It was nice while it lasted.

Many of you may know that we had been really spoiled with Danica. At least with her sleeping habits. She would wait in her bed in the morning until we came to get her. If she woke up and wanted to get up she would call for us. Well...three morning ago that changed. She has started getting up on her own. The first morning I was already up and sitting on the couch. She came out with a book and some awesome bed head hair and wanted to read. The second morning she came into our room at 6:00 and climbed on me. Normally it wouldn't have been too bad but we had gotten to bed pretty late the night before. This morning she came in quietly and put her face right next to mine and whispered "Mom, Get up!" I was happy that she was quiet about it since Jason had been able to play poker with some guys last night and he hadn't gotten to do that in awhile. I got her a couple of waffles and she is watching Tinkerbell right now. I would love it if she went back to staying in her bed but I am certain that train has left the station. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

First Dentist Visit

Danica had her first dentist appointment on Friday. She did awesome. Our insurance does something called Chaps. They have a class for first timers to the dentist where they get to touch everything that is used and learn about what is going on. So there was about 7 kids all 3-4 years old there at the same time. And they all did pretty well. There was one little girl who declared that she had already brushed her teeth that morning and did NOT want to do it again. Danica even got x-rays taken. I wish I had gotten a picture of her with the big heavy apron on but she was a little anxious at that time and it was busy back by the x-ray stuff so I let it slide. She looked like she was trying so hard to be brave! Then we went back to the pediatric area and they have 4 stations in one room. She sat down like a champ and did great. The only thing she didn't tolerate was when they tried to recline the chair. She didn't like that at all and freaked out a little. So the chair was sitting more upright than ususal but they worked around it.

Getting ready to get started.

Tolerating the polishing really well!

Smiling pretty for the camera!

Almost all done and no cavities! They were able to get clear xrays which was nice. She has a little mouth so it was hard with the negative cards but she was awesome. Both Jason and I went with her which I think helped calm her down when she got anxious. Jason held her hand during the cleaning (which you can see in the above picture). We both had been talking it up for a couple of weeks. Letting her know what I dentist does and what to expect. We were also careful to not call the dentist a doctor. Danica does not like going to the doctor. She got to pick out a prize when she was done and then we were outta there. It took about an hour including her class so I thought that was rather quick. Hopefully she does this well on her next trip there in 6 months.

Happy Mother's Day!

Wishing all the mom's out there a very Happy Mother's Day!

In case you can't understand her Danica is saying Happy Mother's Day. She is also wavying around a balloon wand that she got at the Saturday Market here in Salem. And it was warm in the car so that is why her face is all flushed.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

The ABCs

Finally some long awaited (I'm sure) video. Danica randomly started singing the alphabet in the car the other day and made it the whole way through without help. Jason had never heard her do that and I had heard attempts but never successes. She is being very chatty right now. It is adorable to listen to her when she is playing by herself in her room. This clip is from yesterday afternoon. We had been out and about and I needed to run to the grocery store to get some stuff for dinner so Jason and Danica waited in the car for me. Apparently during that time she was singing and Jason got it recorded on his phone. I had to wait until we got home and got this with the little camera.

She does know the ending to the song. We worked on it last night a little bit. She just couldn't remember while she was singing in the car. But she was warm and in need of a nap as well. She also had no problem singing it multiple times as long as I would let her see the video after she was done. I think it is rather cute!

Easter Fun

Sorry it took so long to get some Easter pictures posted. Danica had a fun time this Easter. She got to dye Easter eggs for the first time and loved it. She enjoyed it so much that I bought some extra dye kits when they went on clearance after Easter! Who says you can only have pretty eggs once a year! She didn't even argue about having to put on a smock to color the eggs (previously this had been an issue!). I guess she thought it was just like wearing her apron when she "helps" me cook.

Here she is getting all ready to go. And apparently doing her best "grasp the monkey's tail" impression! (tai chi for anyone not familiar)

She was all about the pictures that day. As you can tell by the cheesy grin. She is all ready to go!

I wrote on some of the eggs with a white crayon and she loved how we could put names on them. The names included: Danica, Mommy, Daddy, Papa, Grandma, RoseAne, Nicholas, Emmarie, Monica and Kasen. (and yes Monica it was her idea to put your name on it!) We took Kasen his egg the next day when we went to Randi and Devon's house for Saturday "Easter" dinner.

Here she is with her finished eggs. She was so proud!

Like I said we went to Jason's cousin's house for Saturday evening. The kids quickly disappeared into Kasen's room to play. Even Ellia was in on the action.
Later the kids has some fun with a track. I think it was for cars but am not sure.

Here is Randi and Kasen getting all ready for their Easter egg hunt!

They loved it!As you can see Kasen was determined to get that egg. Even if it meant manuvering under a chair to do it!

They were pretty good about not trying to take each other's eggs. I think that they came out about equal in the number department. Of course us parents helped steer them towards more when needed.

Ellia enjoyed watching them and chewing on the plastic eggs as well.

The kids and dad sorting out there treasure!

The kids sitting watching a show, winding down before we had to leave.
And Ellia sitting in her high chair eating dinner happy as a clam! Gotta love that hair and grin!

This was Danica's Easter dress. This picture was taken after church BEFORE lunch so that would be why there is a crabby look on her face! It is such a cute dress though!

