A letter to her bestie....

A few months ago Bailee made McKinley a card, nothing new around here. The difference this time is that she asked Daddy to write what she wanted. I usually have to edit, or give suggestions, or try and make it sound right. But Daddy wrote it word for word, and I'm so glad. It's so cute, I wanted to share:

Dear McKinley,
I made this card for your birthday. I decided this was going to be your best present ever. This is how it is, and this is your only chance to have fun. I think you are the best friend ever, in the whole wide world. I will never forget you. McKinley, we won't grow tails. Sorry.
You are the best girl I know. Love Bailee

A few pics

Here's a round of pics from the first half of January. 

 

Bailee loves to take pictures, so here's one of Maddox and Mommy.

Maddox is learning to like solids, slowly but surely. He does love the teething biscuits, when he can keep a hold of it.

We had a friend date with Kin and Lyss. We had lunch at the mall and then went to watch The Princess and the Frog. Super cute movie, the girls liked it....the mommies loved it. Classic Disney style, good music, creepy villain(s).

Best friends. Awwww.

Cute Maddox after a bath. Love the lack of hose and stickers! Such a cute smile, and growing so fast! I think by heart baby standards he's pretty big.

I finally finished his shelf. So cute, I love it.

Maddox's first play date with Kambria. They were playing on the floor next to each other and we noticed they were holding hands. Awww. Kambria kept sucking on Maddox's fingers, funny.

Painting Pumpkins

About 3 weeks ago McKinley came over after dance class. (while Lyss and Steve were in Hawaii...jealous.) But anyways....
We had grown these cute little pumpkins and I decided to let the girls paint them. I carefully put little puddles of different colors on each of their plates. Lots of different colors. I was excited to see what they did with them......

Well, McKinley swirled them all together and came out with her favorite color. Purple!

Bailee painted little spots different colors, didn't mix the paints, and rinsed her brush often. Then she painted pink over the whole thing.

I was going to take a picture of the girls with their finished projects but when I left for a second to do something for Maddox.....

McKinley painted her feet and face purple. I got a little distracted with cleaning up the mess.

The important thing is that they had fun, right??

Now and Then

This was not the first view I wanted to share of the play room....but here it is. On Wednesday, McKinley came over to play after dance class. I heard them giggling and peeked in to find this.....

....and this....

....and this.

And it reminded me of this..... (May 2007)

Play Date

(October 3, 2008)
Bailee woke up begging to play with Kinley. I told her not today, I know Alyssa is really busy. About an hour later Lyss called to see if we wanted to go swimming. Bailee was so excited! We went to a new place, and it was awesome. The water was 98 degrees! The pool was amazing for young kids and the girls had a blast. It was not easy to convince them to go home.

We bribed them with popcorn. What a treat!

Randomness

So even though our garden was late producing, and most of what we planted got eaten by the birds before it had a chance, we have been able to enjoy some of the 'fruits of our labors'. Those are purple bell peppers, aren't they pretty? We've had a ton of yellow squash, and we're finally getting some big tomatoes. We get a handful of cherry tomatoes every couple of days. Yummy! We've also had 3 cucumbers!

Luke finished his HR class through Villanova a few weeks ago. He did amazing! I don't know how he found time to study and still play with Bailee and I. Luke is such a hard worker. We are so proud of him and so grateful for how hard he works.

Bailee and I painted a cute spider for our door. I really did let Bailee paint one of the spiders, and she did a great job! Then she just wanted to paint the newspaper.

Bailee and McKinley got matching strollers for their birthdays, and I finally got a picture of them together. They love to push their friends around, and they love to go for walks down the street.

Notice the cowboy hat. Bailee is known as Cowboy Bailee, at her insistance. She calls herself Cowboy Bailee and has been calling us Cowboy Mom and Cowboy Dad all week. Super cute, unless she throws a tantrum in the middle of the store because I forgot to say Cowboy Bailee.

