sliders and swingers.

these kiddos love the slide.

and i have to admit, so do i.

they also love to swing.

and if there were more than just the baby swings that i can only fit one of my arms into,
i'd probably be joining them on those too.


we love the park.

for the record, at almost 11 months she...

• walks about 10-12 steps at a time, but usually prefers about 4-5 before she busts down to her speedy crawl.
• waves bye-bye.
• can clap! clap! clap!
• says mama, dada, duh (for duck), ba ba (for bottle), ni-ni (for her blankie) and baaaaah! (for BATH!). does the sign for milk and almost has "all done" down.
  
• is still obsessed with the bath.
• dances. this lady can shake it like a polaroid picture.
• sings in a lovely, high-pitched voice.
• loves licking any metal object.
• has conversations with the baby einstein puppets on the TV screen.
• loves reading books.
• cracksup her brother with her headbanging skills. which is awesome since they share a room and she keeps him up alllllllll night. (anyone have any suggestions for this?)
  
• irritates her brother by destroying pretty much anything he builds, wants to play with, or that gets in her way.
• loves to get into the dishwasher, and open up the tupperware cupboard to throw every lid and bowl out.
• has two bottom teeth.
  
• also loves our bookshelf, she takes the books down in masses, then sits in the pile and looks through them individually as she jabbers away in her baby language.
• has pushed my creative geniuses to the edge trying to keep her away from the computer, the computer charger, the DVD player and the cable box. don't even get me started on the box fan.

• still is our little sweet pie, our fabulously sassy ray of sunshine. she has adopted so many nicknames (lee lee, chunk a lunk, miss pee pee pants (given to her by her brother) and sugar booger are a few) that i have to make a conscious effort to call her by her real name so that she recognizes it.

and we all adore her.

a punishment and a present

just because i haven't posted anything in a week, i thought i'd punish myself. and the consequence is......







you get to see what i looked like on christmas morning. which is why there weren't any pictures posted of me from that morning in the first place.

sporting my old, broken glasses, make up from the night before, and hair that would scare medusa, i am holding up the christmas presents from caleb.

you might be able to tell (but just in case you can't, because this picture ain't gettin' blown up to the ginormous size of the others i post), he purchased some girlie hair things. one of them is very, uber sparkly. the other is a set of flowers. both are attached to those soft, spongey-like backs, much like this:



with less princesses.

but the only problems i've run into, are these two:

1) caleb thinks they're earrings, not hair things. at first i thought i'd correct him, then decided against it. why? well because...

2) he actually really, really wants me to wear them. ben said as he picked them out in the store, caleb's #1 goal was to get his mom something that would make her feel pretty for church. i know, it's really sweet and completely melted my heart.

that being said, for the past couple of weeks on sunday morning, caleb has come bounding through the door carrying these bejeweled lovelies asking me which i would like to wear for the day. which ones match my specific dress.

and it's kind of nice to be able to wrap the soft rubber bands around my ears, and then pull my hair a little bit around them so that all the church masses see are some mismatched flowers, or a hint of pink sparkly.

not that i care all that much what others think about it. because making him happy is so much more important, but it is nice to be able to tone them down a bit. the sparkly ones are reeeeeeaaalllly sparkly.

after about an hour of wearing these at church, they actually start to hurt my ears. so by the time i make it to primary (which is where my calling is), the "earrings" have now been wrapped around one of my finger to look like a "ring." since caleb sees me in there, he has asked why. and i'm able to keep the sweet 4 year old dream a live by telling him that more people can see them if i wear them on my finger.

and to watch him nod his head, beam proudly and give me his signature "thumbs up"....


well after that, there's nothing anyone can say to convince me not to wear them.


maybe i'll take a picture of them this sunday for your visual pleasure. (but without my glasses on, because those are seriously hideous.)

sun, sun sun here it comes...

doesn't this little picture make your day?


it sure makes mine.

happy friday everyone!

lurkers de-lurk!

so i hear that this is de-lurking (aka blog stalking) week. i outed myself on a couple of blogs today, something i thought i'd never do.

so.

now it's your turn.


okay readers,


knock, knock....


who's there??


(p.s. that picture was taken the day that i spent barfing in california. believe me, it's a good thing that my face is covered. now if i can share that with you, can't you share something with me?)

ben finally takes the plunge.

for ben's big 3-0 birthday
(about 6 mos ago, ahem.)
he was given the gift he asked for.

to jump out of a tiny plane and plummet himself to earth with only another human being and a little backpack which would (hopefully) contain his life line to return him safely home.

also known as skydiving.


he couldn't wait.

i apparently was experiencing some anxiety about this because last night i had a dream that i was skydiving, and our parachute flew off, so my tandem rider said to me "don't worry! we have a backup!" and pulled a string to reveal 3 different colored balloons. and i yelled back, "THOSE are supposed to help us??" as we careened to the ground.



so today, he left all common sense on the ground and took the plunge! (and i phoned our life insurance agent to make sure those on the ground would not be left destitute)

and here are the pictures to document the event...also known as temporary insanity.



the location:

airport terminal, casa grande, AZ

the spectators:

me, (no picture)

one very excited 4 year old,




one very un-interested 10 month old,

since i don't own photoshop, and am without the ability to draw a little circle with an arrow pointing out the tiny dot that dropped out of a plane, for the next couple of pictures you are going to want to pull out your magnifying glass. or your grandma's bible readin' glasses.

can you see the 30 year old dot?

here he is getting closer...

and closer...

and closer...(right about here was where we could pick up on him WHOO-HOO'ing)

and just when i could have taken a completely AWESOME picture, my camera went out of focus and i got the 30 year old looking like this instead...

and this...

i mean seriously! that could have been a money shot! oh well.



the 30 year old kissed the earth he thought he'd never see again,
(actually he just took a breather for a second)




then un-attached the person attached to him...


de-robed the gear...





and smiled proudly.


the kids embraced joyfully,






and i called our life insurance agent and took his policy back down to a monthly payment we could afford.

happy birthday my 30 year old man!
here's to a new decade full of hot women, riches, success and happiness!



or...
being married to me, student debt, living in an apartment
and putting up with the 3 of us everyday!

(pick door #2 ben! pick door #2!)

at the happiest place on earth!

in no particular order, here are the pictures of our first 2 days in disneyland. the last day i was in the hotel barfing and let's just say i'm the picture taker of the bunch.

prepare yourself for...

a picture overload!!