Happy Birthday!

Julia turned 3, which is very hard to believe. It seems like yesterday that she showed up, and at the same time, its like she's been around for as long as Sophia.

Mommy made an incredible birthday cake. It looked like a castle, complete with a princess!

Snow angels

We were greeted with about 3-4 inches of snow this morning. Since we don't get much - if any - the girls just love it. So, mommy took them out to play in the snow!!!

Let's make snow angels!!! Then, let's eat it!

Daddy was happy to stay with the girls for another day, since the snow postponed his trip to D.C.

Its already melting...

Julia the ballerina

Julia has begun ballet classes. She was a little overwhelmed the first class, pretty much like all of the girls (all 3 and 4 year olds). She looks awful cute in her tutu and tights.

Hopefully she will last longer than Sophia (which was 10 classes, before she said she 'just wanted to swim').

Zoo part 2

Given the warm weather, we were able to stay a little longer and there were more animals out to see. Here's a pic by the pandas:

We were lucky enough to catch the zoo keeper feeding the giraffes some snacks. (Everyone likes snacks!) He told several stories and gave great insight into the daily life of these beautiful creatures. But the most amusing part were the giraffe's long tongues. As he told the stories, they were trying to swipe an extra snack out of his hand - and they were sucessful on more than a few attempts.

Grace was determined to walk the last mile. She did a good job, except she ran so fast her shirt wouldn't cover her cute little belly!

In the end, everyone had a lot of fun and got enough exercise that they sleep very well that night.

The Zoo after Christmas

The weather was incredible in the days after Christmas so we took the opportunity to go to the zoo! In fact, it was so warm, we didn't wear coats.

Of course, we had to stop to see the elephants! Lots of fun.

We made our way to the Giant Pandas and went to see the polar bears. Right next door to the polar bears are the seals and sea lions. There's a nice below the water viewing area that the girls like to see. Here's Grace getting ready for a smooch from a seal!

Christmas Day 2008

Christmas Eve was festive - baking cookies with Mommy, and getting the house ready for Santa's visit. It was important to have fresh cookies and milk for Santa. The house was all decorated and the stockings were hung on the mantle with care...

Also, Sophia made reindeer food at school, which needed to be spread on the front lawn at dusk.

Eventually everyone was fast asleep await Ol' Saint Nick. Apparently the cookies and reindeer food did the trick because Santa left A LOT of presents on Christmas morning.

However, there was time in between chocolate and opening presents to play a little chase! (Grace obviously likes to be the chasee...)

Christmas Card pics

Here are a couple pics from the Christmas cards. Mommy did a great job - as usual - keeping the natives cooperative for just long enough to get some good pics.