Audrey had a Dance recital

It was her first :) We are so very proud of her and the other girls in her class. They worked pretty hard, for their age. Her class is from 3 to 6 yr olds. And there are 6 girls in the class. The recital was at the teachers other dance studio. As it has a larger floor and can fit family on chairs with enough room for the girls to dance. We took our video camera and Stu took some video while I took photos. So I put all the parts together here. Enjoy. The video had to be broken up into 2 parts. Which means you will need a chance to just sit down and watch it. Enjoy :)

Part 1... :)

This is part 2....

No I haven't disappeared...

We just have a lot going on. Here is a fun video of the Girlies :)

Baseball

Well we took the girls to their first baseball game last night. It was also the first time either Stu or I had seen the Bees play, as well as our first baseball game in like, well lets just say a very long time. It was a blast. Though I think we learned a few things about taking the girlies. Next time we won't show up to the game so freaking early. Even if they did continuously have fun. It was very, very hot.

So not only was it their first baseball game, it was there very first train ride. And they really loved that. Chuggington is a favorite show of the girls.

Anyway I think the rest is best said in pictures so enjoy!

This would be both going to and coming from the game. They absolutely loved the trains!

The game!

Fireworks after the game. They were pretty impressive!

(I finally figured out how to do collages to make the picture heavy posts not so crazy. Now I just need to figure out a few more things to make it just that much better...)

Food Art

So I have been trying to figure out ways to get Audrey to like trying new foods. At times it seems like she has a huge fear of "new" foods. Sometimes it is just that we haven't had a certain food item in a long time and she had forgotten that she used to eat this. Other times it is a food that she eats regularly but it looks different, such as pizza from Little Ceasar's vs. pizza from Dominoes vs. pizza from the freezer etc. And when she doesn't want to eat a specific food it won't happen. And when she gets into the I'm dead set against it and you try to make her eat it, she WILL throw up. No if's, and's or but's about it. Nothing will stop her from throwing it up.

Lately I have been trying to get around that problem. I will warn her before I start making dinner that I will be making something new. (Mostly this something new is just a different sort of pasta, she seems to think if it isn't Spaghetti noodles or Macaroni and Cheese that it will not work.) She hates new shapes of food. I have tried explaining that noodles are noodles no matter what shape they have, they will taste the same. I have even gotten her to taste different noodles without sauce. She says yum, and then will have no more of it. I have had her help me cook it. And help me put it together so she can see all that goes into it. But no matter what she will not generally try it.

I still offer the "new" foods to her. Just recently I started the, "You must try at least one bite, before I make you other food. But if you don't eat all of this "new" food, you don't get the treat of your choice for dessert." And this worked the other night. I don't know if it will continue to work. Though it did work on getting her to eat some Shells and Cheese that we made the other night. She even asked for it for dinner the following night. Score!

What I would like to talk about next is that I tried letting them paint food yesterday afternoon for lunch. I found 14 different flavors of food that were "paintable". I filled a muffin tin and 2 bowls with the flavors. Some of the flavors were of things they had tried before and some were not. We had peanut butter, applesauce, ketchup, chocolate malt sauce, caramel sauce, whipped cream, powdered sugar, shredded cheese, ranch dressing, grape jam, homemade (hm) strawberry jam, hm raspberry jam, hm peach goo, and reduced sugar strawberry jam. The paint brushes were carrot sticks and the canvas was a flour tortilla shell.

 The girls thought this was pretty cool. And I had Audrey promise me before she could start that she would eat whatever she made. I decided that I should join in to get them started and show them what they could do. And the party started.


They were trying new flavors, and eating carrots. They were having fun. Ellie ate a few nibbles of her tortilla. Audrey and Ellie tried the applesauce and ate some of it.

 I unfortunately ate a few carrots and had to take a benedryl, so after my 2 tortillas were done I left them to their own devices. And this is where things went wrong. Neither of the girls ate any of their artwork. So I had to put Ellie down for her nap. But before I put her down they figured out a way to get peanut butter on the walls, and applesauce on the door behind them. Oh well it was mostly a success as they did eat something and tried other things. Yay!

Sippy Cups

So I generally let the girls take drinks down stairs with them to watch tv. And generally I will let them take a snack down to munch on as well. But I will ask them to bring their plates/sippys/other eating paraphernalia. I will generally ask them to do this when I am doing the dishes. And usually they will. But on occasion I will ask them and Thing 1 will say that she doesn't see any or she is too tired or some other excuse. Now, I will generally remember having seen at least one or 2 sippys downstairs. And they are generally in plain sight. So I will go over and let her know that I know that she can see the sippys. And after I coerce her to bring them up, which will usually involve a threat to turn off the tv or just turning off the tv, she will bring up some of the sippys.

