Kiki's and Loved Animals

I needed to take some pictures of the girls with their kiki's (blankets) and well loved stuffed animals. I think it is so funny what they decide is their kiki and animal. When Sophie was born, I tried to get her to love this adorable blanket I recieved but instead, Sophie latched onto this hot pink number that was a hand-me-down of Sydney's. This duck was also Sydney's before Sophie came along...but clearly, ownership has changed hands. And not to forget the ever present bink in her mouth. We are always running around our house looking for kiki and Duck and bink...
I found this old picture of Sydney (probably when she was about Sophie's age...maybe a little younger) with her kiki and of course her bink. Thank goodness her bink is long gone. Cow was around then too, but apparently not pictured in this picture. Actually she didn't receive Cow until we moved to Phoenix...and they were inseperable for many years.

Here's Sydney with her kiki and Cow (and no bink). Actually she doesn't really sleep with either of them on a regular basis. Once in awhile I'll find them in her room, but usually she leaves them in Sophie's room now and just doesn't seem to need them anymore. Over the last few years there have been several other stuffed animals that Sydney phased through...such as Monkey (that was almost lost in St. George), Winnie the Pooh, Puppy, Sheepy (she made the name up...not me), two Pet Shop animals (I believe they were named Sparkle and Buttercup) and most recently yet another puppy (this one she named Peter, seriously we have no idea where she comes up with these) that her Grandma sent her for Valentine's. She still loves all her stuffed creatures and usually finds at least one of them to hide in her bed.

And that's all folks. Peace out!

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Yikes!

Doesn't that spider just creep you out! Unfortunately since Mark is never around...I am the adult that has to kill all the creepy, crawly insects that are constantly coming inside. It is definitely one way to get my heart rate into the threshold zone. The other slightly embarrassing thing...I am always shrieking or screaming while I am trying to smoosh a spider or catch a cricket. The other night I went out the front door to go switch something on the irrigation timer and the above spider raced as fast as it could towards the door, which resulted in me screamming and trying to stomp on it before it could run inside! Of course it took me several trys before I could get it (those things move fast) and I'm sure all the neighbors just love to hear that I am yet again battling with another creepy crawly. Of course Sydney was at the window screaming as well (sympathy screams). Sophie just screams because she thinks its a wonderful noisy game! Then a few nights ago, no less than 3 giant hopping crickets (all at separate times) made their entrance from behind the computer so I had to catch those amid lots of screams from us. At least they were inside our house. As if it can't get any more dramatic...out of the corner of my eye, I noticed what I thought was a small black snake, so I let out another loud shriek about that. Until I realized that actually it was part of Mark's shoelace that broke off his shoes when I accidentally vacummed the shoelace up. Silly me! On a side note, my old vacume didn't suck up much of anything, but our new vacume is pretty powerful and the shoelace broke off almost before I realized it had caught in the vacume. And I was vacuming over by the door in the first place because of the large amount of sand Sydney manages to pilfer from the playground at school each day inside each shoe. And last but not least, a bee flew in the patio door the other day (Sophie of course left the door open) and it took quite awhile to kill that and of course LOTS of screaming and running from said bee!

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The Giant Saw

This is on my dining room table in my living room. It is my brother-in-law, Dave's saw, that he let me borrow (and I owe him a huge thank-you...I'm not sure Mark really wants me to buy one of these yet) so I could put up a chair rail in Sydney's room. Seriously, it is the biggest saw I have ever seen but it is pretty cool. It can of course make miter cuts and bevel cuts. And don't worry, it is very safe...as in there is no chance that either of my kids will get hurt with this being out. Actually, Sophie is very uninterested in it (I only wish she felt the same about the pantry and the entertainment center).
Since Sydney loves the beach and all stuff beachy so much, we are going to do her room in sort of a surfer girl theme. But in keeping with my sense of neutral colors that will go with anything, I did the walls in two tones of a warm chocolate with the lightest shade on top. Then we will hopefully find a white bed and cute Hawaiian print or surfer girl bedding...I know Pottery Barn always has some fun stuff in their summer line. I also have some fun ideas for window treatments that will bring in some fun colors. And of course we will have to display some sea shells! It is still a work in progress so maybe in a few months I will post some updates as we add more to this room.

I installed the chair rail after I had painted and it ended up being so easy. I even did a rounded corner and it turned out perfect! Although, I couldn't have done any of this without the fabulous saw!

The only snags in this whole project (if they could even be considered snags) was tripping the breaker when I first plugged in the saw. Apparently, this saw requires about 120v...and I'm sure it is no where near what the vacume usually sucks out of the wall! So after figuring out how to break out of my garage (it was on the same circuit) and eventually figuring out how to reset the circuit...everything went pretty smooth. I think this may be one of the first times I didn't start a project and have something I hadn't planned for (structurally or whatever) pop up!

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Cute girls!

I have to write this down so I won't forget how cute some of these things are...

Today while I was making dinner, Sydney was sitting on her pillow in the middle of the kitchen with the baseball bat. She was "rowing" and she explained she was on her boat in the middle of the ocean. Don't worry, I didn't drown. Apparently I can walk on the water.

Last night Sydney was playing out in the backyard and found another seashell. I don't know where they are coming from but if anyone could find one, Sydney would. She was so excited. She still loves sea shells. She plays with them quite regularly (just like some kids play with dolls). After she said her prayers last night, she said, "Mama, I just loooooove singing and dancing and sea shells!" I couldn't help but smile. That is so her. Consequently she slept with her shell last night. The first thing she wanted to show Mark this morning was her sea shell. (He usually gets home after the kids are already asleep so they usually come climb in our bed in the morning to hang out.)

Whenever we pull into the garage Sophie shouts out, "Kitty, where are you?" The neighbors have a cat a few houses down and sometimes it will come over to see Sophie. Obviously she loves that. It is so cute. Also the other day, when we were outside, Sophie picked a flower from one of the bushes and said "flou". I love all the little words she says.

When we go to pick Sydney up at school, sometimes we will park and walk up to get Sydney and her two friends Maddy and Ewa (pronounced Eva). There is this guy that is always waiting to pick up his granddaughter. For some reason Sophie always runs over to give him a hug. Never mind that she rarely gives hugs to anyone in her own family. But she always gives this guy a hug and then will sit down right next to him. He is Hispanic so he always comments about how blonde her hair is and how blue her eyes are. I think he is quite charmed that she is always excited to see him. Now, if we stay in the car and go through the pick-up line, Sophie always shouts out "Maddy", "Ewa", and "Sydney"...over and over. She is always so excited to see them. Of course I am too...ha, I get to listen to four very loud, chattering girls all the way home! They are fun though.

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