More pics from Jill

Tate loved playing in the birdhouse!

Pics from Jill

Averie is such a good big cousin. Looking on with joy in Danica's happiness. So sweet.
Tate just wants her to hurry up so he can have some cake. ;)

"Oooohhhh!!"

Is Grammy sleeping?

It's her party and she'll cry if she wants to. Tate was pretty ticked that she stole his blankie for this little meltdown.

Playing blocks together.

Presents

Danica definitely got over her shyness with Papa. The first thing she said every morning was, "Go see Papa?" She just couldn't get enough... making up for lost time I guess.
Opening presents

Look out for flying daggers! Dani LOVES the new stroller that Jill and Stef got for her baby.

Let them eat cake!

Dani had quite a stuffy nose and wasn't feeling too great for her party. That's why she's got such a grump-a-lump look on her face in these pictures. This reminds me so much of a picture of me when I was little that ran in the Bottineau paper.

abc's

Clean house!

She's puttin out the vibe.

I know I take a lot of pictures like this, but I just can't help myself... she's so cute!!

The realtors came over today to take pictures of the house. I'm a complete mess, as you could imagine. This is definitely not good for my OCD. The worst part is that I have to keep it this clean every day now until it sells!!! Whoa is me.

The pumpkin place

Daddy can't go anywhere without his blankie.

What a guy!! Not too many daddy's would humiliate themselves in public for a good picture!

Dude, that's a big pumkin.

She wasn't too sure about the petting zoo... kinda like her mom and didn't want to touch anything.

We had a lot of fun playing with the pumpkins!

Afterward we went out to eat and had a lovely family dinner. Dani was such a big girl and colored nicely until the food came. When the nachos came she took one chip, dipped it in the sour cream and just licked it off. This continued for a while... yes, she double-dipped. Her applesauce and mac-n-cheese came and she ate it all by herself like such a big girl! Days like that make those horrible first few months all worth it! ;)

Hip-hop baby

Anyone under 35 ish should appreciate this. Danica was walking around the house yesterday saying, "What da hizzle?!" We're gonna get her a pimp cup and a diamond grill as soon as we can.

Faith

Click here www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com for an amazing jolt to the heart. Thank you Jill for finding this and passing it on!

Bragging

Danica's been showing off her smarts lately. She's walking around counting to ten and kind of above... it goes something like this: "one, two, free, four, five, sis, seben, eight, nine, ten, uuu-teen, uuu-teen, uuu-teen, uuu-teen, ten!" She's also been working on her colors with Daddy, and is getting to know her letters really well too. We have foam sticky letters for her to play with in the bathtub. She knows most of them now and is pretty proud of herself. And we couldn't be more proud of her!

Birthday girl!

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to Danica,
Happy Birthday to you!

I can't believe my little sweet girl is two years old today. It seems like only yesterday I was out of my mind with a little month old baby. We won't be "celebrating" until next Saturday, so it'll be a late birthday... but she doesn't know the difference so I figured it's okay.
Fun birthday pictures to come... stay tuned.

Moving

Well, we're moving to Minot!! Strange that I tried for so long to stay away from ND and now I'm so excited to move back! Funny what kids will do to you. We're all so excited to be closer to home. We have missed our families so much and are in almost disbelief that we'll actually be close to them now! Very surreal.
We aren't sure of the details yet, but we'll keep everyone posted as we find out more. Duane just got a call today and got verbally offered the "boss" position of the job he actually applied for. (I know mom, don't end a sentence with a preposition... sorry!) He'll be supervising all of North Dakota and a lot of Canada - if I understand it right anyway. I couldn't be more proud of my hubby. What other guy could go in for an interview and land the job of the boss instead! I caught me a good fish.

So pitty!

Love, love, love this dress. Dani does too. After I put it on her and gushed a bit, she said, "Yook in da miwwow?" She looked at herself and said, "OH! Soooo pitty!"

Please ignore the unmade bed. What, do you think I'm a stay-at-home mom with time to burn or something? ;)

"Baby" pictures

Our little tomboy loves to wear Daddy's hats.

Mmmmmm, yogurt!

She's been loving on her baby a lot lately. She thought it was snack time for baby, so she buckled her in and "fed" her.

She looks like such a big girl here!

My sweet babe loves to have her picture taken! Definitely doesn't take after Grammy in that department! :)

Super cute clogs! How come she has better shoes than I do?? Not fair.

Had to throw in a picture of my other baby. ;)

Asparagus

Danica's got some play food that came along with her kitchen set. The past few days she's been completely obsessed with the little plastic asparagus. She's got to have it with her all day every day, and if she realizes that she doesn't have it for whatever reason, she's asking, "spargus? spargus?" She's even wanted to sleep with it a few times. Not sure where this love of asparagus has come from. She's also got an egg and a strawberry that she sometimes gets pretty infatuated with, but for now it's all about the asparagus!

Who's the mommy here?

