Sylvi's first birthday!

and so it is... the Roo is officially a year old! we started the day with an early morning rendition of the Happy Birthday Song, which she thought was really funny and even gave us an applause. later in the day, we celebrated with cake and presents. this part seemed to baffle her a bit! as you can see from the photos, she wasn't quite sure what was going on. she seemed to have this look on her face that said, "why are you all staring at me, handing me a green flaming frog and then giving me paper to rip apart?" aside from holding it, she wanted no part of the cake, although she did eat a little icing before it was all said and done. she enjoyed the gifts though and was very, very excited to open a box full of baby dolls! books? wooden toys? cake? songs? who cares! but babies? give the girl some babies!

it's hard to believe that it's been a year, but it must be so! stay tuned on monday for more. she has her well baby visit and we'll talk more about what Sylvi is like at twelve months. in the meantime... HAPPY BIRTHDAY SYLVI! WE LOVE YOU!

A year in pictures...

here's a little slideshow birthday love. more to come!

a very special Flashback Friday...

this time last year we were patiently awaiting the arrival of sweet sylvia harper! she was born the day after Thanksgiving, so the meal the day before seemed even more special. Papa Bubba was here to celebrate (and cook!) and it was our last night as a family of three. hard to believe it's been a year. i know people say things like that all of the time, but really, it's hard to believe how fast it goes. so here is a special photo of Isa and her Bubba from turkey day 2008. tomorrow we will celebrate sylvi's birth and be thankful all over again!

Turkey Day pics

here are some pictures from yesterday's festivities out at the Shoutis' place. we're all still groggy from too much food and fun, but you'll get the idea from this little slideshow post!

happy thanksgiving!

happy turkey day everyone! count your blessings! we'll catch up with you all after alot of food and hopefully some good naps. in the meantime, here's some toddler Thanksgiving art :)

bunk beds!

this installment of Goose and Roo, Too is brought to you by Bub and Queen! well, kind of. it's actually a special THANK YOU to Bub and Queen for the awesome (early) Christmas gift to the girls... bunk beds! we found these really nice wooden bunk beds on the local listserve this weekend, after having just discussed it the night before. gotta love the local listserve-- we've gotten a whole lot of cool stuff that way, from furniture to toys to even our cat Otter. we had been thinking of getting some sort of bunk/loft arrangement for a while but hadn't seen many affordable ones and weren't sure when the girls would be ready for them. but these are perfect, and a really good deal which is even better! the original idea was to have sylvi's crib underneath the lofted bed, but it just didn't fit quite right. mostly because i was worried that i would knock myself out as i was trying to get sylvi out in the middle of the night! ouch. but their room isn't that big and we had a ceiling fan to contend with, so there was really only one arrangement that would work. this wouldn't have been my first choice but it's growing on me. and they both seem to love it so i won't complain about that. when the crib is no longer needed, we'll most likely set them up as a true bunk bed and they can duke it out over who gets to sleep on the top!

speaking of... we weren't so sure how isa would do sleeping up there, but so far so good. the main concern is that she doesn't slip on the ladder in the dark, so we are trying to instill a "stay in your bed when the lights are out!" policy until she gets used to it. and we are looking for some glow in the dark stickers to make them more visible as well. but she LOVES it already and isn't the least bit scared to be up there at night. she also really likes the cozy little place space underneath, as does sylvi! as you can see from this photo, sylvi is no longer content to sit on the sidelines-- she has to be into everything at all times. including pictures.

so a THANK YOU once again for the very fun and very useful gift, we are all very excited about it!

holiday headstart

yes, we are still here. just busy, busy, busy... hence the lack of blogging. between the sickies (which have been hanging around here since September!) and work and life in general, it's been really hectic around here for a while now. but hopefully we're digging ourselves out of the craziness and will be enjoying a calm and peaceful holiday season soon! of course this is the busiest time of year for the shop, but that's nothing new and we're rolling with it just fine for now.

we'll be spending Thanksgiving day with good friends here in town and have no big plans other than that. same goes for Christmas. no travel plans, just some good ole fashion fun here in wyoming. so far it's been a really mild winter, but we're hoping for just enough snow for some sledding. after that? i'd be quite content with 40F and sunny from now until May!

there you have it, the holiday season headstart-- complete with some christmas card trial photos too! enjoy!

anything you can do...

