Hallie Draws a Person!

This is quite the accomplishment for a three year when they draw a person for the first time! Hallie drew this picture this morning of Daddy and Sydnee and she even paid attention to little details like she made Sydnee smaller than Daddy and when I asked her to draw hair on Daddy's head, she said, "Daddy's hair goes like this (and motioned his hair going down toward his forehead) so she drew his hair down on his forehead since that's how he does his hair.


Then like any artist, she completed it with her signature, if you look really close, you can see the letters of her name. Way to go Hallie!

Squirrel Gone WILD!!!

There is a huge squirrel that hangs out in our backyard a lot, he's either well fed, or a mixed breed!? Our neighbors behind us just got new patio furniture a week ago, and I caught the huge squirrel tearing their brand new furniture apart!!!!! Maybe he thinks he's a dog!? Can you believe that?

Road Trip to Chicago

This past weekend we went with our good friends, the Routsong's to Chicago! Our main reason was to attend the temple which was a wonderful experience as always! One couple went to the temple while the other couple stayed behind at the hotel and babysit all four kids.... welcome to Chaosville!! Four hours of that, and the kids had had enough. But they quickly became happy campers while we went sightseeing in downtown Chicago.

After one weekend spent in Chicago, we've seen things that you'd NEVER see in a small town like Fort Wayne...

1. Traffic anytime of day every day that ends in "y."
2. Homeless people sleeping on the park bench in the middle of the day.
3. A homeless person on the side of the highway with a sign that says, "Need munee"
4. Subways in the highway's median.
5. Asian food markets
6. Parking garages for stores since there isn't a lot of land for parking lots
7. Having to pay for parking while you take a potty break
8. Apartments on top of stores such as the Gap, Best Buy and Walgreens
9. Luxury condos starting in the $300,000s
10. "BYOB" signs in restaurant windows
    

We first went to the Lincoln Park Zoo and it was the perfect day. The animals were all really close since their cages were so small, a plus for the kids, a let down for the animals! That night we ate at TGIFriday's and met up with Cam's friend Carson Nuttle! It was so fun seeing him.

Hallie and Jaxton became good friends over the weekend so we got some cute pictures of the two of them being silly.


We then went to the Shedd Aquarium on Saturday which was amazing. So many sea animals and so little time! We had so much fun seeing all the fish, sharks, sting rays, etc. In one of the pictures, Hallie is standing on top of a bunch of sting rays, she thought that was pretty cool. After the aquarium it was time to head back to the cars. As we were leaving, the weather changed from 70 degree weather to 50 degree weather and pouring rain! So we took a dash for it and ran the 1/4 mile back to our cars with the kids getting soaked in the strollers :( We eventually made it back safe but damp to the cars. I figure if I can run fast in flip flops and push a stroller I could do the 5k marathon next month right!?


That night, we ate out at an authentic Spanish restaurant. It was quite the experience! We even ate Duck. This is Cam eating the duck quesadilla!? It was actually great food. Luckily we had Nate there to tell us what to order (since he served his mission in Spain). Thank you Routsong's for inviting us! We had tons of fun!

Summer Chubbin'

I LOVE babies in the summertime. They are just too cute with their little painted toes sticking out of teeny tiny sandals, wearing their cute sun hats in their cute teeny tiny swimsuits. And my favorite part is seeing their little rolls on their naked little thighs!

One Naughty Toddler

Hallie mysteriously has learned how to lock doors since we've moved into our house. This would be a good thing since she insists she needs to lock the door in order to have privacy (that's her new thing lately), however, our door knobs are not the new kind where you can just push a pin through the hole to pop the lock open. You actually have to unscrew the handle and take it off of the door in order to get someone out.... just FYI.

Yesterday, I get out of the shower and I hear Hallie crying in the bathroom. So I run to open the door and it was locked. This is how my moment of panic then laughter played out:

Mommy (panicked): Hallie, we do not lock doors! Can you unlock it so I can get you out?
Hallie (crying): I can't!
Mommy (scared): Hallie, I can't open the door unless you unlock it. Can you try?
Hallie fumbles with the lock and tries to unlock it for a few seconds.
Hallie (not crying, but mad): I can't get it open! I just want to stay here forever.
Mommy (laughing): I want to get you out but I can't because you locked the door. That's why we never lock doors, huh?
Hallie: Just go get Daddy's tools, Mom.

Although I was so panicked at first, this event ended in laughter on my part, hence the reason why I was able to take a picture of Hallie's fingers sticking out of the door. She was stuck in there for about 30 minutes by the time I finally unscrewed and removed the door handle and when she came out she had gotten into the lotion and that was all over her but she was fine! I will now die 10 years earlier than I was supposed to before this incident!

Happy Easter!

We hosted Easter this year so we had the pleasure of having our first guests (my family) in our house. It was an enjoyable weekend, and boy did we keep my family busy. On Saturday, it was beautiful outside, so the men went to work cleaning gutters, cleaning out the garden, and hanging our new wood blinds in the living room. While the men did that, my mom and I painted while aunt Stacey entertained the girls.

After a lot of hard work, we went inside for some egg dying which Hallie thought was the coolest thing. We then went to bed and waited for the Easter Bunny to hide our eggs and fill the girls' baskets. Unfortunately, we think the Easter Bunny stayed up too late the night before since he was a little late in filling baskets and hiding eggs, but celebrating Easter after church is better than never!
This was Syd's first Easter and as you can tell, she was more interested in the grass than the toy inside her basket.

Extreme Makeover: Bathroom Edition

Over the Easter holiday, my family drove from MI to visit us and to see our new house! Having company was much more relaxed this time around since they all had their own rooms to sleep in and we have the space now for three people to visit without feeling like we're on top of each other! Hallie loved seeing Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Stacey of course, but the highlight of my weekend with them was remodeling our half bath on the first floor!! My mom is a decorating guru, so having her here to help was so much fun.

Here are the before pictures. We started and finished in just a few hours, and all we did was paint the shelves, mirror, and cabinets black, got some new towels and rug to match, got a new light fixture and hardware for the cabinets and then some decorations and waa-laa!! Thanks for all your help Mom!