We Love Pasta!

Daddy titled this one and took the shots! The differences between these two children even extends to their eating habits. I think the pictures say it all! Brady uses both hands, and Reese picks up each strand individually to savor it. Brady has started this fake evil laugh while we are eating that is quite entertaining, even to Reese. I hear that he gets the laugh from me and eating manners from his Daddy!

Visit

Visit

Our Alabama family visited this weekend to see how big Brady and Reese have gotten! We had a great time with Phyllis and her family at the house. Here are a few pictures!

Our new toys

Valentine's gifts came early for Brady and Reese due to Mommy's ebay shopping. Thankfully, we have a glorious, wonderful, intelligent babysitter to put the things together! I opened the boxes and took 1 look at those stinkin directions, and I was going to put them on the first fed ex bus back to toyville. There was no way that I was going to let 3 pictures with 500 steps (and no words) enter into my peaceful and uneventful life (sarcastic at best:). Jessica stepped in and put them together while watching all three children, so she obviously has more patience than me. I tried pulling everything out on the other side of "baby jail," and my little stinkers were throwing toys over the gate to get my attention, crawling up it with their toes, shaking it like there was no tomorrow. I got as far as looking at each piece.

I am so glad she did it, because they love the cars! They look pretty cute in them, too. Since there were tornados all around today, we took them for spins INSIDE, and maybe we can get out later in the week!

The games we play!

Just a few pictures of the exciting game of "let's crawl on the couch." We will let you know when it leads to "let's go to the ER."

Hornets game

We went to the Hornets game (b-ball) over the weekend since we had some free suite tickets from Gary's work. We met Steve, Rachel, and Baby Claire at the game, and it was a good time. Brady and Reese weren't sure what to think of a baby (since they are obviously so old now!), but they sure did stare at the sweetie! I could have gotten so many great pictures, but the battery went dead . . . of course. We were exhausted by the end, but everyone seemed to have a good time.

Parenthood

Anyone that has ever seen the movie Parenthood will understand this picture. If you haven't this is probably not all that entertaining. I always joked that I would have the "bucket" head kids. This is how Brady walked into the room, and might I add, he was very proud of himself, and tickled at his new game. Maybe Reese will still be able to do the square root flash cards :)

Feeding the ducks

Well, we didn't get out and party on Fat Tuesday, but we thought feeding the ducks might be fun. We took a trip to a park in Metairie, and we found lots of birds, ducks, and roosters, that's right, I said roosters, that were willing to indulge us by eating our stale bread. Brady was off like a flash. He went after every pile of mud, idoling rooster/duck, and feces he could find. Yes, feces. We spent an entire year attempting to shield our little angels from the perils of germs with every germ buster out there on the market (the NICU can scare you into these behaviors, but I probably would have been that way anyway), and Brady manages to scoop up some poop and make the mouth. I hope your fingers aren't on the dial to call Child protective services on us. Believe it or not, we were inches from him, and just not fast enough. As you can see in one of the pictures, he almost tackled a duck. Reese just enjoyed watching the festivities, sipping her juice, and walking the path. This was another "outing" that almost put Gary and I in the hospital. We are clearly already being surpassed by our childrens' athletic ability and stamina!

Park

We went to the park at the end of the street to get out of the house for a little while. It was such a beautiful weekend, it was hard to resist being outside. Brady was all over the place. He was trying to climb up the slide after sliding down, crawling over logs, grabbing monkey bars. In one of the pictures, I think he is trying to escape into someone's backyard while his Daddy plays on the monkey bars. I wouldn't put it past him! Reese enjoyed picking up the leaves, swinging, running her fingers through the dirt, and she really liked the cool breeze. Every time the wind would pick up, she acted like it was a personal favor or treat just for her! We weren't there for that long, but they gave us another workout!

Mardi Gras

They barely made it back to the car they were so tired of running around!

Throw me somthin', Mister!

Well, Brady and Reese attended their first Mardi Gras season parade yesterday. It was definitely small scale, since we didn't actually go into the city, but it was interesting. Reese adopted the new name "Hollywood" for the day, since she wore her shades the whole time. She was pretty much strutting her stuff up and down the street before the parade, and some people actually took pictures of her! She seemed to enjoy the exploring. Brady was even more adventurous than sister, and quite a handful. Everything and anything that was on the ground was almost picked up, and he definitely kept us on our toes. He is fast! They both had their first run in with the law, as you will see with the pictures, and Mommy and Daddy begged the law to take Mommy and Daddy. No can do when you don't break the law. :)

More Pictures

I don't know if you can tell, but Brady's hair was standing straight up from static electricity when he was touching the television!

They love to dance and read books. Sometimes I have books hurled my way, and that is the lovely way we say, Read, Mommy, read!!! They even try to dance to some of the books that have buttons and sounds. There is always something exciting going on!

Our favorite things

Since our little rascals are quite mobile these days, we have some new favorite activities! Pull me on the pillow is currently a favorite that is sure to break Daddy's back. Let's kiss, ride, and find Tigger's nose (as well as Mommy's, Daddy's, etc.). Love on baby and give her a ride. Death-defying stunts with the musical wagon such as Brady pulling himself on top of the fouton.

One day I came home from work, and Reese pulled the scarf I was wearing off my head. She immediately threw it around her shoulders, just like she had been waiting for that accessory to complete her outfit. It was pretty entertaining. Of course, then Brady wanted a scarf, so we had to pull several out for dress-up time!

Brady is starting to take a lot of interest in walking backward, and Reese is working on her 4th tooth! Not bad for someone almost labeled toothless! They both enjoy playing the "thank you" game . . . they hand Mommy a beloved toy, Mommy says thank you, and they immediately want the toy back. So much for true sharing, but we are working on it!

They don't say individual words as much as I thought they would by now. It is so strange, because we often hear what sounds like the phrases we constantly use . . . thank you, all done, etc. I think they are coming up with their own language, because they seem to understand each other perfectly.

January

We have had a very busy month after our wonderful Christmas vacation! I am attaching some pictures of Brady and Reese opening up their presents from their Alabama Granny! She always sends something they love! Reese intially loved the paper. She was kissing it, and helping Brady with his paper. Brady enjoyed some puffs while opening his new truck, but it appears he has grown quite fond of Reese's pink baby that she got! They both sleep with their new, warm blankets every night, and I feel better knowing they are wrapped up in all that love!