Happy Eighteen Months AGAIN!

what's that you say? wasn't it eighteen months last month? well, maybe that's what we said, but that was a small oversight... ahem... she is NOW officially EIGHTEEN months old! yay sylvi!

i chose this picture of roo because it cracks me up everytime i see it, and it epitomizes her general level of happiness and excitement these days. rene is showing her pictures of the "big kids" that had just been taken. as you can see, sylvi is really excited about them! she has definitely reached that sometimes fun, sometimes challenging, eighteen month milestone... the toddler attitude has made it's appearance! granted, it's a pretty mild toddler attitude, but she is certainly learning that she has options and choices and that she intends to exercise them. more of her personality comes out every day as well; she is still a very content and even-keel kind of kiddo. she is great at entertaining herself and happy to go with the flow. it's fun to watch her in a crowd of people (whether she knows them well or not) as she will pretend to be shy for a minute or two and then toddle around making friends and handing out smiles to everyone.

she is still quite the talker and we lost count of all the new words she's picked up this month. she can pretty much repeat any word you say (within reason) and always surprises us with the words she uses and remembers on her own. we are constantly amazed at how chatty she is! she has started to put together more two word phrases as well, like "I down!" or "more milk" and the like. her favorite "sentence" so far involves rattling off everyone's names, "mama, daddy, issie, roo!" over and over as fast as she can. it's pretty hilarious!

on a different note, her poor teeth are giving her major fits. just a few months back, she barely had two teeth... and how she has TWELVE. that's right. twelve. all four molars are coming through now and more of her front teeth have come in this month as well. ouch ouch ouch. she was sleeping really well before all this tooth craziness, but as to be expected, she's waking up quite a bit with the molars coming in. here's hoping that next month there won't be ANY news to report on this front!

in the meantime, HAPPY EIGHTEEN MONTHS SYLVI! we love you!

swingset!

it's done! it's done! it's done! we now have a totally finished custom daddy-built swingset! hooray! we have to hand it to phil on this one... he did a pretty spectacular job :) it has monkeybars, two swings, rings, a rope ladder, fort, ladder and slide. eventually there will be an enclosed playspace under the fort, but that may be a while longer. we also have some hand grips to add as soon as they arrive next week. in the end, the whole thing came to just under $350 for the entire thing, most of which went to the components like the slide, tarp, etc. we were able to use materials left over from the deck/fence project, which saved us alot of cash. the rungs for the ladder and monkeybars are leftovers from Creative Energies projects, which was really helpful as well.

peanut gallery

these two have been enjoying watching daddy work this morning. they look like little old ladies in their respective chairs, snack and drink in hand, babbling away about this and that. here's a little sneak peak of the almost finished swing set. a little ladder and tarp roof to go and it's all done! kuddos to daddy for his hard work-- that is one sweet swing set!

flashback friday!

hard to believe that snuggly little newborn is the same sylvi! now she's a walking, talking, giggly, little toddler with white blond curls! oooooh flashbacks :)

on a different note, it's been a crazy busy week around these parts. isa's school year ended with a preschool picnic, we've been working on the swingset (almost done! finished pics to come this weekend!), wholesale orders have been going out, etc. we're officially transitioning to summer next week, so hopefully there will be more blogging once the dust settles a bit. in the meantime, happy friday!

school's out!

guess who had their last day of 3 year old preschool this morning? can you believe it? we can't! we have a very busy and fun summer ahead of us though, so she doesn't seem too sad yet, even though she loves her school and will miss it for sure. isa will doing a month long "spanish camp" in june, with one of her favorite sitters and lots of her buddies. and then there will be swimming lessons later in the summer. our normal summer babysitter (whom we LOVE) will be hanging with the girls this summer as well, which we are all really happy about! that means they will spend most of their waking hours outside and playing! the good life.

next fall isa will be back at the same school, but in the afternoon 4 year old program. wow, we have an almost four year old? that's hard to believe too.

on another note-- the fashionista picked our her own outfit this morning, complete with brown and white knee socks and sparkly pink shoes ;)

under construction

we thought we'd share some pictures of the swingset in the making! it's coming together really well! the idea was to build something that would be durable, kid-friendly, and inexpensive (alteast by swingset standards). luckily we had some composite decking and quite a bit of wood left over from the fence/deck projects, which has helped keep the cost down. the slide, tarp, and some hand grips are on their way and will hopefully be here by the end of next week. after looking around some, we decided to get the main components (swing, rope ladder, rings) from ikea as they were cute and well made and well-priced. luckily we found someone (thank you Landertalk!) who was making a trip down to Ikea Salt Lake this weekend and is bringing them back for us tomorrow! that's some luck! the infant swing (that sylvi is now obsessed with) is also from Ikea and also found randomly via Landertalk-- someone saw my post about a trip to Ikea and said they had this swing sitting in their garage, which is actually no longer available in the States-- even better!

the monkey bars (which have been lowered to little kid height) will be done tonight, so after that we'll basically be waiting for the rest of the parts to arrive. i'm planning on enclosing the space under the platform with some sort of canvas and grommets, to make a place space that can be changed or removed or taken apart for the winter.

