Just Some Cuteness...

16 months old!!!

Our little girl is 1 year and 4 months old today!! Not to sound sappy but I feel each day I get a little piece of heaven. What could be more perfect and this is what I envision heaven to be like. Now not all days are like heaven, changing 5/6 diapers (cloth diapers by the way), the 5/6 o'clock hours, the little glimpses of the terrible twos, but overall I'm such a blessed mom who is enjoying this time before she enters her teens and doesn't like mommy anymore (I will probably still be blogging). She makes me so happy and to see her grow is even more exciting. She is picking up quite a vocabulary. She understands words with pictures and will go get them for us when asked. She LOVES when we read books together. Each night we curl up with a book of her choice. She will actually go and get a book for us to read. She can somewhat brush her own teeth but will chew more than brush. She can say "rock" and is now calling "mama and dadda" "mada." I think she doesn't know who she wants more, so she calls us both at the same time with "Mada, Mada." She can put her own toys away. The best thing we have noticed her doing this month is praying. She will fold her hands together and look down when we say our blessing and prayers. It's just too adorable. And when we say amen, she claps! She is especially good with this at the dinner table and is keeping us quite accountable to say our blessings b/c we will look over at her and she already has her hands folded ready for the blessing. She is also very affectionate towards her stuffed toys, which I call her friends. She HAS to have them in bed with her each night or it's devastating. Here are some pictures I took today of her on her 16 month birthday.

I'm in an Organizing Mood...

So maybe it's the teacher in me, but when I walked into Allie-Ann's playroom (our old dining room, where we actually used to have sophisticated suppers) to see all her new toys from Christmas in a mountain pile, I decided it was time to organize. When your feet get lost in toys, something is wrong. I honesty feel that this is only the beginning. Can you recycle stuffed toys?? Anyways, I made labels, bought an organizing stacker, and rearranged so that her playroom could look a little more orderly. It's basically for me, I know Allie-Ann could care less, but she did find the shelving system quite fascinating.





I Like Organization!!!

Found Dog...

You know I'm a big animal lover who adopted two mixed breed dogs from an animal shelter but right now I'm debating about putting one back into the shelter. Luke was our first pet but he has a mind of his own. He has this uncontrollable barking problem that has resulted in the Police coming to our house two times. So we have bought several devices to use to control his barking. He also has this problem of escaping out of our fence. Now.. don't feel sorry for our dog, he gets plenty of attention, a warm, fluffy bed, two big meals a day (not including Allie-Ann's food that she throws to them each night at dinner), a warm house to stay in and daily walks provided by my husband who thinks like the dog whisper that they need at least two miles a day. So why would he want to escape the pampered life he has with us??? Needless to say, he escaped yesterday and once I knew he was not in the backyard I called Kyle. On Kyle's drive home, he looked around the neighborhood for signs of our crazy dog, he found signs alright. At every stop sign was the sign pictured below (I'm talking over a dozen). Luke traveled three houses down where our great neighbors took him in, what a life he has. I seriously debated not calling the number but thought that would not be a good christian thing to do, plus Allie-Ann loves our dogs. So we brought him home and all I can say is that we have some pretty great neighbors and a really bad dog.

This is what usually happens at snack time...

When you have days like this....

And like this....
And like this....
You must take out the Daddle!!!!!!


This was the best gift, Allie-Ann loves to ride on her daddy with her very own daddle saddle. It goes on like a backpack and she can ride on daddy all afternoon.

New Year's Resolution....

I once used to run competitively a long time ago. My last big race was a marathon in 2000 and since then I've had a bad taste in my mouth as far as running long distances. But, I've made up my mind to start running again for the new year. I don't usually make resolutions because I can never keep them going but I'm going to try to make this happen. I mean I run here and there and go to the gym occasionally but I'm going to really try to start back running long distances again. It brought a lot of freedom and joy, along with pain and aches but I've missed it, so I'm going to try to start back again. Wish me well. Kyle just laughs and says that I say this every year but I'm going to show him. Plus, I want to be a healthy mommy that has enough energy to watch our one year old that refuses to slow down.