Loads of pictures of my favorite people

We got the pictures back from our photo session a few weeks ago. I love them! Check out our Shutterfly site for the rest!

Easter Bunny

I mentioned I went shopping on Sunday after music class... well, there was an Easter Bunny at the mall. Erin convinced me to get a picture of the girls with the bunny. I was surprised they didn't cry! They do look a little freaked out!

Weekend

Matt took last Friday off to watch the NCAA tournament, so we had a 3-day weekend together. Since the nanny still works on Friday morning, we decided to go on a breakfast date and check out The Little Goat. I had been there once before, but this was Matt's first time. Very good breakfast food! We want to try it out for lunch sometime.

Bloody Mary!
Yes, Matt, you are still in the picture!

We took the girls over to Clint's for a little NCAA tourney watching on Friday afternoon. Avery was in her "I only pretend to like sports when I'm with Daddy" shirt... and I forgot to get a picture of it. Morgan was all decked out in orange and blue for the Illini game. And this was the only blue onesie I had... definitely a hand-me down from Samantha/Meredith!

Go Gators!

I L L - I N I

On Saturday, we celebrated Sabrina's first birthday. She wasn't so sure about all the singing and the crowd at the party, but she eventually dug into her smash cake. I think she played with it more than ate it, but she had a good time. The girls loved watching all the kiddos run around.

On Sunday, I took the girls to music class in the morning. This week, the teacher had bells and the girls loved those as well. The girls are testing out different sleep/eat schedules these days, so they were more awake for the class this week. We also did a little shopping at the Lincolnwood mall in the afternoon. I had grand plans of grabbing lunch at the Olive Garden, but the wait was way too long.

Music

On Sunday, I took the girls to a music class for babies. We were joined by cousin Grayson and Aunt Erin. No green beer this year for St.Patrick's day, but we had green onesies and lullabies. My how times have changed!

I was a little worried about how the girls would behave because the class was smack dab in the middle of their long nap time. They were a little sleepy. Avery almost fell asleep during the slow soft music, but they both seemed to enjoy the class. Their favorites were the rain stick and watching the class leader play the guitar. I need to brush up on my nursery rhyme songs. When I sing at home for the girls, I just throw in words that sound like they rhyme/belong... but, in a class where other people can hear you, that's kind of a bad idea.

More interested in the guitar than my singing

Loving the rain stick

Avery kept trying to grab it!

Grayson loved the class too!

Yum!

We fed the girls cereal for the first time tonight. Morgan figured out how to eat off the spoon pretty quickly. Of course, she wasn't so sure about the cereal. Avery had a harder time with the spoon and just tried licking it for a while. Once she figured it out, she LOVED the cereal. She kept grabbing the spoon to get more.

What is this stuff?

Can't decide what she thinks of this

Trying to figure this out

Ooohh... I like this stuff!

Don't want to leave any on the spoon

More please!

Five Months

The girls were 5 months old a week ago, so this is a little late. We didn't go to the doctor this month, so I don't have any updated stats. Although, the girls seem to be getting bigger by the day!

Morgan -  5 months

Morgan has become quite the silly girl! She is always smiling and giggling! And she loves to get smiles out of us, too. Her hair continues to grow and stand straight up - she's a fuzzball! She tries to hold her own bottle and is actually pretty good at it. (This is one skill I would love the girls to acquire!) She has found her voice and is using it! She's giving Avery a run for her money on who can babble/screech the loudest!

Avery - 5 months

Avery has a couple of new tricks she's mastered this past month. She grabs her feet and puts them in her mouth, which she now does ALL the time. Another new trick of hers is "blowing raspberries". The first time I heard her do it was over the baby monitor in the middle of the night. I could not figure out what was going on, so I went in their room to check it out. There she was, wide awake, just blowing raspberries. She looked at me and smiled, like she was so proud of herself. A surefire way to get her to giggle is to play peek-a-boo! She gets such a kick out it!

The girls are very "grabby" lately and nothing is off limits. If their hands aren't in their mouths, they are grabbing at our mouths, clothes, faces, my hair and especially each other. We are so entertained just watching their antics!

Really?!?

The girls got some cute new bootcut jeans from a coworker of ours. The jeans are great, but the tag on the jeans was a little much. This kid is dressed sexier than I dress! What the heck!?!

The best of both worlds???

Matt loves to eat peanut butter sandwiches with his chili. And he loves chili dogs. So, why not combine your favorite things?!? I'm not so sure, but he seemed to like it!

Step 1 - layer hot dog bun with peanut butter

Step 2 - Add your favorite hot dog

Step 3 - Load up on chili

And of course, Step 4 - eat and enjoy! Too bad I didn't get a picture of that!