there you have it, that's it for now. stay tuned next week for the finished product!

the reluctant model

we went out to our buddies jacob and ang's house yesterday to try to take some pictures of two new dresses for the shop. but sylvi was a bit reluctant to partake and gave me the "stink eye" look for most of the shots. i took about 60 shots and i am pretty sure she is scowling in all but a few! oh well... they are still pretty cute anyway. she just didn't quite understand what we were up and why a very curious and social chicken was following her around everywhere! it made for an interesting time though-- two preschoolers, sylvi, baby ang, two dogs and lots of chickens. it was quite the shoot!

flashback friday and a wardrobe change

here's a shot of a wee little isa, who was about 22 months old when this was taken. i was looking back for some late spring/early summer pictures this morning and came across this one. she was such a baby! sigh. it also cracked me up because i remember this being the first night isa wore her summer jammies and how excited she was about them! now that it's finally getting warmer here (and will likely stay mostly that way for a few months, with a few exceptions) we are breaking out the short sleeves, atleast for daytime! after fleece and puffy suits and hats and mittens since october, it always feels kind of liberating to pack them all away and bust out the skirts and sandals and summer stuff. simple pleasures. this is always fun with isa too, because every morning is like christmas for her... what can i say, the girl gets excited about her new wardrobe!

staying put

well, it's official... we aren't going anywhere! and that's perfectly fine with us at this point. the house deal is officially off and we were pleased to see the for sale sign taken away this morning! the other house was nice, sure. but so is this one, and we're happy to stay. that ready-to-play yard would've been nice, but oh well... guess it's time to get to work on this one! unfortunately sod is going to be pretty expensive (like $1000. ugh.) so we are getting some opinions on what else we can, aside from tilling everything up and starting over, and going from there. you never know, by the end of summer, we might actually have a yard full of grass, a swing set, and two very tan children! ha!

speaking of swing sets...

... we've decided we don't want to wait around on all this house business to start building the girls' swingset. after looking around and trying to decide for over a year, phil decided to just build one himself. as you can see, he plans swingsets just like he plans photovoltaic power systems... thoroughly! we're getting started on it this weekend but it will take a week or so to get all the components and sections finished. the plan is to have a fort with a slide, monkey bars, two swings, rings, a rope ladder, and an enclosed playhouse (under the fort). stay tuned for more! p.s. click on the drawing for a bigger view.

boat racing

grab your boots folks, it's time for some boat racing! charlotte and timothy's new house has the coolest yard ever, complete with soft green grass, a hammock, a swingset, and... a creek! it's really stinking cool and we're hoping the schell's don't mind if we practically camp out there all summer ;) i am pretty sure my children would never leave if we let them. as you can see, the creek is the perfect depth-- shallow enough for even young toddlers but swift enough to send boats down. at this point in the season, mud boots are a pretty good idea, as it is really cold with all the snow melt, not that the kids care or anything!

weekend fun

including hanging out with baby oliver, getting soaked by muddy dogs (they're like a sprinkler, said isa), edible flower lessons from emily, and some time in the hot tub too.

sleepy sunday

well, not really, but it's a nice thought right? we got in later than normal last night after an afternoon out at the shoutis' place with emily, latane, and baby oliver. there was lots of walking, hanging out, grilling, and hot-tubbing to be had. unfortunately our kids don't see the value in sleeping in after getting to bed late, so we're up as usual this morning!

that's ok though because we are busy bees today, getting the house ready for a showing this morning (ugh) and ready for a bbq with the schells this afternoon (yay). but the weather is bea-u-ti-ful so we are very happy to get outside whenever we can, which is much better than trying to accomadate a house showing when it's cold and gray and snowing outside. cheers to that! more weekend adventure pictures to come!

french toast all around!

she's only slightly excited, as you can see-- and sports a new apron!

breakfast baking, always appreciated, especially when sugar and chocolate are involved.

sylvi is happy to dig in the cabinets for more food (and she is signing more).

or go for her usual banana before taking down several pieces of french toast. she has a hollow leg.

daddy is home! daddy is home! and as you can see, we are all thrilled about having him back. it seemed like the perfect occasion for some french toast, not that anyone really needs an excuse to cook a big breakfast on a sunny saturday morning. ahhh, the weekend.

flashback friday!

now that the sun is back and the temperatures are set to reach 70F degrees this weekend, we are looking forward to more scenes like these... including green grass, blue skies, hiking, mountains, shorts... you get the picture. but until then, here are some pictures of a chunky 9 month old isa to get us by! happy happy happy friday folks!

mr. crafty

look what i got for mother's day! i actually got a really delicious brunch and a sweet card as well, but this surprise was revealed last night. isn't it pretty? i LOVE it. phil has been saving wine corks for a long time now (i have tried to throw me away more than once) and here is what became of them! his original idea took off after talking with Reid, who is charlotte and timothy's papa and just happens to own a frame shop too. we are both really excited about the finished product, and i am very impressed!