Corinne said...

Corinne has said some pretty funny things recently.
I'll share a couple with you here-

If any of you have spent enough time with Corinne, you know that she swings her legs. It's a habit she's had since she was about 8 months old. She sits in a chair, holds on to the chair rails or something in front of her, and intently swings her legs back and forth. Matt and I have really been trying to break her of this habit as it completely distracts her and leaves her in a trance. I think Audie has heard us keep telling her to quit swinging her legs a lot, and the other day, Audie took the liberty to tell Corinne to quit swinging her legs.

I'm not sure whether Corinne was really swinging her legs or not, but she reported to me that Audie told her not to do it, and Corinne didn't like that very much.

Corinne came to me and said, "Mom, Audra said I was swinging my legs. She thinks she's a parent!"
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And today we were out for a few errands and I stopped into GAP to return some shirts I bought that didn't fit. We ventured over to GAP kids while we were there, and started doing some browsing. A lady that worked there came up and told us about the sales going on, and of course, tried to get us to apply for a GAP credit card. After her spiel on all of the "great deals" we could take advantage of, she asked Corinne what her name was.

Corinne replied: "Amanda."

What was I supposed to do at that point?! I didn't want to embarrass Corinne by correcting her, so I let it go. But inside I was laughing very hard, and actually had to walk away so I could let out the laughter. She said "Amanda" so confidently. She said it like it has been her name for the last 4 years.

When we walked out of the store, I asked Corinne why she told the lady her name was Amanda. She said that she wished her name was Amanda. I guess everyone at some point has wished they had a different name. And Corinne has every right to want to be an Amanda...the Amanda she knows is a 15 year old girl that is so beautiful and takes time out just for Corinne, why wouldn't she want to be named Amanda?

Tonight I was snuggling with Corinne in our bed and she lovingly said-
"Mom, I wish I was still in your tummy so I could be really warm."

So long....

My VW is gone...

We sold it last night.

I'm really not sure why I held onto it for so long. I guess I thought that one day I'd have some extra cash to put into it and restore it fully.
But I realized that while it just sat there, it was going to it's grave and it was time for it to go.

I loved that bug. I loved the smell inside, and I loved the sound that the door made when it closed.

We put it on Craigslist, and it sold in less than 24 hours. I couldn't be more happy with the buyers. Dalton, a 15 year old kid is going to fix it up with his dad and drive it to school next year. He has wanted a VW for years, read about them, collected them, envied them... (same story as mine!) His mom said this VW was waiting for him. I like that idea. I am happy that it goes to someone who will fix it up and enjoy it!!

I told Corinne I was sad that we were selling it. She replied, "It's ok mom, we still have the Pilot."

4!

Happy 4th Birthday Corinne!

Today has been a pretty good day. We got up and had breakfast as usual. I asked Corinne to get dressed in the new outfit I got her for her birthday, and of course...she didn't like the shorts. So, bribery showed up, and I made deals with her that I would get her ice cream and chocolate if she would wear them and take good birthday pictures. She agreed and did a great job with the pics.
It rained quite hard right before we took the pictures, and then the sun came out! It was perfect! I wish I could have gotten Corinne to keep from squinting in the above pictures, but her little sister was down by the lake trying to talk to the ducks that were in it, and I couldn't concentrate on getting a good picture. I was calling Audie back from the water, and she wasn't doing a good job of obeying. So, needless to say, we gave up on pictures pretty quick, and went to get our chocolate.

Corinne picked out blueberry gelato and a couple pieces of chocolate and we sat down to enjoy it. Angie, Amber, and Kelley at CD were (as always) so good and nice to us, and the gelato and chocolate were on the house.

Corinne picked Sonic for lunch, and then we joined Brenda during her lunch hour.

Tonight, we will go pick out a fish for her birthday present!

Happy Birthday, Corinne! Mom and Dad love you so much, you are so special to us!

xoxoxoxox

2 year old pictures and party

Yesterday couldn't have been better. All day was fun and exciting. Corinne kept a great attitude with the day being about Audra and they were sweet to each other all day. We started out the day taking Aud's 2 year old pictures. The first one is my favorite. It reads the sweetness of her.
After we took some pictures at a park, I took the girls to get a donut.

For dinner, Brenda, Ali, Kamo, and Amanda came. I grilled a few ribeye steaks, and we sliced them thin, topping a salad with "the works" (tomatoes, cheese, avacado, red onion, and black beans) Mom joined us later for some cake and to open presents.

I bought a cake this year, due to time constraints. Epic Fail.
We also couldn't find any candles, so we used matches. No one speak of this to my father.

For her birthday, Audie received a few books, and her donkey (pictured below). Amanda, Ali and Kameron read the books (complete with voices) and then put on a Dora skit for us. :)

Yee-haw!

Happy Birthday Audie!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful and sweet little Audie!

