Garber Winterfest

Today the girls had Winterfest at Garber, their preschool.  I was told to dress them in PJs and show up at 10:50 to take them.  I really had no idea what it was, but it sounded fun.  Josh was able to leave work for a little while and come with them too.  It was a lot of fun - they had a bounce house, face painting, some "ice fishing", a couple of art projects, and a bunch of cars covered in shaving cream "snow" they got to dig in and play with (I guess this is why PJs were necessary?).

Josie got a penguin painted on her hand.  She was so proud.  Piper didn't want anything to do with it. 

Here's Piper playing in the shaving cream "snow" village

I took some other pictures on my phone, but found out later it was actually in video mode.  Oops. 

They also got to take home a cup of hot chocolate mix with marshmallows and chocolate chips.  Only its like 70 degrees today, so we'll be saving that for a day when winter actually shows up.   

Happy Birthday Blue

Our boy Blue turned one a few weeks ago.  And over the past couple of months, he has gone from a crazy puppy to a good, good boy.  He isn't doing nearly as much biting and chewing and this is how he spends most of his afternoon with me while I work.

I require two things in order to work from home by myself: Radio from Hell and canine company.  First Jackson and now Blue - I am so happy to have the companionship that I just can't get from co-workers on the phone.

The girls love him too.  During our trip to Utah, they talked about how he was with the "other doggies."  He follows them around and is always quietly waiting for them, whatever they are doing.  He is also very helpful "cleaning up" the mess they make at dinner.

I am working on making him a running partner as well.  He can make it 5 miles pretty easily and now only spends about 5 minutes of that time biting on his leash.  All I have to do is get out my watch and he's ready to go. 

He got a nice, new big boy bed for his birthday.  No more kennel for this doggy. 

Happy birthday pal! 

Christmas wrap-up

Finally wrapping up on our trip to Utah.  We never did get any snow in Utah.  Here is what the mountains looked like. :(  So much for our white Christmas.  Oh well.

We also found an afternoon to head to the little aquarium in Draper.  It was fun.  The best part was the penguins.  Thanks for taking us Bubba and Grandpa.

 

Aunt Brynn came to visit one afternoon.  That's Josie and Brynn there with Moosie, my parents' vicious pit bull. :) 

And here are the girls showing off some new PJ's they got from Aunt Leslie and Uncle Jeff, and playing on their new table and chairs from Uncle Conor.  They got very spoiled for Christmas.

We ended the trip with a marathon day of travel, which included a 4.5 hour flight from SLC to DC, then a six hour drive home to New Bern.  The girls were troopers.  They did not sleep on the flight at all, but crashed once we got in the car.  We made it home just in time for one more three-day weekend to recover, do laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning, pick up Blue boy, and try to finally kick the coughs we all came home with. 

iPhone photo dump

I still have a few more updates from Christmas and Blue boy's birthday, but in the mean time, thought I'd give an update on what we've been up to lately, based on the contents of our phone cameras. 

We aren't having a winter here in North Carolina.  I'm not complaining because really, I have no use for snow and cold unless it serves a specific purpose (i.e. lots of fluffy stuff to ski in).  Here, the cold is pointless and we are enjoying our last mild winter with more 65 days in December and January than I can remember.

Last weekend we went down to a new park on base for a change.  A teeter totter.  Weren't these basically made for twins? 

On New Year's Day, we went to a birthday party for their friend Emma in almost 70 degree weather.  The girls got to jump in the bounce house.

This is random, but these are all the things the girls require to sleep these days.  Their pillow pet pillows, doggy/froggy, bears, and blankies.  Super cute. 

Piper likes to pull all of her chairs out of the playroom, put them in a nice little line, then climb back and forth over and over.  I don't get how her little brain works, but it sure is fun to watch.