Costume Shopping

Rocking in the chair on the front porch
Who is Mama's Baby?

Kaylie and Daddy

Kaylie and Mama

Roxy

Kaylie and her pumpkin

Taylor brushing her hair

Taylor LOVES to try on shoes and brush her hair. And she doesn't want your help. She wants to do it. And when you brush Taylor's hair ...this is what happens. Every morning she brushes it and it turns into a big bush and I have to wet it to get her pretty curls back. The girls are both in mama phases. They want mama to get them out of the car, mama to dress them, etc. Taylor gives me big hugs and doesn't want to let go of my neck. Kaylie gives me lots of kisses. I am shocked at what a happy baby Kaylie has turned out to be. She always has a smile on her face and giggles all the time. She is so excited about everything.

Tonight we went to the store to look for Halloween costumes. The girls each got pumpkins to go trick or treating and they loved them. While we were looking for costumes Daddy decided to put on a mask and roar at the girls. That didn't go over so well. Poor Taylor was terrified and balling her eyes out. I don't think Daddy will be doing that again any time soon.

This morning Kaylie came up to me and gave me a hug and Taylor ran after her shaking her finger at her telling her "NO!" They can get a little bit jealous. If you tell one they are good or beautiful then the other one will look at you like "What about me?" And if you tell one of them they are doing something good then the other one will copy her sister so you can tell her she is doing good too. When you tell Taylor she is good or pretty she gets this little smile on he face that I can't describe but it is precious. She gets a little shy smile and looks away but you can see how happy it makes her.

Tonight we went to Applebees and there was a woman in the booth next to us that had the same haircut as my mom from behind. Taylor kept saying "NANA!" and trying to peek around the table to see her face. We kept telling her that it wasn't Nana and she almost started crying when the woman finally did turn around.

Hopefully more photos to come this weekend.

Twin Talk

Kaylie riding her car
Taylor

Taylor

Kaylie

Trying on Daddy's hats

The girls are so talkative. They "twin talk" to each other. I have no idea what they are saying when they do. They are able to put two and three words together at times too. Taylor is hilarious. She has a very dramatic "Noooooooooooooo." Kaylie is very interactive and answers all my questions. Taylor acts like she didn't hear me and shows me a little grin and looks away. They are in the Mama stage where they want mama all the time. They have finally learned to give kisses with their mouths closed. They love to give hugs and kisses almost as much a I love receiving them. They have learned how to get their way. They will ask for more snack and I will tell them no that they have had enough and then they will look at me with their pretty little faces and say "Please" and sign please in sign language. Then of course I have to give in. My dad said I used to know how to get my way when I was little too so he knows where they get it.

Proud of My Dad

Taylor thought it was hilarious to dump buckets of water on her head





Beautiful Taylor
Taylor and Nana
Holding My Sissy's Hand


My Amazing Father
The band "The Water Drops" played at the party in Dad's honor - Note the Water Treatment Plant name on the sign - named after Dad
Granddad dancing with Kaylie
Tina and Kaylie (Tina is soon going to be a grandma to twins too!)
My family and friends at Dad's Reception right before we left

The Water System had a beautiful reception in my father's honor for his retirement (he retires at the end of the year). They named the "L.B. Stovall Water Treatment Plant" after him and announced it at the reception. There is a nice sign when you enter the plant with his name on it but I wasn't able to get a photo of it because it was raining. Yes, even the water decided to show up for the party....it poured! At the reception they presented dad with numerous plaques/awards and he also received the SC Order of the Palmetto which is the highest civilian honor in the State of South Carolina (http://www.sciway.net/hist/sc-order-of-the-palmetto.html) One of the guys that got up to speak about dad called him a "walking encyclopedia" which is a pretty accurate description. The reception was lovely and there were lots of people there that had great things to say about Dad. We are very proud of him!

The girls are so talkative! We are having so much fun. I love this age. The girls are so sweet and loving.

Kaylie puts herself in time out on a regular basis. If I tell her she better stop or she will have to go to time out - off she goes! I must be doing something wrong here because she likes time out.

