Fishing is AWESOME!!!!

I was only smiling to hide the fact that my arm was KILLING me! Catching big fish is hard.

This is AWWWESOME!!!!

My fish compared to Chris' fish.

Oh how cute, his is the size of fish mine would eat for lunch.

Why am I bawling?!?!?

I was getting ready today listening to music just like I always do and a Taylor Swift song came on. I completely lost it; the funny thing is I put this song on replay, needless to say I have been crying all morning.

I have the best family in the whole word. And more specifically MY MOM and DAD ROCK!!

You can watch the video if you want, but be warned...

Our Grand Haven Day Trip

Yesterday our little fam went with our neighbors to Grand Haven, a coastal city here in Michigan. It was AWESOME. The weather was not wonderful, but I think that there were less people on the beach because of the weather. We will take what we can get when Chris is able to put down the books for an entire day to play with us. This has happened only one other time during a semester.

We started out at the beach, then once "the kid" turned blue we decided we had better warm up a bit. We then went out to eat, which we only seem to do when Joyce and Jim are around; they sure do treat us well!!! Then once we were warm, we went back to the beach and walked out on the pier to the lighthouse. It was all fun and good right up until we read the memorial that said "for the people who died on this pier and for the people who tried to rescue them." Funny thing is...we read the marker, and then continued walking. I did make sure to tell the kid she couldn't get out of the stroller unless she was with mommy or daddy. Once we made it to the end, I made Chris and Paiter stand near (not very near, just kinda near) the edge so I could take a pic with the water splashing up and over them. Yeah...it was that kind of storm coming and we continued to truck it out there with a toddler. Not very smart really, but we did get some good pics.

Paiter and the Week Long Birthday!

Paiter woke up and the very first thing she wanted to do was play with her doll house. I told her the only way she could was if she would smile pretty for the camera...this is what I got. I thought it was cute.

Somebody told her that she had to close her eyes and make a wish. As she was closing her eyes she started saying "I-touch, I-touch, I-touch". We are in big trouble unless we fall into a large sum of money-SOON!!!

Princess Paiton with her princess cake(its a castle, incase ya couldn't tell) Her very first b-day cake was a white teddy bear (who looked like he had, had a stroke). This cake may not be pretty, but it does look WAAAAAYY better than that poor teddy bear.

Birthday Presents!!

Here is Paiter's birthday present from Chris and I. We turned her old bookshelf into a little doll house. What do ya think? I actually haven't finished it yet but since we are already celebarating her b-day late it will stay like this for at least a few more days. The best part is, if for some reason she doesn't like it, we will sell off the furniture on ebay and have a house-looking bookshelf (just like the one I saw at Pottery barn).

Dollhouse? I don't see a dollhouse... I have it all wrapped up and hiding behind here so she won't see/find it until I am ready.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAITER!!!!

Guess what I was doing three years ago (yesterday)? I was just hangin' out at the hospital; then a few days later we brought this crazy girl home!?!?!?!

I don't think she really "gets" the slip and slide yet. Oh well:-D

How we do it

This is what we have been up to lately. Some fun things...and some NOT SO FUN things. Oh well, at least it seems to be that the fun things are happening more often than the not so fun things: ]
This is Paiton staying up WAAAAYYY past her bed time singing country songs with her dad. Thus the pulled apart cowboy hat. (she had hidden a bag of chips and was caught red "faced")

She has decided that she can dress herself now...it could be worse. I LOVE the high heels with shorts look. She spent most of the morning "walking" (falling flat on her face). It was pretty cute/funny.

Our AWESOME friends the Finlay's moved this morning bright and early, so we had them over for dinner last night. This is their daughter (Paiter's bestest friend) and Paiter playing on the i-pod with Chris.
This is the girls playing some more, while the rest of us finished up our dessert-I made homemade cinnamon rolls--They ROCKED-if I do say so myself.

Last...and I hope least...the flood. A week or two ago we had a really big rain storm, and this is the damage it did to our basement. Kinda crappy. Oh well, it could have been worse (this is my attempt at a positive attitude). We had 1 1/2 - 2 inches of water throughout our whole basement. Chris and I have decided that if it ever came down to it and we all had to get onto an arc in order to survive we would have to take one for the team and sit it out. The minute we jumped on board, the arc would leak and we would all surly die. So just know that we believe-and water is attracted to us, wherever we live. Enough said...

She's got mad skills

Well, maybe she still needs a little practice...and some formal lessons. She is well on her way though. The kid has been watching Saturday's warrior a lot lately and her favorite parts are when the "troubled" kids dance and sing (I hope its not a sign of things to come). Anyway, on one of their dances, they dance on the fence and lean back; I think she thinks that is what she is doing when she leans on the couch. Hiiiiiilarious!!!!!

