Lil' Miss 'Tude

Our sweet, quiet baby Mimi has turned into a strong-willed and vocal little toddler. She has very clear ideas of what she wants to wear each day (don't forget the shoes, a bow, and her favorite pink coat!), and what she wants to watch on TV (Diego all the time, only she says it "Day-go), and where she wants to go (always into the kitchen to open all the drawers up).

She knows just how to get what she wants, either by crying, talking ("ba" for bath), or, heaven forbid, batting those beautiful long eyelashes at us. I admit it, she has us wrapped around her little finger.

Last week I took her into Nursery at church just to practice (she's not quite old enough yet), she didn't even look at me. She had so much fun and every time I went to check on her, her fabulous teachers kept telling me to go enjoy my class, she was fine. She is so independent!

I had to take a picture of the ensemble that she picked out to wear the other day. It just says so much about her. We sure love this little girl. She adds a lot of spunk to our family.

A Lazy Day

This pictures really cracks me up. These two are the best of friends and they play hard together, but they also snuggle right up to watch a show (and I get a full 23 minutes of "me" time). I love these two!

Happy Chinese New Year!

In the midst of this bleak and dismal winter we are looking for any reason to celebrate. So...Happy Chinese New Year! We celebrated with homemade Chinese food (healthy, delicious, AND low in points!) chopsticks and fortune cookies. The kids really got into it. Scooter liked the chopsticks because they made excellent drumsticks. We hope you all have a great year of the ox!

Little Gym Party

Scooter and Mimi were invited to Connor's (our cousin's) birthday party last week. It was held at the Little Gym and it was a blast.

Scooter took a while to warm up to the whole thing, but once he got going, there was no stopping him. We literally had to drag him away from the building when it was time to go. Mimi on the other hand, was fearless to begin with. As soon as she got there she started climbing, and running and laughing. She thought she was a big kid and played right in the middle of them all when they were doing the group games. It is a miracle that she didn't get mowed over by one of the bigger kids.

I tried to get a picture of the kids with the birthday boy, but they were all running around like crazy and it just never happened. The cupcakes were fabulous! And we all had a great time.

I couldn't resist getting a picture of little Carly in her pink cast. That girl didn't let her cast hold her back at all. She had just as much fun as all the other kids.

Thanks for a fun party Mel!

50!

Happy Birthday Mom! I know she's going to kill me that I told everyone she's 50, but honestly, if I look half as good as she does when I'm 50 I'll be shouting my age to the whole world. So there! I made a Wordle for my mom. It was really fun to do and quite a personal gift (thanks Anderson fam for the idea). I tried to think of words that described my mom. It was great and even my siblings got in on it.

We celebrated her birthday on Sunday, making Cafe Rio salads and my favorite Cherry Cobbler for dessert. I think the most meaningful gift my mom got was her mom's wedding ring. My grandma passed away a few years ago and the ring has been MIA since then. Then, just out of the blue, my grandpa gave it to her (if you know my grandpa, you would understand our complete and utter shock about this gift).

I hope you have a great day, mom!

Betcha Didn't Know...

We actually got tagged with this one a little while ago, but I've been keeping it on the back burner until I was able to get through with all the Christmas stuff. I've decided to do five things about the Armadillo family that people might not know.

1. Armadillo and I have known each other for about 25 years. We lived next to each other when we were really young. We used to play together all the time and his sisters (my amazing SIL's) used to baby-sit us.

2. Armadillo occasionally gets to laughing so hard that he can't stop. It is very contagious, only because it is so funny to see him have this laughing attack. (The one thing that gets him going every time is the commercials of the old people in the jazzies. That really cracks him up!)

3. I was born with a heart murmur. It is a teeny tiny whole in the middle of my heart. It is very noisy and every time I got to a new doctor I neglect to tell them, just so I can see their reaction when they listen to my heartbeat. It's priceless. The murmur has never caused me any physical problems, but it does keep me off private insurance. Luckily Armadillo has great benefits through his work and my condition is not a problem now, but my family spent years without insurance when I was growing up, all because of me!

