Saturday, February 25, 2012

Saturday is a special day!

It's the day you go dumpster diving for free wood.
It's the day your wife actually makes you a warm breakfast.
It's the day getting out of your pj's is optional.
It's the day bedhead is fully appreciated.
It's the day you get to have a bed party.
It's the day you get to watch cartoon clips while having a bed party.
It's the day when stickers get invited to the bed party.
All credit for proper sticker placement goes to none other than Mikayla.
It's the best day EVER!!!
And, of course, it's the day you get ready for Sunday.  I didn't forget that part.


Thursday, February 23, 2012

Daddy's Girl

Gotta love the vinyl tablecloth and it's amazing reflective effects!
This would be Dustin's child.
Although, with Mikayla falling asleep in random places is completely NOT the norm, unlike for her Dad.
We had a rough day yesterday and the no nap scenario Mikayla had planned out in her head won out over my plan that included a nice long peaceful nap for the Little Missy.
This little scene won her some points, though.  She would be totally asleep at the table while we were laughing at her and taking pictures and her eyes would randomly open and she'd bust up laughing.  Still totally asleep.  It was hilarious.
Once I got enough pictures I held her for the rest of dinner while we ate and she slept on my chest.  Each time Dustin and I would laugh she'd chuckle in her sleep.  It made up for the 6 hours of torture we'd just endured playing battle of the wills.  She's a keeper.



Hair

Let's revisit the topic of hair again, shall we?
Mikayla is in this phase right now where she loves to have her hair done.  Literally first thing after we leave her room in the morning she starts tugging at her hair saying, "Yeah!  Yeah!"-meaning can you please do my hair NOW?!?
The problem is that she pretty much destroys her hair when I lay her down for a nap, if not before then.  
I think in her mind it's a sign of rebellion to take out your hair tie and throw it on the ground.  
Not really sure what the excitement is about that.
Anyway, the other night after a hair destroying episode during her nap she was begging me to do her hair again.  Like any great mom would I told her to go talk to her Dad about it.
I was kind of surprised that he agreed so readily to do her hair.
I should have known...
Our unicorn!


Sunday, February 19, 2012

The view from here.

I love that we live in a subdivision, but on one side of us these guys are our neighbors.  Mikayla is fascinated with them-"MORE ONE?  MORE ONE!!!  THERE IT IS!!!"  We sat on our sidewalk in our front yard for almost an hour the other day watching these beauties.  It was time well spent.
And, as far as the view from the backyard...the irrigation is in and we planted GRASS!!!!
I don't know if you can see it very well, but the dark patch that looks like a rock farm at the moment (despite TONS and TONS of raking) is actually our future lawn!
Here's the view of the what the lawn will look like from the porch.  We are hoping to extend our porch someday and that will fill in the space between the house and the lawn.  We're making progress though and we are really excited about it!

Keeping with Tradition

Valentine's Day sugar cookies. :)

Monday, February 13, 2012

The girl with the wild hair.

Mikayla has a mullet.  There.  I said it.  Luckily, she has enough hair to put into piggies in order to try and control the mullet movement.  Taking these pictures was my entertainment while she was outside the other day, but when I uploaded them I couldn't help but smile at her hair.  I'm pretty sure she'll always thank her Dad for her hair!
The Mikayla strut.  She's on a mission!  And, in case you're wondering-she'll be "BAH-BAP" ("right back"...which has to be yelled as loud as possible over and over again until you say, "Okay, you'll be right back?" and she tells you "yeah".  It's tradition.  That's the way it HAS to be done.  If you mess up, you get to repeat the process until you do it right.).
Bummer her eyes are closed, but that hair?  Awesomeness.  Someday she'll hate me for that hairdo, but right now it's the best.

Our computer is running out of space on the hard drive.  I'm pretty sure it's all my fault.  I love pictures.  What can I say?  I'm not convinced the computer isn't going to crash sometime in the near future, too.  I've made a mad attempt at backing everything up on hard drives and trying to upload my favorite pictures to Photobucket as I clear off my memory cards, just to have them in one extra place.  That's reason I've been posting an extra lot of times, with an extra lot of pictures.  Sorry if you get tired of looking at Mikayla, but this is our family journal and I'm scared to death of losing our pictures. :)

How do you measure up?


Life.

