Santa!

We had cancelled our trip to Santa last weekend because both girls were sick and snotty... so, we got to do it this weekend, finally! Maddy looked a little unsure, but at least she wasn't crying or fighting to get down. Izzy did a great job and suddenly decided that she wants a Barbie... too bad Santa didn't know about that sooner! She's been saying she wants a jewelry set for weeks. She did mention that to Santa, too, but only after saying she wants a Barbie. Ha!

Winter Family Photos...

In mid-November, we did our annual "photo shoot." With Maddy on the move, I wasn't sure how things would go, but we were able to get a lot of good shots. The photographer changed the background and things went quickly down hill after that, but here are some of the good ones we got with the Christmas background.

Time for Catching up!

Oh, my! It's been way too long... and many of you have pointed that out to me recently! So, I'm going to try to do a quick catch-up.

For most of the month of October, the princess tent was in our living room and the girls loved playing in it. Izzy seems really happy that Maddy is starting to get old enough to actually "play" with her sometimes.

Izzy dressed up like Violet Incredible for halloween, but wouldn't leave her mask on - you get the idea, though. The kids were all pretty squirly, so good pictures from Trick-or-Treat are scarce! Maddy wore Izzy's silver leopard outfit, which was cute, too! She learned that she likes M&M's on Halloween... but who doesn't, right?! :-)

Maddy celebrated her first birthday on Nov. 1st! She loved her cake and was really interested in the big kids bobbing for apples. She even made quite a dent in her own apple - she's got all of her 1-year teeth, so she can eat just about anything she wants these days. The weather was mild, so we were able to play outside quite a bit.

10 months!

The same day Izzy started preschool, Maddy turned 10 months old! It seems absurd that her first birthday is already right around the corner! She is doing great - she has even taken some steps on her own, only about 3 or 4 at a time, but it's clear she's getting braver.
In honor of the first Buckeye game of the season, she sported her first "pigtails" or "horns" as daddy called them! In any event, they were stinkin' cute! :-)

Preschool at Daniel Wright Elementary

Izzy has started the preschool program at Daniel Wright Elementary in Dublin! What a big girl! She has only had one week so far, but she loves it. She was very sad that she didn't get to go to school today because of the holiday! She entered the program as one of 4 "typically developing peers" in a group of 12 kids. The other 8 have some type of disability or set back. Most are pretty mild, like hearing, speech, etc. with only one obviously physically disabled child in the class. Her friend, Nicholas Rhea, is also in the peer group. They are doing great so far! They look like such big kids... it seems like just yesterday our little ones were just learning to talk! Time flies!

Izzy had to get a picture with her sister on her first day of school...

Finally!

Finally! We have figured out the technical problems with downloading pictures... well, not really figured it out, but figured out how to maneuver around the issue. Anyway... a short recap of July and August:

Grandma brought Tammie and Chris and the kids to Columbus for a trip to the zoo - that's Brett's brother and sister-in-law and their kids Nathan and Leah. We had great fun! And, we even got to see an "Animal Encounter" with one of the female tigers.

We visited Greenville for Chris' 40th birthday party, went to one of Nathan's baseball games, and saw Tiffany and Jeremy Fine and their girls, Tessa and Addison. They also came to Columbus to the zoo (It was Buckeye day)! We learned a new trick from them - making a single stroller do double duty!

Izzy started ballet class over the summer and loves it! She's in the fall class, which will last until a recital in the spring. She's got a much larger class now, which is taking some time to adjust to, but she still enjoys seeing Miss Meredith each week.

Maddy is Nine Months Old!

Maddy turned 9 months old on August 1st! It's hard to believe! She is babbling a mile a minute and starting to "cruise" along the furniture and coffee table. She has even stood by herself for a few seconds on several occasions! Maddy has four teeth, too. She's already broken the 20lb weight requirement, so we just need to wait for her to get closer to one year and we'll be ready to turn her car seat around!

Here are some pictures of our recent session at Penney's photo studio. I've got other pictures between the last post and now, but we're having technical difficulties at home, so I'll just go back and get those when we're up and running again!

Bad Ballerina Mommy

Izzy had her first lesson at Columbus Dance Arts Academy tonight with Miss Meredith. She LOVED it - and she did great! I was really impressed with the instructor's ability to get 5 little 3 year olds to point their toes and skip, gallop, and jump with her! And what kid doesn't love to get a sticker for their efforts??
Well - I was a bad "stage" mommy and didn't remember my camera! So, I will certainly remember it next week when we can "recreate" the first time again!
PS - A big thanks to Gran for taking my place in the Fall registration line so that I could go watch Izzy's first class... who would have thought it would take an hour and a half to get in for Fall class registration - and that's just for current students! Geesh!

