McGee Times Three

My Valentines

2012-02-19T21:35:00.000-06:00

I've been absent from the blog world recently. This first trimester of pregnancy has been giving me a run for my money. The fatigue has been overwhelming at times. I know that the symptoms are just temporary though. I'm 11 weeks now, so hopefully there will be some relief in the next few weeks.

It's a little overdue, but here's a recap of Valentine's Day. The weekend before, Wes and Mia had a daddy/daughter date at Chick-fil-a. Mia was excited about dressing up for her "date". They had a good time.

After work on Sunday, Wes walked through the front door with a dozen roses and a box of chocolates for me. When Mia saw him, she said, "Oh, you brought me flowers! Thank you Daddy!" Wes was a little taken aback, but being the awesome daddy he is, he said, "Here you go, baby." She stood there just holding the flowers and candy with a big smile. That girl loves her daddy, and I love him too. What a sweet man!

New Hiding Place

2012-01-30T21:01:00.000-06:00

Mia got suspiciously quiet last night. When we called her name, the dryer door swung open and her smiling little face peeked out.

We had to explain that the dryer is not a good place to hide.

I've been feeling fairly well with Baby #2 so far. I haven't been having the headaches and dizziness like I had with Mia, but I'm not sure when that started with her. It could still happen I guess. My main two complaints are nausea and fatigue. I'm sooo tired a lot of the time. The main food I've been avoiding is chicken. With Mia, it was worse. I didn't want to eat any kind of meat for the first three months. I try to incorporate fruits and veggies whenever I can, but carbs are definitely a weakness since they calm my stomach. It will be interesting to see how this pregnancy is similar as well as different from my first one.

More Pictures

2012-01-26T20:07:00.000-06:00

Here are some of the pictures Julie took in the Bishop Arts District.

Mia at the Texas Theater

Here's a couple of Mia taunting the camera and making a Shhh! sound. She wasn't ready to tell the secret that Mommy has a baby on the way.

Precious Pictures

2012-01-26T19:52:00.000-06:00

My friend, Julie, took Mia's 3-year-old pictures a couple of weeks ago. We did them right here in Oak Cliff. She took Mia's pictures at Founder's Park, Bishop Arts District, and the Texas Theater. They turned out amazing. They are my favorites of any professional pictures I've had taken of Mia. I don't know how I'll choose which ones to get printed. I love them all! These are from Founder's Park.

My Sweet Girl Turns 3

2012-01-25T18:22:00.001-06:00

Today is Mia's third birthday. I guess I should just accept that I'll get all nostalgic on this day every year. I think about the day she was born, her 1st birthday, and her 2nd birthday. Of her three years of life so far, I think this last year from 2 to 3 years old has amazed me the most. She was still my baby at 2 years old, but now that she's 3, I have to concede that she's a big girl. She means so much to me. First, I was blessed with her daddy and then her. I wasn't sure that it could get any better, but now she'll have a little brother or sister, too. She now knows that there is a baby in my belly, but I'm not sure if she quite believes it yet. She said last night that she wants to name her little sister "Magic". I don't know why she thinks that it's a girl. After work, I picked her up and we went to Sonic to get some ice cream. We always make her wait until after dinner to get dessert. She seemed excited and said, "I don't have to eat dinner?" We scarfed down our ice cream when we got home, and now she's watching Open Season. I had to change her shirt though because there's no way she can eat ice cream without getting it all over herself!

Had to run into the living room first thing this morning and start playing with some of her birthday presents...

Mia's birthday lunch complete with some leftover birthday cake!

She loves the gift that Wesley and I got her.

Guess What?

2012-01-23T20:54:00.000-06:00

Mia is going to be a big sister!!!!!!!

I wanted to wait until after her birthday party to announce it because I wanted to tell my mom in person. I'd actually hoped to tell a lot of our family at once but not everyone was able to come. It was so funny how the news came out. I had bought Mia a t-shirt that says, "Big Sister In Charge". I put it in a gift bag as one of her birthday presents. When we were getting ready to load everything into the car and go to her party, Mia said, "Mommy, can I please open one of my presents?" It was like we had scripted it or something. I told her sure and handed her that gift to open. My mom, Rachel, Zoey, Shayna, and Kaylee were all with us (Wesley included) in the living room since we were about to leave. Mia opened it up and held it up in front of her. I told her to show Mimi her shirt. When Mom read it, she started crying and said, "You always do that to me!" Haha! I loved it! I love pulling one over on my mom. I surprised both of my parents when we told them we were pregnant with Mia, too. You can read that post here. Everyone is really happy.

I should also put on here how I told Wes because, of course, he found out before anyone else. I didn't think I was pregnant, but in order to stop wondering if I was, I took a pregnancy test. I guess I shouldn't have been shocked when the digital readout said pregnant but I was still surprised. Wes didn't even know I was taking the test, so I snuck the camera into the bathroom and took a picture (of the display portion only!) of the test. I loaded the picture onto our computer and set it as the image for our desktop. I then pulled up the Internet and pretended to be frustrated. I asked him to come check iTunes and see if he could figure out why a certain album I'd bought wasn't downloading. I sat down on the couch, and he went to look at it. He said, "I just bought you that Adele album. What are you downloading now?" When he sat down at the computer, he said, "You don't even have iTunes pulled up!" That's when he minimized the screen and saw the picture of the test on the desktop. His head snapped up and with a startled expression on his face, he said, "Hey! You tricked me!" It was awesome! We're both really excited. My due date is September 5th. I hope this pregnancy goes as well as when I was pregnant with Mia. So far, so good. :)

Mia's 3rd Birthday Party

2012-01-22T16:58:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was Mia's birthday party at Oil and Cotton here in Oak Cliff. Oil and Cotton is an art studio where they offer art classes as well as a space to have parties. Many of Mia's friends came to the party. Including Mia, there were 14 kids! Mimi, Aunt Rachel, Zoey, Shayna, and Kaylee were there as well. I went with a ballerina theme because Mia loves to twirl and dance in her tutus. She has at least half a dozen of them (if not more). I tried not to go too overboard with the girly stuff since I knew we would be having some boys at the party. I paired aqua with a light pink to even it out a little. I absolutely love planning Mia's birthday parties. It only comes once a year, so I really try to have fun with it and do things I think she will enjoy. The ladies at Oil and Cotton led the kids in making paintings. It was fun to see how each child's painting turned out. We had the usual snacks, cake, ice cream, and presents. It was a really wonderful day, and I'm so glad that Mia's friends were there to celebrate her birthday.

Dessert table

Birthday cake

Oreo pops: a little more difficult to make than I had anticipated, but they turned out so cute!!

Time to paint!

Blowing out the candles

Happy Birthday, Junior!

2012-01-16T17:26:00.000-06:00

When I went to pick Mia up from daycare today, she had a hat on with Martin Luther King, Jr. on it. She said, "Look at my hat, Mommy! It's Junior's birthday!" It took me a second to read the hat and realize she was talking about MLK.

Wes and Mia went on a daddy/daughter date last night. PeeWee's Big Adventure is playing at the Texas Theater here in Oak Cliff. That's right, the same one where Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested. They like to show older movies usually. Mia has watched clips of PeeWee on Wesley's phone and really likes the show. It was Mia's very first movie theater experience. After they bought their tickets, Wes asked Mia if she wanted some popcorn. Of course, she said yes. As they were waiting in line to get the popcorn, Wes said that Mia told him, "I like you Daddy. You're nice to me and buy me popcorn." Melt my heart! I'll bet he'd take her to a movie again in a second after hearing that. Wes said she did great during the movie. She just sat quietly and ate her popcorn. She didn't even ask to go to the restroom. He said towards the end she was getting a little restless and climbed into his lap. She was excited when she got home. She was very animated as she told me about the movie. She's ready to go to another one I think!

Day at the Museum

2012-01-08T21:27:00.000-06:00

Wes and I took Mia to the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science yesterday. There were lots of fun things to look at, and most of them were interactive. Mia could hear the giant nose sneezing no matter where we were in the museum. She would say, "It sneezed again! Bless you!" She cracked me up in the area that showed different body functions. She really wanted to press the button to make the guy vomit. Haha! The lower floor of the museum is set up entirely as a children's museum. They had a farm, a periscope, a water table, a fire engine, a play house, a fake backyard, etc. We loved it, but we ran out of time before we made it to the "Nature" portion. We'll save that for next time.

Making giant bubbles

Trying on a hazmat suit

She really liked this one

She said she was "making a castle" with the Legos

Home for Christmas

2011-12-30T19:44:00.000-06:00

We came home Christmas Day, and Mia got to open her presents from us. Her eyes were starting to glaze over somewhat from all of the presents. She was a little overwhelmed between our gifts and the ones she got at Nana's. The next day, Mimi, Pa Pa, and Zoey came to visit. Mia and Zoey get along so well. Mia likes to say that Zoey is her best friend. They randomly just hug each other when they're together.

Mia stayed home with Daddy today. Looks like they had fun, doesn't it?

Christmas in Oklahoma

2011-12-29T21:21:00.001-06:00

We spent the first half of our Christmas vacation at Nana and Keith's house. We had tons of fun hanging out and playing games. One night, we went down to Bricktown for some delicious pasta and a walk to look at Christmas lights. It was a little nippy, but we bundled up Mia nice and snug. On Christmas Eve, Nana and Keith made a fantastic meal for us...ham, homemade mashed potatoes...the whole works. So yummy! I helped Mia set out cookies and milk for Santa Claus. As I put her to bed, I asked her whose birthday was on Christmas. She said, "Jesus!" and launched into singing a round of Happy Birthday. Santa is a fun Christmas tradition, but I want her to remember what's important as she gets older. When Mia had her picture taken with Santa, she told him that she wanted a Mickey Mouse movie and a Mickey book for Christmas. On Christmas morning, she came into the dining room and saw (among other things) a Mickey movie. She was happy but immediately asked, "Where's the Mickey book?" Oops. I guess Santa forgot that one. She didn't really care, though, and loved all of her gifts (especially her tent that looks like a princess castle). Mia had such a good time with everyone. I don't think she was ready to come home.

Couldn't find her one morning...discovered her perusing Nana's jewelry.

Cruising in Bricktown. Stole this from Nana's FB page :)

Licking meringue off of a mixer that Kenda gave her.

Let the ripping of the wrapping paper begin...

Christmas jammies!

Santa came!!

See You Next Year, Benjamin!

2011-12-27T13:16:00.000-06:00

Benjamin the elf showed up in a couple other places before we left town to go to Nana's house.

He took a ride in Mia's pink car.

Apparently, he needed a shower.

When Mia woke up the first morning at Nana's, Benjamin was in the bathroom! She was shocked that he had found her in someone else's house.

On Christmas Eve morning, Benjamin was sitting on the tv. I guess he was making sure that Mia was good. After she went to bed on Christmas Eve, Benjamin left to go back to the North Pole. He'll be back next December, though!

Wordless Wednesday: St. Nick and Amelia

2011-12-21T07:07:00.000-06:00

Mesmerized

2011-12-20T18:38:00.000-06:00

Mia has watched An Elf's Story so many times that she has parts of it memorized. That girl seriously loves it. I can hear her no matter where I am in the house saying, "Go, Chippey, go!" As soon as it's finished, I hear, "Can I watch it again?" It's only about 30 minutes long, so we've watched it a lot.

Enjoying the movie...

again...

and again...

Enough movie-watching. We're going to look at Christmas lights!

Elf Hijinx

2011-12-19T21:44:00.000-06:00

Benjamin has been finding all kinds of places to occupy the last few days. Mia has started looking for him with no prompting from me. She's really enjoying having him around.

One of the perks of being able to fly is you can hang out in high places

One morning Mia found Benjamin in her stocking with a gift. He had brought her a jingle bell bracelet from the North Pole! Mia said, "Thank you for giving me a bace-ret (bracelet). That was berry (very) nice!"

Peeking out from the kitchen utensils

Perching on the curtain rod

Benjamin and the singing penguins took on Raggedy Ann in a marshmallow fight. Whoa. It looks like it got pretty wild. Not sure who won. Ann had a little marshmallow arsenal built up, though.

Benjamin the Elf

2011-12-15T19:53:00.000-06:00

Mia has had lots of fun finding Benjamin each morning. The first morning, she wasn't sure what was going on, but she found him on the mantle. We had new mattresses delivered that afternoon, and the delivery guys leaned the new mattresses against the mantle. Apparently, Benjamin fell from his perch on the mantle. When Mia realized he wasn't up there, she got really anxious. She kept saying, "Where's Benjamin? Oh no, Mommy, where's Benjamin?" After she returned from looking for him in the kitchen, he had magically reappeared on the mantle. This is good since we can't touch him! Mia understands that and likes to remind us. I didn't think she really understood very well when we read the book. However, when she watched the movie An Elf's Story about Benjamin's friends, she got really into it.

