Happy Tuesday!

Remember this?
Baby smiles are the best.

She's lucky she's cute...

our weekend

we spent the weekend (mostly) at home,
but have plenty to show for it.

relaxing.

family.

one boy. three girls.

dancing.
any guesses on the programming?

restraint.
"seriously? we can't eat the carrot?"

friends.

lounging.

naps.

sisters.

not exactly what I was looking for when I said
"smile! show me your teeth."

play-doh. times 2.

"hat!"

good stuff!
did you have a good weekend?

Dress up & Imagination

We've really been noticing Mallory's exploration of her imagination lately and a couple weeks ago she had me cracking up with the things she said and did.

For instance, she put on these lovely "jewels" and started dancing around saying, "wook at me, wook at me! i pre-eee! wook momma!"

"WOOK AT ME!"

She was having trouble getting the necklaces off so ...
Me: Mallory, do you need help?
Mallory: No danks, Momma. My (Mallory) do it.
Me: (dumbfounded) Oh. Right.
And when she was finished with "dress up" she must have been hungry because she ran over with this cup and ball and said, "Momma, hung-ee? Ice ceam cone. Lick?"
Apparently any old ball will do so long as it's bigger than the "cone" it's sitting on. I asked her what kind of ice cream this was and she said "BLUE!" Well, we'll have to work on flavors, but it's a start. I was extremely impressed...

She just never ceases to amaze us these days...
What a personality!

Good night, sleep tight

Mallory has a glow worm and LOVED it as a baby, so we got one for Abby too. As you can see her face lights up just as bright as the glow worm's when she hears the music. It makes her giggle sometimes too. There's just something about that orange face.

Two Months Old

I guess being two months old is pretty funny!

A day of rest

We hope your Labor Day is relaxing!

Potty

Here's a funny story I received in a email to preface a real-life funny story that happened at our house the other day:

A Cup of Tea

One day my mother was out and my dad was in charge of me. I was maybe 2 1/2 years old and had just recovered from an accident. Someone had given me a little tea set as a get-well gift and it was one of my favorite toys.

Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when I brought Daddy a little cup of 'tea', which was just water. After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Mom came home.

My Dad made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea because it was 'just the cutest thing!' My Mom waited, and sure enough, here I come down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy and she watches him drink it up.

Then she says, (as only a mother would know...) "Did it ever occur to you that the only place she can reach to get water is the toilet?"

Now for the real-life story:

Potty

The other day Mallory was playing while I was doing some things around the house. I knew she was playing with some of my candles. She does this often, likes to have us smell them ("momma smell?? mmm...good") and she takes the wicks out and puts them back in, lines them up in a row, whatever.

I could hear her running around with the dogs and giggling but I didn't know exactly what she was doing. Well, you know what they say, a quiet toddler is surely a sign of mischief. After a couple minutes I figured I should investigate. She had a handful of candles, but I could see that the wicks were all missing. Here is what unfolded...

Me: "Honey, where are the wicks?"

Mallory: blank stare

Me, pointing at the candle: "Mal, where are the things that go in here?"

Mallory: "Potty."

Me, laughing: "Potty?"

Mallory: "Potty!"

Me, giggling: "Can you show me?"

Mallory runs to the bathroom and sure enough...

Moral of the story:
I have no idea, but I laughed pretty hard and thought you might too.

AFK vs. CRH

Abigail and Caelum endured a size comparison the other night. These cousins are two days short of being four weeks apart. Thoughts??

Good. Caelum is already sticking his tongue out at me.
Now I'm sure he's my brother's son.

I want to pinch them both!
So cute!

Determination

We have (at least) two kinds of determination around this house:

The "itty-bitty-super-cute-lift-my-little-head" kind

AND

The "I'm-a-big-girl-I-can-do-it-myself" kindI built the big "cube" for the base.
She did the rest.
Color coordination and all.
She was very clear about how it should look.

Point taken.
No help from Mom.

Both kinds of determination make me smile.
The latter makes me a little sad, but also proud.
Independence is good, right?

Lots of smiles

Real baby smiles are about the best thing ever...

Grandpa's Life Celebration

My grandpa's 91st birthday was yesterday (Aug. 23rd) and we got together at the lake as a family on Sunday to celebrate his birthday and his life. Here are some of the highlights...

Mallory looks like such a big girl in this picture - how does that happen??
Mallory and Ember got to ride on Uncle Mark's boat and they both LOVED it! There were many squeals and laughs coming from these two. When I took this picture I heard Uncle Mark say, "If those vests could talk..." as they were a part of many memories throughout the years.

Grandpa's sister - Great Aunt Elaine

Lynn and Aunt Sue

Uncle Mark

These next four were taken at top speeds...
Hilarious!!

Megan & Kevin

Abby spent most of the day this way. BORING. :)

This giant cart of stuff wasn't ours, but I could see Ember had big ideas about what she was going to do with it all. Right after I took this picture she turned around and flashed me a big "I'm up to something" grin.
We shared memories and pictures ... lots swimming and a boat ride or two. The weather was beautiful, we had good company and Grandpa would have loved it...