This one is my favorite video. She is all tuckered out and she shows it; she had been dancing for about 10 minutes, that intensely (I was tired just watching her :-)

Random quotes by Paiton-Funny to me (her mom)

P: Hey mommy
ME: Yeah Paiter
P: Look, I'm a ARRR Matey (holding an empty TP roll up to her eye)
ME: You mean a Pirate
P: Yeah mommy a ARRR Matey Piewit

P: Hey mommy
Me: yeah Paiter
P: Where is the pirate? (I taught her how to say pirate correctly)
Me: On his pirate ship in the ocean
P: We don't live on ships, pirates are so silly.

She asks this same question with regards to "the prince", or "princess" all the time, and when I tell her they are with their families at the castle she says
P: OOH,
she says it like it is the most fascinating thing she has ever heard.

P: Daddy stop talking, you're makin' me nervous
Chris: (Laughing hysterically) how am I making you nervous?
P: because you won't stop talking and making me nervous

P: UGHHHH, daddy/mommy you're making me soooo angry

P: Night, don't let the bugs bight

P: I love you mostest postest

At least she is learning all about her feelings. Maybe one day we won't cause her such bad/traumatic feelings:)

This last one was one of my personal facorites, but she hasn't said it in a long time.
P: I are the boss!!
ME: No I are the boss
P: NOOO, I are the boss...etc, etc.

Butterflies, gardens, and sculptures...Oh my!!!

On Saturday I took Paiter and went to Grand Rapids, Michigan to the Frederik Meijer Garden and Sculpture Park. I thought she would really like to see the butterfly exhibit that was going on there, but I was waaaayy off. She liked the butterflies for about 2 minutes (not even long enough to see the whole exhibit). After we did all the "Paiter" stuff, I made her come with me to Nordstrom Rack to do "mom" stuff. I found a pair of Keen shoes (my personal favorite pair of summer shoes) that fit Paiton perfectly, but I couldn't bring myself to pay $25 for kids shoes. don't worry though, I did find an AWESOME 4th of July dress for the kid, and then a really cute Sunday dress that will fit her next winter (75% off!!!!!)

Here are pics of the kid playing ALL day... I have to tell you she took a 10 min. nap and did really well. Thankfully she didn't act up, because she would have had every reason to.

In the children's garden there was this really cool maze type thing filled with water and then there were tonz of plastic boats for the kids to play with. She could have spent the entire day here if I would have let her.

Paiter was all pictured out by the time we made it to this little beauty, but hey we all need a picture of a beaver made out of grass clippings. Don't you think its freakin' AWESOME!!

Paiter wanted to take her shoes off like this guy; she figured if he can do it so can she.Playing in more water...after I took pictures, I noticed the sign that says "Please don't touch the sculpture"...Oops.
This was a really cool play structure that was probably as big or bigger than our house. I only posted this pic because I really liked the picture of the kid.This is a water sculpture that had a little puddle thing the kids could play in. I think she like this one a lot, but mainly because it was so small that there were not a lot of other kids around. She doesn't like being bossed around by the older kids, so this was a good place for her to play.
Ever since our last Utah trip (Christmas vacation) Paiter has been picking her nose nonstop. I think it started out really dry, but now it is just a VERY BAAADD habit!! I had to get a picture of her trying to pick the giant nose. Bad I know, but she thought it was funny that I was actually encouraging her to pick it.

This is a GINORMOUS horse. When we walked underneath it to head home, Paiter said something like "EWE momma we are under his potty. We don't walk by potties do we mom?.She was dead set on giving the "baby elephant" a kiss. It turned out really cute though. Good idea Paiter.

We came, we saw...

Last weekend my brother invited us to Chicago with him; it was soooo much fun!!! I have decided that we need to go back and spend a lot more time there. There were so many things to do...and not nearly enough time to do them.
Here is the picture run down...
1- waiting for the bus (The 1st time Paiton and I road public transportation, pathetic I know)
2-5 Aquarium
5- Paiter was tuckered out by the time we finished with the aquarium, Like OUT COLD!!!
6- 7 The bean-I don't know the real name, but we called it "the jelly bean"
9-10 A really cool fountain right by "the bean". Different faces would appear, then after a while, they would pucker up, then spit out water. The kids LOOOOVED it!!!
11-13 The sears tower-the kids loved climbing on the rails and playing with the gift shop toys:)
14-15 The Hershey's chocolate factory. They loved wearing their hats and acting like workers. Paiter started looking for Charlie and Willy Wonka.

Rascally Rabbit:)

Look what the Easter Bunny did to our house!!! He hid Paiton's Easter basket, then he tied a string to it and hopped all over our house. Paiton woke up and tried to come out of her room but she was trapped in a string trap. She had to follow the string to find her Easter basket. Guess where that crazy rabbit hid her basket...
He put it in the shower. What a crazy bunny!!!!
Earlier in day, the bunny dropped off a goody basket at our neighbors house while we were downstairs eating dinner. What a nice bunny!!
Paiton made a nest out of spaghetti and craft paint. It was really fun for her to squish the spaghetti noodles in the paint. After a while she didn't want to make a nest, she just wanted to play with the noodles. It was really difficult to keep her from eating it since "noodles" are her favorite food.
Happy Easter!!!