Hashtag Sweet and Spunky

Oh Sydney... I fall harder and harder for you each day.  You are the sweetest little 22 month old I know.  Your hugs, kisses and giggles could soften even the grumpiest of old men. You are not all sugar though...you definitely have a little bit of spice/sass/spunk mixed in to your disposition and I wouldn't want it any other way.

One thing that is clear is that you idolize your big sister.  Monkey see, monkey do seems to be the running theme in our household.  If Olivia spins around once, you have to spin around once. If she sits on the potty, you have to sit on the potty.  If she dresses up as a princess, you are not happy until you are dressed up with a poofy dress and fancy shoes.  

➹ The very first day of Olivia's summer camp, I sent her to school without a lunch, so Sydney and I ran to Target and picked up some lunch stuff for Olivia and dropped it off to her classroom.  When we walked in, Sydney immediately pulled up a chair, grabbed a coloring sheet and a crayon and got right to work. ➹

➹ Olivia did this same thing in a different raft about two minutes earlier. ➹

➹ I had just taken a picture of Olivia dressed in her pajamas for summer camp.  Sydney backed right up to the wall and pointed to my camera for me to take a picture! ➹

You are becoming quite the little fish in the water these days.  Once we put you in that Puddle Jumper floatie, you have no fear.  You jump in the water, you kick your feet and swim and you go down the slide like a pro.  We signed you up for swim lessons, but you kept getting out of your group and would run to try and join your sister's group.  

➹ That haircut! ➹

You are my best little shopping buddy {most of the time} and even though it is sometimes chaotic, I love how at the end of our Target trips, you always want to get out of the cart and slide in to the checkout booth like you work there.

For awhile I thought that I was totally spoiling you by rocking you to sleep for your naps and for bedtime.  But, you are my baby and I had decided a long time ago that I was going to do it for as long as you would let me.  It makes me a little sad that there are nights when it is clear that you don't want to fall asleep in my arms and would rather just lay in your crib.  And to make matters worse {or harder on me, I should say}, your dad is starting to put you to bed some.  So, I am definitely cherishing the times when you fall asleep in my arms....I stay in a little bit longer just so I can snuggle with you more.

➹ That's a baby doll you are snuggling with...➹

My sweet girl, I love you more than words can say.  I am one lucky mama to have you as my own.

Ummm, Yeah

I promised to be a better blogger in June, and, well, I went from 7 posts in May down to 5 posts in June.  I feel like I should apologize, but honestly, I don't really owe anyone an apology.  We have been busy and I have been single parenting and you know, as my dad says, what it is, what it is.

So, yeah, the last of June {and the beginning of July} was pretty busy.  Since October, we have been planning a monthlong trip to San Luis Obispo to housewatch/housecrash for our friends Maren and Michael while they take their two sweet girls on a vacation to Canada.  But, of course, I didn't start preparing for the trip back then.  Oh no, I waited until a few days before we left.  But, we got it done and we are here and it is wonderful and it will be blogged about, but just not tonight.  Tomorrow's going to be Sydney's 22 month birthday and then I'll catch everyone up on our trip.  Tonight, your going to get a little catch-up on what we did before we left.

➹ The girls got haircuts...and suckers and toys that pop. And I got to dress them in coordinating Liberty of London outfits. ➹

➹ I packed and cleaned and did laundry for about 3 days straight.  Magnum found new beds all over the house. ➹

➹ Liv had a Pajamas and Teddy Bears day at summer camp. ➹

➹ So, of course both girls needed matching jammies even though only

 one of them was going to class. ➹

➹ Liv had Luau Day at summer camp and {yet again} both girls got in on the action.  Oh how I love a theme! ➹

Father's Day 2013

I'm just going to admit this little-known fact about me...I'm awful at Father's Day gifts.  Or maybe any gifts?  I don't know... I just know I sort of dropped the ball this year as far as Father's Day went for David and my dad.