Mia decorated the lower half of the tree with candy canes. She decided that this branch needed three of them!

The next morning, Mia stumbled into the dining room with her green blankie to eat some breakfast. She stopped to look at the Christmas tree, and there he was sitting right on top of it! Mia was speechless. She just stood there gasping and pointing at him. Pretty funny.

The following morning, Mia discovered Benjamin in the pantry. She said, "Mommy! I thought he was in the living room! I was looking for him in the living room, but he's in the pantry!" She thought it was funny that he got some of her raisins. She decided that he must be hungry.

After that, Mia found him on Connor's picture.

When she saw him this morning hanging from the ceiling fan, Mia said, "There's Benjamin! He's swinging! That silly elf!"

McGee Family Elf

2011-12-10T21:05:00.001-06:00

I have been reading lately on some other people's blogs about "The Elf on the Shelf". For those of you unfamiliar, it is an elf that stays at your home during the day but returns to the North Pole at night to let Santa know if the children in that house were naughty or nice. A nice lady at my favorite children's boutique told me that it is good for "behavior modification". Haha! Mia has been struggling lately with following directions and listening in general, so Santa thought it would be beneficial to send her an elf to keep her honest. Mia found her elf from Santa under the Christmas tree today. We read the book that came along with it, but she may be a little young to fully understand the concept. Each elf must be given a name by the family that adopts him. I asked Mia what we should name him. Her first suggestion was "Cock-a-doodle-doo Rooster", but that seemed really long. Her other suggestions included "Cow" and "Mommy". I told her to ask the elf what he wanted to be called, so she did. I asked her what he said, and she replied, "Gingerbread Man". Wesley said, "Did you say Benjamin?" Mia said, "No, but he's not a Gingerbread Man." Benjamin sounded good, though, and Mia agreed that it should be his name. I told her that Benjamin will be watching to see if she's a good girl. I also told her that Benjamin likes to play while she's sleeping and that she'll have to find him in the morning. She looked at me like I was just messing with her mind. Hehe! I bet she'll catch on in the morning and love it. I can't wait to see what adventures Benjamin has!

Pippi Longstocking

2011-12-04T10:48:00.000-06:00

For some reason I am unable to explain (but am grateful for) Mia allowed me to double french braid her hair. Can you stand this? Major cuteness! I love playing with different hairstyles for her. It will be less messy next time because I'll make sure her hair is damp. She has fine hair like I do which can make it a little difficult to keep in place.

Christmas Parade

2011-12-03T23:37:00.001-06:00

Our little family of three met up with some of our friends at the Dallas Christmas Parade downtown today. Mia and Reese are in the same class at daycare. We love hanging out with Scott and Holly, and little Ryleigh is so adorable! Mia oohed and aahed over the floats and giant balloons. She saw some of her favorite characters including Llama Llama Red Pajama, Madeline, and Curious George. We stood in misty rain for a portion of the parade, but for the most part it wasn't too cold. I love how Dallas celebrates every holiday and event in a BIG way. Mia loved it!

This is the first year that Mia has somewhat of a concept of who Santa is and that toys can be had in return for good behavior. She's sketchy on the details but excited at any rate. Mia has been requesting her Christmas story book quite often. She loves pointing out Jesus and the angels. She's too young to understand everything, but she knows that Christmas is Jesus' birthday (which she likes to announce).

Llama Llama Red Pajama

Followed by real llamas!

Jordin Sparks

All tuckered out that afternoon

It's the Holiday Season

2011-11-30T22:08:00.000-06:00

The Christmas season has arrived! A few weekends ago, we met up with some friends in downtown Dallas for dinner and then went to the Christmas tree lighting at the Main Street Garden. I haven't blogged about it yet because talking about Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving just seems out of whack. A few of Mia's friends from daycare were there, and the kids all had fun running around. Downtown Dallas looked beautiful. I loved seeing all of the Christmas lights and decorations. They had a few streets blocked off, so we were just strolling down the middle of the street (not something you get to do everyday downtown). There were fireworks when the tree was lit in the park. The kids would have enjoyed it more except for the fact that the fireworks sounded like gunshots bouncing off all of the buildings. Many of the kids started crying. Mia didn't but she had that "deer caught in the headlights" look until it quieted down. Overall, it was a lot of fun. Hopefully, we'll get together with our friends again soon.

I had to get a picture of this as we were walking to dinner. I love this building.

Walking down Main Street with Daddy and looking at the lights

Red Mini Coopers decked out as Santa's reindeer

Shopping Buddy

2011-11-30T00:01:00.000-06:00

A couple of weekends ago, I heard that Old Navy was having an amazing sale. Their coats were going to be 75% off for a few hours. I really needed a good coat for the winter. It's been awhile since I've gotten a new one. It's been so long that the ones I have might be out of style. I loaded Mia in the car and drove to Old Navy to check it out. Lo and behold, the sale was real, and I wasn't the only one who had heard about it. There were tons of people. I got a coat for Wesley and got myself...well...let's just say a couple of coats-no need to elaborate on how many. Hehe! I had forgotten the stroller but thought Mia would be fine. I'd just grab the coats, pay for them, and leave, right? Nope. The checkout line was wrapped halfway around the store. As we were standing in line, the woman in front of me turned around and commented on how many people were there. She had secured a shopping cart with a kid's seat on it. She didn't have any kids with her, though, and offered to let Mia ride in it as we waited in line. I was so grateful! I told her several times that she was a lifesaver over the course of the HOUR it took for us to make it up to the registers to checkout. Mia was on her best behavior. I was so proud of her! Of course, I had to promise her some M&Ms for later, but she was good nonetheless. I hope she still likes to shop with me when she gets older. I can see the two of us hitting the sales when she's a teenager.

Such a good girl even though she got bored...

...and tired as we waited in line to checkout.

She couldn't even finish her crackers when we got to the car. Poor thing was wiped out!

Happy Birthday to Me

2011-11-29T18:01:00.001-06:00

Today, I'm the big 2-9. Only one year left in my twenties. I'm not worried about turning 30 next year. It doesn't seem like that big of a difference. I've had a great day and even indulged in some delicious chicken nachos for lunch. I got to see this adorable face singing to me this morning...

She sang Happy Birthday to me about five times without any prompting. I'm not even sure if she knew that it was actually my birthday until I told her after about the third time of singing it. I asked her how old she thought I was, and she said, "Um...two!" I said, "I'm two-nine." She laughed and said, "Aw, baloney!" I kid you not. Haha! Wesley got me a great birthday gift...

It's a Nissan Pathfinder, and I love it! We've been needing a new car for awhile now since his truck has been acting up, so it's great to have two reliable vehicles again. He'll drive my Jeep now, and I'll have this! I dearly love my Jeep, though. I'll have to drive it sometimes so that I won't miss it too much. :)

Ready to go for a ride in Mommy's new car after dinner last night complete with Hello Kitty house shoes and her zebra named Pete.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T22:43:00.001-06:00

We spent Thanksgiving with my family this year. I was having such a good time that I didn't take hardly any pictures. That's okay, though. I love taking pictures, but I don't have to chronicle every moment. Later that evening, I went with my sister and two of my cousins to see a movie. It's not something the four of us get to do with each other usually, so it was fun to spend time together. After the movie, my sister went home, but my cousins weren't ready to go back. I needed something from Wal-Mart, so we decided to run by there before we headed back. I had neglected to remember that Wal-Mart was starting their Black Friday sales at 10pm that evening, and it was after 9:00. I took one look at the parking lot and was fully intending to keep driving by, but I was curious to see what it was like in there on such a heavy duty shopping day. We parked way out past the gas pumps and then made our way inside. After walking through the store and marveling at the throngs of people ready to pounce on their merchandise, we were about to leave when I spotted a couple of things that I had already planned on buying. Those pallets were somewhat hidden in another part of the store. There weren't many people around there. The girls had never participated in a Wal-Mart Black Friday and neither had I. Thinking we were all crazy, I agreed to stay and get a couple of things. I'd heard all of the bad stories of people getting injured and fighting over children's toys, so I was a little nervous. I wasn't about to fight over a child's board game or a Barbie doll. I was relieved though when we were given the go ahead from the overhead speakers, and we all calmly picked up our chosen items and walked away. I can't vouch for anyone in the rest of the store but my fellow shoppers in our area were very polite. The girls and I walked calmly to the registers where there was no line yet. We paid, left the store, and were one of the first cars out of the parking lot. It was super easy. I really appreciated that I wasn't witness to any crazy theatrics. Now, if we had chosen to go somewhere like Toys R Us, it might have been a different story!

Turkey Cookies

2011-11-22T22:09:00.000-06:00

I got the bright idea the other day that Mia and I would make cookies that looked like turkeys for Thanksgiving. I had seen a picture online, and it looked easy enough. Mia and I went to the store last night to get all of the ingredients. She was really excited about making "turkey cookies". She was very well behaved at Tom Thumb where we found all but one ingredient on our list...candy corn. I had mistakenly believed that they would still have some since it wasn't yet Thanksgiving. However, the only holiday candy out was for Christmas. Not willing to give up yet, we stopped at CVS on the way home to check there. Mia and I scoured the candy aisles, but there was no candy corn. As we were leaving I told her that it was okay. I said that I would have to find a recipe that didn't use candy corn. I told Mia, "I'll have to Google it." Mia laughed and said, "That's funny!" Haha! It had started to rain, but I made one final attempt by running in to Family Dollar. I dug through an entire shopping cart full of leftover Halloween candy and decorations but came up empty-handed. I was really disappointed. I decided that I would have to figure something else out.

Then, at work today, one of my coworkers asked me if I wanted some leftover Halloween candy. I laughed and told her I'd kiss her if that included candy corn. As luck would have it, she had five shopping bags full of...candy corn! What!?! She didn't make me follow through with the kiss offer, but she sent me home with waaaay too much candy corn. Mia was so excited when I told her we were going to make the turkey cookies this evening. At not quite three years old, she doesn't have a very steady hand when it comes to cookie decorating, but she was a big helper with unwrapping all of the candy. She tried to help with the assembly of the cookies but decided that watching tv with her daddy was more interesting after awhile. She said she's going to share them with her class at school tomorrow. She's such a sweet kid.

Baby Words

2011-11-18T18:27:00.000-06:00

As Mia is getting older, her vocabulary is growing at an amazing rate. There are some words that she used to pronounce incorrectly, but even those cute baby words are being replaced by their proper pronunciations. Most of the time I don't even correct her because those "baby words" are disappearing as my baby becomes more of a big girl. I guess I'm still clinging to the baby days even though I love watching her learn and grow. One of the biggies is that Mia now says Rapunzel instead of Perunzal. However, she still calls earrings "ingers". The remote control is a "merope", and her pink harmonica is a "wonta". My sweet baby :)

Last Sunday we went to the Dallas Zoo. Mia has been there at least five times before, but she always enjoys it. As usual, she wasn't ready to leave when we headed to the car. Every fall we have to get a picture on the rock by the meerkats, so we made sure to take that, too.

Pointing to...

...the elephants!

I think it kind of freaked her out when the cheetah walked right by the window.

6 Years and One Little Turkey Later...

2011-11-10T20:43:00.000-06:00

Wes and I celebrated our six year anniversary last weekend. I still remember our wedding so clearly, and yet, so much has happened in the last six years. We've moved a couple of times, bought a house, and had a baby. We went to a movie together which is rare for us. I laughed when I realized that we hadn't been to a movie together since our anniversary last year. We had a good time. Mia had lots of fun with the babysitter and her daughter. Mia was worn out after they left. She was eating some popcorn on the couch and got really quiet. I looked over, and she was falling asleep while still holding the bowl.

Mia has been saying some funny things lately. She wasn't paying attention to what I was telling her the other day. I told her, "You need to listen to me. Do you know why?" She said, "Because you're the boss, right?" She always knows how to make me laugh when I'm trying to be serious. She's been learning the song Pop Goes the Weasel at daycare. Mia's version is Pop the Wizzle. It cracks us up!

Today was the Thanksgiving program at daycare. Afterwards, there was a Thanksgiving lunch for all of the families. Mia enjoyed getting to see us in the middle of the day. Seeing her sweet face is a great way to break up the work day for me, too!

Eating a pumpkin chocolate chip muffin, my favorite fall food. See the gorgeous roses Wes had waiting for me when I got home on Friday?

I asked her what was wrong when she made this face. She said, "I'm happy!" Could've fooled me. She looks like she's about to let somebody have it.

Wordless Wednesday: Giraffe Dress Up

2011-11-09T06:55:00.000-06:00

Vintage Mia at Halloween

2011-10-28T20:39:00.000-05:00

An old picture from Wesley's phone of my baby girl trying on hats at Halloween at Hobby Lobby.

