I found this when I woke up one morning. So sweet. :)
Sometimes when I pick up Peaches from preschool she is so grumpy! She's always happy to see me, but about halfway home she'll get really whiny. I guess she's just tired. I snuck a picture of her.
But she heard the click.
And apparently I need to do that more often because it turned her frown upside down. Haha.
She left a cup of water in the car overnight. When she found it again it looked like this. "WHO froze my water?!?" she exclaimed in shock. Then she thought for a second and said, "I think Elsa did it."
You can hardly even see them, but just past the wheelbarrow is a flock of partridges! I thought they were quail at first, but they were the size of small chickens. A friend told us they were partridges. Maybe they were looking for a pear tree. ;)
Peaches is doing amazingly well on the piano! I think she has an ear for music. It will be fun to watch her skills grow.
When I got home I asked each of the girls what their high/low was while we were gone (best moment/worst moment). Bug was the only one to ask me what mine was, and when I thought about it this was my moment.
The whole trip was so nice. I hardly did anything. I read, played with Lou, and relaxed. Then when T and the others were done with their sessions we went out to eat, went shopping, and got to go to Top Golf! The whole trip was a high! But the best moment came after lunch on Monday.
Lou was still napping when they got their lunch break so T and Mr. T ran to In and Out and brought us back some. She woke up by the time they returned and we ate lunch at our little table in the room. Daddy had to go back to meetings and Lou had about an hour before she needed to go back down for a nap. It was about 55 and a little breezy but the sun was shining so I put her sweater on and we went for a walk.
We found a little pull out for golf carts where we weren't in danger of being hit by a ball and we sat in the sun and played in the rocks.
It was SO nice to just sit in the sun.
It even got warm enough in that sheltered spot that we were able to take off our sweaters.
The biggest thing for Lou this trip was discovering the outdoors. This is literally the first time she's ever really been outside! Last summer she was crawling and putting everything into her mouth, and we don't have grass so I never took her outside. Since she's been walking the ground has either been covered with mud, snow, or ice so I've never taken her out in any of those either.
She had SO MUCH fun just walking around, picking up rocks, feeling the grass, and watching a flock of birds that were on the ground near us.
She happily played here for almost an hour. She loved picking up rocks and putting them on the curb.
Here is the view I got to look at while we were out there. Lou also loved watching the ducks and geese that were over by the pond.
After they finished up on Monday we went shopping at some outlet malls. We both got a few new things and then we saw a store called "It's Sugar!" so we went in to find something for the girls. It was crazy! This is there wall of "cereal" that is all candy! Yikes.
We ended up getting the girls pez dispensers. Elsa, Anna, Olaf, and Jasmine.
We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and it was so good! I hadn't been to one in years.
When we got back to the hotel Lou and Daddy had a wrestle fest before bed. I don't think she has ever gotten in on it at home because the big girls are way too wild and crazy for her, but she loved it!
Here's a little video.
The next day we went for another little walk while waiting for everyone to break for lunch. She found more rocks and was happy!
Mr. T kept her entertained any time we drove anywhere. She loves to play "Uh oh!" where she drops her bunny and you have to pick it up over and over. :P
After lunch we came back and I put her down for a nap. They only had one more hour long session so Daddy and Mr. T ran to a wood store while Lou finished her nap. Daddy didn't want to go out the door and wake her up so he went over the balcony. Haha!
While we were gone the birthday balloon got sucked up into the air return that still doesn't have a grate on it. T had to call our HVAC guy at home to figure out how to get it out, but it wasn't too complicated and Noni was able to extract it. :P
When she woke up we ran over to the gift shop to pick a book for her sisters. She was shopping and wanted to buy all the animal purses!
Then we met up with everyone and headed to Top Golf! It was a blast as usual!
Thankfully Lou was happy to sit in the highchair and eat for a full hour! She ate a huge container of fruit we'd brought from the grocery store, FOUR pieces of pizza, and some tortilla chips! This was after she had been so sick so I guess she was making up for lost time. Haha.
We got this picture of Peanut's new art gallery. :)
Lou woke up the last morning looking a little worse for wear. Lol. She was plastered with snot still leftover from her cold...or from the beginnings of her next cold which she just rolled right into. :P
She also made a huge mess with her breakfast so she got to take a bath before we left!