Where this takes me is to tonight. When I left to go to a Relief Society get together, the living room was in a slight bit of disarray. And I knew that I should go through it and clean it up but I figured it could go another day, probably. As of late I have been able to get Audrey and Ellie to do some cleaning up.

In fact I was able to get Ellie to do some clean up earlier today. But Audrey would start cleaning and then stop, and with her big sister for an example, Ellie decided to do the same thing. So I turned off the tv. But that didn't encourage Audrey at all this afternoon. In fact she went right on playing what ever game she had come up with, with Ellie. But they did end up cleaning up a little bit, they put away all the crayons and stacked up the dishes that they had seen.

I came home from the aforementioned meeting and found that both girls were still awake and the room was scary messy. Well I put the girls to bed and then forgot about the front room until it was time to feed the cats and put the dog to bed. And I had to walk through that scary-ness. So I figured why not clean it up now and make the next day not so hard on myself.

Well long story short. I ended up bringing a laundry basket full of stuff from the living room (that is supposed to stay in the girls room), the tote of crayons (regathered), 2 bowls, 3 plates, and 8 sippy cups. Yeah you read that right 8 SIPPY CUPS!

I had been wondering where all the sippys were disappearing to. And for this round they went to the living room. Oye. At least all were found and not any of the sippys that go to the living room are milk filled. Go me, I guess. :)

Well that is my ranting for the evening. One silly thing that I have noticed recently with Audrey, is that she is starting to want to clean things herself. So I will find her wiping off items that have been colored on, or are just dirty. So one of the items I found downstairs was a wash cloth, Ellie has found a love of cleaning as well, but she is like her mother and likes wipes. So she will take the baby wipes downstairs and clean things off with those. So there were like 10 wadded up wipes on the floor that needed to be thrown out as well. It is kind of funny the things that make you smile, or proud of. Even if you have to clean up the mess. :)

An odd thing happened yesterday

So I had an experience yesterday. Figured I should write it down if only to make sure I know what happened and keep my story straight.

My mom came over and so we had the kids upstairs watching tv. Ellie was napping and everything was fairly cool. I had opened the garage door so I could do some cleaning and have fairly easy access to the garbage cans. Our laundry/storage/cat room(kitty litter and food) flooded on Monday so I had put down rice and baking soda to help clean up the mess. Of course it left a mess too so I needed to get that cleaned up. So we had been down there for about an hour. Audrey started to come down and pester us so Mom was trying to get her out of my hair and suggested that they go outside for a treat or something like that. Next thing I know my mom is calling for me and things sound serious. I don't hear any crying so it isn't that someone is hurt. But my mom is calling for me and something in her voice told me she needed me now. So I went upstairs.

And standing in front of my kids and her at my front door is a guy. Something feels off, but I hear him out.

He was on a trip to go to a family reunion in Vegas. And on their way back to Idaho their car was impounded. They have been staying in the homeless shelter, and he has been trying to earn enough money for bus fair back to Idaho. He only needs 25 more dollars to get the tickets tonight. He was wondering if I had any work he could do around my house, like mowing my lawn, pulling weeds or anything like that.

Now keep in mind that my garage door had been open for a good hour previous to this. And at the moment it is half full with the stuff from our basement until we have it painted. And there were definitely things that could have been stolen had my mom not seen him out there before he had a chance.

But since he was willing to work for some money I said I would pay him to mow my front lawn. It was about 2 or so in the afternoon. So pretty hot out and I had been planning on getting the lawn mowed. I also had the feeling that I should give him the whole 25 dollars to do it. Then he wouldn't need to ask for any more and he could just go home.

Also, he couldn't start my lawn mower. I had to show him how to start it. Which was a little weird as well.

I realized that I don't have 25 dollars on me in cash and ask him if he can cash a check. Figuring that he wouldn't be able to. Come to find out that when his car was taken all of his luggage and all of their i.d.'s were locked in the car. And they can't get into the car with out i.d.'s. The impound lot will however let them in to the car if the Idaho driver's division will vouch for them. So his father in law is working with them to try to get them to let him into the car. But they still need to get to Idaho to get this all the way done. Okay. So I talk to my mom and she is okay with me going and getting the cash from the bank.

