Little Miniatures

We have had a nice spring-like day today. Sunny, warm with a cool breeze, and I noticed bits of green starting to pop up as we passed by neighbors' soon-to-be flowerbeds. The girls and I took a nice walk, with Emily stopping every few feet to pick up a leaf, rock, or small stick and saying, "This is FUN!" One of my favorite things today was taking Lucy outside while Emily was at preschool. When we go outside, we normally go right to her baby swing. Today was different. Since she is walking now, I plopped her right on the patio and let her explore. She toddled around, bending down to pick up sticks, walking over to feel the mud and grass. She looked so tiny, and I thought to myself what a little miniature person she is. We had to go in and grab the camera. I wish I could post all the pictures. It would take my computer all day to load them on this blog!

Emily had been quiet in her room for a good while this afternoon, so I went in and told her she could come out. I was hoping for her to take a nap, but it didn't happen which is pretty usual now. I went in to find her down on the rug by her bed, with all of her barettes out. She was sticking the flower barettes in the rug and saying, "Do you like my little flower garden?" Another picture opportunity, and a funny example of how her little mind works. I think we're all excited about spring!

Friends

"I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait!" That was Emily while we watched Beth, Alaina, and Audri come up to the door. With all the sickness we've had this winter, we have just recently been able to have any of Em's friends come to our house! Either we've been sick or they've been sick. I watched the girls today while Beth and Isaac took Alix to Kindergarten Roundup to get him ready to enter Kindergarten in the fall. Audri and Lucy are the same age, and as you can see in the last picture, they shared toys quite nicely. :0) Alaina and Emily had a ton of fun dressing up and taking silly pictures for the camera. Whenever Lucy would see the camera even remotely pointed at her she would say, "Cheeee!" She's quite a ham! She sees her sister ham it up so much.... I know I've mentioned this before, but I just don't know where they get that.....hmmm. They have such quiet parents. And such a quiet daddy.














My favorite picture is the one of Alaina and Emily peeking up over the bed. That was their idea. And here is Little Lucy taking some steps. She started taking steps the day after her birthday, and just yesterday started to get more brave with it by trying it more and taking more steps at a time.

All About Lucy

Our little Lucy turned one last Tuesday, and we celebrated with a big Hello Kitty party on Saturday. She has no idea who Hello Kitty is, but I liked the plates so I bought them! Then from the design on the plates, I made her cake. That was fun! I really didn't want to cut into it, though. :o) Her party day was great weather, which made for good traveling for my family. Tyler's family came, so allll of Lucy's cousins were here, ready to dote on her. The girls always have fun together....there are 7 between Stacy's, Sara's, and ours. Then Drew who is Emily's age, just jumps right in and has a blast with them!

Lucy indulged in her very own strawberry cupcake with pink icing. She shoved the cupcake right up to her mouth. The cupcake barely moved, but her mouth was moving, and the cupcake just began to disappear. At one point we wondered if she was breathing! She ate the entire thing without setting it down.

My family left after lunch on Sunday. Before they left, I got some good pictures of Lucy with Grandma Manning.

It's hard to believe Lucy is one! She has gone from being so helpless and teeny, to a funny little thing that tries to say doggy and choo choo train, with such enthusiasm and a squeaky little voice. The day after her birthday she took her first step, and has been trying every chance she gets to do it again! It's so neat to hear Emily and Lucy laugh together, and hear that little chuckle. She has even been listening to books better all of the sudden. Her favorite is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I'm sure there will be lots more to brag about...I mean report here soon!

Happy "Valentime's" Day!

Emily had been waiting for "Happy Valentime's Day" for a long time. For about a week leading up to the big day, she would ask, "Is it Happy Valentime's today?" We bought the cheapy Valentines at the grocery, and every day she couldn't wait to pass them out at preschool. She still got surprises after her big party at school ~ Daddy brought a balloon home for both girls, (and roses for me :0). We had a fun dinner together, and we thought we'd take some time out for some silly pictures. I might add, that was a mighty fine looking cobb salad that we had for dinner. And after the girls went to bed, we watched the final Lord of the Rings, Return of the King. Romantic, huh?! We have been watching the trilogy all week in the evenings. We LOVE those movies! We went out last week on Friday night, so it was nice to be in and have an excuse for a nice dinner at home together, and a movie night. Plus, its fun to see Emily get so excited about holidays now! (Oh, all the funny little Valentines she brought home in her homemade, decorated tissue box from preschool....from Transformers to Princesses and cards with tatoos. Too funny!)

