dress rehersal

fairy costume? check.
fairy wings? check.
fairy pink tights? check.
fairy wand? check.
fairy attitude? check.
today we did a dry run with the costume. zella is a gentle soul and tends to get self-conscience when people (not charlie or i) tell her she is cute and/or they pay alot of attention to her. so we did a dress-rehearsal. we put on the fairy dress, wings and wand. she did not want to take it off. we removed it in stages. we took off the wrap around skirt first. then i got the wings off somehow. and the dress stayed on for a long time. but she colored in it, she ran around in it.

kind of posed for pictures in it.

and enjoyed a snack in it.

i will take more tomorrow.

jill b

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY RANDALL!

today is charlie's brother, randall's, 21st birthday. we all went to a happy hour with randall and his family. we sat outside and it was just a beautiful night. we ordered a few drinks and went back to their house for cake.

happy birthday randall!

zella enjoyed playing with her aunt april and aunt andrea. i caught her snuggling with april.

randall's first, ordered by himself, beer... and that is my frozen yummy drink!

and now he just looks like charlie b.

happy birthday randall.

jill b

cheeseburgers and pappy

zella and i have been cheeseburger-ing! she is having allot of fun lately with the camera. she has shown allot of interest in taking photos. so i have been giving her the camera and letting her take pictures.
and then i get this when she is done.
we pulled out the wii fit last night and zella wanted to play with us. we were doing our yoga and she was playing along. she looks so cute when she is playing.
and the big news around our house is the fact that a little miss someone has begun to use the potty. she used it on Sunday and we all jumped around and were telling her how proud we were of her and that she is such a big girl. we then ran up to target, and got her a big little pet shop club house. we let her pick out it out. we grabbed a few more toys and charlie set up a "treasure box". we put the rest of the new toys in it and told her she could pick out a new treasure each time she sits on the potty. but she can't open it unless she does her business on the potty. she is starting to get the hang of it. we started calling people when she does it and so far everyone we have called has had the best reaction. we have called grammy, pappy, grandma, aunt kim, emma, kristin... i hope this will last and that we can wear big girl panties!!!

we went to my parents yesterday. my dad had a pretty good day. zella and i have been going by the gas station by my parents house, and grab a soda for my dad(caffeine free diet coke, and everytime he tells me how much he loves the fact we think of him and grab him a soda, and that it tastes sooo good) and a lolly pop for zella. we have been doing this for months now and she always reminds me to stop. there was only a few times yesterday that my dad seemed confussed. one of the kittens, cinders, has had a hard time healing from when she got declawed. and when we first got there, my dad was telling me how concerned he was for her. she doesn't put any weight on it and walks on her other 3 legs. i asked him if mom knew about this, and he thought she did, but he was still very concerned. so i called my mom, got her voice mail, left a message. a few minutes later, she called me back and she told me that she has been talking to the vet for the last 2 days and that cinders was going to be ok and that the vet gave her a longer prescription for her pain meds. my mom had already been concerned and that dad was correct about her knowing about it. so fast forward about an hour. dad asked "was mom just here for a few minutes"? and i thought about it for a min. and then remembered that we had talked to her. so i told him that we had just talked to her on the phone. and that might be why he thought she was there. that was good enough for him. and a little later i asked where cinders was and he told me that she was upstairs with mom. i said that mom was still at work. and he looked puzzled for a brief min. and then accepted my response. i never want to hurt my dad, or make him look or feel silly for asking his questions. so most of the time i just go with what ever he says. i don't want to argue with him, or challenge what he says. i love my dad dearly and watching this breaks my heart. but i am thankful that i get to spend as much time with him as i do.
more cheeseburgers
and she is now finished.
i love this photo. she was having fun with her hat. and we had been taking pictures for a while...
which is what i got when i still wanted to take more pictures and she was finished. don't worry, she didn't stay sad for long. i gave her a candy pumpkin (think candy corn)and everything was good with her. i still love this picture.

jill b

tuesdays with pappy

we were at my parents yesterday, and my dad was spinning zella upside down and she loved it! i then remembered that my camera also takes video and i started recording. she was having a blast. i started recording after dad had spun her about a dozen times. i wish i got the first few because she couldn't stop laughing. the really good belly laugh. and she always followed it up with can you do it again?
we saw this on the road on the way to my parents house. and i thought, this is something that one doesn't see everyday. so i took a picture.
here is the spinning video. i hope you have as much fun watching it as zella had being spun. have a great day
jill b

sugar high and a playground!!

