Top Five Saturday Laughs 4.28.12

This is my 100th blog post!!  I do wish that I could find the time/energy to write more often, especially since this is the closest thing I have to a baby book for both girls.  Maybe I will get to 200 sooner?!

It is a rather cold and dreary Saturday here.  It is hard to believe that we had better weather in March than April.  We are having a quiet weekend a very nice change of pace, but are very excited for some big events in the coming weeks!!

Melissa from The Mommyhood Chronicles is in Hawaii, but my other friend Tracy from And Then There Were Three is guest posting the blog hop.  Make sure you check it out!!

Here are our laughs:

5.  Ryan went to put a bow in Claire's hair.  He tried to put it over the whole ponytail rather than just in a little bit of the hair from the top.  Claire felt it and exclaimed, "That's not a good idea Daddy."  I busted up laughing!!

4.  Natalie was crying and Claire shushed her.  Natalie immediately stopped crying and shushed Claire right back.  

3.  We were playing outside and Claire wanted to run into the house to get a certain toy.  She looked at Ryan and yelled, "I will be right back" while putting one finger in the air.  Pretty soon, I see Natalie put a hand straight in the air and yell, "blah, blah, blah, blah" before she headed in the direction of the house.

2.  We are finding out how competitive Claire is becoming.  For those of you who know Ryan and I, this is no shock to you.  Ryan was giving her a bath and they were splashing each other, trying to one-up the other every time.  Pretty soon, Claire grabbed a cup and went to douse Ryan.  He could only put his hand up to block the majority of it!  I heard about this story from him, but still crack up thinking about it!!

1.  This laugh is also a story that Ryan experienced all on his own.  Claire was upset over something and started throwing a fit.  Ryan sent her to her room. While on her way, she went into full hysterics, flaring her arms and screaming down the hallway.  Ryan shook his head and exclaimed, "drama" to a nearby Natalie.  At that moment, Natalie started screaming and toddling down the hall with her arms in the air.  It was a perfect reproduction.  I've said it before, but we are in so much trouble with these two!!

I hope everyone has a delightful weekend!!

Wordless Wednesday :: Adorableness

Here is a sneak peak of Claire's 3 year and Natalie's 1 year photos taken by the fantastic Photography by Jen.

Like her FaceBook page so you can see the rest!!

Top Five Saturday Laughs 4.21.12

Ryan and I had opposite weeks.  He thought the week went by super fast while I couldn't understand what was taking so long for the weekend to get here.  We are both thankful that it is Saturday and are looking forward to celebrating a friend's wedding this evening.

I know I forgot to write down a few funny things this week and for the life of me, I cannot recall them!  Regardless, I still had plenty on my list to choose from :)

5.  Claire seems to pick up on silly sayings all the time, her latest is "totally cool".  With the drama and verbage of this little girl, I am fearful of the teenage years already.

4.  We are in the process of creating a play area for all the girls outside.  We did have our swingset in the front yard until our landscaping went in last week, so now we must find a home for it and the other little toddler toys that we have accumulated.  We were working on a layout and letting the girls play in the backyard one evening after dinner.  Natalie loves to slide, cracking up with laughter each time I help her down the slide.  We have this tiny little slide/climber that Natalie can negotiate on her own and she climbed up the two steps and figured out how to go down the slide.  She ended up going down straight on her back and wiping out on the grass, but couldn't be more proud of the fact that she did it herself.

3.  One day, Claire gave Natalie a kiss and hug so I told her that she was such a sweet big sister.  She replied, "Awe, shucks.  Thanks Mommy."  Melt my heart and crack me up!

2.  At dinner, Natalie dropped her sippy cup and perfectly exclaimed, "Uh-Oh!" (so much so that Ryan thought Claire said it).  This was the first time she had said this so we all cracked up laughing.  However, Natalie didn't appreciate our laughter and started babbling in an angry tone.  It was like she was yelling at us!

1.  I have talked about how Claire is the queen of stalling.  That girl has a serious talent for dragging things out! She had been in bed for an hour and was still playing around.  When I went in to tell her it was not time to play, she didn't have any pajamas on, no pull up and had successfully taken off her pillowcase.  I let out a large sigh, to which Claire said, "Do I drive you crazy Mommy?"  I had to laugh and tell her that she did drive me crazy sometimes.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!  If you're up for some funny reading, make sure you check out The Mommyhood Chronicles.

Natalie's FIRST Birthday Celebration

Natalie turned one on the 9th and we celebrated as a little family. We had spaghetti for dinner (Natalie's favorite) and gave Natalie a small cake to herself.  It was very simple, but the perfect way to spend a Monday night.

