Treehouse Museum

My mom got tickets for Christmas for all of us to go to the Treehouse Museum. I went once before with a few friends, and I just have to say that I love all the things they have for kids to do. Meili loves that she gets to just play for hours without me telling her not to touch something, not to spill something, not to stand on something etc. 

With all of the craziness in my family lately, we were missing two of the sisters. But luckily, all the little girls got to go. Sadly, I was the only one who brought a camera-so sorry to all involved. You get what you pay for.

I've already told this story to several people, so if you've heard it, feel free to skip ahead. I just want to write it down, so I would remember to put it in the scrapbook.

Anyone who's spent time with Meili lately, knows that she loves to sing-especially I Am a Child of God, and she's pretty good at it. Last week, in Sacrament Meeting, she didn't know the sacrament hymn, so she decided to sing I Am a Child of God instead. After the hymn, and after the prayer, while they were passing the sacrament, Meili continued singing I Am a Child of God. Very loudly. For the whole congregation to hear. No matter how many times her parents tried to distract her or shush her.

In fact, during one of the talks, the speaker said, "...and when Meili was singing I Am a Child of God..."

How embarrassing.

And that wasn't all...

I let Meili bring markers to church, but the rule in our house with markers is always that she can only use one at a time so that things don't get out of hand. On this particular Sunday, she didn't want to follow that rule, so I ended up having to take her out in the hall for a little time out. We were sitting about three rows from the front, and as we're walking back to our seat (coming in from the doors in the front) Meili says loudly (because, of course, whispering is not an option for Meili), "Hi Josh! My daddy's name is Josh. I listen to my Mommy and Daddy." 

Throughout the rest of the block, people continually came to me to tell me how funny Meili is, and how much they enjoyed her solo.

Easter

We dyed Easter eggs a little early-about a week before Easter. I loved the kit we got because Meili could dye the eggs, paint the eggs, put stickers on, and make the little cardboard rings to put the eggs in. Really, as long as she was making a mess, Meili was satisfied. In fact, when we were done dyeing the eggs, Meili wasn't yet, so we just gave her a cup of plain water and she continued putting the egg in and taking it out for another fifteen minutes. 

It took us  all about 3 days to get the paint totally off our hands.

On Saturday we had an Easter egg hunt at my parents' house.

 My niece Chloe

 Meili did pretty well, except that she wanted to find an egg and eat the treat before looking for another egg-so it slowed her down a little.

 Gigi with her stash.

 Cute little Ruby

Then we headed off to Josh's parents' house for another Easter egg hunt. With practice, Meili did a little better.

 She spent most of the day with her mouth stuffed with candy.

Josh's parents have the coolest playhouse-no wonder she always wants to be outside!

 The last couple years Josh's parents have bought some baby ducks around this time of year. This is a picture of Meili with her cousins Wynn and Kyle. (Pay no attention to her low-riding pants and diaper.)
Meili loved the ducks! She was so sad to go home because she wanted to run around with the ducks all night.

In my eyes, she's a daredevil. I would never attempt to hold the ducks, but she couldn't get enough. However, for the ducks safety we decided it was time to put them back in their cage.

On Easter morning, Meili got her basket from the Easter bunny, with a new quiet book for church. Then she had, yet another, Easter egg hunt.

 Our house is loaded with treats! (Even more so than usual!)

And, of course, I forgot to get a picture of her in her Easter dress. One of these years I'll get my act together. We had an awesome Easter holiday in our house, and we're so excited for the nice weather!

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!