Favorite photo Tuesday

This is how I found Flower when I came out of the bathroom this morning.

Could she make herself any more comfortable while using the commode?

I have to say, it did make my day by starting it out with laughter.
It was a fantastic day with the potty too! Twice, yes two times, she stopped what she was doing, pulled her panties down and sat herself on her toilet to pee without saying a word to me about until she was done. Progress! :)
I had a nice little lunch date with her as well. I needed to visit a fabric shop so we decided to take a walk around the newly remodeled strip mall as well. First I took her into Lee's chocolates and let her pick out her own piece of chocolate! She was overjoyed and the little lady working there couldn't get enough of her! Then we went to lunch at The Cookie Lady. I used to buy cookies from a lady that would deliver these cookies when I worked at Madison's but had never eaten there for lunch. We shared a Chicken Caesar salad that was very good. While we were eating she asked to go potty! I decided to be brave, since the morning had gone so well, and let her stay in her panties even though I wasn't sure how long we'd be gone. She was a champ so we then took two snickerdoodles to go so we could share them with KG.
I have some days that I deliberately wait until I put her down for her nap until I run errands. It just seems so much easier. How quickly I forget how fun it is to have my little sidekick next me adding laughter along the way. She was so pleasant to have along today! I'm in awe of my ability to fall more deeply in love with her with each passing day.

Here is a photo KG snapped tonight right before she went to bed. He bought her this shirt on an outing they went on the other day. It was the only size they had so it will be a night shirt for now. Since so many people saw her on Myspace before they met her in person, he thought it was perfect. I concur!

Perfect Monday!

KG had Sunday night off, therefore he was up earlier on Monday. We hung out during the day while Flower took her nap.

I got to go get an hour massage in the late afternoon which is always a treat!
For Family Home Evening we decided to start the new trend of Letter Boxing. I have been reading about it for a couple of months and we finally made the time to do it! I picked up KG and Flower after my massage. They had dinner in hand from PitaPit.

We started simple since we had Flower and just went to local park. We ate first and then started on our hunt.


We had a really great time being together in the park and are really excited about adding this fun pasttime into coming FHE's.

It will be really fun to get more challenging as Flower gets older.
We got three stamps on our first night of it!

We stopped for ice cream on our way home and ended the evening perfecting by getting Flower to bed right on time! My sister then made surprise visit to try on one of my skirts and make a request for a skirt for my niece. It was fun chatting and spending time with her. :)
What a perfect beginning to the week!

weekend with friends!

We had such a great time camping this weekend! We certainly enjoyed the company of the many friends who joined us. Several camped Friday and Saturday night, some just Friday, while some showed up just for paintball on Saturday. In order to take the short way to the property, we have to drive through a creek, which has been no problem for those of us that have been going for years! Well, the hard part this year isn't the creek but the hill after it! It's never been an issue before but this time the hill is more narrow and much softer! The Goodsell's van just wouldn't make it up the hill. Lisa was driving so she stopped it right away, partway up the hill. I'm not sure what possessed John but he decided to back it into the creek a bit and try to go up the hill again. You guessed it! Now it was stuck IN the creek. We had the nice accompaniment of the bubbling exhaust to keep us entertained. It took about an hour to get them pulled out. We used our truck and snapped the rope several times. Finally Courtney and I went to the cabin and brought back several pieces of flat wood to put under the tires. Phil then had the ingenious idea of using the jack to lift each side of the van up and wedge the wood underneath. After two or three times of that method the van was finally free! The saving grace in all the heat of that day was the creek because that's where all the kids ended up while the adults worked at getting the thing out! I could kick myself for not thinking about taking photos during this lovely episode! Oh well.

It was fun to have Kirk again. He wasn't able to come at all last year and he, along with his oldest daughter, son and his various friends, have always provided us with a lot of laughs around the campfire! One poor boy hasn't hit puberty yet, at the age of 13, and John took full advantage of making fun of his high pitch voice. He was such a good sport!

All the kids were so great and boy were there a lot of them. They all got along so well. Some of my favorite moments were of watching Madison discover things and I just loved looking over at Isaac and Benjamin sitting on the side of the cliff, shirts off, playing with their action figures, in their own little world!

Cute little Madison got along great with Flower and was just mesmerized with Flower's black hair. While Flower was trying to eat her dinner, Madison just kept touching her hair. It was so sweet!

At the end of the night, John built a fire only he could be proud of since it was scorching the hell out of the rest of us! All you can do with him around is shake your head!

We did have a really great night around the campfire Saturday night, in part thanks to John, so I guess he's good for something! ;) It's been awhile since I've laughed hard enough to need my inhaler! So much fun!

Sunday as we were packing up camp, Kirk and his gang were the only ones left with us. Flower just loved Grandpa Kirk! She had so much fun doing her morning exercises with him. She also enjoyed chasing after the ball he'd throw so she could hear the sound affects he was making to her every footstep. She also liked playing in the drivers seat of his car. She loved the fact that she had an audience that was very amused by her every move! What a ham!







