Fashion Fabulous Friday - Spring Attire

I'm joining in on my friend Jan's Friday spectacular. Every week she highlights the latest fashions as modeled by her highly creative children. Seriously, it's awesome!

Having kids in the mountains in the springtime makes for some incredible outfits! They start with something that seems appropriate based on the nice, sunny view out the window. In this case, Norah started with a gingham dress. Then they want to got outside. You (the mom or dad) manage to convince the child that boots are appropriate (albeit without socks), since there's still snow on the ground. If your kid is in a fairly good mood, you might even manage to get a sweatshirt on them.

Then they head to the outdoors, ready for fun! Since your kid is a genius, (and really, really good at learning from experience) it only takes 15 minutes or so in sub 40* temps for them to request a hat and gloves. Since your kid (or maybe it's just mine) is stubborn... you still can't quite convince them on the pants issue. So, the final result is.....

DRUMROLL PLEASE......

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SOMETHING LIKE THIS!!

Successful Egg Hunt

I haven't had time to upload the photos I took on Easter Sunday from my phone. The blog app I have on my phone only lets me upload one photo per post. I assure you, though, that the party was a smashing success. What's that, you say? You want me to prove it? Ok...



That's Norah on the ride home.

April Showers

It has been showering snow up here for the last several days. The "light shower" we were supposed to get on Monday night turned into SIX inches!! My outdoor flowers are doing great, but they're not quite ready to bloom. So last weekend Mark brought me these! NOW I'm feeling like it's Spring!

Happy Easter

Mark played piano at both church services yesterday so we didn't end up getting a picture of the whole family before Norah went down for a nap and Penny spit up on her outfit. Still, we got a couple of cute ones!

Norah munching on Easter candy next to her favorite new friend, Mr. Fluffy Tail the horse.

Penny's first Easter! Bunny headband provided by Grandma.

We're looking forward to many, many more sister holiday pictures in the future!

A Cyber Thank You

Dear Aunt Cindy:

Thank you for the adorable burp cloths!


Norah loves to use them as blankets for her baby dolls, but don't worry! We use them for their intended purpose too...


Penny drools sometimes. :-)

Love,
Mark, Shelly, Norah & Penny

Identical

They look so much alike we've had to start labeling them. Ok, not really, but someday we might!

Wordless Wednesday - The Book With Grandma & Grandpa's Voices

Dress Up With Maynard Monkey

I have no idea where she got the Mardi Gras beads, but they sure look good on Maynard. She'd drape them around his neck and say, "You look so pretty now!!"

I love listening to the conversations she has with her animals in the car!

Popcorn & Tangled

We had family movie afternoon on Saturday. We watched Tangled and introduced Norah to the joys of eating popcorn while watching a movie.

She took to it right away.

In fact, she loved it.

Just like her mommy. (Popcorn is by far my favorite "food group")

Grammy's Week Off

Last week my mom and dad went on vacation. Since Grammy watches the girls four days a week, we had to arrange for other childcare. On Thursday, the girls hung out with our good friend Tiffany and her daughter Jasmine. Tiffany happens to live close to a park. Mark and I came to visit at lunch and we all went to the park together.

There was what looked like an entire class of 3rd graders there running amok on the play equipment. They were doing typical grade-schooler things like climbing the slides backward and all piling into the tunnels all at once. At first, Norah was really intimidated. She came back toward me saying, "Mommy, there's too many big kids." I told her that if she really wanted to do something, she just needed to get their attention and say, "Excuse me." After the first few kids moved out of the way, she gained enough confidence in herself to navigate the sea of slightly larger little people. By the end she was climbing the ladder to the big slide without asking for help. In fact, she was halfway up before Mark noticed and ran over to make sure she didn't fall through the rungs!

Just before we left, the girls spent a little time on the swings. The baby swings were about the only equipment the other kids were completely uninterested in, so we had the run of those.

I tried to get a picture of both the girls on the swings together, but it just didn't quite work out. The best photo I got of Jasmine's face, wasn't quite so flattering for Norah...

After the swings, we walked back to the house and I put Norah down for her nap. The park is right on my way back to work so I drove past it after the 5 minutes I spent getting Norah settled down. The place was completely empty. Just good timing I guess.

Another Daddy's Girl

Yup, Penny pretty much adores her daddy just as much as Norah does.


She'll even humor him on the whole, "Pull my finger" trick.

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful that I saw this peeking out from under the dusting of snow we got last night. That tiny shoot is either a tulip or a daffodil. I know because those are the only two things I planted last year.
In any case, no matter what flower that little shoot becomes, its mere presence brings with it the promise of Spring. Boy oh boy, am I ever ready!

My Favorite Shoes

(Please excuse the horrible self photo and read on)

Oh how I love these shoes! I love them so much that I rarely wear them. Do you ever do that?

You see, I got them in Switzerland on the backpacking trip I took trough Europe the summer of 2001. I was completely alone and carried nothing but a school-sized backpack for ten days through five countries (crazy, right?). The shoes were my one splurge, $65 US! (More than double what I paid for a night in any hostel the whole trip!). I had to tie them to the outside of my backpack because it was already full to the brim.

I'm fairly certain that I will never find these shoes for purchase again. I've looked. So I wear them only when I'm in a special mood (and certain that I won't be anywhere muddy that day).

I could go into the philosophy of saving something that will inevitably wear out, but I won't. I will just make these shoes last as long as I can. Because I can. That's all.

A Patient Dog

Norah asked me to tell Jamie to sit. The next thing I know, she exclaims, "Look Mommy! I'm ridin' her!!" Thank goodness we have a patient dog. I kind of love the dejected-yet-resigned look on Jamie's face. It's as if this isn't the first time this has happened... :-)

I also like this one, because they're both looking at the camera as if to say, "What? Is there something weird about this?"

Hangin' Out

After Norah gets ready in the morning, she likes to "hang out" in the truck while I get Penny ready. I think it helps her to have a little time to herself in the morning. Here's a little picture of her hang out time this morning.

Artist

I went to my mom's at lunch to feed Penny and found Norah doing this. She was so happy painting she wouldn't even look up to say "cheese".

No Foolin'

This is one cute kidlett!