Saturday, March 14, 2009

Party

We just got back to St. George after a week in California at my grandparents'/Disneyland. Grandma and Grandpa Miller, my parents, and my sister, Amber, and her family were all there, so we decided to have Paige's 2nd birthday party while we were there. We had a great time! Here are some pictures from that day. Disneyland pictures to come.

ready to go in her minnie party dress more minnie. she is so sweet.
a visit to the sea lion/seal hospital with the cousins.
cutie pies maggie and paige.
swimming in grandma and grandpa miller's pool with daddy.
the cake is ready! front side.
back side. it's like one of those hats with the names that you get at disneyland.
decorations, presents, and cake - the necessary ingredients for a birthday party.
paige at her party. "i think i'll just sample a little frosting off this ear..."
opening presents.
help from the cousins.
singing happy birthday.
mmmm. doesn't black icing look SO appetizing?
the naked chef. enjoying her new kitchen accessories.

Thanks for coming to P's party Grandma, Grandpa, Honey, Papa, Amber, Matt, Kate, Parker, Maggie, Gary, and Donna! And for the yummy dinner, Grandma!

Amber - Paige is thoroughly enjoying the instrument set you gave her. I am spending my free moments contemplating appropriate equivalent gifts to pay you back, um, I mean reciprocate.

And finally, I must give props to my friend Heidi. I took most of these ideas from the party she threw for her two year old back in October. Thanks, Heidi! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

Friday, February 27, 2009

TWO

Happy Birthday, Paige!

We won't really be celebrating P's birthday with a party for about another week (scheduling conflicts). So to mark this special day I wanted to write down some thoughts about her; the following is what I came up with.

Here are some random things I love about Paige. I could go on forever, but I decided to stop at 31:

1) the way she stumbles over her words when her brain is going faster than her mouth.

2) the way she admires herself in the mirror, especially if she has "curlies".

3) how she loves to play ring-around-the-rosie, and if we're at Honey & Papa's it must be played on the entry rug (the one with the turkey).

4) how she gives directions to each individual to make sure EVERYONE is participating, especially when singing songs with actions. "Sing it, Honey. Do it, Papa. Mama, Mama! (pointing her little finger) Come on, Daddy!"

5) how she insisted my 32 year-old brother, Chris, learn the word's to "Elmo's World".

6) when she hugs my legs, looks up at me, and tells me, "I love you, Mama".

7) the way she uses the word 'mine'.

8) how she says elephant, elphannant.

9) how she laughs hysterically when you sneak up on her.

10) how she'll sit relatively still while I put in a 'whole set' of foam curlers (see #2).

11) how she remembers everyone's names. and notices them. and asks where they are.

12) how she sings 'I Know You' from Sleeping Beauty at the top of her lungs, off-key.

13) the way she wears a tiara like she would sunglasses.

14) the way she eats some foods the completely wrong way. For example, she bites into crackers vertically and starts eating bread/toast from the center of the slice.

15) how she calls her toes, her 'little piggies'.

16) how she bops her head and bends her knees when she's 'dancing'.

17) how if she thinks I might be eating candy she grabs my mouth, pries it open, and asks "what you got in there, mom?".

18) how when she's going potty she gets real quiet right before the tinkle and loudly whispers, "Listen!".

19) how after she asks a question she tilts her head to the side and her eyes get wide while she waits for the answer.

20) how she loves to cuddle.

21) how the other day when I was leaving to run an errand (and she was staying home with her father) she ran after me yelling, "Wait! I need to give you a squeeze!" And then during the subsequent hug, she was grunting, trying to squeeze me tighter.

22) the way she pushes her hair out of her face. Forcefully. With both hands.

23) how she talks to animals and babies in a high, squeaky voice.

24) the way she says chocolate, caulk-a-let.

25) how she thinks the words 'nice' and 'warm' go together. When I put her socks and shoes on, or her hat, or wrap her in a blanket, i almost always say, "here, this will keep you nice and warm." The other day, she said something about playing with one of her cousins. She said he was fun. And I said he was nice. Then she added, "AND WARM!".

26) how she goes down easily for naps and at bedtime.

27) the way she points out her shoes and tells people that they match; as in, they match with her outfit.

28) how she grabs my quad combo, brings it to me, and say, "let's read scriptures!"

29) how she sings along with her 'silly songs' cd in the car.

