Lazy Days

It has been cold & nasty here all weekend.  The hi-light of our weekend was going to eat at The Wooden Spoon on Friday night with the Davises.  It's a little restaurant in Gentry that is just scrumptious!  I had brisket nachos & I'm pretty sure it was the best brisket I've ever eaten.  I think they're known for their desserts too because they didn't even ask if we wanted dessert, they asked what we wanted.  I got a strawberry cream cheese pie & Jon got a turtle cheesecake.  The Davises shared some yummy chocolate cake.  I ate all of mine & tasted some of everyone's.  You can tell it's all homemade from scratch.  I'm already looking forward to going back!

Saturday we did some grocery shopping and that's the only time we left the house all day.  We all took about a 3 hour nap that afternoon.  It never got out of the 40s & it was drizzly and cloudy all day.  Sunday was about the same, except we did get out & go to church.  When we're done with our class, everyone goes & picks up their kids from the nursery & brings them back to class.  They always have a fun time playing with each other, but this week was especially fun.  Zach enticed Ava & Adeline to chase him all over the church.   It was hilarious.  Zach is two years older than Adeline and Ava is about 5 months older, but Adeline didn't have a problem keeping up.  They ran as fast as they could with Zach yelling the whole time, "Come on, girls" and the girls squealing as loud as they could.  It does my heart good to see our kids having fun & growing up together.

Today I had big intentions of getting some much needed shopping done for Easter & an upcoming wedding I'm in.  However, Adeline slept until 9:00 so that got the morning off to a slow start.

When I got her out of her crib she wanted to bring all her lovies to breakfast with her.  I couldn't pass up the photo opp.  Then as I was getting ready, she insisted that I sit down & rock her for about 20 minutes.  Of course I didn't mind.  My girl is not a snuggler, so I take every chance I can get.  I just hope it doesn't mean she's getting sick.  We did make it to Target, but I started sneezing my head off (everything's finally starting to bloom here) and I just didn't feel like doing anything else.  I bought a few of the necessities then headed home.  We spent the rest of the day napping, playing, cleaning, & doing laundry in my new washer & dryer!

The no bottle is going pretty well.  She won't drink milk, but her pediatrician has assured me that she doesn't need it as long as she's getting dairy from other sources.  She's sleeping just fine & will drink maybe an ounce a day of milk.  I'm glad it's going much more smoothly than the last time we tried.

New Car Fever

So yep, I've got the bug.  The new car bug, that is.  When I told Jon I had it, his exact words were, "Well, you better get rid of that."  That was about a month ago.

I don't look at cars online, we never watch TV & when we do it's DVR so I don't see commercials, & we certainly haven't been to look at any cars, so why can't I get rid of this fever?  I think about my new car all the time.  It's like a little love affair I have.  Just me & my new car in my day dreams & in my thoughts at night when I'm suffering from insomnia.  So are you curious now as to what kind of new car I want?  If I'm around you very often you already know.  Brace yourself because it's a shocker!  I really really really really really want a new.......MINIVAN!  


I know.  It's crazy, right?  Before Jon's 4Runner was smushed by a tree in the ice storm, I was going to be the next one to get a new car.  He told me then that I should get a minivan since we were wanting to start a family soon.  He said they were the perfect family car.  I remember saying exactly, "No way!  I will ride a bicycle before I will EVER drive a minivan!"  I'm serious.  Those words actually came out of my mouth and now I can't imagine my life without a minivan.  At the time I wanted a Honda Pilot, just like the one his mom drove.  Well, when his truck was totaled, that's exactly what I got.  Her Honda & he started driving my Jeep Liberty.  He hated the Liberty and last year he traded it in for his Tundra.  So now, we're paying off two cars & me getting a minivan is out of the question.  But can't a girl still dream?

Let me tell you why I want a minivan:

• Sliding doors - for those of you with kids, you know why.  It is so difficult to get a baby carrier out of a car in any parking spot.  Someone or something is always too close so you're having to squeeze in & out.  I know I'm past the carrier stage with Adeline, but Baby #2 will be here soon and life would be oh so much easier if I had sliding doors.  Especially since I'll be trying to get TWO kids out of the car.
• Doors that open & close with the push of a button on your key ring.  Can you imagine the ease of getting shopping bags, kids, pets, toys, etc in & out of your car when you've got your hands full of all of the above items if you could just push a button & the doors would slide open &/or the back hatch would pop open? (and then close with the same push of a button)
• A TV that hangs from the ceiling & can be operated by the driver while driving.  We currently have a TV that straps onto the headrest of the front seats.  How is this going to work with two kids trying to watch a video?  Also, do you know how annoying it is to listen to a 30 minute Baby Einstein video FIVE times in a row?  If I could operate the DVD player while driving, I could change out the movie however frequently I wanted!  We only allow video-watching in the car on long car rides, but we take long car rides fairly often.  This would just make life so much easier.
• All kinds of useful, nifty storing compartments that only minivans have.  

