First Haircuts!!

Well, I figured it was about time our little ladies got their first haircuts. They usually wear their hair up anyway, but it needed a good trim. The girls have inherited Mommy's natural curls. (Yes, I straighten it every morning) ;) But all those curls makes it hard to realize just how long their hair had actually gotten! When it was wet you could see that it was actually half-way down their backs.

I wasn't sure how well the girls would handle getting their hair cut. In fact, I really thought they would hate it and cry the entire time. Especially Gwen. ;) BUT, I was proven wrong! I did prep them profusely ahead of time. We watched about five You Tube videos of other little girls getting their hair cut. I kept saying things like, "See how that little girl sits up really high in the chair?" and, "See? The nice lady is using scissors, but it doesn't hurt." Yep....I'm that kinda mom. ;) Daddy even came to meet us at the beauty shop because he didn't want to miss out on this "first" either. (yep...he's that kinda dad) ;)

I of coarse took a bazillion pictures and brought little baggies with their name and the date on it to keep their first cut locks for all time. It just kept going through my mind that the hair that she was cutting off is some of the same hair that was on those cute little newborn heads I loved seeing so very much. You can see from the pictures below that the girls did amazingly well, I only teared up once, and we celebrated with some Red Robin!! All was good in the hood. :)

Admiring the finished product. 

Ahhh.....the chipmunk smile. You know she's  doing some serious smiling when she breaks out the "chipmunk". 

Our celebration dinner and Gwendolyn's finished product.




The following is just my Braelyn being Braelyn. Yes, it's 107 degrees here and she is still sporting her cupcake stocking hat. (thanks Aunt Liz! );)

If you remember, Gwendolyn was always our binky fanatic. But, Braelyn found this in our old diaper bag and pretended to be a baby for a good 30 minutes. We thought she was becoming too attached though, and when it was time for us to take it actual tears were shed. Awwww..... :(
(binky was promptly thrown away  so there was NO more confusion) ;)

Mommy did some more garage saling last weekend and scored pretty good! The  highchair and dolls has been a huge hit at our house. All for about 8 bucks! Love me some garage sales!!

This is Braelyn's usual after nap routine. Poor thing. It takes her a bit to wake up.

Look at our girl!!!! She's using forearm crutches!! Definitely still a work in progress, but she's doing really well!!  We have a system. I sit on a scooter board that I had ordered to help her learn how to crawl and scoot myself backwards down the hall while supporting her a little bit as she walks with the crutches. And then when she gets to the end of the hall she climbs on my lap and I scoot her real quick all the way back down the hall on the scooter board. And then of coarse I have to give Braelyn a ride as well. ;) We probably look crazy, but it works!! It will give her so much more freedom when she can master these crutches. So much easier that the walker. We are praying that she gets the hang of these quickly. 

Gwendolyn has also really enjoyed the new highchair. She walks all over the house on her knees pushing it. Such a big girl. :)

We will be doing a little bit of traveling coming up pretty soon to a very "happy place" so it may be a little bit until our next post, but the wait will be worth it!! Great pictures to come! Stay cool out there!!! :)

Good Times!!

We've been pretty busy with lots of fun things going on.

But never too busy to enjoy some sister love and conversation on our favorite Dora couch.

Gwendolyn has also started her swim therapy again. She did this last summer as well and it was kind of fun when the therapist looked back at his records from just a year ago. The goals she had last summer actually made me chuckle. We were working on "crawling" and "cruising". Really? Wow! Those things have been mastered for so long that I can't really even remember working on them! We are so proud of how far she's come. Her therapist actually said that she probably made 2 years progress in just a year! He was extremely impressed.

Here she is practicing walking. The water is great for her to practice in. It gives her a little sense of support without actually holding onto her. 

Another new thing in Gwendolyn's life was the arrival of her brand new wheelchair! We debated about getting one for her for quite awhile. We didn't want her to rely on it too much and lose her drive to walk. But after talking to several parents of children like our Gwenner, we decided it was a good idea to at least have one. We only plan on using it when we are outside the house and for long distances. For short distances like walking into restaurants and things she will still use her walker. (we are also working on forearm crutches which I will post more on later) But for outside the house and longer distances we thought it would give her some more independence. Yes, we can still put her in a stroller and push her around if we need to and yes, that is probably the easiest thing for us to do. But, she has no control over where she goes with a stroller. It is completely in our control. I just didn't think that was fair for an almost 3 year old. I will hopefully post better pictures once I get some, but this picture was taken literally 2 minutes after putting her in the chair for the first time. She went directly over to our kitchen drawers and started taking things out. This is one of Braelyn's favorite things to do, but I honestly never knew it was something Gwen was missing out on! But, she obviously was just patiently waiting until the day she could reach that top drawer. :) She loved it! She is really the same height as Braelyn is in this wheelchair which is kind of nice.

