Leah & Karlee with G&G D

The girls got a fun week with G & G D. while mommy and daddy were in Vegas. Looks like they had a great time.

Mom & Dad in Vegas

Mom and Dad got a week away in Vegas and had a wonderful time. Our trips are not ones that everyone would typically love but we have a great time relaxing, shopping, going to shows and most importantly eating (eating lots of crab!).

Leah - 3.5 Years Old

I love, love, love Leah's age right now. She's independent, stubborn yet cute and still loves her mom and dad. She would pay with us all day and  night (if we would play with her that long). She get's annoyed at us - tells us we aren't her best friend anymore but she forgives us quickly.

I'm so excited for you, Leah, our 3.5 year old. You are growing up fast but we are loving every minute with you!

Here's the life of our 3 year old - half way throughout the year:

• You wish you were a mermaid and frequently tell us that with that she also likes us to call her Ariel
• With that your favorite mermaid/princess is Ariel. You LOVE everything Little Mermaid
• You call your daddy your "Prince Charming" :-) and like to marry him. You also like to pretend you are Sleeping Beauty and daddy is your prince and you pretend to sleep and tell him he has to kiss you to wake you up.
• When you pretend to be a mermaid, you talk about the octopuses as bad guys that chase you and want mom or dad to be those octopuses and chase you
• You are also obsessed with monsters. You talk frequently about monsters chasing you.
• You overall just liked to be chased by someone especially at the park
• Quotes from Leah:
• "What do I say?" "Mom, if I want.. what do I say?"
• As soon as sitting in the car.. "TV please"
• "Cowabunga Carrot" - learned that at school
• "That's not nice"
• "You're my best friend"
• "You're not my best friend anymore"
• "I have to spit up" -- means that you have to puke
• "I don't want you to say that to me"
• "Okay?, Okay?"
• "I'm not going to break my leg" - worried about this since we told her about Grandma breaking her leg falling off a chair
• "Don't be mean to Leah"
• "What day is it?"
• At night we sing you a song that we made up together with the same tune as "Hush Little Baby, Mommy's Going to Buy You", then list all the princesses
• Aurora if falls asleep
• Snow White if doesn't have dwarfs
• Jasmine if doesn't have genie
• Merida if doesn't have red hair
• Cinderella if doesn't have glass slipper
• Belle if doesn't have beast
• Elsa if turns everything to ice
• Anna if doesn't have a Sven
• Rapunzel doesn't have long hair
• Ariel and you'll love Ariel because she's your favorite princess
• You like to have your back rubbed at bedtime and if mommy lays with you, you will rub her back too. You'll do most anything to avoid bedtime - it's your favorite time to talk and tell mommy about your day
• You did gymnastics in the winter - you really liked it. Next time you get to be in gymnastics without mommy helping. Mom can't wait.
• Still loves to watch you tube videos on her "game" (iPad). She calls the princess songs but they are you tube videos of kids playing with toys
• You really like school. You are learning a lot - letters, letter sounds and spelling are your new things - you love the letter L and will point them out everywhere - "Leah starts with L"
• You also know all your friends at school name and you will come home and talk about them
• You like to play teacher and you always have to be Nikki - your teacher's name at school
• You went to your first movie in the movie theater with mommy - Cinderella
• You like to dress up like a princess and then have someone announce you as you come down the stairs "Announcing... princess.. Ariel...."
• We have started to eat dinner as a family, every night at the table. You always say the prayer for us "God is great and God is good, God is good, God is good. Let us thank him for this food. Alleluia." During dinner we each have tell 1 thing about our day. Most of the time you tell what you ate at lunch. Your job at supper time is to set the table and to wipe off the table after supper.
• You always want a cup with a cover - even though you don't need one.
• You love to do yours and your moms hair and make-up
• You also love putting on hand sanitizer
• You love wearing dresses so we are lucky it is summer because most of the time you have to wear a dress. You can take your clothes off and put on new ones all by yourself.
• You love the lake place. It's been a great summer with you there and you take advantage of it more than anyone because you are always in the water
• You love your lake friends - Hailey and Evie - one of your favorite parts of the lake is hanging out with your friends. We are so lucky to have them as neighbors
• You swim like a fish. You are a GREAT swimmer already and we haven't done swimming lessons yet. You just love it so you will get in there and swim underwater, love dunking and getting your head wet, love swimming backwards, are obsessed with jumping off the pontoon or the dock, love going down big slides at pools. You just LOVE to swim.
• You get very proud of how high you can jump
• You love to dance
• You love to hide from people, even if that means just putting your hands in front of your face
• You say you want to be a doctor when you grow up
• You like to play catch but you are still not very good at it
• You are very sweet and sensitive. You HATE getting in trouble.. when you do, you bust out into tears and get very upset. You want to make people happy.
• We still have a lying problem, mostly when you do something wrong, you will blame someone else.
• Friday is your favorite day. You love it because you can take your toys to school and it usually means you get to go to the lake after school.
• You love fishing with your daddy and have no caught many fish at the lake.
• You hate bugs! But mosquitos LOVE you - you always have tons of bites!
• You are very dramatic. You love to fake cry and have people watch you do things. One example of this drama was when you dropped your fishing pool in the lake - we got it out right away. But you cried about it for about an hour and then still talked about it upset for about 2 days afterward. We just don't bring it up now.
• A few nights when we were out at the lake you had some night terrors. You were inconsolable - crying and acted like you weren't even knowing we were there. Ends up we have to turn on all the lights and almost 'shake' you out of it.
• You love to tell stories and will imagine stories about your dolls.
• You put your coat on funny by putting it on the floor first and flinging it over your head - you learned that at school.
• You love to try on shoes when we are shopping
• Once you fall asleep you are a very sound sleeper, you can even sleep through all of Karlee's screaming
• You use the same purple blanket and pillow every day - the purple one that Grandma D made you
• You know most of your opposites
• You love to read books
• Has lots of owies -- mostly because you love band aids
• You can snap your own car seat
• You 'played' soccer. Well, we went. You hated it and since it was parent/child, that made it worse and you just hung on mom. Most of the time you would rather pick flowers than hit the soccer ball. You only got 1 goal the whole season and that was the first game.
• You like to tell us what your favorite is of everything: songs, books, shows
• You randomly tell mommy that I am your favorite
• You like to watch birdies and you think they are so cute
• You like to share your bootie
• You love to mix things together and make potions - pouring one cup into another
• You are a great eater
• When you get a treat you want to eat and you know it's not healthy you tell us to close our eyes before you show it to us.
• Hate to eat 'spicy' food. If we don't want her to eat something, we just tell her it is spicy.
• Favorite Foods: Chocolate - you love any kind!, oatmeal, chips and cheese, hard boiled eggs (but you will only eat the white part), chocolate chip muffins, mac and cheese, McDonalds chicken nuggets, sandwiches, went through a hatred of French fries - but now you love them again
• Favorite Movies: Monsters Inc, Monster University, All Barbie Princess movies, all regular princess movies, Home
• Favorite Toys: Shopkins (esp. trading them with Paige), any of your princesses, mystery bags
• You only liked Dora and Friends now - not baby Dora - you say that that one is for Karlee now
• Like to watch Scooby Doo
• When you are scared at a part in a movie, you will turn the sound off so you don't have to listen to that part
• You have started playing really nice with Karlee - it's so fun to watch you play together.
• You are wearing size 4T clothes (just packed up all your 3T) and shoes size 9
• You love to boss Karlee around
• You are the most creative person I know
• We love you more than you will every know. You are our perfect 3 year old!!