Saturday afternoon, we went to a birthday party for a little guy whose daddy charlie works with. it was at some indoor "circus" about the size of costco. at first we were all overwhelmed at everything that was available to play with. they lost our party's reservation, so we ate pizza, cake and some soda, opened some gifts and then we were all set lose in the playground. so all of the sugar from the cake and soda kicked in big time and the dad's played just as hard as the kids. they had a play jungle-gym. think McDonald's playground on steroids. there was a height limit for the jungle-gym, but there was also a sign that said children must be supervised at all times. which spelled out elementary grade school recess for the dad's. they were all up in the tubes and sliding down the slides. i think they had more fun than the kids!
zella really liked the merry-go-round! she was so happy and it showed. this picture is a little blurry, but it is hard to get an in-focused shot when they are being spun around like so.
zella really liked the purple slide. she did it over and over.
i hope everyone has a great week.
jill b

logic

charlie and i told zella that we would take her to the park tonight. well one thing lead to another, and we thought she forgot about going to the park. so at 9:00 pm she asks us to go to the park. well, charlie and i were already in our pjs, and started telling her that we could go tomorrow because it was late... i know the parks on our side of town close at 10:30pm. so the following conversation went like this
z=can we go to the park now?
us= we can go tomorrow
z= i wan to go to tumbleweed park
us=it's getting late, and the park is getting ready to close
(zella is quite for a min. or two)
z=but parks don't have any doors
(she is correct, technically they don't)
we went to the park and stayed until 10pm
i love the logic of my almost 4 year old

have a great day

FINISHED!!

look at what i finished. i still want to add some sparkle to it. but for the most part it is finished and on the wall. now charlie and zella don't have to hear me say "be careful, it's on the floor" or "don't step on it" and not least "watch where you are walking".
a different angle

and a cute photo to leave you with

jill b

another frame

i only have the z and the e to hang. i changed the paper on the z. i just wasn't in love with it.

the laptop!

zella loves to play on the computer. she wanted to play last night, but wanted to play in the living room with us. charlie brought out the laptop. and all was good with zella. (and yes, that is one of my Christmas trees from last year).
i thought it was cute the way she was sitting on the bench, and playing on the computer. notice how close the blankie is.
i love watching her concentrate. she was learning something new on the computer. charlie is right behind her. he had just shown her something. (like my computer vocabulary?) she got it!
and this is a picture on how the rest of our night went. we moved the laptop to the coffee table, so she could be closer to us. charlie on the couch playing xbox. and me, taking pictures.
i hope everyone has a great day
jill b

progress!

i started to hang my project. the bottom of the frames sits lower than i thought. and hangs a little over zella's bed frame. so part of me feels like i ruined it. but i know that i didn't, it just looks a little low to me. but i think when we turn her bed around it will be fine. i used that double sided Velcro, and it works great. you just need to know where everything is going to go before you pull of the sticker on the back of what you are hanging. i could of finished the hanging, but i couldn't find our hammer. i looked and looked for it, but i couldn't find it. i used a screw driver handle to put in a few nails. and for that hammer...charlie took it camping with him. so hopefully it will be done tonight. i will take pictures when i finish it.
jill b

saturday

we had our girls day today. and it was a big success. largely because emma came with kim. she entertained zella the whole afternoon. so mom, kim and i were able to work on our "wedding" album. we got about half way through and decided we wanted to put in more photos than what we had printed. so kim and i printed off some more pictures and went to costco to pick them up. we have agreed to meet again real soon to finish our books.
zella had a great afternoon with emma. at times they were running through my house and being very loud and having a ball. we even got a musical parade from them. zella played the drum and emma road the tricycle. i have been trying to take pictures of things that chances are i will not be doing/seeing five years from now. i have started to take a lot of pictures of zella and her toys. i love the way she is always stacking or arranging toys. every morning there is a new configuration in her bed. and i find all sorts of "collections" all around the house. i am so grateful that i get to experience the creativity that she posses. she is so sweet, and i am humbled to be her mom. (these are the moments that i was afraid we would miss out on. and i am so glad to have them!)
jill b

a sneek peak!

my charlie is going camping this weekend, so my sister and mom (and dad) are having an all girl Saturday at my house. after talking with my sister, i decided to have a "craft" day and make a scrapbook about all of our weddings. so here is a sneak peak of the covers i went ahead and did the cover for all three books. there were many layers and the scalloped chipboard were a pain in the bum. but i promised my sister that it would not be a scary event.
i have been gathering pictures and papers. i am excited, and i hope everyone will enjoy the book when finished.
jill b

the decision has been made...

hi everyone. i am back. and i think that the project will be done soon. i have decided the layout of everything, and i think i am ready to place on the wall. charlie and i rarely argue, but one way to get an argument started is to a. when charlie tries to park at the mall, and b. hang a picture on the wall. something about getting a picture to be straight is a sure-fire way to get snippy. but i will hold my tongue and try to get everything on the wall this weekend. the first photo shows the wall where we are going to hang it. i still need to paint around the outside of each letter. you can still see the paper sides. i am going to cut out some more butterflies and randomly place them. i will post the wall when i am done. i don't know why this keeps turning my photo sideways...
here is a more recient picture of my parents new kittens. they are growing so fast and are still very curious of everything around them. they let zella pick them up and carry them around. she does the classic child-holding a pet hold and carries them under their neck or a paw or two. i had their attention by breathing like darth vadar.
the nights are starting to cool off well enough to play at the park. we have gone everynight this week. i finally remembered to bring my camera. zella loves the park, and playing in the sand. she gets completely sandy and loves it. charlie and zella play dino's in the sand. we have about 25 dino's that we bring and play with in the sand.

and i will leave you with a cute pic of zella. have a great day

jill b