Christmas

In our house, we have been promoting Christmas as Jesus's birthday. Earlier this week, we recieved a package from Grandma Robbins. The Little asked what it was, and I told her it was a present for her from Grandma. She asked if we were going to open it. Dale said that we would open it on Jesus's birthday. The Little says, "So when Jesus comes to our house, we will open the present." Laughter ensued. Hey, if Uncle Allen comes to our house for his birthday, then why shouldn't Jesus come for his? I love the mind of a 3 year old!

Uncle Allen and soon to be Aunt Heather's Birthday Party

My little brother Allen and his fiancee Heather have birthdays that are 4 days apart. On the Saturday between the birthdays, they came up to our place for some hamburgers and cake! Fun time was had by all.

What a nice "blanket"!

Our Musical Child

For those people who know us will probably not be surprised to learn that the Little loves music. She loves to sing, dance, and play the piano. I thought this was cute.

Going to the Park

Since I started working full time again at the end of September, the Little and I have not gone on nearly as many outings. So, during the Thanksgiving weekend, we went to the park every day. Her favorite piece of playground equipment is, of course, the swing.



She also enjoys going down the slide and riding on the dinosaur.


While watching her go down the slide, I noticed a message that really made me feel that all was right with the world. I feel such peace knowing that Ellie and Shea are Best Friends Forever. :)

Daddy's Birthday

Dale's birthday was the beginning of November. For his birthday, I will sometimes make him a Red Velvet cake. This cake is a royal pain to make, so when I do make it, it is the only present he gets from me. It is his favorite cake--a very southern thing. Here's a picture of this year's cake.

Halloween

When I initially asked the Little what she wanted to be for Halloween, she said a pig. I was okay with that, and started researching how to do a home made pig costume. Her school does a Halloween parade where they walk around the block in their costumes, so it was important that she dress up. Anyway, a couple of days before Halloween, she said that she didn't want to be a pig, she wanted to be a puppy. So, we did a puppy costume instead of pig costume.
She was a little unsure of wearing her costume to school. However, when she saw all of the other kids wearing their costumes, she was okay with it.

Here is the Little in her Halloween parade.


The Little got to go trunk or treating with her Aunt Rebekah. They had a wonderful time. Rebekah was a gypsy.

First day of School

On September 22, 2008, the Little started preschool. It was a very exciting day. She loves learning about letters. She can now identify several. Of course, I took the obligatory "first day of school" picture.

The Little turns 3

We had a wonderful time yesterday celebrating the Little's birthday. Here are a couple of pictures to commemorate the event.


The Little helped make her cake and frost it. Of course, as you can see, frosting it was her favorite!

Here is the finished product. Dale got the decorations from the Dollar store and they were a hit!

Here is the Little right after blowing out the candles. She is, of course, wearing her new crown that is from her Grandma Robbins. She had so much fun.

Do you like my hat?

The Little decided yesterday that she wanted to wear her pants on her head. I thought it was worth a picture. Of course, she didn't smile until she had taken the pants off of her head.


Then, during her bath last night, she put the wash cloth on her head and wanted a picture.

This picture is from last week. Notice that both the Little and Baby are in their dresses and ready to get "married."

I'm a model, you know what I mean. . .

On Sunday, Dale completed a model that he had been working on for well over a year. He had done two smaller model's previous to this, so we decided to show them off a little.

This is the model that he just completed. Isn't it cool?

Getting Married

The Little had a very serious look on her face, her blanket on her head, and was walking across the room. I asked if she wanted to come sit on my lap, but she said, emphatically, that she was getting married. Here is her bridal outfit:

Kids do the funniest things!

The Little found my high school graduation cap and thought is was the coolest thing. Dale freaked out a little to see her wearing a graduation cap. If he had his way, she would always stay a baby.



