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!