blue dress

These poses crack me up. They are high fashion...until you get to the last picture. Now that's my little girl.

Rewind to Christmas of 2006, Mom and Dad Chats gave me an Old Navy gift card for Christmas. I finally used it 2 1/2 years later. I've had my eye on this dress for a while waiting for it to go on sale. I finally just got impatient and decided to make a special trip to use my gift card. I'm so glad I did. It's another one of her favorite dresses. We might have to have a dress smack down to see which dress will prevail. Along with the dress I bought her a couple of pair of flip flops (with a back strap, a must in my opinion) a bathing suit, and some sweat pants. If she had her way I would have bought her 6 more pairs of shoes. Little girls are so fun to shop for! Thanks Mom and Dad for the Christmas gift!

park and pony tails

We love going to the park with our friends! For me, it's one of the best ways to spend a morning. The girls played on the jungle gym, we had a picnic and then they rode their bikes. Because our babe mostly plays with her cousins I really like it when she can interact with kids she not use to. Both of the girls were really kind to each other and willing to share their bikes. I have always hoped that my babe would have some smarts, but mostly, I just want her to be kind to others. These two girls have so much fun together. They were destined to be pony tail friends.

Before we left for the park I convinced my babe to put park pony tails in her hair by telling her that her friend would probably have park pony tails, also. When we got to the park her friend did have pony tails. My friend told me she convinced her daughter to wear pony tails because my daughter would have pony tails. Oh, how did we get so smart and slightly conniving?

memorial weekend

We had a fun filled weekend, starting with Friday...

We took the three kids to the running park to play. My hubby suggested we take the scooters and bike. I'm so glad we did. They had such a great time. The kids played on the park for about 5 minutes and then played on the bike and scooters for the rest of the time. They did a pretty good job sharing and switching around so everyone got a turn. I was also amazed at how good they were at riding them. They were all riding down long ramps and going fast on the flats. I think we have a group of dare devils.

Then after a good nap we went to the Fair....

We had been talking about going to the fair and riding the ponies for a couple of days. Once we got there that's all she could talk about. We walked around the animals the a little bit. She was slightly interested in the baby animals and the rabbits, but mostly she just wondered where the ponies were. She loved the pony rides. I think she must have been in heaven for those few minutes. After the pony rides she wanted to go on the Farris wheel. We went and check the height the all the rides and she was too small to ride any of them. We then went to see a little magic show. We sat down next to 2 other girls and right away our babe scooted over close to them and made friends. She is so much more extroverted than either of her parents. Since she could ride any of the other rides, we decided she could do the pony ride one more time. Lucky girl.

Saturday afternoon....

We went swimming at her cousin's house. Friday at the fair was hot, so we thought swimming would be perfect. Well, it wasn't that hot on Saturday. I didn't even go in but once they got use to the water, they had a great time playing. Once she got too chilly (we could tell because she was shaking while jumping to her dad off the ladder) her uncle set up this little hot tub for them. They had a great time playing in it. I don't think we'll ever buy a pool, we'll just use one of our storage bins.

memorial day

We had a wonderful weekend!

Monday

I have been looking forward to the flags being out on Memorial day all month. I knew I would want to take pictures of our babe so I enticed her with her new blue dress. "You can wear your dress if you agree to stand there while I take pictures." It worked, sort of. We got up to the flags early enough that there weren't too many cars on the road. What a marvelous sight. As far as you can see, American flags lining the streets.

Then off to breakfast and the best pancakes ever (not that I could eat them). If our friends don't keep that tradition, maybe we'll start it. It was so nice to visit outside where it was cool with no mosquitoes. The kids searched the yard for bugs and buried the dead ones and our babe stayed clear of the missionaries.

Before lunch we took flowers and a balloon to the cemetery and after lunch we took a nap! My favorite! Later that evening we too our babe to see our friend who had a stroke. He and his wife usually sit near us at church and have told us they don't pay attention much since she was born because they spend their time watching her.

That evening we had a spur of the moment bar-b-que with our family. Much more fun than eating out!

funny girl

My hubby and I were going to the temple so we got ready in our dress clothes. Of course, once she saw me in my dress, she wanted to wear a dress, also. But, it couldn't be any dress, it had to match my dress. I always thought mother and daughter matching was kind of silly. Now I think it's it pretty funny. If I want her to wear something, usually I can put on a coordinating outfit and she will pick the outfit that matches mine.

