Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Easter 2011

Easter is another favorite holiday of mine. I LOVE Easter candy- Cadbury creme eggs, Cadbury mini eggs, and Whopper eggs are my top 3. I buy extra and stash it away so I can make it last year round- but it never lasts that long, usually through the summer if I'm lucky.

We had fun preparing for Easter this year. Brooklyn and I decorated sugar cookies last week and they turned out as pretty as they were delicious. (Sorry for the blurry/grainy photos- my camera is in hiding so I had to use my iPhone) As you can see, Brooklyn's into sporting peace signs in her pictures now. 8 year olds can be so cute :)

Decorating our Easter eggs. Lola was in heaven and of course cried when we ran out of eggs to color.


The Saturday before Easter we took Lola to her first egg hunt. It was SO crowded with kids and their parents- it was crazy! But Lola loved it and even found herself a few eggs before the mob got to the rest.

A video of Lola's first Egg hunt


She was so excited to find that the eggs came apart and had c.a.n.d.y in them! Lola is well aware of the word candy and would eat nothing but if you let her!
She was pretty nervous about meeting the Easter Bunny. She kept squirming the closer in line we got to him and then wouldn't let me put her down next to him (or even look at him) but we got a pic anyway.

The girls on Easter morning. Brooklyn came over Saturday afternoon and stayed through Sunday morning after baskets. She was a great big sister and helped Lola find her basket first and also a few of the eggs before showing her how the pros do it.
Checking out their Easter goods...
Hunting for eggs
and counting out how many they found. Lola was more concerned with counting how much candy she had :)
Betty Winter thoroughly enjoyed the plastic grass. I am still finding pieces of it all over the house from her dragging it around and playing with it.
Lola in her new Easter dress.
Playing with Betty
Easter Sunday we went to church and then over to my Aunts for dinner with our family. My Aunt and Uncle hid eggs with our names on them and cash inside. They also hid one extra egg with a 'bonus bill' in it and Luke was the lucky finder of that egg! After dinner we also played in a crack tournament- where 2 people would roll their egg towards each others and only one egg would crack eliminating that person and moving on to the next round. Luke won the tournament as well and received a very sweet trophy to keep until next years round. Sadly, I forgot my camera so I didnt get any pics of the Easter festivities. It was a great day and we are so lucky we could share it with our family and loved ones. Hope everyone had a Happy Easter as well!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

She Is Siamese If You Please

Its been a long time coming... Actually since the day we had to give Chancho and Ramsis away. Since then, Brooklyn has been begging and begging for a pet. We gave in last year and bought her a hamster for her birthday but those things are stinky and lets face it, lame pets, so we moved it out to the garage after a week or so and somehow it escaped and ran away to be a wild hamster (or very possibly some other animals dinner). Brooklyn was devastated for about half a day and then was onto asking for another new pet- but this time she wanted a cat or a dog. I've never had a dog before- my mom isn't a dog person therefore raising me to not be one either. I guess I just don't get what all the fuss about them is, and for now, I'm okay with that. And I lucked out once more because when we decided we were finally getting another pet, Brooklyn voted with me for getting a cat.

We found some Siamese kittens in the classifieds and went to take a look at them, knowing but in denial of knowing, that we would return home with one. Brooklyn fell in love with the little girl that she first held and she actually seemed really sweet and more easy going than the others so we picked her. And were glad we did- she has been the best kitty so far! She's eating and sleeping well and has only had 3 pee pee accidents outside her litter box. She loves to cuddle on your lap and have you just sit and hold her and she purrs like crazy. Once we brought her home, we went over names we all liked and then each put in our favorite name choice and drew from a bowl. Out of Betty, Gigi, Winter and Rose, Winter was pulled out (actually Betty was first but Brooklyn was the one drawing the names and threw a huge fit about Betty so she drew again). So I actually call her Betty Winter (more or less after Betty Draper), Brooklyn calls her Winter and Daddy and Lola just call her Kitty or Ki Ki Ki (Lola's version of here kitty, kitty, kitty). Lola LOVES her! For the first few days Lola carried her all around and never let her out of her sight. She loves to give her hugs and pet her and will play with her for long periods of time. And surprisingly, the cat does really well with Lola too. At first she tries to run and hide from Lola but once found she gives up and lets Lola grab her and cart her wherever. She also really likes Brooklyn. She'll sit on Brooklyn's lap and hang out and watch TV with her and she actually even slept by Brooklyn the first night home (per Brooklyn's pleading that we let the new kitty sleep with her). So we finally have a new pet kitty and are really enjoying having her :)


Brooklyn was more than happy to hold our new kitty on the car ride home
Lola first holding her and laying on the loves
Playing with the kitty
Daddy and the girls made her a house out of an old box and some towels and Brooklyn decorated the outside with some great pictures
A happy girl with her new little friend
Her new favorite spot to sleep- One of Lola's toy bins of stuffed animals
Another very happy girl at our house :)
Welcome to our family Betty Winter!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Catching Up

It's been almost a month since I last posted but it's felt like longer. I think the days have seemed even longer lately because I so badly want it to be spring already. We've spent the last few weeks being teased with warmer weather just to have it turn around and snow again, then warm back up, then snow some more. I hate March in Utah. April isn't so bad when it actually acts like April but these last couple of weeks have seriously felt like February. Bleh...

