Our Park Buddies

Last week the girls and I met Michelle, Marla, Reese, Avery, McKenna, & Presley at the park for a play date. The girls really enjoy playing together, and I enjoy socializing and getting out of the house. The playground had a really steep double slide that most of the girls loved. Ally went down once on her own, and then decided she needed Mommy to go too. We also fed some geese (Ally & Reese call them ducks) Cheerios. The geese were quite friendly, and were trying to eat right out of Ally's hand. She had no problem with it, but I wasn't so sure. The girls also managed to get pretty sandy, much to Michelle's chagrin.

The Steep Slide, Ally Turning Around

Ally loves swinging

Ally & Presley

McKenna & Anya



A Very Serious Presley

Marla & Reese

Avery & Anya

Reese is very brave!

Anya & McKenna

The Paci Problem

Ally is crazy about her pacifiers!! She usually has one clipped to her, has one in her mouth, and is carrying another one. Anya did the same thing, only she was about 17 months old when she gave up hers. With Ally everything has been slower, and we said that we she turned two the paci would have to go. Well, she's been 2 for awhile now, and we still haven't attempted to wean her off the pacifier. I'm feeling pressure to do something about it. I think it interferes with her talking, and I feel like people are staring. We are so busy now, and going on our vacation in about a month, and then moving, I really don't want to go through any of that without a pacifier. I think I'll just start by taking the clips away, so it's not so convenient for her. That also means a lot of lost pacifiers though. Who knows, maybe she'll give it up easily, it's probably me that needs it more.

Snowed In

Josh is working in Goodland this weekend, so I'm snowed in alone with the girls. Anya has been driving me crazy, wanting to go out and play in the snow ever since the "S" word was used on the news Thursday. Yesterday all we got was sleet. It actually covered the ground in white, probably about an inch of little ice pellets. Anya insisted that it was snow. I should have just let her out so she could fall down, and see for herself, but I didn't. Today we finally have about 4 inches of snow on the ground, and the girls both got to go out and play!! Anya loves it, and Ally seemed to enjoy it more than last time.

We've been out twice. Anya crawled around pretending to be a polar bear, and Ally just wandered around, until she discovered she could eat the snow. They both loved eating the snow, but I forgot to put out a bowl to catch some for snow ice cream. On our second trip out we made a snow man. It was quite fun, except for having a hard time finding things to make a face with- I used suckers for eyes, a grape for the nose, and easy cheese for the mouth. I enjoy playing in the snow, but I hate the hot chocolate afterwards. The girls make a huge mess!! Here's some pictures...

Ready To Go!

Yum Yum

Snow Wrestling



Weeee

Snow Angels

Ta Dah!

Swim Anyone?

It's Raining Men!

The last two days I have had 7 men in my house from 9 to 5, and that is not necessarily a good thing. The painters we hired to spruce up our house started last week, and this week we finally got the new carpet that we have needed the whole time we have lived here. It's all looking great, but it has been a challenge to try to maintain a somewhat normal schedule for the girls. Yesterday, my mom and I took the girls out for a long afternoon of shopping, and luckily today was Mom's Day Out. Tomorrow we're back to just 4 men in the house, and I think we are going out for a play date. I'm looking forward to having just one man in my house again. :)

Garage Sale

We've checked another thing off our list of "things to do" before we move, and had a very successful garage sale last week. Karen sold her maternity clothes and made $79, and I sold a little of everything and made $888! It was so much work, but thankfully I had some help. Ryan, Karen and the girls were visiting over spring break so they got to help, and my mother stayed all week helping me out with everything. Josh got the brunt of the work, carrying boxes out of the basement. The largest item was our old entertainment center that we sold for $40, and the rest was a lot of quarters & dimes. One very interesting man bought our old bathroom mirror that he was going to use to finish off his room of mirrors in his house, and to add to your visual, he also bought a half used bottle of baby oil. I put the ad on craigslist, and got a crazy lady that showed up on Wednesday night before the sale even started, wanting to look around. I let her, and then she showed up the next morning before 8, to tell me a piece of the toy she bought was missing. It wasn't - the piece she wanted was a whole separate toy, and of course she wanted it for free. I did however sell a lady a DVD box set without any DVDs inside! She was very nice when she brought them back, and luckily I found them for her. All in all it was a pretty mild sale, no one got knocked down or cussed at. Don't ask - my family has a long history of garage selling. :)

The Park

Fun at the park a couple of weeks ago when the temp was 80 something. That was such a tease, now it's back to 30 something.

A Little Complaining

I can't help myself, I've got to complain about selling our house. Our home fix ups are costing us a fortune. We are getting new carpet, we've hired a painter to finish our half done projects, and today we found out that we may need a new roof!! Seriously, why don't we just pay someone to take our house. It's not like our house is even that old!

The Way Home

We stopped to visit Great Grandma & Great Grandpa Burrows on the way home from Ally's party. While we were there Ally was playing with a ball, and beamed 97 year old Grandpa right in the forehead. It was really funny, but I tried to contain my inappropriate laughter.

The girls with Great Grandma, the stinkers wouldn't take a picture with Grandpa.

Ally's new friend


Ally actually took a 2 hr nap on the way home!!
We almost made it all the way home without any screaming.

Ally's Party

Ally had a great birthday party on Saturday at my parent's house. She really loved all the balloons, and had a great time playing the party games. She's so cute these days, bouncing & shushing her babies, singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", and jabbering up a storm reading books. Her new thing is asking "what's that?" all the time. I can't believe she is 2!! I still think of her as my little baby. She's definitely not a baby, she blew her candles out on her cake so fast that I didn't even have time to put the match down. We had to have a redo so I could get a picture. She's such a stinker, she refused to wear the special party that I made for her, but at least Hunter loved it. I think Ally really enjoyed her party, and now that we're home she's really enjoying her new toys. :)

My Baby is 2!

Happy Birthday Allyson Elaine!!!

One More

I remembered one more conversation that Anya and I had at Sonic recently.

Me: What kind of slush do you want?
Anya: Watermelon, with no seeds.

Conversations with Ally

Ally is almost 2!! She says several words, a lot of them sound alike. She also uses some signs, and can usually get her point across. She's very demanding, and pretty much gets whatever she wants. :)

Ally: BeBe BeBe BeBe
Me: You want your baby?
Ally: BeBe BeBe BeBe
Me: Oh, you want your blankie.

Ally: Righ Here. Righ Here. Righ Here. (Right Here)
Me: Okay, Okay, I'm coming!

Ally: Eese Eese.
Me: You want some cheese?
A minute later... Ally: Mor Mor Mor

Me: You want some milk?
Ally: Na Na
Ally: Ji Ji Ji
Me: Juice?

Ally calling Anya: Yaya Yaya

Conversations with Anya

These are some of my favorites.

Anya: Mommy you have dog breath.
Me: That's not very nice Anya.
Anya: Okay Mommy you have cat breath.

Me: I have lost my patience.
Anya: I took it Mommy.

Me: Anya just give me a chance to breathe.
Anya(a minute later): Mommy have you breathed yet?

Anya: Mommy you're the queen, Daddy's the king, and I'm the princess.
Me: So what is Ally?
Anya: The evil fire breathing dragon!

Anya: I can't remember the baby's name. (referring to Ryan & Karen's baby)
Me: Emilia. You can call her Emi if you want.
Anya: That's okay, I'll just call her Gabriella.

Anya: When is my birthday?
Me: January 28.
Anya: No, I mean next year.
Me: January 28.
Anya: That's so weird.