So I drive away. I am a little nervous. Some stranger is mowing my lawn and I just left my mom there with all the kids. So I pray that everything will be alright. And I pray and I pray the whole time I am driving and such. But I just keep getting a good feeling that everything will be alright. That I am doing the right thing and everything will be okay. That is the answer I get.

When I get home he is done and standing on the side of the driveway with a glass of water and the garage door is closed. Weird I had thought about closing the door when I left but I didn't. So I give him the money and we talk for a bit. He asks me what the fastest way to the college is. I ask him if he is talking about SLCC as that is the nearest college to our house. And he says uh, yeah. So I tell him that it is about 2 or 3 stop lights down the road from us on Redwood Rd. And he can get there pretty easily from the bus stop. And I try to direct him to the nearest bus stop. And I gave him 3 extra dollars for bus fair. Because there was no way on earth I was going to give him a ride.

Every time I tried to direct him east to the bus stops there he would insist on going west to redwood rd. And almost at the end of the conversation he mentioned that he had first gotten here by Trax. And he hinted that he had gotten to the college from trax as well. Well the only trax station near my house is on the other side of the freeway from my house to the east and past my husbands work. Weird. My mom came out in the meantime and she was also trying to direct him to the nearest bus stop but he continued to insist on going west. So we directed him towards redwood rd and watched him cross the street to leave the neighborhood. And this was a bit after 3 when this happened, I think.

Now I have to say that while I was standing outside talking to this man. I saw my neighbor across the street. And I knew that he was watching this guy. Our neighbor is a very good man. He watches out for us and generally helps us out when needed and so on. I also watched him leave. He drove away. Before the guy had left.

My mom and I stayed outside the house and worked a little out there and talked about what just happened. I cleaned my kitty litter outside. (Which I normally do because I can't have the dust of the kitty litter being kicked up inside the house because of the germs that could get Stu sick.) My mom pulled some weeds. I cleaned out some stuff from the garage that needed to be thrown away. We were out there for a good 30 mins. And we watched to make sure that guy didn't come back. Then we went inside and finished up downstairs. Went through some food downstairs to see what needed to be used up. And then I ate and cleaned up my kitchen and started to make some rice crispy treats.

Stu came home at 4:20 and I was surprised. I told him about the guy. And then finished up the treats. The kids ate them and then at about 4:30 the neighbor from across the street rings the doorbell. The first time I had checked the clock it was about 3:50. Time was passing in an odd way yesterday. I couldn't really figure out how I made it to dance only 3 mins late. Because I didn't get Audrey dressed until after we had talked to the neighbor. And my mom was still there, after that she left. But some how I was driving away from the house at 4:45. With both kids in the car and everything that we needed for dance class at 5.

He wanted to know if we had seen anyone suspicious around or if we had noticed anything suspicious. Because between 3 and 3:45 a car was stolen from their driveway. Not his car. But a Red Honda Accord. That his sis in law was driving around. (She had moved in over the weekend.) And this wasn't even her car to begin with. She had been in an accident and this was a friend's car. But there was no broken glass on the ground and she still had her keys. And he felt that the guy was scoping out his house when he was mowing my lawn. So he got a description of the guy and wanted to know what he said. So I told him basically what I just wrote down here.

The guy was about 6', brown hair, scruffy beard (looked like he hadn't shaved in like a week maybe 2), he was wearing a bright blue shirt with print on it, un-tucked, jeans that looked new-ish. He was overweight, (he had a potbelly), and out of shape, (like I think mowing just my front lawn about killed him). He was probably in his 30's. I wanna say he was older than me. I don't remember the color of his eyes but he seemed to have honest eyes.

But my neighbor could only think that he was a "shady character" and had the feeling that he was looking for easy targets in the neighborhood. Now if he was really just looking for "easy targets", my mom had left her windows rolled down in her car, her keys in the car, and her wallet. Out in front of my house. if you are looking for easy targets that is one of the easiest. And he had spent a good deal of time in front of my house that if he was looking for that he would have seen it. Also if he had just wanted to steal my garage was open for an hour before we had seen him. And nothing was missing.

Another odd thing, my neighbor, who isn't afraid to call the authorities, didn't call the police. I never once saw a police car over there. No one but the neighbor asked me about the guy. Which is part of the reason I am writing this down. So I can remember.

