Locking my Blog

My sister is insisting that I lock my blog so those of you who would like to follow my blog please email me your address or leave a comment on this post and I will send you an invite.  I will be locking it in the next week or two.  Thanks!!!

From Ramen to Evil Eye

These 2 pics are capturing the infamous "evil eye" that my family knows so well. It is a rare moment to capture on camera because you never know when she is going to do it long enough to take a picture. Hands down one of my favorite things Ari does though and she knows it. I just have to look at her with my head down and say, evil eye, and she hurries and does it back then looks up and smiles as I laugh my head off. It's gotta be hard being so darn cute!!

My goofy girl. She always raises her eyebrows like this as if she is surprised about something.

So this is my little Ari eating her first ramen noodles. I know, I know it is crazy that she was 10 months and had never had ramen. What can I say, we don't eat it very often. But, as you can see she thoroughly enjoyed it and it was fun watching her and her funny faces as she ate it.

My Little Scavenger

Here Ari is just laying her head down and taking a break. Hey scavenging for food is a hard job:)

So, I have come up with a new method to keep Ari out of trouble while I take my long showers. Surprise, surprise for all of you who know me well, right?!! I do enjoy a good 15 min. shower and that is seriously my guilty pleasure even though Ari doesn't like it much. Anyway, enough rationalizing. When I put Ari in her cute saucer I always give her puffs and she inevitably spills some or drops some while she is wolfing them down. Later on in the day she makes her way back into my room and climbs under the saucer to get the puffs she "saved for later." I promise I feed my child, she just loves her puffs and will go to great lengths to get just one more. I obviously caught her off guard as you can see by the deer caught in the headlights look on her face. I have said it before and I will say it again, I love her weirdness. Too funny!

Feeding the Ducks

Daddy and Ari with the beautiful ducks and water in the background. What a fun place to spend some time with the kids. Thanks Ellisons for introducing us to the beautiful park and the biting ducks?!:)

So we went out with Brandon & Stacy and their cute kiddos Avery & Asher....a while ago (see it's warm still, I told you I was bad at updating this) and we fed the ducks at the park downtown. The ducks were totally coming right up to us so I "tried" to let them eat out of my hand and this is my feeble attempt to do so. I was just too scared! But cute, little Asher was sitting in his stroller next to me, as you can see in the pic, and one of these crazy ducks thought his little toe was a piece of food and bit it!! It was so sad, but soooo funny!! He didn't cry one bit, just pulled his toe back and was surprised. Stacy and I were laughing so hard, we just couldn't help it. An older woman witnessed the whole thing and just looked at us like we were terrible mothers for laughing. Thank goodness Asher is such a tough, chill baby. We really aren't mean, it was just hilarious. Ahhh, good times!!

Nun Ari

By the way, this is our kitchen for my family who hasn't seen it. Small but cozy.

I love taking Ari's shirt off and then leaving it stuck on her head. She usually takes it and rips it the rest of the way off, but this night she let us keep it there and show off her chubby belly. We love having Bobby home with us to give her baths, which unfortunately is rare. Ari sure loves her Daddy.

Sneaky, Little Ari

She is now attempting to crawl and get me because I had the camera that she so loves to play with. Oh, my little Ari.

Here she is with her big smiley turned on for mommy because she knew she had been caught red handed!! :)

I am still trying to catch up on these posts so this was a bit ago, but still fun. I am terrible at getting the house decorated and such a procrastinator that I still had decorations on the floor and we had lived here a couple months already. Ari would crawl behind the couch and sit under her high chair to sneak and scratch all of the candles. They were her favorite thing to play with. So one day I saw her scratching away so I snuck up on her with the camera and captured the above pics. She knew she wasn't supposed to be doing this but she just smiled her cuteness of a smile and made me laugh. She is so mischievous but so stinkin funny with her cheesy grins.

Babies Sleeping

This is my other baby sleeping. No, no this is not his usual ritual but he came home with some weird eye thing one night and couldn't even stand the light so he slept like this. He would kill me if he knew I posted this but I thought it was hilarious. My weird sleepers that I love so much.

So, here is another picture with my Ari sleeping. From the time she was born she always has loved to have her face covered by blankets when she sleeps which, when she was a newborn, scared the crapola out of me. I thought she would suffocate herself or something. Now it is just adorable and yet again, she is snuggled up to Beary Potter. I took this at my own risk as many of you know Ari could have woken up here and chosen to just not go back to sleep for a couple hours, but I couldn't miss the photo op. The most adorable thing about this pic is that I lay her in the middle of her crib every night and when I check her before I go to bed, she has scooted herself up to lay in beary's lap. So darn sweet.

Story Time With Beary Potter

I know, great facial expressions right? I just wanted Grandma Wendy to see how much Ari loves the bear she gave her. She insists on holding it while we read to her before bed. Whenever she sees it she attacks it with kisses and then snuggles with it. It is so cute.

We LOVE the missionaries!!