We had a photo shoot this morning for her birthday, but I will save most of the photos for a full post when we have cake and presents later on tonight.
After we took pictures downtown, we stopped for a birthday donut....
(click on photo for a bigger version)

Corinne ended up being the perfect model for me today! I hope she's getting the hang of being my guinea pig for pictures ;). I'm really looking forward to her pictures on her birthday!

New babies, mini golf, and hot air balloons

Our friend Jamie had a baby girl 2 days ago! Little Paige was such a cute little munchkin, I could have held her all day! We went to see her in the hospital this week, and the girls just loved her.

I think I am going to write a book on potty training titled: "Potty train your kids in public places". How is it that kids always want to use the potty while at a restaurant, or the mall, or some other public place? Well, of course Audie saw this potty with "handles" and she had to use it. I suppose I'll take what I can get with potty training, eh?

A few weeks ago, we took Corinne to play mini golf. Unfortunately, we had to dodge a thunderstorm, but I think Corinne had a good time spending one-on-one time with us. Below is a picture of how she got the ball in the hole. Who needs a golf club anyway?

At the sports complex, they also have kids rides. Matt and Corinne took a ride on this mini roller coaster. I'm still not sure if Corinne liked it or not. She says she did, but the picture below, tells a different story. She clenched that handle bar so hard, bowed her head, and closed her eyes tight. She didn't open her eyes until the ride stopped.

And finally, a hot air balloon ride. This ride took her up and down and around in circles. She enjoyed it a lot. She had to ride it twice though, because she said she needed to ride in a pink hot air balloon. Of course.

Due to the thunderstorm that night, they offered us vouchers to return at a later time! We're looking forward to going again!

While the girls were playing this morning they called me in to see what they had done. Corinne said, "Look mom, a double stroller...it saves space!" She attached her baby carseat/carrier to the handle bar of their baby stroller. I was pretty impressed. It functions perfectly!

curlers and kitty cats

Who would have thought that as curly as my hair is, we'd have to put curlers in the girls' hair?

Last night Corinne asked me to put curlers in her hair (not a rare occasion), and Audie decided she wanted her hair in curlers too. I love my girls.

This little girl loves her (wait, this used to be my cat) kitty cat. We're lucky Zona is so tolerant of Corinne. The picture above is typical of every day. Corinne carries Zona around like this, spins her around, jumps with her and falls down on her. Not to mention pulling Zona up on her lap, petting her fur with force, squeezing Zona tightly while clenching her teeth saying "Zonie, Zonie, you're a good cat. Zonie, I love you. Oh Zona, oh Zona."
Who knows, maybe Zona likes the attention. She will jump to Corinne's lap and make herself comfortable. She doesn't try to squirm away when Corinne is squeezing her. Zona takes it all like a champ.
Zona is still my cat. Matt reminds me of that quite frequently. But I'm glad her and Corinne have become such good buddies.

Changing diapers usually is a thankless job.

Audie just thanked me for changing hers.

::::

totally made my day.

Blackberry Picking

This morning we finally made it to the berry farm. I have been wanting to take the girls for over a month now, and the time hasn't been available to do it until now. I knew it was going to be pretty warm, so we headed out early. Not early enough, I guess. The girls were complaining of being hot and itchy just about 20 minutes into the outing.
Really though, I just wanted the girls to experience it and get a few shots in doing it.
I thought a desaturated/vintage look would suit these pictures best!

A few pics from the 4th

It rained on the 4th of July! But the rain cleared up just long enough for us to do some smoke bombs, sparklers, and poppers.

Here's a pic of the girls and me in our matching tie dyed shirts!

On Monday, we went bowling. Corinne enjoyed it A LOT. We'll definitely have to take her back soon. I tried to get more pictures of her bowling, but it was just too dark in the bowling alley. Here's a good one though, of her bowling shoes and striped socks.

Up up and away!!!

Audie said bye bye to her friends today. We sent away her "fier" (pacifier). After doing some internet research on the best way to wean kids from pacifiers, I decided it was easiest to go cold turkey. (and because I'm too much of a softie and I knew I would give in too much...) I came across a suggestion from someone to "send away" the pacifiers on a helium balloon. This person said that as the balloons were floating away with the pacifiers attached, she told her 2 year old that the pacifiers were going up to the babies in heaven.

I thought this was a cute idea. I don't like fibbing to my kids, so I left off the babies part. But I thought Audie would remember letting go of her balloons and it would be a good way to talk about them being gone.

So that's what we did today. We headed to the store and bought some pink and purple balloons. After bringing them home, we attached the 3 pacifiers that we had and went outside to send them away. I sent the first one to see Audie's reaction. She was fine. Corinne cried. Audie sent away the last 2 and waved good bye.

one last suck.

holding her balloons

"bye bye fier!"

and the results: so far, so good. She asked for her pacifier when I put her down for a nap, but I reminded her that they were up in the sky. She asked for a doll instead and I haven't heard a peep since! Fingers crossed, I hope this is an easy success!!