A few other odd things happened last night. However, I still feel that I did the right thing, in all that I did. Somehow we were kept safe, by my actions and the actions of my mom.

Just to let you know, if I had been alone at home I would have said no to the guy. But I wasn't the only adult here.

Markers

For the most part Audrey knows that the markers are not supposed to be out when Ellie is awake. And generally when I put things on the counter Ellie doesn't get into them. But she is getting taller and using things to be taller (chairs) and can reach more and more things on the counter. And while I thought I was good and set that box of markers and colored pencils on the counter before I left the girls with daddy for a little while. And the girls were just going to nicely watch tv.

I was just about headed home when I get a slightly upset call from daddy. Ellie just walked in, covered in marker. Audrey is sitting on her bed until you get home. So get home now. I say I am on my way, I was actually in the car starting it when he called.

As far as I know when I get home Audrey is sitting on her bed getting a nicely deserved time out and Ellie needs a bath. So I stand outside and talk to the neighbor for a little while and then Audrey opens the door and out she comes and Ellie follows.

I soon find out that Audrey had a bloody nose during her time out and needs blankets washed and she herself needs a bath. And Ellie needs to have some pics taken because this is just too funny to let go :) so enjoy!

During the bathing I noticed the skies outside were glowing. So I went out to see this last shot. It was a bit more orange than what I caught but I think this still shows the moment. The cool thing about this kind of sunset is that it makes all the colors outside seem sharper. Greens greener and so on. I wish I could have figured out how to capture that. But my camera skills are lacking and probably so are my camera's.... :)

2 years old

My sweet Eleanor is now 2 years old. I don't know what to say about this. She is a joy to watch grow. She is constantly learning new words. And her vocabulary is getting bigger and bigger. A friend of mine made an observation the other day about her. She said that she is a small bundle of attitude. And I think that is very true. She is a little bit small for her age, but she always has been I think. Though you can tell that she isn't 1 now. If you look close.

She doesn't let herself be pushed around. She definitely stands up for herself. And she will be found leading the way in making the messes. Though she is now starting to learn what it means to get in trouble. And she definitely doesn't like that.

On the 4th of July we went to watch the fireworks at a park nearby. And while waiting we were listening to a free concert. It was nice and the singer sang songs that everyone would recognize. But the whole time while we were listening the girls decided that having a wrestling match would be fun. So they were running in circles around Stu and I, and tackling each other. Well mostly Ellie was doing the tackling. She almost always ended up on top of the pile. Jumping on Audrey and then me and then Stu. I think they did this for a good hour. But when it got dark and they had turned on the field lights, until it was fireworks time, Ellie looked up and saw bugs flying around in the lights. And this is where something snapped. She looked up, pointed and screamed at the top of her lungs, "BUUUUUG!!!!"  And then she curled up in my lap and kept looking around and noticing any tiny thing that could possibly be a bug and cried BUG every time she saw something that might be. So my fearless wrestling girl is terrified of bugs...

She noticed that bugs were scary at Easter time. And sometimes it doesn't bother her at all. Other times they make her lose her cool.

She so desperately wants to be a big kid like her sister and cousins. She knows all of their names and tries to say them all. She loves church. And I found out that she loves the Temple.

My Brother in Law got married a week or so ago. And She and Audrey were flower girls along with their cousins. And I had to talk to Audrey about her not being able to go into the Temple for the ceremony. (She was heart broken, but when the day came she didn't really care.) But in the mean time Ellie had come to understand that the Temple was a special place. Any time it came up in conversation she was asking about it. And anytime we would get in the car to go somewhere she would ask if it was the Temple. So when the day came she was thrilled to be at the Temple. At one point I picked her up and walked her around the foyer of the Temple so she could go inside, the little bit that she could. I told her she had to be quiet and we looked at the flowers and pictures there. Then we walked out and waited for the bride and groom.

Ellie apparently loved it there so much that when we went to leave she ran away from me straight to the Temple doors. She just didn't want to leave the Temple. I have decided that if there is any place that she wants to run from me, I like that it is the Temple that she runs to.

She still asks about the Temple.

Ellie is fairly social too. She likes to play with her friends and loves to be included by the big kids. Though just recently she has found that while she likes to be treated like a big kid, she still wants to be the baby. And she has started demanding to be carried. She wants to be carried down the stairs and up the stairs, and around. She is starting to go through a I need mommy phase again as well. But I think that is because she doesn't like the fact that she is starting to get into more trouble and she isn't used to mommy getting mad at her for breaking the rules.

