2 going on annoying

Did I just say my daughter was annoying - I would never do that, even with the annoying fake crying and the no no no all the time. Or the little attitude and the "I can do it" when she clearly cannot, like pulling up her underwear, her big old butt just doesn't allow those things to slip on or off very easily. Sure she can get it some of the time and I let her try but let's be honest pulling your underwear on and off takes finesse. I would also never mention my new annoying alarm clock. I hear it in the monitor and it sounds something like "mommmm meeee I haff ta go peeeeeee PEEEEEEE" and it goes off around 7:00 each day, which is really not bad. I hear it about three times before I get up the stairs to her room. I think it is really cute, it could be a loud buzzing noise at 5:30 waking me up instead, that would be way more annoying.

We were suppose to go to a scary corn maze 30 miles away but the weather in Las Vegas is horrible today, the high is only going to be 58 and we have a wind and dust advisory, and I am still trying to recover from this annoying head/sinus cold so we are going to stay in and drink hot chocolate, except we don't have any hot chocolate because I keep forgetting to buy it, and eat muffins, except we don't have muffins either, and watch tv or something.

Last week we went to the McKee Ranch which is really just someone's house right outside the city. They have a lot of animals, horses, goats, a donkey, a sheep, a pig (that I missed somehow), a turkey, bunnies, and they do a great job decorating for Halloween. They get a bunch of pumpkins and let families come hang out and eat snacks, take pictures, play, you get the idea. We went last year and had fun so decided to go again this year. They had a lot more decorations, and the kids had fun again. Here are a few pictures.



We are the cutest family around, and we had a great time, it was nice and warm and the animals were fun and Summer had Ana to hang with.



I think the girls had the most fun on the old rickety merry go round, we let them hang on and we pushed it slow and as they passed us we tickled their ribbies, they thought that was pretty funny.


So we will be inside today, I bought a watercolor set, that will give us a fun project to play with, I am excited to see what creative artwork Summer comes up with. I will take pictures and post later this week.

Summer & Halloween

What has Summer done lately? She can say Halloween so clear, she is ready to dress up and go "trick or treating" and she will tell you she is going to be a clown, if only you can hear her since she talks so low. We have been reading a lot of Halloween books in preparation for Halloween. We have our decorations up, we made the homemade pumpkin pie and almost burnt the house down, stupid pan, stupid pie. I guess I overfilled it a little and the darn thing slopped out past the cookie sheet onto the bottom of the stove where it proceeded to burn itself away. I was going to let it but Kris decided it would be better if we scraped it off. I have never cleaned a stove so who was I to argue. The pies were still edible but like always we never really eat much of it, we just aren't pumpkin pie eating people I guess.

Besides all of that Summer has taken an interest in photography. She will get her little plastic camera and order I mean tell daddy what to do, stand here, scoot back, no further, right there, and then take his picture. One morning last week she was in the mood to take her fake pictures so I asked her if we could take some Halloween pictures of her. She said yes and even let me put a wig on her messy hair. The pictures were super cute of course.



Not that anything is wrong with her own hair but look how cute she is with a fluffy wig on?

I am really looking forward to Halloween this year, Summer understand the concept and shows signs that she likes candy - weird huh? Good thing she is a good teeth brusher, twice a day we brush and she still lets me or daddy have a turn. I might have to start a three a day brush once all the candy comes.

Speaking of teeth, where are her two year molars? It seems like they are coming and then nothing happens. There for a while she always had her hands in her mouth so I assumed they were going to break through but now the hands have left the mouth and nothing happened. These teeth are tricky dang it. At least she lets me check and see if they have broken the skin, and she knows she is getting new teeth, she just doesn't know when I guess and neither do I.

It finally stopped raining

Finally on the last day of our vacation it decided to stop raining and warm up. We took the opportunity to drive around looking for trees that were turning and ready to fall. We found a beautiful red tree with leaves falling in the middle of someone's yard but we had to stop and just hope they weren't home.



Look at the rich red color, and luckily no one came outside and tell us to leave their leaves alone.

We saw a few more beautiful trees, in another yard, but really the trees weren't ready to fall yet.


We left and had lunch and headed back to the house. We decided to check out the train station that was within walking distance from our house, neither I, Bobka, or Summer had been on a train and we really wanted to get on and see how exciting it was. We waited at the bus station for about 20 minutes and tried to figure out the times.


