Kate is moving around a lot now and getting herself stuck in these kinds of predicaments often throughout the day. V is probably saying, "oh, no!" which is one of her favorite phrases now. She says it when she drops something, spills her water, marks on the table with a marker, when Mr. Noodle is acting silly on Elmo's World, when Kate drops her pacifier, etc, etc. It's cute.

I took this picture of Vivian because I wanted to capture a memory of her very first ponytail. She wore it like this over to Papa and Gramme's house on Sunday to watch the Super Bowl, but it didn't stay tight long...the front pieces aren't long enough just yet.

Vivian has been very chatty lately. It cracks me up. She was constant like this for about an hour yesterday afternoon. Around 28 seconds you can see that she tries to get my attention behind the camera because her story is just so important and she doesn't want me to miss anything :) When I was cleaning the downstairs shower, she came up to me and even turned my head with her hand so that I would look at her and pay attention to her story...HA!

Kate turned 6 months old on the 5th...this past Friday. I was waiting on this post because her well-check was today with Dr. B. We have a very healthy, happy baby! She is so precious to us!
She weighs 15 lbs, 15 oz. and her height is 25 3/4". Her head circumference is 16 3/4". All of these measurements are in the 50th percentile.

Her eyes are still blue. She has two teeth on the bottom (that are a little crooked! hehe). She rolls all over the place when she's in the crib or playing on the floor. She is mobile, but only when it comes to going backwards :). She pushes herself back and gets stuck under couches and changing tables. She can get her stomach up so that she's on her hands and knees, but hopefully she'll wait a while longer on actually moving forward (crawling). Not ready for that yet at this house. Her favorite activity is jumping in her johnny-jump-up.

The most significant thing about Kate at this age is that she is a much better eater! The Prevacid is really working. It's amazing. She will now take a 5 or 6 oz bottle every 3.5 hours (sometimes she goes 4 hours if her nap is long) and doesn't fight me at all about it. I am so thankful. I don't take it for granted...it seems as if every time she finishes a bottle in one sitting I have a big smile on my face and I can hear myself sigh in relief.

She has gotten the idea about solid foods and will open her mouth to anything I feed her now. We've tried carrots, green beans, bananas, pears, applesauce, and sweet potatoes. She eats at each meal with Vivian. I've given her a sippy cup with water but she didn't do well with it.

She takes 3 naps a day and she's getting good at finding her pacifier to make falling asleep a little easier.

She goes to bed at 7 and gets up around 7 am. She wakes up once or twice during those 12 hours...still working on that! Today Dr. B said she can go at least 8 hours without eating, so we have the go ahead to skip the 1 am feeding. I'll let you know how that works :)

She grins the biggest when her dad comes home and greets her.

We love Kate to pieces. She is so smiley and fun to play with!

I know everyone is wondering where these awesome pictures are coming from! Definitely not me...we don't own a camera this nice and I don't have any kind of photography talent, if you've noticed from the rest of the pictures on this blog. The credit is due to my good friend Shannon, who has started a new photography business and came over to take photos of the girls for us. Actually, our main purpose was to get a picture of the 4 of us (we don't have any) so I can update the header on the blog. I'll share the family pictures tomorrow! Thanks to Shannon for blessing us with such great shots of our girls!

I'm sure you've all seen pictures like this on the news, but here's a personal connection...this is Stephen's car parked outside his apartment. I talked to him tonight and he said it took hours to get it uncovered. Pretty snow!

A bunch of guys came from NC to go skiing with Aaron this weekend. Jonathan and Joy got here yesterday afternoon with their sweet toddler Seth (he's just a month or two younger than Vivian). We showed them around and then went to dinner at The Salem House which was a fun experience (it was a challenge because Kate was getting pretty sleepy, but thankfully we saw a bunch of people we know and Debbie Szuch held her and played with her so I could eat). The rest of the guys (David, Bryan, and Ben) got here later last night and they got up before 5 am to get to Snowshoe when the slopes opened. We are in the middle of a snowstorm today though! It has been snowing here since 3 or 4 am and it hasn't let up at all. Jonathan finally called around 11 to let us know they got there...a 3 hour trip took them more than 5 hours in the snow! Joy and I are enjoying hanging out here with the kids and watching them play. Vivian and Seth are trying to practice sharing but it's hard because they're so little and you can tell they don't understand the concept. We did a small craft this morning and they've played a lot with stickers and strollers and balls and drums...

Joy and Seth just went outside for a few minutes to play...the forecast is for 10-18 inches of snow by tomorrow evening.

more pictures of our weekend to come soon! We love being with friends!

If you've ever seen Mckmama's blog (which I know a lot of you have), you know about Not Me Monday. Here's my first shot at participating:

I would never not pull back my daughter's hair so she could actually see, especially during mealtime because the food would get in her hair! No, not me...I would never be that lazy or cruel to my kid.

Kate loves getting in the tub! I think mostly because she knows what follows (milk and bed). I am looking forward to when she can sit up in the bathseat because then Vivian will be able to get in there with her. Maybe next month!

We had an outrageous electric bill last month, and ever since then Aaron has been keeping wood stocked for us to use for building fires (we have two fireplaces in the house). He recently bought this maul, so he's been getting good workouts in chopping wood. Last Saturday morning he and V spent a lot of time outside together. He taught her how to put sticks of wood on the fire.

Little helper. Of course he watched her every time she went near the fire, and it was obvious that she had an understanding of it being "hot". In fact, every time she walked away from it she looked at him and said, "hot".

I love this picture! She's looking at Aaron for approval on her choice of stick. You can see behind her the pile that Aaron made for her to choose from.

This is our outdoor space that we are planning to enjoy this spring and summer!

Last night Nathan, Erin, and Julia braved the winter weather and came over for dinner. It was awesome for us to have company because we've been inside for the last two days! V really liked playing with Julia but we are still working on the concept of sharing :) We finally caught up with our friends (it had been a while since we had hung out with them). They are expecting a new baby in June!

If you look closely, you can see the goose egg on her forehead. She's learning to walk and while she was here fell into one of our tables. This means that if you have a toddler and come over to visit, expect some kind of trauma at our house (remember this from a few weeks ago?)