What's Up?

Since it's been awhile, this is what we've been up to.

Josh's birthday is in January, so he and I went snowboarding and did an overnight stay while my parents watched Meili.

Just in time for Josh's birthday, Meili started really liking the song "Happy Birthday," and we regularly sing (as Meili would say) "Happy to Birthday to..." anyone and everyone whether or not it is their birthday.

Random picture of Meili in her crown. If you've ever seen Tangled, when Meili put this crown on, it was an absolute mirror image of that scene in the movie. 

 She tells me that her hair is long "like Rapunzel."

 I think this is inspired by nursery. Meili sets all the chairs up in a line, and then says that it is time to sing songs. We also had a picnic with Pooh and Mickey on this particular day.

 This is what I get for trying to give Meili cereal for breakfast. She fished out all the marshmallows and then was "all done."

 At the beginning of February Meili and I made sugar cookies. Sadly, this activity has kept Meili entertained for hours on more than one occasion. She's licking all the sprinkles off the plate.

 I love the sprinkles stuck to her lip!

 I watch my niece Shasta while my brother and his wife are in school. This is a picture of Meili and Shasta riding their horses. I was trying to get a picture of them walking around, but as soon as I got out the camera, they both posed.

(Meili says, "Yee-haw, ride 'em cowboy! Yah Yah!)-So cute!

For Valentines Day, we had a relaxed dinner as a family, since our Valentines Day plans always seem to get messed up. I made a red dinner: steak, red potatoes, raspberry jello, and raspberry lemonade with strawberry shortcake for dessert. 

We got Meili a couple of fish for Valentines Day. I decided it's time for her to have a pet, because she loves animals so much, but a fish is about all I'm willing to take care of, and apparently, that's all we should take on, because one of the fish didn't even last 24 hours.... I did not like having to explain to a 2-year-old, why there is now only one fish.

 However, she loves our one remaining fish: Blackie, and spends hours watching him. But my favorite is when she goes to the bowl and very loudly says, "Hi fish! You swimming around? You eating the rocks?"

"They're so beautiful!" :) 

(I realized after the fact that she was saying "black"-hence, the name Blackie. I watch the video now and feel like I sound so stupid-which, I think, is what Meili was thinking at the time also.

 Josh also got Meili some princess boot slippers

 And we got her a puppy pillow face, to take place of the disgusting matted ladybug pillow pet from last year.-Now the trick is getting rid of the ladybug without her noticing :)

 Meili always wants us to wrap her up like a baby and sing Rock-a-bye-baby. Why is it that all of my favorite pictures are blurry?

And here's the update on Meili:
Meili is OBSESSED with...
-singing: Everyday we sing I Am a Child of God, Silent Night, We're Going to the Zoo, the Scotsman, the Alphabet song, Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Club, Winnie the Pooh, and the list goes on and on. We sing before she goes to bed, we sing in the car, we sing when she's upset, and just for fun!
- and the IPAD, phones, computers, tvs. I was really hoping that this stage wouldn't come quite so fast, but we are in full-blown technology limitation already. The hardest part is how easily technology can entertain her for hours.

Another update, Meili seems so smart to me. She and I have full-blown conversations and everyday she says things that I think "Where did you learn that?" (Not in the bad way, we haven't gotten THERE yet.) I went to get her from her crib one day, and she said, "Daddy went to work at the Aggie bank in the red car." We had a dentist appointment in January and drove past the office again about 3 weeks later and she said, "That's the dentist." She says prayers by herself. She never remembers to begin with "Heavenly Father..." But she says, "Bless the food, bless all our blessings, bless Momma and Daddy, and Meili then she says something about not getting sick which I can't really understand, then says in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." And she has already developed a softer, high-pitch "prayer voice," which is pretty funny. 

I'm trying to remember all these memories, but that's all I've got right now. We're lovin' life!