Madeline

2011-10-28T20:31:00.000-05:00

Wednesday night was Trunk or Treat at the church where Mia goes to daycare. Wes had to work overtime, so he couldn't go with us. I decided not to hand out candy from our trunk because it seemed like asking for trouble since I knew Mia would be running around. Instead Mia and I hung out with friends and helped pass out candy at their car. Mia was all business about handing out the candy. She was really focused on making sure each kid got a piece as they came by. However, her attention did stray at times. It's always the most fun to play with friends, and Mia kept going to see what her friend, Reese, was up to. They are in the same class, and I doubt they can even remember life before they met each other. They've been in daycare together since they were infants. They were funny because they both kept getting candy from Reese's dad and wanting Holly (Reese's mom) and I to open them. I finally had to cut Mia off. Her teeth will thank me later!

The clue for Mia's Halloween costume was a madeleine. It is a French dessert that is basically a small sponge cake-like treat that is baked in a pan with shell-shaped molds. Thus, Mia's costume was Madeline. Mia loves to watch the cartoon on Netflix. It is based on the Madeline children's books by Ludwig Bemelmans. The very first Madeline book came out in 1939! Madeline is a little girl who lives in a boarding house in Paris with several other girls. She's very outgoing and gets into lots of adventures. It's nostalgic to watch it with Mia and become reaquainted with Madeline, Miss Clavel, and the other girls. I love hearing the first line of each episode "In an old house in Paris that was covered in vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines ...". Ah memories...Mia was an adorable Madeline, but it was difficult to keep the hat on her head. The daycare is having pumpkin parties on Monday, so she'll get to wear it one more time.

Hijinx at the Mouse House

2011-10-27T21:42:00.000-05:00

First thing on Saturday, we went to Southern Maid for some breakfast. Mia insisted on wearing her purple tutu. When we got there, she requesting her Southern Maid "usual", a pink glazed donut with a Capri Sun. She also asked for a donut with "sparkles" (sprinkles). Thankfully, they had some chocolate glazed donut holes with sprinkles, so we got her one. She'd have a gigantic stomach ache if she ate two whole donuts.

Mia had her first trip to Chuck E. Cheese later that afternoon. Her friend from daycare was having a birthday party there. One of the first things she wanted to do was climb up into the tunnels that were up at the level of the ceiling. To get there, there were a series of ledges that she had to climb up. They were almost too tall for her. Rather than go down the slide, she decided to come back down the ledges. Somehow, she got situated so that she was stuck dangling one hand from the ledge above and hanging onto the one below. She started squealing, "I'm stuck! Help!" really loud. It was loud in there, so nobody else was really paying attention. Praying that no one would see me, it was Mommy to the rescue. I slithered through the low opening and weaved my way up three levels before I could reach her. Little stinker! Haha! Wes said that nobody saw me do that, but he may have just wanted to spare me embarrassment. Oh well, that's what moms do, right? At one point, Chuck E. Cheese came out and started walking toward Mia. Her smile turned to a frown as she backed away saying, "Noooo! No!" She was fine, though, as long as Chuck E. kept his distance. She was happy to smile and wave at him from afar. I told my mom about it later, and she told Preston. Pa Pa said, "What do you expect? It's a big rat!" He has a point. I hadn't thought of it that way. Hehe! Mia loved the games. She wasn't sure how to play them, but they had some simple ones for the little kids. She liked putting in her tokens and getting the tickets. Before we left, she used her tickets to get a mini box of pink Nerds candy and a small purple fish. She loved it!

On Sunday, Mia worked on her swing. She talks about baseball a lot ever since we took her to see the Rangers. I found this set at a consignment shop for just a few bucks. It looks brand new. Can't beat that. Consignment shops can be hit or miss, but sometimes they have great finds.

Walking to the donut shop

Gotta eat the "sparkles" first

She was too short to reach the pedal, so Daddy helped out.

Wordless Wednesday: Mia's Halloween Costume Clue

2011-10-26T07:39:00.000-05:00

Wordless Wednesday: October Cuteness

2011-10-19T17:48:00.000-05:00

Pumpkin Patch '11

2011-10-15T14:07:00.000-05:00

Today we went to the pumpkin patch for some autumn fun. Mia was really excited about the pony rides. She wanted to do that first. She liked it at first, but it's a good thing the ride was short. She wanted to get off pretty quickly. A snow cone, some games, and a petting zoo later we headed home to take a nap. Mia even got her first (temporary) tattoo. It was nice to be outside milling around in the pumpkins.

She's so little that her foot came nowhere near the stirrup!

Mia chose a butterfly for her tattoo.

Halloween Spirit

2011-10-14T22:18:00.000-05:00

Mia picked out a pumpkin last weekend, so tonight we decided to carve it. I bought her some Disney princess stencils to choose from. She wanted Princess Aurora. It turned out that our pumpkin wasn't tall enough to accommodate her long hair, so she went with Snow White. She helped Wesley scoop out the insides with her little pink scoop. Each time one of the pumpkin seeds got stuck to her hand, she wanted it off immediately. It was too slimy I guess. It's been a couple of years since I've used a stencil on a pumpkin, and I'd forgotten how time consuming it is. In the end, I like how it turned out. Mia was so sweet when we put the candle in it. She said, "It's Snow White! Oh, thank you! Thank you!" I'm glad she liked it, but next time we might do a simpler design.

Tried to get a better pic of Snow White, but it's really red.

Choo Choo Rain

2011-10-10T21:00:00.000-05:00

Wesley took Mia on her first real train ride last weekend. I had to work, but the two of them took the train from Ft. Worth to Oklahoma City to visit his mom. It was strange to be home by myself for a few days. It was way too quiet. Wesley sent me some pictures while they were gone. I missed both of them like crazy.

Watching a movie on the way to OKC

Mia and Rapunzel

Chowing down at Chick-fil-a

Fun at the OKC Zoo

Jack-o-lantern masterpieces

Train ride home

When Mia got off of the train and saw me, she shrieked, "Mommy!" and ran at me full speed. I sure did miss them. I asked her if she liked riding the train. She said, "Yes, I ride the choo choo rain! I said 'All aboard'!" Haha! I guess she remembered that from the circus train on Dumbo. Mia was really clingy for the next couple of days. She's never been away from me for that long. She had a really fun trip and enjoyed visiting with her Nana!

We baked cookies when she got home. She loves licking the mixers.

Papaw's 50th Bday

2011-10-03T17:23:00.000-05:00

My dad turned 50 years old on Friday. Fifty just doesn't seem as old to me now as it did as a kid. It's the new forty, right? Mia and I went to Dad's party on Saturday. It was also a surprise 40th birthday party for my Aunt Valerie even though she wasn't too surprised. It was an awesome day. Any time that I get to spend with my family gets an "awesome" rating, so it's to be expected. I don't get to see my brother very often because he works away from home a lot. He was there with my SIL Shawnna and my adorable nephew, Connor. That little Connor is cuteness personified. I'm so glad we got to see them. Mia had a blast. She wanted to get in the swimming pool so bad and couldn't understand why we hadn't brought her bathing suit. The swimming season is over for the year for us. The weather is amazing right now, just as autumn should be. I'm so excited for pumpkins and football and all of the great things that go along with fall.

Zoey was so excited to see Mia. The girls kept hugging each other over and over.

These two were having so much fun that they refused to go to bed on Friday night. Here they are at 10:30, and they're wide awake!

It's hard to get three little ones to all look at the camera at the same time. Here's Rachel and Zoey, my Mamaw (just turned 91 in July!), Mia and I, Tyler and Connor, and my dad

A certain someone decided she wanted to go head-first down the slide.

Sweet cousins

A Little of This and That

2011-09-29T21:26:00.001-05:00

Mia has discovered that Netflix is on the computer. She has a growing interest in the show Madeline. That show is super old. I remember watching it when I was really little. The great cartoons are good at any age.

A friend asked to borrow Mia's baby swing for her brand new baby boy (who is super cute!). Mia saw it sitting in our living room and wanted to swing in it so bad. She is always being told that she is too little to do things, so it's almost like she doesn't believe us when we tell her she's too big for something. I'm glad that thing has a pretty decent weight limit. I doubt that they intended for 2 1/2 year olds to use it.

Mia has been wanting to wear her princess crown the last few days. I caught her sitting on the sofa with Ann and watching Dumbo while wearing her crown and necklaces. Such a princess!

Little Songbird

2011-09-28T21:16:00.000-05:00

Mia wanted me to record her singing some songs this evening. That's unusual because I typically have to talk her into it.

First on tonight's program is Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Next, she wanted to show how good she's getting at her ABCs.

And finished up with her rendition of Itsy Bitsy Spider

Lunchbox Yumminess

2011-09-26T21:05:00.000-05:00

I love the Easy Lunchboxes I got for Mia. It makes putting her lunch together so much easier. I don't have to wonder if all of her lunch containers will make it home (since I usually send three or four small ones). I think it's helped me to be a better judge of portion size for her as well.

Chicken nuggets, rice cakes, graham cookies, corn, and strawberries

Mac and cheese, pretzels to dip in hummus, blueberries, and grapes

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cereal bar, veggie crisps, and grapes

Leftover spaghetti, green beans, yogurt, peanut butter crackers, and apple slices

Ham and cheese croissant, rice cakes, trail mix, carrots, blueberries, and watermelon

Of course, Mia would be just as happy eating straight from the box...

Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jack

2011-09-24T22:25:00.000-05:00

Mia went to her first Major League baseball game last night. We went over to Arlington to see the Texas Rangers take on the Seattle Mariners. Wesley, Darvey, and I took turns holding her throughout the game since she doesn't like to stay still. She had so much fun! She kept squealing and giggling. Very early on in the game, Adrian Beltre hit a home run. When Mia saw the rest of us get excited, she got really excited, too. Her favorite part was the home run fireworks. A little while later when one of the Rangers was getting ready to bat, I said to Mia "Okay, let's see if he hits it." She replied, "Maybe the fireworks will go!" We had a nutritious dinner of popcorn and cheese fries. When you're at the ballpark, you gotta eat ballpark food. We had grilled chicken for dinner tonight, so it all evens out, right? Mia was in a good mood for the whole game except when Craig Gentry hit an in the park home run. Everyone stood up and started shrieking when they realized he was going to make it home. It scared Mia, and she started crying. When things quieted down a little bit, she was fine. She wanted to know all of the ball players' names. She would point to different ones and ask what his name was. One time she said, "What's his name? The one in the circle?" I laughed and told her that was the pitcher. She cheered and clapped a lot. Today, she asked if we could go to the ball game again. I'm glad that she enjoyed it so much.

Clapping excitedly when Josh Hamilton hit a home run

She sure does love her Uncle Darvey

Out for a Walk

2011-09-15T19:37:00.002-05:00

The weather is so beautiful today that we took a walk after dinner. Before we left, Mia ran into her room and came back with her bathing suit. She really wanted to wear it, so I let her. She also had an arm load of toys to take, but I talked her down to just taking one baby doll. It's really starting to feel like autumn!

Mia had a pretty good fall at daycare yesterday. They called me to say that she had been twirling in her classroom (she does that a lot - ballerina craze) when she tripped and fell. She cut the corner of her mouth, scratched her cheek, and got a gash in her chin. The daycare asked me to come by and look at it. They didn't think she needed stitches, but they wanted me to make that decision. I'm very thankful that I now work only five minutes from Mia's daycare. I went by and decided she just needed some of the liquid bandaid. She wasn't happy that it stung when I put it on, but I had some M&M's at the ready. She felt better in no time. She hasn't complained of it hurting. I think it'll heal up just fine. Hence, the HK bandaid on her chin.

Mia started getting tired, so Wes carried her for a little bit. She gets heavy after awhile, so he put her down and told her she needed to walk part of the way home (it really wasn't very far). She then put her baby doll on the ground. She told her that she was too heavy and needed to walk. Haha! I convinced her that she had to carry the baby doll home because her doll didn't have any shoes on. She said okay because she didn't want the doll's feet to get dirty!

Zoo with Zoey

2011-09-14T21:07:00.001-05:00

Mimi and Nanny wanted to take Zoey and Mia to the Dallas Zoo this weekend, so we loaded up and went. It was Z's first trip to the zoo. We went to the children's zoo first. It was really something. There was a stream in the center of the children's zoo that the kids can play in. Mia took off her shoes and went right in. Half of her was soaked in no time. Mimi also walked in it with Zoey. Both girls really enjoyed it. Next, they each went on a pony ride. It was a first for both of them, and they seemed to really like it. Mia fed some fish and wanted to go in to pet the goats. She was having fun until she realized that she was stepping on goat poop. The novelty immediately wore off, and she was ready to move on. We all had a little lunch and then went to check out some of the more exotic animals. Mia loved it as always and had plenty to comment on. I think Z liked it. She kept gasping and pointing at the animals. I loved how excited she got when she saw something new. Mia capped off the afternoon with a couple of turns on the carousel while Zoey slept in her stroller. It was a little warm that day, but we loved spending it with family!

