Days to be Remembered

They say a picture's worth a thousand words.  How about a thousand things in a picture.

Starting from left to right.

Dishes left from last night's dinner I've been avoiding.

Sippy cups sippy cups and more sippy cups.

A can of green beans from the cannery that NO ONE eats.

A half cut up pineapple.

Lunch remains from Leilani.

The video camera to catch TJ doing "Big Boy" for the first time.

My half eaten lunch that I tried to shove in my face in between feeding TJ.

TJ's lunch remains.

Over due library books.

My 32oz water jug from the hospital that I am STILL using 9 months later.

Last years "Christmas Present" to my Mom and Dad before we found out where they were serving their mission.

A flyer to a marriage and family fireside Friday night.

Leilani's art from nursery on Sunday. 

A blanket that acted as Santa's sled while Leilani Clarice (Rudolf's girlfriend) pulled me through the night sky.

A drum brought up from down stairs so that Leilani could keep the beat to the Christmas music playing in the background.

Toys toys and more toys.

Our "cat" Princess Gato wearing a cape.

A kitchen bag clip and a hair clip acting as alligators.  Careful, they might chomp your fingers.

And a bucket of blocks on the high chair to keep TJ busy while I trimmed his toenails.

And this is just ONE section of the house:)

These are things I am most likely to forget but will probably miss the most when they're gone.

The Letter O

The letter O says "awe" like

Octopus and Octagon

You are so smart, you even counted all the octopus's legs and the sides of the octagon.

They both have 8.

You learned the name of a new animal, an Ox (you're right, it does look like a cow)

and fluttered your wings like an Owl. 

And you already knew exactly what to do with the Olives.

We liked the letter O.

Going on a Bear Hunt

This

is

Bears

He has been a part of our family for a long time.

He used to be white.

And even though he's washed regularly

He only improves from a dark gray, to a lighter gray. 

He's Everywhere.

and yet...

Can NEVER be found!

At least twice a day I go on a Bear Hunt.

He could be anywhere!!

Closets, behind couches, under beds, in toy bins, sitting inconspicuously on the floor...

The other day I threatened to throw Bears away.

Blasphemy!

And then almost on cue he disappeared.

We were stumped.

We looked in

closets, behind couches, under beds, in toy bins, inconspicuous spots on the floor...

nothing.

I was about to say, "Well, Darn it!  Guess she'll have to learn how to do without" but Targhee wasn't about to let that happen.

He decided to check ONE last time

when...

Ta da!

Bears reappeared in the dress up box (which had been checked before).

All's right in the world once again.

It must have been the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

(Cute side note: Targhee slipped into Leilani's room while she was sleeping to put Bears in her arms so that when she woke up she would be so happy:) -I love him and his ways around his little girl who can do no wrong.

The Letter J

Today's letter is brought to you by the "Jar of J"

Since J stands for Jar, we found things around the house we could put inside our Jar.

First were Jacks.

You did a good job of counting them one by one into the jar.

Next were some Jellybeans. Yum!

After that, we were thirsty and needed some Juice.

We took a walk outside to visit our Jack-o-lantern we had just carved for Halloween.

But he didn't fit in our Jar.

And finally we found a Jeep just small enough to put in the Jar.

You were also dressed and roaring like a Jaguar.

We're gonna Party like it's Your Birthday

I've decided there are two approaches to a birthday

1. You take control and make it a good day.  Plan out things that will make you happy and get the gifts that you really want, if you so desire 

or

2. Sit back and let whatever happens happen.  Keep in mind, however, that you must remove all expectations to avoid disappointment.

I chose to take the latter route this year and it proved to be a good one.

My birthday started out with a surprise by Targhee that he had taken the day off work!  That alone made the day 10 times better than I anticipated:)  

My sister dropped by with lunch and a brownie pie.  Yum!!

Presents

This picture cracks me up.  We all seem to be involved in some deep conversation, but considering that I'm speaking with a 2 year old and an 8 months old...that really can't be the case.

After lunch, Targhee took us all down for a day in Salt Lake City

We started at Tracy Aviary in Liberty Park

What a fun little place. I was quite impressed by the birds there, and since we had the entire place to ourselves, we got to spend as much time at each station that we wanted.

Here are some pictures of the birds I was personally impressed with.

a rare type of pheasant

I wish there was something to give more perspective but this vulture was bigger than Leilani!

Black neck swan.  I thought this was beautiful

Peacock

Toucan 

We watched them feed the pelicans. I've never seen them stretch open their beaks before.  It was crazy! These were also huge.

This picture makes me giggle.  TJ's totally acting like he knows exactly what to do:)

And in true bird birthday wishing fashion... I got pooped on!!

I'm trying not to see this as a metaphor for the rest of my year.

"Arial, how you doin kid?  Woah! What a swim!" Naturally this is what Leilani said when she put these to her face:)

Our next stop was the Disney Store.

The Princess of the day

Leilani checking out her Tinkerbell wings

TJ was most delighted by Dori and the Cheshire Cat

We ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

Again...Yum!

This is how we wait for our food.

And this is what you really go for!

Friday night we had Targhee's family over for cake and ice cream and games.

I asked Leilani what kind of cake I should have and she said, "Pink."

So I did

It was a wonderful birthday and I'm actually so sentimental now (becoming a Mother has seemed to do that to me) that I even shed a few tears of gratitude at the end of the day for all of the love that was shown to me by friends and family.

Thank you to everyone who helped make it special!!