Hanging out

We had so much fun on our staycation that we had to spend the first day back catching up on some chores, like laundry.  My girls entertained themselves on my bed while I sorted and folded laundry.  It was great company.

Grass-hauk

Lucy went with Ryan to Home Depot this last Saturday and got this free hat.  She loved it.

Staycation 2014

Ryan's parents were supposed to come visit us this last week but had to cancel due to a funeral.  Ryan still had the time off of work and had to use so many rollover days before the end of April, so he kept the time off and we decided to have our own little family staycation here in Columbus.  We had so much fun just our little family exploring the things around us and spending time together.  I hardly took pictures... I thought about it a few times but decided that this was one of those moments where I was just enjoying the moment completely instead of worrying about getting all the right pictures.  For my own memory, here's the run-down:

Friday: Much to our surprise, Ryan got off work pretty early and since it was the first really warm-ish day (relatively speaking) we decided to get pizza for dinner and take it to the park.  Of course it got a little chilly by the end and had some crazy strong winds going on so I had to keep chasing our napkins and plates and even our box with pizza in it!  We followed that up by getting ice cream cones on the way home.

Saturday: We decided to give in and get zoo memberships and go this day... along with 75% of Columbus. ;)  Seeing as it was the first warm, sunny day of the year, not to mention the weekend, it was pretty busy!  But that's the beauty of having the annual pass- we saw a few things that Lucy wanted to see (she insisted on monkeys and elephants), ate lunch, and left. Later on that evening, Ryan and I hired a real babysitter for the second time in our lives and went out on a date to see Captain America.  We even bought popcorn, which is a big deal for us.  Ha!

Sunday: Of course we went to church in the morning, where Lucy went to nursery and stayed the whole time without any problem (that's like the 5th time in a row or something- I think it's a one deal!). Then, after afternoon naps for everyone, we took a nice long walk around our neighborhood, explored the pond by our house, and chatted with a few neighbors who were out and about. After dinner we watched some Mormon Messages and just hung out at home and relaxed.

Monday: We took Lucy to a place full of bounce houses and huge blow-up things called World of Bounce.  It was raining hard outside all morning, so perfect day for an indoor activity.  The place was pretty empty for most of the time, so we really got to enjoy it ourselves.  Lucy had a blast and made us stay the whole 3 hours of open bounce time.  We packed a lunch to eat there and played some more.  On our way home, we stopped and got ice cream cones again. :)  The afternoon consisted of running a few errands, and then having FHE.

Tuesday: This morning we ran some more necessary errands but planned a lunch at a local mexican restaurant that we love.  It was fun to go out to eat at a sit-down restaurant with the girls.  And I pretty much drink the salsa there.  So good!  After that, we went and finally bought me some new glasses.  Te afternoon was pretty simple and I can't even remember what else we did.

And that's that!  It was a bummer when Ryan had to go back to work on Wednesday morning bright and early.  But that's reality and we were happy with the time we got!

 The gorillas were all active and swinging everywhere and chasing each other, but they were super loud!

 World of Bounce

A new driver on the road

Watch out everybody, Columbus has a new driver on the road and she's only 6 months old!

I put in the floor to the cozy coupe and put Claire in it for a ride yesterday.  It's fun that she can start going in things like this now, and it's also fun to see kids' reactions to trying something totally new.  Claire loved it and Lucy loved being a big helper and pushing.... for a minute until she wanted her turn.   Ha!

Sibling love

No one can make Claire laugh as easily as Lucy can.  Claire will watch Lucy for a long time and just laugh at everything she does- even if it is not funny.  Lucy also loves to make Claire laugh and even if she is being defiant towards me in the moment, she will stop and do anything I ask her to do for Claire. I'm sure this won't always last and that we will have good and not-as-good phases, but I hope this sure lasts for a while!

These pictures were while I was vacuuming.  Claire is kind of scared of it still, so I asked Lucy to sit by her so she wouldn't be as sad.  She not only ran and sat by her, but grabbed a few of Claire's favorite toys on her way.

Rain, rain, go away...

By late afternoon today, both the girls and I were getting a little stir crazy and had to get outside.  It wasn't completely freezing so I figured we could get out for a quick stroller ride.  As soon as I got the stroller outside, it started to downpour, thunder and all.  So much for our walk!  But Lucy was not going to take going inside for an answer, so we sat outside on our porch and watched the rain come down.  Of course cute little Lucy is just too curious to sit and watch it for too long and she slowly but surely inched her way more and more into the rain.  As soon as the thunder stopped, I let her go out and ride her bike in the rain, which made her a happy camper!  Even though it was pouring rain, it was nice to get a breath of fresh air for a few minutes.