Wordless Wednesday: Story time with Nanny

2011-09-14T20:32:00.000-05:00

Cooler Temps...Finally!

2011-09-05T10:42:00.003-05:00

On Saturday, we took Mia over to east Dallas to check out a used bookstore we haven't been to before. We don't usually buy books new unless we see something we don't want to wait to find second-hand. Half Price Books is usually our go-to bookstore, but you never know what gems you'll find at the small local bookstores. This place had so many books that it was overwhelming. I found a book that has been on my reading list for half price, and I got Mia some basically brand new Dr. Seuss books. Six books for about $25. Love it! I saw the same books at Wal-Mart for $9 a piece...uh, no thanks. Mia loves to look at books. We read to her all of the time. If we aren't available, she'll just start reading them to herself and making up a story to go along with the pictures. Last night I read her five stories at bedtime. My voice was starting to get a little hoarse by the fifth book.

After the bookstore, we drove to downtown Dallas to the Main Street Garden park. They have a small fountain area that you can walk through if you want. The park is free, and it was HOT outside (still over 100 degrees), so we put on Mia's bathing suit and let her run around. She had fun, but we never could get her to run all of the way through the fountain.

Today, the weather has been heavenly! Mia and I took a walk this morning, and it's only 70 degrees outside with a cool breeze! We had a great walk with Mia calling, "Hi!" and "Good morning!" to everyone we saw. She thought she had to pick up all of the neat things she came across. By the time we got home, we had five pecans, two sticks, a leaf, and an acorn. Mia said that the acorn looked like a cupcake.

Wordless Wednesday: Sunday Fun

2011-08-31T21:31:00.000-05:00

Buddies

2011-08-30T18:20:00.000-05:00

Holly sent me some more pics of Mia and Harper having fun...

Beat the Heat

2011-08-29T21:29:00.001-05:00

Even though soaring temperatures prevailed this weekend, we still had some fun. On Friday, Wesley, Mia, and I went to our friendly neighborhood Mexican burger joint, Burguesa. Talk about tasty. Then, we went and milled around Home Goods for awhile. Sometimes it's just fun to browse.

On Saturday, we met the Hanes family at Jump Zone so that the kids could play. Mia LOVES playing with Harper. She was so excited that morning that she couldn't take a nap. Probably shouldn't have told her about it in advance I guess. Mia's favorite was the giant inflatable slide with an elephant on it. She kept shrieking that Dumbo was on the slide. She was a little too short to climb onto it , so I had to give her a boost each time. Then, she would climb up the rest of the way just fine. After awhile, I noticed Harper trying to give her a boost. Haha! Harper is so sweet to Mia. It's great to watch them because they get along so well.

We had a lazy day on Sunday. Mia's outfit of choice was her ice cream shirt and pink/purple tutu. She loves to spin and say, "I'm a ballerina!!" That evening I told her that she could have some ice cream if she ate her dinner. When she was finished, she asked for ice cream. I told her that I would give her some in a minute when I finished my dinner. She waited a minute and then said, "I want ice cream." Trying to get her to add "please" onto the end I said, "Ice cream...what?" Mia stood up on the dining chair and both clearly and loudly enunciated, "ICE...KA...REAM!" It was difficult not to laugh. I told her that I had heard her just fine but that she needed to remember to say please to which she replied, "Oh! Okay." Silly goose.

Burguesa...yum.

Jump Zone fun

Harper giving Mia a boost

Had to get a pic with the cow at Chick fil A

Spic and Span

2011-08-25T20:28:00.001-05:00

As much as I enjoy sunny summer days, I'm way past done with the heat. We are on our 59th day of 100+ degree heat for the summer (not consecutive days. I think there have only been two days under 100 degrees in the past couple of months). I think it got up to 106 today. That's just miserable heat. It can be dangerous too. We haven't taken Mia to the park in several weeks. Almost all of our activities have been indoors. I think I'm ready for fall. It's my favorite season.

Case in point: Mia eating a chocolate Easter bunny that I had been saving for some reason. This was quite an enjoyable indoor activity!

Yesterday when I went to pick Mia up from school, I asked her how her day had been. She replied, "I wasn't bossy, Mommy!" Mmmhmm. Sure you weren't. I'm glad that she has an outgoing personality, but we have to remind her to ask people for things rather than just telling them what to do. The other evening at dinner, I told her to be still so that she wouldn't knock over her drink. She said, "You need to be nice, Mommy." I said, "I am being nice, but you need to listen." Mia replied, "I'm trying, Mommy! I'm trying!" I'm sure that she does, but her little two-year-old attention span is too short to allow her to dwell on anything very long. Another funny conversation came yesterday. Mia was eating a breakfast quesadilla. For some reason, she was walking around with it. She sat it on the ottoman and walked off. I picked it up and put it back on her plate. When she returned to the living room, she said, "Where's my quesadilla?" I told her that I had put it on the plate. She got a little huffy and said, "I don't believe that you put my quesadilla on the plate! I don't believe it, Mommy!" She meant to say "can't believe it". It was funny, but it warranted a reminder that she needs to remember to speak to people in a nice voice. She's the sweetest little girl, but she's not shy about voicing her opinions.

She and I cleaned her room on Sunday. I wanted to really scrub it good. She helped me carry everything out into the hallway. We wiped down all of her furniture and scrubbed the baseboards and her playmat. Mia loves the cleaning supplies that Mimi and Pa Pa got her for Christmas. I swept the floor, and she swept too with her little broom. I swiffered the floor, and she swiffered too. She still likes to scrub the hardwood floors with a baby wipe, so that kept her entertained for awhile. We put all of her toys back in her room, and I went into the kitchen. A few minutes later, I went to check on her, and she was taking all of her things out of her room again. She said, "Mommy, we have to clean my room again!" Haha! I reminded her that it was clean, and we put her toys away again. An hour later, it was the same thing. I came around the corner, and her floor cushions were lined up in the hallway. The girl likes to clean.

Ready to clean again...

and again...

Listening Skills

2011-08-14T19:47:00.001-05:00

Mia and I both have some changes ahead this week. Tomorrow she is promoting to the next class at daycare. This new class is down the hallway where the "big kid" classes are. As usual, her friends will be promoting up too, so she'll still be with kids she knows. New classes are usually no big deal to her. One thing I'm excited about are the Easy Lunchboxes I ordered. It seems like I always send three or four small containers to daycare to hold her lunch and snacks. These new containers have compartments, so I can separate things if needed. I hope that I'll be able to plan her lunches better and maybe get some new ideas of foods to send with her.

My changes this week are about moving as well. I've been transferred to a hospital that is right by our house. It's the hospital where Mia was born, and it's only five minutes away. I love the clinic I've been at for the last (almost) five years, but I guess nothing can stay the same forever. Change can be good. I'm excited about learning new things and getting to know people better. I'm very happy to be closer to Mia's daycare. If she needs me, I'm literally down the street. I think this change will impact our family in a positive way, so I'm ready for it.

We've been having talks with Mia lately about listening. Too many times we try to tell her not to do something, and she flashes that adorable grin at us. It's hard not to smile back. The other day, Mia took half of the clothes in her closet off of the hangers, and made two piles in the floor: one of hangers, and one of clothes (not to mention the fact that she had made a total mess of her room in general). When I walked in her room, I started to tell her she shouldn't do that, but then I busted out laughing. She helped me put them back on the hangers, and we talked about how she is not allowed to do that. A couple of days later, she did it again. I was more stern this time when I talked to her. Yesterday, she did it again, so she had to sit on her bed in time out while I put all of the clothes away myself. She cried and sniffled and wailed like it was the end of the world. I know that time out doesn't work for all children, but Mia hates it. It's usually effective. I don't expect to have any more problems with her throwing clothes in the floor.

This pic is from the first day when it was actually funny.

Yesterday, Mia decided to climb up on the dining room table to play with her toys. I told her that we don't sit on the table because that's where we eat. She ignored me at first and pretended to talk on her cell phone. This was another instance where I had to have a talk with my strong-willed girl about listening.

Today we tried to go outside and play, but it's still too hot. After ten minutes, Mia said, "Mommy, I'm done." I was, too. I do better when it's in the 80s outside. We played inside instead. We did the usual: reading books, playing with toys, watching a movie. Mia likes to play with these stackable cups. She's always really proud of herself when she's finished. She says, "Look! I made a tower! It's like Perunzal's tower!"

Wordless Wednesday: "I'm Sitting Like Mommy"

2011-08-10T20:36:00.000-05:00

Interview with Mia

2011-08-02T20:47:00.000-05:00

I saw an interview like this on another blog, and I thought I'd like to try it with Mia. Here are the results:

1. What is your name? Mia McGee

2. How old are you? Two! (She said this while holding up two fingers.)

3. What is your favorite color? Blue (I think a more accurate answer would be pink, though.)

4. Who is your best friend? Cati (friend from daycare)

5. What is your favorite animal? Horsey

6. What is your favorite movie? Princess Ora (Aurora from Sleeping Beauty)

7. What makes you happy? Dumbo

8. What makes you sad? Dumbo

9. What is your favorite book? Pinkalicious

10. What is your favorite food? Chicken (If I asked this 20 times, I'd get 20 different answers.)

11. What is your favorite song? Twinkle (Mia's shorthand for Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)

12. What is your favorite shape? A triangle

I feel like I should explain the Dumbo answers. When we decided to take Mia to the circus a couple of weeks ago, I thought she should have some idea of what a circus was. We already owned Dumbo on DVD, but she'd never seen it. I sat down to watch it with her one day, and she was really excited because I told her that it was about one of her favorite animals-an elephant. She was enjoying the movie up until the part where Dumbo's mommy got locked up. They were singing the Baby Mine song, Dumbo was crying, and his mommy was rocking him with her trunk. Mia turned to look at me and burst into tears! She was SO upset. We had to stop the movie. When she was able to talk again, she sniffed, "I want to watch Mickey. It will make me happy." Poor, sensitive girl. We had a talk about how Dumbo would be happy soon, so after a little Mickey, we turned Dumbo back on. She finished watching it, and decided that she liked it. Since then, she has watched it about a dozen times. Maybe she's making sure that Dumbo ends up happy every time!

Wanted to sleep with her circus elephant!

Under the Big Top

2011-08-01T19:36:00.000-05:00

Barnum & Bailey AND Ringling Bros. came to Dallas with one big circus. I thought Mia would enjoy it because she loves animals. Wesley got a discount on tickets through the city he works for, so we decided to go. I felt sure that she would love it, but Wes was worried that she would have a meltdown because the show we chose was right around naptime. In reality, her reaction was somewhere in between, although I feel sure that she enjoyed it. The tigers and elephants were fun to watch, but there just weren't as many animals as I thought there would be. I was feeling pretty confident in Mia's potty training abilities, so I decided to take her out in public for the first time without a Pull-Up. She did great, but we had to go to the bathroom four times while we were at the circus. Mia loves elephants due to her current Dumbo craze, so of course her keepsake from the circus had to be a pachyderm. Side note: Mia took her first escalator ride (well, the first one that she wasn't carried on). I love documenting "firsts", so I wanted to put that one on here.

Pointing to the elephants-her fave

This elephant was carrying a dog in a basket

I guess you can't have a circus in Texas without a longhorn cow and a couple of goats.

We barely got a few blocks and she was out!

Pinkalicious Faces

2011-07-27T20:48:00.003-05:00

One of Mia's favorite books is Pinkalicious by Victoria and Elizabeth Kann. We read it ALL the time. In the story, a little girl named Pinkalicious loves the color pink. She eats too many pink cupcakes and her whole body turns pink. Her doctor tells her mother that Pinkalicious has an acute case of pinkititis. The only cure is a steady diet of green vegetables. It's a really cute story. Last night, Wesley was pointing to each page and asking Mia to make the same face as Pinkalicious. It was pretty hilarious.

Mia has gotten so good at potty training that half of the time she doesn't even tell us that she has to go. She just goes in the bathroom, gets her stool and potty seat in place, and does her business. Only then does she yell at us to let us know that she had a potty victory. She still hasn't had any accidents, but I don't expect her to be perfect. She's amazing me with how well she's doing. In one week, she's basically become potty trained (not counting when she sleeps).

