Summer

Ok, so it's been a really long time since I've posted. I will try to get you all caught up on what is going on with us. Carli, Jillian and I stayed home a lot this summer and enjoyed being outside. They "swam" in their little pool a lot and finally seemed to get used to the water. Since they were born, neither one of them have really enjoyed getting wet, so this was a big summer for them. In June, the girls were able to participate in Vacation Bible School for a week. They were pretty young to actually be involved in everything, but since I volunteered in one of the classes, they were able to attend the activities. They had a blast! It was awesome to see them so excited to go to bible school. In July, we were able to go to Mexico for a week with Matt's family and had a wonderful time. The girls loved swimming in the pools, but were pretty scared of the ocean and all of the loud noises the waves made. It's amazing to see things through a child's eyes. Those are the things we don't typically notice. At the end of July-beginning of August, we traveled to Minneola, KS to spend a weekend with my family. Everyone was able to be there and we enjoyed swimming in my parent's pool, relaxing, and getting to know my new nephew, Michael Jr. I just can't believe how cute he is! Gabrielle is so big that I forgot how fun it is to be an aunt to a newborn! It's a long trip to my parent's house with two little ones, but worth every second. We celebrated our 7 year anniversary at a family cabin in Glen Haven, CO and enjoyed our time together. The girls stayed with Nana and Papa Casseday for the weekend and had a fantastic time. They didn't even seem to care that we were back!

I started back to work full-time in September and it has been a huge blessing. Carli and Jillian are in pre pre-school at Kingdom Kids Academy here in Littleton. They are learning so much and love it there. It was really hard at first to put them in school after being home with them for 2 1/2 years, but it is so gratifying to know that your kids are safe and loved when you are at work. We enjoy our weekends as a family so much more now that both Matt and I are at work full-time.

Now we are ready for fall!

Photos of our summer are located here: http://www.picasaweb.google.com/mkcasseday/summer2010#

Easter

Carli at Easter

Jillian at Easter

We went to Greeley to celebrate Easter with the Casseday side and had a great time. The weather was perfect. We went to church with Matt's parents on Easter morning, then headed over to Matt's brother's house for lunch and an Easter egg hunt. The girls really enjoyed the egg hunt this year and were so fun to watch. Jillian is so particular with everything. She made sure the eggs stayed put together and no candy was falling out. Carli was excited about running around. They are so different!

Both of the girls are doing very well with potty training and we do not have a diaper in sight. We got rid of them completely a couple of weekends ago and it was such a relief! They look so cute in their little panties, even though they are a little big. :-) They are talking all of the time and some of the things they say are just amazing. They both do a nice job of saying please and thank you, so we are very happy about that, and every time we hear it, we are reminded that they can pretty much repeat anything we say now.

We hope you all had a blessed Easter!

Children's Museum

The girls got to go to the Children's Museum the other day with their friend Connor. Connor's mom, Lindsay, and I went Monday morning and it was perfect because it wasn't too busy. Carli was a little clingy and seemed to be sort of scared of everything, but she eventually warmed up to it. Jillian absolutely had a blast. She was such a big girl! She listened to me and stuck by me. I thought that with two toddlers going to such a hands-on place, one of them would run off, but they were very good. That place is awesome! It was our first time and we will definitely be going back when Matt can come too. Above is a picture of them playing in the "tree."

Link to more photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/mkcasseday/ChildrenSMuseum#

Thanksgiving and Plans for Christmas

Hi everyone! We were able to drive to my parent's house in Kansas for Thanksgiving and stayed for 3 days. The girls did wonderful for the 6.5 hour trip one way. Thank God for a dvd player. We didn't know if it would make a difference because they have never sit still enough to enjoy television, but they were really into it! Whew!! What a livesaver. The girls had a great time with my niece Gabrielle and it was so nice for them to play together. Nana and Papa were a huge help as well. We got to sleep in a little each morning while my parents fed Cari and Jillian breakfast. It was so sweet to hear the girls giggling and having such a great time while we just layed in bed! Carli and Jillian started doing a little tumbling too while we were in Kansas.