Ari and I seriously love the sister missionaries, Sis. Rosa and Sis. Gibson. It is such a nice thing to be able to go out with them and meet new people and just get back into sharing the gospel and its message with others. I love that Ari has been exposed to the spirit in this way because you can't help but feel it when these two sweet sisters are around. I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and that is why we make the time to go out with the sisters. I want Ariana to know that the work we do to help others find the truth and joy that we have in the gospel is worth all the time and effort in the world. I hope she remembers these special times we get to spend with these amazing missionaries as she grows up, and realizes what a blessing it is to have a knowledge of the true gospel.

Sunday Walks are History

When it was warm, not so long ago, we would takes walks on Sundays. For some reason I would always insist on taking the stroller but Ari would end up throwing a fit if Bobby was there because she wanted to sit on his shoulders and pull his hair. So, yeppers, I would end up pushing an empty stroller while Ari would ride atop the Daddy's shoulders and pull his hugeness of hair with delight. Ahhh, those were the days of our long, lost times in the sun.

Seeing RED

I love the color of Ari's hair, it is so beautiful. I took this picture to show the essence of her red hair and how much her hair has grown. Yep, it's still as red as ever and it sticks straight up most of the time. I am crossing my fingers that her hair color doesn't change, but we will have to wait and see. The other pic is Ari and her daddy just cuddling on the couch after daddy has come home from a long day at school. She loves her dad so much and I love to catch these little moments when she is just content being still and hanging out (it doesn't happen too often but isn't it cute:).

Our Favorite Place These Days

Ari and I get bored very frequently being in this apartment all day so we take trips to the park. Thank goodness we have a park so close by and we can walk there every day. It's so sad because I know Ari misses all of her cousins when we go to the park and she gets so excited just seeing other kids playing on the slides and monkey bars. The park is full of squirrels running all around too and we actually saw a cute bunny rabbit the other day as well. Pretty sure Bobby thinks I am crazy because I talk about the squirrels so much and how many there are here, but they are so cute and Ari and I love to watch them run all around. We are very easily amused here in the midwest. We have loved it here though and we find things to do to pass the time and make our days fun. Ari's favorite is the swings, probably because since she was a couple months old we would take her in Mom's backyard and swing her all the time when she just needed a break from being inside. Now, I do realize I am this child's mother but, you have to admit, the pics of her in the little hat and bundled in the stroller have got to be the sweetest ever.

Visiting Uncle Jared

Ari and I took a short road trip a couple weeks ago to visit Uncle Jared in Des Moines, Iowa. Work had sent him there for a week so we hopped in the car and drove the 2 hours to have lunch with him and visit. Pretty sure that the trip was well worth it even though we were only there for a few hours. We miss the family a lot so it was nice to have him so close for a little while. Ari did scream for one whole hour there and one whole hour back, I mean SCREAMED. I felt so bad but there was nothing I could do so I drove on. I wish I could have said, "Ari, look out the window at this or that" to keep her distracted but all there was was a whole lot of nothing and corn. We had so much fun and Ari even pooped all over herself at lunch just for Jared. Thanks for taking us to lunch and for spending the afternoon with us, we had so much fun. Love you. I also included a picture of Ari's Uncle Jason when Ari was a little younger as well because we love him and miss him too. They are both available girls so heads up.

Open mouth, insert ANYTHING and EVERYTHING

I love that I have been able to catch Ari with all these different things in her mouth. Not that I promote my child sticking all yucky objects in her mouth, but these pics are so cute. What is it with babies this age thinking that once they learn to pick things up it automatically goes into their mouth? Every day I have to make sure there is not even a piece of lint visible on the floor or else Ari somehow finds it and it goes in the mouth. All potential visitors will be happy to know that I usually have a clean floor because of this so come on over and try it out! Hint. Hint.

Our Morning Ritual

In case you don't know, my sweet Ari is like a permanent fixture at my side. She is in this stage where she won't let me out of her sight and, because I am home with her all day and need to get things done (like take a shower and get ready for the day, I know it's crazy stuff right), I have to find creative ways to keep her entertained. When being on the floor and playing with all of Mommy's things doesn't suffice, we revert to making a soft spot for her in the sink with my robe and letting her relax and talk to herself in the mirror. It works every time, atleast for a few minutes. She really does keep me smiling with all of the silly things she does each day and I love it!

She is STANDING!!!

I think I have a heart attack atleast once a day because my baby is pulling herself up and standing. She grabs whatever is available and it scares me to death! She falls once a day if not more and she always bumps her head and I usually freak out. Here are just a few pics of her new trick.

Ari loves to eat all by herself

When I make dinner I have to keep Ari occupied so I can get stuff done. I usually put her puffs in a bowl but she ends up knocking them out anyway so I have now started putting them on the floor. She loves to feed herself and here are a few pics demonstrating that. There is one where she has her whole face on the ground, yep, my daughter is sometimes too lazy to pick up the puffs so she just dives in to eat them directly off the floor. I love her weirdness, she makes me laugh daily with the things she does.

BATH TIME

Ari likes to swing each piece of clothing that is taken off her body before bath time. I usually try to call someone and let them hear Ari yelling and talking to herself as she looks and plays in the mirror before bath time. She has more fun playing on the counter with Bobby and I than she does getting in the bath. She is a talker just like her Dad. Another thing she does love is to snuggle with Bobby or I in her towel right after she gets out of the bath. Thanks to Aunt Emma we have a nice fluffy towel that she still fits in even at 9.5 months.