The weather warmed up enough for us to get outside yesterday. We headed to our current favorite outdoor locale... Great Falls National Park. We even took Scout with us this time. It was a muddy mess up there, but we all had a great time. The fresh air did us all some good. Even Anna, who didn't get out of the backpack, seemed to be pretty exhausted by bedtime.

Scout surprised us all by her willingness to get off the trail. She climbed those rocks like a mountain lion.

I told Sarah I wanted to take her picture on the rock. This is the pose I got...

Checking out icicles.

Talking about how the kayakers in the water must really love their sport.

She thinks they are hats...

I promise not to continually update you on our potty training adventure. Today, however, was Day One and Anna insisted on wearing her training pants on her head. This particular picture sequence was taken just moments after I left the bathroom to grab a requested book (we all need good reading material every once in a while). It took her about 30 seconds to reach behind her and put that pair of panties on her head. Then she played peek-a-boo. How could you not love this face?

Sarah and Isa

Todd and Isa came up for a quick visit this weekend. It was the first time a "kid" has come to spend the night and Sarah was beside herself. She made grand plans that included Isa sleeping on her floor. Considering my childhood sleepover record, I made sure Sarah knew that Isa might rather sleep with her Dad. I'm glad I did, but because Isa did, indeed, want to sleep with Todd.

We had a fun evening of total silliness which included wrestling, High-ho Cherry-O, and a brief on what we would see at the Air and Space Museum the next morning.

After a breakfast of pancakes and bacon (or Ba-CONE, as Sarah now calls it. Thanks, Gramps) we headed to the Air and Space Museum that is out at Dulles Airport. It has all of the planes that the Smithsonian couldn't fit into the museum on the Mall.

Here are the girls in front of one of the engines of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.


Yes, I realize I totally skipped blogging about Christmas. But, seeing as you are all on facebook, I didn't feel the need to post those twice. :-)

Gramps & TuTu

TuTu and Gramps were here for a pre-Christmas visit. They also managed to be here for the big snowstorm. Not sure how much snow we actually got, but JB's guess was about 18 inches or so. It kept Gramps from leaving on Saturday... in fact, he's still here! The earliest the airlines could get him out is Christmas Eve. We're not complaining one bit, though. :-) We sent TuTu home today to prepare the house for the rest of the family. She landed safely and is probably busy baking Holly's birthday cake and the Christmas Pies.

Sarah and Gramps started his visit off with a viewing of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. This is Dad's favorite Christmas movie and Sarah had been waiting and waiting to watch it with him.




Gramps was here for Sarah's Christmas program. It was no St James Learning Center Christmas Pageant, that's for sure. No matter, though, Sarah was still a star and Anna got to stay up late and eat some cookies.

Making garlands for the birds...

TuTu arrived with the snow. We told Sarah that TuTu wasn't coming until later in the day, so she surprised to see her first thing Saturday morning. Swimming was cancelled because of the snow so we got to have a big breakfast. Yummmmmmm...

After breakfast we did our holiday baking. Daddy and I dipped pretzels and Sarah coated them with sprinkles. She thought this was the best thing ever.

Sarah taught Gramps the finer points of Wii Baseball. Look at her form!

And yes, we played in the snow... A LOT!

Last year I said I'd never make another gingerbread house. I managed to stay true to my word yet still let Sarah (and TuTu) decorate the cutest gingerbread house ever! Target convienently sold pre-built houses. Perfect!

Cheerio has arrived! Sarah was so thrilled that she made him a pair of skis and ski boots. We awoke one morning to see him about to ski down an elf made slope in the dining room.





Anna will be 19 months old tomorrow. She amazes us every day with her growing vocabulary. Today as she, JB and Sarah were watching football she looked at JB and said, "Daddy, sock off." He asked her if she wanted her sock off and she said yes. I think our youngest is going to talk our ears off just like our oldest.

We ventured out to get our Christmas Tree on Friday afternoon. It took us until this morning to get it fully decorated. We spent the whole morning in our pajamas. It was wonderful.

SNOW!

We had a fabulous day. The snow kept falling and falling and falling. We were in and out about a million times. The kitchen floor is a mess, but everyone will sleep well tonight.

Even Scout enjoyed it. She remembered how much she loves to catch snowballs and attack the snow shovel.

It's never too early to train the girls in the art of snow shovelling. We never know where the AF might send us next.

Frosty the Snowman. He later fell over due to an engineering flaw.

JB told me this wasn't a good idea. He was right. One of Anna's new words for today: hot chocolate.