Believe it or not, today was the first time I took both girls to grocery shop! Maybe I took them both when Kate was a newborn, and then decided to not do that anymore. The biggest reason was because Kate's carseat took up the whole cart and I had nowhere to put the groceries. So for the last 8 months, I've been arranging it so that I only had one of them (usually Kate when Vivian is at Preschool on Thursdays), or neither of them (after they go to bed, or while napping at Gramme's). But today I had to get some food for our house, so we made the effort and it was a success! Now that K can sit well by herself, she rode up front. And V absolutely loved driving the cart. In fact, the only discipline issue we had was when we were leaving and she didn't want to get out. They were very patient and content, and I was thankful.
Now, if I could only start couponing...

Vivian's hair in the morning when she wakes up:

Yes, I am finally posting about Kate turning 8 months! Now she's about 8.5 months, and the crazy thing is that if I had posted last Monday on the 5th, I wouldn't be able to say some of the things about her that I can now a week and half later, because that's how fast things change at her age! She is a jewel. She is becoming much more predictable and I love it. We went to Dr. B last Monday because I thought she might have an ear infection (just a cold), and she weighed 17 lbs, 5oz. We will get more stats at her 9 month check up in May. Her hair is darker than Vivian's, but still has a hint of an auburn color. Her eyes are still blue. She has two bottom teeth and is getting a third one right beside them. Her top gums are still pretty ridgy, so I don't foresee any top teeth for a while.

Kate is crawling fast and always on a mission. She pulls herself to standing. She climbs the two steps that connect our kitchen and living room. I have seen her take a few baby steps while holding onto our activity table or her music table. Her physical abilities are developing quickly. Crawling at this age has been difficult because she is a little young to understand "no", but we're working on it.

She will not sit still. Ever. She wiggles and squirms and wants to play on the floor. Even when I try to sit with her for a few moments before her naps, she wiggles and squirms for me to just go ahead and put her in the crib. She isn't crazy about the exersaucer or johnny-jump-up anymore

We have realized that Vivian just cannot get the hang of singing songs. I know she knows the words and the tune, but she just can't figure out how to make the sing-song sound with her voice. So recently we have been singing songs with her and leaving out words so that she can fill in the blank. Hopefully it will help her learn faster. For example, we start the ABCs and leave out letters for her to say. ABC __ EF __ HIJ __ LM...
Anyway, the other night I was doing this with Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. I stopped singing after "Little" so that she could sing "star". But she said, "Bug". I laughed at her and started over, and she said bug again! She insisted that it was bug. I know she knows the song...we sing it a lot to Kate, and it is on one of her DVDs. I was so confused.
Finally I remembered that one of her Elmo books has a version of the song that goes:

Twinkle, twinkle little bug
Elmo reaches for a hug
But up above the world so high
You cannot reach a firefly
Twinkle, twinkle little bug
Now Zoe's ready for that hug.

So we sang the song with those words and she knew it :) I guess Elmo even trumps classic lullabies.

After the worship time this morning, we went to the duck pond with Gretchen, Cami, Gabe, Jody, and Ansley. I cannot believe we haven't done this before...Vivian was completely wrapped up in watching the ducks. She was overly excited. All she could do was point and say "duck, play". I am looking forward to going here a lot this summer...it's free and she loved it! As I was taking these pictures, she started running towards the ducks with excitement...right into that huge puddle of water. I was too late. She ran right into it and fell down, soaking her shoes and shorts. The funny thing was that it didn't even phase her because all she cared about was the ducks. She immediately stood up and said "ducks, play, play?!?" and didn't care about being wet or falling.
Gretchen walked over to Burger King and brought back some lunch for us to eat by the pond. Vivian didn't pay any attention to Ansley or me or anything...just the ducks and dipping her chicken in the ketchup. She was so quiet and happy. It was a fun morning until Kate decided she couldn't stay awake any longer!

Our little cutie wants to say hi to everyone! This picture was taken about 2 weeks ago and I need to get some new ones of her with Raggedy Ann because today she is 8 months old! I'm not going to take them today because she has bad cold and doesn't feel well. Her eyes are puffy and red and she is in a daze :(
V is also sick...I took her to Dr. B this morning and she has an infection in both ears. So we are taking it easy around here!
Praying that everyone had a great Easter, praising God for the power in Christ's resurrection! Also praying that everyone is still thinking about the worship and teaching from yesterday morning...not just moving on without some significant contemplation about the glory of Christ.
And not that this is important in light of the gospel, but the girls did have on beautiful outfits for Easter and we didn't get any pictures of them. I'll dress them up again soon and try for some good pictures for everyone.

Saturday afternoon our neighbors the Duncans invited V over to egg hunt with their grandchildren. The kids were 8 and 5 and wouldn't let V find any eggs because they were so excited and were too fast! We had to re-hide them after they went inside so that she could get some. But the 5-year-old Sarah was sweet to show V around:

She loved this tricycle and I had to trick her into walking home because she didn't want to leave it.

Yesterday Vivian invited her friends Chandler and Julia over to have an Easter egg hunt. It was a huge success! With a lot of encouragement from the mommies, they made a craft, ate lunch, and hunted for eggs.

On Saturday Vivian had a huge thrill...she met Mickey and Minnie Mouse! Wow! The Bolling twins, Jax and Lilah, had their first birthday party and our girls were some of the honored guests! It was the most spectacular birthday party I have ever been to!
As you can tell, it was a Mickey and Minnie theme. I could tell you a thousand things about the details of the party, but maybe these pictures and their backgrounds will tell a lot about how awesome it was.

Vivian allowed Minnie to hold her for these two pictures, but then decided that she didn't want to have anything to do with them.So for the rest of the party (while Mickey and Minnie were around) she could be found right here (close enough to observe but far away enough to not be freaked out):Then for the other time, she could be found here:

In the bouncy ball pit! She had a BLAST in this thing. I was nervous because all of the kids in there were much older and wild. But she held her ground and just enjoyed being bounced around and not having to do any of the work.

She also spent some time feeding her friend Seth some cheese balls.Wanting desperately to go back in with her friend Macy.

Jax and Lilah were the cutest birthday twins!

These cakes were fabulous.

Kristin (on the left) is their very talented party throwing mom.

They are beautiful babies! Kate is in the nursery with them, so we are praying for their friendship as they grow up together. We are thankful for sweet friends for our kids. Kate had a great time, too, but she might have been a little overstimulated :)
She played on the floor most of the time and ate shoes.

We were sent home for a late nap with these awesome goodie bags! There were lots of treats in there, and we had an "all things Mickey Mouse day" on Monday with everything in there. She had never been exposed to Mickey prior to this, but now loves him. Move aside, Elmo!

Thanks, Jax and Lilah (mommy Kristin), for such a fun party! Happy birthday!

Can you pick out which one belongs to us?