Thanks everyone who made this weekend so fantastic!

Uncle Monkey

Flower had a great time with bunkey, as she calls him, this weekend. Friday night he was blowing bubbles and letting her pop them with KG's keys. What a great sport!

Happy Birthday Lisa

This weekend we went camping. Friday happened to be Lisa's birthday so we surprised her with a pinata. She was the only one that got to beat the crap out of that ugly little bunny! Then the kids got to race for the candy. Of course we put the stuff we didn't care for in the pinata and held out the yummy chocolates to give her later! She also got to burn the bunny in the fire! :) It was really fun.

Flower's attempt...

...to put on her own swimming suit! :)Notice the cute T-shirt KG bought for her on an outing this week. :)

Shapes

Flower loves any toy that has to do with shapes!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Here is Flower's version of Twinkle Twinkle! :)

Dads

Flower and I have some pretty special men in our lives! I helped her spoil KG today by making him his requested breakfast of crumb cake. I also added cheesy scrambled eggs. He usually does the dishes so I did those for him and did everything in regards to Flower so he wouldn't have to lift a finger. We gave him a puzzle I had made of a neat photo of him throwing her up into the air. She was in perfect form like she was flying. It came in a tin of the same photo. We'll glue the puzzle and hang it once it's put together.

We also gave him this wooden display rack for his karate belts. I really wanted him to have something special to show his belts on because he works really hard at it and really enjoys it.
At church he received a huge chocolate bar plus a homemade banana cream pastry. After church, he went to bed and Flower took a two hour nap with him.
Unfortunately KG had to work that night so he slept the rest of the day. Once Flower woke up I took her to see my other two dads. First we went to my parents and then to KG's grandparents where we gifted my Dad and KG's dad these:

They are scrapbooks with photos of them and Flower doing various activities and the places they've visited. Somehow I failed to scan in the C page for my dad's book. It said C, Camel's Back Park. I really enjoyed making the books. It gave me a chance to remember each event and truly appreciate the time they spend with Flower. Their love for her warms my heart and deepens my love for them. KG and I are extremely lucky to have such great dads! Happy Father's Day to all!

Fashion at its finest!

Flower is all about dressing herself lately. She has insisted on wearing this hat, which I made for KG's brother Ryan. She just loves it and I have to admit, she looks pretty cute in it! It's even better paired with this tutu don't you think?



Today she decided against the hat but also decided against a diaper or panties!
Check out her little hiney playing peek-a-boo! :)


Gotta love 2 year old independence!

If it's not one thing...

.....it's another! I have some really great tenants here. Some moved in when I did and have stayed because they love it! Most people can only handle so much though. Even my most patient and understanding tenants are starting to voice their disappointment. You may remember that a few weeks ago our elevator was down for three weeks. It's running now. It's hot outside so now of course the AC units decided to stop working. I have to say that so far this year has been far better then last for the heating and cooling but when it's 98* outside, they don't care that is worked last year, they need it to work this year. Then when the maintenance comes back to fix it without giving any notice and then tenant comes home to find her toilet had been used, the seat and the lid still up, with urine dripping, the bedroom door open, when they should have had no reason to go in there, and no note as to who was there and she had to figure it out a couple of days later when she realized the AC was now working....NOT GOOD! Then the city had to do some repairs to a water line and of course our building was affected. We had no whatever whatsoever from 4 pm Sunday to 6 am Monday. Then, when they turned the water back on, there was too much pressure for this stellar system and a hose ruptured and sprayed all over the water heater for a couple of hours, which fried one of the electronic controller boards. A new board is being overnighted which means we have no hot water until at least tomorrow afternoon. The water also flooded the basement which means my room has more water. YAY! We stayed out too late last night, therefore I didn't fall asleep till after 7 am this morning only to be awakened a couple hours later by Flower. Can hardly wait for all the phone calls from tenants wondering why the hell we don't have hot water after everything else that's gone wrong in the last month! I am so excited for the rest of this day! :)

good part of the day

kg made my day today when he came home from running his errands with a very sweet card in hand and a mini twix. i've attached the card, keeping what he wrote private of course. basically he was telling me how great i was and i much he appreciated me and knows how tired i am after last night. he's the best! thinking of that card is what got me through the afternoon! i love my husband! oh, and here's his new hair-do!
HOT DAMN!

kids are too smart for their own good!