I was eating my left-over subway sub for lunch today. A little bit of lettuce fell out and I picked it up and ate it. Dani says to me, "Use your fork honey."

No use crying over lunch

We were watching a silly little cartoon before nap time today and it had a baby crying. My sweet sensitive little girl got so upset, she was just wailing! "Oh! Baby cry! Baby cry!" It took me a good 10 minutes and a cup of milk to calm her down. Maybe a baby sister or brother isn't the best idea???? Yikes, I'd hate to have to go through that every time the baby cried.
She was "helping" me look for something to make for lunch today. She looked in the fridge... "Hmmm, what should we have? Chicken?" Then she moved over and looked in the cupboard... "Hmmm, what should we have? Crackers? No. Hmmm, maaayyybbeeeee, cheese? No." Sometimes she's so darn cute that I want to call CPS cuz I'm afraid I'll hug and squeeze her so tight she'll pop!

Just cute pics

Look out pedestrians!!

Gotta love random food on the head.

We love the new I love Nature shirt!

Emma was taking a snooze on Dani's couch.

Look Grammy... a shopaholic already!!

Priceless!!!

Lazy Sunday

We're having a lovely Sunday all alone. No t.v. (a perk of Daddy being gone), just Christmas music, some reading, the crossword puzzle, and lots of fun playing with my girls. It's a beautiful fall day today... not too cold, not too warm, just a slight breeze, and lots of sun.
Today is like the feeling you got as a kid on a Sunday morning. You just got back from church, had the brisk walk from the car to the house, changed into comfy clothes, have some hot chocolate and read the funnies while Mom is doing the crossword and Dad is reading the paper and watching some horrible black and white western on t.v. Maybe you'll start doing some holiday decorating today, maybe you'll go for a Sunday drive, maybe you'll take one last spin on your bike before putting it away for the year, or maybe you'll just nap on the couch and enjoy a lazy Sunday. (Smile and sigh).

Lesson learned

With Duane being gone, I thought it would be a good time to get a few beauty things out of the way. So this morning I got out the wax and warmed it up in the microwave, ready to do my eyebrows. I was extremely careful (moreso than usual for some reason) because I've been badly burned by the wax before when it got too hot. So I very carefully stirred it up, took it to the bathroom, and put it far back on the counter so tootsie couldn't reach up and get it. I looked up to brush my eyebrows quick and I hear, "OOH! What's dat?" SHIT!! I look down and she has her WHOLE hand in the tub of wax. I guess she's taller than I though... that dang kid!!! So I quickly picked her up and put her hand under cold water to harden the wax and get it off her fingers. Expecting horrible screams from my badly burned daughter, I was surprised to hear her giggle instead. The wax came off with no problem and there were no burns. HUH? Thanks God... and I'll try to be more careful in the future.
This just goes to show that what you focus on and put out into the Universe, the Universe brings right on back to you. No more blogs on mommy guilt!! Cuz I focused, and it came!!!!!!
Hey Universe, I've got a healthy and happy family (focus, focus, focus)... and ten million dollars will come in the mail in one week!! (Hey, it doesn't hurt to try).

Daddy's girl

This video needs little explanation. It's just bliss.

Spaghettios

So, most of you know that Danica doesn't usually get food like this. But I figured that Spaghettios are a rite of passage for any kid, so I picked some up. I also figured I'd better document it, so when she's 12 years old and screaming that I never let her do what she wants or have junk food, I can pull this out and show proof that she did indeed have some and she enjoyed it very much!

Mommy guilt

It was a nice chilly fall day today... LOVE that weather! We went out to play and swoosh in the leaves a bit. She is loving her new hat and insisted I take a picture. (Well, not so much insisted as I asked her if we should take a picture and she said okay... but that's close to insisting!)
The old "bucket on the head" game... always a crowd pleaser.

So something happened tonight that is really minor, but still brought up enormous feelings of past and present mommy guilt. And I'd like to know when this is all going to go away.

Dani was playing in her crib and getting herself to sleep tonight and suddenly started crying. It was a bit of a different cry than an "I'm sad" cry. So after a minute Duane went in to see what was up while I cold-heartedly sat on the couch with my glass of wine. He was in there rubbing her tummy for about a minute not noticing anything, then she matter-of-factly says, "stuck." Turns out her foot was stuck in the slats of her crib and was twisted so she couldn't get it out. Duane couldn't get it out either, so he called for backup. We finally got it out without breaking her or the crib, but what did break was my cold rotten heart! Of course my mind goes to the thoughts of what if we hadn't gone in there and just let her "cry it out," what if that happened when a sitter was there and she didn't go in to help, what if that happened (or worse) when we were doing the crying it out phase and she was seriously hurt and crying for an hour while we thought she just didn't want to sleep. And then I start remembering all the things from the past that I still have mommy guilt about and feel even worse. Does this mommy guilt ever go away? Do men have daddy guilt? WILL THIS HAUNT ME FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE??? I think I'll get another glass of wine.