OK, maybe Julia isn't so big

We had a guest at the house today who is just 4 months old and 23 lbs. Kind of fills out a Boppy, doesn't he?

Hard to be so Fabulous

It can be hard for some people to be fabulous. Not these girls, though! A little trip in town from a friend, a little swimsuit, a little water mixed in and - voila! - fabulosity.

Best Buddies Reunited

Lauren's best buddy Meghan came into town for a long weekend.

Both girls sleep through the night!

Both of the princesses went to bed before 10 pm last night and both slept past 6 am this morning. Miss Julia got up at 6:15, Miss Ella got up at 7am!

Party Recovery

The Birthday Party took a lot out of us ...

Mike and Ella napping

Miss Lauren sleeping

White Kitty napping

There were only two people even awake ...

Perfect Cakes

Along with getting to go out to a farm and enjoy the fresh air we also got to see the perfect cakes for a boy and a girl.

Boys cake - Chocolate, brownies, Star Wars characters

Girls cake - White, pink, Barbie Butterfly

Horses

Lauren pet and fed the horses. Two of the youngest horses are shown here - they are just one and two years old. They are both bred from Swedish stallions, including some that were in the Olympics! Both these two jokers were too young to begin riding. They took advantage of their electric fence being off for the party to reach over and eat the grass on the other side.

Miss Lauren could have ridden the horses but decided it was a little too scary. Apparently the 2-year olds that were riding the horses didn't change her mind!

Feeding the horses was a big hit. The girls would run to the barn, grab a fistfull of hay, and then sprint as fast as they could over to the horses and gave them the few strands that stayed in their hands. They would probably still be doing it if they weren't all called to the house for cake!

Farm Fun!

Lauren's classmate Natalie and her twin brother Robert had a birthday party on their Aunt & Uncle's horse farm. Natalie's dad took the kids on a different kind of tractor ride!

One of Lauren's classmates from her school the year before looks a lot like her other best friend, Meghan. Meghan is actually going to visit next week from Connecticut. The proximity of the visits got Lauren confused, as she called Alyssa "Meghan" all day.

Lauren and Alyssa getting in

Riding high!

Birthdays in Suburbia

We are not all the same in the suburbs, really, we're not!

Bath Time

Miss Julia relaxes in the tub

Breakfast Time

The girls can start eating food now. For some reason the first color of food authorized is Orange. Orange it is - I love the taste of carrots in the morning!

Twins first balloon festival

"All Burn" at the night show

If there were blogs 5 years ago you would have seen pictures from the last time we went to the Plano Balloon Festival. Lauren was just 7 months old the last time we went. She liked this time much better as the festival also has bad food available. Dinner and dessert for Lauren was a hot dog, 7-Up, some funnel cake, and Dippin' Dots.

The twins did get to enjoy some ballons their own size. Dickey's restaurant was inflating balloons for the kids in their distinctive yellow branding colors. We noticed that the girls seemed to be watching it pretty closely, so we walked back and forth from one side of their stroller to the other. They kept their eye's glued like a tennis match, and their heads rolled in the car seats from side to side!

The tale of the tape

The girls had a doctor's appointment today. Unfortunately there are no pictures but there are some pretty startling results:

Julia : 15.4 lbs
Ella : 12.4 lbs

Yes, somehow despite living in the same house, on the same eating schedule, and a couple visits to the hospital for a eating-related disorder, Miss Julia has managed to be 25% bigger than her older sister.

Miss Ella seems to a little better at eating solid food so perhaps she can turn this around!

Girls in bed all day!

Sure, to make the girls look good I posted this at 9:30 am. But, believe me, come back any time of day and this is where you'll find the Mahaney girls!

Girls in a Pickup

Miss Alice had never been to Babe's Chicken House so we took her for Sunday brunch. As always, Babe's never disappoints, and we got to sit in the Chicken Coop for the first time. (Can't reveal the details, you'll have to come and try it yourself!) Here are Ella and Julia relaxing out front before we were seated.

Lauren the gymnast

Like every other girl in America after the Olympics, Lauren wants to be a gymnast. Suzanne and Grandmommy found just the right thing today at the consignment sale.

Julia with pH probe

Miss Julia relieved that the probe is out

The last real test they did on Miss Julia was the pH probe test.  She had to wear it for 24 hours.  The band-aid you see on the probe was stuck to her cheek (where it left that big red spot!), and the probe went down her nose and down her esophagus.  It measured the pH of anything in her esophagus to check to see if anything was coming back up from her stomach. 

Soon after getting the probe out she was good to go.  After getting home she, Miss Ella, Lauren, and White Kitty each took a good long nap!

Sunset

Miss Julia's room looked off to the West so she had a nice sunset view. The wind sock is for the Parkland Hospital rescue helicopter, so we got to see and hear some landings, too.

Julia's visitors

Friday night was the changing of the guard, with Dad relieving Mom.  The whole family and Grandmommy made it down to the hospital to see Miss Julia. 

The Sophisticate

I love this picture of Miss Julia. She looks very sophisticated, almost like a star from an old movie lounging on the fainting sofa. Could just about PhotoShop a cigarette into her hand and her wires would be the smoke drifting off to the left.

Girls with Bows

Miss Lauren dressed herself and Ella to visit Miss Julia in the hospital and to pick up Grandmommy at the airport.  Somehow she found just enough hair on Miss Ella's head to stick the bow! It was not easy - that peach fuzz is short!

Here they are after dinner at the hospital cafeteria.  Lauren highly recommends the cheeseburgers.

Big girl!

Miss Julia went to the hospital Tuesday night to make sure her episodes were not something serious. The first test ruled out any eating disorders - converting the 6.72 kg means Miss Julia is 14.8 lbs!

A good day for napping

The girls join White Kitty during his late afternoon nap.

Julia loves Tivo!

Sucker!

This is the look of success after Miss Julia refilled her diaper right after Daddy changed it. Get back here and do that again, mister!

Bionic Babies

We're trying out a different bottle with the girls and it looks promising. These are the Podee bottles where the nipple disconnects from the bottle and the girls suck the formula through a tube. Works great for Miss Julia since she is usually moving her hands a lot which knocks around whatever bottle she is drinking. Miss Ella hasn't taken to it quite as easily, maybe due to the size of the nipple that initially came with it. We'll keep trying, because it sure seems like it makes it easier to feed both of them at the same time!