Paige and Virginia were playing with their play dough dogs while Ben was cooking dinner tonight.  They're getting really good at making their dogs grow hair and tongues.  As happens with a lot of things, Virginia figured it out first and Paige watched and learned.  Paige has it down now, though.  She does concentrate pretty hard (as does Virginia) when she's making the dog's hair grow.
And with that picture I have successfully achieved my goal of posting a picture to this blog for each day of 2010.  I still haven't decided what I'm doing for 2011.  I'm not sure I can handle the commitment of posting a picture a day again.  Maybe I'll try doing it weekly.  I'm just not sure.  But anyway, HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I hope 2011 is a wonderful year for everyone!

Ben and I converted Paige and Virginia's cribs today to toddler beds.  This has been a big week with big girl underwear and big girl beds.  I guess it's all just proof that my babies aren't babies anymore.  When we brought the girls home from daycare we took them upstairs to see their new beds.  They were super excited about them and jumped right into their beds.  They also did great when we put them to bed tonight.  We had to convince them to lay down so we could tuck them in, but then we barely heard anything from them after we left the room.  We'll have to wait and see how the rest of the night goes.

See how excited Virginia was about her big girl bed?

Mimi and Pops got Paige and Virginia a train set for Christmas.  They got it out tonight and were playing with it with Daddy (and Mommy some, too).  Daddy is convinced that Virginia and Paige are going to be engineers after seeing them putting together their train tracks.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

In other news, the girls are sleeping in their cribs for the last time tonight.  Tomorrow we're converting their cribs to toddler beds.  Are we really ready for this?!

Tonight Paige and Virginia were like bottomless pits with their eating.  They ate ham and broccoli for dinner (but wouldn't eat the potato salad) and then they had some crackers, raisins and an apple.  I wasn't sure we were ever going to get them to stop eating, but eventually they did.  Here's Virginia sitting on the couch drinking her water with her bowl of raisins, apples and crackers in her lap.

What happened to my babies?!  Virginia and Paige turned 2 and a half today.  We had a great day at home.  The only time the three of us left the house was to take Jefferson for a walk this morning.  That didn't last long, though, because it was cold and windy outside.  We did have something big and important happen today.  Virginia wore big girl underwear all day and didn't have any accidents except at nap time!  And I'm not quite sure why she had an accident at nap time.  I put her in a diaper for her nap and I guess she decided she didn't want to wear a diaper, so she took it off and put her underwear back on.  Then after she peed she tried to put her diaper back.  When I walked in the room she was trying to put her diaper on herself.  We're very proud of Virginia and her potty success!  Now we just need to get Paige to start using the potty.  That will come, though, in time.  We're not going to push it.  Anyway, here are my 2 1/2 year olds with the play dough puppies.

Today we stayed at home all day.  Well, I got up and went to the grocery store this morning but I was the only one who left the house all day.  The girls (and Ben) had a great time playing with all of their new toys.  I think they got just about everything that they got for Christmas out except for their train set and their play dough.  Tonight we asked them if they wanted to wear their new owl pajamas that Dee and Dude got for them.  Virginia said she did and as soon as Paige saw how cute Virginia looked, she wanted to wear hers, too.  How adorable are these girls in their big girl style owl pajamas?!

We spent all day today at Mimi and Pops' house along with Dee, Dude and Uncle Lloyd.  It was a wonderful day!  Paige and Virginia got lots of great presents that I know they'll have fun playing with and many of which they have already played with today.  As soon as they unwrapped toys they wanted them opened, so it took us a long time to get through all of the gifts we had to unwrap today.  That's okay, though, because the girls seemed to enjoy every second of it.  And they were definitely worn out tonight.  One of the biggest hits of the day were the Tickle-Me-Elmos that Ben's Great-Uncle Charles sent for the girls.  Virginia was super excited about getting hers- and this was even before she learned that it vibrated!

Today we went to Dee and Dude's house to celebrate Dude's 60th birthday and Christmas.  My grandparents were also there.  We had a lot of fun.  Virginia had fun at the lunch and dinner table playing peek-a-boo with her great-grandpa.  She even started calling him "Grandpa" by the end of the day, which was a new thing for her and so nice to see.  Paige and Virginia got lots of great presents, including these trays with all kinds of craft stuff in them.  They had a great time playing with those while the rest of us opened our gifts and then Great-Grandma Denick went over and drew with them.  Paige was very entertained watching her great-grandma draw on Virginia's tray.

