Gracie's New Clubs

Brent had to go to Lake of the Ozarks for meetings this week. He came home with a nice surprise for Gracie. A pink golf bag with a putter, driver and 7-iron. She was very excited and can't wait to break them in.

It was too cold to go outside and try them out, so she just had to bundle up in the garage to try them on.

Brent and his favorite golf buddy!

Ella's hair is long enough to sport 2 sprouts now. It's really cute, until she pulls them both out.

Gracie LOVES to play Guess Who. It's her favorite game, and we now own it in 3 variations. Ella would enjoy getting her hands on it, but it's a "no, no" for her.

Oh, no! Another Doolin who loves to have their back rubbed!

Rain, Rain Go Away, Little Ella Wants To Play...

This picture is blurry, but was comical. Ella was standing at the window watching the rain as it ruined her chances of getting outside to play today. She would turn around and look at me with regret in her eyes. Her hair is a wreck because she always pulls her hairband out after she wakes up from her nap.

The regret left her eyes long enough to take this picture. I was trying to capture how truly lovely her hair was, but it blends in with the surroundings.

Ella Outdoors

Ella knows how to tell us she wants to go outside. Now that she has really experienced the fun that comes with outdoor play, she will stand at a window and point. If that doesn't work, she will come to you, grunt to be picked up (yes, we respond to grunting) and then keep pointing you in the direction of a door. Today Brent and Gracie were both sick, so Ella and I did a lot of playing and walking by ourselves outside.

It was a very windy day, and Ella kept making really funny faces when the wind would get strong and blow things around. It literally knocked her off her feet once!

I'm so glad that I finally got this picture. This is what Ella does when she wants to be picked up. The arms are straight out, her hands are close together, and she has a needy look on her face. Too cute!

Miss Big Stuff thinks she's big enough to ride Gracie's old Dora bike. She has the basics down, but I don't think she knows how to stop if she gets on a downhill slope.

It really looks like she's riding in this one, but she's just sitting still pushing the buttons to make the music play.

I'm so proud of Ella and her interest in her little broom. She is constantly sweeping at things. The broom is actually part of a whole toy cleaning cart, so maybe she will expand to mopping, vacuuming and washing windows!

Like Father Like Daughter

It was a gorgeous weekend in Macon, so Brent decided to take Gracie to the golf course. He may be fortunate enough to have his daughter enjoy one of his activities, but she still has a definite female streak! She was excited to go golfing, but wanted to wear a necklace and bracelet. She also wanted some lipstick before she left.

After she was all dolled up, she decided I should take her picture. She kept saying, "Daddy will think I'm so pretty." As Brent often says, "Gracie has no lack of self-confidence." I just hope that continues!

Ella and I dropped Brent and Gracie off at the golf course in Moberly and then we killed some time until supper. Brent took me out to eat and we left the girls with my parents. Here are the golfers, striking a pose with their clubs.

Every good golfer needs pink sunglasses with flowers on them! When I picked them up, Gracie informed me that she had a great time golfing. She also said she had a "chip-in." (A term she has learned from the Wii.)

Meanwhile, in Another Part of Moberly

While Gracie and Brent were golfing, Ella and I ran some errands and then went by my parent's house. They weren't there for quite a while, so we explored their yard since it was so nice outdoors. Their neighbor has a little deer statue, just Ella's size They were fast friends.

Whose child is that? She looks pretty disheveled, but I'll still claim her!

The backyard was a little shady and cool, so I borrowed one of my mom's jackets.

Ella had to join me in the jacket for a while, but it didn't last long. She's a little girl on the go!

Ella was practicing for Easter. This picture reminds me that when Gracie was 1 year old, it was probably 75-80 degrees on Easter day. I have pictures of her hunting eggs in shorts and a t-shirt. I hope it's like that this year as well.

What a cutie-pie. I wonder what she's thinking?

Ella has a strong interest in cameras these days. She won't really smile on command anymore. She just wants to get her hands on the camera. I held it out of reach from her and tried to snap our picture. It's not exactly good, but at least we are both kind of in the picture.

Life in 3-D

Gracie experienced 3-D glasses a few months ago, thanks to the Super Bowl. She thought it was pretty cool, even though we didn't find it to be too great. Well, recently Gracie has become obsessed with a movie she saw in Unionville when she was with Mama one weekend. She came home telling us all about it, so I found it at the movie store and we rented it. You would think that would be good enough. It wasn't. After that she would find it on Nickelodeon once in a while, and would become that much more obsessed. The name of the movie..."The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl". If you haven't seen it, you really aren't missing too much. Well, we were in Columbia last weekend and found "Sharkboy and Lavagirl" on their display of movies clearanced out (shocking!). Anyway, we let her spend some of her birthday money on this purchase. We got home and opened it to find out that it came complete with a 3-D version as well as the normal movie version. They were kind enough to include 4 pair of glasses so the whole family could enjoy the experience. Gracie has enjoyed it thoroughly and seems to understand that we don't want to watch it with her every time it's on. She's OK with that!

