Snow day and Aunt Anna's Birthday

One morning last week they were calling for 1-2 inches of snow.  Matt was dropping the girls off that day so I was leaving early for work.  I'm a sissy when it comes to driving in the snow but by 5:15am schools weren't even delayed so I figured the main roads must be fine....boy was I wrong.  I made it to work ok because I was the first one on the roads, but conditions just got worse and worse.  By the time Matt took the girls to school there were cars everywhere that couldn't make it up hills and were sliding off the roads.  It took Matt 1 hour to get the girls to school.  Fairfax County got a big earful for not even delaying school....so for the last week there have been delays and closings for no reason.  It's been a hectic week or so trying to juggle our schedules.

The girls enjoyed the snow though!  Camryn is a handful these days and that's putting it lightly.  She is the WORST to get dressed (that's why you see her in the same black dress, or without pants, or in PJ's in the middle of they day throughout the blog, most days, unless they are going to school, the fight just isn't worth fighting).  Some days it's the underwear you pick out for her, others it's because she wants to wear a night gown all day, sometimes she's crying for a "beautiful dress" because the 20 options you presented her weren't beautiful enough?  So, the point of that is, when we were going out in the snow she refused gloves.  So I figured she'd quickly realize that was a bad idea.  You can see in this video she ran out into the snow and first thing she did was a snow angel...and then ran to me crying because her hands were freezing. 

The girls love taking baths because they get bubbles and colors (hence the pink water).  Most of the time Camryn puts bubbles on Maddy's head and then Maddy screams and then Maddy takes all the bubbles, and you get the picture...and then they hug and make up.



It's funny when I go through my phone to put together a blog post because I never know what I'm going to get.  Maddy or Camryn took these pictures.







The other day I gave the girls water colors and droppers and containers of water and they mixed colors and had a blast.  Of course this activity made daddy a little nervous with all the possibilities for spills and stains. The girls weren't happy when I told them the activity was over because it was too stressful haha.



Matt begged Maddy to wear her Ravens jersey the day they played the Patriots in the play-offs.  She refused (and the Ravens lost) but the next day decided to wear it...and here she is with crazy static hair.



Matt was off with the girls on Monday and they were out running errands and took a trip to Dulles Town Center and got to ride the carousel with PopPop.



They also took the dogs to get their nails clipped.  Look at Cash with his little paw flipped over the arm rest and a purse...ready to get his nails done.





Callie was laying down with the girls the other night, all watching Sofia.



Aunt Anna turned 28 this week!!


The girls sang to her, here and here.

We went to Lebanese Tavern for her birthday dinner.



Camryn loves Jeff.



And Uncle Zach.



Maddy said she wanted to make funny faces for a picture...and then she smiled!!



We all sang Happy Birthday to Aunt Anna and then the girls helped her blow out her candles, and Maddy helped her eat her dessert.  Maddy is such a good eater.. Cams didn't want to eat anything at the restaurant, my picky little girl.

We were standing up to leave and the owner came over and told us they get a belly dancer and she just arrived and would be coming out.  I figured the girls may be intrigued so we stayed.  They LOVED watching her.  She tired to dance with the girls but they just stood there in awe.  Cams would grab Maddy's hand and try to chase after her but Maddy was too scared and shy.  As she'd dance away Maddy would then start moving her arms like her and thinking about it, it was adorable.  We ended up staying out late, especially for a school night, but the girls had fun!






Camryn loves playing with this sword.  Cash just sits there in this video and looks at her like what are you doing!?  As Camryn says "I'll cut you" haha.

Maddy posing with one of her million baby dolls.

Ryan turns 6

I'm falling behind again!  It seems like we've all been sick for weeks now, so I'm going to try and play catch up here.

A few weeks ago we celebrated Ryan's 6th birthday!!  We went up to MD and had a blast.

Bryce, Kiley, and Ryan are so great with the girls and they all have such a fun time together.

That night the Ravens were playing the Steeler....Ravens won :)



Cash watching the game with daddy.