The hard thing about her getting into trouble is that while she is fairly bossy, in charge, or getting into trouble, she does it all while looking very cute. So it is hard to get mad at her or say no to her being bossy... she is going to be a charmer.

The good thing is that both girls love each other, no matter how many times they fight, they still worry when the other is hurt, sad or not there. Ellie was quite upset that we were leaving Audrey at dance class to run an errand. She kept asking about Audrey as we were driving away. But then everything was cool when we got to where we were going and got back to Audrey.

It has been a bit rainy around here

We have been going a little bit stir crazy from staying inside due to all of that rain. So it stopped raining for a little bit and we decided it was time for a short walk. We checked out how high the river is behind our house, and had a little bit of fun. I took a bunch of pictures and took this video.

Here the water has started to flood the walkway.

My Mom and the Girlies walking 

This is a view of the river from the bridge behind our house.

This is on the other side of the river.

Mom and the Girlies on the bridge

Heading to the grove where we played in the puddles :)

The grove just off of the walkway 

Looking at the back of our house from across the pond that hadn't been there before this spring...

We had a first this morning....

The girls made their first "I can't believe it mess"... 

to set the scene... Audrey likes to help out when she can. And sometimes I let her feed the cats. Usually we keep all of the cat stuff in the basement, i.e. food, kitty litter, etc. but right now we have all of that stuff upstairs  so we can remodel the basement. (Which is coming along just great I will have to post about that soon.) 

Audrey noticed this morning that the cats were without food and was all over asking if she could feed them. I said yes. (and yes that is where my mistake was) Audrey knows the general portions to feed the cats. She gives them just a little more than they are supposed to get. But she gets the idea... Ellie however does not. Ellie thought they were just having fun and giving the kitties "TWEET". Ellie loves to give the dog "tweet", as well and will give her many, many bones if I don't tell her that is enough. But also they began to have fun just digging into the cat food... and this is what I found when I decided to investigate why Audrey was not done feeding the cats as it is only a maybe 3 minute job...

Okay, so it wasn't a horribly horrible mess... but it still made me shake my head in confusion... needless to say this morning is starting out "wonderfully"...

Princess Parades (picture heavy post...)

So this last Monday I got into a mood of wanting to deep clean some rooms in my house and just after I had finished cleaning up 2 rooms, my daughter, Ellie came up to me carrying a dress that I had put into a drawer for dressing up. She wanted me to put it on her. Well this is the first time either of my girls has wanted to "dress up". I was pretty happy about this. So I decided I could take a break and take some pictures of my girls and have a little fun watching them dress up.

First Ellie was a bit grumpy even though she is the one who wanted to get dressed in the dress... It was nap time when she brought me the dress... but I figured we could have a little fun until she had to go down for her nap. So she was grumpy for a little while and even pulling out the camera she just was grumpy and crying. But I think I still got some cute pics of her. And Audrey! So for your viewing pleasure...

 Ellie and QQ the cat...

 I just thought this was a fun action :)

What on earth is this stuff covering my hands!?!

 Audrey wanted to join in on the fun...

 Ellie is still not sure this is fun...

 And here she realized that this was an activity she likes to do...

 Now smiling for the camera!

 Time for the fun to begin!

 Audrey got her "Princess" dress on

 Parading around the table

 

 Ellie is the Princess Superhero!!!

 

 Some how we tricked her into coming into her bedroom...

And then we ended where we began with tears and nap time... 

I love my girls they bring me so much joy :)

And yes I still had plenty of time to clean and I got everything done that I really wanted to get done :)

Michigan Adventures part 3

This next video is going to be a long one. It is, however, a condensed version of the drive from Aunt Karlene's to Howse's Candy Haus in Harbor Springs. We didn't have any deadlines this day so we meandered around and stopped to see a few things. Thought about genealogy, even tried to do some, though that didn't end up working. We did a little sight seeing, and a lot of reminiscing. I caught Grandpa being a tease from time to time. I suppose you could say this video here is a good view of how the trip went for us in the car. We teased, we chatted, we just watched, and we kept driving... :) (sorry if I seem to be rambling, my head seems to be fuzzy from the allergies I have right at this moment...) I hope you enjoy this next video. :)

Michigan Adventures Part 1 extended...

Okay so this is the video and most of the pictures I took on the drive before we arrived at Aunt Karlene's before the camera batteries died. So it is an extension of the Part 1 blog post.

