MAJOR catchup

Okay, so over a month since my last post. I got caught up with Christmas, my birthday, a trip to the dentist, a "stay-cation" at Gaylord Palms, the New Year, coming back to work after my beloved break, cleaning up Christmas, my Mom's birthday, a trip to Nana's, getting sick, getting better, decorating for Valentine's day, and all the other day to day things like you know, working, cleaning, chores, taking care of little girls, etc.. So this is a huge post with lots of pics of moments from the last 6 (?) weeks.

So proud of the cake they made for me. I told Ava that I wanted strawberry cake...


She insisted that the middle frosting layer be chocolate though.


Quick birthday wish


Snapshot before leaving for dinner at my FAVORITE restaurant, Purple Olive.


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Lia's first official visit to the dentist!!! She watched Ava go first and then was happy to sit in the big orange chair and get her teeth cleaned. When they asked her which flavor she wanted she said "choc-choc" since her big sister had chosen chocolate when she was asked. The hygienist would put the chocolate-flavored concoction on her teeth and Lia would like her lips - she loved it!








Ava's first x-ray!


All done - two mouths full of cavity-free teeth.


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Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando, where we saw the ICE! exhibit (lots of ice sculptures) and SNOW! (man-made snow for kids to play in).

This little stay-cation was just what we needed. A little getaway for the four of us. A chance to spend time with each other without having to worry about work, cleaning, cooking, etc. The girls loved it - they were so good the entire time. Ava enjoyed it so much that when we leaving, she kept stalling and saying that she wanted to stay...











Our room was in the "Key West" region of the resort.








They loved our balcony. Even after a shower, snug in pajamas, they were out there people-watching at 9:00pm.


We don't want to leave...


PS - When we were at the dentist, the girls got to pick little prizes when they were done. Ava picked this tiny little baby. I mean, the size of a dime tiny. Unfortunately Lia set her eyes on it and would not let go of it during our entire trip at Gaylord Palms. Anthony and I kept joking that the baby was not going to make it - we were sure we would lose it somewhere around that huge resort. But no, Lia kept such good care of it, tucked inside of her little tight fist, we are happy to say that it's still with us.


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Some snapshots from around the house.

Ava's been getting better and better at MarioKart. Of course Daddys loves playing with her.

It's so funny to watch her expressions and silly faces she makes when she's playing.




Lia is really into imaginative play (well, really they both are), but it's cute to see two-year-olds cooking wooden fruit and veggies and plastic cookies.


And speaking of two-year-olds, she's going on her potty more and more. Mostly before bath time, but every once in a while she tells me she has to go and then sits there and follows through. Obviously we are nowhere near any sort of official potty-training yet, but at least's she's getting the hang of it. (PS - I think we'll be waiting until after our trip to Disney before we really go for it. The last thing I want to be doing at the magic kingdom is running around searching for bathrooms and dealing with accidents.)

And did I mention how long she'll sit there? Long enough for me to go get a hair tie and pull her hair up. haha



Breakfast time




And the cleaning..it never stops. I can have this house looking great and two hours later, you wouldn't be able to tell that it was vacuumed, mopped, dusted and de-cluttered.
So the girls are learning how they can help. First it was dusting, now on to mopping.