2 months old!

Mary Ellen

Mary Ellen is full throttle from the time she wakes up until the time she goes to bed. She loves her little sister, and every time she comes back to her after school or being away from her, she gives Charlotte a hug and says, "Charlotte, I missed you SOOOO much!" It is very cute, and so neat to see such a wonderful sisterly bond already. Today, she was talking to Charlotte and told her that she is her best friend! I hope that it stays this way for a long time!

These days, Mary Ellen really does like sharing the camera with Charlotte, so there are more of them together. But, below you can see how she is expressing her own style these days! My motto, especially when it comes to clothes and shoes is "choose the battles that need to be fought!" Of course, she does wear pants when we go out, but when we are around the house, you don't know what you will find her in, especially since she has figured out how to take her clothes off and she has certain shoes that she can put on all by herself!

Charlotte

Charlotte is growing and changing every day! She is nearly 2 months old. She is beginning to smile and laugh. She loves to kick her feet around and wave her fists in the air. I think that she may end up being a thumb sucker, because she is very close to it already, and she has a great love of her hands and fists. Most of the time, she doesn't mind when big sister is playing all around her and hugging her very tight. She isn't a big fan of tummy time, but she will tolerate it for a few minutes. She has times that she likes to cuddle with me, and other times where she will just look at me and "coo" for a long time! It is so sweet to already hear her voice!

We go to the doctor on Monday, so we will update everyone with her stats then!

I have been better about taking pictures of her, so here are a few of our sweet baby Charlotte!

Sisters!

And here are a few of the sisters together! What love, what love! Charlotte will come out of this a stronger person, because her sister shows her love sometimes in a very tight way!

Christmas pics, newborn pics, and more

Right before Christmas, we had someone come to our house to do pictures. It was a warm day in December, so we got some great ones outside. Here is a sampling of a few of my favorites!

Snow Days!

Since yesterday afternoon, it has snowed at least 5 inches. Mary Ellen loves it! At church on Sunday, she was told that it was going to be snowing when she got up from her nap. She went down for a nap better than she has in weeks. We could hear her moving in her room, but she wasn't doing her typical wake-up routine. All of the sudden, we heard her say, "YES!" We realized that she was looking out her window and found that it had started snowing. She immediately wanted to go out and play in it. We bundled up and went out to see it. She loved seeing her footprints and tried to make a snow angel. It was hard for her to lay there to make the snow angel, because it was still snowing in her face! It was extremely cold but, she didn't seem to mind. She kept telling me, "I love the snow!"



Today, Mary Ellen ventured out in the snow with her daddy, while Charlotte and I enjoyed the warmth of the house!






I had never made snow cream before considering we usually don't get that much snow in Arkansas, so Paul was ready to make it for Mary Ellen. She was very excited to see it all come together and then eating it!

Snow for the snow cream


Mixing it all together. Charlotte was awake, so she took part in watching.


Enjoying the first bite!

Too much blue!

I can't believe that I allowed this, but here is the girls and their daddy matching in their UK jerseys. Unfortunately, it didn't lead to victories for the football or basketball team. Mary Ellen loves to match anyone, so she was so excited that she matched Daddy and Charlotte. Their daddy was very proud to have them sporting their team, so I guess it is worth it!

New car

I have ventured into the world of having a true mommy car - a mini van! I love it, though, and Mary Ellen does too! She thinks that it is so great that there are buttons to push to close the doors and that she can climb through and walk around every where. It is great to have the extra room and plenty of space to transport whatever we need!

Catching up

These pictures are in no particular order. I realized that I have quite a few on my camera, so here is a sampling of somethings as we ended 2010.

Since Charlotte is awake more, we are introducing more of the different play things. Of course, Mary Ellen loves them and thinks that they are for her, but Charlotte tolerates them sometimes more than others. It just depends on the mood that she is in. But, she is definitely good about the fact that big sister thinks that she needs lots of toys with her as you can see by the second picture!




Nene, Pops, and Aunt Sarah came to visit over New Year's. We had a lot of fun visiting with them. I got a few pics when we went to Wonder Place and of Charlotte just hanging out while we enjoyed a great meal! Mary Ellen had so much fun having so many people to play with and to show all of her great new toys from Christmas!




And here is the girls both modeling new dresses before going to church:

Happy New Year from the Richeys!