4. Scooter has an ear for sounds. He hears things that I never notice, like the sound the car wheels make as we drive on the freeway. He can also repeat sounds with almost perfect pitch and clarity. It's quite a talent, that has been put to use, mostly, as copying different types of train whistles (if you're ever at my church on a Sunday and happen to hear a train whistle, no, it is not a real train, it is my son who can ring out his whistle throughout the WHOLE church).

5. Mimi has developed quite a crush on Diego (you know, Dora's cousin). She can say his name better than mine and when his theme song starts, she begins dancing like crazy. This morning she kept singing "Go, Diego, go" over and over. Not even two, and already boy crazy! I can tell I'm going to have my hands full with this one.

I tag Mar-Dawg, Goobs, Andie, JBOW, Lisa, Heathons, and anyone else who wants to do it. It's fun!

A Sunbeam, A Sunbeam

It's official, Scooter in now in Primary at our church. He was a bit worried about it for a few weeks preceding, but the primary had a "Meet, Greet, and Eat" party the Saturday before his first time in class. He got to go in his pajamas and eat crepes with all his little friends. It was so cute to see how into it he was. They made a little craft and he was intent on doing it right. I didn't even know he was capable of that kind of focus. Then he had fun running around the gym for a little bit and during the lesson he even answered a question.

The next day he was a bit scared to go into class, but he has the best teacher and she immediately put her arms around him and held him until he felt better. Later I peeked in on him and they were having play time. She had brought a little train and he was "choo-chooing" all over the room. He had a blast! A few days later Scooter used the word "explain," then informed us that it was his "new word" that his teacher had taught him. I just love that little memory of his.

My baby's growing up so fast, and in some ways it makes me very sad, but I'm just so proud of him!

New Year's Eve...Finally

My aunt and uncle throw the biggest, loudest, and funnest party every New Year's Eve. It is definitely the place to be, with traditional foods such as crab, prime roast, mashed potatoes (with more fat added than potatoes), Yorkshire pudding, and desserts galore. Then there are the activities, games, competitions, and rock band (everyone gets in on the action). It's just too bad that our kids can't make it to midnight because I wish we could stay longer. Oh well, maybe when they're a bit older.

Winter Break

It feels like life has become quite a whirlwind since school started back up again. We have been trying to get back into life's routine, clean up, and we've also been battling some sickness (mostly poor little Mimi). The kids have been taking turns getting up at 3:30 a.m. each morning so Armadillo and I have been completely exhausted.

Things are slowing down a bit now and I wanted to post some pictures of some of the things we did on our break. Mostly we stayed around the house, playing games, watching shows, and staying in our pajamas all day, but we did actually get out too.

One day Mookie invited us to come to her gymnastics gym. Since it was closed for Christmas, we basically had the place to ourselves (except for some of the very devoted team girls). The kids loved it. Mimi was so happy to be climbing on things and running around like crazy, and Scooter loved the trampoline and the big pit of sponges (what's it called again Mookie?). It was so much fun that Scooter and Mimi both fell asleep on the way home, a rare occurrence.We also spent time enjoying all the snow. It was Mimi's first time really playing in it and I'm not sure she knew what to think. Scooter kept trying to make snow angels, but the snow was a little too hard and crusty to do much good. It was fun to watch them play.
We finally found a warmish night to go to see the lights at Temple Square. It was the first time we've been since I was pregnant with Scooter. He had a fun time looking at all the lights. The best part of the night, though, came as we were leaving. We literally ran into some of our very best friends who live out of town. I was so happy to be able to spend a few minutes with them as we walked to our cars.

Armadillo and I even went on a few dates over the break. We used a gift certificate from Andy to Red Lobster, our absolute favorite restaurant (thanks guys!), and then on another day we actually went to see a movie.

I have to say that this was an extremely fun and relaxing way to spend two glorious, work free weeks.