It should be pretty self explanatory. Enjoy!

Michigan Adventures part 2

After a wonderful night's sleep and a fairly good snow storm... I think there was like 6-8 inches on my car in the morning. We decided that we wanted to go walk out on the ice of lake Michigan and look for ice caves. Sounds like a wonderful plan, right? Well at least for us it sounded pretty awesome. And I wasn't about to not take this adventure... I live in Utah, how many chances will I get to walk on the ice of one of the Great Lakes? Besides I have always kind of wanted to do something like this. :)

If Stu can fix the noise of the wind then I will change the video... I suppose you could say it is still in the editing phase. Anyway, I think that video kind of speaks for itself. This next video is from on the way back to the house. In it you can see the woods that they live in and how much snow was dropped by the snowstorm, after we stopped for the night. Also it has quite a bit of background noise as Uncle Denny was fixing his snow blower.

Michigan adventures part 1

Here is a video of our first day in Michigan this last February... I did tell you more was to come :) During the drive in Michigan down by the Illinois border it started raining. As we drove north the rain started to freeze, the roads progressively got slushier, and finally turned very snowy. It got cold fast and got snowy fast... we only slid, kind of, off the road once thanks to my Grandpa driving. He has much more experience driving in Michigan snow than I do. We counted a total of 10 cars (I believe) off the road a few tipped over and 1 flipped all the way over. All this while the snow melted and then froze to our windshield. We had to pull over a few times and scrape the ice off of the windshield.(When we got to Harbor Springs we were informed that there had been a 50 car pile up on the road we had been driving on, I think it was probably behind us.) In any case we stopped at my Grandpa's Sister's house (Aunt Karlene), and she and her husband were gracious enough to let us stay the night and wait out the storm.

I had never met my Aunt Karlene and I instantly felt comfortable with her. When I first walked in to her house and saw her I felt like I was looking at my Great Grandma (her mom). She told us that she knows that she looks like her mom. So I don't feel to bad saying that. But anyway, I felt like she could have been my Grandma. She and her husband were both very friendly. And it was wonderful to stay in their home. I can't even explain how instantly at ease I felt in their house and how completely comfortable I felt there as well. I can only hope that I can make my own home as comfortable, calm, and inviting as their home was to me. Their house is tucked back into the woods in Northern Michigan and right across the street from their driveway is an entrance to the beach and Lake Michigan. I will leave you here and post more videos later.

:)

4 yrs old

My Audrey is FOUR! I can't believe it. And now for my bragging. Sorry I really do try not to.

She is into all sorts of things now a days. Her most recent accomplishment is learning that she can jump over things and people. Also she has now figured out that it is fun to jump off of things. Right now she is only jumping off of the armchair and the sofa and such. I think I have also heard her jump off of the stairs. But if she hasn't done that yet it will be happening soon I think.

Audrey is starting to understand and follow rules more now. She understands the basics of being polite (please and thank you). :) She is understanding that if she just demands things of me I am no longer going to just comply. And while she hates that she can't be in charge and get everything her way she is starting to get that she isn't in charge of everything. Although she still tries.

We are working on learning "The Golden Rule". As now she is starting to realize that Ellie hits back. And wants the things that Audrey has too...

She still loves to "help" me clean. And I am trying to let her. She will help out with the dishes. And today she actually helped me vacuum after 10 mins of screaming about me not vacuuming, because her toys weren't all picked up, but she didn't want to do the work to "save" her toys. But sometimes she will clean up all of her toys just to help out. And that makes me very happy. She is learning the rule that if she changes her mind and wants to play with different toys, she needs to clean up the toys that she already has out. As I said she is just learning this rule. It is a hard concept. But I think she understands it, she just doesn't want to do it. So I have to remind her. And for the most part she will keep her toys in their designated areas. And that helps me out with keeping the house clean.

She also loves to help me cook. Which can be really fun. We are finding new things we can do all the time. She is a great fitness coach. Though I don't really appreciate when she bugs me about getting out and exercising. She loves to go for walks to the park. And I am looking forward to getting out more on those nice sunny days :)

She is doing the things that she has told us she would do. As in keeping her promises. She is sometimes trying new foods. We haven't had near the amount of melt downs about trying new foods as we had been having. But I also don't know if that is because we haven't been pushing the issue. But her amount of foods that she likes and will eat is growing!

She loves her sister, and even though they fight on a fairly regular basis. At least they generally get along and love each other.