Tonight we went to dinner at Mimi and Pops' house because Uncle Lloyd came into town today.  The girls love their Uncle Lloyd and were excited to see him, even though they act shy around him.  He got them to loosen up, though, and tickling Virginia definitely helped.

Tonight the girls got out their doctor kit and were playing with it.  They had fun taking each others' temperature, and then their dolls' temperatures, and then moved on to playing with the stethoscope.  They would listen to each others' hearts, lungs, feet, whatever they chose.  Virginia and Paige were doing a great job taking turns, too.  Whoever was being examined had to sit on the couch while the "doctor" stood in front of them.  It was pretty darn cute and they, obviously, were having a good time.

Tonight Jefferson was having a fit in the kitchen because a piece of his food had ended up under the cabinet and he couldn't get it.  That actually happens often since the girls love to feed him.  Virginia went into the kitchen and tried to help him, but Ben then had to go help her help Jefferson.  Virginia ran into the kitchen when Jefferson started to whine and then when he was taken care of she came running back.  I love the way her hair is flowing out behind her.  And she's not wearing pants because she's doing really well with peeing on the potty, but when she does it she likes to take her pants off and not put them back on.  Oh well.

Today the girls and I went on a playdate to my friend, Liza's house.  Liza has an almost 3 year old son, Franklin, and a 6 month old son, Patrick.  We've had several playdates with them over the past year or so.  Today the girls had fun playing with Franklin's toys, coloring, painting, playing with stickers and playing with play food.  We had some pizza for lunch and cookies for dessert and then headed for home.  Virginia and Paige especially enjoyed playing with the play food with Franklin on the kitchen floor.

This evening after dinner I was in the kitchen cleaning up.  Ben was upstairs and the girls were in the living room.  I kept hearing them talking to each other, so I came in to check on them and see what they were doing.  They were sitting on the couch together "reading" an Elmo book together.  They were so cute just sitting there pointing things in the book out to each other.  Virginia and Paige are so close it almost makes me feel like I missed out not having a twin, or even a sister.  But I'll just consider myself lucky that I have a wonderful big brother.

This morning we went to Mimi and Pops' house to help them decorate their Christmas tree.  We don't have a tree this year, so it was nice for the girls to be able to decorate their grandparents' trees (and they did decorate trees for both sets of grandparents).  They had a great time hanging the ornaments on all sides of the tree.  They even reached back behind the tree to hang ornaments near the back.  Most of the ornaments they hung were hung on lights.  I guess that's easier than hanging them on the tree, especially when you're 2.  Here are Paige and Virginia with their Daddy decorating Mimi and Pops' tree.

Today Paige had an appointment to get her ears rechecked after her ear infection last week.  The nurse practitioner wanted to see her again to make sure her eardrum had healed since it was perforated last week.  While we were there the nurse practitioner was nice enough to recheck Virginia's ears and lungs as well.  We got all good news.  Paige and Virginia's ears looked good and lungs sounded good.  While we were sitting in the exam room waiting for the nurse practitioner to come do the exam Paige and Virginia decided to read some books.

Tonight for some reason Virginia decided she wanted to spin around in circles.  She's a silly little girl who loves to spin!  She was having so much fun and Paige was just watching her and laughing.  So cute!

Mimi came and spent the day with Paige and Virginia.  While she was here they did lots of art projects.  They started with decorating these little wooden trees that Mimi painted green for them.  Then they moved on to projects with paper, stickers and glue.  Apparently they had a lot of fun with them because they did a bunch!  I mean, check out this collection with Virginia and Paige.

Ben has been making videos of pictures from this year and posting them on facebook.  This evening he was showing the videos to Virginia and Paige.  They loved being able to point themselves out on the computer.

This afternoon when the girls took a nap I laid down and took a nap on the couch.  I didn't sleep well at all last night, so I needed the rest.  I brought my pillow down, curled up under a blanket and slept with Jefferson curled up beside me.  I forgot to take my pillow upstairs at the end of nap time, so this evening Virginia decided she was going to use it to take a nap on the couch.  She grabbed the pillow, her bear and a blanket and curled up on the couch.  She was pretending to sleep when Jefferson decided if Virginia was going to lay on the couch he was going to find a way to curl up with her.  I think he surprised her.

