Letter to Daddy on day one of his time at a Conference!

Dear Daddy~
Since you have been gone today mommy let us dance in the bath together and eat ice cream. We went to the store. Colored pictures and even fell asleep while eating dinner. We watched a movie and cuddled with mommy at bedtime till we fell asleep. In short daddy, it has been a rotten day. Please come home soon. I miss my music that you play on your palm pilot to lull me to sleep. Oh and Baby boy says that it is not fair that mommy would not let him have any ice cream too.

Hugs and kisses,

Your Baby Boy and Little Girl

P.S. We hope you're having a good time and are safe while you are at your conference. :0)

Dance Lessons

I had found a dance studio close by that has dance lessons for a reasonable price that I could not pass it up. My daughter loves dancing so much that I figured it would be a great way for her to learn about something that she loves. The first 3 pictures are from the night that we got her dance clothes and shoes. The rest are from the day of her first dance lesson.

I love this picture!

We put on her ballet shoes and she was instantly on her toes and leaping as if she knew exactly how to be a ballerina. She looks so excited in this picture!

Here she is trying out her tap shoes.
Trying to stretch her legs.
The teacher helps each of the girls stretch their legs up high.

Here they partnered up. She had a little trouble curtsying. But I think she's cute.

Here she is learning the movements for a dance in her tap shoes.

Feeding the Ducks

I recently learned that there are ducks at the local pond. When we checked this place out before we didn't look too hard, so we really didn't think there were any. However we were wrong. Well last night my husband had to work until 10 PM for end of month stuff. I figured that I wanted to do something fun with my kids for our little FHE. So I filled a Ziploc bag with broken up pieces of bread and we headed to the pond. Here are the pictures I took with my mobile phone camera.

Baby boy watching his sister feed the birds.

Getting ready to throw some food. This girl has an arm.

This is how close they got. I don't know the other girl. There was another family there feeding the birds as well.
My Kids!
This is what I saw as I was getting in the car after putting the stroller in the trunk.

5 Months Old

My baby boy is 5 months old today. OK I know, totally the same outfit from last month. Well I actually remembered to do it today and this was before we went to church. He is starting to sit up and probably would do better if he wasn't such a busy boy. However he did sit very well for me while taking this picture that I got a few shots and had a choice at the best one. His personality is getting so fun. He's seldom without a smile on his face and enjoys his food.

POTTY TRAINED!!!!! And the Dentist!

So this is a double post.

I have had this Princess dress hanging up for months now. It is the prize my daughter chose despite showing her all the toys in the toy aisle. We started this whole process when she turned 2. In fact the exact day was New Years day 2009. We decided that we would start slow. We knew that with baby brother being due soon that she would more than likely regress after he was born so we thought let's let her practice for fun. We bought the potty chair. After having a frustrating day on the big toilet. We bought pull ups. Both things I was so not going to do but like I said we had a very frustrating first day and decided to take it slow. We bought panties that had princesses on them that she also picked out. We thought OK we are ready for when she is. She sat on the potty and watched movies. All in the name of keeping it fun and low key "for her". We had treats galore for every time she went so that she realized it was a good thing. Sang Old McDonald while she washed her hands, Had good weeks and bad weeks. Had a month where it seemed as though she gave up completely. Then one day I was scared out of my mind because she decided she was going to climb up the dresser and get panties herself and almost had the dresser tumble down on her. That day a month ago mommy said to her " If you think you are big enough to wear panties and get them yourself, then you are big enough to be fully potty trained". We haven't looked back since. About a week ago she started having no accidents and in the last half of the week started going on her own without reminders. So on Friday when she had her Dentist appointment I figured it was a way to reward her with her prize and make going to the dentist fun to.
At the dentists they fawned all over her. They told her about how princesses get their teeth cleaned with this special tool. They used pink princess tooth cleaning stuff. And she was a trooper. She laid there so big and said aww so they could clean her teeth. She got to pick a Princess spin brush and then also got a regular princess toothbrush for mommy and daddy to use to brush her teeth. She also got a necklace and 2 rings from the dentist as well as her special toothpaste.

Then Mommy got her teeth cleaned and while I had my appointment she was the dentists helper. She stood there and told me that it would be alright and patted my arm. She made sure that the dentist didn't hurt me too much. Here I thought she would be bored and I brought stuff for her to do and she never touched it except to take the already colored pages out and give them to the dentist. So far the dentist has been a good experience. We hope it stays that way.

County Fair

We went to the County Fair this month and we had fun. I think it will be a fun tradition in the years to come. The Picture below describes it all.

Poor little guy enjoyed the fair like this although I don't think he minded too much.
We got our daughter a unlimited wristband and let her ride all the rides she was allowed to. Below she is getting dizzy with mommy.
Sailed in circles.
Rode the train.
Had fun on the blow up slides.
This one she did a hundred times. She even convinced this girl to go with her.
Rode the swings.

Even Daddy got in on the action.
Flew a plane

Bounced in the bounce house which I am not sure she liked since she went in, ran across and came out.

Milked a fake cow.

She played with giant foam blocks.

At the Petting Zoo with a small cup of Feed.
She had fun feeding the Animals and petting them.

She's done!

And one last picture.

Family Reunion and Grandpa

We went to a family reunion earlier this month with my husbands family. It was fun to just spend time with them, although admittedly I am not sure that I met anyone to new except that one cousin who played the guitar that I can't remember his name. He seemed nice though and he was pretty talented on that guitar and with his voice.

Grandma busy taking care of stuff.
She did an awesome job planning the reunion and I know she is glad that it's done.

OK I know cheesy right taking pictures of pictures.
I could not help it. These are pictures of my husband's parents and his Aunt and Uncle on their wedding days. It was a who who game and I think these 2 pictures were the easiest other than my husbands brother and wife.
Below are fun shots of my daughter and her cousin playing on the slide.
She even talked her Aunt into going down the slide with her.
Enjoying her Icee that Grandpa made.
The face cracks me up though.

Following the reunion we went to my sisters house were my Dad was visiting. I am glad that I had a chance to get this picture. He doesn't come down much and so this was a rare treat.