Monday, April 16, 2012

Easter

I'm pretty sure that I am not overselling when I say that I have the greatest girls in the entire universe. They are funny, sweet, and smart - and they look like angels in white Easter dresses.

Naomi and Eliza




Full length of dresses



The Easter Bunny brought the girls soft lambs in their baskets. Eliza named hers, Gaby, after a friend at church. Naomi named hers, Bunny, after the Easter Bunny. :)

Ellie and Annie

On a recent trip to Naples, we visited with my super cute cousins, Ellie and Annie. Naomi and Eliza love them - I mean, they really LOVE them. I barely saw my girls all week. We had tons of fun visiting the beach, swimming in the pool, dyeing Easter eggs, baking cupcakes, etc. Here are some snapshots from the visit.

Eliza, Ellie, Annie, and Naomi - all wearing matching suits

Seriously. How adorable are they?

Beach dancing

Naomi

Eliza

We love the beach. Isn't it gorgeous?

Eliza, Annie, and Naomi reading - Annie read to the girls all week. When she would finish one book, the girls would bring her another. That's a lot of patience for someone who won't be 8 for another month :)

Annie and Eliza

Naomi and Ellie made the cupcakes - they are definitely the best bakers in the family.

The cupcakes were delicious!

So we ate dinner at a restaurant called, M Waterfront Grille, in Naples with the relatives. When Nan takes the girls to the shopping area by M, they always end up running through the fountains, getting soaked in the process. On this occasion, I told Na and Z that they could not play in the fountain - but Naomi asked me if she could just put toes in the water... with Nan's encouragement, I agreed. The above photo and following video is what happened.


Monday, March 26, 2012

Spring Training 2012

Another perk of living in Tampa is Spring Training! We live less than 25 mins from Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees' Spring Training home. Now I should mention that while we are definitely NOT Yankees fans, we do try to root, root, root for the home team... unless they are playing the Cubs of course. And after all, our local high school is called Steinbrenner High.

David found us super cheap tickets last min on St. Patrick's Day. (I think it helped that the game was against the Astros.) It was 86 and beautiful. The girls did an amazing job - we stayed over 3 hrs, and they played, sang, and ate popcorn the whole time. Naomi even made friends with the old guys next to us. At the end of the game, David called out to one of the Yankees pitching coaches who threw a ball up to the girls. The girls were SO excited to catch a baseball. Here are some pics of the fun.


Yes Naomi wore that green party bowler hat during the game - nbd it was St. Patrick's Day.

We sat in the sun for about an hour before the shade moved in :)

David, Naomi, and Eliza

Here is Eliza learning to keep score. She liked making k's better than numbers.

Much of the game looked like this - Eliza playing on her Ipod, and Naomi talking to all the neighbors.

The rest of the game looked like this - Naomi eating popcorn and talking to the neighbors.

Naomi loves to take pictures of herself on my phone... especially "tongue ones"

She is such a nerd. I don't know where she gets it.

Even Daddy joined our fun.

We love baseball. Spring Training was FAB - even if we did have to root for the Yankees.

Fred Howard Park

Have I mentioned lately how much we LOVE Florida? We took Gramma Dot to a local park on the coast to watch the sunset on her last day here in the Sunshine State. I took some pics of the girls playing on the beach. (Eliza is wearing the blue headband. Naomi is in the video.)



Saturday, March 10, 2012

Naomi hula-hooping


Maybe my favorite Naomi video ever...

Eliza pushing Naomi in a Shopping Cart


Okay this is from Christmas time, but it is also too funny. Eliza is pushing Naomi in their play shopping cart... Do not try this at home.

Nerd Dancing


Okay so this video is a little old - like 3 or 4 months, but it was too funny. Naomi and Eliza decided to make up a dance, then spent the ENTIRE day learning it and practicing it. I still have no idea how it goes, but every time they sing this song, they do this exact dance...

Baking with Na and Z

Playtime


Naomi and Eliza love to play with everything - even their shoes :)

Naomi Singing


Naomi learned a new song in Primary last month.
Here she is singing in the car.

Back Home Again in Indiana!

Great News - after being without a properly functioning computer for the last three months, we got a new laptop! The blog is back up and running. Yay!

We recently traveled back home to Indiana to meet our new cousin/niece, Catherine Elaine Coonradt. Although the girls were utterly unimpressed with Baby Cate because "she just does nuffing", I was psyched to meet my perfect little niece. Well, psyched may be an understatement... Meeting Cate absolutely makes the list of top 10 greatest moments in Erin's life.

Erin and CathERINe

Cate and Eliza

This may have been the only time Eliza tried to play with Cate

We had so much fun with Cate. I think David was almost as excited to be an uncle as I was to be an aunt. Although he was only in Indy for a couple days, he got to participate in her baby blessing. He was totally enthralled with that little girl, and I heard him talking to her and promising her all kinds of things - like trips to Disney World and candy.

After David went back to Tampa, the girls and I traveled south of Indy to visit one of my favorite people on earth, Jessica Walser, and her cute family. Unlike baby Cate, the girls LOVED playing with Jessica's 9 month-old baby, Penny. (To be fair, they also like going to Jessica's to visit Pablo, her chocolate lab.)
Naomi, Penny, and Eliza

Penny thought it was really funny to push the girls over -

Naomi and Eliza also like this game.

Jess and I took the girls to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, aka the girls 2nd favorite place on earth. When we lived in Indy, we had season passes, which we took full advantage of. The girls loved going back and seeing all the familiar exhibits. There were even things for Penny to do.
Naomi dressed as a diver...
I told Eliza to wait by the wall - this is how I found her.

Na and Z twirling on the Barbie runway

Penny was the runway photographer.

Just before we left Indiana, Gramma Dot hosted a fabulous Oscar party. It was so much fun! The family got really into it. Gramma printed Oscar Bingo cards and ballots for everybody, and we had a competition for "Oscar-winning snacks." Brianna, with help from Chad and Scott, won the "Oscar" for her peanut butter Rice Krispy treat statute.


Isn't it fab?!?

Even though we had big fun in Indy, we are so happy to be home in sunny Florida.