Recent Happenings

Gretel is so funny...she makes us laugh every day! She says hilarious things all the time, and I need to write them all down, before I forget. Last summer, I was drinking a can of Mug root beer, and she looked at it and said, "Dog-beast?" That was when she was just speaking in one or two word, question mark form. She also did that with Ollie's stuffed animal build-a-bear dog.
As soon as she saw it she said, "Teddy-dog?"






Now that she's talking in sentences, she is really making us howl with laughter....on our trip to Newport last week she got to hold Gwen on her lap for the last 30 min. of the drive. Poor Gwen was trapped! Gretel stroked her and said, "I'm sorry, puppy-pup...but I'm happy!" Today while on a walk together, we passed by a middle-eastern man wearing a turban, dark glasses and walking with a cane. Gretel said "there's a man" a couple of times before she just had to add "he looks like Rasputin" just at the exact time we were right next to him! Horrid. She's easy to understand, so when she says things like that it's so embarrassing. Anyway, here's what we've been up to. A couple of weeks ago she had the flu and was throwing up for a few days. So Johnny brought her some flowers. I liked this dramatic picture of her.




Johnny's mom says she is a real character, and she is!



She loves staying and playing in her bath towel for a really long time after "tubby tine" as she calls it.






She spends hours each day wrapping up penguin and other bath animals in white wash cloths, aka making them dresses. I wish I had her facing the window so it would be better lighting. I told her to pose with her hands by her face like this, and she did it for me!




She did this pose all on her own, and Johnny captured it at the right moment. What a poser!

She loves putting on her hat, "mitts" and snow boots around the house.






She pours me smoothies in her kitchen she got from Mimi and Pop-C


She loves her "glass slippers" so much that Grandma gave her. She lives in them, and she fell asleep one night wearing them! They have Cinderella on them, and she used to role play by saying, "Cinda-grella's running away!" Then either Johnny or I would pretend to be the prince and try and stop her and beg her not to go home yet. She lived for this and we'd do it all day.



She's been in nursery for a year now! I can't believe how much bigger she is now-anyway, I came across these pictures and had to throw them in too!




This was her very first day of nursery. I remember Johnny wanted to "hold her back" a few weeks because he felt that she was too little for nursery. (kind of like you'd hold back your child from kindergarten for a year) He's so funny.







I felt like the worst mom on earth when she hurt her nose really badly one night. It was all my fault because I was playing with her on my bed. We were playing her favorite "hungry for babies" game where she hides under the covers. I grabbed her buns, and she lunged forward (her face was covered in blankets, so she couldn't see) hitting the edge of our nightstand so hard. I was terrified, and seeing how bad her nose looked, I didn't know if it was broken or not. (it wasn't)






The next day she fell and hit her forehead really hard, so she looked totally beat up for a long time. Major bruising in both places!! I can't stand when kids get injured!









This was just a few weeks ago right before a day at the zoo! She loved it so much, and keeps
saying, "we better go to the zoo!"




I thought this was a hilarious, crazed smile.



Last week she heard Johnny's dad say how much he loves her smile. He said it's the best smile he's ever seen on a kid. So the next day she started saying to us, "look at my smile" and then would give us a total cheeser. What a clown!

Hab's 30th birthday party....and other fun!

So I figured I should keep up my terrific habit of posting events WAY after they occur! Back in August, my sis Hailey (aka Hab) turned the big 3-0, and threw herself an awesome pink party. My dad flew me to Utah so I could be there for the party (thanks Dad-you're the best!) as well as hang out for a week!

The first day I arrived, Teal and I stopped at my fave place....Sconecutter!! We had a hilarious experience that left us in stitches at the drive-thru, so that was fun. He drove me to Hab and Steve's house, and the kids all played together while they made us all a really yummy dinner! My parents met us there and we all had lots of fun catching up and watching the kids play in the playhouse & backyard.



Hudson's robot moves

Hab's pink party was Pinkalicious! She has a great backyard for a summer night party!
It was perfect, and she'd thought of all sorts of fun details. She'd spray-painted twigs hot pink for a centerpiece/party favor tree. There were tiny nailpolishes tied to the tree that we each got to choose from before leaving. The food was all sooo good! There was dinner, pictures, and dancing. (I made some pretty wicked dinner and dance mixes if I do say so myself!)

Lauren and Betsy-we love their whole fun fam of girls! Betsy and I used to be roomies, and took organ lessons together, and also did lots of other obnoxious things together!! She's super fun and hilarious!

Oh, yes-all the guests were asked to wear pink

Besides the party, the highlight of the trip for me was going to water aerobics with Hab and my cousins Hillary and Tenley. I expected it to be fun, but it was WAY more fun that I thought it would be!!! After our exercise class, we decided to eat back all the calories we'd burned (and more) at Coldstone and The Pie. In that order too, because Hilly and Tenley were too polite to tell us that they hadn't eaten dinner yet, and got ice cream with us first. We felt awful when we learned this, and we all grabbed pizza after our dessert!

The morning of Hab's birthday, we all went to a Chicken and Waffles place that she loves, which is unfortunately out of biz now. Too bad...it was really good!

We went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory and opened gifties at Mom and Dad's house after. Here is the birthday girl posing with a few of her spoils. (I gave her the pink coasters) I especially love the necklace that she got-very cool!

While we were there, Gretel got hooked on the swing in my parent's backyard and wanted to be pushed out there for hours!

She loves Hilly's cute dogs, Lola and Bella. I do too! I'm so glad she gets to grow up with a little pup of her own. She and Gwen are thick as thieves lately! She loves to hold the leash and run with her! Anyway, I love these little Chihuahuas-they are very sweet!

This is Connor, who I used to babysit along with his siblings a long time ago. Their family was my favorite!! I can't believe how grown up and smart he is. I got to visit with him when he came over to ride my little brother Teal's golf cart. He was trying to earn money to try and buy it (I think he's bought it since then) and wanted to practice driving it. So he took Gretel and I around the block and he was a total blast to talk to. So mature-I felt like I was on a date (in a non-creepy way) because he was so fun to talk to!

His mom and siblings came over to visit since they heard from Connor that I was in town. Such a nice and cute family-I loved catching up with them!

Gretel was addicted to golf cart rides, and thankfully Teal was generous with taking her whenever she wanted to go!! She loves him and talks about him all the time.

Fun trip, and I can't believe it's taken me this long to write about it! I hope to have another visit soon! (Or you guys are invited here....)