The Harries Family: January

Boy, Daniel would go nuts if he read that post title - the kid LOVES ketchup these days! Any time the refrigerator is open, he races over to grab the bottle of ketchup from inside the door and says "Pah Pah", his word for ketchup. Bottles of syrup and pretty much anything else like that get the same reaction at the grocery store.

Jan 21, 2011 One of our kids really loves playing in the snow, one not so much. Can you tell which is which? ;)

Snuggles like these are so sweet, until the hair pulling and shoving begin anyhow.

Jan 22, 2011 Daniel decided to start the day with a little cereal, which he helped himself to from the cabinet. He's not the neatest cook, but luckily we have the "clean-up crew" (Inky) always willing to help.

Uncle and Joanie came to visit in the morning and we all had a great time catching up a bit.

Can't forget to give some love to the (very jealous) puppy dog!

Katherine loved the new toy that Uncle and Joanie brought her and she played with it the whole day. I think she even slept with the little doll that goes with this table at nighttime.

Jan 23, 2011 Whaddya mean I'm not supposed to rip the edges off from this alphabet mat?

Daddy's friend Drew came over with his daughter Rowan to play with Katherine. They happened to be wearing matching Gymboree clothes! They had a great time together and played so nicely.

Jan 24, 2011 Second only to the Christmas dress, Katherine is in love with this purple outfit that Gram gave her for Christmas. We always love how she looks in purple! Any time we tell her it is too cold outside to wear the short-sleeve Christmas dress, this is the outfit she requests.

Daniel's got the ball popper! Boy did I hate this thing about 2 years ago. One day Katherine's friend Riley was over to play and he took the ball popper from her. It happened all of ONE time, yet she talked about it for a good six months. We heard "One time Riley took the ball popper!" every.single.day. Oy.

Daniel loves to give Inky his best buddy Mr. Squirrel.

Daniel and his wooden hot dog cigar. Silly boy!

Cowboy Daniel shows off his big muscles.

Katherine loves playing with Play-Doh. She's making noodles or Rapunzel hair here. They're interchangeable.

Jan 25, 2011 Katherine loves to play "shoe store" and had a blast at Target trying on the grown-up shoes.

Daniel spent some time giving this kangaroo a good brushing while we waited for Katherine to get her check-up at the dentist. He loves to brush his own teeth and Katherine loves to floss. Hooray for good oral hygiene.

Pearly white!

Jan 26, 2011 Love these kids...

Daniel's wondering why the Christmas tree is still up. Sadly it was still quite a while after this picture before we got around to taking it down.

Jan 27, 2011 More snow! We had to shovel out paths through the backyard so Inky could go out and so Katherine could play. It was too deep for them to walk in, but they both enjoyed the maze. Daniel enjoyed watching from inside. ;)

That's a LOT of snow!

Such a fun snow day surprise to get a package in the mail from Uncle and Joanie! Katherine loved the Belle stickers and was HUGGING the Scooby Doo coloring book.

Daniel is hoping to go work with his Uncle Josh on the choo-choos. As soon as GE needs an engineer that specializes in crashing trains and tearing up tracks, it'll be good to have an "in".

After naps, our neighbor Clare and her kids Callum and Fiona came over to play. Katherine and Callum play so nicely together.

And Daniel and Fiona (who is just 5 days older than Daniel) both like to chew on stuff.

Jan 28, 2011 Prince Daniel is ready to climb to the highest tower and rescue the princess!

Jan 29, 2011 Katherine was nice enough to share her lollipop with Daniel.

Yummm!

More, please!

So what if you've got to wear a pink headband every once in a while if you also get to eat lollipops!

Nothing says "bath night" like dinner of spaghetti with homemade sauce!

Jan 30, 2011 One of Daniel's favorite things to play is "Kaboom baby!" - building towers and then crashing them.

More than a month later, yet another appearance by the Christmas dress. That was a goood $11 I spent at Walmart. ;)

Jan 31, 2011 M&M Katherine! This costume was one Aunt Loo wore for Halloween when she was little.

Daniel wanted to go for a run ...

To prepare him for soccer season!

So my New Years resolution this year was to take more pictures. That may be amusing to some who know how much I love my camera. I've done fairly well, and I think now 10 weeks or so into the year that I've only missed a day or two of taking a picture. My other resolution was to start blogging these pictures for our family and friends to see. Big fail there! It's nearly mid-March and I've got a lot of catching up to do. Whoops!

Here is a bit of what we have been up to in 2011 so far!

New Years Day. I took Katherine with me for a run in the jogging stroller to Kalmbach Park in Macungie. She loved the giant gingerbread house!

