February

Our two little ladies love to snuggle in the morning with their cups o' jugo de manzana.  Caroline is pretty much a beast until she gets hers {kind of like me and my coffee}.  She loves it so much that we shelled out quite a pretty penny for Mott's while we were in Colombia (which just so happens to be the land of delicious, exotic  fresh-squeezed juice of many varieties.  Girl knows what she likes.

Luisa has learned our morning routine, signing "thirsty" as soon as my foot hits the bottom stair in the morning.  She then points to the couch.  Once deposited there, she is aiming that finger at the TV.  Two cups of juice, once cup of coffee, and an episode of Mickey/Backyardigans/Jake/pick-your-favorite-animated-22-minute-show are consumed.  

The weather in February gave us a few chances to venture outdoors.  There was much swinging, always with shouts of, "Higher!"  We tested out the ant farm they got for Christmas.  Unfortunately, the ants only lived about 24 hours.  It was fun while it lasted.  They actually made quite a few tunnels in that amount of time,  Industrious little short-lived boogers that they are.

Nana and Grumpa came into town for a visit.  Caroline had been asking to visit the Vulcan (a statue of the Roman god of the forge, the world's largest cast iron statue, built to honor Birmingham's iron industry) every time she sees it looming above us as we drive around town.  Philip had never been and I hadn't since high school, so we thought a trip was in order.  We took the elevator to the top, but chose to count the stairs on the way down.  I've forgotten how many, but it was a lot.  :)

View from the top

Who would prefer walking to riding on shoulders?

Nana and the girls

We also made a few visits to a local park.  Luisa is able to get up the stairs or ramp, slide down the slide, and do it again all on her own.  This day we were there with her friend Cooper, who alternates running around chasing Caroline and crawling all over the place with Luisa (he is already a little ladies' man).  I assure you that the red shirts were not intentional, although I guess that happens around Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day was not a holiday Philip and I cared for before the girls came along.  We are on the the "this is a manufactured, commercial, Hallmark holiday" bandwagon.  That being said, the girls love any chance to decorate, do seasonal crafts, get little gifts, and eat junk food.  We obliged this year with chocolate fondue and fruit.  Definitely a hit, though a messy one.

We rounded out the month with a trip to Kentucky to visit the girls' cousins.  They have only met Luisa one time, and that was a less than 24 hour trip during which Luisa had a fever and was totally our of it.  We don't get to see this clan all that often, so it was nice to have a full week with the kids.  My mom went as well; we were there to keep the kiddos while their mom and dad (my brother and sister-in-law) were ministering in the Philippines.  Unfortunately I took an appallingly minuscule amount of photos, but here are a couple of my girls with their cousin Anna.  They had a blast playing together.