Those are the four main reasons that come to mind right now.  I'm sure there are lots more wonderful things that minivans have to offer that I don't even know about since I've never driven one.  I know they're not glamorous & I'm probably going to get made fun of by most of my friends, but I want one and there's nothing you can say to make me change my mind.  Maybe in a few years we can afford one, but will I even need it as badly then?  

If I could test drive some, these are the four I would look at: (& I promise this is the first time I've looked at them online)

 The Nisssan Quest

 The Volkswagen Routan

 The Honda Odyssey

The Toyota Sienna

I don't think minivans are pretty cars.  In fact, I kind of think they're ugly.  (not to offend any minivan drivers out there..you know I envy you)  However, I live by the same theory I do about a clean car.  I don't really ever see the outside of it, so the looks don't really bother me.  I want one to make my life easier.  End of story!

Cuteness & Play Group

Adeline has been doing so many cute things lately that I felt I needed to document them.  It amazes me that she seems to learn something new every day.  And I'm so surprised at the things she does know.

• When I was at my parents' last weekend I had on some Winnie the Pooh sweatpants.  Adeline walked right up to me, pointed at my pants, & plain as day said, "bear" in the cutest, sweetest voice ever.
• I later put on a shirt that had birds on it.  She one by one pointed to all the birds & said, "bird."
• My parents' dog's name is Harley, on Saturday night we were at my grandma's & my uncle was there with his Harley motorcycle.  My dad said, "Let's go check out Uncle John's Harley" and Adeline started barking like a dog.
• I have a thing hanging on the back of the driver's seat in my car that holds toys, books, diapers, etc.  On the way home on Sunday I heard Adeline say, "hello" so I turned around to see what she was doing.  She was holding her hand up to her ear like she was talking on the phone.  When she saw me looking at her, she quickly pointed to the phone that was in the hanging thing because she wanted to play with it.
• On Monday morning we went to the grocery store & Adeline told everyone we passed "Hello" "Bye bye"
• As I was getting together lunch on Monday, Adeline found a little ziploc container in the bottom of the pantry to play with.  She carried it all over the house while I was preparing lunch.  When lunch was ready, I called Adeline into the kitchen to get in her hi-chair.  She wouldn't come and was running all over the house.  Finally she came running through the kitchen & ran to the pantry door & started opening it.  I was telling her to come on & get in her chair, then she quickly opened the door, threw in the container, shut the door & climbed into her hi-chair.  I felt bad for getting onto her when all she was trying to do was clean up!
• When she sees a play rabbit (even her bunny snacks) she hops it up & down & tries to say "hop hop hop."
• She loves to point at pictures of herself & say "Adda."  She also points to me & says "Momma" & to Jon & says "Daddy."
• On Wednesday night Jon was doing something with the church so he had to drop Adeline off at the nursery then I picked her up when I got off work.  This was very confusing to her and the whole way to the car she was saying, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy."  We went from the church to a restaurant to have dinner with a couple of my friends & when I got her out of the car she was pointing to the trucks in the parking lot & saying "Daddy."  When I told Jon about it, it just made his day.
• She's also gotten very expressive with her face lately & can make all kinds of cute faces.  She makes a sad & happy face on command, but my favorite is the one she makes when she thinks she might be getting into something she's not supposed to.  I kind of caught it on camera this afternoon.

She's also started wearing pigtails in her hair.  I have mixed feelings about them.  On one hand they are so incredibly adorable, but on the other they make me sad because she looks so grown up!

We had play group at our house today, but it was a very small group.  I think a lot of people are out of town for Spring Break, or something.  Mandy & Hunter came too, but I didn't get a picture of them before they left.  :(

 She cried when Shannon went out to load up her car & I snapped a picture.  I love this face!

 Westin LOVED the slide!

Best buddies :)

We had fun with our friends, but wish more could have joined us!  I'm back on the mission of getting rid of the bottle.  She drank chocolate milk from her sippy at lunch so I put her to bed for her nap without a bottle first.  She went right to sleep, but only slept an hour.  We'll see how tomorrow goes....

The Rest of our NB Trip

Not long after we woke up on Saturday we met some family at the park.  Adeline wasn't quite so sure about everyone, but I think she had a good time.

 My cousin Samantha & her daughter, Elizabeth came in town.  Elizabeth will be 2 next month.

 Aunt Kiersten came to play too!