PiGtAiLs

Emily was a very happy girl this morning. Not only was she going to preschool (for the first time in a while because of sickness and snow), she was sporting pigtails. She's worn pigtails a couple times before, but this was different. These are lower. Last night she brought down a bracelet that came in a bunch of dress up stuff from her cousins Halle and Brooke. The bracelet had a cartoonish picture on it. She handed me two hair holders, and said, "I want my hair like the girl in the picture!" I could just picture her up in her room, going through all of her jewelry stuff and seeing that picture, and then going over to her basket, picking out the things I will need to fix her hair. It's just a cute thought. As I began to fix it like I had before, with the pig tails higher up on her head, she immediately said, "no, like the girl in the picture!" I had to look again, and I realized that they both had their pig tails lower. Okay!!! She was so proud when I was finished, and then today when I fixed her hair like that for preschool, she was so excited she had to show Daddy right away. She's such a big girl!!!

Introducing Mac and Toby...and a Cleaner Kitchen

For the "Cleaner Kitchen" part (the Mac and Toby part comes later): Today I have a new obsession. Have you ever gotten a new product and just went nuts? My new Shaklee products that I got a few days ago have been put to good use, and I am hoping to keep it that way. Not that I hate cleaning. I LOVE having a clean house. It makes me happy! But, I don't always keep on top of the grime like I should, especially in the bathrooms...that's my dirty little secret. Ha! I had no idea the Shaklee Basic H2 cleaner could be using on everything! Here is just a sampling from the paper I received...

• Use in the dishwasher, in the dish water, bathrooms, used as body wash, shampoo, cleans woodwork, can be used to dust, add it to paint to help it cover better, put it in humidifiers, use as stain remover, carpet cleaner, wash floors, fights static in the dryer, and this was really interesting....put it in with hard boiled eggs to help them peel easier!

The list really does go on and on, but I will spare you. I will not even attempt most of these things! A little does go a long way, and from what I heard, the concentrate can last for a year. So far today I've tried it on a lot in the kitchen. Here's another little something I did today with it. I have this copper hood over the stove, and it has never been cleaned and shined. I got a little carried away with it and I do love the outcome! It went from very dull to very shiny. I am done picking up the stuff today (or anything), I don't know where all this energy came from, after having the flu the past couple days!

Needless to say, we've spent a lot of time in the kitchen today. Emily and I had a picnic in there with all her pretend food stuff when I was done. She came in for the picnic and said, "MOM! Have you seen Mac and Toby?!? They just came by!" We spent some time looking for where Mac and Toby were hiding in the kitchen. I guess they tiptoed by while I was busy cleaning.
I suppose her new pretend friends' names were derived from Toby Mac, who we enjoy listening to!

Here's a picture of the girls playing today. They love the sit and spin!

Breakfast in Bed, Movies, and Coloring Books

Another sickness has found our home, and this time it's the flu. Not the stomach flu, but just the plain old sick, high fever flu. We are trying to keep it confined to one room today, Emily was still playing around the house yesterday (while we were oblivious to it manifesting itself). My sister's whole family has had it (except Claire), and Audrey became sick again while Emily and her cousins were with my parents at Pokagon State Park in northern Indiana. So, we brought sickness at Christmas and spread the joy, and now, a month later, sickness is here again. So far, Emily is the only one in our house to have it, hence the quarantine today (and maybe tomorrow).

Her fever was over 103 last night! She hasn't had a desire to play, but she HAS wanted to eat. She was asking for yogurt ~ after a banana, cheerios with no milk ~ all this morning. She said, "I am hungry the whole day!!!" She has been served on her princess tray today, and has been able to watch movies on her travel dvd player, listen to music, and color. We are piling it on, but I don't know how else to keep her away! From time to time she comes in and wants to see Lucy, so every now and then I walk Lucy by her room and Lucy waves. :0)

Please pray for our family and those who haven't gotten it yet, that we won't. Sara and family have had a hard time getting over it. At least Emily has been mostly smiles today, as you can tell from the picture!