it is poll time!
i have been working on this photo/letter collage for zella's wall. this collection has been sitting on our living room floor for about a month now, because i can't decide where anything should go. i am putting it on the wall in her room above her bed. i have to keep it short and long because i am working with a existing peg rail around the top of her room. so now which do you like better?
this is some of the frames in a closer picture. just tring to give it a little more detail

option one

option two

i know there are two of the last option. i can't figure out how to delete a photo yet, and charlie is at the store. so it is posted twice. i am not trying to give option 2 more votes.

game face!

this is what we did last night. zella is very good at the xbox controller. i can't work my fingers in coordination with what is on the screen. but zella has been holding and playing with the xbox controller since she was old enough to hold one. she is very good at moving the little guy all over the place. she can even work the two different controlls at the same time.
this last picture makes me laugh. zella has her own game face. if you can overlook the cheetoes remains on her mouth, you will see that her game face is very simular to charlie's game face.
i hope you have a great day
jill b

conversation

conversation with zella b and mommy
mommy- zella do you want a snack?
zella-ok
mommy- do you want me to bring the crackers to you?
zella- that would be so verrryyy nice of you!

i love these conversations!

random photos

hi everyone. i love this picture of charlie and zella. it was after charlie's softball game, and he was falling asleep on the couch. zella just crawled up and got cozy. she was watching some tv before bed. she is so in love with daddy!
another shot of zella just being cute. this is now the smile i get all of the time. at least it doesn't look too painful.
yesterday, tuesday, we went to pappy's and grammy's house for a visit. i think we have settled into tuesday as the day we go and play with pappy and grammy. we go over at least once a week to just play and spend time together. we play with pappy until grammy gets home from work, and then we make some dinner and then play again. i absolutely love my days over there. it is a time when zella gets pappy and grammy's full attention, and she loves it! my dad will play with zella until he's tired. which is about the time my mom gets home and takes over. yesterday we went to pv mall and played in the germ-pit(the play area). i call it the germ-pit because there are always a ton of kids, being kids. so we brought our purell and had a great time. dad was having a great time playing with zella. she would climb up the slide and he would give her a high-five as she slid down. they did this for a while until zella found a little girl to fun around with. then pappy came back to sit by me. but a little boy, maybe 4 or 5 years old, kept comming over and talking to dad. he made a joke about being the house grandfather. he was so cute(dad, not the little boy-ok, he was cute also) and i love him so much! watching dad with my zella makes me think that this was the way he played with and loved my sister and i. just a cute picture to leave you with.
jill b

i got this idea from a lady's blog. she used the letter/picture frame for her son, and i loved it. i have been playing around with them and i have 2 different layouts for them. for the picture above, i couldn't get it to rotate. so above me is option one, and the one below me, is option two. which one do you like better? i went to joann's and michaels and got the letters. i had some frames that i wasn't using. i put some patterned paper on the letters. i still need to paint around the edges (or sides) of the letters, and find pictures for the frames. the pearl letter B, i got at michaels in their one dollar bins. they have lots of letters, but i couldn't find a Z.

so this is my project.

i stole the idea

and i can admit it!

so let me know which one you like the best

this is the reason why we went to las vegas. our friends, sarah and nate, got married. my pictures are backwards. they kissed first and then they got to wear the rings. a picture of all of us. charlie and i were their witnesses. and we were honored to do so.
i still have to work with some of the pictures. but we had a great time.
jill b

home!

what happens in vegas, stays in vegas, but a marriage license is a legal and binding contract everywhere! we had so much fun. it was nice to get to spend some time with nate and sarah, and nate's parents and sarah's mom. their ceremony was quick and fast and right to the point. do you take? do you take? ok, now kiss. we took some pictures and then went back to the casino. we had a few rounds of adult beverages and had a great time.

zella was totally fine. she didn't even want to talk to me on the phone. when i picked her up after 4 days away, she went to kim and said "i don't want to go home". i was glad that she had so much fun that she "forgot" to miss us. but, wow did i miss her!

i will try and post some pictures
so i will have to wait until charlie can help me

home!

viva las vegas!!

in a few hours, the barretts are leaving for las vegas! we are going with our dear friends, mr nate and ms sarah! we will be celebrating the two becoming one. ohh, i love me a good wedding! and a really, really good time afterwards! so since zella is not going with us, we can party it up! i will try to "remember" how everything goes.

so i have about 2 hours before i drop off zella at kim's house. i am glad that she will be happy, safe and loved, while we are gone! thanks kim! me, on the other hand, am a little nervous. i am pacing around the house, finding small things to do before we leave to drop her off. i have cleaned bathrooms, cleaned the dishes, did some laundry... it goes on, and on. kristin is watching our house while we are gone. so i know that everything is going to be fine. i think i will be able to enjoy this vacay after i drop her off.

so for now, i have more "cleaning to do...

jill b

success!

i just typed a long post, but then i accidently erased it...

zella had a great time spending the night with kim and her kids! i was so excited for her. she had never spent the night away before, and i have never spent the night away from her. so i was nervous about her having a hard time when it came to the sleeping arrangements. zella is very good at following instructions, but i thought she might throw the instructions because she would be having so much fun with zach and taylor. but she followed the instructions, and they only got out of bed about 5 times. kim said that they got out of bed and ran into their room, kim would bring them back and get them all settled down. (i think that it became a game, and that they were having way too much fun to settle down and go to sleep...) on the last run to their room, craig brought them back and got them resettled, and that was the last time they got out of bed.

the next morning, i went to get zella. i walked in the room and she looked up and then went right back to playing. i was talking with kim and zella got up and went over to kim, sat right next to her, and grabbed kim's hand and said "I don't want to go home". now i had two choices, i could be sad because she didn't want to say hi to me, or i could be happy that she didn't want to come home because that ment she was having a good time. i choose the second one. that small gesture of holding kim's hand showed me that she felt safe, had a great time, and didn't want it to end.

so i think i will be able to have a better time in vegas, knowing that she will be having a
mini-vaca herself.

(but i still think i will call several times each day!)

jill b

milestones...

charlie and i are going to las vegas at the end of this week. we are having zella stay with our friends, kim and craig. kim and i have kiddo's that are about 8 months apart. zachary is 4 and taylor is 2, mine being 3 years old. we wanted to do a trial run before we leave town. so we brought zella over to kim's house tonight for a sleep over. so we drop her off and stay a few minutes. after talking to kim about night routines, teeth brushing, etc...
a few hours go by and i get a call from kim. everything is alright but she had a funny story to tell me.

this is zella talking to zachary:

zella- i missed you ( with her hands folded under her chin and leaning forward towards zachary)

zachary- why? because you haven't seen me for a while?

zella- no...(a little pause) because i love you.

(kim now tells me how zachary is looking at zella sideways)
and what kind of a reaction does zella get for pouring her little heart out to her object of affection?

zachary says- go sit over there on the other couch!

this is actually a great lesson for her... that boys are silly and sometimes you have to make the fist move!