I love this picture because it captures her "satisfied" look perfectly. :)

Claire's cheeks aways getting in the way. ;)

 Rain, rain, go away... we want to go out and play!

A little windy

It is pretty much always windy here in Columbus, thanks to the geography of the area.  But a few days ago I was trying to get some cute pictures of Lucy and Claire and the wind was out of control, so we were unsuccessful.  One particular gust of wind came along right as I took this picture of Lucy and it cracks me up since she looks so shocked and her hair got blown straight up from her face.  Ha!

Claire: 6 months

Half a year.  Crazy how fast it is going!  Claire is growing and healthy and mostly happy. :)  Sometimes sweet and sometimes sassy these days.  Here's Claire at 6 months:

• Height: 90%, weight: 75%, head 50%
• Starting to crawl!  She crawled for the first time on April 3rd.  She's not consistent yet, but she's up and rocking and moving all over the place.  She can move her legs and her arms, but struggles doing it at the same time. :)  Needless to say though, she's getting all over the place these days even when she's not crawling.  
• Sleeping through the night, twelve straight hours.  7:30 pm-7:30 am.  She was getting up once a night at about 5:30 or 6  and when she was, I was just feeding her to put her back to sleep.  I didn't think I minded but then I realized I was just getting too darn tired.  So a week or so ago I just put her back to sleep without feeding her two nights in a row and from that point on she has slept twelve straight hours!  Worth it.
• Eats ALL kinds of food. We finally started feeding her rice cereal and baby food consistently because she really wanted it.  She also wants everything we are eating, so I usually give her small little bites.  She gobbled down a green smoothie, some muffins, bread... everything.
• Baby talks like crazy! Seriously likes to test out her voice.
• Super ticklish, especially her shoulders, feet, thighs, and ribs.
• Loves getting her back rubbed.  It calms her down.
• Loves her baby toys, but especially loves a crinkly bag of baby wipes.

I'm sure I will add more later, but this is all I've got right now because I'm tired and going to bed. :)

Notice the tears under her eyes? Poor thing was not a happy camper a few minutes before this picture.

Hair cut

I love having long hair, but I needed to get it chopped because it was just too painful with Claire.  She used my hair as a pacifier and would grab chunks and suck on it all the time, especially for comfort.  She also pulled on it constantly to balance herself.  It always looked like a wet dog part way through the day, not to mention it hurt.  So, it was time.  I chopped it.

See what I mean?  Gross.

 Before:

 After:

Two sit!

Lucy and Claire take a bath together every night, but Claire is in her baby bath in the tub.  Lately Lucy has been wanting to get in it but when we tell her no and that is is for Claire, she just says "two sit!" and gets in with her.  It's a little cramped, for sure.  Luckily Claire doesn't mind and Lucy gets sick of the tight space after a few seconds anyway.  

Life lately

We had to watch Marci's kids one afternoon and Lucy and Ty hid in her closet during hide and seek.  They get along so well right now and love to play with each other.

 Claire was tuckered out and scooted herself over to Big Bear and fell asleep like this.  She looked pretty comfy.

 My girls just watching a show together in their "seats" with their blankies.

 This little girlie of mine loves her thumb.

 Lucy and I ran an errand together and she wore my sunglasses like this the entire time.  I looked back periodically and she was totally in her own world just like this, not being bothered by the glasses being both upside down and halfway off her face. :)

Just a picture of my and Claire hanging out in the back of Relief Society.  We don't usually last long since she's pretty vocal in all quiet situations these days.

Just me and my Loose Goose snuggling before bedtime.

 Lucy got a gift card to the Cheesecake Factory for her birthday and we finally cashed in on it last week.  She loved going to a nice restaurant (doesn't happen much) and kept laughing at the "toys" on the ceiling (the fancy contemporary lights).

 She went to town on the cheesecake! We had to stop this quickly though so she would still go to sleep.

Lucy was helping me get dinner ready and was supposed to be shredding cheese.  Next thing I know, she's taking huge bites out of the large chunk of cheese. Yuck!  This girl loves her cheese.

We had a warm(ish) day finally and Claire tried out the swings for the first time and loved them!

 Lucy is super anxious to go swimming this summer.  Can you tell?  We pull out the pool any sunny day we can.

 Hipster. ha!

 Tired, tired girl.  Every kid has a sleeping-while-eating picture, right?

 Me and my girls.  This is Lucy's new pouty look these days.  She's mastered the fake cry that turns into a meltdown lately.  Still cute though.

Cutie Claire sitting on our new button rug in the playroom.