A few short videos...

Ruby is at a fun age and has really been enjoying her toys! As you can see from the video below, Maggie has been having fun with Ruby's toys too! I'm on spring break this week and it has been so nice spending the days with my girls!! Monday we met some friends at the Children's Museum, today we went up to Chux for lunch and Wednesday we are meeting Toni and the kids at Pump It Up for the toddler play time. Should be fun! I posted a few more random pics in the picasa web album. Ruby just started crawling last week! I will post some video of her in action soon!

Happy St. Patrick's Day 2011!

The girls were all decked out in green thanks to a little package that arrived in the mail from Grandma Alice!

Happy Valentines Day 2011

Valentines Day was a lot of fun this year! We made heart cookies over the weekend and frosted them pink to give to the guys at Chux. Maggie filled her little treat bags for her friends at daycare and was very excited to give Cheryl some flowers! Normally Maggie has a hard time waking up on Monday mornings, but not this morning! We topped of the day with a little dinner at the Park Tavern!
Ruby will be 6 months next week! She is so much fun- giving us lots of smiles, squeals, and giggles! She loves to roll and will roll clear across the room if you let her! She is just starting to push herself up to crawling position, and it won't be long before she's off!
More pics were added to the Picasa web album.

Christmas in January!

This is a picture from the gorgeous cabin that Grandma and Grandpa rented for us all! It was beautiful, on Clear Lake in the town of Clear Lake, Iowa. It was a perfect gathering spot- we each had our own bedroom and bathroom and there was lots of space to hang out. Also, it was about half way between here and Omaha. The kids had a blast together! We woke up Saturday morning had a nice breakfast and then the kids all opened up their presents from Christmas. They had a great time playing with their new toys and running up and down from the basement play area. Even though the cabin was pretty big, the volume level got quite high from time to time with 8 little ones running around!! Well, make that 7- Rubie wasn't keeping up with them quite yet! Grandma and Grandpa brought some GREAT food, we watched some football including a Packers win, played a few games of Farkel, tried to play with the kids outside (it was very, very cold!) and sat out in the hot tub overlooking the lake! That was one of my favorite parts! Oh, and I learned how to play cribbage! Very fun, and not as difficult as I thought it would be! I will download the rest of the pictures from the weekend into picasa when I have a little more time.

Happy New Year!!! 2011

The Souvigniers rang in the New Year at Boyd Lodge this year. Thanks to Bill & Bernie for the weekend! We had a blast! The Cross Lake area just received a bunch of snow right before we arrived which coated the trees- it looked looked beautiful! Our lodge was perfect- Chuck loved tending to the fire which made for a warm and cozy cabin! We had a great time sledding down the hill to the lake, cross country skiing on the groomed trails, and Chuck and Maggie took a quick soak in the hot tub (it wasn't too hot so Maggie loved it!) We had delicious food all weekend with the highlight being a Raclette dinner. The Souvigniers are known to fondue every Christmas, but this was something new to us and really good! It consisted of lots of great veggies and meat, with really good cheese melted on top of it all in your own personal pan- you cook it yourself right at the table. Because it's hard to explain, I'll include the Wikipedia link on it if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette
We also had some heated games of Farkle and lots of good laughs! It was such a fun weekend- a great way to enjoy the winter!!

Merry Christmas 2010

Christmas morning getting ready for church!
Our little Rudolph!
Ruby's 1st Christmas!!
Merry Christmas! Wow, Christmas through the eyes of a two year old is pretty amazing! It was just heart warming to see her excitement and see her get caught up with the magic of the season. We heard a lot of "Is Santa coming tomorrow?" So, we decided to make a paper chain and tear off a link each morning so that she would understand how much longer she had to wait. Also, we had a lot of fun with the Elf on the Shelf (a great gift from Aunt Terese and Uncle Chad). The elf goes away each night to the North Pole to report to Santa on how Maggie has been behaving. Each morning he comes back to a different location in the house and Maggie gets to find him. Maggie loved waking up each morning and looking for "G", that's what she named him.
This year Christmas Eve fell on a Friday, so Chuck took the whole day off! Santa came a little early to the Souvignier house- the night before Christmas Eve, we set out cookies and carrots and a small glass of milk. Low and behold, Christmas Eve morning, the glass was empty and there were just a few crumbs left- even the carrots were gone! The stockings were full and there were presents under the tree. Maggie had fun opening up her gifts, she helped me make blueberry pancakes and we all had a nice, lazy morning. Later that day, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Souvignier's house. Chris, Jen, Jack and Ali were all there too. The kids had a great time playing together, they opened up their gifts and then watched a movie while we had a wonderful fondue dinner. We took our time and enjoyed the meal and then put the kids to bed. We all spent the night and then went to mass on Christmas morning. After church, we headed out to see the Demullings. Great Grandma Hellen had everyone over. It was fun to see my aunts, uncles, and cousins. After a nice lunch there, a few gifts, and of course the dice game, we went back to Grandma and Grandpa Demullings where Maggie had even more gifts to open. She definitely got her fair share of presents this year!! We spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa Demullings. Chuck woke up with a horrible case of the stomach flu and we headed home the next day. Luckily the rest of us didn't get it and we were able to enjoy the rest of our week off!

There are lots of pics in the picasa web album from the past couple of months.

Thankgiving 2010

Can you tell I went back to work?!? I'm just now posting my Thanksgiving picture and Christmas is only a couple of days away! I've been back to work now for about a month, and Ruby seems to be doing well at Daycare. Maggie fills me in on how the day goes the best that she can and Cheryl (her daycare provider) says the girls are doing great!
We had a nice Thanksgiving this year. We stopped by Chris and Jen's for a little bit and then headed out to my aunt Carol's where most of the extended Demulling family was. It was great to see everyone! Mom had another Thanksgiving get-together on Saturday too. Frank and the boys, Margo and Dan, Jack & Lori, Great Aunt Jean, And Great Grandma Demulling all joined us. Trent and Aimee and the kids made it up this year too and Toni and D and the kids were also there. It was fun for all of the cousins to get together!
Quick updates on how the girls are doing:
Maggie is 2 and a half now and talking up a storm. Sometimes when we get home from work/ daycare I will give her a hug and tell her I missed her. Now, every once in a while she will give me a hug and say that all on her own......so sweet! She is very sweet with Ruby too. She likes to run and get Ruby's blanky and cover her up with it, hold her hand, and if Ruby is crying she runs over to her and tries to calm her by bouncing her in her seat or rocking her in her carrier. It's cute to listen to her talk "baby talk" to her. She always needs tell Ruby goodnight and give her a kiss before bed. Maggie is also getting pretty good at the alphabet. She knows all of her capital letters (since August) and is working on her lower-case now. She also is working on grasping her skinny markers so that she can start writing letters. She is out of diapers (since October) YEAH!!
Ruby is smiling like crazy!! It's so fun to make her giggle. There is no better sound in the world than that! She is getting big and has her 4 month apt in a few days. We will be starting rice cereal with her soon! I can't believe how fast the time has gone! Right now she really likes to be upright, so the excersaucer and the johnny jumper are her favorite places to be (besides mommy's arms!)