Then on Saturday, we had the big birthday bash!!  Thank you to everyone who came over to celebrate with us.  The theme was Minnie Mouse.  Shannon from Sweet Stellas provided meal inspiration and the adorable handcrafted decorations.  My friend Lisa made the fantastic (and super delicious) cakes.  Here are some photos before the party began.

The Birthday Girl waiting for her guests to arrive - the bow lasted all of 30 seconds

I realized that I forgot to take a picture of the cheese slices that were cutout as mickey's profile - I couldn't find a cookie cutter so Ryan made me one - he's so good to me :)

The fruit cups had little pink and purple bows on them - I may have gone a bit overboard ;)

We began the party with our favorite activity - eating!  Everything was so delicious.  I have to thank my parents for all their help in getting ready.  My mom runs circles around me in the kitchen and my dad served as the grill master (who even brought his grill since ours is not functioning properly).

I absolutely love having our whole family together.  Our friends are so close with our family so these parties become a big social event.  I nearly lost track of time since I was talking so much through the meal! After our great conversation, kids playing and lots of eating, Natalie (aka - the other kids) opened gifts. 

I absolutely love birthday parties, but I especially love first birthday parties for the smash cake!!  Here is a play by play of Natalie's cake experience.  

All-Done!

Thank you family and friends for making this day so much fun!  We are so thankful to have you in our lives!!

Top Five Saturday Laughs 4.14.12

Happy weekend!  Ryan and I actually started our weekend a day early and enjoyed the day as a family. This morning we had the girls' photos taken by the fabulous Photography by Jen (check out the sneak peak and while you're there 'like' her page).  We then spent the afternoon in preparation for Natalie's first birthday party that is tomorrow evening.  I am so excited to celebrate our little girl with our family and friends!!

Since I inadvertently missed last weeks' laughs, I had two weeks worth of laughs to choose from.

5.  Claire is constantly coming up with new phrases that stick around for a week or two.  The most recent ones are "Isn't that A-maz-ing?!" and "Sure is" or "Sure will".  All of these sound quite silly coming from a three year old!

4. When Natalie is finished with a meal, she now takes whatever she is eating and shoves it in the seat of the high-chair.  I discovered this one morning as she stuffed her Kix down the sides of the high-chair.  Of course, I didn't catch her in the act and thought she was eating breakfast extra well ;)

3. I introduced Claire to the delicacy that is peeps.  As I expected, she shared in the love of this delicious candy.  Between the two of us we ate an entire sleeve in a sitting.  Ryan came out to check on us and accused me to eating them all.  Claire acted all sneaky and confessed that she had in fact helped.

2.  Natalie pooped on the potty this week!  Okay, it doesn't really count since I noticed the 'poop face' and ran her to the potty and sat her down so she could go, but still, she went on the potty!!   The funny thing came after she went and the entire family was in the bathroom cheering for her, Natalie just clapped along with us beaming with pride.

1.  I had a hard time choosing from these two and since these are rather similar, I will lump them together.  We have had lots of dance parties at our house as of late - we go in our bedroom turn the music up and dance all crazy.  All of us (that have hair) must wear pretty hairbows. Claire asked Ryan to come in the party so that he could be the 'handsome guy at the dance'.  The second also involves Claire and Ryan.  He had gotten her something to eat and Claire replied, "thanks Dad, you're the best dad I ever seen."  I couldn't argue - he is the greatest!!

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!  If you want to check out more laughs, check out Melissa's blog hop at The Mommyhood Chronicles.

Wordless{ish} Wednesday :: Our New Landscaping

Our house is about five years old.  At the time of the build, we were going to save a little money and landscape ourselves.  Needless to say, life happened and landscaping didn't.  We had some rocks that my dad had gotten for us and helped set in the future planting area and that's about it.  Don't get me wrong, we had lots of pretty flowers as Claire calls them - weeds ;)

We decided to use part of our tax return as an investment in our house and met with Twin Lakes Nursery.  Everything moved quickly from there.  In a weeks time we had a design in hand and plants delivered and placed.  Then the hard work began, the planting.  Thankfully Ryan is very willing to work hard. We are also thankful for our friend Marcus who helped!  Together, they had all the plants in the ground late Saturday afternoon.  A few more hours over the next few days to spread the mulch and I can say that it is 95% complete.  There is a little more mulch to spread throughout and tags to take off trees.  Enjoy our progress photos :)

Before

Yes we still have a wreath up - we need a taller ladder!

At least the weeds were gone for these photo...

Plants delivered/staged 

Daddy's little helper - playing in the stinky dirt

Plants are in the ground! 

Ryan starting to spread mulch

Completed!!