Grandma's Birthday

Well I'm a little late in posting but here it is. Grandma turned 99 years old on December 19. We had a quiet but I hope special celebration for her. We went out for dinner then back home for cake and presents. Here is our evening.

(It's as if Mikayla ate too much LOL I love the expression on her face) Grandma had a good helper!

(dancing for our dinner party aka Grandma's birthday party)

What a special Christmas

We had a very special time. Mikayla didn't quite know what to think about Santa but she knows that he came and brought her a bunch of really neat stuff :) To pick her favorites she absolutely loves her "Mini Market", doctor set, boots, her crafty stuff, paint/marker set, and the spill the beans game, she loves the beans so much that she put them in her purse to bring with her everywhere she goes.

We met Santa!!!

Mikayla only hesitated for a moment before running into his arms.

The other day we chatting before going to bed and I was asking her if she wanted to go see Santa, she said yes.... here is our conversation:

Me: Will you sit on his lap

M: yes

Me: I told her this is what he will say to you (in a deep santa voice) Hello there little girl, what would you like for Christmas this year? Ho ho ho

M: (after laughing hysterically for a minute) she composed herself she said, I would like a blue candy cane.... No wait...... two blue candy canes.... and a lolipop

Me: (laughing) is that all you want?

M: um.... yes, that's it

The next night we were practicing again and she still wants 2 blue candy canes... and she told me that one is for her and the other for me, she was so sweet it made me cry that she was asking for something that was important to her, she wanted 2 so I could have one too... then she asked for the blue lollipop and then a red candy cane for her daddy.

We really had a good time meeting Santa though, she is still on cloud nine!!

Of course it's not complete without Grandma having a visit too. Santa asked her if she would like to sit on his lap too and she said "ohhhh no" it was sooo funny.

Teacher Tins :)

I made five of these adorable tins for Mikayla's teachers at school and for her swimming teacher too. This was a really fun project to do, they started out as plain red buckets.

3 Year Reflections

Here are some of Mikayla's latest things. I was taking a moment to reflect on how far she's come.

She is really getting into the whole Santa thing, I tell her that Santa brings good girls presents but not bad girls (bribing for behavior modification… whatever works, right) so now in the middle of whatever she’s doing (that she’s not supposed to be doing) she says “and I’m a good girl too”…… then bursts into tears

She still absolutely loves playing dress up.

She has to bring a baby everywhere we go, it’s much more then it used to be because they have become real to her.

She loves to play teacher, she even makes us all line up and she walks backwards (guess her teacher does that) and says “line up everybody”…..

She absolutely loves putting people, babies, the dogs, her animals, anything and everything in time out. Most often for hitting, meaning, they hit her.

Oh she loves to have her fingernails and toenails painted.

She is sooo sweet when I ask her whose birthday Christmas is… she says it’s Baby Jesus’ birthday.

She loves shower time and now after all the cleaning business is tended to, I close the door for her and she loves her shower time for singing or bossing whatever imaginary friend is in there with her at the moment.

Right now her favorite movie is Tinker Bell, we watch it EVERY day.

She loves to help cook dinner and bake.

She is very crafty and loves stamping and cutting paper.

She loves to talk on the phone.

Her vocabulary is amazing, she really understands everything.

WE GOT SNOW!!!!

I can't believe it. It was too late to go play in it though (Mikayla had wet hair, we have no hat, no gloves, no boots, or even shoes that she can wear socks with, so essentially no winter wear) so we went ahead and brought the snow in to her. She got two snow balls and was holding them and sort of playing with them until her hands got cold then we gave her a container to hold her snow ball in it... then she ate it!!!

She was soooooo excited she was quivering and doing her little girl scream!!! What a fun way to end the day.

A beautiful memorial

At my dad's church, every year they have a Christmas memorial service for everyone that has lost loved ones. You purchase an ornament and at the ceremony, every person is called up individualy to pay honor to their special someone and place the ornament on the tree. I hung the ornament for my sister Leslie, Michael hung the ornament for his dad and Mikayla hung the ornament for my mom. It was very special and a very touching ceremony.

For my sister I said, for my sister and best friend, this is our second Christmas without her and we miss her very much.

Michael said, for my dad, he's been gone six years and he was a really great and fun loving guy. I miss him.

For Mikayla I said, this is for her grandma, this is our third Christmas without my mom and our third Christmas with Mikayla. We miss her very much.

Mikayla hung the ornament and was so cute and intent while doing it. She has asked me before where my mom is and where Aunt Leslie is (because I talk about them and there are pictures in the house). I tell her they're in heaven, a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about Leslie and she said, "you know, I'd really like to go see her." It made me so sad.

I really wish they were here to be with us too. Here is the memorial tree. It's just a cell phone picture but it really has such special meaning.

Christmas Crafting

I have been working hard, some things I can share here.... and some I just can't. But here is the latest creation. It started out as your ordinary cookie sheet. Now it's a 25 days to Christmas count down creation. The snow flakes across the top are magnets to mark the days. I can't wait to do this with Mikayla.

Down at the boat!

We went down to our boat last weekend and we've been having a north wind which blows the water out of the bay so we couldn't go out, it was too big of a risk of getting stuck out there. The water was down at least 2 feet in our slip and we were almost on the bottom in there so we just got to hang out and play for a change. We all really had a great time! (oh and it really wasn't that cold but she wanted to wear the hood..... LOL )

ta daaaaa!!

My little swimmer!!!

I was able to take Mikayla swimming this week and boy did she have a great lesson, she was really showing off for me :) I loved every second of it. I wish I could take her every week!!!

Here are some pictures, please note the shoes in the first pic..... she wears them EVERYWHERE!!! I love it, she is so happy when people comment to her about them. She very proudly says "thank you" and we go on our merry way.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We have had such a wonderful weekend. Spending all this time with Mikayla was the best part of the whole time!!! We have had fun, I attempted to shop on Friday and ended up leaving empty handed and went to Joanns and came out with about 4 inches of paper :) I just can't help myself.

Here are some pics of my favorite gal!!!

A much quieter celebration

Today is my Mom's birthday, she would have been 70. I'm sure we would have had a party and gifts and fun and laughter. Instead we quietly remember how special she was and always will be to us. We will always remember.

Also my darling Leslie's birthday was November 3. We didn't have access to the computer then but I wanted her to be remembered too. She would have been 41 and happy and shocked that she was now in the 40s. We would have gone out to dinner and had some wonderful presents and celebrated in style!!! I know I would have had to have embarrassed her a little bit at the restaurant though and have them come sing to her.... she would have loved it even though she would say she did not, the smile on her face and the blush on her cheeks would tell me otherwise.

Always remembered - never forgotten!!!!

My Birthday Girl!!!!

We celebrated Mikayla's 3rd birthday last Saturday. What a great time we all had. She in particular had a blast. She was a little overwhelmed at first but then jumped right in!!! I can't believe my baby is 3 now. My goodness the time flies and what fun it is. We have learned to enjoy and cherish it because who knows how long we have it. We are so thankful and so blessed!!!!

Her party was as a local jump :) 7 of her closest friends were there and most of the adults that love her were there too.

(I had a blast making her cake too) :)