more cheeseburgers

i have been a bad blogger. so it is about time for an update...
zella and i were waiting for charlie to come home, so we decided to go play in the backyard and take some pictures. we got alot of silly pictures. alot of pictures with one of us looking away...

this one was my favorite.

i have been following my sisters blog. she is posting a list of things she is thankful for. one a day for the month of november. i am loving it. which got me thinking that i have alot to be thankful for. i might play along and make my own list.

i am thankful for my family, friends, health...

kim is actually writing paragraphs for each item on her list. she has decided to not just list the things she is thankful for. or the obvious ones like family, friends, health.

i will start my list with...i am thankful for the conversations that i have with zella. she is almost 4, and she is already sweet. the other night, we went up to the park and it was cold! (ok, sorry to my Minnesota peeps) it was 60. i was playing in the sand with zella and i kept telling her i was so cold. after listening to me say this several times, she looked at me and said "see mommy, arn't you glad you are wearing a sweater?"

i love this kid!

halloween!

this is our first Halloween that zella actually understands what is going on. dress up, go door to door, ask for candy and get some! that is a very good lesson to learn and then to have the anticipation of free candy take over a normally mellow child into a very excited little fairy! about 5:30 on friday night, she told me that it was starting to get dark and that we needed to put on her costume. so we put everything on and went outside to take some pictures. she had a hard time trying to stand still and smile like i was asking her to do. so i just let her be goofy and have a good time playing it up for the camera.

then she busted out in her best dance moves and it was cracking me up.

she had as much fun dancing as i did watching her dance.

at least i got one really cute picture of her.

she had so much energy...

i just love this face!

cute fairy wings. picture was taken with me running behind her.

we went trick-or-treating with zack and taylor. there were some neighborhood kids also. this helped zella to not be so overwhelmed with the commotion. and she had a great time with daddy.

i love the fact that we can trick-or-treat in shorts and flip-flops! this is proof that she was successful in getting candy.

happy halloween!

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