Our Four Front Teeth

London and Maddie have been walking around the house singing 'all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth' (with a little help from me!) because about a week ago, we noticed that both of them are getting their top front teeth. Interesting...what will our kids look like with teeth? It's just so funny how they do everything, and I mean everything together, including which teeth come in and when. Even less ways for the nursery leaders to tell them apart! (We think they plan it out that way.)



I tried really hard to get them to show their teeth, but all I got were Maddie's tongue and this little smirk from Londie. Notice in all of these pictures her lips are sealed!


I said top teeth, Maddie! We've already seen your bottom teeth...


Just so you know, Grandma--here's how cute we look in the outfits you gave us!

Our Little Comedians

Santa must know what our girls' favorite past time is because he brought them Strawberry Shortcake bubble bath! Maddie was a little hesitant at first, as she always is trying new things, but she soon got the hang of it. Needless to say, the whole experience for me was hilarious! These girls really know how to ham it up for the camera! Here are just a few of the silliest poses I have ever seen!

Happy Holidays

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We enjoyed Christmas morning here at our house, and spent later in the day with my parents. It was great to be with family. We don't have a whole lot of pictures of Christmas because in the rush to get out the door, I forgot my camera. So capturing Christmas was all in the hands of Aunt Heather, from whom we are waiting to hear back. In any event, I wanted to get these adorable dresses the girls wore to church on Christmas Eve posted. They were little angels!


All the Barlow girls in front of the tree.



Londie and her Christmas bear.


Maddie discovered (and shattered) these red balls from the tree.


And later settled in for a little nap with dad. I was surprised she stayed there with Ryan out cold and all, and with her being wide awake.

Honey Family Reunion

Here we are at the Honey family reunion in Mt. Pleasant last Saturday. The girls finally got to meet some of their new cousins (once removed? second cousins?) and catch up with the ones they already knew. There was quite a competitive basketball game, which London tried to join and in turn was hit on the head with a basketball. Which event sparked the building of a little baby cage, or should we say baby JAIL to those who found themselves enclosed. All in all, we had a wonderful time.


Cousin Madison found herself sandwiched between the twins, and looks a little worried to me. Yes, that is Leon peeking his head into the picture!


Oh, your name's Maddie, too?



Cousins! L-R Leon, Shaun, London, Madison, Madelyn


The girls haven't really discovered girl talk yet, so they just read books and stared at each other.


Yi Chin played this instrument for us; the name of it is Chinese and I won't even attempt it so the picture will have to suffice.


And here we are in the baby jail, which was more of a jail to the parents trying to keep the kids inside than to the kids, if you know what I mean.




This occurance was so random I had to scale the walls and grab the camera. A relief for London, Maddie has found someone who likes to wrestle as much as she does! (Shaun!)

Bottoms Up!

Tonight before bed I gave Maddie what I thought was going to be a sip of my egg nog and well, these pictures tell the rest of the story...


As you can see, she grabbed the cup and pretty much chugged the whole thing.


This girl likes her egg nog!


Don't even think about taking this cup away, dad.


Stopping only for short breaks to breathe...


Oh--Londie would like to announce that she's part of this family too, and that she tried the egg nog and did not think it was very good.


Don't worry London, we think you are just as funny as your sister.


Maddie's whole face was covered and dripping, but she still persisted...


And....done! More please!

'Tis the Season

Those of you who have been in our living room lately might be wondering where all the Barlow Christmas spirit is, and the answer is: safe in the basement. It's about time we showed off our tree at least somewhere, because hidden in the bowels of the basement it's not getting a lot of visitors. Yes, I said basement, as in FINALLY FINISHED! So here are some pictures of our tree, decorated from about Maddie's head up. I kept some of the safe ornaments on the bottom, and knew I was completely justified the day Maddie used the lights as a lasso and Londie used the acorn ornaments as num chucks. We have also had to rewrap a few presents.





We got these little lounge chairs for Christmas from James and Lonna! We love them and obviously have put them to good use. L & M show us how it's done. Oh, by the way, Maddie still has legs, she's just wearing the same color sweat pants as the chair. Because I know we were a little worried about that one.

Acrobats

The other day I came home upon this bizarre scene. London on the couch, Maddie on the floor, and Ryan on the other couch, laughing. He asked me if I could figure out how London got on the couch. Any ideas? Apparently, the answer is: climbed on Maddie! I'm not sure exactly how it happened, seeing as I missed the important part, but the end picture and Ryan's little recap are funny enough. Maddie the footstool. Typical.

Mountain Goats

It seems our girls have discovered a new hobby: mountain climbing. These days they climb just about everything from couches to the benches at church and most recently, our two flights of stairs. That's right, leave the baby gate open for a second and they have already made it to the basement. Maddie has also tried to make an escape UNDER the gate, but gets stuck halfway--can't get out, can't get back. In which case she usually recruits Londie to go for help, but on occasion I come upon my two crying, frantic girls, stuck at the top of the steps.

Tortilla Soup

Saturday night when we had the sister missionaries here for dinner, an interesting phenomenon occurred. London must have been watching pretty closely to all the chip dipping going on with the tortilla soup, because when we got her out of her high chair, she had at it! She knew just what to do--she picked up a chip, dipped it in the soup, licked the chip and went back for a double dip. Who knew? I tell you, these kids are little sponges.

Santa is Scary!

I had been looking forward to taking the girls to see Santa at the mall ever since before Thanksgiving when the lines were a mile long even then. Well, yesterday we happened to be at the mall and noticed--no line! So we let London and Madelyn walk through the waiting area by themselves. They seemed excited, doing their usual dancing and hopping and singing, then we got to Santa. We started to put them in Santa's lap and they both started screaming bloody murder! Real tears and all, which is the giveaway. Well, we thought we could at least slip away for a second for the photographer to snap a shot, but Maddie arched her back and tried to make an escape. All the while both girls crying like the world is coming to an end. To make a long story short, this is how mom ended up in the picture and why, well, nobody was smiling.

Candy Canes are Sticky

On the drive home, L & M were pretty quiet in the backseat trying to recover from the Santa trauma and sucking on their candy canes. Suddenly, London started screaming. We looked back to find her carseat tipped halfway over and Maddie with a fistful of London's hair! I frantically tried to get Maddie's hand away from the death grip on her sister, only to find the hair was stuck to her hand, still sticky from the candy cane! Needless to say, London lost a handful of her cute little blonde hair, which was stuck to Maddie's hand for the rest of the drive home. I guess this was just a continuation of the drama we experienced from seeing Santa.