I was sorting through pictures on our computer and found this gem.  Nothing special about it, but it captures a common scene around our house while Mikayla and I are hanging out together.  Mikayla building her nest next to wherever I am.  Life is good, even if it is a bit messy.  I love spending my days with my little chick.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

A Super Saturday

This past weekend was my sister Maren's birthday.  Her requests were to have coffee cake for breakfast and have Mikayla paint her nails.  We were happy to oblige.  Any excuse for cake at breakfast time is good with us!
Mikayla talked all the aunts and uncles into sitting by her on her table.  She's pretty hard to turn down when she pats the seat next to her and says "YEAH, YEAH!!!" 

I've never let Mikayla paint her own nails before and I'm pretty sure I'm doomed from here on out.  Painting our nails is never going to be the same again (she's sitting on my lap as I'm typing this looking at the pictures and pointing to her nails saying "More? More?").  Mikayla had a blast, though, and took her job very seriously.  She held each individual finger while she painted it ever so daintily.  She'd paint Maren or my Mom's nails for a bit, then take up painting her own.
The finished products!
A rhino ride with Auntie Maren and Uncle Jake was next while we put the rest of the crew to work...
Planting trees and
digging ditches!  That's right-we're putting in our irrigation system!
This is proof for Seth that his 5 month pregnant sister really did put his shovel to better work than he did (totally joking-he really worked hard!). ;)
Thank heavens, again, for my Dad's tractor to help make the digging easier.  This picture is the best I have of a bigger portion of the yard and still does not do justice to the 80 miles of ditches that are now in our yard.  This is only part of the back yard and they did the front yard, too.  Yikes.  Good thing our boys are hard workers!

