Organization and Tidiness

Office Helpers 5
Originally uploaded by katiesgirls

So the girls are turning two in a little over a week, and Zach and I are FINALLY beginning to reclaim our house. We've been plugging along, making improvements and maintaining a reasonable level of tidiness, but there are always one or two areas which become neglected dumping grounds. For us, it was our OFFICE! By the second week of January, the desk was so piled with paper, I was beginning to feel the weight on my chest. There was a big drawer of papers "to be filed," which had been building up for almost 7 months and I dreaded having to go in that room. So we decided to go ahead and tackle the project. It took us about a week's worth of naptimes and late nights to work through the junk, and we ended up with a bankers' box worth of paper that needed shredding.

Working through that box, we kept overheating and overfilling the shredder, so I kept a black trashbag on the floor and popped in every so often to work on a stack of papers. Well, I left the baby gate open, and the girls discovered confetti. It was pretty hilarious and not too hard to clean up. The most difficult part is the shredding remnants that I am still finding in other rooms and stuck to random sweaters.

SNOW!

30Jan096
Originally uploaded by katiesgirls

We may be in a drought, but there's still snow! We drove the girls about an hour up the hill so they could play in the snow. It was their first time seeing the white stuff, though they somehow knew exactly what it was. I think books and TV had them clued in. Regardless, they were very excited to play in the snow. And very cute, too. Zach brought his skis and gave Victoria a little cross-country warm up. Constance enjoyed putting the snow in her mouth and kissing the snowdog that someone before us had built.

As usual for these two, Victoria was excited yet cautious, while Constance was thrilled to death. Can you guess who was more cold and wet when we got back in the car?

Lots more pictures at flickr!

Christmas

25Dec08xx17
Originally uploaded by katiesgirls

I just came across the pictures from Christmas last year, and I am totally blown away by how much the girls have changed in a year. Not only are they bigger and rowdier, but they are so much more aware of everything.

It started with the outdoor lights. Once Victoria had one look, it's all she wanted to see. We had to add 10 minutes to every trip in the car, just so we could drive around and see the lights. She even invented a word - "wa-dee." Not sure what she means by wadee, but we think it's something like pretty. Also, she's learned what snow is, and she seems to think it will be outside our window every morning. She's never seen the real thing. I think we should take them soon.

Christmas was wonderful. All four of them. Wait. We have a fifth Christmas coming up still, at Ian and Vickie's. We leave tomorrow morning, and I can't wait to see the Smith family. We're going to celebrate Zach's birthday at Disneyland, which will be so wonderful with Constance and Victoria.

Click the flickr link on the right to see more pictures, most from our celebration with the Cullivan side. I still need to get the rest off my Dad's camera.

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Constance & friends watch the parade.