The Greats come to Dinner

 We just love Great Grandma and Grandpa Blackburn. I think they are so cute. They love to come spend time with us and the girls. We love it. We are lucky to live close to them and fortunate to be able to spend so much time with them.

mmm hmmm....

I mean can you handle that face!! 

That's the sound we hear all day everyday. That's really all she says. And it drives us crazy! It's frustrating because she understands everything you say to her but she just refuses to say anything back. If she wasn't so dang cute and funny. Oh this little girl knows she is cute and funny and she knows she is the baby. When you are getting mad at her all she has to do is tilt her little head to one side and smile or give you a friendly head butt to the forehead and she knows you just can't get mad at her anymore. Ha ha. She just makes me laugh. She is wild!  So different from Bella. Bella is still cautious and slow but not this one, she goes fast and hard!

She does say a few words which are. Mama, Dada, Ba ba (bella), Lyla (sometimes), Hi, Whoa, Wow, Wa wa (water) and Papa. She will try to repeat what you say sometimes but it usually sounds nothing like what you've just said. Pretty much everything she says sounds like mama, dada and baba. We are working on it. But she is only 17 months. It's so different because Bella was saying tons of words and talking in 3 word sentences at this age. And all we get from her is mmm hmmm, uh huh and we have to look to see what it is she is trying to tell us.

Like I said she is super smart though. She knows where things are on her face and she knows what a dog, lion, sheep, cow, duck, frog and monkey say. She loves to see animals and always wants us to tell her what they are and what sound they make. She especially loves to Roar and once she gets going she says if for everything. She loves to talk on the phone, she loves babies, she loves to be outside and mostly she just loves doing whatever her big sister is doing.

I do love these faces! 

Sweet and Sassy or just Sassy?!!

Over the past several months Bella has become incredibly sassy. She tells me "NO" all the time. Actually she yells it. She is such a beast most days! We go our rounds, me and that girl. On the other hand she can be so sweet and nice and precious. Then she turns into a little beast from you know where. I have been trying to have her do chores, just simple things like making her bed, picking up her room, brushing her teeth and throwing diapers away in the garage. And most the time she will do them because she gets stickers and then a reward. But if she doesn't want to do something she won't do it. And she yells "no I don't want to" and she still expects to get to do whatever she wants. I don't feel like I'm asking or expecting a lot of her. She is only 4. I usually end up helping her complete whatever task I've asked her to do. But it really makes me so mad when she just sits there when she should be picking up her room that would take 2 minutes but she just won't do it. She'll say I'm so tired. So I say okay go take a nap. Then I hear "no, never". Serious beast! She is so stubborn. Yesterday I asked her to pick up her room and make her bed while I cleaned mine and Lyla's room. There were maybe 4 things on the floor of her room. Would have taken 2 seconds but she wouldn't do it. She just sat there and acted like a beast. So I threaten no going outside all day, no shows, no whatever and she still doesn't care. It's amazing. But come 4 o`clock when all the kids are outside she wanted to be to so she finally ran up and cleaned her room and it took 2 minutes! But she got her sticker and she finally got to go play outside. She makes me crazy! She said to me yesterday "how come you are nice to Lyla and not me?" I sure felt like an ass after that. I wanted to say because Lyla is a cute little baby and most things she does is still cute. But I didn't. I got down gave her a hug and told her I was sorry if I wasn't nice but she needs to do what she's asked and not be so sassy. And that I love her just as much as I love Lyla. This is why I'm not a very good enforcer and I'm such a push over. Cause they say things like this and it makes me feel bad. I don't want my kids to ever be mad at me or think I don't love them because I got mad at them. Silly I know. But true. They are my babies.

Looks sweet right?

On a lighter note she has made so many friends and is really loving it here. Even though she did say to me the other day "I wish we never moved here". Ha ha. It was because she saw a bug in the house. And it was so gross to her. She plays with friends every day. Now that the weather is nice there are kids outside all the time. It really is so fun. Our street doesn't see much traffic so kids are running all over. They play in one yard then move on to the next. They ride their bikes up and down the street. It's really awesome! Yesterday we had a couple kids in our backyard then inside in the playroom. The other day the little girls that live behind us hoped the fence to come play in our yard. It's fun and the girls love it. She really likes a couple of the older girls and will follow them around but they are sweet to play with her and be nice.

Some other things she is does right now is making up stories. She is always telling me stories. I'll have to write down her stories one time. She loves to draw and cut things out of paper right now. She sings and makes up songs. She still loves her babies more than any other toy. We signed her up for soccer so she's been practicing her kicks. She is just growing up so fast and thinks that she is big and so much older than she is. She is going to Mimi and Papas next week for a week by herself and she is so excited. She talks about it every day and tells everyone. I'm excited too!

Happy and silly, enjoying life! 

This girl makes me the most crazy. But I love her so much. I know I need to work on my patience with her. I really do try to do fun and special things with her everyday. But man sometimes she makes it hard. :)

Sneaky little Leprechaun

 We had a little visitor last Friday night. Probably looking for his gold. But it wasn't here. He did manage to trash the place, turn our food and toilet water green and leave foot prints everywhere before her left. But at least he left the girls a little surprise!

Hogle Zoo

We love the elephants and this baby elephant was so cute! 

The girls loving the elephants!

Watching the Tigers. This one was Roaring the entire time. It was pretty fun to see and hear.

Up close and personal with the Giraffes! We were so close to them it was awesome! Bella was so excited to see them. She collected and brought a whole bag of leaves to feed to them. She would throw them over the fence and get so excited when they would eat them. 

Another good photo op- they are just too cute!!

Who doesn't love a tortoise!

My cuties! And Bella doing a little fondling! 

And Lyla getting in one last nipple squeeze before we go.
What can I say? These girls love some large Gorilla boobs!

Saturday was the perfect day to enjoy the beautiful weather at the Zoo! 

Beautiful Girls

 I did an impromptu photo shoot with the girls this morning. 

I think the ones of Bella turned out really cute. Lyla on the other hand was not in the mood for pictures. She just wanted to run all over. She would throw a fit and scream when I tried to make her sit still. So her pictures didn't turn out so great. Last photo shoot I did of the girls, Lyla had tons of great pictures and Bella didn't and this time it's reversed. I can't win. Oh well. 

Here's some of my favorites of the cute little buggers!!! 

Recent Happenings

They wait for Daddy to get home

Every now and then I let them do a messy craft...man I hate those!

Our cute little swimmers!
We went swimming last week and they can't wait to go again. 

And of course playing at the park!

 These little rug rats keep us busy!!! 

Weekly visitation

 Since moving Eric's parents were nice enough to take in Mercedes. It's been nice because this way we still get to see her almost weekly. We love her but I'm not gonna lie it's been nice not to have an animal. The poor thing seems to be aging at a rapid pace. She has like glaucoma in both her eyes so she doesn't see that well and she seems to be a little def. But she seems happy there. She has a couple other dogs to play with so that's nice for her.