Mia fell out of her big girl bed the night before last. In the middle of the night, I woke up to hear her talking over the baby monitor. She sounded annoyed like she was scolding something. Then, it got quiet again, so I went back to sleep. When I went to get her out of bed in the morning, the first thing she said was, "I got a owie on my nose!" I asked her what happened and she said, "I hit it on my big girl bed." When I asked her where, she pointed to the board that's attached to the front of the bed. I realized then why I had heard her over the monitor. During the night, she fell out of her bed onto the cushions in the floor, but she hit her nose on the bed in the process. Instead of crying, she just got ticked off, scolded the bed, and climbed back in. Haha! This morning she was asleep on one of the floor cushions when I went into her room. I guess she fell out and just kept sleeping. As long as she's okay with it, I am too.

For anyone with little girls who love this book, there is a great website for Pinkalicious. Under the "Fun and Games" section, there is a game called the Cupcake Sprinkle Game where you can build your own virtual cupcake. Mia loves it. I couldn't find illustrations from Pinkalicious online, so I just took pictures of the pages with my camera.

Wordless Wednesday: Pretend Brain Freeze

2011-07-27T19:52:00.000-05:00

Big Girl Bed

2011-07-24T10:11:00.000-05:00

Wesley converted Mia's crib to a toddler bed yesterday. I'd been wanting to do that for awhile, but I was afraid of struggling with keeping her in there at nap time. Last night was her first night to sleep in it, and she did great! We put cushions on the floor beside the bed just in case, but she didn't fall out. She's been really excited about it. She keeps climbing up there with books and toys just to sit and play. We'll see how nap time goes!

We've also been potty training. Mia has a little potty that she has used a few times, but it wasn't very consistent. Last week, I started sending her to daycare without a Pull-Up. The big girl panties have been a great incentive. She gets to choose Minnie Mouse, Cinderella, etc., and she absolutely doesn't want to get them wet. However, I noticed that they have those little seats on the toilets at daycare. I decided to get one to see if she likes it better. No accidents in the last three days! I guess that's what she needed. I've been really proud of her. Honestly, I thought it would take a lot longer to get to the point of few to no accidents. She's doing really well.

Chocolate handle bar mustache. Lovin' ice cream on hot days!

Hanging out in her big girl bed

Ready for bed

A Sunday in Photos

2011-07-18T20:47:00.000-05:00

Daddy had to work on Sunday, so Mia and I:

Played with the puppet she made at daycare

Played with her pony bubble blower

Looked for butterflies for her to catch but couldn't find any.

Ate a cupcake that she just HAD TO HAVE from the Target bakery when we got groceries.

Loved it so much that she licked icing off of her leg. Didn't want to waste it!

Mia's Birth Story- Part 3

2011-07-17T18:04:00.001-05:00

By 2:00 pm, it had been twelve hours since my water had broken. I had continued to dilate each time the doctor checked me, so she let me continue labor on my own. The last time she checked, I was at 6cm. The pain was fairly strong with each contraction but certainly something that I could handle. At the 2:00 check, she said I was still at 6cm. She reminded me that they want mothers to deliver within 24 hours of their water breaking. I was at the halfway mark (12 hours), and the doctor didn’t want anything to slow down the progress of labor. She told me that we should start pitocin to keep things moving along. This was disappointing to me because this meant drugs. I had been hoping for no drugs, but I wasn’t naïve enough to think that they wouldn’t be needed.

I knew from my favorite pregnancy book, What to Expect When You’re Expecting, that pitocin use goes hand in hand with intense, painful contractions. My pain was high enough at this point in natural labor that I decided to accept IV pain meds at the same time as they started the pitocin. IV meds were supposed to be a very light dose of medication that would wear off fairly soon. I thought it might help. Two things seemed to happen almost simultaneously. First, the nurse told me as she gave me the IV pain meds that it might make me a little sleepy. Instead, I felt like I went on a full blown acid trip. I’ve never done drugs, but I think it might be like that. I couldn’t focus on anything that was being said. Words came out of my mouth that were not the thoughts I had in my head. I felt like I was possessed. I can say with much assurance that I will skip straight to the epidural next time before I let them get anywhere near me with those meds. The second thing that happened was the onset of back labor. If you’ve never felt it, just imagine someone shoving their fist in your back and ripping out your spine. I can honestly say that that feels like an accurate description. One of the differences between back labor and natural labor is that there is no chance to catch your breath in between contractions. The contractions continue in their regular rhythm, but I didn’t feel them much. I just felt the worst pain in my life in my lower back. Nothing could ease it. All I wanted was a second, just one single second to catch my breath, but it didn’t happen.

The nurse came to ask if I wanted an epidural. Wesley started to tell her that I had told him that I wanted to wait as long as possible. I just remember saying, “I want it! I want it!” So, they gave me an epidural. It was heaven. Pure heaven. I felt so much better. The pain didn’t go away entirely. I’d say it was knocked down over 50%, though. Ah yes, a much more manageable level. My labor continued to progress once the epidural was in place. The epidural only worked on one side of my body, so there was still a certain level of pain. Finally, I made it to 10 cm dilated. About 18 hours after my water broke, it was time to start pushing. At this point, they usually only allow one person to be in the room with the mother. Once again, the nurse said that she didn’t mind if I wanted extra people in the room. Dad, Preston, and Darvey disappeared. Mom, Carol Ann, and Bev were still in the room. The nurse asked me who I wanted to stay. I mumbled, “I don’t care.” She then looked at Wesley and said, “What did she say that she wanted before you guys got to the hospital?” Wesley started to answer her saying, “Well, she said she wanted me and her mom-“ I interrupted him by saying even louder, “I. Don’t. Care!” That settled that and all three of them stayed. It didn’t matter to me. All three of them are mothers. They knew the drill. The doctor let the epidural run out so that I could feel to push. Unfortunately, this meant that the back labor cranked up several notches. It was severe enough that I couldn’t push. I heard one of the nurses whisper to another nurse, “I’ve never seen back labor that bad.” Great. That’s exactly what you want to hear from a labor and delivery nurse.

I was so exhausted at that point that I couldn’t do much of anything, so Dr. Patton called down for another pack of medicine for the epidural. She didn’t think I’d be able to push without it. She was right. After two hours of pushing, Dr. Patton said that we might need to do a C-section. It was getting to be pretty late. I was worried that if we went to the OR, Mia wouldn’t be born on Tyler’s birthday. I asked the doctor if it would be safe to continue pushing and try to get Mia out myself. She said I could try but warned me that if the baby didn’t come out soon, we would be headed to the OR. I continued to push. I barely heard what anyone else was saying to me. I just kept talking to the baby in my belly saying, “Come on baby girl! We can do this!” When Mia’s head came into view, the doctor used the vacuum to help her out. There was a NICU team waiting for my baby so that they could check her out since the vacuum was needed. As soon as she came out, she was carried to the other side of the room.

As Dr. Patton was stitching up some minor tearing I’d had, it was hard for me to lie there patiently. The NICU team had whisked Mia across the room to look her over. I kept raising up on my elbows to try to see around Dr. Patton. When she was finished with me and Mia got the okay from the NICU doctors, my little baby girl was placed in my arms.

How do you describe such a moment? I’d dreamed of it my whole life. She was perfect. She looked up at me, and the whole world shifted. I would never be able to look at anything the same again. This little blessing was given to us. To Wesley and I. How could we ever live up to such a privilege? I already loved her before she was born, but to see her for the first time was to give away a piece of my heart. She’ll always have it just like her daddy does.

Mia and I the day after she was born

Mia's Birth Story- Part 2

2011-07-17T17:57:00.000-05:00

Once we arrived and made it to the maternity floor, one of the nurses wanted to check to see if the fluid was actually my amniotic fluid. I was puzzled by this and told her that I had taken a shower before coming in, so there was nothing for her to see. She informed me that you aren’t supposed to shower after your water breaks. It’s another risk of infection. Oops, my bad. Nobody had told me that before. How was I supposed to know?

They admitted me, and we were taken to our room. It was the room that I would be in until I became a mommy. That was a heavy realization. The room was huge and had an amazing view. We were several stories up in a corner room. It faced north with a fantastic view of downtown. It was around 6:30 a.m., and the city was just waking up. For a lot of people it would be a nice, relaxing Sunday. For me…not so much. It was comforting to look out the window and see Fountain Place which is my favorite building in the Dallas skyline.

I had a pretty good idea of how I hoped to cope with the pain of labor. I had heard that walking was good to get labor going and that taking a shower could help with the pain. My room was equipped with a shower, so I felt that we were good to go. I was super excited that there was a rocking chair to sit in during contractions. The nurse came in to hook me up to the monitors and get me changed into a gown. I asked her about walking in the hallway when the contractions got going. She said that mothers aren’t supposed to walk the halls after their water breaks. Geez, what else is there that I can’t do after my water is broken? Apparently, the list kept growing. My next question was about showering during labor. Again, I was told no. I guess I should have figured that one out on my own since I had just been told that showering at home was a no-no. Okay, fine, I can live with all of that. Then, she said that I couldn’t use the toilet either. I’m sorry? I beg your pardon? Then how, pray tell, do I answer nature’s calls until the baby arrives? Enter my new best friend: the bed pan. Great, just great… I guess they’re worried about babies being born in the toilet or something. Alright, can I sit in the rocking chair…no…(sigh). She was killing me, just killing me. Apparently, they don’t want you to leave the bed after your water breaks. That’s what she said. I guess she felt bad that I was so disappointed because she spoke with the doctor. She came back and told me that I could sit in the rocking chair whenever I wanted. It was only two steps from the bed, but at least I could get up. I don’t want to make them sound too strict. They only had my best interest and the baby’s best interest at heart. I appreciated them for that, but I was very grateful that they could be a little flexible.

My friend, Jill, and her boyfriend, Greg, came to hang out with Wesley and I that morning. None of our family had arrived yet, and we had a good time with them. I was doing well and progressing each time the doctor came to check me. Around lunchtime I was starving. We took our labor and childbirth classes at Methodist’s sister hospital, Charlton, and the nurse there told us that we could have popsicles during labor. I was pretty pumped up about that. Who doesn’t like popsicles? I asked my nurse if I could have one because I knew that I wasn’t allowed to eat anything else. She said that it was their policy for laboring mothers to have nothing to eat but ice chips. I know that my face fell. I mean, come on! I’m extremely pregnant and haven’t eaten for hours. I was hungry! She smiled at my crestfallen expression and said it wouldn’t hurt to ask the doctor. She came back with a double cherry popsicle for me. Jackpot! Whoa, whoa, whoa there…If we aren’t allowed to eat anything, where did the popsicle come from? You know what? I could have cared less. Still, it’s an interesting question.

I was really happy about how I was dealing with the pain of contractions. They started out very mild and gradually got stronger as the hours passed. I had never been hurt or in a hospital before, so I had no idea how my pain tolerance would be. I wasn’t trying to be a stud or anything, but I wanted to hold out on pain meds as long as possible. I was trying to breathe through each contraction. Jill was there to try and distract me, and Wesley kept making me laugh to take my mind off of it. I spent most of that time in the rocking chair. That thing was awesome. Everybody started showing up- Mom, Preston, Darvey, Carol Ann, Dad, and Bev. My perception of time was a bit skewed, so I’m not sure who showed up when, but the room was pretty full. My room was at least twice as large as a regular hospital room. Maybe bigger than that, but even so there were a lot of us. My rock star of a nurse was great, though. Even though the hospital policy called for only two people to be in the room at a time, she said it was fine with her. She told them that as long as they didn’t get too loud or interfere with the nurses’ work that it was no problem. We aren’t a rowdy crowd, so everything was cool.

Reading at Barnes and Noble yesterday. Neither Wesley nor I found a book, but Mia ended up getting four books!

Mia's Birth Story- Part 1

2011-07-17T17:49:00.000-05:00

After linking up with Kelly's Korner yesterday about when we revealed to our parents that we were pregnant with Mia, I decided that it's about time that I put Mia's birth story on here. I wasn’t blogging when Wesley first started this blog. Wesley was in charge of it throughout my pregnancy with Mia because I barely knew what a blog was. I was reading through those old blog posts, and it made me want to write down everything I can remember from Mia’s birth. I know that over time I will forget a lot of the details. It was such a huge event in our lives, and I don’t want to forget. Plus, I’d like to get the blog printed into book form someday, and I think this would be a nice addition to it. I'll just have to put it on several different posts since it's kind of long.

