Sunday, August 30, 2009

Carolyisms

This is a conversation Daddy and Carolyn had on Saturday while we all walked into Costco for some family shopping:

Daddy: “I want to be like Mommy.”

Carolyn: “You want to be like me, too?”

Daddy: “Yes!”

Carolyn: “To be like me, you dance and sing.”

Carolyn couldn’t have put it better than that.

She still insists to always wear a dress or a skirt so that she has the ability to dance all of the time with a flowing bottom. She dances in the grocery store, at the park, at church while we are singing in Sacrament meeting, on the walk from our apartment to the car when we are leaving somewhere…everywhere. She just can’t get enough of it.

She also loves to sing. All of the time. And very loudly. It was a given to me that people above and below our apt. could hear Carolyn’s tunes all day, but I was shocked when I spoke with the girl that lives ACROSS from our apt. and learned that she could hear her sing! Our apartments are not connected AT ALL! Our neighbor is very nice about it; she just told me that she loves listening to Carolyn’s songs in the morning while eating breakfast (another reason why we go to the park first thing in the morning - so we don't wake up the neighbors :). Hopefully this gives you an idea of how loud Carolyn loves to belt out her songs. And she belts all of the time. I was at the zoo with a friend of mine on Friday; she said, “Carolyn’s singing is like her cow bell. It’s easy to keep track of her.” Very true. It’s not hard to keep track where Carolyn is - just follow the singing.

I love Sacrament meetings with Carolyn. If she isn’t dancing to the hymns being sung, she is sitting down with the hymn book open (pointing to random words in the book) and belting out whatever words she can think of. Luckily, our ward sings pretty loud so only the people ahead of us get a good smile out of Carolyn’s singing.

Anyways, I could go on forever about this. Long story short: If you want to be like Carolyn, sing and dance.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Preschool with Mommy

So, I was starting to make a post about what we've been up to in preschool this week and realized that there were just too many pictures! I decided that I should just start a seperate blog for my prechool ideas with Carolyn and Angela. The purpose of the blog is mostly so I can remember things I do with them for in the future. But, if you would like to take a look - that'd be lovely :) It's nothing too fancy, but it's fun :)

http://www.preschoolwithmommy.blogspot.com/

15 Months and Too Cute to Be True :)






Angela is such a little sweetheart. Here are a few fun facts about our little Angel:
  1. Angela loves to read! She will follow me around with books and then climb up on my lap for some good reading :) Her favorite book is From Head to Toe by Eric Carle. She loves pounding her hands on her chest like a gorilla....
  2. ...which brings me to my next point, she loves animals! Her favorite is a dog and she has absolutely no fear of petting any dog!
  3. She loves her sister, Carolyn. She wants to play everything with her :)
  4. She is a great sleeper! She takes great naps (1.5-3 hour naps! wow!) and great at night (she even can usually sleep through Carolyn waking up at night (if she wet the bed or has to use the bathroom)).
  5. She loves going outside! She usually is up between 6 and 7 AM and starts bringing everyone their shoes soon after to head outside. Once we get outside and she hits the ground out there, she runs like she's been waiting her whole life to be out there.
  6. She's really into playing with balls. The other day the bathroom door was opened (oopps!), so she ran in there and threw a little beach ball in the toilet! Score! Maybe our future basketball player?
  7. She's been off the bottle for a few month now (YAY! That one was a tough one with our sweet Carolyn) and is such a good eater. Probably from watching Carolyn, she loves her fruits and vegetables...and most anything else I give her!
  8. She looooves dolls! She brings her little doll around with her all day long. She loves patting her doll, feeding her the doll bottle, dressing her, putting her in her high chair, etc.
  9. She loooooves snuggles!! YAY! She also loves being tickled! A lot of times she will lye down and snuggle with me and then put both of her arms up (like a mummy holding both arms out) and wait for me to tickle both of her arms! And she just loves it. And I, of course, can't get enough of it either :)
  10. She gets in really giggly moods! IT'S SO FUNNY AND ADORABLE! Everything will make her laugh when she's in one of those "moods." CUTE!
  11. We love our Angela! What a sweetie-pie!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday, Andrew!! Tonight I am taking Andrew to the Rockies game – just the two of us (A big thanks to Aunt Chantal for babysitting the girls while we go)! Andrew and I are very excited – it should be a great game! Since Andrew and I won’t be around tonight, we celebrate his birthday last night with the cuties.
Carolyn took this picture of the beautiful art display of "Happy Birthday" signs we made (Angela included) for Daddy!
Carolyn was very particular of what cake we should make for Daddy. I tried to talk her into a polar bear (so I could use a bear pattern for the cake), but she felt very strongly that Dad needed a cheetah cake! I'm so glad that she knew what Daddy wanted - it was so fun making the cake with her! This is Carolyn putting the spots on the cheetah:

Carolyn took this picture of the cake when we were finished - great job, Carolyn :)
Angela and Carolyn drew lots of pictures for Andrew's birthday. This was one of my favorites that Carolyn drew. It's a picture of Daddy and Carolyn.
We've been talking about temples in preschool.....and all on her own, she drew this picture of a temple for Andrew! As a mom, I was so impressed :)
Happy Birthday, Andrew! We love you!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

My two Miss Curls

Carolyn: Angela:

What Sunday Afternoons are for...

.....Snuggles


Happy Anniversary to Us!