 Adeline & Nana crawled through tunnels & slid down slides.

 Adeline really enjoyed the teeter-totter, but didn't much like sharing her seat.  

I think she could have swung all day...just like her momma.

After lunch we headed over to my aunt Denise's house so Adeline could see her horses.  However, she was much more impressed with her 8 dogs than her horses.  

 Reggie chasing/playing with "Mini-Horse"

 Viper & Preacher

 Viper was her favorite.

 Sitting bareback with cousin Spencer

She figured out how to get out of the yard.

It was getting close to nap time & Adeline was getting very tired.  Every time one of Denise's dogs would walk by that was about her height, Adeline would lean over & lay her head on it & start sucking her thumb.  We decided we better get that girl home for a nap.  She ended up sleeping 3 1/2 hours!  

When she woke up, we went over to my grandma's to eat with all my cousins and aunts & uncles.  Almost the whole gang was there and we had such a great time.  It has been forever since all of us were in one place at once.  

 With my girl cousins Samantha, Dorothy, & Amanda

 An attempt to get a pic of the 3 youngest great-granddaughters.  (Adeline didn't want Elizabeth near her 3-wheeler)

 Us with all our 2009 babies

 Ginga (A's great-grandma) reading her a book.  (I love this picture)

Playing on Uncle John's Harley.

We headed home after lunch on Sunday.  Adeline is doing much better in the car.  She only slept about 30 minutes, but she was happy most of the time.  When we got home she was ready to burn some energy.  

So why didn't Jon go with us and what did he do all weekend?  Well, we left too early on Friday for him to go with us, but that was ok because he had lots of stuff he wanted to get done around the house.  He worked hard all weekend and this was his biggest accomplishment.

He dug up most of these rocks from Shane & Juliet's yard then line our flower beds with them.  I love the way they look!  Now I just need to start weeding & planting!

Technical Difficulties

So I'm having some technical difficulties with my blog.  Apparently it is full & will not hold anymore pictures.  Therefore, I am having to order books of my blog so I can delete some old posts.  I haven't had much time to do that this week, but plan on taking care of it tomorrow.  After that I will have several posts up so stay tuned!

Love Love Love

We have experienced so much love today!  Adeline & I got up & hit the road to New Boston right after breakfast.  We followed my friend Katie from work about half-way home & we got to have lunch with her before we went our separate ways.  This was SUCH a big help to me because I was able to order food & use the bathroom while someone else entertained Adeline.

Then, we FINALLY got to meet my sweet little niece Lyla!  I could have loved on her all weekend.  She is absolutely beautiful.  I forgot how tiny newborns are.  When we first got there Adeline had a death grip on me, but when her Aunt Amanda got there she let me put her down and then Lyla was all mine!  I bounced her right to sleep then I got to get some snuggle time in.

 Adeline snuggling with her Aunt Amanda

The next picture isn't all that great, but I had to share it.  Adeline really surprised me with how she acted toward Lyla.  She was very sweet & gentle.  She would come over every now & then & very lightly pat her & act like she was going to kiss her, but never actually put her lips on her.  She was also very ok with me holding her.  I think she's going to be a great big sister!

My super talented & very sweet MIL made Adeline & Lyla matching outfits.  Aren't they adorable?

 One of the "almost" kisses :)

We had such a great time visiting.  I wish we could see you every day, sweet little Lyla!  Also, thank you to Adeline's two sweet aunts for entertaining her while I snuggled Lyla & relaxed.  We love you Aunties Amber & Amanda!  I wish I would have gotten a pic of Lyla with her beautiful mommy.

After getting to Pappy & Nana's house, Adeline was ready to run outside like a wild child.  She chased this ball almost all over their 1 acre yard.

 She also fell & scraped up her knee for the first time.  It didn't slow her down for long, though.

Then she decided she needed to sprinkle some dirt on it.....

For dinner my parents grilled hamburgers & hot dogs & Big T, Tiny, Tater Tot, & Conley all joined us.  After we ate Adeline was hamming it up.  We were playing outside and we were all standing around her in a circle.  She was dancing and running and jumping all around in the middle of us.  Then she'd clap & look at each & every one of us to make sure we were clapping too.  It was hilarious!


*Her 2T shorts that will fit when it's warm enough in NWA, are still too big right now, so we lost those after dinner.

As the sun started to go down, we walked back to my parents' pond & Adeline walked (or ran) nearly the entire way there & back.

Looking at the water with her 2 grandpas.  I love how much she's loved!

We had such a fun day.  Insomnia has struck again and I've had a total of 8 hours of sleep the past 2 nights combined.  Tomorrow will be packed full and I've already stayed up way later than I said I was.  I really hope I can sleep all night.