Speaking of the store, I had to run to Mervyn's the other day to drop off a CTMH order. Bailee loves to walk around the mall, so we stayed awhile. We were walking through Deseret Book and she was singing her version of "I am a Child of God". She stopped suddenly, looked at me and yelled "You are not my mom!" Startled, I said, "I'm not? Since when?" She grabbed my leg and said, "You are my sister. Oh, I'm so glad you're here, Sister." What???

So yesterday I put her down for a nap and went downstairs to work on some stuff. 2 hours later I came upstairs to see if she was awake. She had never gone to sleep! So I told her she could get up if she was ready. A few minutes later I asked Bailee if she had ever gone to sleep. She looked at me and said "That's not your problem, it's my problem!" What a little sassy pants I have. She cracks me up.

Bailee also insists on 'reading scripture power' herself and won't let either Luke or I have a turn. So I say 2 or 3 words and she repeats them. We're reading in 3rd Nephi and one of the guys names is Gidgidoni. Bailee repeated "Get a donought". And of course because we laughed, she kept saying it.

As you can see, Bailee keeps me on my toes and usually laughing. I can't believe how much she has grown and learned! She's such a little smarty pants, and it's so fun to be her mom.

We are counting down the days until Grandma and Grandpa Bulkley get home from their mission! It feels like they've been gone forever! They really don't have much longer. I have a few projects around here I want to finish before they get home, so I better get working!

I keep thinking of a ton of stuff to write about, but I think this is long enough for today.

Friends Re-united

McKinley got to play with Auntie Kay all summer. Bailee has missed her a ton, and is so excited she'll get to play with Kin at least once a week. They had a blast turning on the sprinkler, playing in the water, going for a long walk with their strollers, and jumping on the trampoline. Bailee was not so happy when it was time to go home.

Bailee kept trying to get Kinley wet with the hose. She'd say "Let me water you Kinley, let me water you." Kinley was not having any of that.

Then they decided to water the tomatoes.

Little Mommy

McKinley gave Bailee this cute little stroller for her birthday. The day she got it we went for 2 walks around the neighborhood, and she really hasn't let it out of her sight.

She loves pushing her Baby Kadee around, as well as all of her other little friends. I think they've all had a few turns.

Bailee has learned to take the stroller over the bumps in the side walk. She's also learned not to let go as the stroller will roll down the hill and tip over if she does.

Thanks McKinley, Bailee thinks you're the greatest.

Happy Birthday McKinley!

McKinley is 2! We went to her little birthday party, and it was fun as usual. Bailee was super excited to give McKinley her present. She picked her out a cute stroller for her baby doll. Bailee helped me wrap it and then wanted to carry it to Kinley. What fun! I think she'll be excited for her own birthday party this weekend.

I need to get some party hats. Bailee LOVES party hats, and she got a purple one to match her dress!

Strawberry Days Free Swim

We decided kind of last minute to go to the free swim at the PG pool. Alyssa and McKinley came with us. Bailee loves the pool, and she loved playing with Kinley and Lyssy.

She was also super excited that Daddy got to come. Bailee kept 'swimming' between us and loving every minute. She was sad when we said it was time to go home.

(I guess the draw back of a 'water proof' camera is the water spots on the lens. :) )

Oh look, a picture of me. That rarely happens. :) I could use a little more sun.

Sun, Sand, Surf...It's almost the beach

Bailee got to play with Moses and McKinley today. The girls ran back and forth between the 'sand box', the pool, and the swing.

Moses really just wanted them to help him dig for dinosaur bones.

Scripture Power Time

So, of course I think everything Bailee does is cute. But right now one of my favorite things she says is "It's scripture power time mom. Find my scripture power. Find my place." I'm not even sure why or when she started saying this, but I love it. One of our family goals we've been working on is reading every night. It sounds a lot easier than it is. By the time we have dinner, clean up, and have a bath we're tired and it's about bed time. But we know it's important to have family scripture study, so we're doing our best and stepping it up a little at a time. So when we say it's time to read scriptures, Bailee runs to the front room and looks for her 'scripture power' and asks me to find her place. Right now she's carrying around the Book of Mormon that I received when I was baptized, but it's totally falling apart. I'm going to pick her up one of those cute little ones, just perfect for toddler hands. And I'll for sure get a picture. :) Bailee always wants a turn to read, so we'll say the words one at a time and she repeats them. So cute.

