Go Reece!

 Our nephew Reece had a hockey tournament about 30 minutes from Chicago a couple of weekends ago, so the girls got some time with their four awesome boy cousins. Hilarious. Marin always needs to adjust a little bit to all the 4 boy commotion. Apparently, we are way too quiet. But she gets used to it and loves the attention. :o) Hollis, on the other hand,  as soon as the boys left, picked up her basketball and threw it at the basketball goal. She apparently learned a few things from those boys. :o)

And....ON CHRISTMAS EVE HOLLIS TOOK HER FIRST STEPS! More on that with some video in another post!

But as always we had a great time with the boys and are so glad that we got to see them!!

So very cute.
They sat at the little table for some meals.
Marin is completely clueless to the camera these days. I guess I use it too much. 

Hudson is so so cute.
And he LOVES Hollis. Hollis is his "favorite brother".
"Hims my favorite brother." 

Hollis does this crazy rocking thing in her high chair and she will move all the way across the room. I have video of it and will post soon. But here Chase is pulling her back for the 100th time. 

Marin reading a book with her big doggy. 

Soaking it all in.
Seriously, several times we would look over at her and she would just be sitting on the floor watching the boys.
It was live entertainment for her.
Plus she learned how to play basketball. 

Aaaaaadorable Pierce. 

This kid is a reader.
Well, all of those boys are readers.
I hope the girls take after them. I should have taken more pictures of them reading so Marin and Hollis can see that their big cousins love to read! 

CHASE!

Reece uh, didn't want his picture taken. :o)

Didn't stop me though.
(the HOCKEY player!) 

Love this one.
Reece is crawling along side Hollis. :o)
Those boys are always so sweet to the girls.  

Hudson was so sweet and brought Marin a Curious George stuffed animal for her birthday.  So sweet. She LOVED it and sleeps with him all the time!  

Marin's 2 Year Old Loves

Our Curious 2 Year Old!

Marin turned 2 on December 27th and we celebrated with Curious George! We had the kitchen all decorated for her when she woke up. She LOVED all the decorations but the balloons were by far her FAVORITE. She also thoroughly enjoyed singing Happy Birthday and blowing out candles on her breakfast donut, cookie cake, and then her birthday cake. It was all day celebration. She opened presents and played all day with her gifts. We had a special date and then napped (she wanted me to sing Happy Birthday to her for naptime instead of the normal "night night" song. In fact, I would finish singing and she would say "mo" (more) and I would sing it again. Three times we sang Happy Birthday for naptime.) Then she got to bake and decorate her own cake. She had a ball. Happy Birthday sweet girl! We love you!

She loves M&Ms. 

She loves Curious George and was so excited to see him "hanging" around for the day!

Eagerly waiting for the birthday girl to wake up. 

Every single present was wrapped because she had so much fun unwrapping at Christmas.
Thanks, Maye Maye. 

Marin had been practicing holding up her two fingers so we got her a big 2 balloon! 

Curious Hollis!
(And yes those are boy pajamas but they have dogs on them and the girls love dogs.) 

This was Marin's reaction to us singing to her when she woke up. :o)

I love that he is the kind of Dad that will wear the birthday hat.
And then let me take his picture in it.
Marin is going to look back on this picture one day and LOVE it! 

Total sweetness.

Just a girl with her donut, balloons, and birthday hat. 

She didn't really go anywhere without the balloons. 

Thanks Mimi for the car roller coaster! We play with this everyday! 

Thanks Maye Maye for the sand/water/sensory table!
(Today I actually put some towels down and put some water in it. She had a ball. Then I put some floral water beads in the water. So. VERY. Neat.)

Thank you Aunt Betsy for the 2 shirt! 

Love, love, love this girl. 

She had to nap with her balloons. :o)

Marin helped bake and decorate her cake.
She had sprinkles, m&ms, and gummy monkeys. 

Showing Daddy her cake... 

She LOVED blowing out candles!

A little close up of her birthday cake masterpiece.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas and were so glad that Burke could be home with us. Plus we had an added bonus of both grandmothers being with us on Christmas Day. So glad that MayeMaye and Mimi could be with us. The girls had a blast with all their new presents from Santa. Hollis woke up first and surveyed all the goods from afar before jumping in and playing with her new ball pit. Then Marin woke up and was so excited to see all of her new toys. She especially loved unwrapping the presents. The girls have played with every single gift. And I have loved watching them! 

This is just a random sweet picture of the girls "playing" on the iPad together. 

Hollis, our ball loving girl, got a ball pit. It is a hit of course.
We have put our little slide in it so now they slide into the balls.

Now Marin's turn!
(They each got a BIG stuffed animal. Marin got a dog and Hollis got a froggy.They LOVE big animals!)

She got some Melissa & Doug slice and bake cookies for their kitchen.
It came with an oven mitt.
Everyday (once or twice or seven times) a day she will walk around with her mitt on and serve everyone a cookie.
She'll even tell you which one to get if you want her too. :o)

They got a bag of plates and some condiments for the kitchen.
Again, we cook and serve Froggy and Dog and Pinky at the table every day.
Hollis got some more magnets (that are so cute!)
And they each got a Disney sofa. (Thanks, Amanda for the suggestion.) They LOVE those couches. Love them. 

Marin got Memory. We play it all the time. Well, we play a modified version. :o) Sometimes we just name each picture and try to say new words. Other times, I will set out cards face up and she has to find the matching picture. It is fun to see her excitement when she matches the cards! It is becoming a nightly event for her to sit on her Mickey couch and look through her cards.

Hollis got a game too. A really cute color dice game. They roll the dice and then get a card that matches the color the dice lands on. The card has different instructions on each one.....hop 6 times....is Marin's favorite card right now. 

They each got a new puzzle. 

And a grocery scanner and cart....

She got the Letter Factory bucket thing. (I can't remember the name of it.) Santa added that one because he knew we did Letter of the Week but Hollis actually plays with it more than Marin. 

We had a great Christmas and it was so much fun seeing the girls' reaction to it all! We did have the tree down that afternoon though. :o) We had to get ready for a little birthday girl.....