Christmas

We have had a wonderful Christmas this year. Papa and Ayat (my dad and stepmom) were here for all of the festivities. My father contributed significantly to the spoiling of my children. But I can't say much as I did too. Here are a few photos of the days. I have more, I just have to finish editing them.

My best friend from college sent the girls fairy wings and wands and Mr. Sketch scented markers. They were thrilled to pieces and they made good use of the wings and wands immediately.

The big gift this year for the girls was bikes. They have both wanted them since we came home from Ethiopia and this seemed like a good time. We opened all of the presents and then cleaned up the garbage. When we took the garbage out to the garage, Papa and I "found" two more presents. Here is Meskerem realizing just what is inside the big red bag.

Here is Kidist, very thrilled with her new pink bike with streamers. So far they are doing well riding them with the training wheels. Since it is cold and snowy outside, they have been riding in the garage which seems to be about the right size corral for them right now (especially since they don't have helmets yet).
Here they are showing off several of their Christmas presents. My brother got them each Carhartt overalls and my stepmom got them new tutus. Put all that together with fairy wings and bikes and you have Montana fairy princesses. They are ready for anything.
I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas. My dad and stepmom leave tomorrow and then I get to do the "grandparent deprogramming" on the kids. The next week will be fun, but VERY low-key after all of this excitement. Now we get to plan for our trip to California in March (bought the plane tickets today).

Okay, it has been a really long time since I have posted. I started this post about two weeks ago, but life got in the way of me finishing it. However, since I have sent out a Christmas card with a link to my blog, I figured I better get on here and get some things updated. We have had a fantastic Christmas (photos to come in the next few weeks), but here are a few other things we have done so far this winter.

The girls learned how to make a snowman. They loved the snow at first, but they are ready for it to go away now.

On the Sunday afternoon after Thanksgiving, my mom and I took the girls to see the Nutcracker ballet. It was a wonderful experience and the girls loved having a reason to get all dressed up in their fancy dresses.
So, there are a few things we have done. I have lots of pictures, but I have to get them out of the camera. I also have lots of video and got some new software for Christmas so I should be getting that sort of stuff posted soon too.
I hope you have all had a very wonderful Christmas and I hope you were as spoiled as we were. Please check back in the next few weeks as I do plan to get more photos and video up here for you.

Halloween

The girls have had a week full of activities, not the least of which was all of the fun Halloween stuff. On Wednesday, we went to the library for story-time and all the kids were dressed up and they all had their pictures taken in front of the pumpkins and giant spider.
This afternoon, they got to draw their own pumpkins that came from the pile at the library. We had one larger pumpkin that had grown in our garden and they helped me carve that one. They thought it was pretty cool to see it all lit up. Here they are with all the pumpkins including their pumpkin candy buckets. As you can see, they are really into the princess thing.
Then we drove up to Billings to spend some time with friends and trick-or-treat in a nice quiet neighborhood that was very friendly and not scary. My girls really don't like anything scary and I can't blame them at all.
Here they are at one of the first houses. It didn't take them long to catch on to what to do.
It started to rain and the wind was blowing so we didn't stay out very long, but they had a blast. After we were done, we went back to my friends' for chili and soup and lots of fun.

This display was at one of the last houses we stopped at before we went back for dinner. I couldn't resist getting a photo of the "pumpkin bear." I wish I was talented enough to come up with something like this.
I hope you all have had a fun and safe Halloween this year. Now, we can get on to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Water babies

Here are a few shots of the girls enjoying the summer tradition of running through the sprinkler. Funny thing is, you don't have to teach kids how to do this. I borrowed one of my mom's sprinklers that shoots up in the air really high and goes back and forth from left to right and the girls loved it. I was hoping Mom still had the clown sprinkler thing that we played with as kids, but somehow it managed to die and get thrown away. Oh well, a plain sprinkler was just as good.

Kidist running full bore toward the water.

Meskerem enjoying the water.

After running through the water for a little while, they lay on their towels to "warm up" and dry off.

Kidist pondering the world from her beach towel.

Meskerem has found the good life.

Surprise Photos

One of the most fun things to do after I get home from work is to look at the camera and see what the girls have been doing that day. I am so glad that my mom and the nanny both make sure to grab the camera and take pictures. Here is a selection of the "surprise" photos found in my camera.

Here the girls are all duded out in their new painting smocks so they can paint pictures in the garage.

Here they are having fun with their new sand buckets (photo edited by my dad).

Flying their kite in the backyard.

The girls built a fort under the piano. Here is Kidist peeking out.

Meskerem peeking out.

Outside their fort.

1st Annual Backyard Field Day

On July 24, my friends Emily and Chris planned a backyard "field day" for the girls and some other kids. No other kids were able to make it, so we "grown-ups" filled in and had a blast. There were relay races, balloon toss, sack races and killer duck-duck-goose. It was one of the best days we have had in awhile. To top it all off Uncle Peter was here for the festivities as well. Here are a few shots from the day. Some are less sharp than I would like, but that just shows you how fast we were all moving. :-)

Kidist and Meskerem racing in the beach ball relay.

The first event of the day (the girls even got to pick their own teams).

We all had to re-learn duck-duck-goose. Even Dot got into the mix.

This was Kidist's favorite game by far.

As you can see, she was REALLY into it.

Meskerem wasn't so thrilled with the cut-throat action so she stayed at the side and my friend Kalah got this photo of her.

It almost always ended with someone carrying Kidist.

The sack races were hysterical. The girls were the only ones that really fit in the pillow-cases, but Peter still managed to win.

Dot photos

Dot had a playmate last weekend. A friend's foster-daughter brought her Australian shepherd mix over to play and he and Dot had a great time together. He was much better at fetch than she was.

Dot just got a haircut yesterday. Prior to that her last haircut was before Christmas. According to the folks at the vet office she was starting to look like a Portuguese water dog. Here are before and after photos and you can see what I mean.

Before:

After: she has her model legs back and foofy bows in her hair.
The bows came out tonight.