30) her insane ability to recall and repeat things she's seen/heard on tv.

31) how she thoroughly enjoys brushing her teeth.


Do you have something that you love about Paige? Feel free to add to the list in the comments.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Yep, I'm a winner!

Today I got this in the mail:


I love winning stuff :)

I won it on a blog giveaway from http://mindysscrapbookpages.blogspot.com

It's a new blog (started by a high school friend) dedicated to all things scrapbooking.

You should check it out.

Thanks, Mindy!

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Smell Mine Foot

Of all the numerous cute things Paige says, MINE has to be the most frequent. But she doesn't use it in the traditional toddler sense. Well, she does, but that's not what I'm talking about.

Some examples:

Where's mine chocolate milk?

Don't wear mine hat, Mommy.

Hold mine princess.

I want to wear mine swimming suit.

I love mine dolly.

You get the picture, she replaces 'my' with 'mine' at every possible opportunity.

My personal favorite was tonight when she climbed up on the couch next to me, stood up, lifted her foot up to my face and said:

Smell mine foot.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Valentine's

We spend most of the day traveling today, but managed to fit in a little celebration time as well.

We started off with brunch at Mimi's in Orem with our friends Jill and Tim and their daughter, Quinn, who is almost the exact same age as Paige. Apparently a lot of other people had made similar plans; Mimi's was packed! Our food was super yummy.

Before bed Ben and Paige and I exchanged gifts. We explained to Paige that Valentine's is a day to celebrate love with the people you love. She caught on quickly, looked around for a gift and said,"where's mine happy valentine's day, mom?".

Ben has not always been the best at remembering to do something on Valentine's day. (As I typed that last sentence I was vaguely remembering something Dr. Laura wrote in The Proper Care and Feeding about that - something to the effect that it's the woman's fault if her husband forgets birthdays and anniversaries and holidays, etc. It just means that the woman isn't taking care of her husband properly). Anyway, I am happy to report that he did VERY WELL this year; getting me jewelry (silver necklace AND earrings) and a beading book. Any men out there who may read this, take a cue from Ben: Encouraging a wife's crafts is always a nice way to validate her :)

Paige got a couple of love/valentine themed board books, some candy, and an adorable plush peacock that we found in Snowmass. She liked him instantly.

Ben received some nice gifts from me as well.

While I think Valentine's is quite commercialized and over-hyped, I am all for any excuse to exchange presents.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Skiing Day Five

Our final day.

A storm hit the night before leaving us with perfect powder as predicted. At 9am I left Ben with Honey and Papa and headed up to the top of Elk Camp with Matt, Jen, Jason, and Heidi in search of fresh powder on one of the longest ski run in Aspen/Snowmass - Long Shot. You have to hike a bit to get to it, but it's worth it if the snow is good. We got to the top of the lift only to find out that the trail was closed. Jason stopped in the ski patrol shack to see if they had any plans to open it up. The patrolwoman there said they were a little short-handed that morning and then she said these magic words, "I'll let you open it". You know what that means. . . first tracks!!! Jason got to flip the sign from closed to open and everything. We had a blast!

Later that morning I met up with Ben and we skiied the rest of the day together. He didn't like the powder so much - it can be pretty frustrating if you're new to skiing. But we still had a good time and were exhausted by the time it was time to head back to Utah and pick up Little P at my sister Noelle's house.

The drive back to Orem took us about 6 1/2 hours. We made it there a little after 9:30pm and Paige and Noelle were up waiting for us. When we walked in the door I called out,"where's my girl?!" and she yelled back,"me is here! Me is here! Me is HERE!" until we found eachother. Ben and I had missed her like crazy.

Thanks to Noelle, Steve, and Anna and Jill, Tim, and Quinn for taking care of our little girl so we could go on this trip!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Skiing Day Four

Beautiful, cloudless, blue sky day.

The 3 youngest great-grandkids in ski school had races today; they all did awesome!

Amber took some great pictures of everyone at the top of Elk Camp.

Eddie's knee was hurting during his very first run :( He didn't think it wise to keep going, so Chelsea and Eddie headed to Denver to visit friends.

Ben moved up to level 7, and if he were going to ski school tomorrow, he would ski his very first black diamond. But he's not going to ski school because it's our last day - he'll be skiing with me :)

A big storm is supposed to hit tonight! You know what that means? . . . tomorrow, POWDER!