We reluctantly got on the trained and planned to get off at the next stop. We had to pay $16.00 for two round trip tickets and before the train attendant could even get us our change we were already at our stop so he suggested we go one more stop. We did and we were freaking out because we didn't think we were going to make it home in time, we didn't quite understand the times. It was pretty funny, we spent a total of about 10 minutes (at the most) on the train all together and didn't go very far at all. It would have been more enjoyable had we rode the train into Philadelphia, the train that goes 110 miles per hour, the train we heard every hour or so from the house, the one we saw out the window, but we ran out of time so we will have to take that train next time, in the mean time we did experience the thrill of riding a train and got pictures to prove it.


I will be honest, Summer wasn't very impressed with the train ride.

Pennsylvania or Bust

Last week Summer and I headed to Pennsylvania to visit family. Frannie and Bobka were flying in from Oklahoma and we were all staying with Aunt Nancy, Uncle Bill, Cousins Denise, Ivan and Brock. This would be the longest flight Summer had taken and I was a little worried how we would pass the time. Of course it didn't help that our flight was delayed an hour and a half because of fog in San Francisco, but we finally made it to the Philadelphia airport around midnight.

As you can imagine with most vacations, one of the things you just have to do is take a million pictures, so in order not to completely bore you I will break this posts into a few.

The first 5 days of our vacation was spent in the rain so we weren't able to take many outside pictures. We stayed inside and ate italian hoagies and cheese steak sandwiches. We ordered from the same sandwich shop 4 times.

Here is a picture that shows what we did for 50% of the trip, sit around the table and eat.


Since it was raining I took advantage of the big bay window and overcast skies to snap a few pictures like this.


We did venture out to a market that is only open on Friday's and Saturdays - because mostly Amish people work there. I got to see Amish people but I didn't get any pictures. Here we are browsing the market.


We also went to the grocery store once or twice, we made Polish Golunki one night, it was delicious, but here is a photo of Summer and her cousin Brock. They actually wanted to get their picture taken for some reason.


Continued tomorrow ...

Hiking in the Mountains

We went on vacation so I am way behind! Before we went to Pennsylvania for a week we went hiking at Mount Charleston because we wanted to see the leaves changing. It was the coldest hike we have taken but so worth it, the trees were amazing! The day we went hiking was one of the coldest days we have had and we had to bring our jackets. We also took the dogs and made them walk with us but they did ok.

We spent a little over an hour hiking up to the area with all the aspens and then spent some time taking a few pictures. Everyone was a little bit cold but it wasn't that bad.





We had fun and the pictures turned out nice and yellow. We are officially ready for the fall!

37 inches & the Renaissance Festival

Every 3 months I measure Summer to see how much she has grown. Tomorrow is the official 3 month but I couldn't wait so I measured her today. I use the door frame in her room by the closet as my chart and mark it on the frame. From 3 months ago Summer has grown 2 inches, for a grand total of 37 inches tall, that is 3 feet and 1 inch! I can't believe how fast she is growing but I guess that is what little ones do, they grow!

Yesterday Kris and I took Summer to the Renaissance Festival at Sunset Park. We had never been but wanted to check it out. It was hot, we should have brought the stroller but we still had fun walking around looking at all the people dressed up in costumes. I was tempted to buy Summer fairy wings, a skirt, and a bracelet for $35 but really, why do I need those things? I did end up buying her a leather hair thing that easily allows me to put her hair back in what looks like a cute french braid. I will have to fix it and take pictures later.

There were a ton of people at the festival, most were neat and happy looking but this one set really scared Summer, when they walked by she tried to hide between and under Kris's legs. We saw them later and asked Summer to go stand by them and take a picture. I have no clue why my child allowed herself to stand near people she was obviously terrified of but I think it was because they told her to come here haha and then they told her to wave, to which she did. Later she saw them again and said "their not mean" so I guess she got over her fear. It was really cute.



And since it is Monday again I need to think of some things to tell on myself, why not, it makes the blog interesting. Oh well I can't think of anything though .. figures.

Little Pastry Chef

On Tuesday Casey and I took the girls to a bakery so they could decorate their own cupcake and cookies. I wasn't exactly sure if they were ready, mentally and physically, but as it happens most of the time, I was wrong and the girls had a blast. We started with the cupcake, a bowl of white frosting and a mixing utensil. I was surprised Summer even had the coordination to dip the utensil into the frosting and spread it on the cupcake, but she did just fine. I could tell she wanted to eat it and it didn't take long for her hands to find her mouth!


After the frosting was mostly spread on the cupcake the girls were given some sprinkles to decorate.


After the sprinkles were eaten, I mean applied to the cupcake we moved to the cookie and added in some colored frosting in a bag, pink and purple. I was again surprised to see the girls squeeze the frosting bags and apply the frosting on their cookies.