Life at 2

Some fun things about the Little Missy at 2:
-She's discovered how to sing and dance and LOVES it!  Her little song goes something like "bop, bop, bop" over and over again while clapping and dancing along.
-She loves trains, buses and airplanes ("ah-goc").
-She sleeps in a big girl bed now!
-She has twinkle toes and runs on her tippy (sp?) toes.
-She says "nahbah" constantly and we can't for the life figure out what assortment of words it is supposed to mean, but it's by far her favorite word.
-She is obsessed with ladybugs ("bah-buh") and bees ("beeeee"), although she's never seen either one in real life.
-She thinks going to a gas station is the greatest thing ever and all limbs start flying when she sees the Circle K logo on the building.  Thanks to Grandad and his soda stops for that one!
-She is still crazily in love with hair-anyone's will do.  "Woo-u, woo-u!"
-She loves people, but Mrs. Bear still remains her truest friend.
-She still stresses when you put her feet in footie pajamas and she can't find them.  "Uh-oh!"
-She can be found anywhere if you yell out "Silly Willy" because she'll yell back "Willy, willy!" in response.
-She could eat sour cream, or "bip bip" for every meal.  By itself.
-She sings "Shoo Fly" by saying "I be, I be, I be" (the "I feel, I feel, I feel like a morning star part).
-She can eat a whole Belgian waffle, sometimes 1 1/2.
-She tells you "bye-bye" in a sweet little voice whenever she's about to do something naughty.
-She'll tell anyone and anything to "beep beep" if it's in her way.
-She has quite animated phone conversations with herself.  She holds her hand up to her ear and goes to town.
-She sleeps with a huge stack of blankets on her at night and begs for "more, more!" even after there are 6 already on her.
-She says everything is "lellow" (yellow).
-She could put on chapstick and hand sanitizer all day long.
-She pulls down the pants on her poor doll every night.  Every morning we fix the poor baby's pants and by the next morning they are down again.  I guess it's an essential part of the routine or tradition now.  Or something.
-She likes to sing "Wheels on the Bus", "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes", "Popcorn Popping", "Once There was a Snowman" (she's really good at melting!), "If You're Happy and You Know It", "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam", and "Do as I'm Doing".
-She likes to call people on the phone and for every ring that someone doesn't answer she shouts "NOPE!"
-She freaks out at the word "poop" because her uncles tortured her with some fake poop over Christmas.
-She tells secrets.  Sometimes a whisper comes out.  Sometimes just the lips move.
-She says "oh man" all the time when something isn't going right or she drops something.
-She thinks "spitting" in the sink after brushing her teeth is pretty awesome.  "PAH PAH!"
-She is still a hoarder, a sorter and a junk pile artist.
-She gets tucked in at night by us singing a couple songs to her and as long as Mrs. Bear and her baby are by her side, she'll put herself to sleep after that.
-She says "BURP" in a really deep voice.
-She plugs her ears and says "bye bye" when she's tired of something.
-She can hear the bag of chocolate chips crinkle from across the house and comes racing in.
-She is such a good helper that if you pick a booger from her nose she pinches your nose to grab your booger for you and then rubs her fingers together to get rid of the imaginary booger while saying "boo boo boo boo" for booger.
-She's picked up on her Mom's frustration for our overly sensitive fire alarm and says "ugghhh" each time it goes off, just like Mom.
-She is still terrible at looking for things.  She races from one doorway of a room to another saying "NOPE!" and holding her hands in the air as soon as she peeks her head in the room, without looking for anything at all.
-She loves to look at homes that are being built and gets bummed out each time we walk or drive by an unfinished home without stopping to check on the progress.  She'll say "no?" each time we pass one by.
-She blows her nose by holding a tissue up to her face and making raspberry-like noises with her mouth.  It's very effective.
-She says "bah-bap" (right back) when someone leaves the room.
-She still lays down by doing a half somersault or flip type thing-rolling in the opposite direction of where you need her to go.
-She probably has the most shrill scream of any child I have ever met.  Louder is always better in her book.
-She plays computer.  She'll sneak into our room, grab the wireless mouse off the desk and put in on the computer chair and run the computer from the chair.
-She loves company and is always patting next to her to have you join in her party.
-She's learned that in order to go somewhere fun you have to "nah-nup" (clean up).  We were at a restaurant one time and went to leave and she started putting all the silverware in the glasses so she could go.
-She will gladly (and loudly) inform you of the progress you've made on your dinner..."One more!"  "All done!"
-She can be cute on demand.  You tell her to be cute and she strikes a pose.
-She's a big helper with the laundry.  She piles all the clothes on her lap, throws a piece of clothing up and down in the air to de-wrinkle/fluff them.
-She says "up" normally, but "up, please" is "uppa".
-She loves to look at books, but is just learning to like having people read to her.
-She says "more one" (another one) for everything.
-She is obsessed with toots.  She laughs and laughs when someone toots.  When she toots, she waves her hand in front of her nose.
-She still folds her arms by putting her hands under her chin.  She prays by jabbering a random assortment of words after we tell her what to say, but she says it in the sweetest tone ever.  She isn't very patient, though and most prayers consist of saying "AMEN, AMEN!" over and over again.
-She loves to play "I'm going to get you", which she instigates by holding her pointer finger up in the air and moving it up and down with a very serious face.
-She will sit in a group or with kids her age and not make a sound, but get her in a small crowd and you can't stop her jabbering.
-She blows kisses to say "I love you".
-She uses the drill on her tool bench as a shampoo/hair product dispenser.
-She still claims her spot on the kitchen counter and insists on helping me with every meal and loves to lick the beaters when we make a treat.
-She's a flower girl.  She can spot them from a mile away and thinks it's great fun to pick every leaf off a plant.
-She says "Nanh-dah" (Grandad) when you ask her who loves her.
-She loves reading her scriptures and carries them around with her most of the day.
-She wakes up with a rat's nest full of fuzzy hair on the back of her head every morning.
-She grunts for you when you are working hard to put her in her car seat.
-She likes being sung to and insists on us singing her to sleep each night.
-She scratches backs.
-She enjoys setting the table and unloading the silverware and thinks it's absolutely hilarious to watch me sweep.
-She would sit on our back wall and watch the horses all day long if she could.
-She says anything gross or yucky is "blech".
-She's just started giving hugs and randomly comes up to you and holds on to your leg for dear life to give you a hug.  When she wants a kiss she'll come up to you and say "mmmmaahhh".
-She still kisses when you ask for a kiss just by leaning her head in towards your face so you can kiss her cheek.
-She says "no, no" with a very serious face while shaking her head no when she's doing something she knows she shouldn't be doing or she'll say "no more" when you are about to get her in trouble for getting into something (usually the DVDs) that she isn't allowed to play with.
-She prefers to hang out in the pantry.  By herself.  And, has a grand time playing and talking away in there.
-She is a BUSY BODY.
-She has earned the spot as the distract-o queen.  She is so easily distracted, yet at the same time can remember where the most random things are days later.
-She has the cutest chunky feet in the world that explode out of all her shoes.  She has some pretty awesome cankles, too.

Garden Time!

Tilling the ground with our tinker toy rototiller (it did it's job though!)! 
A lovely choice of clothing, indeed.
How'd that get there?!?
Planting time!  I guess this is the best picture I have of the whole garden.  I'll have to work on that.
Distract-o girl found an airplane!

Eegees at the Park

Red Eegee's+a chapped face=Awesomeness.