"smarkely"

when my mom was in town we took ali to get her ears pierced. I had mine pierced when I was 3 and ali has been begging for months...so even though she is only 2 1/2 we made the pilgrimage to the mall to have it done. It was mostly my mom encouraging this...I wanted no part of seeing my baby hurt...even if it was for some dang cute reason. my mom assured me that she would hold her and be there with her and that I could leave the store and not even hear her cry. well, the parent HAS to stay in the store...crap...but my mom did hold her and keep her still. I saw those big alligator tears and my mom handed me the $ to pay and whisked her off to find some treat to pacify her.

when I had mine done I apparently cried all the way to the Hello Kitty store and was then lulled into a calm state by visions of girly pink prizes. so I fully expected to find my daughter in tears when I rounded that corner to track my mom down. about 10 steps from the Claire's that we had it done at, the mall has those cars you can ride for 50 cents. Ali was sitting in the ice cream truck, licking her sucker that the ear piercing lady had given her, looking happy as a clam. my mom said she had stopped crying before they even reached the ice cream truck, before my mom even told her she could ride...she is one tough cookie...who really wanted earrings.

She says things like "these are my earrings, I had my ears pierced, they are smarkely" all the time.

I have to admit I did not want to deal with the hassle of cleaning them and all that business, but ali has been a champ, she sits perfectly still while I swab them and loves that she is a big girl.

justin and I both had the same parental reaction...they make her look so old. That night we went in to check on her in her toddler bed and she looked huge. when did my baby become a little girl? ...a little girl with smarkely ears.

happy heart day!

it was my turn for valentines day planning this year, so we headed back to the 1950's.

I had my pearls on, and a cold beverage in my hand as daddy walked through the door from a long hard day of work. cole and ali had memorized their lines and recited them right on cue as daddy came in.

(meanwhile the theme song from Leave it to Beaver was playing in the background)

cole: "hey pop!"

ali: "hello father."

me: "welcome home darling."

I had printed off a copy of the duties of a house wife from a home economics text book from the 50's. It was pretty hilarious, but we followed it to the last detail.

after we welcomed daddy home we sent him upstairs to change so we could head off to the diner (in our kitchen).

we rocked out to the juke box and had cheeseburgers with all the fixin's!

it was a pretty fabulous valentines day for everyone involved!

after we ate we pretended the couch was a car and we went to the drive in, ate popcorn in vintage popcorn containers, and enjoyed a movie as a family.

we love a chance to get a little creative!

up where the air is clear

a few weeks ago the weather was perfect for flying kites and cole asked if we could break in his pirate kite.

think he had fun?

he got the hang of it quickly and loved it!

this picture just cracks me up. I can't help but chuckle when I look at it.

don't worry big brother shared the high flying goodness with his sister.

and she loved it too!

yay for spring and all the adventures it brings with it!

dino-mite!

after living here for well over a year we finally made it to see the dinosaur tracks!

as you can see from cole's expression he was impressed by how crazy big they were.

it was a fun lil' family outting.


cole was quite interested in all that there was to see

and ali loved all the gravel and rocks to get into.

daddy and cole were totally interested in what the guide had to say.

and ali listened too...

and broke the rules...she wanted to jump right in that big fun hole in the ground.

but her favorite part was the dino drawing and stencils at the end.

cole thought that was pretty fun too.

but then everything is fun when we get a day to play together.

goin' on a bear hunt

For family home evening daddy decided we should go on a bear hunt.

daddy set it all up. this was the tall grass they had to walk through.

and the couch cushions were the squishy mud.

he also had water running in the bathroom to make it sound like they were crossing a river, a fan blowing on them at the top of the stairs represented the wind, and he was hiding in the playroom growling like a bear and holding up a teddy bear...yeah he is a pretty fun daddy.