Just Kid'n Around

Bob's sister, Stephanie and I planned an afternoon together.  We started with lunch at Kneaders - delish!  I can't wait for a reason to go back.  Then we took the kids to a fun play place called Just Kid'n Around.  Our girls had soooo much fun!  They just ran around and took a few minutes to play with everything.

Just before we left, they had someone offering face painting with some cool face paint crayons.

Violet chose a horse

Mylie chose a rainbow.

 Clark really surprised me.  He is usually very clingy, but after a few minutes he wanted down and wandered everywhere to play.  He had such a great time and I was so excited for his new-found independence that after we picked up Braden up from school and Bob up from the bus-stop after work, we went back and stayed 2 more hours until they closed.  Lots of fun!

Recent Pics of Mylie

 Every Wednesday morning, Mylie's friend, Shaylee, comes over to play for about 3 1/2 hours while her mom sleeps.  They usually have a really great time together and love to dress up, play kitchen, color, and dance to fun music.  A friend of mine gave me the Little Mermaid dress that Mylie is wearing - it's adorable!

 More dressing up, this time in a tutu and tights.  She loves to dress up and then asks me to get out the camera to take her picture.  This day she had lots of poses ready as I snapped away.

At 3 1/2 years old, Mylie still takes a nap almost every day.  She usually just drops somewhere between 3 and 4pm for a few hours.  Makes for some late nights.  She chooses the most uncomfortable looking spots sometimes...

Letters To Santa

Braden's letter this year was a form letter:
 Dear Santa
   My name is Braden
   This year I have been: ( ) very good (x) quite good ( ) a bit naughty
   What I would MOST like for Christmas this year is: Legos, I podtuch, Ds, Desply case.
   because: it is mostly wate I want.
   If your elves are not too busy I would also like:  bord games, big rc car, lowes kits and red tool box kits.
   I promise to leave you some: Ginger Bread house on Christmas Eve.
   Merry Christmas!

Mylie wrote her own letter that was filled with 0.1 repeated.  That is the way she writes everything lately.  Bob calls it her binary language.  I asked her to tell me what it said: "Dear Santa: I would like a zhu zhu dog, a dollie, and a horsie.  I was sick.  Put presents under the tree. Love Mylie"

Christmas 2011 - Mylie

So fitting for my little girl: "My favorite color is sparkle" 

Her new outfit 

Squinkies from Braden

Barbie movie

Butterfly ornament from Grandma Sara

Princess slippers

Tangled doll and dress

Squinkies from Clark

Leapster 2 and 2 games

Princess notecards from Grandma Sara

Flannel pillowcase made by Grandma Sara

Playdough

Santa brought Mylie this cake-maker playdough set and so she and Braden played with it for a bit after opening gifts on Christmas day.  They are also wearing the cute outfits that they got for Christmas.

Pictures

I took the kids to Kiddie Kandids on Monday to get some pictures taken.  I got this of the 3 of them on CD so I can post it here and make whatever copies I want.  Aren't they cute?!  It took a while to get Clark to warm up to getting them taken so we didn't get many smiles of him.

We also got to go down and see Santa.  The camera stopped working while we were waiting in line, so Santa invited all the kids to come sit while he read them a story.  It was the most adorable thing ever.  Once they got the camera back up and working, we got back in line to get pictures.  Santa was so great with the kids, but Clark immediately started crying.  So our cute photo with Santa includes a screaming Clark.  I wouldn't have it any other way though,  because that is who he is right now - terrified of anyone other than mom and dad.

Loving Siblings

Mylie and Clark have a typical sibling relationship.  Lots of fighting already and lots of LOVES!  She still begs to hold him even though he is now half her size.  Sometimes he'll hold still enough while drinking his bottle that she can still hold him.  And occasionally they give each other hugs and kisses.  I love being able to document these sweet moments on camera.

Another Mylie post

I found her sitting in the hallway 2x this week tapping her foot and pouting because... 

"I miss my Braen" (Braden)

One day after school, Braden was a sweetie and sat down with Mylie to read her a book while I made dinner.  She fell asleep on his shoulder.  Sweetness.

I bought some new polish this week and she immediately sat me down and demanded that I polish her finger and toe nails.  All girl.  She walked around all evening with her fingers spread, unwilling to touch anything for fear that she'd mess up her polish.

Mylie's Message:

I sing this song to the kids sometimes and just recently, Mylie can be found singing it to herself while playing.  Today I talked her into letting me video it:

Enjoy this little bit of sweetness sent directly from above.
{love.}

dress-up

Mylie inherited some dress-ups from my niece and will occasionally play with them.  On this day, she convinced Braden to be her dress-up servant.  He helped her pick out her outfits and change into them and then he would introduce the newest 'princess' to me.  What a fun big brother to play with his sister even if it was dress-ups!

Sleeping with her shoes

Found Mylie taking a nap in her closet today with her shoes.  There's a swimsuit under there too.  Such sweetness!

More swim lesson pics & a video

Video of Braden swimming.  I hoped to get more, but the camera ran out of memory.

 Braden is a little fish when swimming on his back.  Now to work on swimming on his stomach...

 Got both kids in this shot.

 Mylie about to go under the water.

Mylie had another teacher for the first 3 days of class.  He would pull them around the pool on a pool noodle and it was the cutest thing ever.

Swim Lessons

The kids have been taking swim lessons at the Meridian Pool this summer.  They just ended their 1st session.  Here are some fun pics:

 Mylie loves to "jump" off the diving board.  She has a different idea of what jumping is though and always stands there until a teacher throws her off.

 Then she gets in line to it all again.

Braden does not enjoy jumping off of anything into the water.  He also stands there terrified until a teacher gets up to toss him in.

 Unlike Mylie, Braden does NOT want to do it again.

 Swim safety day. Mylie, her teacher, and the other cutie in her class, Maddie.

Thought this was cute.  This is Savanah's (my niece) class.  They made a floating train in the water.

 Last day of class "Fun Friday".  Mylie "jumping" off the diving board again.

Braden got to go down the slide and actually liked it.  The kids are doing one last session of swim lessons starting next week, so hopefully he'll get the opportunity to slide again.