Photo Friday

So I realize it's Friday and not Throwback Thursday or even Way Back Wednesday as I've seen on so many other blogs. However, this is what I want to post today so I hereby deem today:

"Photo Friday"

Here are a couple of my favorite pictures of when the girls were small...and not talking, and not crawling, and not throwing their food on the ground... you get the picture.

Here they are on Valentine's Day 2007 only 17 days old and their 2nd day at home after a 15 day NICU stay.
I would have been 36 weeks pregnant with a whole month to go by this point!
Peyton (L) & Grace (R)

Little Gracie with an arm around Peyton.

The girls sleeping in their crib- we didn't put them long ways for a while!
Now they take up half their beds...
Peyton (L) & Grace (R)

So fun looking through old pictures! Thanks for humoring me!

Swimming at the South Pole...

...otherwise known as our neighborhood pool! Even more remarkable than our ability to escape from certain hypothermia was the girls swimming "all by myself" for the first time! It was adorable and we were VERY proud parents yesterday!

Daddy and the girls (so cute)




And they're off!




I'm swimming all by myself! They were all giggles over their new found freedom.

I decided against posting the pictures of them in hysterics after we took them out of the pool. You know, because their lips were blue and all. Mean mommy and daddy at it again!

Picture hodgepodge

Here are some random pictures from the past couple weeks that I am finally getting off my camera!

A cute one of Daddy and Grace!

I made strawberry shortcake for dinner couple weeks ago. What goes on top of all strawberry shortcakes?

You guessed it, whipped cream!
Although, make no mistake... ours was not fat free!

Of course once it's on top of your shortcake you HAVE to squirt some of the whipped cream in your mouth! Who doesn't, right? The next thing you do, as evidenced by Grace below, is let your mom squirt some whipped cream in your hands to play with. I am either the coolest mom on the block or the dumbest.

Here is Grace enjoying her hands full 'o whipped cream!

Here is Peyton cleverly using the whipped cream as a soothing lotion.
Looks like i've found the secret to baby soft skin!!!

(patent pending)

Here are the girls playing Mommy (P) and baby (G) at Grandma's house. Yes, Grandma put Grace in the pink dress so my "dressing twins by colors theory" does not work for this picture... I was much more traumatized than the girls - who never noticed.

Emily's (patent pending) Dressing Twins by Colors Theory:
Peyton: Pink or Purple (purple being the default color)
Grace: Green or anything but purple

Yes, I'm sure I'm scarring them for life but at least I can tell them apart while it's happening.

At Chilis and super-excited about sharing corn. Yes, this could very well be the first evidence of swine flu being transmitted between sisters (the results are still at the lab - kidding! or am I?) but daddy only had one ear of corn on his plate. Hence the need to share if only to combat what was sure to be an onslaught of dinner ending tears complete with leftovers that would have sat in the fridge for days before being thrown out.

AKA - we didn't want to be THAT family that ruins your dinner. You're welcome.

If the photo above isn't proof enough of our daughters tremendous capacity to share... here is video proof as well.

Meet Baby Mallory!

We went over to the Choe's house to meet Baby Mallory with the girls. Both girls wanted to bring a couple toys to "show" Mallory. Peyton brought a stuffed dog and a cat-in-a-cage thingy we got from McDonald's. I wonder what intern at McDonald's came up with that toy? Grace brought a stuffed dog (copycat) and Farmer Elmo. Mallory LOVED the toys (as she slept quietly).

Here are Peyton and Grace trying to give Mallory her first cold!
How sweet!

The best part of the evening was when I asked the girls if they wanted mommy to have a baby. They didn't really seem too excited. Then I asked if they wanted mommy to have FOUR babies and in unison they said "Yeaaaaaaa!"

So I told them to go ask Daddy.

School

I couldn't help but take pictures this morning before we walked into "school". They looked so cute and were so happy. Can't wait to pick them up this afternoon!

Grace is taking "cheese" to a whole new level here!

Peyton's in pink shorts and Grace has on the blue ones.

Bath Tub Picasso

Crayola Bath Tub Crayons... crayons for the bath!!! I know, right?! Makes me wish we had cool stuff like this growing up.

We highly recommend them.

We also recommend taking some Aleve because your arms will be sore from washing it off the tub. Although now that I think about it - this should be considered exercise as well... I mean I'm lifting 27lb "weights" (also know as my dear sweet children) countless times a day so why not count cleaning the bath tub as exercise too! On that note, I wish I could wash the tub with my abs...

And now for the proof that these little crayons work...

This was also an attempt at trying to get the girls to BOTH smile at the SAME time.

This shouldn't be hard, right?

I mean how difficult is it to smile when Mommy says: "Ok! Keep you eyes open, look up at me and smile when I say 'cheese'."

Obviously Peyton heard me, Grace did not.

Daddy always gets requests to draw things when we are coloring. To his credit he does a near perfect Mickey Mouse (of course he interned at Disney World during college so I really expect nothing less...) Apparently one of the girls made a request for Daddy to draw a mixed-breed dog or was it a character in Greek Mythology or was it a hair-less cat? The world may never know... But below is photographic evidence of what Daddy says is "Elmo", and I use the term "Elmo" lightly.

Daddy's "drawing" --- ~ --- The Real Deal

Elmo or blind-folded, left handed drawing of a horse?
You decide.

Amazingly the girls are coming along quite nicely with their penmanship. Check out this sweet note the girls left for me.

Makes your heart melt doesn't it?

A big thanks to Daddy for manning the first "bath with crayons" in a while AND managing to wash hair! That's not a feat for the faint of heart! Best Dad in the world!

What would YOU do with a bean bag?

The girls got some super cute beanbags the other day (thanks Corey!). They have found many ways to play with them. First, they climbed on top of the "tall mountain" like Dora. Then they were beds for their babies and Elmo to sleep. Last night they started flinging themselves onto them which was pretty hilarious.

Pay no attention to the state of the living room either... a new study just came out from the AAP that says messes in the homes of small children actually promote a more well-balanced child. I'm just (lying) following what the doctors are saying.

Not sure what skills are being sharpened here but it was entertaining nonetheless.