First Day

I could get all philosophical and say, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life," but isn't that EVERY day? However, today IS Maura's first day of 1st grade :) Here's my little rock star on our way to school:

Love that kid!

We're BAAAAAACK!

I won't bore you with a lot of "talking," I'll just put captions on the pictures. Enjoy!

Maura got to go ice skating for a friend's birthday

Teagan's 2nd birthday


Maura got more makeup for Teagan's birthday

The girls' birthday party

Teags had to rock Baby in her new rocking chair

Cake!



Sugar coma...

And, a 2 year old hyped up on sugar...

With me being off on Fridays again, Teagan and I have been having play-dates at the Children's Discovery Museum

Teagan and Annika

Future farm girl



Our beautiful girls on Valentine's Day


Maura on her 6th birthday

Maura lost her first tooth!

Even thought she's allergic, Miss M still loves those kitties! (Aw, Indy's such a good boy!)

Easter





You just never know where the wall might go when you're sleeping!

Trip to Brookfield Zoo with Aiden, Ella, and Emelyn

Avery came to visit for a day


...and wore Teagan out!

Random shots of Teagan:
Piggies!

She just couldn't decide which glasses to wear

She decided to go UNDER Aunt Tara

Sweet girl


So, we'll try to post more often, but I'm not making any promises ;)

100th Post!

This is the 100th blog post by the Russell Fam. Wow! And you're still reading it. Awesome!

Not much to report. Just some cute pics :)

Teagan's adventure in pizza:


Poor baby had to soak in a couple of sitz baths. However, we put some Elmo on, and she was good to go. (Someday she will appreciate that her little bitty booty could fit in a bowl!):

If you remember, Maura got make-up for Christmas. She wants to play with it ALL THE TIME. Thankfully, Teagan is a willing participant. I think Maura needs a little more practice before becoming a professional make-up artist:

About a year and a half ago, I thought I'd grow my hair out a little. After a while, I figured I may as well grow it long. As of this morning, it was as long as it's been since high school!
Before:


Since I don't do anything chemically to my hair, and I have SO much, I thought it would be nice to donate it once it grew long enough. Well, today was the day! Julie, my hair stylist, was able to cut two 8-9 inch ponytails. Now I just have to decide where to send it :)
After:



We have a pretty big weekend coming up - Teags and I will get to visit my friend, Becki, and her little boy on Friday. Saturday is the ISU-Bradley game, so there will be lots of festivities! And Sunday, Daddy and Maura get to attend a soccer clinic while Teags and I have lunch with my friend, Shyla. What a great weekend we have planned!!! Yay!

We hope everyone has a wonderful rest of their week and weekend!

Is it really almost 2010???

Where did the time go? Oh wait, we have 2 kids - I think the time literally melts away.

Maura's made it through the first half of Kindergarten. Wow. Can you even believe it? She LOVES to read and do math. What a kid! The 2009-2010 ISU Men's Basketball has begun. The girls are loving going to the games...and seeing Reggie! Teagan's cruising along. It's hard to fathom that she's almost 23 months! Talking and singing up a storm - and starting to potty train. She's been ready since about September - unfortunately, this is the first time our life's been calm enough to do it. She's such a big girl!

We had a wonderful Christmas! The girls made out like bandits - as usual ;) Next "holidays" up: the February birthdays! That should be exciting!

Okay, enough of my blah-blah-blahing. Here are the pics you've been waiting for (Sorry, there are a lot!):

Reggie Fans:



Hangin' with Aiden at Bass Pro Shop (yep, you read that right):



Teags and her cousin, Aidan, playing us some tunes on Thanksgiving:

The girls, just looking cute:

It's true...we were really kid-free! Didn't we look relaxed?

Christmas Eve...Oh, Debbie - can you believe she hadn't even been drinking???

Christmas Morning


"Teagan, look what you got!" Maura's such a good big sister (most of the time).


Santa must have thought the kids were good this year!





Later in the day, Tutu, Papa Bert, and Aunt Tara came to celebrate with us. The festivities were in full swing!


We then had to model our presents from the Derr family.
Wonder Woman was here to save us...or something like that:

The Bumblebee had a very important call:

We couldn't be bothered to get out of our costumes to try everything else out.
Tucking the baby in, with plenty of toys:

Letting Maura try out her make-up on Teags:

We tried to get pics of Aunt Tara with her favorite nieces.
Successful:

Not so much:

Some randoms of the last few days -
Feeding the baby:

Playing with the (huge) dollhouse:

Cute girl:

And the infamous Buckethead:


(I've got more random pictures, but I have to get them off my phone. I'll post 'em when I figure that out!)

Have a fantastic and safe New Year!