27 December 2008
Christmas this year was spent in Florida. The Mahnkes joined us from England, so it was a house full. Kayla and Julia of course, couldn’t get enough of everyone. Julia especially took to random snuggling of her cousin Owen.
80 degree Florida weather wouldn’t be complete without lots of time spent in the pool. Ryan and Owen loved to hang on Peter in the pool and they are really becoming good swimmers.
All the kids got to meet Santa, and it was K & J’s first time. Julia wasn’t too sure what to make of it all, but both girls really liked the candy canes that Santa’s helper gave out.
On Christmas eve day we all took sail. The girls mostly hung out below but seemed to have a great time down there.
When we arrived back at the house, we were suprised to see that Santa had come. There were four super smiling kids. We of course made everyone go swimming before we could open any presents.
Besides the Christmas craziness, we went to the pool a lot, hit the beach a couple of times, and had lots of fun hanging out.
It was really nice to visit with the whole Mahnke crew again. England is so far away, especially with little ones.
18 December 2008
Here are the girls with a snowy backyard. Kayla is signing “snow” as it is snowing out there. This was our second close to home sledding day so far.
14 December 2008
It snowed last night, so the girls and I went out to play. Kayla first tried out her skis in the backyard, then we took the sled over to the Maple Leaf park. We were the first ones there.
Julia got cold pretty quick, so we went home, warmed up with hot chocolate and then went back out. Such troopers.
Eating snow, is of course, as much fun as sledding. Both girls found their shard of snow to eat.
1 December 2008
Julia’s language has really taken off in the last few days. Maybe that’s why she didn’t sleep on Wednesday night. She has been talking for some time now, but it just sounds more polished (for lack of a better description) lately. Sometimes I hear her little voice talking and it just sounds funny coming from such a little person. Her new phrase today was asking me what I was doing, and after I responded I’d ask her what she was doing, and she’d say “hanging out”. I’m not even sure where she got that from. Julia loves jumping in puddles taking walks, and lately likes to put her hands in her pockets. She loves going to the playground and can often pretty acurately describe what she did during the day with 1 word descriptions, such as zoo, puddles, walk, etc. Though she often says “playground” even if we haven’t been that day.
Kayla also has grown developmentally. Her understanding of concepts is much larger and she really is branching out from the concrete understanding. She loves to play “haircut”, “trick or treat”, being pregnant (yikes), playing with her friends, being a cat and being walked on a leash, and playing picnic. Kayla is interested in helping whenever we are cooking or baking, and has often made her own little quiche whenever Tim makes one. She loves to talk on the phone and often answers the phone for us. The girls can both play well together when they want to, and Kayla likes to lead “music class” and “dance class” and sometimes even “core class”.