David was out of town for work the entire week before Father's Day and my parents were busy preparing for their drive to Indiana all while trying to move furniture out/around their house to get it ready for all new tile to be installed while they are gone.  So, I didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare.  Shopping for cards and gifts with my two girls is just not easy and so that just didn't get done. I can't print things off of my computer so I didn't get to Pinterest up anything cute before David came back.

I did however, plan a small getaway to Flagstaff to hang out with friends and escape the triple-digit heat.  That's got to count for something, right?

We headed up Saturday morning for a little overnight stay at the cabin of our friend's in-laws and it was just as perfect as could be.  The weather was gorgeous and the scenery was just beautiful.  Those pines make it hard to feel like you are in Arizona...  We had a blast just doing nothing but hanging out outdoors {in the summertime!}, playing games and exploring the land.  When we win the lottery, I'm buying a second house up here!

That's a little playhouse.  And, can you spy Sydney?

Michael has a pet hamster named Pixie.  She was a cutie.  

This is our new favorite game. 

{And, there's not even a princess involved!}

David was able to go out on a hike on Saturday and a little bike ride Saturday night.  On Sunday, he took the cruiser out with the two littlest girls and pulled them around town.  It's amazing that he was able to pull the trailer uphill on a gravel road in just that cruiser.  

Having a snack after their ride.

We headed home about 24 hours after getting there so that we could hang out with my dad on his special day too.  Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of him, but I did get a few cute ones of David with his girls.

We are a lucky bunch of girls!

My mom scanned this picture of my dad with my papaw and I just love it.  My pappaw was the sweetest man and he was just my favorite person.  I'm so lucky that my girls have their poppy and I know they feel the exact same way about him that I felt about my pappaw.

Because She's Fifty! {Months Old}

➽ I started this post last night, but somebody came out of their room after being put to bed and then was up until 11:30.  Consequently, I wasn't in much of a mood to write nice things about her once she finally fell asleep.  So, this beginning paragraph doesn't really hold true anymore. 

Well, wonders never cease!  Today is actually the 17th and I'm writing up a birthday post for my biggest girl.  It's a 50 month miracle!

I have a feeling this is going to read more like a catching-up blog post, but that's sort of what we're doing here...catching up with my sweet girl, Livi Lou, on all she's up to these days.

➽➽ Let's just start off with the obvious...it's summertime and it's Olivia, so there's going to be lots of swimming/swimming lessons/pool tricks.  It blows my mind as to how great she is in the pool.  I remember when we moved out here less than two years ago and I was a nervous wreck anytime she even walked around the edge of the pool {and rightly so... she wasn't even 2 1/2 yet}, but I don't have that nervous feeling at all now.  Yes, I'm still very cautious with her and I would never let her swim or even be in the gated area of the pool without an adult there with her, but I don't have the urge to helicopter around her every time she gets in the gate.  She's such a fish in the water...she loves swimming, she loves diving after the toys, she loves jumping off the side and going down our new {albeit somewhat tacky} slide.  If that sun didn't beat down on us so hard, I think we could spend all day in our pool.  She is doing swim lessons every day for 50 minutes and has mastered everything at her current level already.

➽➽ In getting Olivia ready to go to Pre-K four mornings a week {uh, okay, and getting me ready for four mornings a week}, I signed her up for some summer camp classes at her preschool where she attends from 9-12 and eats a packed lunch.  I originally signed her up for two classes a week {letting her choose the theme that she wanted to learn about}, but have actually added a few more classes to the schedule since she loves it so much.  I'm definitely having to wake her up and get her going in the mornings...we are not morning people around here...but she is always excited about going.  The first two weeks, I switched her into Ms. Erin's class...she was her Book Club teacher and Olivia absolutely adored her.  She has a new teacher this week, but has adjusted just fine.  I'm so SO glad that she loves school and loves learning and being around new friends and that she is confident and secure enough to be away from me for a few hours during the day.  It simultaneously amazes me and breaks my heart that she is at this stage already.

You'll be able to tell from the pictures what some of the themes have been, but so far she has done Beach Day, Animal Planet, Prince and Princess Tea Party, Music and Movement, Pirate Adventure, Under the Sea and Welcome to the Jungle.

