A Contest

I thought we'd give the sibling rivalry a kickstart with a contest. Who has the biggest blue eyes in each of these pictures? (If you need help, click on the picture to enlarge it)

It's a tough call, so send in your vote!

Girls Day Out

On Monday I decided to plan a fun day for the girls and I while Will was at work. It was a beautiful Fall day, so we decided to use the last of our zoo passes and have a picnic lunch at the park. We got there right at opening time which was perfect because that's when a lot of the animals are out waiting for their breakfast. All the large cats, monkeys and giraffes were right at the front of the cages, but Sophia is in a stage where she does not like her picture taken, so the only picture I got was with the flamingos. However, she does like to take pictures, so she snapped one of me and Ally.

Ally eventually took a little nap Skeeters style! (aka with her mouth open!)

For some reason Sophia was anxious to get picture taken in the cutouts.

At the playground, she looked so put out that I was taking her picture. Funny how she looks a lot like me in these pics!

She had no idea I was holding the camera when she peaked over the edge of the giant snake slide so I captured a REAL smile!

On the toy tractor she was trying SO hard not to smile....

....but eventually she let one slip!

I let Sophia get behind the camera again as we enjoyed our picnic lunch.

Somehow word spread quickly through the park that there was a small child with food, so the geese came to beg....

...and the squirrels...

...and of course the ducks!



As we were leaving, Sophia saw some small daisies and picked four of them: "one for Mommy, one for Ally, one for Daddy, and one for Trent." So sweet!

The Sparkler

Lately Sophia has been fighting her daytime naps, but she still desperately needs a nap. Like a lot of kids, when she gets overly tired, she gets really hyper. A friend of ours calls this "the sparkler" because when you light a sparkler, it flares really brightly right before it fizzles out. Here's a short video of Sophia "sparkling!"

Adios Tummy Time!

Halloween 2009

This year we continued the annual tradition of carving pumkins. Sophia was too squeamish to help me scoop out the "guts" but she was anxious to help Daddy with the carving. She spent all evening carving a tiny hole in the side of one of the pumkins. Her little hole was too small for the candlelight to shine through, but she was still very proud!

And here are this year's masterpeices:

We met at our friend's house around the corner for some group trick or treating. The kids looked so cute all dressed up!

Here is Pirate Sophia with her friend Mallery the kitty cat.
She gave us her best "scary pirate face" while posing with her adorable little parrot! Sophia and Allyson won a costume contest later in the week for "Most Creative Costume" (they were a dual entry).

We actually got her to break character and give us a little smile!

Sophia was the oldest in our trick or treating group this year, and she was proud to lead the way. We had practiced trick or treating all week, and she wasn't shy at all about knocking on the doors and ringing the doorbells. I'm not sure if she actually said "trick or treat" loud enough for anyone to hear, but maybe next year...

3 Months

Our little Ally girl is 3 months old now, and we're seeing more and more of her big personality. She has become very good at letting us know exactly what her likes and dislikes are by giving us big ear to ear grins or screaming bloody murder. She loves to be held and likes to stand up, but hates lying down or being left alone for even a few seconds. It makes me think back fondly of when Sophia was a baby and would lie happily on a blanket for 20-30 minutes at a time. Ally is definitely a different baby! She still gets colicky most evenings, but it seems like we're having more good nights, so hopefully it continues to improve (quickly!)
We moved her to the crib a couple weeks ago and the transition went well. She usually sleeps 8-9 hours, wakes to eat, then sleeps another 1-2 hours. I don't think it gets much better than that! She is also still taking a bottle without a problem, so hopefully she remains to be different from her sister in that respect!

When I was pregnant, I predicted that we'd have a blonde girl with dimples and big brown eyes. I think I was right on all accounts except for the eye color. Although eye color can still change up to 6 months of age, I think it's safe to say we're going to have another blue eyed kiddo. I guess we have some strong recessive genes!Ally's hair has decided that the party is over and now lies nicely to the side. As it is growing, it seems to be coming in lighter and lighter. We're also seeing some hints of a dimple on the left side.

Sophia still loves Allyson to peices and likes to try and play with her. Ally puts up with Sophia's games and antics pretty well, but I have a feeling with Allyson's strong personality, there will be at least a few battles of the will in the future.

Pumpkin Patch

Now that the weather has finally cooled off and it's starting to feel like Fall, we decided to make our annual trip to the pumpkin patch near our neighborhood. I pulled an "Aunt Christy" and put the girls in coordinated Halloween outfits. I thought they looked adorable, but instantly Sophia pointed out that spiders don't have hair, so it was silly for a spider to wear a hair bow!

Ally wasn't a big fan of the cutouts, but Sophia made a great wicked witch!

Sophia zipped up the huge hay pyramid all by herself. She didn't even look back!

She was really proud of herself, and of course, we were proud too.

We let Sophia lead the way through the hay maze, and she did better than Will and I would have done on our own!

Unfortunately the corn maze got blown down during the big storm we had earlier in the week. We've never been able to make it out without cheating, so we'll be left to wonder if this was the year we would have conquered it!

Before we left, we each picked out a pumpkin. Sophia chose a white pumpkin, and I thought it'd be perfect for her to paint rather than carve. As soon as we got home, she ran for the paints.

And here's the finished product:

It was such a great day spent together as a family that I think we'll have to go at least once more before Halloween.