Kaylie hates dresses. She pitches a fit and tries to take off her clothes every time I put her in one. I pretty much had to hold her the whole time at my dad's retirement party because she would not stand up in her dress. Taylor on the other hand loves when you tell her she is beautiful. She throws her head back and moves it from side to side and opens her mouth as wide as she can. It cracks me up. So she will wear a dress and even sometimes a hairbow if you tell her she is beautiful or pretty with it on. She smiles when you tell her too. She loves to brush her hair and try on shoes.

I think Taylor might have inherited Neale's wacky sleep disorder. Some of you have probably heard me tell stories about how Neale will sit up and talk in his sleep . Well we were driving home fom Greenville this weekend and Taylor was talking in her sleep. What was she talking about? SHOES!!! The girl loves shoes.

I bought a sign language DVD for the car. I have seen the girls do "More" and "Please" in sign language. So I bought a DVD to help them learn some more sign language. They really like it. They repeat all the words they say on the DVD too. Hopefully they will pick up the sign language. Aunt Jannie will be so proud!

The photos above are the girls playing in their pool. Taylor thought she was hilarious dumping buckets of water on her head. She did it over and over and giggled every time.

Daycare said that Kaylie and Taylor would wake up from their naps and hold hands. They finally had to separate them because they would giggle and make a bunch of noise playing with each other when they woke up. That is pretty much what they do at home too. They wake up and talk to each other and giggle and sometimes jump around their beds.

Taylor loves her Nana! Every time the phone rings Taylor says "Nana" and when I get on the computer Taylor comes over and says "Nana" because she is used to us video talking to Nana and Granddad on Skype. And sometimes she just says "Nana" because she wants me to call her.

Nana, Granddad, Neale, and I took the girls to Chuck E. Cheese in Greenville. They really enjoyed playing on the slide and Neale and I played each other in basketball. Neale won two out of three in basketball. I am blaming it on the carpel tunnel and the fact that it was a game because I beat him every time in real basketball. He does beat me in air hockey most of the time though so I will give him that.

Everything is going great. The girls are all over the place and I love it. We are having a blast.

TT and Kiki

Holding Sissy's Hand
Putting on Shoes in the Sand

Sweet Taylor

Doing her modeling pose

Kaylie and Bunny

My Sweet Taylor Loves To Hug

I know you said not to but I really wanna eat it!

I am on a mission

My hair is out of control when I take out my hairbow

Daddy and Kaylie

Mom has no idea what to do with my hair

And mom cut mine ...but it really isn't as crooked as it looks in this photo! Don't try this at home.

It's Potty Time!

And this is what happens when you brush Taylor's hair....

I once took Kaylie to get her bangs cut but I didn’t like the way it was done. The woman cut too many bangs. Well her bangs needed to be cut again. I knew it was a bad idea but I decided to do it myself. I once cut Neale’s hair about 8 years ago and it didn’t turn out too well. As Neale will tell you – I took a chunk of his hair out. So against my better judgment I decided that Kaylie’s hair was a mess and it needed to be cut right then. After all, I was about to take her to the beach to take some pictures. Let’s just say that cutting hair is not my thing.

I ask the girls to repeat words I say. It is a little game we play. Some responses come out perfectly. Taylor can say “Taylor” exactly. Kaylie calls Taylor “TT” which is what they used to call her at daycare. Kaylie calls herself "Kiki".

Kaylie has started singing her “ABC’s”. She has the first 3 letters pretty well and the rest she makes up. I sing it to her all the time and do sign language to the letters. Yesterday I was driving home singing it to them and Kaylie had her hand in the air and was making up her own sign language. She is so smart. You can ask her to do something with words you are sure she has never even heard of before and she does exactly what you want most of the time. It amazes me. The girls are very talkative. Taylor likes to say “Momma Dada”. Kaylie does things you ask her, answers questions with a yes or no, and follows the rules with time out. Taylor is just the opposite. You put her in time out and she just smiles at you and gets up. After every time out I tell the girls they need to come tell me they are sorry. They come over and give me a hug and lay their heads down on me. It is precious.

I bought the girls a toilet because potty training will be right around the corner. We tested it out for the first time last night. At first they just fought to see who could sit on it in their clothes. I took off their clothes and put them on the potty one at a time. Kaylie liked sitting there. Taylor sat there and actually went to the bathroom! I am sure it was probably by accident but I was impressed.

Happy Late Birthday to Grandma Fran! We love you very much. Thank you Aunt Cathy for the book you sent. We read it every night before bed.