This summer I made sidewalk paint also, and that turned out really well too. I like making Addy things like that. 1. Because its cheaper than buying the Crayola stuff, and 2. I like knowing exactly what is in them just in case she decides to eat some of it. I don't like all the chemicals, etc!! Let me know if you want any of the recipes that I have used!
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Happy New Year to all of our blog followers!! Amazing how fast the last 10 years have gone by. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that we were celebrating the new millennium.
Anyways...the holidays were good for us here in the Scharlau household. We actually had a pretty quiet holiday season. My family was in Florida for the holidays, so we celebrated our Christmas with them last weekend. So we had Christmas Eve and all of Christmas Day to ourselves. Christmas Day night was spent at Tom's moms for the big Scharlau family Christmas.
Christmas was more fun this year than in the past. Having kids make Christmas so much fun! Addison was into looking at Christmas lights and decorating the tree this year. She really enjoyed opening her presents (and everyone elses), too. Santa brought Addison a play kitchen for Christmas, which she loves. Her favorite things to make are eggs, pizza and coffee! She's very cute to watch while she is "cooking"!
Our little Addison...hard to believe she'll be THREE soon! What a fun (but very trying at times) age. She is a very smart little girl and amazes us all the time with the things that she says and does. She is very good with her colors, shapes, etc., so we have been working on our counting, singing songs and learning to share. Sharing with her little sister mostly. I'm not sure yet if Addison likes being a big sister. Sometimes she is very sweet to Alivia and wants to hug her and play with her. Other times, well...she is just not so nice. Taking things away from Alivia, pushing her away when she gets into things. I'm sure its all typical for a 2 1/2 year old. Those of you with kids who watch Sesame Street may have seen the episode about "mine-itis". We definitely have a case of "mine-itis" in our house! Everything belongs to her, even if its not hers. I'm sure it will only get worse as Alivia gets older and gets into more of Addison's stuff!!
On to Alivia. Livy is now 7 months old and is a girl on the move!! She has finally figured out how to coordinate her arms and legs and get to where she wants to go by crawling! The first week of January she started taking a few "steps" crawling, but on Sunday (her 7 month birthday), she took off across the living room! This past week she has even started pulling herself up to standing on toys or other things on the floor, she hasn't made it to the furniture yet.
Alivia has been on solid foods here for a few months, and she loves to eat! I've been trying to make some of her food. I haven't been as diligent about it as I was with Addison. Time seems to be a factor these days, so I haven't done as much as I would like.
Livy just had her 6 month(7 month) pediatrician appointment this past week. She is weighing in at 17 lb 4 oz.(60th percentile) and is 29 inches tall(99th percentile)!! The doctor said she is as tall as the average one year old. Which would explain why she has now moved on to the 12 month clothes! Luckily she has grown at about the same rate as Addison, so we haven't had to buy much of anything for Alivia. Hopefully we'll make it to the end of the winter here without having to buy anything new!
The girls have both had mild colds this past week. Just a couple of runny noses. I'm hoping to make it through the winter season without having any major illness. I feel we are pretty lucky to have made it this far with just ONE cold each! (Now that I have said that, I'm sure we'll get something!)
I'm very ready for spring to be here. I think we are all tired of being cooped up in the house. It's been too cold to be outside much. Addy loves to be outside and enjoys playing in the snow. The last few days have been a little warmer (into the low 30's), so we have ventured outside for short periods of time. I wish we could get her outside more often to burn off some of that energy that she always seems to have! I'm ready to be outside more too. I look forward to my flowers coming up and to doing some planting and rearranging around our yard.
I hope this post finds all of you doing well!
She's a climber!
Happy Birthday Addy and Livy!!
Livia's first cupcake!
Addy enjoyed hers too!
Auntie Hannah and Addison comparing princess rings which came on the cupcakes...
New wagon for their birthdays! Addy was checking out the storage compartment to see how many "friends" (aka stuffed animals and ANYTHING else she can fit in her arms) she can take with her! Alivia just had this same smile on her face when we took it out for a spin!
My two beautiful little girls! I'm a lucky momma!
Hannah and her boyfriend Matt taking pictures before prom. 
The girls were starting to wonder if Auntie Hannah would ever get Matts flower pinned on! And if she could do it without drawing blood! :)
May 15th Tom's sister Sherry passed away after a long battle with breast and multiple other forms of cancer. So our first long(er) road trip with the girls was up to the Hayward area, in northern Wisconsin, about a 5 1/2 hr drive. It was close enough to Alivia's birthday, so we decided it was time to turn her car seat around. It would have been a REALLY long car ride with her facing backwards! 
This trip fell pretty close to Addison's 3rd birthday and she needed some things to entertain her during the long car ride, so she got to open some birthday presents early. She got a Leapfrog Tag Junior so she could read books by herself in the back seat. She LOVED it! She got some new coloring books and markers. She also got a new Disney Princess sleeping bag, since we were all going to have to sleep in the same room for a few nights. All four of us sleeping in the same room actually didn't go too bad. There is something about the air up north that makes you sleep so well at night! Even with freight trains going by at 2 a.m.! 
The girls really did great in the car. About 30 minutes before we were to arrive at our final destination of Lemington, WI, I turned around and this is what I saw!
It was quite hot out one day so we got out the sprinkler and let the girls play. They both had a lot of fun, but boy was the water COLD!!
Addison on her birthday
After dinner (her favorite meal, spaghetti and garlic bread), we all went to Gillies to get Addy some frozen custard! Yum!
Every Memorial Day weekend, down at the lakefront, there is a kite festival. So we took the girls down. There were lots of people flying their own kites (including us), but there are also teams that go to competitions that were performing. It really is a fun time. Addy had fun trying to get the kite up in the air, and Alivia just sat back and took it all in.
Different day now...After Alivia woke up from her morning nap, I decided to go for a run. Addy decided she just HAD to wear her rainboots. They looked so cute, the two of them, in the jogging stroller so I had to take a picture!!
My little Livia-such a cutie!
Easter
Easter
Easter
Addy all dressed up with her blonde clip-on hair extension, her rain boots, backpack and some lovely jewelry! :)
Livy discovered that she LOVES to be outside! It's so much fun to run through the clothes that are hanging out to dry on the clothes line and check out all the plants and flowers that are starting to come up!
Addy and her friend Lilly having a picnic in the front yard on a nice day
Alivia didn't waste any time figuring out how to climb!
Liv loves to get into EVERYTHING now that she is mobile!! 
Is she her daddy or what?
This is the "Uh,mom, she's touching me" picture! :) Livy just loves her big sister Addy!!
Playing out in the snow this past week. It got up to about 40 degrees! Yay for melting snow!!
New Years Eve activities. We ran out of time at Christmas (and had too many other sweets around!) so we decorated gingerbread men! Oh how our New Years Eve's have changed....
Yum, oatmeal and bananas!
Christmas Day night. I think Addison was coming down from her sugar high after all the cookies she swiped off the table!!
I made finger paints for Addison. They turned out pretty good! I did find out, however, that they are really only good for that day. I had tried to store them (maybe I should have put them in the fridge), but they got kinda stinky! 
