An Afternoon of Annabelle

A Morning of Mady

it starts off like this...

but when sister leaves the room, it is time to move on...

so she sits here..

yum. french toast
"all done"

then it is time for lots of this...

and some of that...

Storyteller

Daddy's Dishes Helper

sorry...got to go daddy!

...I see sister's toy!

Raspberries in Raspberry

So much for a "nice" picture of my girls together.... they got on a roll doing raspberries and well that was it.

Baby in Blue (by Cassie)

Another post that I am WAY behind on...

I asked Cassie to take some pictures of Madelyn in her blue dress at her "studio," and she was nice enough to put up with a less than cooperative Madelyn. We bribed Avery with M&Ms to try to get Madelyn to smile. Avery gave it his all & these are a few of my favorites!!

One Great Day!

Today was a fabulous day! In 2010 I used most of my vacation days as part of my maternity leave (which I was grateful to have!), however not having vacation time meant that any day Annabelle didn't have school, she spent with Daddy. Now that was a great thing for them but I could not wait until she had a day off in 2011 so I could have a special Annabelle & Mommy day. Well today was that day!!

We started the day off at Nordstrom getting new tights for dance (they have the best tights by the way.)

From there I thought we would wander the mall. We stopped at Anthropologie because well it is one of my favorite stores to browse - I never buy anything there, but man I love to look. Here is Annabelle trying on a necklace and sitting amongst many breakables - yikes.

Then we hit Starbucks for a snack.

While we were having our snack, I received an email that our family friends (the Bentons) got a new German Shepard puppy, Gus! We pulled the picture up on my phone! We can't wait to meet you Gus!

And then totally unplanned we went to Build-A-Bear. I had a gift card that my grandparents sent Annabelle for her 1st birthday. I have been saving it for a special day when I felt like she would fully appreciate the experience. As you know my grandparents passed away almost a year ago, and I still had the gift card in my purse. So as we passed Build-A-Bear today, Annabelle shot me a smile, and that was it, we were making a bunny for her, and she picked out a cat for sister. They are officially named Rabbit & Kitty (original I know.) She was a little freaked out about the unstuffed version of the bunny, but we got through it and she ended up having a blast. I got a little teary at the cash register trading in the gift card from my grandparents to purchase Rabbit & Kitty for my girls. Rabbit & Kitty will definitely always be a little more than Build-a-Bear to me.

Annabelle even carried (or really dragged) her bunny in its box house all the way back to the car! Given it was almost nap time and under normal circumstances she would have been whining & dragging herself back to the car, it was fun to watch her proudly strut with her box all the way, she even refused my offer to help!

Thanks Grandma & Grandpa - she loved it.

Home for lunch & a nap.

When she woke up we headed out to the main event - The Denver Stock Show Grand Prix! As you might remember last year I took her to the Stock Show grounds for a couple hours, but not to the Grand Prix. Well since Scott now has school on Monday nights, I lost my date to the Grand Prix for this year & next year, so I decided that I would take Annabelle and see how she would do! We arrived about 1.5 before the show, so we headed to the kid area and made great use of our limited time. We saw chickens, (real) rabbits, guinea pigs, & ducks... she rode a pony, and then she played on the playground for about 30 minutes before heading over to the Event Center. We grabbed dinner and found our seats. Annabelle was so excited to see the horses, although the point of the competition is to have a clean round (i.e. not drop any of the rails on the fences & to finish the course under a set amount of time) Annabelle kept getting excited when they would "break" a fence. Got to love watching things through the eyes of a child. Annabelle rallied and even made it through the jump off... and it turned out to be another great competition.

It was one of those perfect days!

Hannah Turns 3!

Hannah had a fabulous princess party at Gymboree today! Complete with Princess dress-up, bubbles, a parachute and of course cake & juice!

Princess Hannah loved every moment of her party!

Princess Annabelle stole a dance with Avery

And the Littlest Princesses ...

Madelyn

& Vivi

Happy THIRD Birthday Hannah!

The view from here....

(Sorry Mady!)

So let me explain! Madelyn has been fighting the cruds for well over a month now. We have taken her to the pediatrician, and she has been on an antibiotic for a possible slight ear infection, but other than that it is just the cruds. With the cruds, she has had the most horrible diaper rash. We have tried EVERY cream imaginable, cornstarch baths, etc, etc, etc... so today we cranked up the heat and had bare bottom time. It didn't really help, but I have to try everything!