The Little is now potty trained while she is awake. During naps and night time, we use pull ups. The other day, I told the Little to go and get a pull up for bedtime. She went and got a couple. The result is below:

Cinderella

Several weeks ago, the Little announced that she was Cinderella Robbins. As of this week, she is Cinderella, Dale is "Prince", and I am the Queen. It's pretty cute. For a few days, she hasn't called Dale anything but Prince and corrects anyone who refers to him otherwise.

Funny things 2 year olds say

Dale and the Little took the trash out to the western balcony in the late afternoon. From this balcony, you can see downtown Salt Lake City very well. The sun was beginning to think about setting.
The Little: My eyes are getting sunny.
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Dale and the Little were going for a walk and trying to find the Little's hat before leaving. It was MIA, so The Little said: I'll just wear my hair.

Wearing Feet

Dale and the Little were going to the basement the other day. Dale told the Little to go and get her sandles to wear and she said, "Can I wear my feet?"

This is my box

The other afternoon, the Little proudly showed me the box she had made. I have to say, I was pretty impressed.

Alligators in Utah

We have now moved to a 15 floor apartment building, which is close to where Dale works and will be going to school. We live on the 14th floor. When ever we are about to leave the apartment, The Little asks, "Are we going on the alligator?" (translation: Are we going on the elevator?)

Florida Trip Part 2

In front of our hotel room at Disney, there was a large tennis court with a figure of Donald Duck on one side and figures of Huey, Dewey, and Louie. The Little enjoyed playing around the statues while we were there.

Day 2 at Disney started around 7 am for us. Dale when to McDonalds and got us breakfast. The Little calls that same place "Old McDonald had a farm." Later, we drove to the Magic Kingdom parking lot. We decided to take the Ferry to the entrance. It was either that or the Monorail. From the Ferry, you get a great view of Cinderella's Castle from a distance. We tried pointing it out to The Little for a while and the all of a sudden she exclaimed "It's Cinderella's Castle!"


At the Magic Kingdom, the Little got a similar stroller to the one from the Animal Kingdom except it was blue.


After we picked up The Little's stroller, we got family pictures taken in front of the castle. You can see said photos in the May 7 entry and my profile. We walked around the castle and saw the Sword and the Stone. The Little enjoys that movie, and so Dale tried to get a picture of her with it, but there just so happened to be Mickey Mouse head shaped confetti on the ground which was much more interesting.

The first ride we went on was Cinderella's Carousel. Once the ride got going, she really enjoyed it, as you can see below. Grandma, Grandpa, and Mandi also really enjoyed the ride.Probably the highlight of the day for The Little and her entourage was when she got to meet Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Belle. The Little was somewhat overwhelmed and didn't speak or smile the whole time we were in the room with them, but could stop talking about it afterwards.

We ended the day by seeing the parade. Abby sat with Grandpa and really enjoyed it. We really enjoyed our trip to Florida and to Disney World. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for the opportunity.

Trip to Florida

Since I have heard that some people(David) are getting impatient for me to post more about our Florida trip, I will do so.

The Little and I flew Southwest and Dale flew American. The Little was great on the plane and we made is very safely to Tampa where Dale picked us up. He arrived a couple of hours before we did and was able to pick up the rental car. We drove to Bradenton where Dale's Mom(hereafter referred to as Grandma), Ken (Grandma's Fiance), Billy, and Mandi live. We had an enjoyable evening and left the next morning for Disney.

We met up with Dale's sisters Christina and Nikki at our hotel in Orlando. Christina had her husband Joe and her 7 month old son Logan in tow. This was the first time we had seen Logan, and he is a cute little boy. According to Christina and Grandma, he looks just like his uncle Dale.

You be the judge. Do you think he looks like Dale?

Anyway, Day 1 at Disney was spent at the Animal Kingdom. The first ride we went on was the Safari. All of the Disney cast members (a.k.a. employee) pretend that you are in Africa in this part of the park. Dale got some great pictures of the animals and The Little really enjoyed identifying them.