The part of this picture you can't see is that Gracie is standing in the living room in nothing but her underpants and 3-D glasses watching "Sharkboy and Lavagirl" completely oblivious to the fact that we find this hysterical. I tried to calmly ask her if I could take her picture, and she said "Sure." At this point Brent starts laughing out loud and she realizes we are poking fun at her, but she still let me take her picture. The innocence of youth.

Verdict - Guilty!!!

DISCLAIMER -- The pictures you are about to view will show our kitchen designed in 1976. Please do not judge us on our kitchen. We are working on it right now. If you judge us, you will be subject to using your time and energy to help us update it! You have been warned!

Today I found Ella doing something that she shouldn't have been doing, but it was too funny to not take pictures. I quickly got the camera to document her hard work.

Exhibit A: Ella was in the cabinets below the sink. A definite no, no. Her mother should really have that area childproofed, but that's a separate charge.

Exhibit B: Ella was tediously removing the trash bags from the box.

Exhibit C: Another picture of the accused performing the act. It will be hard to deny this charge with pictures like these! After she removed a sack, she would stand up and carry it over to the trashcan. She would then lift the lid and throw it in.

Exhibit D: It appears the accused was just trying to help us with the trash. I suppose she has seen us putting the trash bags into the trashcan and thought this was the right technique. There were only about 4 or 5 trash bags in the can when I found her, so she hadn't been at it too long.

Now, about childproofing that cabinet...

A Day with Grandpa and Nana

Today my parents came up to Macon to watch the girls so that I could go to a doctor's appointment and get some work done on my kitchen project that is unfolding. Now that we live closer, you would think we see my parents all the time. Some weeks we do see them a couple times, but it's usually just because I needed them to pick up the kids from school/daycare. So it was nice that they could come up and stay for a while. I know the girls enjoyed it. Mom let me steal her pictures off her camera for this post. This picture is taken down at the park in our neighborhood.

Poor, Grandpa! It looks like he had to climb the hill in our backyard for this photo with Gracie and Ella.

My parents taught Gracie to roll down the hill... I hope Grandpa isn't up there teaching Ella just yet!

Ella is absolutely loving being outdoors. This little broom is her favorite toy at the moment. She might start playing with a ball or pushing a bike, but she won't lay down the broom to do so.

I thought this next string of pictures was hilarious. Here's Gracie at the top of the hill, about to roll...

but I can't really tell if she's actually rolling, or just flirting with the camera. It looks quite posed!

Again, is she rolling or trying out for America's Next Top Model???

My parents have a parachute, and brought it up so the girls could enjoy it outdoors, but somehow it made its way into my living room and became a tent.

Ella is starting early, just like Gracie did. They both have enjoyed playing around on the piano with Grandpa.

Fun at a Columbia Park

Today we went to Columbia to see a co-worker of mine who is in the hospital. After we were done at the hospital, we decided to take the girls to a park. It was a gorgeous day, and Gracie was really begging to be outdoors. We found a very pretty park that was crawling with parents and other kids. Everyone seemed to agree that we needed to be playing outdoors. Gracie climbed to the top of a big boulder at the park. She was quite proud of her accomplishment.

OK, so Ella still isn't thrilled with park swings. She likes ours at home, but not the ones at parks. No smiles!

The big sand area was a huge hit with Gracie, who could dig in sand seemingly forever. Once Ella determined that it didn't taste good, she didn't enjoy it as much.

Someone really wanted to be a few inches taller so that she could climb up on the slide.

After a little help from Mommy, Ella managed to find her way onto the slide.

"No, no, Ella! We don't walk up the slides. We go down the slide!" We already had to have that discussion. What parent hasn't said those words?!

Gracie got really hot, so I had to roll up her pants into shorts. She looked like a little hillbilly, but didn't get as hot.

Man Overboard!

As I wrote in a recent post, Ella really loves bath time, and especially loves the water coming out of the faucet. Ella always takes her bath first, and then Gracie take a bath while Ella is drinking her milk before bedtime. Well, tonight Ella wandered away while I was pouring her milk, and I found her in the bathroom putting her hands in Gracie's bubbly bath water. I told Gracie I was going to get her pj's and I would be right back. Well, before I could even get back Gracie yelled, "Mommy!" I came running and found Ella in the bathtub, dripping wet and crying. She had reached too far and fallen into the bathtub. She just sat there soaked in her pj's until Brent and I started laughing at her. She then got pretty comical about the whole situation. I wouldn't be surprised if it happens again. Fortunately, she didn't get hurt. Before I got her out of the tub Brent said, "Quick...get the camera." I didn't have the heart to photograph her sitting in the tub all wet. I just scooped her out and dried her off. Thus...no picture, just a story.

You Don't See This Everyday!

I was driving through Kirksville with Gracie and Ella last week and I noticed the biker in front of me had a crate on the back of the bike, and inside the crate was a dog. It was really redneck, but kind of cute. Well, at a stoplight, the dog turned around and looked at me, and it was wearing sunglasses! The owner had actually strapped sunglasses to the poor dog's head. I tried to get a better picture, but it was hard to do while I was driving.

This is as good as it gets. The dog is angled to where you can see the profile, but it definitely has on sunglasses. And I thought I was mean when I used to make Molly wear a doggie Old Navy hat when we went on walks. Anyway, this has nothing to do with us, the kids, or what's going on in the world around us, but I just had to share!