Last night her dad went to check on her before he went to bed. When he walked in her room he noticed her shoulders were bare. He pulled down the covers a little bit and saw her back was bare also. Wondering if she had taken off the top half of her sleepers, he pulled the blanket off her revealing her whole body. She a stark naked. She had taken off her sleepers and her pull-up. He came and got me out of bed to show me. When I walked in the room I noticed all her dolls were lined up tucked into their blankets and her bare arms and legs hanging out of her blanket. We searched the room and found her pull-up, then gently slid those on her without waking her up. This morning she told us her pajamas were hurting her so she took them off. How many more times are we going to find her sleeping in the buff?

crazy hair

Crazy hair strikes again.

hallway

This is where we find her on some mornings, in the hallway. She pulls her blanket and sometimes her doll and her pillow out with her. She loved the hallway night light so much we put it in her room hoping it would keep her in her room. Now, most of the time she sleeps on the floor in her room next to the night light. Once in a while we still find her in the hallway the next morning. Funny little girl.
This morning she slept until 10:00. We've worn her out with all our playing.

mother's day

It's so fun to be her mom. Sometimes she tells me "I love you because I love you."

Mother's day was nice. Any day that I don't help with fixing our cleaning up a meal is nice. My husband and babe gave me a beautiful candle and some parrot socks and my babe made me a card. When the primary kids came up and sang, the two other nursery kids came up so I invited our babe up. Big mistake, I should have just left her sitting on Granddad's lap where she would have sang the song anyway. Instead, I put her in an awkward spot and she ended up crying. Sweetheart had to walk out with her. Maybe I will find a better spot for her on Father's day.

play time

The boys came over to play the other morning. I love it when they come over. They go straight to the toy chest, pull everything out and have a blast. Toys that our babe hasn't been interested in for months are instantly more interesting. They had a great time taking rotating turns from the horse, to the bosu ball, to the trampoline. After a while we got out the guitar and they were all smiles while strumming on the guitar. I have to admit, she's not the best sharer. Something I hope gets better with practice and more play time with other kids. When their mom came over to pick them up we had just finished coloring a horse and cow on photoshop. The four of us were huddled around the computer desk and the kids took turns picking a color to paint a specific body part. So easily entertained!

backwards and boots

While uploading pictures from my camera, I found these pictures. For a little girl who always puts her shoes on the correct feet, she frequently puts her pants on backwards. If she were to choose her boots, she would choose these. She doesn't get to wear them too often because I sometimes hide them (since they are for next winter and are way to big) but she finds them. Still, she's not obsessed, which I think, is a good thing. What's up with the finger in the belly button?

pedicure

Sweetheart had a pedicure appointment, but at the last minute, she couldn't make it so she sent us instead. At first my babe wasn't quite sure what to think, but when I put my feet in the water she decided to put her feet in the water. Then when Kacee started working on my toes, my babe kept inching down my legs getting her feet closer and closer to my feet. By the end, she was game for anything. She had her toe nails clipped and polished. She even got to pick our color.

rain

At the beginning of May we had some wonderful much needed rain. I love the rain all the time, but this time I liked it even more because she got her wear her rain gear and I got to take pictures. I bought the boots and coat at the end of last season hoping she would wear them all winter. That didn't happen, but she has gotten a few good uses out of them. Most kids seem to be obsessed with their their rain boots and wear them day and night, hot and cold, and with pants and short. I thought she would be like that for sure, but she hasn't been that interested in them. Too bad because they are so cute! We took a walk in the rain, delivered some flowers to a sick neighbor and then planted our tomato plants. What a great way to spend a rainy afternoon.

blurping

I have been on a hiatus for the past few weeks. Instead of blogging I have been blurping. I have worked hours and hours and hours turning my blog into a beautiful book through Blurb.com. It came in the mail today and I think it is wonderful! I decided to order a soft cover first just so I could see how the book turned out. I'm thrilled with it and our babe is enthralled with all 200 pages. Yes, 200! I decided to split my blog into years and made the first book May 2007-April 2008 and then the second book May 2008-April 2008. The second book is almost ready the send to the printer too. Now I am going to fix a few things in the first book and order a hard cover. The soft cover is going to be for little fingers to enjoy.

If any of you have been considering doing this, I strongly encourage it. I am so excited to have a hard copy of our last two years! There are a few drawbacks. I'm not thrilled with the layout designs they offer. I've made templates in photoshop and did my own page designs and then dropped them in. It was easy and I was much happier with my pages. Now I am off to work on pictures and books. I guess I should start posting more so I can have something to make into a third book.

dune buggy

Easter weekend was eventful. My niece celebrated her 18th birthday and the dune buggy got fixed. The dune buggy has been out of commission since early November. At first our babe went through withdrawals, but after a few months it must have slipped to the back of her mind. Now it's fixed and ready to go and so is she. I love that she is willing to wear her dune buggy goggles. While their cousin learned how to drive it, the 2 two year olds gave a play-by-play commentary on his driving while waiting patiently for their turn.