Beauties

 

For some time I have been meaning to get Ezri into a dress of my Aunt Diane's (from when she was a child, so quite old) for some pictures.  Not necessarily a dress I would dare let her wear for much more than pictures, but fun to have :)  We both had fun with the pictures :)

 Striking a pose without any prompting... we're gonna have our hands full!

Our little beauties have been growing by leaps, it seems, in the past few weeks.  Difficult to fathom how much they have changed in such a short time.  While scrapbooking this week, I was looking back to when Alora was born and realizing how much has changed already!  Ezri is now potty training again, starting this week, and today seems to be really getting it (we've had two days off this week even with lots of interruptions)!  The question. "Why" has entered her vocabulary suddenly this week, and I'm learning quick to come up with lots of answers for every little thing.  She is learning so much and getting so smart!Alora is crawling everywhere quick as can be, pulling up on things to her knees and even feet, chatting up a storm...  Wow!

Bath time is fun now, with lots of splashes and play for the girls together.  It's fun for Ezri to put on her robe and have Alora do the same :)

 We hit a big milestone this week for Ezri - 2 1/2 years! 

 And Alora entered 7 month zone...

Our week has been scrambled at best, with Alora accompanying me to the Dentist Wednesday and 4 extra children much of the day Thursday, we've been hopping even more than usual.  As we look ahead to the holiday weekend, we're wide open and hoping to relax together :)

Whoa Nellie!

We sure have kept busy this week!  All sorts of new things happening here...

This past Friday, Alora took off crawling and has not stopped since...

 We weathered a couple more days of recovering from shots, I spent a lot of time wearing Alora - good for both of us :)

 We've been outside a lot, the weather has been perfect this week!  Ezri decided to take Alora for a ride in her car... (I told Alora there was no need to start driving yet just because she could crawl now...)

 And we did a lot of swinging!

When inside, Alora fine tuned her new skill, exploring new places, like under a table...

 And Ezri enjoyed watching and laughing about the antics and silliness Alora was creating :)

 Alora modeled her chompers for us and has been chewing a bit, so we're expecting tooth #3 any time now...

Tuesday night, we got our family pictures taken :)  Following that, we headed off to the farm to help put some hay up in the barn.  The girls got in some Great Grandma time :)

Wednesday, the girls got to play with Aubrey and Wesley for the day and we all had a great time!

 Alora tested out her new skill outside, finding all sorts of fun things to try... sticks, grass, leaves...

 And more swinging...

Tucker and Tobi watched intently :)

 We even had a picnic outside together... with pizza!

 Followed by ice cream cones... yum!

Wednesday night, Daddy and Ezri had a date and spent some much needed time together at the playground.  Ezri has been really struggling with some pretty serious Daddy anxiety lately, hardly letting him out of her sight and anxious when she can't be with him.  Bed times have been really rough :(  Not sure how to help her through this, but we've been taking some really deep breaths and practicing lots of patience and many hugs and re-assurances.

Ezri has been just cracking me up this week with a new thing.  She re-discovered a plush monkey in her toy box on Sunday.  Since then, she has been rocking it, feeding it, loving it, and calling it her baby brother!  Where that came from, I am unsure, but it sure is cute :)  According to her, "Baby Brother" eats chicken nuggets and ranch :)  Oh to have that imagination again...

 Alora stepped things up even more this week by pulling up on her crib Thursday, and then on furniture, etc.  Slow down!!!  This one is gonna keep me hopping!

 Thursday evening, we had an impromptu swim in the pool and it was a blast!  The girls had such fun playing in the water together.

 Even Tucker got in on the fun :)

Following their swim, we all headed to the stadium to watch the Hopkins vs. Wayland Border Wars football game (Hopkins does not regularly play Wayland, so it was packed!)  Ezri loved the marching band and both girls did great at the game, sitting in the stroller well and making it through half time and past bedtime without trouble.

8 Years!

We have been thoroughly enjoying life together the past week.  Always something going on...

Sunday evening found us back at the farm again so I could take more Sr. pictures of my cousin.  While there, Ezri was busy playing with (Great) Uncle Fred, throwing and kicking balls around :)  She was having an absolute blast!  Later that night, we even got to light off some fireworks that we had to put on hold over the 4th of July due to dryness.  It was fun to watch Ezri enjoy them, and Alora seemed to enjoy the lights as well.

 Alora found herself tired and was soon sleeping :)

 Monday was a busy day for us.  Daddy headed to Chicago for an over night business trip.  While he was gone, the girls and I went shopping with my cousin and had lunch together.  Our evening was pretty quiet, but we did get to Skype with Daddy before bed.  While waiting for Daddy to call, Ezri got out Daddy's hat and was trying it on both girls :)

Tuesday found us even busier!  We got to go with Grandma, Aunt Kerri, Aubrey and Wesley to Dutch Village in Holland.  I had not been there since probably Kindergarten, so it was even a bit of an adventure for me.    The girls enjoyed themselves, the little ones got a lot of observing done from their strollers, and the adults kept busy keeping tabs on children :)

 We got to sample some cheese while there, one of Ezri's favorite things to do :)

 And we saw and pet lots of animals in the petting barn.  Alora was all about touching the baby animals (piglets, goats, chickens, bunnies,...), Ezri - not so much.  She was afraid to touch any of the animals, even when being held.  Not sure why or where that fear came from :(

 We watched some Dutch Dancers and after their dance, even got to learn one and dance with them :)

 Then we found ourselves on the carousel with some very happy kids who loved the ride!

 And the swings, which the kids also loved!

 getting all of the kids together for a picture was a bit of a chore...

We managed... but chaos ensued about 2 seconds after the last picture :)

 There were many photo opportunities throughout the day...

 All in all, everyone had fun.  But we definitely had some very tired kids by 3pm.  The last ride, hand pump rail cars, were challenging enough.  Add in the very friendly Alpacas in the area and Ezri was done.

Tuesday also was our 8th wedding anniversary.  Difficult to believe we have been married 8 years already, grateful for those 8 years and the adventure it has been!  We were all very glad to have Daddy come home that evening.  While there wasn't any big celebration or special dinner (outside of supper at Dad and Mom's, which is always a treat), I was just happy to have Alex back home safely, and the girls were too!

After all the excitement and two days without naps and late bed times, Ezri was exhausted and Wednesday started a 2 day melt down as we tried to catch back up with naps and sleep.  Add to that the fact that Alora had to get her 6 month shots and has been quite fussy and miserable the past two days and it's been a lot of crying and needy girls at our house for the remainder of the week.  Bath time has been the one time we can keep them happy for a time :) 

Poor Alora is still having a rough time today, not wanting to nap unless held, needing to be held much of the day, running a bit of a temp...   Poor sweet baby!  Still, she has managed to master sitting upright (no hands propping her), and is able to get to a sitting position from her tummy.  Crawling is near mastery as well... hands are moving, feet are moving, just not quite in unison yet.  But, she can go forward.  Slow down baby girl!!!

We're hoping to recuperate this weekend with some quiet time together as we enjoy this cooler weather (almost fall like - and we're realizing the fair is roughly 3 weeks from now - eek!) and get back out in the garden to gather some more goodies - yum!