MN Trip

I am aware that these pictures are long over due but better later than never right! The beginning of April we took a long weekend trip to MN. It started out being a surprise to my sister Janeen for her birthday. Then we decided to try to surprise pretty much everyone, with my parents being the ones who knew along with my father-in-law Don. Well....long story short we ended up having to tell almost everybody in the family that we were coming due to it being a busy weekend and we didn't want people to go out of town or have every minute that we were there scheduled with something else. The only person who was surprised was my mother-in-law Jeanine. Jason and I were pretty impressed that Don was able to keep the secret! Needless to say she was very surprised to find us standing on their doorstep at 4:30 on a Thursday afternoon!

Danica quickly snagged Grandma and they dissappeared to find the toys and play puzzles. In case anyone didn't know, Danica has no problem with shyness when it comes to seeing people that she hasn't seen in awhile...or complete strangers for that matter. We also had been talking to her for several weeks that we were going to be flying on an airplane and seeing Grandmas and Papas and her cousins. She had a great time on the plane and thought the very bumpy landing that we had was fun. Mommy and Daddy thought otherwise. Don't....like....turbulence.

This is from when Danica got the see my Mom aka "other Grandma" (this title is used to refer to whoever she currently is not around and can be used to refer to Papas as well). I'm not sure either one of them planned on letting go!

This was at Tim and Monica's house. They have a very old rocking chair that the kids liked to sit in.

And here is Emmarie patiently (for the most part) waiting her turn.

Danica and Nicholas are both pretty huggy kids so it wasn't hard to get them to do it for the camera.

Emmarie spending some time with Uncle Tim. I wonder why they get along so well? Hmmmm.

Danica with Uncle Justin. Friends of Janeen and Justin just had some little lamb born that morning so we went to see them. Danica didn't like the lambs--no idea why...but she loved the chickens. She also loves her Uncle Justin...could be because she knows he very used to little girls since they have two.

Emmarie and Danica would frequently disappear when at Tim and Monica's house. We would usually find them in "the red room". They would be playing with cars or whatever. They got along so well. It was cute because Danica looks so much like me and Emmarie looks alot like Janeen. We had mini versions running around!

Janeen and I managed to convince our Dad to make his yummy milkshakes! They are still some of the best I have ever had. Here the girls are enjoying theirs.

Danica was dancing on Grandpa's feet again. Nicholas thought that it looked like fun and tried to join in.

And this is Nicholas after Danica told him no, it was her turn. Ever so politely by pushing him off. He then growled at her and shook his finger at her and dramatically put his head down. And all the adults laughed. And then he smiled.

This is a sculpture that Tim and Monica received for their wedding from our Uncle Fred. I just love it and thinks it's beautiful so that is why I am sharing it.

You may have noticed that there are no pictures of RoseAne. I didn't realize that until I was posting this. RoseAne was very busy the weekend that we were there. She was in her first play Disney's Beauty and the Beast and was both a lamb and a flower. We were able to go see it on Saturday afternoon and Danica loved the play. It was well done and you could tell all the kids worked really hard.
Danica did great on our return flight too. She loved being on the airplane and "going up in the sky, really fast, and bumpy!" It makes it so much easier when they are good flyers. And thank God for non-stop flights and portable Dvd players!

First Haircut!

Well the time had fnally come for Danica to get her first haircut. The way it was growing it had a bunch of different layers in it and that made it difficult to do anything with. I found out about this place in Portland from one of my coworkers who takes her son there. It is called Little Clippers and they specialize in kids haircuts. This place was awesome! They had tons for the kids to do while waiting. A couple of playhouses and a couple of different video gaming systems including Vtech. So this is Danica's hair before the cut.

She was trying to figure out the Mario game that they had. We got there a little early so she could see what it was about. She was excited to get her haircut "with scissors!" When she mentioned that with excitment the day before we had a little conversation that only big people get to cut hair with scissors.

They had all sorts of different things for the kids to sit in while they got their haircut. And the kids got to choose. Danica chose the Barbie car. They also had a jeep, horse and racing cars. She particularly liked playing with the radio and steering. She didn't put up a fuss with having the cape on. I wasn't sure how she would react to that but she took it well. She also got to watch a Dora video while they cut her hair. They have a pretty big list for the kids to choose from and Jason and I knew that would work for her.

The guy who cut her hair was really great. He was even patient with me and Jason since we couldn't agree on how short to cut it. I think we ended up inbetween what we wanted.

I was amazed she didn't freak out over the blowdryer. She still doesn't like it when I use one!

And "ta da!" Shorter hair.

A picture from the back!

We found a great deal for a hotel about half a mile up the road from the haircut place (Jason found the deal and is quite pleased with himself--as he should be, it was fun). We stayed in a room with 2 queen beds, it had a pool and we got 4 tickets to the zoo and a full breakfast! So we had a little vacation. We took Danica to the pool and of course she had to pose for the camera!

She is such a little ham! She loved her swimsuit. The pool was kinda cold but we got used to it. We didn't have any earplugs for her so she couldn't go underwater. Since she doesn't like to go under...I think she was okay with that.

Saturday morning we went to the zoo and she was so excited to see all the animals. And I mean see...not watch. We would get up to a cage and she would take one look at them and then say "more animals!" It made it hard when Jason or I wanted to actually look at the animals! Especially the baby elephant! He was so cute! Jason got this picture as I was waiting in line for an elephant ear.

She did alot of walking at the zoo. She declared she did not want the stroller and would walk. We did miss going through one section because of this. Partly because the zoo had a lot of construction going on and some paths were closed so we had to take the long way to see some things. It was a fun couple of days.