The frosted cookies looked amazing (not really to us adults but I guess it did to the girls) and the temptation to eat the cookies and the frosting was just too much.





We didn't mind, messes make the pictures so much more interesting, and the girls enjoyed every single second.




We will be back again soon.

Shopping for warm clothes

It is sad to change clothes from summer to winter because it means Summer will never wear the clothes again. Once spring returns to our area she will probably not fit in those clothes, so while I am packing them up I realize it will be the last time we will ever use them (and probably see them). We had a brief cold spell and since we are going on a trip in 6 days I needed to buy some pants and long sleeve shirts. We are headed to Pennsylvania and I have a feeling the weather will be much cooler than it is in Las Vegas. At least I found some cute little pant and shirt sets and for a very reasonable price. Of course as soon as I buy new clothes it warms back up. That's ok, I am ready.

I got this outfit the other day, it is a 3T and so cute and purple.


Look at her hair too, I put it back in pigtails and she was so darling. We took advantage of the warmer weather and headed to the park. We have to enjoy the weather while we still can.

Bad Mommy: I didn't wash that outfit before she wore it, I was so excited to get it on her that I just tore the tags off and off she went. I hate to admit that wasn't the first time we have worn an outfit before washing, nor the second or third.

She was happy regardless, she is such a happy little thing.

Summer & Ana

Summer and Ana ... BFF forever. These girls love each other. They play together so nice. I love that Summer has a little friend of her very own, someone she can make laugh, run with, hold hands and sing ring around the rosie, and fall down with. I love to watch them communicate, they get it, we may not quite understand. They are funny together, two different people yet they are still our babies. Quite amazing really.




I have learned one important thing about the two of them and it was a hard lesson to grasp, I am never going to get a perfect picture with the two of them. One will look, one will not, one will be still, one will move, it will never work but I will never stop trying.

Monday so soon?

How did it become Monday so soon? It seems like it was just the weekend then BAM it is Monday again. Monday use to be significant but now it is just another day like every other day. Well, we do have dance class on Monday's and THAT is different but otherwise it is just another day. I am rambling ... so let me tell on myself, since it IS Monday.

I didn't put a helmet on Summer's head even tho it was way to small just to see her cute squished face, I would never do that.



She sure is cute, even with her face squished into a helmet!

And what about our make-up fiasco, Kris said I should put make-up on Summer and take pictures but I know better, I would never put mascara and blush and lipstick on my child, she is only 2 !



She didn't need it because she is already so beautiful, look at those eyes, but it was fun putting on and she had fun letting me put it on.

I also didn't tell Summer that the fish we had for dinner was shrimp so she would eat it, nope. And I didn't drink too much champagne tonight to celebrate someone else's birthday, I wouldn't do that :o)

Stop for just a minute!

Stop for just a minute and think about how blessed life is, your life, my life, others ... life is wonderful, even when things aren't always as you think they should be. Take a moment to think about how blessed you are and how wonderful life is. I already said that didn't I?

Anyway life is great, even tho I don't have a job and Kris and I are trying not to drive each other crazy, so far so good! I am starting to learn how to be a stay at home (impatient always on the go) mom and I think I might like it eventually. Of course I am still looking for that perfect job but if I don't find it then I might find I already have it.

Summer has been wonderful and it seems she grows closer to me more every single day, if that is even possible. I love taking her everywhere I go to show her new things and she gets it. She is amazing, as is life.

So stop for just a moment, take a deep breath, let it out, and if you have roses, or a rose petal, you can smell it too!

Easy as flying a kite

Have you heard the saying before - "as easy as flying a kite?" I am not really sure if that IS a saying but seems I have heard it and I can say with confidence that flying a kite is not really that easy, I mean sure my 2 year old can do it but the wind is so unpredictable!

As happens every year we experienced a temperature drop on Wednesday, just a 20 degree one, enough to make me get out my sweat pants. The cool air also brought some wind with it and it was just warm enough to go outside (ok maybe it wasn't THAT cold) - so we decided we would set loose a kite on the front lawn.


Summer wanted to do it between not wanting to do it when the bird kept swooping down at the ground and wanting to do it when daddy was doing it, and she did it just fine, fine when the bird stayed up for almost a minute, which wasn't very often stupid wind. But she still had fun and I had to take pictures so you would believe me.


Not that you wouldn't believe me, probably just another excuse I can use to take more pictures.

Anyway she looked like a pro, wind and all.



We all had fun, the end.