This evening Virginia sat down on the loveseat, opened her legs (very ladylike, huh?) and told me to come sit on her lap.  I, of course, would never actually sit on her lap since I'd crush her little legs, but I obliged and sat between her legs like she wanted.  She, obviously, was very happy about it.  Oh, and I got my hair cut today.  It's short, but I love it!

I order diapers from Amazon, so the two big boxes of diapers are shipped in one big box.  For some reason one of the boxes was moved from upstairs to our living room today.  Paige decided it was a great place to hang out and went and sat in it with her blankets.  She was even trying to get Virginia to come sit on her lap in the box.  Virginia did end up going over and sitting with her, but not on her lap.

This evening Paige decided she wanted to sit on the couch with Daddy while Virginia sat on my lap in the recliner.  It didn't last long, though, and then she was over fighting Virginia for my lap, but Ben enjoyed it while it lasted.  So did Jefferson since Paige decided to pet him.

The girls went back to daycare today.  They had a very good day there, even though Paige really didn't want to get up and go this morning.  When they got home Paige was very tired and all she wanted to do was cuddle with her mommy.  I ate dinner with her sitting on my lap and then we sat on the couch together.  And when it was time for bed she practically climbed out of my arms to get into her crib.  She didn't want to get down and turn stuff on like she normally does when we go upstairs.  I hope she (and Virginia) sleep well tonight so that they're ready for another day of daycare tomorrow.

The girls are feeling better today.  Well enough that we plan on sending them to daycare tomorrow.  There were no fevers today and according to Mimi they were full of energy all day.  But how did I really know they were feeling better?  Paige was running around pulling up the edges of the rug and it didn't take long before Virginia joined in on the fun.

I stayed home with the girls today since they were running fevers yesterday.  They had a great morning.  They were playing and having a good time, just with some coughing and runny noses thrown in.  Paige took a good nap, but Virginia only napped for about 45 minutes.  She did fine for awhile, but then started feeling worse about 4 this afternoon.  I took her to the doctor tonight and it turns out she has double ear infections, bronchitis and a touch of walking pneumonia.  Poor little monkey.

Paige and Virginia are sick.  They're miserable.  They have runny noses, coughs, fevers, the works.  I feel so bad for them.  They spent most of the day laying around on the couches.  This is where they were from about 3:00 until dinner time.

Two of my best friends had little girls this year.  Kendall was born in March and Tessie was born in September.  Today we had all four of our little girls together for the first time.  We had a book club meeting at Mollie's house, aka "Baby Tessie's house," and although there was very little talk about the book, we all still had a good time.  We made sure to get pictures of the four girls together and here they are: Tessie, Paige, Virginia and Kendall.

This evening was the winter party for my Moms of Multiples club.  It was at a place with a bunch of moonbounces and inflatable slides.  The girls had a great time playing and were exhausted by the time we left.  Ben and I were also exhausted from helping the girls go up to the slides and riding down with them.  They were very good about keeping an eye out for each other.  There was one small slide that the girls really enjoyed.  They would go up the ladder, with my help, and slide down then go around and get back in to go back up again.  This time Virginia came down the slide and immediately looked over toward the ladder to see if Paige was there.

Today the girls and I went to my parents' house to make Christmas cookies.  While we were there, with cookies in the oven, my mom got the girls to decorate their Christmas tree for them.  Since my parents come up to Ben's parents' house on Christmas day they just have a small tree at their house.  It was the perfect size for Paige and Virginia to decorate, and they had fun doing it.

On Wednesday Mimi brought Paige and Virginia their very own nativity set- the Little People Nativity.  Wednesday night Paige was having a great time playing with it and putting all of the people and animals in it.  She got the angel in the right place and it looks like the baby Jesus is sitting in the manger, so she's working on getting them all right.  She's taking it very seriously.

