Lola loves Shawn

Lola definitely has a crush on her Daddy's friend Shawn. It's obvious by the look on her face in the photo above.

Below is a list of all the things Lola made Shawn do:
* play ring around the rosie
* look at books
* do silly face
* dance to the YGG song "hold still"
* she even gave him a snotty kiss

She did seem to like Karen as well however she was focused more on Shawn. This is something I've noticed lately with Lola, she is really into the Dads. Even though Shawn isn't a dad quite yet (he will be in August - congrats you guys!)
She is also like this with Rowan's Dad. From what I understand she always greets him with hugs when he drops Rowan off at school and when we visit with them she seems really into him. What's up with that? I guess I would expect this kind of behavior from a girl that doesn't have a Dad but Lola has a very involved Dad so why the fixation on men? Comments welcome.



Lola and Karen have matching Vans!

Brody is back in town!

unfortunately just for the weekend...
We had a great day today and were so lucky to be able to visit with Brody and family while they are in town for the weekend! Lola was super excited the entire drive saying "Brody" the whole way. When we arrived at Brody's Grandma's house he was sound asleep. That didn't stop Lola from making herself comfortable, playing with his toys, holding his new baby sister, taking over his mylar balloon, and eating chocolate pudding cake. She asked about him a few times and even peeked in his crib as he slept. When he finally woke up they seemed pretty happy to see each other. Brody made an attempt to kiss Lola but instead did some kind of goofy kid head bump thing, I don't know.
We had a really nice visit with everyone including Brody's Grandparents and Aunts. It was great seeing you all today!
More photos here.

twin girls + Lola = three baby girls!

Lola got to visit her friends Bronx & Anora last week. Lola is exactly 11 months older than the twins so she is a real grown up. The girls thought Lola was super cool and Lola thought Lola was super cool.
Debbie and Naryan handle having twins beautifully. They are organized and on a great schedule with the girls. I think having one baby is a handful let alone twins. And I'm going to assume that the octo-mom is going to have her hands full.
Debbie & Naryan thanks for a fun day, good company, food & tattoos. We love you guys!
Photos from our visit below.




Aaron & Bronx






















Anora








































quality time with Gunnar






















story time with Debbie





































nap time = quiet time























wake up!
























Daddy's and baby girls

you guys think you are so cool

I've got three friends that have purchased mini-vans to accommodate for their expanding families. Well I've got news for you... I'm getting a conversion van! I'm selling the Vue and I'm getting something even bigger than your little mini-van! It's going to have curtains and tables and wide plush seats. I'm not stopping there either, it's going to have a beautiful portrait of me airbrushed on the side and it will have a name too, The Mommy Paparazzi. There will be plenty of room for Lola and I as well as the Jonas Brothers in the back. Jealous mini-van people? The only way you can top this is to drive around a motor home.

Avoiding the Mommy Paparazzi

Here's Lola on an early Wednesday morning off to school. You may think she's wearing her shades because it's sunny out but the sun isn't shining at 7am. This is her disguise to avoid the Mommy Paparazzi. Nice one Lola.

"ashes, come on"

Our very good friends Crystal and JD came over for a Valentine's Day visit last night. Lola convinced the adults that it would be a great idea to play ring around the rosey. You simply can NOT say no to her when she comes up to you, takes your hand and says "ashes, come on". So here we are, Valentine's Day, four adults and an almost 2 year old playing and singing in the kitchen. I broke away from the group to take the below video. Nothing screams tough guy more than ring around the rosey with your wives and a sweet little girl in polka dot jammies.




And here are our sweet Valentines modeling Arizona t-shirts sent to them by their Great Grandma. You can see that Lolas lip isn't swollen anymore but she does have a scrape, one on her wrist as well. Aw.

fat lip for free

While celebrities go out and pay big bucks to get their lips plumped up Lola gets it for free. Sure, it might be a little more painful and bloody but it works.
On our walk after dinner Lola put her hands in her sweatshirt pockets just like Daddy and within a minute she fell face first on the sidewalk, hands still in her pockets so she wasn't able to catch herself. She was bleeding from her mouth and wrist. Poor Lola. By the time we got home her top lip was swollen. We went inside for a popsicle which indeed made her feel much better. Not only was this a terrible experience for Lola but it was for me as well. Being a mother it is AWFUL to see your baby hurting. And the thing is, we were both right there. You can be right next to your kid thinking you are protecting them and they still get hurt! Is it dysfunctional if we stay inside the house for the next 30 years?

I know I've pumped up the ABC thing lately. I'm not posting this video to show off her ABC skills (which are pretty cute) I'm posting it because it really shows her swollen lip. Our poor little perfect (aside from the fat lip) girl...

