Countdown to noon

Whew! I am happy to report that this is officially the LAST blog posting of 2009! For those of you that were willing to bear with me on the mega-update that I just posted...thank you! (And for those of you that chose not to, we understand!)

We celebrated an amazing 2009 and rang in a great 2010 at our traditional trip to the Houston Children's Museum for their "Countdown to Noon". As usual, the girls had a great time (even amongst the chaos that always accompanies today at the Museum)! Anna loved sitting on Daddy's shoulders watching the brass band parade and watching the ball drop at noon...

And, prior to the New Year's celebration, Anna had a great time playing at the Museum with her buddy Owen. I think she's really missed hanging out with friends during this two week break from school and other activities, so she was extra-excited to get to play with Owen.

And, the girls had a great time playing together at the Tot Spot...

We hope everyone had a great New Year's celebration, and we look forward to many happy memories (and blog postings to document them) in 2010...

Scrub-a-dub

Our little lady has a new interest that I'm pretty excited about--washing dishes! She thinks its so fun to use her "scrub-a-dub" (the little red sponge in her hand) and wash dishes. Now, this hobby could come in handy...

Silkies

Our girls are lucky enough to have a wonderful Great Aunt Jackie that makes them (and me!) these fabulous silky pillow cases (as well as beautiful blankets). Anna has become particularly enamoured with the "silkies" this past year...she even insists on her pillow at school having a silky pillowcase on it! She decided to take a little "nap" in Kate's bathtub with her silkies...

And, she often likes to get inside of one of the pillowcases and use it as a sleeping bag while she lays on another one on her pillow. Life is tough...

Silky pillowcase, cover, and nightgown? I'm surprised she didn't just slide right off the couch...

Flower child

Anna has adopted the roses in our backyard as "her flowers", and just loves tending to them and showing them some TLC. We spend a lot of time watering them (albeit often with saltwater from the pool...sorry roses!), and just generally admiring them. She's a little worried because they haven't looked so healthy since our snow earlier this year, but I've ensured her that they'll come back this spring...let's hope I'm right!

Beach getaway

In August, Daddy was generous enough to stay home from work and spend the day with Kate so that Anna and I could go to Palm Beach for a little getaway. We had a fabulous time! With Anna's new swimming skills and just overall increased confidence this year, she just loved the water slides--she even rode them by herself a few times!

And, of course, to celebrate our fun Mommy-daughter day, we had to get some ice cream! Nothing beats dippin dots...

Working hard for a living...

After the Halloween Parade at Anna and Kate's school, we went to my office so the girls could meet (or just see) some of my work friends. While I fed Kate, Anna had a great time using my phone by herself! She managed to successfully call Daddy, and Grammie. Hopefully no other random people received a phone call from "U.S. Govt."

Anna also had a great time drawing on my whiteboard. She had to take a break to contemplate her work...

The final product...not too shabby!

Pretty Kate

Just a few random pictures of Kate that I couldn't resist posting...

From June...

July...

August...

...and September. Oh how she's growing up...

Pavement painter

The girls enjoyed some time outside on the driveway doing a little painting and taking in the nice weather. Anna wanted more options than her sidewalk paint would provide, so we pulled out the craft paper and her real paints. Worked great! And, Kate loved serving as the apprentice and watching her artist sister at work...

Texans "Tailgate"

While having two littles ones made the idea of actually going to a Texans game a bit logistically challenging, we couldn't imagine letting the whole season go by without single tailgate (we used to be season ticket holders and, at least personally, the tailgate was the best part of the game!). So, we decided to just have a little "tailgate" party at our house. While Owen was contemplating the finer points of the Texans offense, I think Anna was more interested in playing princesses. Oh well...they might as well get used to the compromise if they're going to survive Football Sundays during their years of marriage...

Uh, Matt, we're all for being festive, but pink bunny ears? Really?

(To be fair--Anna and Owen had just run out of this shot, each wearing animal masks. Matt was just humoring them being a "silly Dad" (as Anna calls him))...

Snuggly

Even though Anna's definitely focused on spreading her wings and becoming a "big girl" these days, she still is such a cuddly snuggle bug.

I love that she's still small enough to curl up and fit easily in the circle of my legs. My little doodlebug isn't all grown up after all...

Hoops in the hot tub

Anna's become quite the basketball star in the hot tub in the last few weeks (with a little help from a "Daddy-motion" basket, of course). We don't have the heart to tell her that she may be a bit stature-challenged to realize her full potential as a real basketball star...

