It's over!

Our Christmas program is done! Yeah! Last year was the first time the program was actually good and this year it was even better. Are we amazing? No, but for a bunch of monkeys, we put on a pretty nice little show. My favorite part was my mom and her whip (well, no, my favorite part was seeing my babe sing, but my mom was pretty funny.) It's nice when your hard work pays off.

Birthday Party

The Monday after her birthday we had another family party so her little cousins could celebrate with her. Before the party my parents took her down to their house. When she walked into their kitchen she saw her birthday present sitting on the counter in a box (they didn't have time to wrap it yet.) I wish I could have seen the look on her face. She got so excited that they took the doll out of the box and gave it to her. When she got back home, she was so thrilled with her new baby.

After the family arrived we had a great time watching her open all her other gifts. The presents were wonderful, but the interaction between all the kids was priceless. I'm so glad I was able to video it. Next came the cake. Because her 1st birthday cake was a major bomb, I decided I would let her have her very own chocolate birthday cake this year. She was willing to take a picture with the cake and then pushed it away, pointed to a cupcake and said "I want that." Oh well, at least I tried (I'm so glad I failed too, a cupcake was a much better size.)

Birthday Girl

These are super late, but better now than never.

Invited

If you are in the area and would like to start your Christmas season off with a bang, come to my family's program. I'm not inviting you because we are so dang talented (Joy to the World will knock your socks off) but because it's fun, it's free, and it will put you in the Christmas mood. Ok, most of us aren't talented, but my brother is and he will be playing several handbell solos. It's incredible to watch. So, if you come, don't expect to see the Partridge Family (that's really quite funny if you know my maiden name), but you will be entertained.

I had to make a few modification to the original invite, but I think you can figure it out if you need to.

Day Four

I woke up at 2 a.m. on day four (Sunday) of our trip to sound of my husband puking. He was sick, sick, sick. I thought he might have food poisoning, but he said he was getting nauseous because he was spinning. We didn't get much sleep that night. After alternating between the porcelain throne and laying on the floor. He went out into the living room with a puke bucket and laid on the couch cushions. Well, the chances of making our flight that evening looked very slim. Luckily, we were able to change our flight arraignments (with no fees) to Monday. Since it rained all morning, my babe and I stayed inside and played while Grandma and Grandpa went to church and worked their shift. We made forts, read books, and played hid-in-go-seek (she's hiding in the picture above), until she started yelling at me because I would eventually find her. After that, I didn't want to play anymore. When Puking Man got up in the afternoon, he felt a lot better. We ending flying out Monday morning and experienced a plethora of United delays and foibles. They even took us out to board the plane, had us wait on the ramp for 15 minutes and then made us go back inside. Interesting.
Besides the puking, it was a fantastic trip!

Day Three

Day Three of our Halloween trip. We went climbing! I love this place. I climbed the last time we went out to visit and couldn't wait to go back and do it again. My hubby decided to try it this time. He did terrific, probably because his arms are as long as a monkey.

After our morning workout Grandma and our babe made cookies. Every other stir our babe got her mouth up to the spoon to get a bite of the dough.

That evening my hubby's sister came up to join us and we went to "Body Works." It was incredible. If you ever have a chance to visit an exhibit it's worth the time and the money. Our babe wasn't nearly as interested in it as we were. Sometimes I could entertain her by getting her to pose like the bodies were posed. I could have spent hours there.

Day Two

Day two - Halloween
After torturing my bunny by taking a few pictures in their beautiful yard we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa who were working.
Grandpa took us on a private tour of the house they were assigned to for the day.

While walking back to their apartment, she couldn't wait to get her costume off so she started stripping down before we got there.

Grandma then took us out to lunch in the office building. While we were waiting for her to get guest passes or babe sang "I am a Child of God" with gusto to entertain herself. Thankfully, we were in an environment where it was appropriate. Most people actually ignored her.

Then off to Nana's place (great-grandma) for trick or treating. This isn't Nana. I have no idea who she is, but this is what I want to be like when I grow up.

Our babe couldn't wait to dig into her candy. Her cousins loved to share with her and were so generous to dump all the candy they didn't like into her bucket.

Here are the cousins she got to hang out with

That evening we all went Trick-or-Treating in my sister-in-laws neighborhood. I was glad the houses were conveniently close, but there was still lots of walking involved. Burn off some of that sugar! After that adventure the three of us went to surprise some friends. We tried to trick-or-treat at their house, but she recognized my husband before we got to the front porch.

Halloweeen Trip

We spent Halloween weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. We decided it would be fun to surrpise Grandma (Grandpa knew we were coming) since we wouldn't be able to see them for Thanksgiving or Christmas. We had a fabulous weekend! The first morning we were there we took a goreous walk up towards the capitol building and enjoyed the beautiful fall colors. That evening we went out to dinner with some school buddies and then went to see Aida (I'm still singing the songs in my head). Our babe spent the evening with her wonderful aunt and her five kids. I was thrilled when we went to pick our babe up and most of her cradle cap was gone. That stuff has been bugging me for a year! Thanks genius woman!

Princess Babe

This was in her Halloween pail from Grandma. Normally she's not too excited about things on her head, but she will keep the crown on for a while.

why?

She pulls her pant legs up like this all the time, I wonder why?

baby doll

witch in window

"Hey cutie, what's the witch doing?"
"Dipping applesause."

She's two!

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Halloween

Earlier this year I received the cutest Lady Bug hand-me-down. I couldn't wait for Halloween to arrive, so I didn't, I put my little bug in the costume and she wore it around for several hours.
FAST FORWARD TO OCTOBER
Since we were spending Halloween visiting my husbands parents I decided to do a costume check, just to make sure. We talked up the Lady Bug for days. When I finally showed it her and asked if she would like to put it on she shook her head no and said "I no like lady bug." Great! Now what? We devised a plan. We told our babe that Granddad was going to put the costume on her cousin instead. Instead of saying no, she liked the idea. We then decided to force the costume on her and see what she did....
she started out like this, then quickly digressed to this.

Luckily, we had this parrot costume hanging around. I came up behind her and told her I was putting a red coat on her. She knew better. She didn't like this costume either.

After a few painful picture, she took it off.

Then, my dad found this bunny outfit. He showed it to her, she smiled. He asked her if she would like to put it on and she ran over to him. Yeahhhhh! We were saved. I wasn't going to have a little party pooper. I was so relieved she loved the bunny costume. Later when my sister-in-law told me her daughter wore it on her first Halloween. I then looked at the tag and saw it was size 6-12 months. Thankfully she's petite.

We didn't want the cute Lady Bug costume to go to waste so we had someone else wear it.

How is my little girl so particular already?

baby for sale

Ok, so this isn't my first born, but it's still my baby. I am selling my Nikon D40x on Craigs list, but wanted to see if anyone was interested before putting it out to the public. It's a fantastic camera. Easy to use and small and convenient to carry around. I am selling it for $650. Along with the body is a 18-55 lens, a 55-200 lens, battery and charger, 1 SD card, a camera bag and lots of other stuff that that came with it when I originally purchased it. Let me know if you are interested.

last project

I found that gorgeous brown ottoman in the store for a terrific price. I couldn't wait to get it home! When I did, it looked horrible with my existing furniture. I decided to cover it. Luckily

Jo-Ann's was having a 50% off sale and thankfully my parents were willing to help. It was really easy and it turned out incredible. Now I have a beautiful ottoman to store her and her toys in.