(Winter) Rainforest

We went to the Rainforest yesterday for some warm winter weather to break the monotony of being cooped up after 6 days off of school in a row!
Gwen was not too sure of the animals~when I would put the stroller right up to the glass by the animals she was going no,no,no and shaking her head. Can't wait to see what she does at the zoo this summer!

Hard to tell by the pic but some of the birds were flying around outside of the exhibit~one of them flew right at us and Bella screamed so needless to say they were a bit frightened of the escapee birds!

orangutans (not sure of the spelling of that one!) exhibit

in the 'rainforest'

that big lump in the left corner is a HUGE snake (eeewww!)

Bella exercising

I hope I don't get any nasty emails about this one but Paul has been working out twice a day since the New Year ( he has already lost 15 pounds and counting! YEAH Paul! ) ;I started last week and feel pretty good about it. I am not trying to lose weight though, just tighten up a bit. Anyway, Bella thought it was so interesting and she wanted to try out the tredmill and ended up loving it. No, we are not letting her work out profusely and burn hundreds of calories or anything but it is great she is so interested in it. It makes me laugh cuz her little legs are going so fast!

Happy Birthday Gwendolyn!

Today Gwen is 18 months old! I can't believe it. I did a scrapbook page about Bella when she was this age to remember her cute little 'bella-isms.' I want to do the same for Gwen and I don't think I will be able to get around to do a scrapbook page for Gwen right away....


Gwen does the sign language signs for : (breast)milk,(YES, she is still breastfeeding!) all done, more and drink. (I never did signing with Bella because I didn't know any better and it probably wouldn't have made things any easier with her anyway!).

She is already trying to be so independent~she does not want to sit in the booster seat at the table anymore, she pulls up her pants, feeds herself completely now (has been for a while), wants to wash herself in the tub with soap. I think she wants to be just like Bella and sees her doing all this stuff. Last night, I asked her if she pooped and she walked over to the toilet and wanted her pjs and diaper off and sat on the potty. Of course she did not do anything and peed as soon as she walked away but...hey, I am not complaining. I am crossing my fingers she is easier to potty-train than Bella was.


Gwen can say:

*hi (one of her 1st's)
*hello
*apple
*uh-oh
*Sissy
*move (as in MOVE Cuddles or Minnie!)
*ball
*Elmo (one of her favorites)
*off
*Papa (as in my dad)
*Nonna (as in Paul's mom)
*Mama (as in Gramama, my mom)
*she has once said Opa (as in Paul's dad)
*Daddy/Dada
*go
*no (another one of her 1st's)
*shoe
*choo-choo

• I know other kids her age are talking more (or less) than her. I am satisfied with whatever she does/says right now. She is learning more each and every day!

Yes, she has my underwear around her neck!

2nd Snow Day!

We already knew yesterday Bella would not have school yesterday or today due to the weather/freezing cold. Here is what the girls are up to today...Me on the other hand...I am so bored I am vacuuming out the toy box! Stay warm everyone!

My computer geek (about a month ago
we gave Bella her own computer...)

This is what happens when you take all the toys out of the toy box to clean it out.....everyone wants to get in it!

Bed Head!

I have always loved it when the kids have messy hair! When my grandpa was still around, I used to love it when his thin/sparse hair was messy too!

Miss yah Grandpa & your messy hair! xoxoxo

Elmo lover!

Here is a video of Gwen~ I was trying to get her to say Elmo which she says when she sees him on TV, on her diapers, on her toothbrush. but instead she was saying 'Cheese' to the camera instead (like she always does as soon as she even sees it!), and her dancing a bit and then finally at the end I got her to say it!

We Heart Wii

So, I bought Paul a Wii gaming system for Christmas (on a whim that is) and he told me he did not want to keep it. It sat unopened until New Year's Day. And guess what!?! He (we all) ended up loving it!

Any good suggestions on games to buy?

Happy New Year!

For New Year's Eve we went to the Kammer's. We had a spaghetti dinner (Thanks Nonny!) and just let the kids play. Thanks Chris & Mike, it is always a blast!

Jilly & Gwen

Cousins (oh, you ask why Bella is missing? See next pic)

Bella being a grump... :-(

'Christmas Eve' with Popovich's

We celebrated Christmas with my family on Saturday the 27th.

Bella & Alyssa

Troublemakers~ Gwen & Ciara getting into the M&Ms!

Christmas 2008

Christmas morning was great! We did not overdo it this year with gifts for the kids and they were completely happy with getting a few great gifts and some small fun toys & books!

This was one of Gwen's Santa gifts but Bella liked it so much we said it was for both of them!

Gwen's Santa gift

Bella's Santa gift

Brunch with Grama & Papa & Uncle Dale was great! Thanks for all the great gifts!

Joint gift for girls! They love it! (Ask me how Paul and I like it!?!?!?)

Dinner at Krenz's

Milk & Hot Chocolate for Santa!

Here is Bella preparing Santa' s cookies & hot chocolate (she thought it would warm him up on a cold winter's night!). He even left the girls a note!

Krenz family pics

This is a very rare sighting of the original Krenz family...

Christmas Eve @ our house

We had Christmas Eve dinner at our house this year which was very out of the norm for us; we are usually at my mom's but anyhow....we had Jillian, Jack, Rhiannon, Opa, Aunty Mandy, Aunt Patty and us for dinner. (Nonny was sick with a sinus infection...)

Kid's table

Cousins

(you can see Aidan in the background trying to get into the basement

& Aaron was already at home in bed)

Present opening chaos!

All Aboard.......

We went on the Polar Express on December 20th. (Thanks Aunt Mitzy for getting us the tickets!) We all had a ball, despite Gwen and I having bronchitis and not knowing it!

Matching Santa pjs.....

Gwen loved Mrs. Claus...she put her down and Gwen put her arms up for her to pick her up again....she wanted nothing to do with Santa. As soon as she saw him, she was shaking her head and going No,no,no.

PJ Parade!

I couldn't believe she did it either!!!

Aidan

Little Miss Biggety did it too(with Grama's help of course!)....she was announced and was holding her leg out and pointing at it for everyone to see her Santa pjs! She is such a hoot!

Christmas Program

Sorry it has been so long since I posted. Our computer got a super-trojan virus....lucky us! It was gone for 3 weeks! I was dying; luckily we have our laptop AND Bella's computer. These are pictures from Bella's Christmas program. Her class portrayed the manger scene. Bella was a wise man. The teachers put her in the center because she is one of the loudest singers in her class. We could hear her over everyone~talk about coming out of her shell.....