Thursday, May 28, 2009

Mommy's Little Helper

Paige LOVES to help me with the laundry. So much in fact, that this morning, she completely emptied the stuff from the dryer into the basket - without ANY help from me. She was playing with the basket - or Lamper as Sterlite calls it - I asked her to bring it into the laundry room so that I could take the clothes out of the dryer. She quickly pushed it there, opened the dryer door, and began to unload. I was about one minute behind her, as I was putting away the lunch dishes. By the time I got there she was halfway done. I quickly grabbed the camera so I would not miss any of the action.

Let's hope that this keeps up.

Also, this morning before school, the girls were reading in Emily's room. Love these pictures.





We re-arranged Emily's bedroom Tuesday night - and now she has TONS of room. Now that there's so much space, the girls have been rocking out and dancing to the Kidz Bop CD that Emily got in her Happy Meal a few weeks ago. I will have to post some pictures of that too.

AND Happy 26th Birthday to my little sister, Amanda!!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

my bff

This morning I decided it would be a very good idea if I mopped the kitchen floor. After a weekend of constant in and out traffic, construction in the garage and a BBQ, it would be a total understatement if I said it was kind of a mess.

Guess who didn't want me to mop the floor? My BFF - Paige. She threw such a tantrum that her Daddy even came up from the depths of his underground office to see if she had very possibly lost a limb. She had not. She just wanted me to hold her whole mopping.

I am pretty good at toting her around - she's my last baby, and I will do it until I can do it no more - but I draw the line at holding her while doing such things as: going to the bathroom, cooking, taking a shower, scrapbooking and yes, washing the floor. 

Well, she was not very happy about it. But I made it up to her by playing puzzles with her until her nap time. Poor baby.




Monday, May 25, 2009

so satisfied

This was an action packed, fun-filled, memory making weekend. I love those kind. 

This one started on Friday with Emily's Kindergarten field trip to Upland Hills Farm. I went as a chaperone - however, because Emily's class has only a handful of kids, and most of them had a parent who chaperoned, I was only chaperoning Emily. Cool. Easy.

The farm was very cute. There was a farm show, starring the two farmers who own the farm. They showed the kids how to milk a cow, feed a goat, get a rooster to cackle, and geese to honk, and shear a sheep. There were also ducklings, chicks and a two week old piglet. Very entertaining.

There was also a hayride to the Storybook Trail - pictured below.
And a big, huge playground -with a big sandpit, lots and lots of things to climb on, swing on and play on.

On Saturday evening, we were able to finally get together with Brady and Meg. It's almost been a year since we have hung out. We had a very nice dinner at a Mexican restaurant, and then a round of mini-golf. I, of course, lost quite badly - but it was still fun.
And the BIG, HUGE event, that only happened just hours ago - Emily and Paige now have a sandbox.

Eric - Mr. Handy - enclosed the lower part of the playset, filled it with sand, and made a cover for it. The whole neighborhood was in it at one point - but when dinnertime approached, they all went home and it was just the two Gottlieb girls, hanging out, and enjoying their new favorite place. (you can click on the picture to see it larger)
And, because I complain so much - here's a couple of Paige - actually looking at me, and SMILING.
Hope you all had a good Memorial Day weekend.

Friday, May 22, 2009

almost summer

Yesterday afternoon I was in my neighbors backyard, watching the kids play on the slip and slide and splash around in the kiddie pool. It was a glorious sound. A sound that I have been waiting to hear for many, many months. This whole scene was not just something I was experiencing all by myself - my friend and neighbor, Ginger, showed up while I was taking it all in, handed me a glass of iced tea, and we both held up our plastic glasses and said, "To summer!" Clink.

We then embarked on a journey into our very near future - what would we like to do this summer? What places and events would we not want to miss? What did we want to experience this summer? It was a purely blissful conversation.

As I looked through the photos from yesterday, I thought about this. And I smiled. 

I. Am. Lucky.

I work from home. Mostly in the evenings. I am able to experience summer again. I get to wake up, not too early, and plan a day spent mostly outside. I haven't done that since my high school days. And that was a LONG time ago.

And who knows, with our current economic situation, this may just be the last summer, at least for a while, in which I am pretty much free during the daylight hours.

So, I plan on making the most of it.

And the fact that we started a little bit early this year, has not escaped me at all.




Thursday, May 21, 2009

photo play

I just love my 50mm lens. It makes me feel so professional. I, almost, cannot take a bad photo with it. It's just so crispy. Cute subjects can help as well.......but really, could I just get ONE shot with them both looking at me at the same time? I don't even need a smile. But I would really like Paige to not give me that look she has perfected over the last few weeks. That annoyed look. Maybe if I stop annoying her, huh?



our week so far

Eric putting in landscape edging around the maple tree in the front - as well as around the rocks by the front door. Another project that he said would only take part of the day, but of course, ended up taking ALL DAY.
Mr. Home Improvement working on another project - painting the vent above the garage. Eric was not too happy about being up that high - I came outside for moral support...and pictures.

Paige and Emily waiting for the bus.

Paige having a swinging good time.
This is the look I usually get when I ask her to at least look in my direction when I take a picture. I have resorted to telling her there's a monkey on my head - but I still get this look.

At dinner last night. Obviously, a Mexican restaurant.

Went to the flower/plant nursery last night to get a couple more things for our yard. They have these little carts for the kiddies to push. Paige was very excited about this. Emily didn't take one at first - they are for babies, she says. But then, she saw someone her age pushing one around, and her whole opinion changed. 
BTW - the place we went - Deneweths - one of my most favorite places this time of year. I could go there everyday. It's HUGE. It's only about 7 minutes from my house. And it's full of flowers. What could be better?

Emily REALLY wants me to plant all the flowers that I got - I may just do that today. It's supposed to be in the mid-eighties. If I do, I will post pictures later....

Have a great day - and go take some pictures!!

Monday, May 18, 2009

my morning at the office

So, the pay kind of stinks. There are no breaks. I am constantly cleaning up after the boss. And, I pretty much never get to do what I want to do....

BUT - I get to work outside, weather permitting. My boss likes to share goldfish crackers with me. And, the job security is pretty good....

I think I will stay here...for awhile at least.







Thursday, May 14, 2009

big, bad boo boo

So, my baby got a split lip this morning. The sad part - other than the actual injury, and crying baby - is that I am not exactly sure how it happened. It was one of those, "took my eyes off you for one second" moments...and when I looked back, my little one was screaming and bleeding profusely.

She's all better now, but boy is it UGLY.

Here are a couple of pictures from our bike ride Tuesday nite - as you can see, Emily is doing quite well. She still needs to work on starting off, but we are proud of her none the less.


And there's just not much to say about this child. She looks like that because she thinks she needs to hold the boa with her chin. Pretty funny stuff!

Have a great day!