Disney has some great strollers. The Little really enjoyed hers. She was even able to take a nap in it.

We went for a walk on a trail. Abby saw some fish.

Dale enjoyed the Gorillas. They only have males, which make for an interesting exhibit for the visitors. However, it has to be crazy for the cast members who take care of them.

Late in the day at Animal Kingdom, all of us happened to be together. Well, everyone but Dale as he had walked 20 yards away to get the stroller. During the time he was gone, Ken proposed to Grandma in front of all of us. Thankfully, she said yes. Otherwise that could have been very embarrassing for the wonderful man who took us to Disney World. Hereafter in the blog, Ken will be known as Grandpa Ken. At this time, they plan on getting married sometime in April. That means we get to go to Florida next year, too!!!

After the Animal Kingdom, we went to Benihana for dinner. It is Dale's favorite restaurant. Here are Grandma, Grandpa Ken and Logan perusing the menu.

Abby got interested in fried rice. My fried rice to be specific. At Benihana, they make little kid chopsticks, as seen in the picture below. Abby ate almost all of my fried rice with those chopsticks. She had the time of her life at that restaurant.

I will post day 2 at Disney a little later.

Smiles

The other day, I opened the car door to get the Little out. She had the biggest cheezy grin on her face. She said, " I smiling."

She was very pleased with herself.

Adrianne's Tag

I thought that I would sidetrack myself a bit from my vacation report by answering Adrianne's tag. I thought it was fun, even though I will not do step 5.

1. Pick up the nearest book (at least 123 pages)
2. Turn to page 123
3. Find the 5th sentence
4. Post the 5th sentence on your blog
5. Tag 5 people

The nearest book to the computer right now happens to be Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith.

The 5th sentence on that page just happens to be " What can we learn from the story told by David Whitmer on page 116?"

How fun is that? Will the silliness never end?

To Florida and Back

We had the most wonderful vacation in Florida. As I promised certain sisters I would update my blog tonight, I am. However, I believe that a complete recounting of the trip will take a few days.

We went to Disney World for 2 days. The first we spent in Animal Kingdom and the second we spent in the Magic Kingdom. I got to ride one roller coaster each day, which was super fun. Dale actually rode Space Mountain with me and Ken(future father-in-law). He hates roller coasters. Riding Space Mountain confirmed his feelings towards them. I was very proud of him for trying it again.

Here is a picture of the entire fam the beginning of day 2. The Little was not very happy with posing for this picture, as Mickey and all of his friends were singing and dancing right behind us. She absolutely loved seeing Cinderella's Castle.

Little Smurfette

Today, the Little found some food coloring. Before I knew it, her hands were blue. She came up to me and asked for a napkin. I just about died laughing. She also found some lipgloss. Of course, I had to get a picture.

I tried to get a picture with her palms facing the camera, but she didn't seem interested.

Onward and Upward

Dale got into the University of Utah's Professional MBA program. Yeah!!!! This means moving again, but just up to Salt Lake City. We are very excited.

Shortly after Val posted the picture of Mimi's shiner, I picked up The Little from her babysitters to find that while she and a friend had been playing with a dollhouse, a piece of doll furniture had hit The Little right in the eye. It didn't bruise a lot, but I am going to call it her first official black eye.


So, here she is in all her "face needs to be wiped" glory.

Eating Bananas

I guess The Little had great memories of me taking her picture with her legs crossed last Saturday. However, she did not remember it as me taking her picture with her legs crossed. She seems to remember the event as "Mommy taking a picture of me sitting at the table eating a banana." So yesterday, she was insistant that I take pictures of her eating a banana at the table. She also really enjoyed looking at each picture after it was taken and proclaiming it to be "Beautiful!"

I believe that Chicken Little was on the TV in the background. That would explain the two distracted looks. Oh--another thing I love is how sometimew when you fix the red eyes, one of the eyes comes out looking a little creepy.