reading

i absolutely adore reading.  so thankfully baby is starting to love it as well.  how cute are these two just cuddled up together, reading away on a sunny, sunday morning?

seriously melts my heart.

mother daughter christmas picture

as i was walking out the door, baby in tow, for church on sunday i glanced at the camera sitting on the kitchen table and asked honey to snap a few quick pictures of baby and me.  this one was my favorite.

here's last years equivalent.  can you believe how much she's grown in only a year?!

smooches for a dog

baby girl used to freely give us tons of big, open mouthed smooches.  those days are long gone.  but she's not totally heartless, she still give lots of love, hugs, and kisses to inanimate objects.

"baby girl, can you hold your doggy?"

"give him a hug!"

"good job, baby girl!  can you give him a smooch too?"

if only it was still that easy to get her to give me a kiss.  when i ask it's answered with a very high pitched "nooooo!!!!!" that is pretty much reserved only for when we ask for physical affection from her.

it's a phase, right?  tell me it's a phase.

"i'm a big girl now!"

the things this little kid does make me realize that she's just that... a little kid.  not a baby anymore, she's a real live girl!  so here are some pictures from a few weeks ago, on my birthday.

powdering

putting on a bracelet

chapstick

necklace

caught!

compact

bronzer

uhhh, did i forget anything?

did you notice how all that stuff was on the counter?  i had to take it out of the drawer because baby can reach.  she was not happy about this.

dirty mirror

let me take a short little moment to tell you why i love my dirty mirror to the point of photographing it.  before i had baby girl, i worked with kids.  at a million different jobs.  it was really difficult for me because i didn't want to take care of other people's kids... i just wanted to take care of my own but i couldn't seem to get pregnant.  so in the mean time, i worked with kids and i was very very familiar with the my little handprints poem.

My Little Handprints  

Sometimes you get discouraged   

Because I am so small  

I always leave my handprints  

On the furniture and walls  

But everyday I'm growing big  

And soon I'll be very tall  

Then all my little handprints  

Will be so hard to recall  

So here's a special gift  

Just so that you can say  

This is how my hands looked  

When I placed them here today 

i remember one time when i was working at a daycare/pre-preschool i had to do this craft with all the kids... based around this poem.  it was just one of many times while working that job that my heart broke.  when i looked at that craft displayed on the wall my eyes would sometimes well up with tears.  and even when i was at home, i would see our perfectly clean, non childproofed house and wish it wasn't so clean.  now, when i look at my dirty mirror, i won't lie, my eyes sometimes still well up with tears.  but this time they're tears of joy at this regular reminder of my precious little girl.  and that is why as gross as it is, i love my filthy mirror.

story of my life.  baby getting into things while photograph it all.

dumped out all the flossers

cleaning them up again

look ma!  here they are!

oh my goodness i love her so much

whoops!  forgot one!

all clean.  and she did it all herself.

dumping them out again... in the bedroom this time.

and once again... picking them up.

i know, i know.  i take too many pictures.  i'm obsessed.

a picture

i love this kid.

kid magnet at the ward christmas party

last night was our ward christmas party.  there was no santa picture taking station so i have nothing to really compare to last year.  but i do have this picture and video from the end of the christmas party when every kid was running wild from a cookie induced sugar high.  baby was in heaven. 

i took a few pictures because she was having the time of her life, but pictures weren't really capturing the moment... so started taking video and preserved it perfectly.  

as my friend jodi put it, "every one of those kids wants a piece of her."

and i promise not a single kid or honey knew they were being videoed... nothing is staged.

simon says, "put on your bracelet!"

and then she does this:

it looks like i have a little girly girl on my hands. hallelujiah my prayers are answered!

but if she ever tells me she likes purple better than pink i might have a heart attack and die on the spot.

craigslist

if you're looking for something to make you laugh til you cry...

this isn't it.  but you might chuckle a time or two.  

or maybe just crack a smile.

costco and a hoodie

today we did home depot, babies r us, costco, naps, and dinner.

finishing up their entire lunch of samples

someone kept pulling off baby's hood to expose her terrible hood hair

hugs!

and the hug continues

dinner.  ps- i bought that corn because it's stone mountain brand.  ;-)

post nap snack: an entire banana, half an avocado, and more

hates hats but loves hoods.  how does that happen?

thank you baby girl!

that's where she puts her sippy

unless she puts it on the table.  good job baby girl!

so that was our super thrilling friday.  

no no no!

k, it's super super short but you get the idea, right?  as i said, she doesn't perform for the camera so she starts to do it but gets shy.  oh well.

ps- it is super freezing and incredibly windy tonight.  hopefully we don't turn to icicles in our sleep.

pps- a few days ago i finished welcome to the world, baby girl! by fannie flagg and i still miss it.  i need a new book... in the mean time though i'm losing myself in season three of gossip girl.  maybe that will occupy me til christmas break?

and because i know you're wondering, yes, i picked the book based on the name.  and i'd just gotten done reading fried green tomatoes by the same author.   but mostly because i liked the name.  i'm all about judging a book by it's cover.

yet another snow day

this morning we woke up to another beautiful blanket of white snow.  i said good bye to my honey, took a shower, and got dinner (this french dip recipe from our best bites) in the crock pot before baby girl woke up.

it's a good day.