Izzy and Stitch

This is what I found in my room one afternoon last week...

Bumps and Bruises

Many of you may remember how prone Izzy was to bumps on her noggin while she was learning to crawl and walk. Turns out little sister is going to be more of the same! In one day, she hit her head while sitting down next to our sliding glass doors (butt went back, head went forward into the corner of the slider) and she had an encounter with her activity table that left her with a nice scrape on her nose! :-( Both are almost gone already, so no worries - she's fine!

An education...

I know this is the first of many times that Izzy will "educate" Maddy on the way things work around here. It was cute, though... yesterday I was in the kitchen cleaning strawberries for dinner and Izzy asked if she could show Maddy some of the toys we have out there. We moved the Leap Frog barn toy back down to the bottom of the refrigerator and Izzy put the lock on the cupboard where the cereal and cat food are stored.THEN... Izzy proceeded to introduce Maddy to the "joy" that is our tupperware cabinet! Ha! So many times, this picture included only a tot-sized Izzy in a sea of rubbermaid. Now, we have big-kid Izzy pulling it all out of the cabinet making comments like, "oh, here, Mad. This is a really good one!" So funny!

Little Firecrackers

Well, our 4th of July turned out to be rainy and cooler than anticipated, but we managed to have a great time anyway. Rather than getting wet at the Dublin fireworks show, we got together with our neighbors for some back-yard shenanigans.
The girls got all decked out in red white and blue...We had a down-home American dinner of Kentucky Fried Chicken and spent the evening in the backyard with Pop-its, smoke bombs and sparklers. I love how the only picture I have shows the kids sitting so nicely and watching... in reality, they spent most of the evening running around like lunatics, shouting, "it's gonna blow!" The boys (Nicholas and Noah) belong to our neighbors, Brian and Tara Rhea.
Happy Independence Day to all!

Crawling Caught on Camera!

Okay - So, this will be my first attempt to publish video to the blog! We'll see how it goes. This will be a video of Maddy taking one of her first "good crawls" on Sunday, 6/21. I have a better one from tonight, but it does not feature big sister saying "no!" and grabbing the "bait" toy away from Maddy once she gets it. Yes, I'm guilty - I set out bait for my child to get her to crawl across the room.

Here comes the video...



It's going to be interesting, because Izzy definitely does not know what to do now that Maddy can get to just about anything on her own!

Check us out on YouTube

Use the link to the left to check out "TheFryFam" Channel on YouTube! We have an iFlip that takes video at the touch of a button and is proving to be SO handy... plus the software sends videos straight to YouTube. So, check it out... right now there is Maddy in her Jumperoo and I'm getting ready to put on Izzy doing her "Handy Manny" dance! Hilarity, I tell you! :-)

What a Day!

Wow! What a day! To say that Maddy was "crabby" would be a HUGE understatement. However, how can you blame her? Her world is changing so rapidly! Today she is 7 months and 3 weeks old. For the first time today she:
- crawled for about 6 feet without stopping on a couple occasions
- pulled herself up to standing without any help (well, that was last night, but we'll call it part of today)
- ate cheerios by herself, instead of the usual little "puffs"
- got herself into a sitting position from her belly about 5 times throughout the day

She's working hard! No wonder she's a crabby pants.

You'd never know she had a bad day by this picture - here she is enjoying the "doodlebug." This was one of Izzy's favorite toys, too.

Houston, we have a tooth!!

Maddy's first tooth finally poked through her gums today! Hooray... hopefully she'll have a little relief. At least until the next one starts working its way to the surface. :-)

And so it begins...

Well... here it is. The Fry Family finally has a blog - it's what you've all been asking for, right?? ;-)
I won't bother trying to catch everyone up with where we've been over the last couple years. Instead, I'll just start with where we're at right now.
Izzy just turned three on May 10th! She is getting to be such a big girl. She loves playing outside on her new playset and she is really looking forward to starting preschool in the fall.
Madelyn is 6 months old now - almost 7, actually! She is sitting by herself and moving gradually to #2 baby foods. She loves watching her big sister's every move and will soon be chasing after our cats! Maddy just needs to learn how to make her body move on all fours, and she'll be a force to be reckoned with!
Our girls are the light of our life - it will be fun to share them with you on this blog. I can't say how regularly I'll be updating, but I'll try to do it as often as I can. (Especially when we have new pictures of something fun!)