Aaron should probably get his degree in engineering

He's good at math and stuff AND his photo will blend right in on the H drive.

flying bunny

The above photo was taken about two weeks ago when we had our big snowfall. The 5 of us, Bruce included, went outside to build a snowman. You might think Aaron is a complete lunatic for being outside in only his t-shirt but during the time we were working on our snowman it got hot under all of our winter gear. Aaron took his coat off for a minute to cool down, I unzipped my winter coat and Ian was down to a sweatshirt. It's hard work building the coolest snowman ever.
Since I'm a little behind on posts I'm putting a few random photos from the last couple of weeks HERE .
Don't hold your breath for the next post, I feel like I've been super busy lately and by the time I get Lola off to bed at 7pm I'm ready for bed myself. Speaking of which, it's 9:06 right now, I'm whooped! Goodnight.

Bruce hated today

The most perfect dog ever did not have his favorite day today. He started out at the groomers and after that he visited the vet. I had to drag him into both locations.
At some point in the last few days he managed to get a splinter in his paw. Aaron and I noticed Thursday evening, he was in bed and all of a sudden gave out a good yelp. We looked at his paw and it was swollen. He continued to walk on it so I thought it couldn't be that bad whatever it was. Then this morning it looked like a blood blister so I called the vet. Being the perfect dog he is he was so well behaved for the vet. He really didn't want her touching his paw but with a little struggle and three people (me, the vet and her assistant) holding him down she managed to pop that blood blister and squeeze some kind of foreign object out. Poor Bruce. He's on an antibiotic to keep from getting an infection.
WHY am I blogging right now? I need to be cuddling Bruce and giving him a million kisses!

A, B, C, B, C, B, C

Lola has been working hard on her alphabet, numbers and colors. She hasn't completely mastered any of them yet but gives it a good try. We work with her on her letters by using flash cards, letters in the tub and her Leap Frog magnetic letter thing for the fridge. Sometimes she's totally on and gets about half of the letters right and the next day she gets about 5 right - what's that all about? We may have some more work to do with our ABC tutorials but what we don't have to worry about is her musical talent. This kid has the Rhythm of the Night (shout out to El DeBarge circa 1985). Check her out as she does her own thing and sings the alphabet song her way, the awesome way.




On a final note, I got to meet Lydia last night and she is a sweet girl! I think she looks so much like newborn Rowan.


P.S. I used to love El DeBarge, he's in the clinker now. I bet Janet Jackson is glad she let him go.

Get Well Gabbi

Gabbi had her spay & declaw on Wednesday. She came home Thursday evening and she seems to be doing pretty well. She walks a little funny on those paws but she still wants to play so I'm pretty confident that she's hanging in there. Thank you all for your cards, flowers and monetary gifts as Gabbi gets better. For those of you that forgot to send a card, flowers or money it's not too late. We accept personal checks as well. Oh and helium balloons too. Gabbi really likes money & balloons.

Closing with a few cute photos of Lola reading her favorite book (it's about a yellow balloon)

Rowan is a BIG Brother!

Congratulations to Angela, Jeff & Rowan - they welcomed Lydia Rose into the world today! We are so excited and can't wait to meet little Lydia!
Lola is working really hard on saying her new friends name. And in honor of Lydias birthday Lola is wearing her cupcake jammies tonight.

Another Snow Day - party!

I was rushing around trying to get ready for work this morning when I received a text message from Jeff "I guess the base is closed again today" YIPPEEE another snow day! How lucky for us but how extra lucky for Rowan to be able to spend his last day as an only child with a snow day! Tomorrow is a big day for the other Brown family as they are due at the hospital in the early morning for Rowan's sisters arrival. How exciting! I tried to tell Lola that there was a baby in Mrs. Brown's belly today when they came over for a visit but all she really cared about was her balloon. What I should have said was "Lola, Mrs. Brown has a balloon in her belly and inside that balloon is a baby!"
Good Luck tomorrow Brown family, we can't wait to meet Rowan's sister!

Snow Day - wahoooo!

We had the day off of work today due to this crazy snow, ice, snow storm that came through. Being that there were over 500 closings on the news at the crack of dawn today I figured that our vets office would be closed, today is the day Gabbi gets fixed and declawed. I called at 7:45 just to check in and sure enough they were open for business. Luckily the vets office is only down the hill less than 1/2 a mile from the house. It took me about 25 minutes to scrape the ice off of my car. Gabbi and I had a safe trip down the hill and since I was down there I figured I would stop by the supermarket to pick up a few things, including a balloon for Lola. Getting up the hill wasn't as easy. I eventually made it and thank goodness I was able to deliver the balloon to Lola, that's when I instantly became the greatest Mommy ever. You see, it's not the pink retro kitchen or the little people play house or even cash that impresses Lola, it's a frickin sweet mylar balloon! I gave her this balloon at 9am and I am NOT kidding when I tell you that she hasn't put it down except to nap and go outside. Should I be concerned that my daughter wants a mylar balloon as her best friend? Maybe. I guess if we have a funeral and shed some tears when it deflates then I'll worry.
After nap time we went outside for some fun in the snow and then back inside for a hot chocolate party, we are so glad that the balloon was able to join us for that.