Let’s see…my original due date from Dr. Larue was set for February 1^st, 2009. I was surprised by that because I thought Mia would be a January baby. I didn’t care, though. I was just super excited to meet her. January 24^th was a Saturday and also my company’s Christmas party. Yes, it was a month late, but that’s another story. I had every intention of going. Even though I was almost 39 weeks pregnant, I had bought a new outfit and was planning to be there. Some people talk about having a burst of energy before giving birth, but for me it was the opposite. I became so tired that afternoon that I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until the party was already going. Oh well, forget it. Wesley was working nights, so I sat up in bed for awhile reading after he left for work. I was reading Twilight and really enjoying it. I was getting close to the end, so I decided I would just finish it. I figured that it was Saturday evening, and I would get to sleep in the next morning anyway. I finished the book right at midnight. I was pretty tired, so I decided to tell Amelia goodnight and go to sleep. I knew that she was still awake in her warm little cocoon. She was always head down at every check up so her feet were always stuck up in my ribcage. Every night while I rested my book on my belly and read, she would kick at the book as if to say, “Hey Mommy! Get that thing off of me!” The next day was January 25th which is my brother's birthday. I patted my belly and said to her, “Now, Uncle Tyler’s birthday is tomorrow. I know it’s a few days early, but if you want to make your entrance tomorrow, that would be okay. I’m sure Uncle Tyler wouldn’t mind sharing his birthday with you.” She gave my hand a little kick in response. I turned the light out, rolled onto my side, and immediately went to sleep.

Two hours later, at 2:00am, I sprang out of bed from a dead sleep when there was a huge gush of water. Well, I sprang as well as a hugely pregnant woman can spring. There was zero doubt in my mind that my water had broken. It just kept coming. I guess I thought that I would immediately start feeling contractions like the women in the movies. Honestly, I didn’t feel a thing. That was the weird part. My plan was to stay at home for as long as possible until the pain became too intense. I thought it would be nice to be in my quiet house rather than in a busy hospital. I called Wesley at work because I knew that he would want me to call him immediately. I told him that he didn’t have to rush home. I said that he could finish his shift (til 6:00 am) if he wanted because I wasn’t feeling a thing. We hung up and I went about packing my hospital bag and making sure that the diaper bag was ready. Wesley called me back very shortly and said that he was coming home.

My mom had told me to call her at any hour when I went into labor, so I gave her a ring. My parents live four and a half hours away, so I knew that it would be awhile before anyone would get here. My mom asked me exactly what had happened. When I told her that my water had broken, she said that you’re supposed to go to the hospital very soon after that happens. I was in no hurry, but I called the on call doctor for my ob/gyn’s office to make Mom happy. It turns out my mother was right, as usual. Dr. Patton (the on call doctor that evening) said that it is important to deliver a baby within 24 hours of the water breaking because the fluid level can get too low as well as there is an increased risk of infection. She said to come on in to the hospital. That was a bummer. So much for staying at home as long as possible. I decided I wouldn’t get in any big hurry. I took a shower and put on clean clothes. We stopped by Jack in the Box for some breakfast on the way to the hospital. I savored my bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit and my orange juice. It was about 5:30 am, and I knew that they wouldn’t let me eat once I was admitted to the hospital. Haha, score one for me!

Now look at her, she's trying to text!

The Beginning of Amelia: How we told our parents

2011-07-16T20:45:00.000-05:00

I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner today as part of her Show Us Your Life series. This week's topic caught my attention because it's about how you told your spouse and/or family that you were pregnant. For me, that all occurred about three years ago. In June of 2008, I went on vacation with some college friends to Las Vegas. We all live in separate states, so we try to get together in the same spot once in awhile. During the vacation, I felt a little ill, but I attributed it to the dry desert air as well as the fact that we were on the go all day, every day. We spent most of the time in Vegas, but my friend Jill and I took a day trip to the Grand Canyon one day. We were just too close to not go see it. By the time I got home to Dallas, I was worn out. I couldn't seem to shake the fatigue over the next few days. I'd been trying to eat healthier for the past couple of months and had even lost twenty pounds which was great. As I sat down to eat my baby spinach salad one Saturday for lunch, I took one look at it and felt a wave of nausea. I thought that was odd because I had been eating that most days and really liked it. I ended up eating something else and dismissed my odd feelings. I realized that evening that I was a few days late on my cycle. Wesley and I had been trying to get pregnant for the last six months. It's strange that up until that point I hadn't considered that I might actually be pregnant. I took a pregnancy test, and my jaw hit the floor. Holding the test in one hand, I walked into the living room where my husband, Wesley, was watching Leave it to Beaver (it's odd how you remember small details). In a daze, I told him that I just took the test, and it was positive. I think he was stunned as well. Suddenly I said, "We need to go buy more tests!" We drove straight to Tom Thumb. I'm glad that I don't remember how many tests I took in the next 48 hours. I'd probably be embarrassed by the number. Haha! I know that it was at least 3 or 4!

It took a couple of weeks to get in to see my ob/gyn, but when we went to that appointment they confirmed that we were pregnant! As soon as we left the doctor's office, Wesley called his mom and told her about it. We were so excited, but I really wanted to tell my parents in person. We live in Texas and all of our family lives in Oklahoma (most of them near each other because we grew up in the same town). Wesley's family was having a reunion, so we picked that weekend. I had onesies made up for my parents. The one for my dad said "I love Papaw", and Mom's said "I love my Grammy"(Mia later changed her name to Mimi). My parents are divorced (but thankfully get along great), so I lured my Mom out to Dad's on the premise that I needed a ride back to town. When she arrived, I was telling them about my recent Vegas trip and announced that I had souvenirs for them. I gave each one of them a bag. At that point, my parents had no grandkids, but my dad's wife had a granddaughter (Kennedy) that Dad claims as one of his own. She's so adorable! Anyway, Dad opened his bag, saw the onesie, and said, "Oh, I'll have to show this to Kennedy." Right about that time, Mom pulled her's out of the bag and said, "Um, I don't think that's for Kennedy!" My dad seemed a little confused for a second but then it dawned on him as Wesley and I sat on the couch grinning from ear to ear. This was followed by smiles, laughter, and tears of course. I loved being able to pull one over on my parents to give them such a great surprise! Amelia Korynn McGee arrived in January 2009. We love our little Mia and enjoy watching her grow!

Mia-isms

2011-07-11T21:43:00.000-05:00

We had a pretty good weekend around here. At least, that is, until Wesley and I got food poisoning. We were pretty useless yesterday. We just laid around all day. It was awful. Fortunately, Mia didn't eat what made us sick. She felt just fine. I could tell that she was confused by our behavior. Since when do Mommy and Daddy lay around on the couch all day? We told her that we were sick and that our tummies hurt. I had saltines and Powerade close at hand by the couch. Mia would say, "Mommy's sick?" I told her, "Yes, my tummy hurts." She frowned at this and said, "Momma, you want cackers? You want juice?" Then, she would hand me the Powerade and saltines. After I took them, she said, "Okay, Momma. Are you happy?" I told her that yes I was happy, but my tummy still hurt. This seemed to perplex and frustrate her endlessly. After all, when Mommy kisses her boo-boos, they're all better. Why couldn't she fix Mommy and Daddy? I finally just started saying that I felt better and told her she was doing a great job of taking care of us. We both feel fine today, but we won't be going back to that restaurant any time soon.

Wesley and I were laughing the other night about some of the cute things that Mia says, and I wanted to make sure and write them on here. I don't want to forget these little details. For instance, when we decided to stop carrying a diaper bag, I bought Mia a backpack that looks like a monkey. She loves it and calls it her "monkey pack-pack". She also has a butterfly net that she refers to as her "neck" rather than net.

The other night after Splash Day at daycare, I was folding laundry. Mia came into the room and said, "Hey Mommy! You washed my bading soup!" I couldn't figure out what she meant until she walked over and picked up her bikini top on the pile of clothes. Oh right, bathing suit.

Mia stayed home with Wesley on Friday because Darvey, Denise, and Grandma Ella Mae were down for a visit. Wesley said that when he asked Mia what she wanted for lunch, Mia replied, "Umm...a puper sammich!" Wesley knew that she was saying "purple sandwich", but he still didn't know what she was asking for. Later on, we decided she had been asking for a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich. It's the only thing that makes sense.

Mia is starting to ask questions that I'm not sure how to answer. When it's her bedtime, we show her that it's dark outside and tell her that she needs to go to sleep because the sun has gone night-night. The other night she asked me where the sun's covers are. I thought for a second and then told her that the sun uses clouds for covers when it goes night-night. She then asked me, "Where's the door to Sun's room?" Hmmm, this had me stumped for a minute, but then I said, "It's behind the moon." She nodded solemnly in acceptance of this answer, and I was feeling pretty proud of myself. Still curious, Mia asked, "Where is Sun's bedroom?" What? Umm, well...uh..."It's behind the door that's behind the moon." It was a fairly lame response, but I guess she was satisfied. She said, "Okay Mommy!" I was relieved that that was the end of those questions because I was running out of answers. It's funny when I think about it, though. No parent wants to get halfway through a conversation and say, "Oh, I don't know." Haha!

Mia was bored since Mommy and Daddy were too puny to play much. She entertained herself by standing on her toybox and throwing toys in her crib.

Wesley and I laid around so much yesterday that I guess Mia wanted to participate. She made her own pallet in the floor.

Baby, You're a Firework!

2011-07-04T21:59:00.001-05:00

I'm not a big Katy Perry fan, but I actually like the song that I based this blog post title on. It's pretty catchy. On Sunday, we visited with everyone some more. Mia was having too much fun to take a nap. I had planned to let her swim at Dad's again that afternoon, but she fell asleep in my lap at 6:00pm. Ordinarily, I would have tried my best to keep her awake a little while longer and then lay her down for the evening, but she was knocked out. It ended up working out well, because Uncle Darvey invited us to the 4th of July celebration at his church. After Mia had slept for about an hour, I got her up, and my mom went with us over to the church. They had bounce houses, snow cones, etc. I was really impressed that they turned it into a free community event so that anyone who wanted to come could participate. I saw many people that I haven't seen in years which was nice. Rachel brought Zoey too, so we all got to walk around and visit a little bit. Last year, if you remember, Mia was terrified of the fireworks. She liked the lights but was so scared of the loud noises that she buried her head in my chest for a solid two hours without making a peep until it was over. This year was completely different. She just sat next to me on the picnic bench with this awed look on her face. She kept saying, "Wow! That was a big one! It goes pop, pop, pop!!" There were a couple of times that the "pops" got a little loud, and she looked like she was getting scared. She said, "Fire! Don't get me fire!" I told her they were just pretty lights in the sky, and they wouldn't "get" her. She was fine after that. She really liked them and kept talking about it on the way back out to Dad's house. I'm so glad she got to see some "fire cackers" as she called them.

It was fairly warm (Haha! It's July in Oklahoma. Let's face it. It's just plain hot!). Her hair was plastered to her head.

She was pretty amazed at the fireworks.

Blowing bubbles at Papaw and Nana Bev's this morning before we headed home.

Miss Z Turns One!

2011-07-04T21:48:00.000-05:00

Mia and I took a road trip to Heavener on our own this weekend. Wesley had to work, but Zoey's birthday party was Saturday. There's no way we were gonna miss that! Rachel decided to have it out at Dad and Bev's house so that it could be a pool party. That was a fantastic idea. I love to swim. There were a ton of people there. We ate lots of food, and then Zoey got to attack her smash cake. There wasn't too much hesitation. Before we knew it, she was getting fistfuls of hot pink icing and squishing it up in her little fists. She really enjoyed herself!

After cake and presents, some of us went swimming. In the past, Mia has always been hesitant at first when getting into deep water, but then she would warm up to it and enjoy herself. This time she had no problem with it. She was really excited to be in the water. She didn't want me to hold her, but I had to because of her life vest. I didn't end up liking it because it didn't hold her upright. She could float on her back or face down, but that just doesn't work at all. I'm going to go buy her another kind of floatie before our next visit to a pool. I put her (in her life vest) in a floatie ring that was already there at Dad's. That worked really well and gave her the freedom to float on her own somewhat (with me hovering nearby as usual. Hehe!) I'm glad she's learning to have fun in the water.

Here's the birthday girl playing with her favorite thing at the party: balloons!

Mia and Carson (my friend Angela's little boy) getting in on the balloon fun.

Before shot of Zoey's smash cake.

Miss Z is ready for some cake!

Hmmm, what's this?

Oh yeah!

Papaw had to hose her off in the sink!

The smash cake when Zoey was done with it.

Tutu Cute!

2011-07-01T22:18:00.000-05:00

Another of Mia's dress-up loves is her hot pink tutu. She was twirling all over the house in it last night. She kept trying to walk and twirl at the same time, but she kept falling down. It was adorable. She has a book that she got for her birthday called Mia and the Too Big Tutu. She likes to look at "Kitty Cat Mia" and read about how she dances like a ballerina. Maybe ballet classes could be in her future? We'll see if she stays interested in it.

