Funny Kid Videos

I thought it was so cute when Ally and Sophia were blowing bubbles together in the bathtub, that I had to take a video. I had no idea that blowing bubbles would lead to blowing chunks!

We also took a video of Ally learning the hard way that it's a bad idea to fall asleep in the living room in our house!

Sophia's 4th Birthday Party

I can't believe our sweet Sophia is 4 years old! This year she decided to have her party at Artbeast Studio, which is an art/dance/play studio for kids. They got to paint on the walls, play with playdough and sand, and lots of small puppets and kitchen toys, all without parents worrying about the mess.

Sophia was excited to see her party room all set up for her friends and family. She was also excited to wear the outfit that her friend Macy's mom handmade for her big day.

The kids all got to make masks and they had a great time playing with glue, glitter, feathers and lots of other stuff that parents usually hate.

After working up an appetite, the kids munched on pizza, fruit, and veggies, leaving plenty of room for cake. Sophia chose a Rapunzel cake from the movie Tangled. The cake ended up blending perfectly with the Artbeast theme.

We got a classic video of everyone singing happy birthday, which included a little boy rushing in to blow out the candles, and Ally looking all 4 directions before sticking her finger in the cake!


The birthday girl got the first piece of cake, but she was happy to share with her little sister.

Next up: PRESENTS!!! Sophia's friend Elizabeth volunteered to be the official "card reader" while Ally was the unofficial "present chooser."

Sophia ended up getting 3 of the exact same Rapunzel dolls. Her friends sure know her well!

She also received some new art supplies, a color bubble gun, and some step 1 reading books. Grandpa remembered that her old bird feeder had fallen apart and gave her a new one complete with bird seed. She's excited to decorate it so Sophie Bluebird and Ally Brownbird will spend more time in our backyard.

Sophia had fun having all her friends together and wasn't nearly as shy as she has been in the past. It's been amazing to watch her transition from year to year into the amazingly sweet, bright, not-so-little girl she is today.

18 Months

Ally is finally talking!!! She now knows 12 signs and says 15 words, but a lot of her speech still sounds like babble. To help us figure out what she's saying, she includes a sign or gesture for clarification. So "ba ba" could mean "baby"," bottom", "belly button", or "where's the ball", but she has learned to sign or gesture so we know what she's trying to say. This break through in communication has eased her frustration quite a bit, so that her breath holding tantrums seem to have come to an end (fingers crossed!), although she can still throw a real doozy if properly provoked.

Ally and Sophia are able to play together more and more these days. It's fun to watch them enjoy each other's company. Ally is always imitating Sophia and is quickly learning how to play school, family and kitchen. Sophia thinks it's hilarious to do something silly and watch Ally imitate the same behavior.

She is still relatively fearless and still doesn't seem to have the coordination and agility to match her speed. Because of this, Will now puts her in a bike helmet whenever she plays outside, and she now comes up and asks for her "hat" as soon we head outdoors.

Ally is quickly learning how cute she is and has started using it ruthlessly to get what she wants. She has been kissed multiple times by some of the boys in Sophia's preschool class, and the staff at the gym have admitted that she's one of their favorites. Several times a day she whips out her big dimpled grin and signs for "candy" or "cookie" and it's soooo hard to tell her no.

We've known from day one that she was going to be a handful, but she's quickly becoming a triple threat with her strong will, her speed, and her charm. She can be a challenge, but she's also a pure joy to parent and love.

Recent Funnies

Our girls have had us doubled over in laughter lately with their newest antics.

Sophia is the main culprit because she'll totally catch us off guard. She walked in the room the other day while Will was doing push ups, and she said flatly, with a perfect valley-girl accent "Dad....what....are you...doing?" And it's not uncommon to hear her use the same accent and say "Dad....look....what your wife....is doing."

Another time Sophia surprised me is when the girls were playing "family" in their playhouse, and I overheard Sophia saying "Oh no! We're broke, and I haven't learned how to fly an airplane yet. What are we going to do?" I'm assuming she was playing the role of Daddy, and I'm assuming Ally's babbling could be interpreted as "I know! Why don't you stay home home with the kids while I work.";)

And although our entire household has been ridden with sickness of varying degrees, Ally's been by far the sickest. There is nothing funnier to Ally than to see her big sister fall down, so our sweet Sophia spent 20 minutes straight running into walls, throwing herself onto the ground, and pretending to slip, all to help her little sister feel better. The best part was that it worked, and Ally was laughing so hard she had tears running down her little chubby cheeks!

Later that same night, Sophia was struck by a bought of diarrhea, and as is often the case, it was accompanied by lots of gas. She was laughing so hard at all the sounds coming out of her little bottom that I was afraid she was going to fall right off the toilet!

For the first time, Sophia also made up a joke that is actually kinda funny. Sophia: Knock knock Me: Whose there? Sophia: I DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS!

We were watching old videos of Sophia and found an old clip of her "Excited Face" (http://catxfamily.blogspot.com/2008/09/face.html). Ally has already developed some of her own faces, like the Stinkerpot Face and the Evil Face (which was first seen after giving her a fat free Fig Newton instead of a chocolate chip cookie), but we coached her to do a few more.



Sophia loves to try and get Ally to do all of the "faces" during dinner time, which has us all giggling by the end of the meal.

Christmas Card Outtakes

I'm planning on eventually getting together a Christmas blog, so I was sorting through our pictures and found some adorable outtakes from when we were getting pictures for our annual Christmas card.

This is the picture we used for the card:
But these ones were awfully darn cute too!

"The I Love You Book" by Todd Parr, as read by Sophia

Cowboys Stadium

During our Christmas trip to Dallas this year, we took a guided tour of the Cowboys new stadium. Although not everyone in the family are huge Cowboy fans, we all had a great time and were truly impressed.

The girls loved the colored fountains in one of the "standing only" sections, and somehow they were able to resist the temptation of climbing in.

The retractable ceiling was closed when we there, and it was hard to imagine that such a large ceiling could actually open up.

The biggest LCD screen in the world was indeed huge.

Our favorite part of the tour was the football field itself. We all had a great time running around...



...and practicing our touchdown celebrations.

We ended the tour in the locker room. They had Tony Romo and Miles Austin's helmet and uniforms available to try on.
Since I'm a sucker for blue eyes, I walked right past Romo's locker.

Our tour guide told us that someone reserved the locker room for their fantasy football draft last year and I've never seen Will's eyes get so wide. I have feeling I know what he's going to be asking for his birthday next Fall!