Busy, Busy

Since we're on a countdown to #3, my nesting instincts have gone into overdrive. So an any given day my garage looks like this. My car has been parked outside for over a month which is unlike me, because I hate my car sitting out in the sun. But everything else seems to take precedence and I've taken to redoing everything in my house.

In conjunction, we finally got our first spring mowing done. Ava wanted to help but quickly learned it's much easier to ride than it is to push

And finally, one of my first projects is done! I received this changing table as a hand-me-down from my sister who got it from a garage sale. So it's been through a couple of children. It used to be cherry, was kind of worn and didn't match anything. (you can see what it used to look like here) Now that we're on our third I finally painted it! Obviously when you redo anything you end up much happier with the finished product. I am happy. Now on to the million other projects on my list!

Become Child-like

Isn't there a saying that the older we are, the more child-like we become? Or should become? Maybe not, but Ava has miraculously discovered a reverse aging process. We spent the bulk of our morning cleaning out the garage and the girls would come and go. This is one moment where they were gone... Apparently she took a dry erase marker and stood in front of my mirror and decorated herself. Typical 2 1/2 year old behavior. I really don't care if they draw on themselves as long as they don't touch anything else...

While cleaning the garage I brought in the infant car seat to clean it up for #3 and Ava can't resist anything with a buckle. I suppose that's a good thing. She fit with no adjustments... And then she stayed buckled and watched TV... if only she was always that good.

Leilani wanted in on the action and kept saying "watch this" and making this face. I think that means she was posing... Thank you Tita Leana.

And we ended the day in a diaper, yes a diaper. Since I'm cleaning out house Ava was able to find the absolute last diaper we had and wanted to put it on. Mind you she's been potty trained since August, but she stripped, laid down and I put it on her with the strict stipulation that she was not to use it! So she spent the afternoon dancing around in a diaper (literally) and was the happiest girl in the world. We do have an issue right now with both the girls pretending to be babies for play time. They either won't be able to get enough of #3 or hate him/her.

Sister Love

Leilani is always loving on her little sister. I've yet to capture Ava returning it, but she does, sometimes.

Camping

Two weekends ago we took a quick family vacation and camped at Lake Tawakoni in east Texas along with my brother and sil. It's one of the few type of vacations we actually have time for. We tried this two years ago and got rained out the next morning - total foreshadowing for our continued experience with this park. We arrived late Friday afternoon in time to set up camp and take a short hike. The girls were so excited to sleep outside and play with fire. The weather couldn't have been more perfect - mild and still. We enjoyed awesome dutch oven fajitas, sitting around the fire talking, Leilani burning marshmallows and me turning them into smores. As we went to bed that night, however, things went down hill. No less than 15 minutes after we "went to sleep" the rain started, followed by the wind, then thunder and lightening, then wind, wind, wind... and the temperature dropped. Thankfully the girls went right to sleep and slept all night, while Dayne and I watched them sleep all night. I don't know what it was, but we couldn't sleep - maybe it was being on the bad end of cold or the constant gusts of wind... Either way, the next morning we made breakfast burritos in the freezing rain (none of us know why, McDonald's would have been good at that point) and got out of there. Little girls waking up in freezing temps just isn't a good combination. Despite that, Friday night couldn't have been more perfect. It wasn't the same about Saturday morning. My parents came in later Friday night and were gone first thing in the morning. I can't imagine why they didn't stay for breakfast...

We had just arrived at camp and Leilani couldn't wait to get going.

Neither could sister.
Can you see the total adoration for her uncle, or maybe she was scared.
This was taken specifically for the blog.

We thought it funny they were both on their phones in the middle of our hike.

Can you say min-yon (we've been watching a lot of Megamind). That girl totally made him do her bidding.

We think a crane. Totally not distracted by us or the fishing boat.

Grandpa and his girls.

Adam and Anna were so sweet and good to our girls the whole time. This pic is blurry, but Leilani and Ava both have batons and were making Anna be a choir. They would sing and then make her sing. She was so willing! Thanks Anna!

A little touch of spring along the hike.

What a Tuesday looks like

Just some quick pics. Leilani has a love affair with Fun Dip which she calls sugars. When she ran out of sugars she grabbed the Chic-fil-a sauce and kept on dippin'. The sauce is that good.

Little sister and her usual "smile" face.
I got her to say hi to the camera so you can acutally see those beautiful little eyes.

Daddy built a fort out of the couch. A little bit better than Leilani's creation from yesterday. I just love their faces.

And we finished it up with crayola markers. She insisted on keeping her eyes closed for the picture. I suppose it is so you can see every last inch of her handiwork. Doesn't she look like a three-year-old zombie? She told me she was drawing her letters on her arm. Excuses, excuses.

This is for Heidi

Last week my sister Heidi was down for a quick visit, and in addition to her sunny personality I love her free interior design advice that she gives. I acquire new things here and there and they are often placed randomly until I think of something to do with them. This "vintage" (code for 1980's) rocking chair has gone from the living room, to the bedroom, back to the living room, all with the intention of someday being painted white. Well, this chair was on one side of my piano, and an actual vintage blue chair was on the other side along with our toy boxes. Heidi says "why don't we have these chairs together in a little seating arrangement?" Larissa says, "I don't know." So here we go.

From vintage gold fruit basket to...

bright and white and in a seating arrangement. I'm thinking about also distressing it...
And then there are these pictures or works of art, whatever you'd like to call them. I was going to hang them with our very large engagement photo in the middle and a black oval frame on each side. Heidi says "probably like this for more visual interest." And here we are. It is my favorite wall grouping at the moment.

So I guess it's good that Heidi comes down, because I'm actually inspired to get things done that have been sitting. Those awesome hand-embroidered, custome-framed oval pictures have been sitting in my room since Thanksgiving 2009... One of her visits resulted in every thing in my house being re-hung at eye level, every thing... It makes a difference. Thanks Heidi for all your free interior advice. Now if we could only get a carpenter in the family for the same price...

And to close with a picture from my day. You only think your children are being good while you're folding laundry and watching a movie. No, they're creating a "house".

Kitchen

Thanks to some wonderful gifts and inheritances (namely the toys I played with at their age) the girls have built up an arsenal of kitchen toys and gadgets. But they never really had a "place" to play with them - mainly the living room floor and the top of the toy box. And I know you're thinking what a wonderful way to use their imagination and they're lucky they even have pretend cupcakes and stainless steel pans - when I was a girl we used acorns and leaves! But being the mother and woman that I am, I was dying to get them a play kitchen. So yesterday I bought this little thing of of craigslist. It's not the kitchen of my dreams, because my dreams are a little out of budget, but it turned out really cute.

I brought the girls home to surprise them and it went like this:

Ava's asleep

Leilani: Cool surprise mom!

Mom: Thanks Leilani. Do you like it?

L: It's a kitchen!

L: Cool surprise! (She starts tinkering)

All of a sudden...

L: Mom, I don't want the blue one. I want the pink one on the computer.

M: Oh, well mommy can't afford the pink one so we got a blue one.

L: Oh, Cool surprise mom!

Ava finally woke up and got to play with it too. Of course Leilani says "Come play with MY kitchen, sister."