All the things she says

I like to keep track of the funny way Abi says things since it never lasts long. Today she was saying that Maddy looked like the " Statue of Yiverby."

Yesterday I was walking up the stairs when a spider decided to come down it's little string right in front of me. I called up to my mom to throw me a tissue so I could get it while it was in mid air in front of me so I wouldn't lose it. My mom sarcastically said,

"Oh. That's fun."

Abi doesn't get sarcasm yet.

"Grandma! That's not fun! That's HORRIBLE!"

Lately Abi has become obsessed with Doug and I having moms and dads. She's always asking. "Mommy, who's your mommy?" and things like that. She has finally got it down that Grandma and Grandpa are my mom and dad and Grammy and Grandfather are Doug's mom and dad. Yesterday she asked me, "Mommy, do you do everything that your mommy asks you?" To which I , of course, replied, "Absolutely!" 

Last night my mom was walking up the stairs with Abi at bedtime. I told Abi that today we could play a game together. She said,

"I want to play my Fancy Nancy game!"

Grandma said, "You have a Fancy Nancy game?"

As they got higher up the stairs I heard Abi say,

"Yes! Doug's mommy and daddy got it for me!"

I think I need to start calling him daddy.

Gardening with Grandma

This afternoon Grandma and I took the girls to a local nursery to pick out some bushes and flowers to put next to our front door... something we've been wanting to do forever.

I picked up a little watering can for Abi and it was her job to fill the holes Grandma was digging with water and to water around the plants.

Abi and I also did some drawings of a cat family on the driveway..

and we brought out Maddy to watch too. Abi took this picture of us.

Abi had such a great time doing this with Grandma and was a huge wet and muddy mess by the time they were done!!

While they were finishing up and cleaning up, Maddy had some more cereal and played in her high chair while I made eclairs for tonights movie night.

American Girl and drama on the road

Originally I was going to put the girls in their Easter dresses to go to American Girl Cafe on Friday but then Abi got some blisters on her feet and needed to wear her black shoes. Because of that she wanted to wear a different dress so Maddy had to too.

I thought she looked darling in this dress but she thought otherwise. This face should have been our warning of the day to come from our normally giddy baby.

I usually go the long way to American Girl- the scenic way so I can look at all the amazing houses near the lake.. but this time I decided to go freeway the whole way. I map quested it just in case... which turned out to be my worst idea ever as it gave us an exit number that we never saw. As we passed the expressway I have used before I thought about going on it but then decided to follow our directions. Pretty soon we saw that we were WAY south of the city so I found another road that went from Indiana to Chicago and took that. We barely made it in time for our lunch appointment.

Maddy was happy for a minute but then wanted out of her car seat. She was happy as long as she was being held.

We realized as we got there that we forgot to take Abi's American Girl Doll!! But, they have loaners there if your kid wants one so Abi was excited that she got to play with a different doll for awhile.

We just love the cafe. It is so cute. They brought us mini cinnabuns and appetizers... along with yummy pink lemonade.

My mom and I both had the chicken pasta primaverra which was great. Abi had the picnic lunch which had a little hot dog, a little hamburger (which she brought home to daddy) and a little bowl of mac and cheese along with a fruit skewer.

Then for dessert they bring you a flower pot chocolate mousse, a shortbread cookie, and a little angel cake flower.

After lunch we picked out some goodies. We got some glasses for Kirsten (her doll) and Grandma got her a swimsuit/scuba diver outfit. Then we took some pictures.

I also picked up one of these..... arguably the cutest doll they had in store..

Abi couldn't wait to get home to dress Kirsten up in her new gear..

too bad we had to stop three times to nurse Maddy because she was screaming in the back seat like never before and once because Abi had an extreme bloody nose and had to go potty! so it took us over 2 hours to get home.....

Having so much fun... thursday

Thursday morning Maddy had rice cereal for the first time. She LOVES the stuff.

Abi helped Doug to paint walls throughout the kitchen.