it's amazing how much entertainment a few strings of beads can bring. after seeing how much fun isa was having, sylvi insisted that she be allowed to play too. she was a bit more dainty and girl with her beads and insisted on wearing them around her neck and holding them up for me to see, at which point she would grin and sway back and forth. such a goober! isa was "making spaghetti sauce" with hers!

oh, the sweetness!

here are two of my most recent favorites of sylvi roo. is that not the sweetest little face ever? those chubby cheeks and those big blue eyes? oh the cuteness.

biking with isa

isa has really gotten the hang of her bicycle (with training wheels) lately and loves going out for rides. she's actually a little hard to keep up with on the sidewalks, hence the retro-fitted push handle, so we decided to head to the nature trail recently-- here she has more room to roam and no traffic or cross streets. she gets going pretty fast if you don't hold her back, so we are trying to get her to work on steering and balance just as much as speed! as much fun as this little bike is, we are thinking of getting her some sort of balance bike for christmas. the idea with a balance bike is that they learn to balance first, without training wheels or pedals, which makes the learning process faster, safer, and arguably more fun.

in the meantime though, this is pretty high on the fun scale! sylvi gets a kick out of going for a ride too and doesn't like to be left out. if you turn her around so that she can't see her sister, she starts kicking and grunting until she can see the action again!

early birthday

nanny requested that we have a little early birthday celebration for sylvi before she left to go back home. so last night we opened presents and had cupcakes! sylvi seemed to enjoy herself, though we're not sure she understood what all the fuss was about! but she had fun with the wrapping paper and even some of her gifts, when isa would let her actually have them. she also really enjoyed her birthday cupcake and showed NO hesitation in diving right in. she was a little suprised by the all the sweetness though and made some pretty impressive faces after getting a mouthful of icing!

sleepy saturday

nothing like snuggling up with a good blanket and a good movie (the Big Bird movie) on a sleepy saturday morning. isa and mommy got some good quality time in this morning while Sylvi and Daddy took a much needed nap! more blogging to come, stay tuned!

little of this, little of that...

there has been alot going on around here, between two little kiddos and business and work and general day to day life. for starters, sylvi is about to be a year old. how that is possible i am not sure, but it's true. in addition to all that a first birthday entails (trying to walk, trying to talk, trying to get into whatever trouble you can find) sylvi is also starting to enjoy playing with her sister alot too. and isa enjoys it as well, for the most part! these pictures were taken while isa was playing with a new toy on the bed (where sylvi couldn't get to it). she was nice enough to share her computer with little sister, which as you can see, made for one very happy little baby.

you may notice that there is something on the window, back behind the couch? well, that would be a piece of cardboard. it's covering a busted window pane. wanna guess what happened? i'll give you a hint-- it involves a three year doing something she was not supposed to be doing. like playing on the back of the couch. luckily for her, the curtains were closed, but she went head first into that window. yikes. she wasn't hurt at all but it could've been really ugly. need less to say, she isn't allowed to do anything other than sit on the couch now.

eskimo isa

isa and daddy spent the time here at home having lots of fun adventures. this included a bonfire with friends and a little backard camping! isa did really well sleeping in the cold tent and only woke up once during the night. in true isa form, she was completely unphased by the cold-- it was 19F when they woke up in the morning and according to daddy, she could not have cared less!

nanny equals cookies

seems like a visiting nanny and a kitchen full of cookies go together. atleast in this house!

regularly scheduled programming...

we're back from billings and trying to get back to the normal routine. it was a loooooong weekend and i more than happy that it's over. to sum it up... the show was awful. yes, awful. the economy didn't help but unfortunately i think the alot of the reason for such a dismal showing had more to do with bad management and poor decisions on the part of the organizers. no need to go into the details but suffice it to say that i am glad to be done with it and looking forward to regular holiday business and of course Art in the Afternoon locally! so cheers to that right? right!

p.s. stay tuned for more regularly scheduled kid cuteness soon!

Marketplace Magic!

71 minky scarves
80 chenille bibs
34 reversible dresses
32 tees and onesies
12 lounge sets
12 skirts
3 changing pads
2 chenille blankets

and that, my friends, is all the loot you will find this weekend at Marketplace Magic in Billings! we are headed out of town tomorrow morning and won't be back in blogland until mid-week or so. isa and daddy will be holding down the fort here and having lots of fun in the meantime. there is talk of a camping trip if the weather cooperates. see you next week!

too cool for school

look who just had their first school picture taken! it's hard to find a school picture that isn't atleast a little cheesy, but this one is pretty darn cute too!