Not sure what they are doing here. Braelyn is big on feeding people fake food lately so that's my best guess.  ;)

This is one of those ride-on toys that completely rip gullible parents like us off by charging 50 cents a pop for a 30 second ride. :) BUT, my girl loves it so ride away my sweet girl....ride away.
 She looks like a pretty serious bus driver here huh?

Grandma went with us to the library where they had a little musical show about animals. They had a real snake that they allowed the kids to touch if they wanted to. I didn't think either of my girls would volunteer for that one, but brave little Braelyn stepped right up! That night Gwendolyn was telling Daddy all about how SHE touched the snake too. hee....hee....



I had to include the following shots just because I think they are funny. Braelyn got a hold of my phone and spent a good 15 minutes taking her own picture and laughing her little head off. It was hilarious to watch. I probably had 30 pics of that sweet little face on my phone. I chose a few to share with you. 

Gwendolyn drawing on the steps.

      Our lousy washing machine broke last week so we took Saturday and drove around pricing new ones. We went to the T-Rex Cafe for lunch because the girls had never been there before. Braelyn was totally into it. Gwendolyn on the other hand....not so much. She was a bit afraid of the dinosaurs. 

On Father's Day we went to the amusement park for Daddy's staff appreciation day for work. The girls LOVED the carousel! Gwen flat out refused to ride on it the first time, but Braelyn jumped right on! The whole way around she just kept saying, "Mommy, it's sooooo fun!!! Ooooooo!!! It's soooooo pretty!!!" She was a trip.

Here we are riding the Snoopy bus. 

She loves to give kisses. And I love to receive them. :)

I feel kinda bad we didn't get any pictures of Daddy with his girls on Father's Day. But,  hopefully he knows just how lucky we are to have him in our life. He is hands down the best Daddy and husband anyone could ask for!!

Love you Babe!!

Summer Fun!

It's been another busy and fun week for the girls and I! We've been busy doing all sorts of fun stuff. Here are just a few:

(Ok, these first two aren't really from this week, but I found them again on my phone and had to add them.) ;)

This was the picture I was talking about of Gwendolyn visiting her new school. I was so hesitant about her making this step into the school system, but every time I look at this picture I know we are doing the right thing. (And her sweet teacher even read our blog to learn about Gwendolyn and all she has been through. That means a LOT!)

This is Gwendolyn from my last day of school and her last day of daycare for the summer. I thought it was too cute not to post. Such a big girl!

This was an unusually cool morning so I decided to take the girls for a walk. They had a great time, but Mama needs to work out more! Those hills were killer! :) 

Gwen continues with her horse therapy and is  getting more and more comfortable. 

They are very nice to allow Braelyn to ride too. But here she is just cheering on her sister in the basketball game.

We've had quite a few days spent at the park. The swings are still their all-time favorite. There is usually a fit to be had when swinging time is done. 

This was a bit of arts and crafts we did yesterday. We made frogs on plates and put pasta inside so that it made fun noises. The girls had a good time with that. This was the first time I allowed them to do their own gluing. :)

Gwen got some glue on her finger. She was not a fan. 

Braelyn's finished product. 

Gwendolyn's finished product. 

Uncle Kyle and Aunt Susan were cleaning out some of their girls' old things so we "inherited" a lot of it. (much to Daddy's dismay) One of the items was this costume that my niece wore for Halloween when she was one. Braelyn is such a shrimp it fit her perfectly! And she wore it all morning until she finally came to me and said, "Mommmy, I sweaty!" Yeah....I wonder why. 

Different park, different day. :) 

Gwen is pretending to eat a wood chip. Little stinker. 

We went to story time at the library! See those two cuties listening intently right in front there?
Yeah...those cuties are mine. :)

I let the girls each pick out one book to take home. Guess what they chose? 

And we have read these two books before every nap time and every bed time for a week.
Time for another trip to the library!!