I finished a craft project that I've been meaning to do for awhile. I made Mia a hairbow holder to hang on her wall. We bought the "A" back when she was an infant, and Wesley painted it red. We never hung it on the wall, though. I hot glued some ribbon on it, and there you have it. I like how it turned out, and now I don't have to worry about her bows squishing each other in a drawer.

Pretty Princess

2011-06-26T17:49:00.000-05:00

Mia is sooo in love with princesses. She cycles through watching Tangled, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and (for the first time today) Beauty and the Beast. She doesn't call each movie by its correct name, though. When she wants to watch one, she asks for Perunzal (Rapunzel), Princess Ora (Aurora), Snow White (she gets that one right), or Belle. For her birthday, Mary S. made her some skirts to play dress-up in. She LOVES them. She's calling them her "princess skirts". I love that she's a girly girl. It's great to play dress up, have tea parties, and talk about princesses. I love my sweet girl!

Breakfast Picnic

2011-06-25T20:56:00.000-05:00

Mia has become very interested in picnics. She'll take anything (even a washcloth) and spread it out all nice and neat in the floor. Then she'll say, "Let's have a picnic, Mommy!" It's been pretty hot here, so Wesley suggested that we have a breakfast picnic at the park. It was a great idea. The weather was great, and there weren't that many people. We were even visited by a curious squirrel. I tossed him a donut hole which he snatched and ran off with. Mia did the same thing with her donut when he came back, and he made off with that one too. Wes and Mia played with her giant bubble wand. It was pretty breezy so the huge bubbles were going everywhere. After that, Mia played on the playground for awhile before we went home. Later in the afternoon, we took Mia to Aunt Stelle's for her first snowcone. Aunt Stelle's has been around for a long time, but we heard that this may be their last summer because they're retiring. We had to make sure Mia got to go there. Mia chose strawberry which she loved. Wes got Beatle which was supposed to taste like Sweet Tarts, but he said he didn't see any comparison. My raspberry sno cone was great, or as Mia said, "It's delissus!" (delicious)

Father's Day

2011-06-19T13:15:00.000-05:00

Wesley wanted to take Mia to the Mavs parade downtown on Thursday. The Dallas Mavericks are the 2011 NBA Champions, so they were having their very own parade. Over a quarter of a million people were expected to attend. The city of Dallas urged people to take public transportation because there wouldn't be enough parking for everyone. Wes and Mia were going to ride the DART train into downtown. Unfortunately, even though they went to a few different train stations, the trains were full to capacity and weren't allowing anyone else to get on. Wes was disappointed but decided they would have a fun day, anyway. He and Mia went to the park to play, and he kept her home with him for the rest of the day for some Daddy/daughter time. I'm glad that he likes to spend time with her and take her to do things without me sometimes. I think it's important for them to have a strong one-on-one bond.

Mia made a Father's Day hat for Wes at daycare. He wore it for her which was really sweet. She also helped to make him a card at daycare. Mia and I took him to his favorite Salvadoran restaurant for a Father's Day meal on Friday. Then, we all went to Home Depot so that he could get a new edger for doing lawn work. We love him so much!

Sprinkler Fun

2011-06-14T07:30:00.000-05:00

We're only halfway through June, but it's sooo hot here in Dallas. Due to water restrictions, residents aren't allowed to turn their sprinklers on between 10am and 6pm. At 6:02pm on Sunday, Wesley set out his sprinkler for Mia to run through. She was only playing on the edges of the spray, so I held hands with her and ran through fully-clothed. She got the hang of it, and really enjoyed herself. I think we'll have to get a small pool for her to splash around in soon. This heat will be hanging around for awhile.

The Road to Home

2011-06-13T21:04:00.005-05:00

We finally got our pictures taken with the Mesa Verde sign as we were leaving the park on Thursday morning. We'd been too busy to do it earlier. Wesley and I wanted to take a different route home than the way we had come out there, so we decided to keep going east when we hit Durango instead of going south back toward Albuquerque. We drove through some nice Colorado towns with lovely names like Pagosa Springs, Monte Vista and Alamosa. My favorite leg of the trip was driving through the San Juan and Rio Grande National Forests. We drove through the snow-capped Wolf Creek Pass which was beautiful. It's not often that you see snow in June if you're from Texas. One of the major reasons we chose to take that route was because we would be able to drive through Southfork, CO. Both of our dads (as well as uncles, cousins, etc.) have hunted elk up in Southfork. It's one of those places we'd both heard about but never seen. My dad told us about a restaurant called The Hungry Logger that was pretty much a tradition for them to eat at whenever they went to Southfork. We thought it would be fun to stop in and have some dessert there, too. While driving through town, we didn't see any signs that said The Hungry Logger. However, the icon of the restaurant is a 24 ft carved logger that stands out front, so we were able to spy him. Apparently, the name of the restaurant was changed to Biggins a couple of months ago. Thank goodness for that tall logger to point us in the right direction. The three of us ate some chocolate cake and then got back on the road. After we drove back down into desert country again, we passed a field of dirt that appeared to have sculptures sitting in it. We made a u-turn and went back to check it out. The sign explained that the stone carvings were there to commemorate the Old Spanish Trail that went through the area and eventually ended in Los Angeles in the 1800s. We drove for twelve hours that day (including pitstops) and stayed the night in Amarillo. We drove the rest of the way home the next day. I love vacations, but there's something comforting about sleeping in your own bed. We're happy to be home, but it's tempting to start daydreaming about our next destination!

The little turkey snuck my burrito into her lap when I wasn't looking. The rustling of the wrapper gave her away!

Wolf Creek Pass with snow in June. Love it!

Having cake with Daddy at the Hungry Logger

My Anasazi Munchkin and Four Corners

2011-06-12T22:36:00.000-05:00

One of our rangers told us that the people who had lived in the cliff dwellings used to be called Anasazi, but they are now called Ancestral Puebloans (basically to be politically correct). On Wednesday, we took Mia to Spruce Tree House. She did very well and was finally interested in looking at the dwellings which she called "houses". She was a little too eager at times. This prompted me at one point to pull her back from an edge and say, "Mia if you dive head-first into a kiva, you're going to ruin our vacation!" Lol. A woman standing next to me started laughing, and I couldn't help but laugh, too. I think Mia was ready to take up residence in one of the dwellings. She was dying to go inside one and play. I was glad she finally got to really look around. After leaving there, we went to see some of the Far View Sites which were on top of the mesa.

That afternoon, we all drove to the Four Corners. It's pretty much in the middle of nowhere in the desert. However, there were several vendors set up selling jewelry and other items. We bought Mia a necklace and bracelet, and my dad bought me a turquoise bracelet. Wes liked the scenery out there. He said it looked just like the background to a spaghetti western movie.

Spruce Tree House

Mia gives it two thumbs up!

Nana Bev heading down into a covered kiva

She climbed all of the way out of the kiva by herself!

This is where I chided her for acting like she was going to take a nose-dive into the kiva.

Some of the Far View Sites

Four Corners: New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado

Look Mommy! I'm in four states at once!

I can even do it on one foot!

It does kind of look like something out of a western out there.

Mucho Mas Cliff Dwellings

2011-06-12T21:48:00.000-05:00

Our 3 1/2 hour tour was scheduled for the afternoon, so on the morning of vacation day #5, we went to Cedar Tree House which were formations on top of one of the mesas. It was fascinating, but Mia wasn't listening very well which reaffirmed our decision that she needed to stay at the camp that afternoon with her daddy. I knew she would have fun there, though. She loved that she could more or less get covered in dirt, and there wasn't much I could do about it until we went to the showers in the evening. Also, there were lots of mule deer in the area. They wandered through the campsites at will, and had no fear of humans. Mia loved watching them. Dad, Bev, Ryan, and I went on the tour. It was a lot of fun. I've always wanted to see the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, and I was not disappointed. They were built and lived in during around 900-1300 A.D. It's amazing that they have been so well cared for and are still around for people to look at today. I was hot and tired by the end of it, but I was so glad that I got to see all of the dwellings.

Cedar Tree House pics

It was weird to be in the desert and see snow-capped mountains in the distance.

Wes and Ryan being funny

Tour photos

Square Tower House from an overlook

Cliff Palace seen from across the mesa

Took some pics from above Cliff Palace while waiting for our tour to start.

Dad and Bev watching Ryan and I on the tour. This picture is really zoomed in. They looked like little specks up above us when I took this.

Me at Cliff Palace

View of the canyon from Cliff Palace

Pic of the inside of a kiva

Last ladder to climb out of the canyon. Whew!

Green Table

2011-06-12T20:53:00.001-05:00

It got down into the 40s at night while we were camping. I'd packed fleece pj's and such for Mia, so she stayed warm, even flinging off blankets at night. During the day, it would get around the mid 80s, so it was quite a temperature difference. That's the desert for ya. Sweatshirts in the morning and shorts by noon. We took Mia on one of the shorter guided tours of cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde. It was a one and a half hour ranger-guided tour of Long House. Each set of cliff dwellings had a different name. For that one (as with most of them), you have to hike down into a canyon to see the dwellings as the ranger tells you things about the lives of the Ancestral Puebloans. Some of the trails were steep and many of the paths had no railings, so we had to carry Mia a good bit of the way. She was away from home, out of her routine, and surrounded by a bunch of strangers, so she didn't behave like the little lady we had hoped she would be. It was so neat to see the dwellings, but it was difficult to take pictures of them since I was terrified my little daredevil would scamper off the edge of a cliff. We enjoyed the tour, but we were worried about the next day's tour. It was a 3 1/2 hour tour of several different dwellings. Mia's behavior had left something to be desired on the one and a half hour tour, and we didn't want to ruin anyone else's experience if she decided to have a meltdown on the long tour. Wesley decided to stay at camp with her the next day while the rest of us went on the tour. I love that man. He said that it was fine and that he just wanted to make sure that I had a good time. Isn't he sweet? After getting back from our Long House tour that evening, Papaw made a campfire, and we roasted marshmallows for smores. Mmmmm! Delicious! It was Mia's first time to have a smore. She liked it, but she studied it like she was trying to figure out exactly what it was.

Pics from Long House dwellings

In case you're wondering, when we got down to them, I did in fact carry Mia up those ladders. Just call me Muscles. Lol.

Roasting marshmallows with Daddy

Mia's first smore - yummy!

Needed just one more marshmallow with Papaw

Family Road Trip

2011-06-12T00:45:00.001-05:00

We left last Friday (June 3rd) for our first major family vacation with Mia. We were going to meet Papaw, Nana Bev, and Ryan in Albuquerque, and then drive to Colorado to go camping. On Friday, we left after I got off of work and drove to Edmond, OK to stay with Mia's Nana for the night. We thought driving that far would be advantageous since we were due to be in Albuquerque the next day. Mia has become a very good traveler since we bought a DVD player for the car. She just sits there watching Tangled, Mickey Mouse, or Hello Kitty depending on what she's in the mood for. On Day 2, we drove to Albuquerque and met up with our family in Rio Rancho. It was weird for Wes and I to be back there. We haven't been back there since we moved to Texas 4 1/2 years ago. Things had changed: new homes, new businesses, even new roads that had not existed when we lived there. However, some things never change. The Sandia Mountains still stood sentry over the eastern edge of the city. Dust storms still have the ability to block out the sun. My favorite constant: Venezia's in Rio Rancho still has some mighty tasty pizza. We stayed the night in a hotel in Rio Rancho that wasn't too far from the house we rented in northwestern Albuquerque. As we drove north out of town on Rio Rancho Blvd the next morning, I concluded that Albuquerque was a far better place to visit than live. I'm from eastern Oklahoma originally, and I like grass. Call me crazy, but the desert is not for me. At least, not on a permanent basis. Mia was excited to see Papaw, Nana Bev, and Ryan. She also loved that a few desert bunny rabbits were hanging around outside our hotel after breakfast that morning. She likes to identify animals and then imitate their noises. Rabbits don't really make sounds distinctive only to them, so she just announced, "Bunny rabbits!" As we crossed into Colorado, I fell in love with the state. By the time we reached Durango, I was ready to buy a second home there. Colorado is simply gorgeous. We drove out to Mesa Verde National Park where we were going to camp. Neither Wes nor I had been tent camping in years, so I had the car totally loaded down with everything we might need. We set up camp and prepared for the next day's activities...

Mia was happy watching Perunzal and eating M&Ms

View of the Sandia's as we drove out of town

Hairstyles

2011-05-30T16:43:00.000-05:00

Mia's hair is finally long enough that I can get all of it into a ponytail. That's fabulous since the weather is getting hot. Maybe she'll stay a little cooler. For some reason on Sunday, I was feeling ambitious in the hairstyling department. I made a maze of connecting ponytails on Mia's little head then put hair clips on all of them. It took me an hour to do it because she kept jumping up and running off. Just when I would give up, she would run back to me and say, "Mommy fix my hair!" I like how it turned out, but it will be awhile before I attempt to tackle that again!

