Leap Day, 2012

In honor of this semi-holiday, I did something incredibly stupid and encouraged Lucas and Poppy to misbehave by jumping on the furniture.  They happily obliged.  They told me they were either "flying" or "going kaboom."  Here are my two jumping beans, leaping for Leap Day. :-)

Tuesday night pool party.

What's fun about Tuesday?  Not a whole lot.  So, in an effort to make our Tuesday a little more interesting, we had a "pool party."  With swimming suits.  In the bathtub.  The kids thought this was ridiculously silly and fun.  There was a lot of squealing and splashing.  It definitely made Tuesday not-so-boring.

Poppy made it "rain" on Lucas.

Their new game.  They like to kiss each other...and then pull back and yell "Eew!!"

Nice hugs.

Pretty Poppy Seed after she made it "rain" on herself.

A pool party wouldn't be complete without Popcicles.  But we didn't have Popcicles, so Lucas and Poppy got to enjoy GoGurts instead.

Tuesday night has never been more exciting. :-)

two months later... Merry Christmas!

So...I bet you didn't think I'd even do a blog about Christmas 2011 since it is already almost March.  Well, here I am, FINALLY sharing some o the best pictures of the day.  It was a fun Christmas.  We were lucky enough to share it with my parents (that's "Grandma" and "Grandpa" to Lucas and Poppy!), both of my sisters and their husbands (they each only have one husband...currently, ha ha!) and my nephews.  Adam joined us on Skype from Okinawa to share in the fun of opening presents, so he didn't totally miss out on two Christmases in a row.

Santa came!  Look at all that loot!

Rise and shine, sleepy boy!  Time to open presents!

I only wish I could wake up and look this good in the morning.  It's just not fair.  

Lucas and Poppy, hand-in-hand on the way to see what Santa left for them.

Santa got the note!  And he brought a castle, just like Lucas asked him to!  Poppy was thrilled to play in the castle and even more thrilled when Grandpa joined her.

Lucas, checking out the goods in his stocking.

Oops...looks like Poppy found something that belonged to someone over the age of 21!

Family picture, 2011.

Brad, I'm telling you, you have got to stop doing embarrassing things when I have the camera out.

Oh!  Christmas tangerine!  Delish!

Lucas and Poppy opening presents while Adam watched.

Poppy was happy to see Abby, one of her faves from Sesame Street.

Doesn't my dad look proud?  He wrapped this present all by himself!  Notice how the paper is going in one direction and the sticker is going in another...

Presents straight out of D-County!  Awesome camo paper, Brad and Holly!

Later in the day, after opening presents, but before we had Christmas dinner, I took Lucas and Poppy to the beach for some pictures.  They got new rain boots from Grandma (fireman boots for Lucas and Hello Kitty for Poppy) and they got to wear them, since the weather was less than desirable.  They did not cooperate very well.  There was screaming and crying involved before I got a few winners.

You may find yourself wondering what, exactly, Lucas is doing in this picture.  To tell you the truth, I have no idea.  A jig?  Perhaps.  It will be one of life's little mysteries.

Cheese.

More cheese.

After taking the pictures at the beach, we raced home and got to eat a lovely dinner prepared by my mom (although I'll toot my own horn and say that I made a fab pineapple stuffing).  Lucas and Poppy got to eat with their cousins at a Kid's Table for the first time!  

Until Poppy got scared and ended up spending the rest of dinner time sitting with me.

Smiles!  All the cousins in front of the tree.  It was a fun Christmas!

Fashionable Friday

To make this gloomy, super windy day a little more fun, I let Lucas and Poppy pick out their own outfits.  I was a little surprised that Lucas didn't ask to just wear clean pajamas, but after I told him that he could wear WHATEVER he wanted, he was kind of excited.  He went for the fanciest shirt in his closet and then asked me to get his gray sweatpants out of his dresser.  Then he wanted his R2D2 tee-shirt to complete the look.  Poppy decided she wanted to wear her "Chloe" shirt.  Then she found her blue polka dot tights in the laundry basket and a fluffy skirt in her dresser.  She thinks it's a tutu, and I don't have the heart to correct her. ;-)  

This is what my cool kids look like after they put their own outfits together.  They look marginally better than when they wear outfits put together by Adam. ;-)

I think they will probably want to choose their own outfits more often.  They seemed to really enjoy themselves!

The Bieberification of Lucas.

The last time Lucas had a haircut was the beginning of September.  It has grown so much since then that he started to look like a Beatle (truth be told, he started to look like a Beatle about two months ago...).  Lucas has never been a fan of haircuts, so I started talking to him about needing one about a month ago so it wasn't a shock when I finally got him an appointment.  Well, today was the day.  The day for the true Bieberification of Lucas.  I took a couple of BEFORE pictures.  OMG, did it really look that bad!!?

And then it was time to head to the salon.  He took one of our Justin Bieber paper plates (because who DOESN'T have Justin Bieber paper plates!?) so he could show the hairdresser what he wanted it to look like.  After a brief meltdown (I did have to carry him, screaming, to the chair...it was like seeing Santa all over again), the iPad and Dinosaur Train saved the day.  He settled down and let the hairdresser cut his hair so he would look like Bieber.

Poppy was fascinated by the entire experience.

All done!  Wow!  It's Bieber Junior!

And the back.  Look!  He does have a neck under there!

Lucas is super thrilled with his new 'do.  The hairdresser confirmed that he is the first three year old she has had that has wanted his hair cut like Justin Bieber.  He's a serious fan!  He said "You need to say 'Here comes Bieber!'" when he sat down at the table for a snack.  I'm going to enjoy seeing my favorite boy's big brown eyes again!