What I Get When I Say "Strike A Pose!"

Like Night and Day...

Candids at 5:30 in the morning....

No More Monkeys Jumping On the Bed!

This morning the girls thought they would be cute and climb up on the bed and wrestle. After telling them to calm down, they waited until I turned around before starting up again. I was lucky enough to snap a few good pictures before reminding them to settle down again.... Needless to say, a few seconds later they were acting goofy again so it was time-out time. :) Oh well. At least I got a few decent shots out of it! :)

The only time they share is at bed time...

We've been having some issues in our home with sharing. Katherine doesn't want to, unless, of course, she gives Sarah the thing Sarah does NOT want. Sarah does the grab-n-go -- snatches what she can of Katherine's and just takes off running. Neither of them seem to grasp the concept of sharing, nor do they seem to want to. Yet, amazingly, they share quite well at bed time... they share each other's beds.

Every night, the same thing happens. I lay them down for bed, they hop into the same bed after I leave the room, and just talk and giggle and get into all kinds of mischief.

Last night, Sarah went down before Katherine. When I put Katherine down in her own bed, she seemed tired enough that I guessed she would get to sleep before she thought about crawling into Sarah's bed.

Sure enough, when I went to check on them 30 minutes later (make sure they were covered, etc), Katherine was not in her bed. Instead, they were cuddled up with each other, sound asleep in Sarah's bed. I wish I knew the camera wouldn't wake them up, or I would have the world's sweetest picture posted. But I consider their time sleeping sacred...especially since it doesn't seem to happen easily anymore, so I passed on such a great photo opportunity.

We'll see how well they go down tonight.... for every easy night, there are about 2 dozen not-so-easy. :)

Eating Cookies at Grandma's House...

The girls remind me of my younger years...we would go to Grandma's house and the first thing we would do was ask for a cookie. I suppose the apple doesn't fall far from the tree (and Grandma's cookie jar is still always stocked) because my girls do the same thing. Here are some pictures of them enjoying their cookies on Sunday. My personal favorite is Katherine's "man shot" as I call it -- with her chocolate mustache. They are always just cracking me up.

Sisters

We had a lot of fun on Saturday morning, just hanging out at home. Katherine couldn't wait to take of her pajamas and pick out her clothes (she always goes for the dressiest thing she sees!) and Sarah couldn't run away from me fast enough when I wanted to take her out of her pj's! So I just let her keep them on. :) After several really terrible pictures, I did manage to get one decent one of the girls...I still can't believe they sat still long enough at the same time for me to get one at all! :) They are so much fun!

Sarah Rebecca

Katherine Marie

Bath Time Fun!

My bathroom has a HUGE soaking tub, but since we've moved in, I've just bathed the girls in their bathroom. Well, last night I thought it would be fun to put them in the big tub (selfishly, I was hoping it would decrease the amount of water that always ends up on the floor since it's deeper than their tub). THEY LOVED IT! I don't know that they will ever want to use their tub again!

Birthday Cakes and Birthday Girls

Mom made a cake for my friend Stephanie's daughter for her 1st birthday. Needless to say, it was (as usual for Mom's cakes) loved by all -- especially the birthday girl herself!

Curly Q

Yes, it's that curly. :)

Random Pictures and Katherine's First Twizzler :)

Flight of the Bumble Bee

Katherine decided she wanted to wear her "bee dress" as she calls it. So be it. I have learned to pick my battles, and this wasn't one I was going to pick. So enjoy these shots of her...well, being herself. :)

Pool Party!

The girls have a pool on the deck so they played in it for the first time tonight...and LOVED it! It was a fight just to get them inside! Just thought I would share some pictures of our fun this evening. Note that Katherine is singing in the picture of just her...she was "Ariel" for the night I guess. :)

Best of Friends....Worst of Enemies....

Katherine and Sarah often play wonderfully together. Then there are other times when they can be down right mean...and it's usually Katherine pummeling over Sarah. Today is a perfect example. The girls were at the babysitters today and apparently Katherine didn't want Sarah to join her on the porch swing, so she pushed her and then kept swinging...and the bar of the swing ran right into Sarah's eye. Needless to say, I highly doubt this will be the only black eye this season...

Precious

Precious is Katherine and Sarah's latest...plaything. He's a Beta fish I purchased for them about a week ago. I have to point out that Katherine named him. Only she would find "Precious" to be an appropriate name for a male fish. :)

Well...the other day, Katherine took it upon herself to push a chair over to the countertop where he sits and stick her finger in the small opening on the top of his tank. Needless to say, I came in at just the right time and sharply said, "What are you doing?!?"

Before I could even take another step, her finger was out of the tank, she was off the chair and half-way to her bedroom! I walked in behind her and asked her again, "What were you doing young lady?"

She replied with, "Oh mom, I wasn't doing nothing. It was Sarah." (Sarah happened to be sitting on the floor putting a shoe on the wrong foot with one hand and sucking on a finger on the other....) I raised my eyebrows at her, knowing full and well she was fibbing. She must have known that and continued, "Don't worry mom. I won't kill him. I just needed to pet him."

Oye! We need to find a new place for Precious to sit....

In the wee small hours of the morning...

The girls have a tendency (I call it a bad habit) of waking up before the sun rises...every single day. Here are some pictures of them at the breakfast table at 4:45 in the morning! As you can see, they are full of energy and quite animated!