Lola had her speech evaluation a couple of weeks ago where they evaluated her in several different areas (speech, cognitive speech, fine motor skills, emotional and social skills, etc). She was right at or above on all levels except speech so recommended she try an in-home service to help get her interested in talking. And she actually starts tomorrow so wish us luck!

These last few weeks have seen some changes with our Lola. For one, she is now starting to want to dress herself. Most of the time she lets me pick the outfit but then she wants to put it on herself. And she always wants to pick out her own shoes! I'm really hoping this phase doesn't get too much worse or last all that long as I cant stand letting kids dress themselves. It annoys me that they think what they picked out looks good when really they look ridiculous. Brooklyn was always good at letting me 'pick' what she wore until lately. She's also decided that she hates jeans and only wants to wear dresses/skirts, leggings or 'comfy' pants. Really, it wouldn't bug me as bad if she just learned what things go together and how to match. But I suppose this phase comes with 'being a kid' and something that they all go through- meaning Ill have to learn to deal it with as well. I can learn to pick my battles... I think :)

Lola dressing herself after her bath
This particular day she only wanted to wear her onsie and 1 boot and nothing I said or did would change her mind! Needless to say we didn't make it of the house this day :)
Lola's also become (actually became and then didn't) interested in the potty. She would always want to 'go' after she saw me go so I thought that meant she was starting to near potty training age. So we went out and bought her her very own pink potty complete with a soft pink cushion seat and also a potty training book with pictures of little girls with princess undies using their new big girl potties. Lola was way excited the first and second day- sitting on and 'trying' to use the potty every time she saw it, then somewhat excited the next several days after that- showing her babies how to use the potty too, and then fast forward to today where she doesn't even notice her potty and will only rarely want to sit on it (for maybe half of a second) before bath time. But oh well, at least now she knows it's there when she's ready to be ready :)
Checking out her NEW big girl potty!
Trying it out
and then trying it out all the way nakie
She's recently become obsessed with sock lint in between her toes. Every time she takes her socks off she has to spend 10 minutes inspecting each toe for any small wisps of cotton, like so:
One of her new FAVORITE things to do (I think because she knows it drives me nuts) is to climb up on my bathroom counter and play in the sink. She's learned how to turn on the faucet and now she thinks its her own private drinking fountain (and toy washing station). I cant even tell you how many times I have to go back in and wipe down the counter and floor each day. Toddlers...
She's also into the phase of wanting what everyone else has so I cant go run and get myself a large sweet tea anymore without having to get her one too (really she just gets water but don't tell her that) It's cute that she thinks she's such a big girl these days :)

During one of our cold spells we decided we'd had enough and packed up the car and went out to Denver for a long weekend. It was so warm there and we had so much fun with the family, we were very sad when it was time to leave. I think Grammy, Bonka, and Uncle Taylor are coming out for Lola's birthday next month and were excited to be seeing them again so soon!

Brooklyn got to go on her first ride in Cooper. She was way excited and thought it was a lot of fun cruising around town with Bonka!
The Saturday we were in Denver was in the mid-80s so we thought what better way to spend the day than outside at the zoo! Lola was in heaven this time around because she knew all the animals and was able to walk around and go right up to the fences and really see the animals. Her favorite animal right now is the Giraffe. She gets so excited when she sees one in a book or on tv and seeing them at the zoo was that much better! She even went straight for the stuffed Girraffes at the gift shop on our way out. Cute. Cute.
Brooklyn was a great sport despite all the walking and warmer weather and only complained once or twice maybe. This girl cracks me up how much she cant handle the heat. We took her to an aviary one hot August day and she literally would run from one shade spot to the next and wait for us without even caring whether she saw any of the birds. She just wanted out of the heat!! I bet she'd be all over those portable spray fans they sell in gift shops if she ever saw one :)
Uncle Taylor and Landon- who at 15 months talks WAY more than Lola! He's such a handsome little smarty pants don't you think?! :)
A very worn out Lolie taking a short nap back to the car.
Bath time at Grammy's is way more fun that at home...
until you have to get your face washed :)