Merry Christmas!

Christmas morning with Poppy and DeDe

Things were a bit different this year with a baby and two toddlers running the show.

Penelope and Poppy and her new baby doll.

Penelope modeling her new apron.

DeDe and Penelope

We had a few problems keeping Cade and Penelope from taking each other's new toys.

"No! Mine!"

After Cade got Penelope's cell phone Penelope took over Cade's tee ball set.

An attempt at a pic with DeDe and Poppy and the grandkids

Merry Christmas!

Cousin Love

Penelope and her cousin Cade sure do love each other. Yes, there has been plenty of battling over toys during the past couple of days, but there have also been plenty of sweet moments together.

Penelope loves giving her sweet cousin Ella some love too. Especially since Ella is a bit easier to "share" with.

Cade and Penelope making up after a battle over the cars. 

Big cousin Cade makes sure Penelope gets to where she needs to go.

Cade helps Penelope get dressed.

Of course these two also have had plenty of fun getting into trouble together.

Watch out! Here they come....

Ho Ho Ho

Our typically gregarious child suddenly turned into a shaking, whimpering mess when we took her to see Santa at the mall yesterday. We couldn't get within a few feet of Old Saint Nick without Penelope burrowing her head into her daddy's chest and saying, "No! No! No!", and she remained that way until Santa was safely out of sight.

I fear we might have ruined Christmas for her forever.

Christmas Pic

Sorry folks. The Christmas card is not happening this year. This impromptu snapshot before church last Sunday will have to suffice.

30th Birthday

I'm so old.

Good thing Penelope still thinks I'm cool.

Snuggle up with a good book

Nothing's better than a good book. And there's no one better than a Grandma and Grandpa to share it with.

Pre-Christmas with G&G

The Cook Has Arrived

Christmas came a little early at our house. When Grandma and Grandpa arrived they presented Penelope with her very own miniature kitchen.

It only took Grandpa the engineer and Penelope's dad 3 hours to assemble it.

Ever since then Penelope has been cooking up a storm.

Both Grandma and Baby Stella agree that Penelope is an excellent cook.

Penelope has somehow picked up a bunch of kitchen skills. She knows how to cut vegetables on the cutting board using her pretend knife, wash the dishes in the sink, sprinkle salt and pepper onto her food, and turn on the stove and warn us that it is "hot!." From morning until night all we hear out of Penelope's mouth is "cook, cook!"

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the kitchen! We love it!

Camp G&G

While her Mom and Dad went off to work this past week, Little Miss P got to have Grandma and Grandpa all to herself. Instead of carting her off to her normal daycare we left Lil' P at home for "G&G Daycare." From the looks of these pictures, all involved had a great time.

Strangest thing. Penelope was transformed into a perfect angel the moment her Mom and Dad left the house. I don't remember the last time Penelope laid still for a diaper change. Lately we have had to chase her down and throw on a diaper in whatever position she ends up in. But the picture below is proof of her miraculous behavior while her parents were away. Could somenone please explain to me why this is?

Penelope learned lots of new things while with G&G.

Like how to fist bump.

And the benefits of having an IPad.

Grandpa also taught her how to engineer tall towers.

I was mostly just hoping he would teach her patience.

Grandma worked on her pattycaking skills

(I confess. I've never played pattycake with her. I'm a terrible mother.)

Grandpa took her for rides.

And taught her to clean

I am happy to report that all made it through Camp Grandma and Grandpa with flying colors and only one minor injury.

Unfortunately that angel of a child was replaced with the real Penelope when Grandma and Grandpa walked out the door.