These girls have loved their hot tub time in the "off-season" when its too cold to swim in the pool...

Hippy chick

Anna's really loving playing dress-up these days. I'm not exactly sure how she came up with this get-up, but I think she must have a little Woodstock in her genes...

Chompers

Oh, does this girl like her food! While we struggled (ok, continue to struggle) with convincing Anna to eat, there's no encouragement required with Kate. Here she is sporting a blueberry goetee in what used to be her favorite eating location--the Bumbo. She's graduated to the highchair now, but I don't know what we would have done without the Bumbo (thanks Rynee!) in those early eating days.

Here she is longingly eyeing Daddy's egg mcmuffin before we introduced her to solid foods.

Slow down there, Missy...its going to be 20 1/2 more years before that's an acceptable bottle for you to be reaching for...

Tie one on

This picture is actually leftover from all the way back in June, but I just liked it too much not to post it. Anna's school had "Tie Day" to celebrate Father's Day, and she was SO excited to get to wear one of Daddy's (albeit ugly) ties to school.

Disney on Ice

Anna got to go to her first "show" last month--Disney on Ice! I wasn't sure how well she would endure sitting through a show like this, but she really loved it! She got to bring her friend Zach (and my friend Rynee) along as well. While Disney on Ice doesn't exactly provide the best photo ops for pics of the little ones, it was a great time!

Children's Museum, Part 2

We had way too much fun at the Museum to capture it all in one posting...

Kate and I enjoyed some diner food served by a fabulous waitress while at the Museum...

...Anna! She had a great time taking our order, getting us drinks from a fountain drink dispenser, and making us a wood-fired pizza.

We then headed upstairs to the "Tot Spot", where there were more toys that Kate could enjoy too. Anna did the driving while Kate controlled the radio...

Kate loved the soft squishy padding and baby toys everywhere. Fun to be had at the Museum for everyone!

And, we wrapped up our trip with a tea party for the two girls. It was a great time, and we're looking forward to many more Museum trips in the future!

Children's Museum

In November, we enjoyed a great trip to the newly renovated Children's Museum of Houston. Both girls had an absolute blast! (They had so much fun that we actually decided to get a membership yesterday, so will probably be seeing lots of the Museum in 2010.)

I think the grocery store is still one of Anna's favorite parts of the Museum. Even though this has long been part of the Children's Museum (I remember playing in it as a child), the new renovations provided a newer, updated store with more selections, high tech options for checking out, etc. Anna was sold.

We had a great time in the Art Gallery as well. Anna played with the dot art, and Kate looked on longingly...I think she's going to be one happy camper when she gets big enough to participate in some of this fun!

The Museum has a vet clinic where Anna got to give an exam to a (stuffed--whew!) German shepherd. He needed some shots, but otherwise looked to be in good health.

Anna and Daddy also did some climbing in a new play structure/maze. They got a bit lost and couldn't find the exit of the structure for a while--Anna still talks about getting "stuck" in the Musuem with Daddy...

Christmas card rejects

We attempted to do some "posed" pictures for Christmas cards this year. And, of course, we failed to capture a single picture of both girls looking at the camera with normal looks on their faces, and both smiling. One of these days we're going to get there!

But, there were still some cute ones that didn't quite make the cut for the Christmas card this year, but I couldn't resist posting...

Doesn't Kate look slightly scared that Anna is going to eat her in this picture? Don't worry...she didn't.

Kate is thinking, "Yeah, I still don't totally trust you..."

After a long (and unsuccessful) photo shoot, the girls were exhausted...

Christmas celebrations at school

In addition to all of the fun Christmas activities we had with family and friends, the girls enjoyed quite a few celebrations at their school.

Anna made quite a cute gingerbread house with her art teacher, Ms. Rosaline. Thank you, Ms. Rosaline, for a year of introducing Anna to fun new approaches to arts and crafts!

Kate had a little party in her class, and was pretty pleased to see Mommy come to celebrate with her!

After taking pictures with Santa, I asked Anna if I could take another picture of her, and she promptly went over and sat on this crate and crossed her little legs. I couldn't have asked her for a better "pose"! I think she's getting used to my photo demands...

Anna had a great time at her class party too. Here she is enjoying some snacks with her buddy, Julian, before they took a break from the noshing to sing "The 12 days of Christmas" for the parents. They were too cute....