We're still working on not standing so close to the tv, but that girl sure loves Rapunzel.

Silly goose!

Instead of eating her hamburger, she took off the bottom bun and sat her drink on it. At least she knows how to use coasters, right?

Fun with Zoey

2011-05-30T16:13:00.000-05:00

Mom and Preston came down to watch Mia last weekend so that Wes and I could go to an American Cancer Society fundraiser. They brought Zoey with them. Mia didn't want to be parted from her all weekend. She kept bringing Zoey toys and saying, "I sharing my toys! Here Zoey!" She wasn't happy when Mimi, Pa Pa, and Zoey left, but they had a lot of fun.

Reading Zoey her Stella book

Isn't she a doll?

The girls had a tea party

Mia definitely got out plenty of toys for Z

I just can't get enough of this girl!

I think Mia decided that Z needed a few more toys.

Wordless Wednesday: Reading with Uncle Darvey

2011-05-25T19:39:00.000-05:00

Instead of Napping

2011-05-15T12:35:00.000-05:00

Mia is supposed to be taking a nap right now. She hasn't been napping much at home on the weekends lately, so I usually give her a few books when I put her in the crib. I tell her that she needs some quiet time and to just read her books until she gets tired. So, a few of her dolls are now lined up in the crib, and she is reading to them like her teachers do for her class at daycare. She said to the dolls, "Do you wanna read a book? Yeah? Okay. Everybody listen. Everybody scoot back!" She held the book up so that her babies could see better. At daycare, the teacher will hold up the book and point to the front, back, and spine, so the kids all know the parts of a book. Mia usually does that at home, too. She points to each one and says, "The front! The back! The spine!"

Reading a story to her dolls. Her audience is Ann, Susie (in purple), and Edie (in green)

Bottom and Eve

2011-05-15T09:56:00.000-05:00

When we read a book to Mia, she always wants to know the names of every single character in the book. Kids' books don't usually have many characters, so that is normally easy. However, her new favorite book is her picture Bible. She has two different ones, and she loves them both. It's pretty difficult to name every person on every page. Mia definitely can't remember all of the names that we tell her. She wants us to start at the beginning and read the whole thing. Even a picture Bible is kind of long to read the whole way through, though. Wesley tried to cheat by saying, "There's the sun." (Flip page) "There are some flowers." (Flip page). Mia stopped him and said, "No Daddy! Read book. Talk about it!" So, we read a little at a time. Mia is good at knowing who Adam and Eve are. Adam is a little awkward for her to say, so she usually calls him "Bottom". We're working on saying his name right. She can always find Eve easily. Mia finds the person with long hair and says, "That's Eve! She got's no shirt!" It makes me laugh, but she's totally right. That's a definitive way to pick out Eve as the only woman in the Bible that ran around without a shirt on. Haha! She always wants to find the baby Jesus. She likes to say, "Ssshhh! Baby Jesus is sleeping. We have to be quiet ("quiet" sounds like "kai-et"). Don't wake him up!" Then she'll point out Jesus as a man. She always says, "That's Jesus. He's not a baby." For some reason, she is obsessed with the story of the paralyzed man that Jesus heals so that he can walk. Mia gets very concerned. She says, "His legs hurt! Oh no. He got's an owie!" I love that she's so interested in the Bible stories. The whole daycare goes to chapel once a week, so she already hears some of the stories and songs there.

We all went out to breakfast yesterday to Southern Maid Donuts. Mia loved her donut covered with sprinkles. My ham and cheese croissant was pretty delicious, too!

Wordless Wednesday: New Favorite Book

2011-05-11T07:13:00.000-05:00

Mommy and Me Tea Party

2011-05-06T20:57:00.000-05:00

Mia's daycare had a tea party this morning for all of the moms and kids to celebrate Mother's Day. It was fun. They had pretty flowers, apple juice, tea, muffins, etc. I love that the ladies at the daycare do their best to make every important day and holiday special. No wonder that some days Mia isn't ready to go home when I get there! Then, Wesley and Mia let me choose where to go for my Mother's Day dinner. I chose one of my faves: Gloria's! This was our first time to go to their new location in the Bishop Arts district. It was gorgeous inside, and the food was amazing as usual!

On the Road Again

2011-05-05T21:26:00.003-05:00

For the second weekend in a row, we went on a road trip to Oklahoma. This time we went to visit Nana and Keith. They were having a house warming party, so we went up to visit and meet some of their friends. Mia had fun playing with Keith's grandsons who introduced her to Finding Nemo. She asked to watch it several times on the way home but kept changing her mind and wanted to watch Tangled. She calls that movie "Perunzal"(Rapunzel). I think we may be starting a princess phase because she also kept requesting "Cindawella" as well as "Tinkabell". I don't know how many times she's watched "Perunzal" this week. She really pays attention to it, too. When Rapunzel hit Flynn on the head with the frying pan, Mia stood up from her purple Tinkerbell chair and said, "No Perunzal! You be nice! We don't hit our friends!" Haha! Princess Mia only wants to wear dresses and skirts now. I asked her the other day if she was a girly girl. She replied (very seriously), "Yeah, Momma. I cute!" Ooookay! I think I'm in trouble. Hehe! We had a nice visit with Nana and Keith. They threw a great party!

Helping Nana with food prep

Sitting at a dining table originally owned by her Great-great grandma Martin

She picked up this glass right about the time I took the picture. Geez! If she'd dropped it, I would've had a heart attack!

Wordless Wednesday: Having a Look Outside

2011-05-04T18:17:00.000-05:00

Friend Makin' Mondays: Are You a Bookworm?

2011-05-02T21:10:00.000-05:00

Time for another Friend Makin' Monday with Kenz from All the Weigh. I love these little surveys.

It's time for Friend Makin' Mondays! If you've taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you're new, please take a moment to answer this week's question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section of this post so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Now it's time for this week's topic!

Friend Makin' Mondays: Are You A Bookworm?

1) How often do you read? I'm almost always reading something...

2) What's the last book you read and loved? The last book I read was Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. I was completely in love with this book. It's about the huge round-up and deportation of Jews in Paris during WWII. The events were horrible, but the insight and emotion of the story was breath-taking.

3) What book(s) are you currently reading? I am almost finished reading The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran. I read another of her books, Nefertiti, a couple of years ago. I loved it, so when I saw this one at the store, I grabbed it. It's a (fictional) story about Nefertiti's niece, Nefertari. I am fascinated with Egyptian history. It was such a unique culture. I've just devoured this book and will finish it soon.

4) Share a few of your favorite authors. Oh wow, where to start? You know what, the list is ridiculously long. It's best not to make you read that many names.

5) What's next on your list of must-reads? My reading list is soooo long. I can't wait to read Two Kisses for Maddy by Matt Logelin. It just came out last month. His wife died just after childbirth from a pulmonary embolism. When I first started reading his blog, he was talking about this crazy idea of writing a book. I've been a faithful blog reader of his throughout the writing of the book (much of that was done in India) and beyond. His daughter is so beautiful and sweet. It's wonderful that he has been brave enough to share his life with others.

Other books I want to read include Devil at My Heels by Louis Zamporini, Escape from Davao by John Lukacs, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay,...the list goes on and on and on. So, yeah. I would say that I'm a bookworm.

Princess Amelia

2011-04-29T21:18:00.000-05:00

Today's royal wedding of Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton has been a hot topic. It's been plastered all over the television, radio, and internet. I read some about it online, but it's hard to get too excited about people I don't know. My favorite pictures were the ones of all of the hats that guests wore to the wedding. Some of them defied gravity. Those women must have worn dozens of bobby pins to keep those hats from falling off their heads. What do I know? I'm just a simple girl who grew up on a farm. It's interesting, though, to take a glimpse into the life of the royal family.

Mia and I were playing around in the front yard earlier. I was trying to take her picture with her tiara as a shout out to today's events in London. However, she thought it was much more entertaining to put the tiara on my head and take my picture. She took pictures of the grass, her finger in front of the lens, etc. One picture she took though was really good. She took it completely by herself, so I was really surprised.

Finally got her picture when she sat down with a cupcake. It's not a 1936 Cartier tiara like Kate wore, but my little Mia makes quite the pretty princess.

This is the picture that Mia took of me all by herself. She said, "Say cheese, Mommy!" You can't really see it, but she had put her tiara on my head.

Rain, Plastic Eggs, and Lots of Smiles!!!

2011-04-24T20:26:00.002-05:00

Mia and I went to Heavener for Easter weekend. Wesley couldn't go, unfortunately, because he had to work on Saturday. I let Mia have her Easter basket last Sunday since I knew we wouldn't be here. It was hard to get a picture of her with the basket because the little stinker kept getting candy out of it. She would hand it me and say, "I want this one please!" That girl loves her candy. The weekend didn't start off too great. On Friday morning, I had car "issues", so I wasn't able to leave work at noon as planned. I didn't pick Mia up until 4:00pm. Getting out of Dallas takes awhile at that time of day. We spent much of the drive ahead of one storm and behind another. It was all worth it when we got there, though. Mia got to spend all weekend playing with Zoey. Zoey is sitting up really well now. She likes to make funny sounds and bob her head back and forth when you sing to her. Z gets prettier every time I see her. Mia isn't as jealous of her as she used to be. For some reason, she only got a little jealous about diaper changes. Poor Mimi had to change Zoey's diapers as well as several of Mia's. Mia didn't want me to do it. She kept saying, "Mimi's turn!" I must admit that I didn't mind not changing a couple of dirty diapers! We had our family get-together at my dad's on Saturday. I'm happy as a clam when I'm surrounded by my family. I just wish Wesley could have been there. Mia was the littlest "egg hunter", so there were a lot of eggs in plain sight for her to find. She kept saying, "Right there! Another one!" There were a few dyed, hard-boiled eggs. Dad's black lab, Mattie, found one and started chowing down, blue shell and all. Gross. Hehe! One of the eggs Mia found was nestled in a small cluster of poison ivy. Unfortunately, she had already picked it up before someone pointed it out to me. I scrubbed her hands good with lots of soap, and we never saw any sign of it later (thank goodness). Mia kept hunting eggs, but she wanted to open each plastic one as she found it to look for candy. She ate entirely too much candy this weekend, but I guess she needs to let loose sometimes!

Mia last Sunday with her goodies from the Easter bunny

Now, pictures from this weekend.
Zoey trying on the bunny ears

Mia is on the hunt for sugary treasure!

A couple of local residents came walking by the yard while we were out there. They seemed surprised to see a bunch of humans picking up colored eggs.

This one's got candy - jackpot!

Two of my favorite ladies - my grandmothers!

Miss Z and her mommy

Checking out the loot

Shayna practiced her driving with my dad while Camryn and Kaylee enjoyed the ride!

Wordless Wednesday: Bunny Girl

2011-04-20T18:05:00.000-05:00

Bluebonnets

2011-04-17T20:42:00.001-05:00

Taking a drive to see the bluebonnets in full bloom is a very Texan thing to do. We have never done it until this year. Does that mean we're becoming more Texan? Hmmm, well Mia is a native born Texan, so I guess that's okay. We chose the trail we wanted to drive to see the bluebonnets and took off. We found a great spot with thousands of bluebonnets, so we stopped for some pictures. By the time we were done with pictures, Mia was ready for a nap. She slept all of the way to the grocery store (which took about 45 minutes since we were down in Ennis). She was still pretty tired, though. At bedtime tonight, she didn't put up a fuss at all. She said, "Daddy, come on! I'm ready for bed!" What a great day! I hope we can make a trip down there to see the bluebonnets every year.

Can you hear what she's thinking? "Daddy please take away Mommy's camera. I'm tired of posing."

Fun Down South

2011-04-17T20:19:00.000-05:00

We met Jon, Holly, Jasper, and Harper in Ennis today for the town's 60th Bluebonnet Festival. Ennis is designated as the official Bluebonnet City of Texas. They hold the festival downtown which has a lot of old buildings. I'd like to go back down there just to take pictures of the buildings. There was a section that was specifically for children. Mia went into the bounce house with Harper, but she had no idea what it was because she'd never been in one. She never really jumped, but she did smile and bounce a little. Next, the girls went on the train. Mia was a little nervous about getting on it, but she was okay with it when she realized that Harper was riding it, too. Mia also went to the petting zoo. She didn't mind all of the animals walking around her. She seemed surprised, though, when I encouraged her to pet them. I think she enjoyed it quite a bit. We all got some ice cream, and then headed to the booth that had maps for the bluebonnet trail. I'll include those pics on the next post.

This little black pig was my favorite! Isn't he adorable?