Aunt Anna got Maddy a Princess Cookbook for Christmas so Maddy picked out something she wanted to make and we went shopping, she wanted strawberries with homemade whipped cream.



The girls have really enjoyed playing with Legos lately.  Matt doesn't complain at all :).  In fact, one night I told them it was time to come up and the girls both came upstairs and I asked where daddy was and he was still in the playroom building a K'nex car.





The girls also got these Wedgits, I've never heard of them but Uncle Zach has a co-worker to recommended them and they are really neat, the girls love playing with those as well.



I was off with the girls on Monday and we went to see a movie.  We arrive a little early so we had a snack in the car (a car picnic??)  before heading in to the movies.



Maddy ate this entire container of popcorn herself.  When Camryn reached her hand in to get some and it was gone she wasn't too happy.  The girls started to get restless but thankfully at this theatre (discount one near GMU) we were the only ones there, so the girls got to run around while I finished watching the movie!





Molly's first time at the movies.



The girls have also been having fun playing with the Kinetic sand from Santa.



The girls also LOVE taking baths now that they got bath colors and bubbles from Santa.  Camryn seems to think its funny to cover her head with bubbles by  dunking her head.  Both girls do that and then scream for a towel because they got water on their face...go figure...

Rocky Gap and New Years Eve

Last year, the weekend after Christmas, Matt and I just barely made it to our weekend getaway to Rocky Gap Casino Resort in MD.  Matt had the stomach bug last year and we almost didn't make the trip.  We decided to try our luck again this year.  Although we'd all been sick on and off we were still able to make it!  Mom stayed with the girls and Matt and I headed out the Saturday after Christmas.  It's a great time to get away because you're so exhausted from the holidays, but we all seem to be sick around this time as well.

The day we checked in the place was packed, but we stayed Sunday night as well so things slowed down and it was very nice and quiet.

We had a great time!  I hit the $100 jackpot on a penny slot which, wasn't a huge pay out, but we still exciting.

On our last night, after losing some money on what I realize now was not a very exciting game, Matt told me to try my hand at Roulette.  Table games intimidate me but it was pretty quiet and empty so I figured why not.  The dealer was really nice and helped me understand the game quickly and I was able to turn our $20 into $80 in a short amount of time...at which point I cashed out and left :)

I'm so glad we were able to get away just the two of us.  We always have so much fun together and we all need a break every now and then!!

We returned home from Rocky Gap on Monday morning.  By Monday night Maddy had a fever (last year she ended up with a fever the night we got home as well..crazy).  I took off Tuesday (the day before NYE) to stay home with the girls and that day Maddy's fever spiked to 102.5.  Her lips even turned a purple tint at one point which totally freaked me out.  I called the Dr. and they said it was just her fever doing that since she was breathing fine and eating fine, etc.  So I gave her more advil and that was the last of her fever.  They suspect she was just getting another virus.

So New Years Eve was a bit tame for us this year.  I still didn't feel well from my double ear infection and ended up back at the doctors on NYE so we decided to lay low.  We took the girls out to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.

I went out and got little horns and plastic glasses and sprite so we could all cheers.  

The girls played for a bit after dinner.  Cams wore this mask and called herself Batman.

We told the girls they could stay up as late as they wanted.  You could tell Maddy wasn't feeling well so we called it a night for the girls around 9pm.  (I wasn't far behind them, falling asleep at 10pm).

New Years day we relaxed.  Matt used this new hair beads set Maddy got from PopPop Coulby and Helen to put beads in her hair.

Maddy enjoyed using her NYE glass again.

And Matt and the girls did a little cleaning.  New year, clean house?

Friday, January 2nd was a work day.  Camryn woke up at 3:45 am that day...we found her in the bathroom brushing her teeth!  Needless to say by the afternoon she was tired and napped on the couch before we had some friends over to play.  She was so tired Matt vacuumed the couch around her while she slept.  This is SO unlike Camryn it was hilarious.  She doesn't usually nap for us and when she does she's a light sleeper...