We had an earlier flight home this year so we had to leave for the airport before her morning nap. I figured she would fall asleep in the car, but nope. She stayed awake the whole way there, through checking in the rental car, through the bus ride from the car rental to the airport, all through check in, security, and finding something to eat.
We spent the first portion of the flight eating lunch, and I tried to get her to go to sleep since it was already time for her afternoon nap but she was WIRED. She screamed like a wild banshee and I quickly abandoned any plan of sleep. She spent the rest of the flight up and down, up and down, playing with anything and everything, talking to the little boys in front of her, and just bouncing off every surface.
It felt like we were on that plane for about six hours. :P
But we made it. She was numb by the time we landed. She'd been awake since our 6AM, and missed both naps. But now we know she can stay awake for 9 hours straight. :P
She was asleep within seconds of getting in the car.
Our little hardware store in town shut down so as soon as we landed we had to run to Lowe's to grab the supplies needed to finish the mechanical closet (because our HVAC guys were soon scheduled to come). We hit Lowe's, Walmart grocery pickup, and grabbed Panda. We made it home at 5:05, said hi to the girls, ate quickly, and were out the door thirty minutes later to make it to AWANA. Phew.
The next day Lou climbed into the suitcase like she wanted to go back. Haha.
Even though the plane ride home kind of negated any relaxing effects of the trip, we still had a great time! Thank you thank you thank you Noni for taking such good care of the girls and keeping them on their crazy schedules of school/dance/basketball!!! You're awesome!
February means Arizona!! Noni stayed with the big four so Lou and I could head to the sunshine with Daddy! It was especially nice since we'd been in our mid-winter funk where it is either foggy or overcast and we had literally not seen the sun in weeks. Thankfully we seem to have brought the sunshine back with us because since we got home we've had quite nice weather.
Anyway, back to the trip. I wasn't sure how Lou would do on the airplane. It was her naptime, and she'd barely had thirty minutes sleep that day (the drive to the airport), but I wasn't holding my breath that she would sleep and sure enough she didn't. She was wound tight! She was so excited. It was hard to get her to sit still for more than 1.2 seconds.
Thankfully (hallelujah!) neither our flight down or back was full so BOTH times we got an extra seat! I think God was looking out for us because I don't remember that ever happening before. I'm not sure what we would have done without that extra seat. She climbed up and down and around and around the entire three hours we were on the plane.
She loved looking out the window when we were on the ground. Look at those sweet little fingers. :)
The only way we could get her to sit still for take off was to feed her puffs.
"Uh oh!" - which means, more puffs Daddy!
Funny girl. :)
The tray table was her own personal chair.
You can see how wound up and goofy she was!!
She likes cars so I bought her a three pack at the Dollar Store. She lost the red one on the flight down, but had the blue and yellow for the way back.
Tape was our biggest friend. You can see a strip of shiny gold on the tray. Sticking and peeling off strips of tape to every available surface kept her entertained for over an hour.
Here's a little video. I told T it was like flying in a pinball machine. She was literally bouncing off every surface. Lol!
It was already getting late by the time we got checked into our hotel so we walked down to the Mexican food restaurant at the edge of the resort instead of trying to go out. She liked the lighted pathway.
I had been preparing Lou for the trip for three days. She is quite the homebody and both times we traveled over the holidays it took a full day of fussing/crying in the pack and play before she would settle down and go to sleep. So three days before our trip I put the pack and play in her room and put her down for naps and bed in it. She cried and cried. The next day I moved it to the library and did the same thing. She cried and cried. We brought the same blanket that had been in her pack and play to put over the mattress in the hotel's pack and play, and she went down without a peep. Of course she'd also barely slept all day so that could have something to do with it. ;)
She woke up in a great mood when Daddy had to get up for his conference, even though it was our 6:30AM. :P
She toddled all over the room putting her toys in and out of cupboards.
Then she ate breakfast in her Mommy-highchair with a soap dish for a plate. Haha.
The girls wanted to see pictures of our room so I sent them this one of Lou's bed.
We didn't have as good of a view this year...the parking lot and the freeway beyond the trees, but it was the perfect spot because it was at the end of the building and the other side of us didn't have an occupant. There was someone above us, but since we could even hear their footsteps I figured they couldn't hear Lou when she cried. :)
Ok that's all for today. The rest of the pictures tomorrow.