The girls' new ride

After much research, we finally decided on a double stroller. And by "we", I mean "me". There were so many things that went into the decision... way more things than Matt wanted to hear me discuss! I really wanted a side-by-side stroller, but I didn't want to worry about fitting through doorways. We ended up with the Mountain Buggy Duet. So far, I love this stroller! And based on our recent walks, I think the girls like it, too. They get to see more than they did in their car seats in the snap-n-go. Plus, it still has the sleep-inducing effect!

Ready for their first outing in the new stroller

Zzzzzz... I think it's a hit!

Chef Matt

I must say that my husband has turned into quite the cook these days! We have been making an effort to stop ordering food for dinner and actually cook our own meals. We tend to get home from work, too tired to make dinner and take the easy option by ordering food at least 3 times a week. That gets expensive! And it's really not that healthy. So, now we've been cooking our meals for the week on Sundays. By "we", I mean "Matt". Usually, he makes a bunch of stuff on Sunday night while I'm at bowling. We freeze some to have later in the week. We have been eating SO much better (and cheaper!) these past few weeks.

Tonight's creation came from our Crockpot cookbook - Turkey Breast with artichoke parmesan stuffing. It's definitely a keeper!

Our Saturday

This morning, we had someone come to our condo and take family pictures of the four of us. The girls were not as smiley as they are when there isn't a stranger flashing a camera at them. So, hopefully, we ended up with some pictures of them smiling. Afterwards, we were all worn out. Avery was falling asleep before the woman even left! Photo shoots are hard work! They ate and took a VERY long nap.

Then, they entertained us with their babbling and giggling while playing. They are at such a fun age!

Smiley Morgan

Avery loves to grab her feet (and put them in her mouth!)

When the girls were both laying on the playmats, Avery kept pulling her feet up to grab and kick the toys hanging above her. Morgan watched her intently for a minute. Then, she started pulling her feet up, too. It was so interesting to watch her study and then mimic her sister.

Our weekend

My parents were up this past weekend to babysit so that Matt and I could go out to the burbs for a dinner party Saturday night at a coworker's house. The weekend was going well and my parents arrived around lunchtime on Saturday. About that time, the girls woke up from their nap to eat. Avery was most definitely not herself. She didn't smile at me when I changed her diaper. She didn't want anything to eat (biggest tip off that something was wrong - that girl LOVES to eat!). She actually fell back asleep, so I decided to put her back to bed. As I was walking her to her room, Matt leaned over to give her a kiss good night and he narrowly missed getting showered by vomit! The poor thing exploded all over me, all over herself, all over the floor. Her eyes were so glassy and tired looking. It was so sad! She spent the rest of the afternoon on my mom's lap in and out of sleep, barely moving.

Poor baby

We ended up still going to the dinner party that night. I was worried about leaving Avery, but my mom reminded me that she had raised a few kids before, so she could probably handle it. Ha! I guess that's true!

Of course, this cutie was just fine and played and laughed all afternoon! Note the bow - rare occasion where Daddy actually let me put a bow in her hair. Of course, we took it off about 10 minutes later and it had already left indentions in her head. Yikes - guess it was a little too small!

Our dinner party was a fun time. It was at Shannon and Tim's place in Downer's Grove. It's become sort of a tradition to set off bottle rockets at their place at the end of the night. This is usually because a lot of wine/beer has been consumed and someone says - "let's get out the blow torch and some bottle rockets!"

Blow torch = check! Bottle rockets = check! Alcohol = check!

Enjoy the show!

On Sunday, we met up with the p's, Erin and Grayson, and Brett and Sandi for lunch at Beer Bistro. Avery was still not feeling the best, so we relaxed at home the rest of the day. I picked up a cold and was not feeling the best either. I skipped bowling Sunday night, but I heard my Dad filled in for me and didn't do too shabby.

Avery is still recovering even today. She's smiling more, but you can just tell she's not back to her regular energetic screeching self. Guess we'll see how long it takes for her to kick this thing. And we'll see if Morgan picks it up from her. Based on this picture I took yesterday, it would not surprise me if Morgan ended up sick as well. (We were taking a picture to send to Grandma Marcia for her birthday.)

I need to try harder...

To make some posts on this blog!

I will give a quick update of what's been going on around the Plothow household with some pictures.

The girls enjoyed their first Valentine's Day with a fun brunch at Theresa's house. Actually, they slept through a lot of it. But, they sported their heart tops and heart tights! And some cute hats and booties knitted by a friend of ours from work.

The next weekend, we got a visit from Grandma Ruth! The girls always love when the grand-folks visit because they get lots of love and attention! Don't mind the slobbery bibs - the girls are going through a major drooling phase these days!

And just some other random pictures from the past couple of weeks...

We get lots of smiles these days!

Close up!

Tummy time for Avery - it's rough holding up that big melon!

Morgan has started loving the Exersaucer now too!

The girls love to grab each other's hands

This is what happens when Avery is done with tummy time

Avery says "you WILL hold my hand!"

Morgan's not so sure

We got a couple of these cool bottles to test out - makes feeding two kiddos at once a lot easier