Tonight after dinner the girls were hanging out on the couch with Daddy watching videos of dogs on the computer (their new favorite pastime).  Paige was standing up and Virginia asked her come sit in her lap, which means that Virginia had her legs spread wide and wanted Paige to sit between them.  This is a new thing.  They love to sit on our laps, but I think tonight was the first time I've heard one of them ask someone to sit in her lap.  Anyway, Paige obliged and went and sat in front of Virginia.  Virginia immediately started playing with Paige's hair.  They sat like that for a few minutes and then they traded places, so Virginia was sitting in front of Paige and Paige was playing with her hair.  Everyone, including Ben, was very entertained by this set up.  Jefferson was just happy to get some attention.

The girls kept telling me to "Shh" this evening because their baby and bears were sleeping.  Paige and Virginia put their favorite things (bears and baby) under their other favorite things (blankets) for a nap while I was working on something in the kitchen.  It's so nice that their baby and bears are able to nap on the dining room floor.

Today for snack Ben made the girls popcorn.  In case you didn't know, it's a very high fiber food, which we need in this house these days.  Virginia and Paige love popcorn and were happy to sit on the couch with their bowls and eat it.  Please ignore the fact that they're not wearing pants.  It's very difficult to get them to agree to putting pants on after naps these days.

Virginia and Paige turned 29 months old yesterday.  Yesterday was a long day with us driving back from Tennessee, so we didn't have any luck getting a decent picture of them together in the chair.  Today's attempt wasn't much more successful, but we managed to get a halfway decent picture of them together.  Poor Virginia has a stomach ache so she was not interested in smiling for the pictures, but Paige was perfectly happy.

The girls did great sleeping in their peapods while we were gone.  I was amazed, but I'm sure part of it had to do with how exhausted they were every night.  We ended up getting two adjoining rooms, so the girls had their own hotel room, which worked out wonderfully.  Friday night Virginia woke up crying in the middle of the night and didn't settle down, so I went and got her out of her peapod and we climbed into the empty bed together.  We cuddled for a bit and then I moved away from her so I could try to get some sleep.  I ended up with barely any room in the bed since she'd turned sideways in the bed, so I ended up getting up and going back to the other room and bed.  When we went in to get the girls up to get ready to head for home, this is how we found Virginia.

Friday night we went to dinner at Uncle Bob and Aunt Beth's house.  Both of their children were there with their children.  It was great to have the whole family together.  If only Lloyd could have been there it really would have been everyone.  The children had a wonderful time all playing together and then we had spaghetti for dinner, which was delicious.  Paige and Virginia did great and even sat at the children's table for dinner!  I thought for sure I would end up with Paige on my lap during dinner, but she made it through the whole meal, including dessert, at the other table.  Instead Virginia ended up on my lap after dinner and dessert, but that was because she was tired and had an upset stomach.  I handed Virginia off to Pops and she was perfectly content curled up on his lap.

We had a great time on Thanksgiving Day at Ali and John's house.  It was an absolutely beautiful day so we all got to spend plenty of time outside.  Ali and John also rented a bounce house for the day, so all of the children had a great time in that.  Virginia and Paige weren't quite sure about it at first, they crawled around in there a bit, but by the end of the day they were running around in it and climbing up to go down the slide.  Here they are in the bounce house with Carson, Justin and Elizabeth.

We just got back yesterday from our Thanksgiving trip to Tennessee.  We had a great trip, but we are all happy to be home.  On the way down on Wednesday we stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch.  After we'd finished eating we went out and down in the rocking chairs for a few minutes.  The girls loved having all of the different places to sit.  Paige was a big fan of this chair.  And if you want one, they're on sale until today, so run out to your local Cracker Barrel for one!

Today was the Thanksgiving lunch at the girls' daycare and it is also my mom's birthday, so when I decided I was going to go to the lunch I invited her to come along.  I'm so glad she was able to join us.  It was a lot of fun, but it was really hard to leave them there.  I talked to their teachers this afternoon when I picked them up and was told that all of the children cried when their parents left, but it didn't take too long for them to calm down.  One of the fathers of another little girl in their class was nice enough to take a picture of the four of us together, so here's me, Paige, Dee and Virginia.  Happy Birthday Mom!

This evening when we were watching tv Paige found a new seat- Ben's feet and legs.  He was sitting with his feet kicked out in front of him and apparently she thought they looked like a comfortable place to sit.  She sat there for a minute or two, until Ben moved his feet apart and she slid between them.

