Finally

......family photos with Lucy.

Lucy hadn't had a nap so she screamed most of the time (luckily our photographer was amazing to work with). Since she is mostly bald-Lucy not the photographer-she is still my baby (even if she did run to our photographer and sit on her lap instead of mine during the photoshoot).......I cannot believe how grown up Greta has become.

(the balloon was taken away)

Pudding, Buns, and Bunnies

If you give a girl some pudding....

After I put Greta's hair in buns, Neil made the mistake of calling them pigtails. Greta's response: "Dad, these are not pigtails. These are buns. But Dad, they are not these kind of buns (pointing to her bum). They are like hot dog buns." Holding this bunny (belonging to some friend's of ours) made Greta's week. Judging by her actions (eating all of her meals, getting dressed and not fighting with me, telling me I better drink all of my milk if I want to visit the bunny), this was more exciting than Disneyland.

Vegas, Baby!

Day One:
Lucy cut her lip on the stairs in our hotel room. (Yes, the room had a sunken living room with marble stairs. No, there was nothing child friendly in the room.)
Day Two:
Greta reached one of the ten elevators before me and the door closed. (Yes, a woman next to me reached her arm in to open the doors. No, the doors didn't open and the woman nearly lost her arm.) Luckily while I stood there stupidly listening to Greta screaming, the other woman ran to the hall elevator button and opened the door.
Day Two continued:
I took Greta swimming in one of the hotel's seven pools. The deep end was 3foot6inches. The majority of the pool was 1foot6inches. Greta mostly pretended to swim in the shallow end by holding her body flat on the water and walking around on her hands. Lucy refused to touch the water. When Greta ignored my telling her it was time to go (Greta ignoring=Greta screaming, "NO!" over and over), I packed up Lucy and our things in the stroller. I turned back to Greta only to see her in the 3 foot water bobbing up and down. I jumped in the 1foot end to try to run to her (she was about 20 ft away) but the lifeguard was sitting about 5 ft from her so he jumped in and saved the day. (Yes, the lifeguard had been fully dressed in socks, shoes, pants, and jacket. No, he usually doesn't have to save people when the deep end of the pool is 3foot6inches.) Greta was fine, the lifeguard was shivering, and I had Greta get right back in the pool so she wouldn't be scarred from the experience.

Vegas was not a complete disaster.
We did go to the lobby and admire the beautiful umbrellas every day. Aren't the colors so beautiful and happy? Greta robbed me of all my coins and made many wishes in the different wishing ponds under the umbrellas.

Her first wishes had to do with unicorns. Her next wishes all had to do with her Great-Grandpa Robinson who died last month. She wished he would live again. While unicorns aren't going to become glittery or real, I'm glad to know her wish about her grandpa will come true.

Greta and Great Grandpa

Lucy and Great Grandpa

Home Sweet Home

After our trip of car, Vegas, car, Disneylad, car...car.....car, it was good to be back home where Lucy couldn't wait to get back......into the car. I am going to miss her gummy smile, but those top two teeth are really staring to grow on me.

We are even glad to be back to the Twin Falls wind (maybe because it followed us to Vegas). I will post pictures from the trip later this week. For now it is laundry, laundry, laundry, and cleaning out the car...yikes!

Tulip Tree

"Mom, you have got to come look at this," is a phrase I hear from Greta multiple times a day. In this case she was referring to the tulip tree which just began blooming and is something we never tire of looking at.

Unfortunately, the tulip tree only blooms for a couple of weeks. Due to the Twin Falls wind, the blooms or "feathers" as Greta refers to them don't last long enough.

Maple Magic

So we paid someone to plant a tree in our yard. There was a tree when we moved in. Unfortunately, it was dead. We planted one two years ago. It also died...along with all of our grass. Last year we focused on having a lawn that was green (one the neighbors could be proud of) and let grass grow into the cement outlined tree dirt.

Why yes, I did sew Greta's skirt and Lucy's dress.

Greta didn't trust me when I told her just the bottom of the tree needed water. She tried really hard to reach all of the branches.

It took less than ten minutes to dig the hole, plant the tree, straighten the tree, and water the tree. Very much worth the money.....if it lives. Don't you just love Lucy's helmet in the bottom corner of the picture?

Did I mention Lucy likes to take her diaper off while wandering around the house?

All Busied Out

I am trying to get her adjusted to one nap per day. However, if I played as hard as Lucy, I probably wouldn't be able to last until noon either. Sunday we leave for Vegas (Neil has a business conference), and then it is off to Disneyland!!

Early Morning Sunshine

This morning, after I announced to everyone it would be warm outside today, Greta insisted on going outside. I told her, "no" (it was still in the 30's) and Neil told her, "yes." This is pretty much the first time this has happened to Greta (I'm always the one who says yes). Lucy woke up to see Greta opening the sliding door and couldn't leave my arms fast enough. Of course it lasted just long enough for me to take this picture. After I scooped up a cold, crying Lucy and headed for the door, Greta screamed, "Don't leave me, I'm gonna freeze." Everyone is now inside watching Sid the Science Kid. However, I'm sure this afternoon we will be right back where we began the morning (yeah for the sun!). Note: This is the first time I have uploaded pictures to the computer on the same day they were taken.....and I posted them on our blog (yeah for me!).

Trampoline Trap

Note: These pictures were taken last fall with every intention to post them to this blog.

Greta use to be so scared to get on trampolines. She will now walk on them and subtly bounce, but has an aversion to actually jumping.

Perhaps this aversion is for the best. Yes, we allow our daughter to play on this death trap.
Before you judge us, think of this disattachment of spring and tramp less as a hazard, but more as a way to get safely to the ground.

This week it is suppose to reach 78 degrees. Trampoline/slide, (or trampolide as we might begin calling it) here we come!

Greta and Lucy's First Photo Shoot

Our girls camp fundraiser was family photos. Luckily we have more than one person in our ward qualified to charge money for taking photos. We were especially lucky these women donated their time to our cause. I am really happy with the way our photos turned out.
All of the photos were taken in downtown Twin Falls. For this photo the girls were standing on a cement ledge about four feet off the ground.
Greta's overbite smile is priceless (she loves sucking on her front two fingers and was doomed by genetics to have braces anyway).
Here is sweet Lucy in all her helmet glory. This was the one photo I wanted-one of all of our feet. I'm glad the photographer included Greta's crossed legs and Lucy's purse.
Here is how the uncropped photo looked. This pretty much summed up the photo shoot. As shown by the red noses and hands, it was freezing outside, which made the girls very grumpy. Why no family photo including faces? Neil has not yet reached his goal weight (he is currently training for a triathlon) and my hair was a mess (think graying mullet).

2010 Goal

Post a few more blogs. That is as specific as I will get. Here are some shots of the girlies from the fall. (This season lasted exactly one week in Twin Falls.)