wow. flower has had a lovely couple of days, which means so have i! she had several melt downs yesterday for not getting her way or getting frustrated with herself or whatever the reason and started slapping her own face or clawing whoever is nearby. she clawed two kids at nursery and bit another because they were doing something she didn't like. last night we put her to bed and she's had a rash so when she started screaming at the top of her lungs like we've never heard before, we were alarmed. She was saying peepee. She had done really well yesterday as far as the potty goes, being the first day she has ever told us she has to pee before it happened, not after. So not knowing whether she was crying because she had an infection or was freaked because she had to pee, we got her out right away, put her on the potty, calmed her down and put her back to bed. within a half hour it started again. we went through the same routine. the third time we decided to try putting her on our bed and give her some medicine in case she was getting sick because this was so unlike her. she fell right to sleep. she stayed asleep until 4 and was awake till 6, in a good mood and just playing with my hair and tickling my back as i tried to sleep. i finally asked her if she wanted to go to her bed when she was trying to get off the bed because i really needed sleep! she said yes. i put her to bed. she was fine until right when i laid in bed and then the screaming fits started (that i could hear across 700 square feet and through two closed doors). i went and fed her and gave her a drink thinking that might help, then went back to bed. within a half hour it started again so I brought her into my bed again. she fell right to sleep and slept till 11:00 am this morning! I had to be up at 8:30 am! Thanks a lot! So now, here we are at nap time. Oh it's fun! She knows the system now which means I have to win or she will play us every time! she seemed just fine when i laid her down and gave her prep time and everything. then the second i walk away that scream curdled my blood. the reason i know she's just fine and just too smart is, she started right in with the peepee! then she took the cup of water she had and slammed it against the door. just now she grabbed the ironing board that is hanging on the door and is shaking it. before that she was grabbing at the door knob. she just hit her cup against it again and then through the cup on the floor and is saying 'uh-oh' as loud as possible. as if i'm going to go in just to give her back her weapon! now she has started with the 'get you' which she has been saying ever since we got back from camping because she thinks everything is a bug! we gave her attention and reassurance when she said this so she started saying it every time she wanted attention, so now we have to ignore it. it's what she's doing now that kills me though. she is screaming 'ma' at the top of her lungs. i can't wait till she decides to grab the pretty good size picture above her crib and pull it on herself. i suppose we should remove that. i wonder how much longer this will last. it's 3:49 and i laid her down at 3:19. is this what having a 2 year old is like for everyone else cause it sucks! well, i'll give it till 4:19 cause i don't care if she's tired or not or if she sleeps, everyone should have alone time and lord knows i need it! here is a video of one of her meltdowns last night......


.....it's taking forever to upload the videos. it's 4:11 and she's still going strong. you'd think all the crying would make her fall asleep! i am going to go check on her. ....

...it's 5:01 and I just left the devil's room! imagine my shock when i opened the door to HIT her. she had gotten out of her crib which she has never done before. she pulled the iron off my craft shelf! thank goodness she didn't turn it on! she also pulled her diaper off, the first time for that too, and pee'd all over the floor and the cheerios she had thrown everywhere! thank goodness for super nanny! i did her bedtime routine and it worked and kept me calm! i put a new diaper on her and then put her back in bed. each time she'd get out i'd put her back in with no eye contact and no communication, that way i wouldn't take it personal and get worked up and neither would she. i finally had to put a huge blanket on top and tuck it under all four legs so she couldn't get out. i then sat on the floor in the room, out of site, to make sure she didn't get hurt as she was still attempting to get out and falling each time. she screamed bloody murder as she tried to get and threw her blankets, pillow and two stuffed animals out. Eventually she realized this was going to be her fate until she took a nap and finally laid down, only to get pissed because she didn't have a pillow or blankets. I knew if i gave them to her however, that the fit would start all over again since she'd know i was in the room. i finally left when she didn't make a noise for about 10 minutes. i thought she was asleep but when i opened the door she stirred so i left the door open and ran to the sofa and now i'm held hostage here in silence until she wakes up or i know i'll pay for it! i also think she took her diaper off gain but i'm not about to check! which means i'll likely have another nice mess to clean up! besides all that, kg had things to do after he got off work this morning, like a haircut and color, and getting flower's social security number so he didn't get to bed until 3:30. He has to get up at 7:00 for karate so i'm sure this screaming really helped him out! it's his night off tonight which i've been looking forward to but i'm afraid we're not going to be a great pair, both of us being sleep deprived! what a long 2 hours! hope your day was better!

Sibling Love

I love my siblings. I really do. I know that sounds lame and obvious but today I really had that warm in my heart love for them. We don't all always all along, but today we did. This is the first time in our lives that we all have kids! KG and I added Flower in January and my little brother and his wife had their first child on May 14th.

I always hoped to have children and experience this joy with my younger brother. My older brother and sister were both done with their families a couple years back. Anyhow, back to the story. Now that we all have kids we wanted to get them all together for a photo!

KG and I bought Chinese clothing for all the kids when we were getting Flower. They all looked adorable! This sort of situation, having all the adults there, would normally lead to a struggle of wills but everyone came together and worked really well! We were enjoying each others company enough we decided to all go out to eat!

We went to The Golden Star and it was just fun. We sat there watching all our kids and waxing nostalgic.

We told stories of beating each other up, getting in trouble together, having fun together, and all sorts of fun memories.

It was really great. I just hope each of them know how much I truly love them. I appreciate all that they have always done for me. I am so blessed to have them all close by!
oh, and Flower didn't like the spicy mustard on the pork and seeds. :)