Our special day at the House of Bounce!

We decided to stay close to home on our special day and made our first trip to the House of Bounce in Rochester. Likely because we went on a weekday at 2:30 pm, we completely lucked out and basically had the whole place to ourselves. As you can guess, our first response to this place with these massive blow up jumping things was completely opposite....

One of us could not move fast enough to get inside the first one that caught her eye, a princess one...

One of us was a bit more hesitant...

Papa was able to join us on the larger ones, which included going down very large slides...
This would be E...
This would be M...

By the end, fun was had by all...

Including our little brother who enjoyed watching us giggle and squeal with excitement...

We topped our day off by going out for a favorite; pizza and special birthday sundaes. It is looking good to be 3!
Love, ME

Happy 3rd Birthday to ME!!!

Look who is 3...


Papa and Mama are looking at this over, and over, and over because it is way too hard to believe!

Eleanor...you continue to be our more sensitive one. You have moments of extreme silliness when you make the best faces and also have moments when you are really loud. You love to sing while looking at yourself in the mirror. You are extremely particular about everything and do not like to get dirty (envision your approach at eating a s'mores this summer at the cabin - you kept it on the plate on the edge of the table and then took small bites using only your mouth so your hands wouldn't get sticky). You prefer "regular milk" and always state this at meal time. Your favorite breakfast food is sausage. You still are the early morning bird with Papa. You also have recently gotten into a routine of coming into Papa and Mama's bed around 3 am when you snuggle-in close to Papa until he gets up, with your frequently getting up at the same time.



Madelaine...you continue to be our more aggressive one, or as we sometimes call it "passionate" one. You move fast, talk fast, are extremely dramatic and can turn your temper tantrums into hugs and kisses (and vice versa) without blinking an eye. You love to dance and are quite coordinated with your twirls and jumps. While you are particular about things, you do not mind getting dirty. In fact, you appear to enjoy it especially while eating. You prefer chocolate or strawberry milk. Your favorite food is ranch dressing, and while you use it for dipping vegetables, chicken strips, etc. you also have a tendency to wear it ear to ear when done. You still are the late night owl with Mama and when you are up late, you like to suggest Mama makes popcorn. You have recently been doing a great job of staying in your bed all night long!

You both have been wonderful big sisters to your little brother, Theodore. You both love all things Dora! You both love music and dancing. You both enjoy reading books, doing puzzles, coloring, using stickers and glue sticks, and as of late cutting with your scissors. You enjoy working on counting, singing your ABC's, and recently have started to enjoy drawing shapes. You also have vivid imaginations and we frequently hear you reference each other as Kayla and Kalle (not sure where these names come from), having campfires or picnics somewhere in the house, playing restaurant, etc. etc.

The above is only a short list. You keep us busy but in the best way ever and we love you to the moon and back!!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from M, E, and T!

We did cheese fondue again this year for dinner and even added a chocolate fondue for dessert! In addition to food, we played games and as always had FUN! Our New Year came early as it should for at least awhile, yes, and started at 8pm...bedtime!

The absolute best part of 2011...

So here are CHEERS...

With SMILES...
HUGS...

KISSES...

And WISHES for a wonderful 2012!

Love,

The Gore Family

Christmas 2011, Theodore's 1st!

As is typical, the holidays go by way too fast and each year brings more anticipation, excitement, and a wish from Papa and Mama that we could just hold on to these moments longer being they are so wonderful...even the chaos of having 4 celebrations in 2 days! Christmas Eve again took us to Great-Grandma Ollie's house with no travel difficulties due to absolutely no snow (we walked across yards when making the 1-block trip to church...crazy)! This year, being almost 3 yo, ME did a wonderful job during the church service (very much enjoying singing the songs) and got to participate in the candlelight singing of Silent Night...with Papa's watchful eye.

One could have called us Angels...

E not wanting to participate...

Mama and her favorite "little"man...
The girl cousins posing after they realized they each had polka dots on their Christmas pajamas when getting ready for the trip home...

Theodore's first Christmas was all things expected. Some interest in ripping the paper but content to let his older sisters help do the rest.
He did what he does best...just be cute!

ME wanted cameras from Santa, a pink request for M and a orange request for E to be specific, so that is what he delivered and we have been snapping away ever since...
Papa's favorite gift for you girls was ice skates and go figure they make pink hockey skates these days, so of course that is the color he had to get!