Paige and Virginia love bags.  They love filling them up, carrying them around, and trying to see how many they can carry at a time.   They also love wearing my shoes and, sometimes, Ben's shoes.  This afternoon after a disastrous nap Paige was filling up bags.  She had three, but had to share with her sister, so she ended up with two- her Halloween bag and one of my new purses.  The teal and black bag she is holding was a birthday gift I received from Mimi and Pops.  I also got a purse from Ben for my birthday, so I've been using that one and haven't used the one from Mimi and Pops yet, but Paige and Virginia are having fun with it.  Oh, and she's wearing my slippers, which she and Virginia both love.  It's amazing that I ever get to wear them.

This morning my parents brought me a pack of 6 headbands and tonight the girls got ahold of them and started playing with them.  Virginia kept putting them around her neck, but Paige figured out how to get them on her head.  She didn't put them on the way they're designed to be worn, but it still works.  And Paige looks so cute and happy wearing it around her head.

Today the girls and I met Mollie and Tessie at the mall for a little shopping and lunch.  After spending some time (but no money) at JC Penney and Baby Gap we headed to Cheesecake Factory for lunch.  I got Paige and Virginia sliders with french fries for lunch, but they didn't eat much of the sliders, they preferred the french fries- and the ketchup.  Paige was pretty neat with her ketchup, but I think Virginia got more of it on her face than in her mouth.

Today's my birthday so we had some ice cream cake after dinner.  Paige ate hers first and then went around stealing cake from everyone else.  I was the last one to finish mine, so I had both girls next to me trying to steal my birthday cake.  I had to fight Virginia and Paige for my own birthday cake.  I was nice and shared some, but I still got the last bite.

Tonight Ben went out to dinner with a couple of friends while I stayed home with the girls.  After we all finished dinner we went and played in the living room.  The girls got out their balloons that they had from dinner out with Dee Friday night.  They love their balloons, love them.  Virginia was so happy to be playing with her balloon tonight.  She also was not wearing a shirt because before dinner she'd stripped down to just her socks.  We finally got a diaper and pants on her, but she was refused to wear a shirt.  Oh well, we have to pick our battles and that one was not worth the fight.

Today was a long day for all of us.  After work and daycare we took the girls to the doctor for flu shots.  Then we went to get dinner at Baja Fresh and finally came home after that.  We were all out of the house by about 6:45 this morning and finally got home about 7:15 tonight.  Long day.  Paige was upset when we got them ready for bed and I took her bandaid off of her leg, so I told her she could have a sticker, which ended up being a sheet of stickers.  I knew Paige couldn't get a sheet without Virginia also getting one, so each of the girls got their own sheet of stickers and a sheet of paper on which to put their stickers.  They had so much fun playing with their paper and stickers.  This is going to have to become a more regular activity, I believe.

Ben took some pictures of the girls while I was washing dishes after dinner tonight.  I'm not sure what they were doing, but it sure sounded like they were having a good time.  And I just have to say that listening to Ben and the girls laugh in the other room always makes me smile while I wash the dishes.  Like I said, I don't know what was going on, but Virginia was definitely happy about whatever it was.

This morning we took the girls to the playground at a nearby elementary school and then we went out to lunch.  The girls love the playground.  We didn't even get on the swings today- they had enough fun walking around on the equipment and going down the slides.  I think the highlight, though, was playing Earthquake with Daddy on the suspension bridge (look for the video on facebook).  Virginia enjoyed checking out the whole playground from the top of a slide.

Today we didn't have any plans so when the girls got up we asked them what they wanted to do.  Paige said she wanted to go bye bye and when I asked her where she wanted to go, she said she wanted to go to Mimi and Pops' house.  So Ben called them and asked if we could come play for a little while.  They were happy to have us come over.  While we were there the girls found some bubbles, so we all went outside and played with those.  Ben was the best one at getting the big bubbles and I was taking pictures.  I know this doesn't have the girls in it, but it's my favorite picture of the day.  I love the way the bubble looks in front of the different colored leaves.

Paige and Virginia wanted to play outside today, but didn't want to wear real shoes, so they wore their slippers and we played outside on the deck.  It was rather warm out today, but Paige insisted on wearing her new pink winter hat.  I got myself a cup of water, but then made the mistake of setting it where Paige and Virginia could reach it and they stole it.  Paige really enjoyed sitting in the chair wearing her hat and drinking my water.