➹ We may have gone a bit overboard here... ➹

➹ I finally wised up and put her in the shade for the pictures, but she still squinted. Darn sun at 9am! ➹

➽➽ Olivia is totally in to dressing herself these days.  On mornings where she wakes up {at 9:30} on her own, she usually comes out already dressed.  For awhile it was long dresses {so I stocked up} and then it was skirts {so I had to hide most of the ones that she insisted on wearing because they didn't have the shorts underneath}.  Lately, she's been obsessed with this t-shirt dress I had made for her "because the skirt is already attached!" But, honestly, sometimes she changes outfits four or five times a day and can change accessories even more than that.  I'm learning to let go of some of my outfit control {or maybe I'm just exerting it onto Sydney}.

➽➽ A few weeks ago, she had her first sleepover at her friend Brooke's house.  Yes, she's had sleepovers at Nana and Poppy's and even a sleepover with her BFF Kendall, but we were in the next room over for that.  This one was sort of last minute and just across the street and she was so excited about the possibility... how were we to say no?  She had such a great time over there getting her nails painted and making monkey bread for breakfast!  We ended up having Brooke over a couple Fridays later for a little pool party/movie night/slumber party/healthy breakfast action ourselves.  I'd say all three girls had a blast.

➹ Happy National Donut Day ➹

➽➽ One thing I've really been looking forward to with Olivia is board games.  I loved Fridays with my kiddos at school because after spelling tests and quizzes were done, we would always have game days with BINGO, Yahtzee and Guess Who.  A few weeks ago, we got Olivia the Princess Candyland and she loved it!  So, I started adding to our collection...I got a few more princess games {which she of course LOVES} and I pulled out my old school Guess Who game.  Well, turns out she loves that one too, although she almost always insists on picking a girl character even though there are only five of them.  Poppy is usually our competition and he does a good job of not letting on to knowing that she's picked a girl.  I ended up getting the newer version of the game {Guess Who Extra} that has 6 different versions.  I actually played against her over the weekend and she did great!  She figured out who mine was right after I figured out hers.  Such a little smarty!

➹ Poppy's first question was, "Does your person have white hair?"  Ha ha #nailedit ➹

➽➽ In case I don't stress it enough, let me just say again how much I adore this little girl of mine.  She is smart and funny and dramatic, energetic and sassy and sweet all rolled up into this beautiful blonde girl.  GIRL.  She's not a baby anymore and I'd be hard pressed to even call her a toddler.  And, I'm just so lucky that she's mine.

It's That Time of Year Again...

Corn, corn, the magical vegetable, the more you freeze, the more you eat all year round.  Or something like that...

You may remember us putting up freezer corn last year {read about that here}...we ended up putting up about 44 bags of corn to split between our two households and we still have one bag left in our freezer. Well, this year, we repeated the process {minus the help of my brother} and ended up with 27 bags.  Eeek.  I'm a little worried that we're going to have fewer bags this year, but I'm sure we will manage somehow.

It was a lot of fun doing this with my mom and dad because it brings back memories of watching my grandparents prepare and can or freeze their harvest from their garden.  I'm really ready to try our hand at another vegetable, but I don't think my parents are up for it this year.  I also love spending time doing something productive with my parents...my mom and dad have this thing down to a science...my mom has three pots boiling at the same time and knows which one to take off first because it boils faster and yada yada.  All I know is that it ends up tasting so good!

Here are a few pictures of CORN!

Step 1:  Shuck and clean the ears.

Step 2: Boil water, add corn, once it returns to a boil, set timer for 2 minutes.

Step 3:  After the timer goes off, remove the ears and put them in an ice bath for a minute or so.

Step 4:  Scrape the corn.  {I'm bad about leaving some on the ends...it's how I eat it too!}

Step 5:  Get kisses from this sweet girl!

Step 6 {and not pictured}:  Scoop 2 cups into a date-labeled freezer bag and seal after pressing the air out.

Step 7:  Enjoy sweet summer corn the whole year round!