Jan 2, 2011 A nice warm day brought the perfect chance to visit the Philly Zoo, one of the kids' favorite places. We got to try out the new wagon that Santa brought for Daniel, see the lions being very active, and watch the polar bears up close as they ate some snacks.

Jan 3, 2011 Katherine was the "Star of the Week" at school this morning. One of the privileges of being the star is painting on the easel, and she was sooo excited for her chance to do that. She ran right in, donned the smock, and got to creating her masterpiece.

And while Katherine was busy being the star at preschool, Daniel worked on his soccer playing. The boy has got some skill!

Daniel also had a nice little conversation with his best buddy, Inky.

Jan 4, 2011 Katherine and Daniel went to a playdate at their friends Gwen and Cole's house. Animal lovers that they both are, they were all over their cat right away!

Daniel played with his pal Jonah for a bit ...

And then he hit the kitchen to whip up some fake food for us all to fake eat.

Katherine enjoyed the snowman craft they did. Give her some glue and markers and she's a happy girl!

Jan 5, 2011 These silly kids loooove when Daddy carries them around like this and flips them to hang upside-down. Always good for a few smiles.

Jan 6, 2011 Two of Daniel's favorite things - his two fingers, and his big sister.

Jan 7, 2011 Katherine looooved playing in the snow! Her favorite thing to do is get pulled around in the snow tube.

Jan 8, 2011 We bought Katherine a new Britax Frontier car seat since she's close to ourgrowing her Britax Marathon. She was happy to get a pink "big girl seat", but I think both she and Daniel were even happier with the box that it came in.

Sometimes you're just too tired to finish eating lunch.

Jan 9, 2011 Katherine has worked really hard to give up sucking her thumb. It was her own idea to give us her "lambies", the little blankets she has slept with since she was a baby, because she thought they were making her do it. She never sucks her thumb anymore when she is awake, but every once in a while we'll see her do it in her sleep. Our sleeping beauty...

Daniel discovered how to make a smushy face on the French doors in our office. He thought it was pretty funny.

Katherine agreed.

Soon they were both doing it! Time to break out the Windex.

Jan 10, 2011 They did really well leaving the ornaments alone at Christmas time. I think they're plotting on how to get a candy cane off together...

Jan 11, 2011 We visited the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia again. I'm so glad we got a membership there this year because the kids both LOVE this place. This time we were lucky enough to have one of Katherine's best friends, Brooke, and her mom join us for the trip.

Daniel loves to drive the truck and the cars. Such a boy!

Watching these balls hover in the air was hilarious to Daniel!

Playing in the shoe store. Katherine also really enjoys this exhibit and "playing Stride Rite".

Dr. Katherine always loves taking care of the babies in the hospital area. Good practice for when she becomes a veterinarian!

Planting some taters

Alice in Wonderland is another one of Katherine's favorite exhibits, and she loves to wear this Alice dress in there.

Daniel found his favorite food in the supermarket area! He could be part monkey, we're not sure. The kid LOVES bananas!

And we saved the best (messiest) part for last, the water play area. These smocks they provide are pretty useless and we always bring a spare outfit for afterward. The kids love splashing around though!

Two out of three ain't bad. Katherine was the only one who made it home awake.

Jan 12, 2011 We woke up to more snow! Katherine is peering out the window and discovering her trick to help making it snow - wearing her pajamas backwards to bed - has worked AGAIN.

Sweet little Daniel...

Inky snuggled up with Katherine and used her as his pillow. Usually he prefers to stay away from the (noisy, unpredictable) kids in favor of cuddling up with adults, so we all loved seeing this.

Jan 13, 2011 Stuck inside after the snowstorm = basement play day! Who doesn't love a ballpit in formal attire? Katherine was so in love with her dress for Christmas and it has gotten a lot of wear.

Jan 14, 2011 Randomness ... Daddy and Daniel before work.

Daniel practicing climbing up and sitting in a chair. He says "Sit! Sit!" when he does it, but it comes out a bit more like he's cursing.

Katherine likes to pretend to be Rapunzel with super long hair. Luckily she's got an infinite supply of ribbon around to use!

Jan 15, 2011 D thinks it's hilarious to wear hats that are way too big for him. He won't leave one on that actually fits him, but give him one of Daddy's and he's a happy boy!

Katherine loves to pretend she's Tinkerbell, flying through the air. Again, an appearance by the Christmas dress.

Jan 16, 2011 A fun visit from Nana and Aunt Loo!

Jan 17, 2011 Daniel and his couscous maraca. Good cheap fun. Incidentally, when a one-year old manages to open the lid to a couscous jar and continue to shake it, it makes an impressively large mess on the kitchen floor. Lesson learned.