Fun on the Beach

 These girls loved spashing in the ocean, playing tag with daddy, having races, making pancakes/cupcakes/cookies/pizza, and burying various family members. 

 Playing tag with Daddy. Melt. 

 Juliet in her bikini showing me the cupcake she made me. 

 These are the people I lvoe best. 

 Juliet's favorite thing to do was to fill up various buckets with water. 

 Burying Daddy in the sand. I read a book and pretended that I didn't notice that it took her 40 minutes. I actually read 3 books over the course of vacation. Score! 

 Leah wanted to be buried the next day. We obliged. 

 Waiting to feed the fishies. 

More of Day One....

 Leah is such a vacationer. She knows exactly what vacation means. More than once she told me how happy she was that I wasn't doing dishes, folding clothes, or vaccuming. She also told me more than once that she gets a little sad that when on vacation she can't do exactly what she wants exactly when she wants to. Ha. Anyway, I love how happy she was. All week, she would jump around flapping and panting like a dog because she was so excited that each day she got to do all the fun things she loved with her favorite people. 

 Juliet loved the hammocks, too. She called them "wees" because she would say "wee" while she was riding. 

 Our first family picture of vacation. Thanks, Dad! 

Day 1

 Both girls were excellent travelers. We booked early enough to get direct flights, which were a total bonus. It's like we got an extra day for vacation. Both girls napped on the way down, and arrived in Cozumel happy and ready to play! 

 Our room wasn't ready when we arrived. We changed in the hotel bathroom and hit the beach. Juliet was a little unsure of the water and sand at first, but warmed up fast. Leah was so excited to be back on vacation. She was a ball of energy! 

 The weather was beautiful the entire week. Hot and sunny with big fluffy white clouds all week. It rained once or twice for 2 minutes or so. 

 One of the first things daddy did was to secure us 2 margaritas. Good man. 

Dance Class, No Heat, and Valentine's Day

 Leah's class had "watch week" a few weeks ago. Leah was excited to show off her dancing to me, Daddy, and Juliet. She is a really good listener in class. She tries her best to "sing loudly", too. We are so excited to see her performance. 

 The heat went out the week before we left for vacation. It was not fun at all. The house got to 47 degrees. It started off okay, but it got COLD fast. We ended up borrowing a space heater from Renee and all piling into the master bedroom to stay warm. It was not much fun. 

 These girls were excited for Valentine's Day. Each got a new book and chocolate from me and Chris. Both were super excited. Not as excited as leaving for vacation the next day, though! 

Jungle Girls!

With the "cold days" we had, we made sure the girls were dressed in their warmest pajamas. Juliet refuses to sleep with a blanket on top of her, and Leah just this year allowed a blanket to cover her. 

 Juliet calls these jammies her "kitty jammies" and gives her best roar every time she puts them on. 

 Leah's got really into the "Back to the Future" movies, and we've been watching parts of them every night. If you ask Juliet who her favorite character is, she says, "Doc". Leah's been liking trying to figure out who the "real" characters are, as well as if the characters are in the past or future. 

WCC Fund Raiser

We had our annual date night at the WCC Fund Raiser. This year we didn't have any sick kids, which is a major plus! However, we did have awful weather which we always seem to have. Either way, Chris and I had some fun adult time, and Leah and Juliet had a lot of fun with Hannah. Juliet is taking more risks with her speech, and was trying so hard to tell me what she did with Hannah. "BAMMER! LAND! H-NA!" The second Hannah arrived, Leah was showing her all of her favorite things and jumping around. Oh, we're kneeling in the picture because Leah was afraid otherwise her dress wouldn't show. She is obsessed with the dress I am wearing. Every time she comes into my closet she suggests that I wear it. After I was all dressed, she was very complimentary, telling me how beautiful and "geor-gee-o-so" I looked. Then, she had me twirl. Such a girly girl! 

I got a new camera

Finally, all my pining paid off. I got a new camera with fancy settings! I am trying to learn all about it. It's sometimes overwhelming, but I'm at least getting good a focusing. The settings will come. 

 The kids really aren't into being my subjects. They get bored quickly, and they don't really understand the whole, "wait while I focus" phrase that I've been using. When they aren't in the mood, I'm using the cats. Annie was a good subject. She is getting really into us. She loves to be pet now, and even lets Leah pet her. Every time Leah pets her she says, "Annie, you're the softest cat in the entire world". 

Brain bores quickly. He allowed me to snap this knowing picture, then sulked off and refused to look anywhere near my camera. 

Juliet did not like the new camera at first. She kept saying that it was Daddy's (like he would ever care to take a picture) and would scream and run away anytime I picked it up and pointed it at her. She's warming up, which I'm pretty happy about, because in a few weeks, I'm going to want to take A TON of pictures of her. ;)