out. lol :)

Reagan's First Haircut

On Monday afternoon Reagan received her first haircut at The Cutting Edge in Baxter by our friend Brenda Cannon. We weren't sure how Reagan would react but she did fantastic! Of course a little help from Grammy and some fruit snacks never hurt anything either. lol :) The only point Reagan really got upset was when it was my turn to have my hair cut. I don't know what she thought was going to happen to me but we had to convince her I would be alright. She then walked around the shop alternately saying "Mommy hair cut" and "Mommy okay, Mommy okay." What a little nut! lol :)

Before
After

Getting ready

Having fun :)

Eating fruitsnacks - yum!

Finished up and ready to go (once we finish the fruit snacks of course)

Thank you Ms. Brenda for such a cute hair cut!

Grammy's Sugar Cookies

On Tuesday evening I walked into the dining room to discover Reagan had seated herself at the table and was helping herself to a fresh batch of Grammy's famous sugar cookies. Even though she was technically being naughty we're at Grandma's so we obviously decided the appropriate reaction was to laugh and take pictures. lol :)

Reagan has started scowling to be funny. She's not upset in these pictures just being silly. We all laugh of course and so naturally the scowls become increasingly exaggerated. :)

Finished being silly and time to get back to the task at hand. Time to eat more delicious cookies! lol :)

Kennedy Rolled Over!!!

Kennedy has been so much more active than Reagan that Tim and I have already been joking she will be our athlete. Well today at not quite 7 weeks old she rolled from tummy to back for the first time! This is compared to Reagan who rolled for the first time at 6 months. Yesterday she nearly rolled from back to tummy for the first time but couldn't quite get her arm out of the way to make it all the way over. We'll keep you posted as to when she succeeds. :)

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Working on making a second rolling attempt - if only that darn mat wasn't in the way!

Tummy time and rolling is hard work!!! Time for a break!
Time for a snooze!

Thank you to Grandma Pat and Pappy for the cute monkey play mat they gave Kennedy for Christmas - it's obviously being put to good use! :)

Kennedy Ellen's Baptism

Kennedy was baptized in Mount Olive, Illinois, this past Sunday, January 4, 2009. We have many more pictures to come (sometime in the next couple of weeks) but I wanted to get a couple pictures posted for your viewing pleasure. The baptism and the dinner afterwards went very smoothly and we enjoyed visiting with our family and friends.

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Aunt Julie & Uncle Chuck (Godparents), Kennedy (6 wk), Pastor Dan, Anna & Tim

Unfortunately Kennedy's other Godparents, Barry and Annette Hamlin, couldn't make it due to 4 out of 5 of their family being sick. We sure missed you guys but understand why you couldn't be there and can't wait for you to meet Kennedy! :)

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Anna & Kennedy and Tim & Reagan
Thank you to everyone who came to Kennedy's baptism and especially to those of you who traveled. Thank you also to Grandma Karen and Grammy who contributed so much to organizing everything for us!