How kids learn by watching the dog...

It's hard to see it now, but there's a mad, mad kid in this picture..
Here she comes now, she's going to get OUT! She's not sure where she's going (except towards the dog food), but she sure does know that she's not happy about being fenced in.

She's getting there, but she's still MAD!!!

Almost out....

See, she's happy now!

When we're in the room, we move the gate over to give Shelby almost all of the living room to roam in. We just try to keep her away from her sister's desk and, for obvious reasons, the kitchen. The dog has figured out that he can either jump over the end table, or just crawl UNDER it. Shelby figured out that she can't jump, but if there's anything she's good at (besides eating), it's crawling, so that's how she got out on this day. We now move the gate over more, but it won't be long before she figures that out too. The way she's going, she'll be walking before she hits 1 anyway (AHHHHH). I just love having kids, they make the day SO interesting!

Our outside Christmas decorations

We actually have a yard, a BIG yard, so we were able to put up some cool decorations this year. I didn't get to many pictures, and got none of the lights, but here's a few for you.
This is our big snow globe with the rotating, swinging peguins.

The candy canes were Santa's lighted parking spot The bikers, hanging out with "Chopper Clause"
Abi and Daddy. She's wearing Daddy's vest and her new skull cap that she got for Christmas. She wants a vest of her own now!!

Some other random pictures

Here are just some random pictures of the girls from when Abi was here....enjoy!!!!
Daddy helping Miss Emilia with her first game of bowling. She did better when she did it on her own, just don't tell him.
I did it myself!!
Daddy, the bowler
Shelby Sue ---- (yes, I know it's really Anne, Sue just flows better when you sing to her "Hello, Shelby Sue, Goodbye heart) crawling off to a new adventure!
Aren't they cute girls?? Do you believe Abi is 11 now? Don't I feel old, she had just turned 3 when I met her, that was back when she was shorter than me!
Shelby really likes spaghetti,
Can you tell?
It gets all over her tummy when it should get INSIDE her.
This is why people with kids get dogs.....
they make excellent food cleaners, plus the kids LOVE it!!!
Oops, she's waking up now. The cats got in just to see what's going on.
Another sleeping shot. Daddy went in to check on her during nap time and found this.
Our angel baby, sleeping on the floor with her purses all laid out in a row. No, I don't know why. My only excuse is that she's 4.

Mom on Tim's Bike!!!!!! No, I'm NOT Kidding

Tim's Mom and Dad came to see us at the beginning of January (can't tell by the clothes we're wearing though!!) and we were finally able to get Mom on the bike. I think she had much more fun than she wants to admit. She was giggling and squealing the WHOLE time, and she DIDN'T fall off and was able to get on just fine (See Mom, you CAN do it!!)Emilia going up to give Grandpa a BIG hug!!
Gotta get the helmet on
Grandpa's last instructionsSaddling up
Off they go!
Look at that smile!
She hasn't fallen off yet....
Don't we have some HUGE pine trees here?

Driving down the streetHere we go
Here she is, ready to ride!!
Riding off into the sunset

I forgot some....sorry

While I was looking over the last two posts, I realized that I forgot some pictures that are really cute, so here they are.
Emilia, opening up her Barbie with lots of different outfits.

Yeah, she's so excited!!!! Do you like our lovely decorations?
And our Abi with her absolutely FAVORITE gift. Her Fly pen. She pretty much stopped opening after that. Silly girl, the software comes AFTER the big gift.....

CHRISTMAS PART 2!!!

Here's the rest of the Christmas pictures for you all to enjoy!!
Here's Shelby, doing what she loved most at Christmas, chasing after paper!
Abi with another book
Emilia and Abi looking at the Darth Tator and Spud Trooper Mr. Potato heads that all the girls got. Guess which Santa picked that one out?
Daddy and part of our tree, the gate was around it to keep the animals out of the presents. Now, it keeps Shelby out of the kitchen and dog food!!
Emilia again
Blurry kids.....they were moving FAST that morning!
Oh, she looks happy, like she knows what's in that package...
Emilia opening NaNa's present, the solar system thingy
Abi and her cool socks
Abi's pop bottle science, yeah, she can blow things up!!
Blurry Emilia again, there's her Larryboy T-shirt NaNa
Oh, another Barbie!!! The pink case is her new camera case. There are some Shelby toys in the background. By this time Shelby was too tired to keep opening, so she was taking a nap and opened the rest of her presents later.
Emilia with her workout CD and elastic bands. shelby's trying to pull her hair (another favorite pastime).
A very HAPPY Emilia sitting on her new Barbie house. Thank you Shray NaNa!!
Shelby at her activity table. This was her big present from Shray NaNa so if someone could print this out to show her, I'd appreciate it, I was telling her about it on the phone. Shelby stands at this and plays quite a bit. The toy in the background is the baby toy that we got with Grandma's gift money when she was born, she still plays with that one all the time too.


I hope you enjoyed the pics, sorry it took so long. We love you all!! Merry Christmas