Baby Penny

Just in time for Christmas! Our beautiful niece Penelope Louise Feldt entered the world December 20, 2012 weighing 7 lb 12 oz.   I'm so exited for the girls to have another girl cousin so close in age to them!! They have no idea how lucky they are :-)  I also can't wait to spoil Miss Penny and have a teeny-tiny baby to hold that can't run away from me or yell the word NO at me hehe.  Alex and I got to meet her at the hospital and the girls have already met her several times since she's been home!  For the most part the girls can take her or leave her but when they are interested in her they know no boundaries--i.e. getting in her face or petting her like a dog.  It's been good for them to work on these types of interactions since they mostly play with each other, friends their own age, and older kids.  Corey and Lauren are adjusting to parenthood wonderfully and it's nice to have another family to spend time with and talk about baby-things :-)  I look forward to watching these little ladies all grow up together: Emma Lu, Livi Lu, and Penny Lou...our very own Three Musketeers hehe.

Trying to behave themselves to meet baby Penny

Catching Up

I've been behind on updating the blog!  So here are some pictures from the last couple months:

Two generations of women...sisters + cousins

Thanksgiving 2012

Turkey Turkey!

Pie!

Disneyland Visit #2

Even though our planned-months-ago trip was pretty much rained out this weekend we STILL managed to have some fun :-)  The girls loved Disneyland a lot more this time but were also scared by more things than they were before!  When we first got there it was raining pretty hard so we decided to eat at the Rainforest Cafe to kill some time.  As we were being seated the hostess said "Are the gorillas ok?"  I just nodded because I had no idea what she meant....Yaaaaaa cue huge animatronic (sp?) gorillas going off every 10 minutes.  It was an interesting lunch to say the least hehe.  It was still raining like crazy so we went to our rooms for naps.  We then had a nice dinner at the Storytellers Cafe and then donned our ponchos and headed into the park :-)  We managed to do a few rides before the girls were ready to crash--they LOVED Pirates of the Caribbean this time!  On the way back to our room Lu entertained everyone we passed by yelling "Yayyyyyy" and throwing her arms up in the air (she thinks the stroller is a ride lol).  In the morning we got up super early to get into the park an hour early and managed to get a number of rides done rain-free.  This time we avoided Pinocchio (the girls hateddddd it last time) and tried out Peter Pan for the first time (which they loved) and Dumbo.  Of course we had to do Astro Blasters a few times since the girls love that one so much.  We met a lovely group of young girls all at Disneyland for their first time and they wanted to know where the girls first-time pins were....I laughed and said "Oh these girls??  They're veterans!"  People might think we're crazy for taking them so often because of the price and the fact that they won't remember but since they're free until 3 and we have season passes the money isn't really an issue.  So what if they won't remember?  We do and even though it can be stressful, tiring, and down-right miserable (when it rains) we love the memories and the time we get to spend with them.  I also try to take enough pictures so that they can remember through the pictures (at nearly 1.5 the girls have SEVEN large photo albums of their first year and a half!).  We ended our trip by riding It's a Small World and then grabbing some sugary treats for the drive home.  Even though the trip didn't go quite as planned, it worked for us and I can't say it enough but we have some pretty awesome kids that go-with-the-flow!  It was also a great birthday weekend for me and I know I said this last year but I will say it every year:  my birthday became the greatest day ever since the one I had TWO years ago when I found out I was pregnant.  The years have flown by and at the same time I feel like the girls have always been a part of our lives :-)

Lu wanted to "love" all the Bullseyes

She said "hi! hey!" to every single one

The good thing about rain is it really empties the park :-)

It's a Small World

Lu wanted to take pictures

Halloween 2012!

Our kids were actually awake this Halloween!  Crazy huh?  Hehe.  Check out our Halloween last year: http://www.mcewansplus2.blogspot.com/2011/10/halloween-fun.html & http://www.mcewansplus2.blogspot.com/2011/11/pumpkins-and-princesses.html

This year was still very low key for us as dad and mom are always exhausted from working on the house :-)  We decided to let the girls finger paint on their pumpkins, then dance around in their Minnie outfits.

Lu was a little hesitant to stick her hands in the finger paint and preferred using a paintbrush.  She really got into painting her pumpkin and even moved on to painting the stem when her canvas seemed full :-)

Emma loved putting her fingers in every single color and wanted to hold the colors which really meant she just kept dumping them on herself!  Good thing mom is a preparer...I had a waterproof blanket down, covered by a cheap plastic table cloth, then I bought $4 leggings and sweatshirts in black from Target (just in case the paint wasn't truly washable).  It all ended up really well--the pumpkins turned out adorable and the girls cleaned up very easily--can't ask for much more!

Emma's pumpkin

Olivia's pumpkin