Opa's Dress

While in Mexico last year my Dad bought E a beautiful dress that was the perfect combination of Mexico and Holland. It was a bit too bit but now it fits her perfectly and she really enjoys wearing her "cool dess fom Opa." (cool dress from Opa.)

Naturally we had to take some pictures. I love how curly her hair gets here in Nashville.

And as always with a two year old there are bloopers.  This is how she smiles when you tell her to say cheese. 

Gosh this girl makes me laugh. Thank you for the dress Opa!! We love you!

Daddy's Girl

 Last week while Daddy was AWOL E found his hat laying on the table. She is becoming more fond of cranial accessories but any time we ask if she's like to try Daddy's hat on she shakes her said and says "It's for Da!" After picking it up off of the table and telling me with great concern that "Da no take his hat on his bike Ma!" I assured her that he had to dress nice for school and that life would go on if Daddy didn't have his hat. 

 After that E and the hat were inseparable for the rest of the morning. She looked so cute rocking Daddy's hat.

She's trying to wink here. I can't get enough of E's personality. She is such a character and a joy.

Getting Old

Jakob had an old man hair.  He found it one afternoon at school. It was impressively long. He accidentally pulled it out so it's time to grow a new one.

Thoman

 One of Jakob's missionary companions drove down to visit us. We were so excited to see Thoman and to meet his gorgeous little family. We let Thoman see what a chunk Duke is. 

 The romantic gaze. Seriously these boys crack me up. It was an afternoon full of reminiscing and making plans. Whenever Jakob gets together with Uncle Duke or Thoman they always manage to come up with wild business ideas that may or may not be very successful. It's entertaining.

It was so great to meet Abby, I really liked her and their adorable daughter Brynlyn. She is such a great baby and holy man so was so cute I just wanted to snuggle her all day. Thank you for making to drive down to see us! We wish you lived closer!!!

Friday Fun

 This week I was feeling a little bit CRAZY! Daddy has been extra busy with recruiting season (*cross our fingers that we get a job offer soon!!*) so this Mama has been a little bit bored. I started a Mommy's group in our ward so hopefully that takes off but until then I've got these little rascals to love and play with. 

Monday:

 Ethnie has her ABC's down but she doesn't recognize the lower case alphabet very well. I saw this idea on facebook and knew it would be perfect for E. E and I had a great time punching out circles and laminating them all. I love my laminator!!

 

 She needed some help but she really enjoyed matching the letters. Duke enjoyed bending them so we had to move our train up higher. :)

 Tuesday:

 Play doh. Most days we actually don't even have an activity because as soon as Duke is down E races to the craft cupboard to get the play doh out. She sits an plays for 2 1/2 hours no problem. Winning! That is project time for Mama!

Wednesday:

 Activity for Manfred. Pipe cleaners and a wipes container. He was enthralled for 20 minutes which is years in Duke time.

 Thursday:

 Fort!! I took all of the pillows off of the bed and we snuggled in our fort. Both Ethnie and Duke were sooo excited about this. Duke thought that he could climb onto of the sheet though. He was a bit distressed when Mama told him no.

 Friday:

 We made "pretties." I'm sure you've seen a few pictures of E rocking a headband (which is really a necklace) that her Great-G-ma gave her. I figured she'd enjoy making one of her own. I was right!

 Such concentration.

 It was a lot of fun, until Manfred grabbed it and all the beads went EVERYWHERE. There were tears. Note to Mama... tighter knots.

Toddler

I would recommend putting this on mute as I am a bit loud. (go figure!) Our little man is finally a toddler! His is so unbelievably cute walking around.

Duke Manfred

 I {love} this boy! His personality is just blossoming. He intentionally tries to make me laugh by doing various things and then looks to see what my reaction will be. This is Duke's way of playing peek-a-boo. You can find him in downward facing dog all the time, just chilling. He is adorable. 

 He really enjoys taking things (clean or dirty) out of the dishwasher and climbing on the door. He has an attachment to spoons (wooden or plastic) and spatulas and likes to shove them down the big grate in our hall and then cry because he can't get them out. Goober! 

 He likes to mimic you by making silly sounds like elephants...

 ... or fish. Seriously this picture makes me smile every time!! He is usually chilling in just a diaper since he has a massive blow out every morning destroying all of his bedding and jammies. (TMI, sorry. It's nasty, I know) He also enjoys hiding in his toy box, safe from Sister. He likes to wave any time I say hello or bye. He has started clapping too which I just find precious since he is always to gosh darned pleased with himself when he does.

This boy is such a hunk. I am so blessed to be is Mama.

Story Time

 Back to school has been a bit of a change for all of us. Daddy has a lot of late nights and hardly gets to see the kids which means there is a lot of Mama time. As any parent can understand you get burnt out and being in a new city where I don't know many people and it's too warm for outdoor activities doesn't help with the cabin fever. So when your kids do something that just pulls at your hearts strings you glow.

 

 We had just finished the chaos of bath time and I asked E if she wanted to read a story before bed. I was done, checked out ready for some me time. She grabbed the two little chairs and set them in the middle of the floor and she said "One for me and one for Uke!" She raced over and picked out two stories and handed them to me after pecking me on the cheek. She was so sweet and plopped down on her chair waiting for me to set Duke down and read our story. To most this seems like a silly story but to me, it was adorable.  Just what I needed to put everything back into perspective.

These two are my entire world and I love being their Mama! There is no greater job or blessing.