Mad Face vs. Happy Face

The joy of a four year old...you get some faces like this when asked to smile:And some faces like this too:

I very much prefer the latter!

Wisconsin Dells

We headed to the Dells for the past few days with Grandma Lynne and Auntie Diane. The girls had a blast playing in the water and we had such great weather for being outside all day! We stayed at the Polynesian. It was great. It had pools and little kid areas both outside and inside. There were some big slides and a lazy river that we had fun on too! Here is day one at the pool:

On Day 2, we went to Storybook Gardens and Timbavati Wildlife Park, where Talia was able to eat with the 3 Little Bears, hang out with Humpty Dumpty, hang out with the many children who lived in a shoe, and go to "school" in a little red school house. We rode a train, fed some animals (including giraffes who have the weirdest feeling tongues), and saw a show with some cool and exotic animals. After lunch, we headed back to the pools to enjoy the rest of the day. At night, we went to a great Italian dinner in downtown Dells, where they make their own pasta...and it was delicious!

On Day 3, we needed to check out at 11, so we headed back out to the pools and enjoyed a few hours together. On the way back home, we stopped at Oscar's (my favorite ice cream place in Waukesha). We had a great get away! Thanks so much to Auntie Diane and Grandma Lynne for joining us!

Professional Pics of the Girls

While Giana did not really cooperate for many of these pics, we did manage to get some great ones of the 2 of them and individually. I can not tell you how much I LOVE Portrait Innovations and their great work! Enjoy!

Their first dress:

Then they switched to this cute dress:

And finally, their matching bathing suits:

Giana at 18 months

It seems as though we have another strong willed and sassy little girl on our hands. Giana has become more fun, sweet, lovable and stubborn than ever before. Here are some of my favorite things that she does at 18 months:

-she says “I love you” first (it is so sweet to hear)

-she pats you on the back when you pick her up

-she loves to give hugs and very wet kisses, usually with her tongue

-she loves her sister most of all, and is constantly looking for her and wanting to play with her

-she loves to “dance” by bopping up and down and twisting

-she pinches and throws things when she is angry

-she loves to eat and will eat the meat (chicken, sausages, burgers, etc) before eating anything else on her plate

-she loves purses, babies, cars, coloring and books

-she loves to play in the car and pretend to drive; she also loves to play in the pretend kitchen

-she is talking so much—lots of 3, 4, and more word sentences

-she says “mmm-uhh” for yes a lot and it is so cute to hear

-she can count to 11 and sings her ABC’s

-she knows many body parts and many animal names and sounds

-she loves the park—she especially loves to swing and the slide

-she loves the pool, but not the sprinkler (she does not like the water touching her head)

-she loves to play in the sand and grab water to pour over and over again

-she weighs 27 pounds and is 32.5 inches tall

What a fun, sweet girl she is!

Dinner time

Just wanted to share some pics of dinner time.

Kenny loves to cook these days. Hooray for me (and us!)

Giana shows us her green goldfish cracker tongue

Talia is posing with her pasta

Giana is getting really good at using a fork

Dinner time is always fun time at our house.

Giana's First Haircut

We have been talking about getting Giana's haircut for a while now, and we finally did it today--we got some of her curls and mullet chopped off. Talia went first, so that Giana knew what to expect...or so we thought. She ended up sitting in my lap and was doing really well until all of a sudden she needed to turn her head and she began to cry. Poor thing! She did look super cute in the end though!

Trying out which chair she is going to sit in...or so we thought...

getting ready

the clips

the crying

the thumb sucking (even though she does not usually do this!)

after picture--happy with her lollipop

She has become an even more pretty baby girl!