On Monday, Andrew and I celebrated four wonderful years of being married! On our anniversary, he bought me these dozen beautiful roses and some chocolate milk (my favorite treat). My beautiful roses are hanging to dry so I can keep them and remember our 4th Anniversary!

On Wednesday, we celebrated our anniversary by having the rare experience of going out to eat (thanks to my dear friend, Nicole, who babysat for us)! Probably the best part of that date is the waiter showed Andrew and I the wine section of the menu! Yah, never happened to us before...and esp. not me- maybe I am starting to look more my age :)

Probably my favorite part of our anniversary was when we talked about some of our favorite memories of each other. It was so sweet to hear Andrew recall little things I've done for him that I couldn't even remember doing and hearing his favorite memories. And, of course, it was fun for me to reminisce of all the amazing things Andrew does for me and the wonderful memories I have with him! I am excited for many more to come! I don't think a day goes by that I don't thank my Father in Heaven for such an amazing husband! He's absolutely perfect for me in every way and I always wonder how I ended up with such a find! I love how he works sooo hard (he's always busy magnifying his calling, working hard at work so I can stay home with our sweeties, and busy being an amazing dad and husband). I love how he always makes me laugh and always helps me to be a better person. I love you, Andrew!

Friday, August 7, 2009

Summer Days

Warning: This post could be made into a novel! I wanted to record some of the fun stuff we did this summer! Obviously, don't feel obligated to read/look at it!

I can’t believe that summer time is almost over! We’ve had such a fun and busy summer!
Here are some of the things we’ve been filling our summer days with:

Our days start bright and early over here…and we are usually out the door by 8 am. Angela is our little outdoor girl. She usually starts crying at our front door to go out and play starting at about 7 am – so we have no choice but have an early start (which I actually like any way). Every morning that we don’t have something else going on, we head to the trails. Our community has some awesome trails that I can push the girls around in the stroller while I run. The trails also have some great parks right by them. So, we run and then play. It works out for all of us.

As you might be able to guess, I don’t exactly get the best workout for two reasons. First, this is what I am pushing around while I run :) (I admire people that can run at a decent pace while pushing a stroller!)


Second, the girls like getting out and running with me some of the time :) This way, they get their exercise in for the day, too! It’s fun.



After the run, playing at the park (Did I mention how much I love the community's trails and parks!! Awesome! I feel so blessed to live here):








We also love playing with friends:
Our apt. complex has two great things about it. First, it has a huge sandbox for us to play in (really a volleyball area, but we use it as a giant sandbox – the girls love it). Second, it has a pool! At the beginning of the summer, we were hitting the pool all of the time…we stopped going quite as often after Angela experienced a heated pool at someone elses' condo - our pool is freezing! I don’t blame her, though, the pool is quite cold!
We still are going to the zoo A TON! We all love it. Andrew once questioned the zoo’s motto (“There’s always something new!”) He wondered if we, who usually go to the zoo twice a week, really see something new each time. Well, Andrew, we do! :) At least one of the animals there is doing something we’ve never seen before each time we go. For instance, last week we saw the polar bears climb up onto a rock and then push themselves backwards into the water and swim on their back. They kept doing this over and over! It was pretty cool. Anyways, yes, we do see something new each time!


Carolyn making a "silly face":

Yes, this is still the look you can often find on Angela. What a cutie.







Angela is usually out before we leave the parking lot after visiting the zoo:

We’ve also been to a few Rockies’ Games:





We also are doing our normal "indoor" stuff. Carolyn still loves preschool time with me and now she gets to go to preschool at the libary once a week. Our library has a fabulous and free preschool program for kids 3 and up. Every week, Carolyn goes to preschool there all by herself ("no moms allowed"). There, they read books, sing songs, and make crafts. Here is a picture of Carolyn with her craft from last week (her smile in this pic makes me laugh - she's so cute):


The girls and I have also looked at over 100 houses together in our quest for finding a home. The girls are good sports about it most of the time, but it’s still not my favorite thing in the world. It's hard finding the houses (I’m really, really good at getting lost) and then it's no fun getting the girls in and out of the car to look at various houses. Hopefully we won’t have to look at too many more and one of our offers will go through (all the houses are short sales and only have a 20% chance of going through so we shall see. We made some offers back in June and won’t hear from them for another 2-3 months – hopefully one goes through!)


Right now, some of the things that the girls are really into include: dressing up (Angela will even find dressups and bring them to me to put on her), playing with dolls, baking with me, playing with playdough, building forts, playing with ponies, dancing, drawing, doing puzzles, watching princess shows, going for lots of walks, playing with blocks, reading books, singing, etc., etc. I love watching them play together:













One of Angela's favorite things to do is frustrate herself! She loves buckling and unbuckling things (which are usually too challenging for her, but she loves it and looks everywhere for opportunities to do that). She also loves taking lids off and on of different stuff (also can be frustrating). I try to hide the things that drive her nuts, but she still manages to find them or other objects. She's such a cutie. Carolyn had this same frustration when she was little so I tried to foster her love of using her fine motor skills through doing puzzles (which is what I am trying to do with Angela). She's a cutie.






Here are my sweeties snuggling! (Since I have taken this picture, Angela has completely given up the bottle! Yah :))
Of course, the best part of weekdays is when Daddy comes home. When Angela hears him come through the door, she runs to him as if her life depended on it. She stretches her arms way out and looks like she is about to burst into tears (she's been waiting for him all day). Then, she gives him a huge hug and never wants to let go.
Whew! Those are some of the things we’ve been up to! Now, I need you to post the things you’ve been doing this summer!! :)