Gretel is a funny girl!

I got a few pictures of Gretel on her little trike that "Pop-C" got her. She is so funny and is always in la-la land. She sings to herself and just messes around all day long. She is good at doing a lot of nothing, really. Just lots of wandering the house hanging /climbing on things and pretending to be several movie characters each day. The rest of us are other characters is her movie. For example, when she's Jazzy, (short for Jasmin) I am always Aladdin and Gwen is Aboo. We sing "A whole new world" and she tears up little pieces of toilet paper to make my turban and little even tinier ones to also put on my head which are the jewels. She says the words toilet and jewels really funny.

Her favorite character lately is Oliver from the movie Oliver and Company. He is a cat, so she crawls around the house meowing and pawing at me, "Jenny." I love when we pretend this because she is extra cuddly and sweet. She wants to be held and have me pet her soft fur and everything. She will do just about anything Jenny asks. She used to have a hard time saying Oliver and it sounded just like "Over." Johnny kind of taught her how to say it correctly, and she says it really well now. She tells me, "Sometimes we say "Oliver" and sometimes we say "Over." Also, when we are these characters, Gwen is Tito and Johnny is Sikes, the mean dog. The last few days she has been nicer to Johnny, but she has been going through a rough phase with him, where she was favoring me a lot, and not so nice to him.
One thing she said to Johnny that really made us laugh was, Johnny told her that he loved her toy dogs "Cutsy and Wo Wo." (she named them, and we love these names!) Her response was, "Well they don't love you! They bite you and they scratch you!"

Also, she loves to be Perdi and I am Pongo. She is Mrs. Frisby, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc. It changes constantly. I'm glad this phase is back, because she stopped pretending to be lots of people for a while, and I missed it!

Lately when she sees whoever it is that she's pretending to be, (either on tv or in a book) she'll say things like, "look! there I am running away in the forest and the queen is going to feed me a poison apple!" Or at the beginning of a Disney movie when they show the castle she says, "there's my castle!"
She really cracks us up.


Also, she loves music and requests these songs:

1. Magic Dance by David Bowie
2. La Vien Rose by Louis Armstrong
3. Just an old fashioned girl by Eartha Kitt
4. Face Drop by Sean Kingston (she must love him, because Fire Burning was her very favorite song when she was only about a year, and we'd listen to it over and over)
5. Someone like you by Adele (she calls it the "nevermind song")

That last one is her absolute favorite, and she asks to listen to it a lot. She also yells, "LOUDER! LOUDER!" Then she belts it out with me. The other night when I was rocking her we had this conversation:

G: Mom, what does boun mean?
me: Is the word bound? Are you thinking of the nevermind song?
G: Ya-she says bound by thee surprise....
me: Ya! She says the word "the" like "thee"...
then I explained to her what bound meant.

Really, I find her highly entertaining! She is very affectionate lately and always says, "Mommy I love you" or "Daddy I love you." She isn't such a prickly porcupine anymore!

My summer in Utah!

This summer I was in Utah a ton! I went there while Johnny studied for the bar, which he took at the end of July. (He won't get his results until just before Thanksgiving!)
So, while I was there a ton happened! Hailey had her baby Penelope on June 9th. I waited to go home until she was born. My mom and I went to the hospital in the middle of the night to see her straight from the womb! It was a total blast; very memorable. She is a little doll. Her name is Penelope Jane, and I like to call her "P.J." just to drive Hab crazy! I also got to go to her one month photo shoot with Hab, which was way fun. More pictures of that later!

We planned and did so many fun things; we kept saying how we'd always remember this summer because of all the really fun activities we did.
Here are the highlights-I don't have pictures of everything, unfortunately!!

-Going to Bear Lake two weekends in a row; Gretel's first tube ride behind the boat! She loved getting splashed and giggled a ton!
-Going to Midway and riding scooters/swimming
-Going to Chuck E. Cheese or, as I like to call it...."Charles E. Cheddar!" We had so much fun there; I started referring to it as "The Cheddar." Gretel asks to go back every day.
-Lagoon; we did the freakiest ride with Gretel called Dinosaur Drop. She also did bumper cars and loved everything she rode. Hab and I did the Wicked roller coaster with Teal-so scary! Gretel also asks to go back to Lagoon every day.
-I went to my very first series of acupuncture appointments and finally got to meet the famous (in my fam, anyway) Dr. Ding! I loved every minute of being there.
-Going to dinner with Tonya, Tess, my mom and Hab at Vinto and had my dream pasta.
-Dinner with Claudia and the Olsen girls at the Grand America, so that was hilarious company.
-Dollar movie night with Hilly, my mom and Hab. We saw Something Borrowed and went to Baskin Robbins for ice cream after! I loved that night!
-I did plenty of pedicures and earned some cash while visiting with old clients of mine that I love and miss.
-Went to the zoo with the fam and Red Robin for dinner. Then I went swimsuit shopping with Hab afterward!
-We went to the Living Aquarium one day with mom, Hab, Hudda and Ollie. Gretel loved being able to see her cousins and play with them a bunch.
-Got my fave Beto's breakfast burritos on the way to the farmer's market one Saturday morning.
-I went to visit two of my friends from high school/childhood: both named Katie. One just had twins so I got to see them (so cute) and the other has a little girl that's Gretel's age and they love playing together.

-Johnny and I were both in Utah at the very end and we went to Seven Peaks for Hab's birthday, (Gretel loved going on the big water slides with me!) then saw a hilarious comedian that night. We also got to celebrate my dad's birthday by having a campout in my parent's backyard and yummy breakfast the next morning, which was really fun!
We also enjoyed a pool party that Johnny's parents hosted for his side of the fam, and Gretel loved swimming all night long! We also went to the zoo and the aquarium with his family, and ate at Hires then saw the movie The Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Wow! It really was a totally packed summer and I was able to do every activity that I've wanted to do in ages! Thank you mom and dad, for taking us to so many places, and planning such a memorable summer. I really do have the best parents and family in the world, and I really love them. I am lucky I was able to spend so much time with them this summer!




Hab and I competing-I just loved our "Evening at The Cheddar!"