January - February 2016

2016: We are so ready for a new year ahead! We are quite certain anything will top 2015! So far, 2016 is living up to its expectations! It is so nice having more family time together. It really makes you treasure the time you have and value it for what it is truly worth. Our highlight so far was our wonderful vacation-oh it was so good indeed! We hope the start of your year has been as blessed as ours has been.

New Year's Day 2016: Last year we started a yearly tradition to try a new homemade pasta on New Year's Day. This year we chose pasta carbonara. It was surely delicious! We enjoyed having some friends over for the evening to hang out and for the first time in a long time sit and relax a little! Avery was helping daddy make the pasta. She loves to bake and cook!

Roller Skating: 2016...and we are off on roller skates! I was so very excited to take them roller skating because it brought back such good memories with my best friend Liz. I was expecting it to be a little less coordinated and was pretty happy when they ditched the "walkers" within the first 15 minutes of trying out roller skating. It was a lot of fun and I can see future birthday parties at the rink! I also learned action shots in a dark rink is not super easy to capture!



Christmas 2015 with Nana and Grandpa: Another joyful visit with the grandparents. The girls are so spoiled and loved, but what is new?! We are fortunate that both grandparents are so involved in their lives and bring them so much joy.



Froberg Farms-How I love thee!: Froberg farms is one of my favorite local spots. Who doesn't love strawberries...buckets of them!?! We went already in the beginning of January and ended up with three full buckets! What a treat. The girls and I love the strawberries and kettle corn. I know we will have plenty more opportunities to pick strawberries this season--yippeee!

January 16, 2016: Today marks one year of Gramma/Mom going to heaven. On this day we took some time to remember all the special memories with Gramma. I had the girls color pictures of their memories which included: playing on the swing set, jumping in the bounce house, watching Frozen, snuggling and being sung to on their couch, Chic-Fila dates and so on. We are so thankful for the time we have had with Gramma/Mom and we miss her dearly every single day. But on this day, time just stood still as we remembered our fond memories. Very few pictures were taken on this day, but I think Mom would have been pretty happy that we were eating smore's at 10am in the our pajamas-because that is living life to the fullest! In the evening, Jay made a family fort and we watched a movie. It is hard to see, but Avery is laying down inside the fort all snuggled in and Aubrey is snuggled between mommy and daddy. Enjoying time with the family is something Gramma/Mom cherished as well.

Avery's head is bopping up behind the pillows!

Other January Photos: The girls started basketball in January. What a sport to start with! It was a bit of a shaky start, but the girls learned to like it and are practicing their skills. There are only a small handful of 4 yo kids, so next year will be much easier as they will know the sport better and have practiced the skills. I like that they are learning the sport, practicing coordination, learning to listen to a coach and stretching them in a way they have not experienced before.

The girls are really loving school. In fact, they make it be known that they want to stay until 2pm instead of 12noon. Next year they will stay a full day until 2pm and I'm already wondering when I will ever see them! The school does a great job with keeping things interesting. One week in January was superhero week. While we don't have too many superhero costumes...we did have one!

 

Thank you Aunt Maria for our beautiful Christmas dresses!

Valentine's Day Pictures: This year we got Valentine's Day pictures and they turned out really cute. Here are just a few of the pictures. It was the first time ever I curled their hair. It reminded me of my mom curling my hair when we were getting professional pictures done. Their hair is just like mine...super fine and doesn't hold a curl with a darn! Hahahah! 

Tessa Turns 1!: Happy Birthday sweet girl! You are so loved Tessa and it makes me so happy that you are growing up with your cousins. We adore you in every way and are so excited to celebrate your birthday with you. Does it get any cuter than this?!

February 2016: We thought January was good....February was even better!



Family vacation 2016: We went on a 7 night, 8 day cruise to the Caribbean for family vacation and it was beyond awesome! It was so much fun, so relaxing and so rejuvenating. The girls really enjoyed themselves at Kids Camp which was a wonderfully organized program that had tons of activities for the kids throughout the day which not only kept them occupied but gave us a lot of nice down time as well. We enjoyed a date night every single night for 7 days in a row--can you get any better than that? We had a good balance of family time, hubby-wife time and alone time. It was so perfect. The food was yummy (hence plenty of pictures of the kids eating!), the fun and relaxation was very much needed and the family time was out of this world. When are we going on our next cruise?! Hahaha. 



Time For A Change: My big girls are growing up making their own decisions! After getting paint, glue, and food in their beautiful hair on a regular basis, I mentioned getting a shorter haircut and while they always wanted princess hair to do an Elsa braid with previously, they both were on board to get a shorter haircut. Aubrey wanted a haircut like my length and Avery wanted a shorter one. Both are adorable and I can't even tell you the big beautiful smiles they had looking in the mirror. They loved their new hairdos! 

 

It has been a great two months for 2016--looking forward to many more!