Photo Shoot

I had a photo shoot with a local photographer last weekend for "funsies". Paul is a friend of Chantel's and owns Blackbird Portraits (www.blackbirdportraits.com).

This is one of my favorite shots of the day. I think Paul does amazing work!

Ada- Bada - Bo - Bada, Banana Fana....

It seems like overnight Ada has really started talking a lot and putting words together into little broken sentences.

A couple of her new catch phrases are:
-Me Doot! (me do-it)
-Du Noooo (Don't know and she shrugs her shoulders when she says it!)
-Ok Daddy/Mommy
-Hey You!

Some of the words she uses very clearly are:
-Please
-No
-More
-Puppy
-Kitty
-Sissy
-Momma
-Mommy
-Daddy
-Fishy
-Snack
-Water
-outside
-shoes
-Potty
-naughty (she usually uses this when Tehya is being told to do something!)
-Sorry
-Ouchie
-Ellie (our cat)


Ada has also recently started to do the following things:
-opening doors
-get ice cubes and water from the fridge door
-putting pants on by herself
-climbing up on and jumping off of everything! The girl is a monkey with no fear!

I will probably have to come back and add more a bit later as they come to me!

Sunday Yard Day

Dan mulched around a couple of our front yard trees and our new big rock from the farm today. Now I am having huge urges to go buy more plants and flowers to fill in with. Maybe this planting project will wait until next spring.
Sorry for the tree shadow! This is a picture of the newly updated front rock wall. Dan added some larger stones to the wall we had started last year and I think it looks great. We will be filling in this area with a bunch of dirt and more mulch. The plan is to have a sitting area with a small table and a couple of chairs in this area along with the large cedar trellis I found and of course a bunch more plants and flowers!

The sidewalk garden is overflowing with blooms this year. I love the smell of them all as you walk towards our front door!

A new shot of the upfront garden. The plants in this garden are doing really well this year too. I only lost one from winter to spring! I mulched it in a couple of weekends ago and I am loving the way it looks.

One of the front sides of our house. Dan and I are very excited that once we finish the area around the corner that this section of the yard will be complete!

Milbrandt Castle (aka the Fort)

Saturday night Dad and Tehya thought they would build a fort in the kitchen. The dining room table was the base of the structure, and then chair backs and couches helped to build on additional wings.
Here is the breezeway between the main fort and the addition off back

Mom even got invited into the fort to check things out

Ada didn't think that Mom should be in the fort. She said "Momma out!"

The fort experience became even better when Dad gave the girls snacks. Tehya even slept in the fort overnight! (Ada decided that her bed was more comfortable than the kitchen floor!)

Closet Camp Out

Tehya had a great idea the other night - she wanted to have a camp out in her closet! Of course this meant that Ada was going to sleep there too, so out came the blankets and stuffed animals!
It took quite some time to get the girls settled down for sleep. Neither Mom or Dad were very surprised by that, but we were surprised that the girls kept trying to close the closet doors on themselves!

Eventually both of the girls settled down and some sleep did happen. Well that is until Ada rolled over and hit her head on the wall!

Grandma's make the best wagon pullers

Grandma Diane came over for a visit after work one night to play with the girls. She got roped into wagon pullin' duty right away!

Poor grandma really got a work out this night - the girls rode around the backyard for a really long time!

After wagon time a game of hide and seek broke out. Ada tried really hard to play, but she just didn't understand that she wasn't supposed to tell where people were hiding!

Whirly Skirts

Tehya made my heart sing when she said she wanted a picture of just her and her mommy together! What a great feeling.
Dan told the girls to twirl their skirts. Ada promptly fell on her butt and giggled.

Tehya is a master skirt whirler and twirler. She showed us how to do it the right way!

Ada making a goofy face....which I love and which she does a lot!

More twirls!

John Deere Girls Part 2

I love this picture of Dan and the girls - they look like they just did something very silly together!
Tehya was very excited to model the second John Deere dress Aunt Shari made for her.

Ada thought it was pretty fun too!

This is one of my new favorite pictures of Ada. I think she looks so sweet and innocent here!

Tehya showing that she is taller than our lilacs. I told her to wait just a couple of years and she wont be able to say that anymore! Thank goodness they will grow faster than she will, I'm already nostalgic looking at what a little lady she is now!

Dan played paintball today and decided to let the girls try out his new gun when he got home.
Tehya thought it was really cool that she could shoot paint at our garden trailer!

Ada got a kick out of shooting the gun too. She giggled everytime a paint ball splatted!

I think Daddy had fun sharing his new toy too....He always gets a silly grin when he gets to show his girls something new!

Our John Deere Girls

Aunt Shari made both of the girls pretty sundresses.

Tehya always asks when we are going to the farm next and calls herself a John Deere girl, so the denim Deere print material is perfect! Shari made the girls a second set of dresses in another summer John Deere print, which I will post pictures of soon.

Thank you Shari!

Employment Update

I am a bit behind in posting this update, but I figure better late than never!

I started my new job on April 13th, exactly six months after being laid off. I am working for another local printing company as an Account Manager and I absolutely love it so far!

The people are wonderful, the environment is professional and it appears to have quite a bit of opportunity for advancement, which is always wonderful. Plus I have to mention that the commute is only 12 minutes away from the girls' daycare, so I am loving it!

Thank you to everyone who was so supportive while I was unemployed, you kept my spirits up and reminded me that every time a door closes another one somewhere opens up.....and I am really liking this new door!

Fun in the Sun

Yippee we finally had a sunshiney day!

More Easter Fun

Easter Sunday at GG and Papa Charlie's house.

We had another egg hunt, lots of yummy food and even a couple of sets of rabbit ears!

Hunting for Eggs...the Golden kind

Mom woke up not feeling very good on Saturday and had to miss Milbrandt Easter. Dad took the girls to the Hudson egg hunt to play Grandma Diane and their cousins and they both had a great time. Ada was the master of candy finding, and Tehya found a Golden Egg to turn in for a new Barbie doll prize! What a fun event!

Egg-cellent

Daddy helped Ada 'gently' put her eggs in the dye...

Ada seemed to want to 'ker-plunk' them more.
Tehya took her egg dying this year very seriously.
She planned out each color combination...and they turned out beautifully!

Silly Spring!

Dan and the girls headed outside with some Silly String Tehya has been saving since winter. Can you tell we all have spring fever? Bring on the sun-shiny days!