I really need to figure out how to get videos on here too. The funniest thing ever happened the other day, and I got it on tape. Remember, we're potty training. Friday afternoon was super busy. I hadn't finished my cards for that nights card group, I needed to make dinner, Bailee didn't take a nap, and I had a girl at wal-mart tell me that she hates Close To My Heart (seriously, I was almost as offended as I'd have been if she had told me Bailee was ugly.) So Luke got home and wanted to fix the cooler, I wanted to be helpful, I really did. I felt like I was going nuts. Bailee needed to go potty, so I took her in and helped her get situated. I told her I'd be back in a minute to check on her. About 10 minutes goes by and I realized I hadn't heard her for awhile; that usually means trouble. I walked in there and she was ASLEEP on the potty! Her head was rolling around and she was holding onto the sides. It was so funny, and seriously adorable. I grabbed the camera and caught some footage. Then she heard me talking and opened her eyes. Priceless.

One more funny. I watched McKinley today, as I do every Tuesday, and it was actually pretty calm. Until after nap time. Thats when it always explodes. So, I'm working away in my craft room (top secret project for girls camp...) and all of a sudden I hear McKinley yelling at Bailee to stop pushing. I go in there fully prepared to give Bailee time out for pushing and McKinley was SITTING on Bailee! Bailee was rolling around, trying to get up, and McKinley was sitting on her and crying because Bailee was pushing! WHAT? I was a little annoyed when it happened, but it was pretty funny.

5/7-So is it Winter still?

I seriously thought it was time for Summer. I'd settle for Spring, but winter? In May? It is raining and sleety. I AM grateful that it's not snowing....yet. Of course, it's club night and we've had bad weather 5 of the past 7 months on this night. One of my girls has missed those 5 nights because of snow. AGGGGGH! Needless to say, I'm not really surprised that it's yucky.

The past 2 days have been fabulous! We spent both days out in the yard and in the pool. Well, Bailee spent it in the pool. That's the first thing she asked for this morning, "Back Yard, Mommy?" Usually it's "Mickey, Tigger, Pooh?"

Monday evening we went up the canyon for a picnic with some family. It was so fun, but I forgot to take our camera so there's no proof we were there. :(

Yesterday I sent McKinley and Bailee out to play in the back yard while I made dinner. I can watch them from the window, so I wasn't worried. Not a minute later they both came screaming and crying about a snake. I couldn't see it anywhere so I told them to go play in the pool, but they kept saying "No, Snake!". So I walked over the the pool to show them there was nothing wrong. HA. The snake was in the pool. I wish I'd have taken a picture. He was just hanging out enjoying the water and the warm weather. I told them they didn't have to get in the pool. We have a couple of garden snake's that hang around here. They don't bother me, and Bailee likes to look for them. But Luke on the other hand...let's just say if he never saw one again, it'd still be too soon. My dad agrees with him there.

They tore the rest of the fence out today and dug the trench for the new one. I don't think they know what they're doing. The trench is not even close to where it should be, so they'll probably be digging it again tomorrow. I'll be so glad when the fence is back up; it'll look nice and I won't have to watch the happenings of the high school crowd.

I forgot to write the onion story. :) Bailee's new word is onions. That's her answer to EVERYTHING. What do you want for breakfast? Onions. What do you want to watch? Onions. What song do you want to sing? The onion one. So last Saturday Bailee and I walked to the church for a little breakfast they were putting on. When we were leaving Bailee said "Mom, more breakfast." I asked her if she wanted more eggs, or more pancakes. She said "More onions." I wonder if she's saying something else and I'm just hearing onions. She was counting and got to nine and said "purple onions. ten. eleven. twelve. thirteen." She never says nine. What a funny girl. I have pictures of the girls playing in the pool, but I'm not sure where the camera is so I'll post later.

I guess this was just a bunch of rambling, but that's what blogging is for, right?