Then we walked to the park and Grandma played on all the toys with Abi.

I hung out with Maddy

You know how you tell your kids not to climb up the slide.... well.....

Grandma was giving Abi a course on pumping your legs to keep yourself swinging..

and I dyed my hair brown... I'm not too fond of the picture below but I really like the hair color.

We're so glad when Grandma comes to town!

Grandma brought some stickers for Abi which Abi immediately put all over herself and Grandma.

Especially Grandma!

Grandma is such fun and never tires of playing with Abi. Soon after the stickers Grandma got to be Abi's "little sweetie"- that's what Abi calls babies. Not only is she all bundled up in the 'baby' bed but she also has a baby headband on.

5 months old!!

I was so happy that today, on Maddy's five month birthday, I could capture her personality in a picture. Finally! I can usually get a smile but it's almost always at the end of it or a subdued one. Today I just happened to get her in the midst of her excitement of life. I wasn't doing anything funny. I was just saying hi to her.

This is Maddy.

now one of the normal smiles I usually capture...

I love this picture. She crossed her little feet by herself and just looks so sweet.

Every day with this girl is a JOY!

this is another 'very maddy' picture. When she gets excited she tends to do what she was doing in the first picture and then kind of squish in on herself like this one. I know I didn't explain that quite right.. but hopefully you get what I mean.

HOW did this happen?

The other day Doug and I saw a commercial and the guy in it was an old boyfriend of mine. We were talking about it and about high school and some old times. I was saying how 16 seemed like just yesterday and here I am 33. Then I went into shock.

I think I stared at the wall for quite a few minutes with my mouth gaping open.

It had hit me.

Doug was wondering what was wrong with me.

I then said it has been 17 years since I was 16. I am further from 16 now then I was when I was born. OH MY WORD!

How did that happen? How can something more than half my life ago seem like just yesterday?

Marriage

Yesterday Abi kept asking me questions about marriage and the temple. She was doing an online puzzle at lds.org in the Friend section of the Salt Lake City Temple and she knew that was where Doug and I got married. So, I asked her if she wanted to watch the movie of our wedding. She did. She really enjoyed watching it.

"Mom, I want her to make my wedding cake when I get married!" she said as she watched Aunt Wendy making the cake.

"Mom, is Grandma going to be at my wedding?" she asked as she saw Grandma.

She was calling out family members names as they appeared onscreen.

Then she asked, "Mom, who am I going to marry?"

I said, "I don't know. You get to decide that. When you are grown up you will choose a boy you want to marry."

She put a finger to her chin and said, "Hmm... I want to marry.............Daddy!"

Disney Family Movie Night: Finding Nemo

For Finding Nemo night we had macaroni and cheese with Goldfish crackers "swimmin" in it to look like Nemo in the anemone. I put a few of the other crackers from the bag on her plate because they looked like sand dollars. We made blue "ocean" jello with swedish fish sea animals swimming in it and found out that Abi does not like jello. I think it's pretty funny that she doesn't like jello or rice krispie treats- aren't those things every kid is supposed to like?

We also had hot dog squids and Marlin Milk.

We had a great time watching the movie but did not end up doing our after movie hide and seek activity (Who can find Nemo- one of us would pretend to be Nemo and the other two were Dory and Marlin) because Abi fell asleep with about 15 minutes left to the movie.

A week of pictures

Our little Maddy is growing up so fast! The weather was so nice on Saturday that I had to dress her "spring-ish".

Abi has been having me put her hair up in braids after her bath so she can have curly hair the next day. Here she is pretending to be a baby with the swing.

Maddy is still loving the jumparoo..

and hanging on Abi's every word...

trying out for Popeye..

this picture is a little strange to be posting, I know, but the reason I did is because of Abi's hand. She always puts her hand like that when she is telling you a story about something.. here she was telling me something about Sydney her toy dog. I love that I got that little gesture captured.

Sisters and friends already.