We are now getting ready for Christmas in Greeley with Matt's family and are really looking forward to it. The girls should enjoy it more this year and may actually be interested in their gifts. Last year they were just excited about all of the wrapping paper as most 1 year olds are I'm sure. The girls love all of the pretty lights that we have up at our house and in all of the stores. They say, "Oooh, pretty!" They also like Santa, but we don't think they will sit on his lap. We have yet to try it this year. They can't really say Santa and insist that his name is, "Salsa". So cute!! Our neighbors have one of those inflatable Santas in their yard that seems to fall down everyday and the girls say, "Uh oh, Salsa fall." They are so worried about "Salsa" being hurt. It is too precious!

Here is a link to an updated album: http://picasaweb.google.com/mkcasseday/Winter2009#

Marathon Matt and Pumpkins!

Matt after the race. He didn't even look tired!

Matt ran a marathon a couple of weeks ago! He even did it with an injury. I was so proud of him. The amount of dedication that goes into running a race that long is incredible. He did great! I ran the final stretch with him...not really planning on it, but I was so proud of him that I wanted to get out there and give him that final "push." Matt's family came up to Denver to watch him run and provided a lot of support and he also had a couple of friends that road their bikes and cheered him on. They also gave him some Advil, which he was in desparate need of by the middle of the race. That was awesome! Here's the link to more pics of the marathon. Most of these were provided by Matt's brother, Bryan. Thanks Bryan! http://picasaweb.google.com/mkcasseday/MarathonMatt#


Happy Halloween! We carved a couple of pumpkins the other night. We wanted the girls to be a part of it, but they were pretty scared and I think we got started too late at night because they were pretty tired. Here are some pictures:


Jillian is not happy

Poor Carli. :-(

Matt carved the skull and I carved the bats.

More fall pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mkcasseday/Fall2009#

Big Update

I can't believe it's almost fall! The summer has really flown by. The girls are so big now and are an absolute blast. They take care of each other all of the time and are so helpful. We went to my grandma's house in Kansas for Labor Day weekend and Jillian was trying to climb up onto a chair. Carli went behind her and pushed her little bottom up to help her. It was so cute! They do little things like this all of the time. They hold hands, kiss and always get things for each other. When one is crying, the other either gets her blanket or rubs her back. It makes me want to cry sometimes because it is so sweet. Even when they are in a room with a lot of kids, they are always right next to each other. They are able to say all of these words: mommy, daddy, shoe, owie (this may not even be a word), sticker, cookie, doggie, ball, nannie or nonnie (what they call their blankets and not quite sure where this came from), eyes, ears, nose, mouth, toes, cracker, bye bye, hi, more, mine, bottle, night night, baby, sissy. Sissy is a big one because they say it all day, every day when they are trying to find their sister. Here are some videos:

Jillian on the left, Carli on right.

Carli Dancing to a Car's Radio Driving By

Also, here is a link to some photos. The new ones are towards the end of the folder: http://picasaweb.google.com/mkcasseday/Summer2009#

Zoo!

There were lots of fingerprints on the glass, so it was hard to get a good photo of this guy, but he was huge!

We went to the zoo over the July 4th weekend with my parents and man, was it a hot one! This was the girls' first time there. Jillian fell asleep halfway through the little excursion, but Carli got to see it all. She loved the little monkeys. Because it was such a busy day at the zoo, it was a little difficult to push the stroller up close to all of the exhibits, but we had a great time and it was nice to have the help from my parents.

We also got a little swimming pool for the girls to play in during the day. We didn't know how they would do since they both hate to get their hair washed in the bathtub and generally just don't like to get wet, but Jillian loves it. Carli doesn't quite know what to think yet. She doesn't like to be in the pool when Jillian is, so she just kind of goes in and out. We are going to a public pool today and I'll let you know how that goes!

Matt also got a video of Carli using a regular fork. When I saw the video I was worried that she was going to poke herself in the eye, but I guess he was watching her. Scary stuff though!

Here's some more pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mkcasseday/Summer2009#