Again we were showered with gifts (thanks to everyone, we love them all and Mama is still trying to find space) and though we don't quite yet grasp it, the most important thing and best gift of all was the time spent with our family while celebrating the birth of Jesus!

Love, M E & T

Our Santa visit 2011!

Hola! We were all excited to visit Santa, saying that we wanted to show him our wonderful Dora Feliz Navidad shirts...
When our turn arrived, however, our tune quickly changed and we no longer wanted to sit on his lap. We did agree to get close enough for Santa to give us a "Nice list" stamp on our arm so we are making progress from last year and maybe next year will be the year!



Poor Theodore again had no choice and had to take part in the obligatory Santa visit...

Thanks Santa Claus for your patience x3!

Love, ME & T

Happy 8-months to Teddy!

Hello all! So on the day I turned 8-mo I got my first flu bug. Not to place blame, but I do believe it likely came from my sisters who happened to have a 24-hr flu bug 2 days prior. Mine, however lasted just over 3 days and though it did involve some no fun throwing up I mostly just didn't want to eat (which is not at all like me). I am happy to say, however, that I am back to eating what often seems like more than my big sisters!

I continue to grow longer, inching close to being out of 12-mo clothing and into the next size! I also recently got new shoes and was measured as needing a size 5...yes, that is correct, and the woman at the shoe store said that kids with this size feet are typically walking! We are anxious to see what my 9-mo MD stats will be.

I continue to love music, love "peek" and also love "so big" games...

With my sisters being Dora fans, I am known as Swiper in this house being I love to get my hands on everything and anything, which has included some flying bowls of food on my highchair tray!

I continue to drool, drool, drool (as you can likely see the wets spots on my onesie in the pics) but still no teeth popping up yet. I have also become very interested in feeding myself and am doing a good job of using a pincer grasp to pick up cereal, crackers, etc. One more thing which has really heightened this month...stranger anxiety and my attachment to a certain someone in our house (MAMA). She doesn't seem to mind it, though, so I am planning on seeing how long we can make it last!

Holiday Hugs!
Theodore

Getting into the spirit...

Let us start by apologizing for what you will soon find to be a long post. Mama is attempting to get caught up, only likely to fall behind again with Christmas seeming way too close these days! All that is left is Theodore's 8-month post...unbelievable...we just cannot figure out where time is going!!!

We are really into the holiday season this year. We love listening and singing Christmas songs (favorites being Rudolph, Frosty, Joy to the World (E you are really good at belting this one out). We also have enjoyed Christmas movies and recently watched The Polar Express for the first time and loved every minute. Another favorite is Christmas decorations.

To help us get into the spirit we attended the Festival of Trees on Thanksgiving weekend. This was our 3rd trip, Teddy's first, and we all had favorite trees picked out...

I cannot remember exact name of M's but it obviously had a magician theme...

E loved the Rudolph tree, especially Rudolph himself sitting next to the tree

Theodore found all the rubber ducks to be quite entertaining, though he really wanted to put each one in his mouth - no thanks!

Santa was at the event but only Theodore got near, likely because he had no choice being you can see his expression wasn't one of enjoyment...

Next up was getting out the decorations at home. We decided this year we were old enough to have a small tree in our room and have really had fun going to sleep with the lights on. We also have stockings in our room and think Santa should fill these as well as those on the mantle...haha

Theodore providing his input...

The finished project...

After this fun afternoon experience, we decided to just stick with putting up one more tree downstairs (the pre-hinged, pre-lit big tree) and forgo putting up Mama's first big tree which is individual branches, string lights, etc. Maybe next year we will be ready for this!

We were anxious to dive in the next morning and carefully set up our nativity scene, though we still migrate to the more fun breakable ones (Mama recently found a baby Jesus located on top of the manger...I suppose this could have been the case)

We also found some other holiday decorations downstairs and had to wear them around for awhile...if one thing is for sure it is that you can always count on us for a laugh, or 2, or 3!!!

Someone else also enjoys his silly sisters!

Carefully prepping the main tree...

The grand finale tree presentation...Martha Stewart style, Toddler Version x2

Thankfully a little elf came that night and redistributed the bottom row and added some decorations on the top.

Christmas is upon us, except we are really hoping to have some more white stuff. The one and only accumulation we had was a lot of fun but it is already all gone...

And though I didn't make it outside to play, I did think I looked pretty cute with a hat on...

Happy Holidays!
Love, M,E, & T