No Daddy?! Then a Sprotte-Holiday It Is!

With Nate on his short-tour in Korea for the 2011 Holiday Season, I decided to pack-up the girls and take them to visit my parents and sisters in Arizona for the holidays.  So with my dad, "Papa Bill", as my driving side-kick, we made the 22-hr drive from Belleville, IL, straight through to Pinetop, AZ! We were heros that trip--no really, we were.  It's a mind-blowing fact that we made that trip straight through, and the little girls only melted-down...I'd say, uh, thrice.  I'm not afraid to say it (while knocking on wood), that these little Irish Twins of mine are pretty good car-trip takers!
Side-note: can anyone tell that I've recently learned what the term Irish Twins means?! Yep, I've used it two blog posts in a row now, AND it's even in THIS year's Christmas card! I like to put my knowledge to use! Or in this case, into stories...
So when we got to AZ, the fall season was in full effect and park-playground time was the name of the game!  Luckily in my home town of Pinetop-Lakeside, we have a pretty nice park, Woodland Park, that's centrally located between Nana and Papa's houses.  So while we stayed with Nana Barbie (Grandma Barbara to some) while in AZ, we had morning park time very frequently with with Papa Bill.

I wish I could say she wasn't stopping the snot stream with that tongue :/



Lauren the Leaf Eater

Olivia-2 months old



Lauren's Park Playhouse...she needs to update!

Cross Country Traveling

Here's a quick look at us preparing for our cross country traveling... Shocker! My dad's asleep on the couch...and balancing Olivia on his belly without a support arm to keep her from flopping off no-less! No worries, I rearranged this sleeping arrangment post-photo op...



Papa Bill and Olivia pre-napping for the drive out to AZ



Lauren sleeping for the first 8 hrs of the cross country drive



The first official nose-picking photo...what a Charmer that Lauren is...

Trunk or Treat - Round 1!

The girls and I went to the Civil Engineering Squadron's trunk or treat a week before Halloween... The costume theme for us this year was large mammals. No specific reason for the theme, except costume availability from friends (I wasn't on my A-game, so costumes were not made/bought/etc). As you'll see, Lauren is the adorable elephant, and Olivia, the tiny cow :)  Lauren went from game to game slowly destructing it, while pillaging the candy supply :(  And Olivia was slowly overheating in her costume. BUT, overall, was a great time with friends...just wish Daddy was there to see his adorable girls.

The Cutest Elephant in the World!

Eating delicious fruit snacks

I've heard of a monkey on your back, but an elephant?!

Disrupting the first of many carnival-type games :/

Finding the gold coin in the rice for a prize-Lauren's FAV game this day

Still at the rice game...

...and more rice!

Lauren's at the treat bag for the corn-hole game, while
harboring a stolen game piece from the ring toss!

Again with the game disrupting...

And at least another kid jumped up on the game to interrupt as well!

Ah, ring toss and suckers-what a life!

This way mom!

Stealing cones from the hockey slap-shop game

No hood mom, no hood!!!

Ahhhhh!

Beautiful baby Olivia

Overheating cow...

Finally PLAYING a game, verses raiding it!

Lauren playing with her plastic eyeball prize from a game...

Lauren embracing her costumes customs...yeah for all-fours :)