Dress Up Part 2

The snow has stayed in the mountains so far, but Leinna's ready with her new boots. She was so excited to put them on and stomped all over the house.

She also found it quite entertaining this weekend to put her socks on her hands and try to pick up her toys. I thought for sure she was going to get frustrated, but nope- she just kept trying and would laugh at herself when she couldn't do it.

While I was brushing my teeth, I told Leinna to go get her shoes so we could go to church. When I came out of the bathroom she was stomping around in my walking shoe. Too funny...

She also has a new game of putting my hat on and walking around the house. I don't know how she can see where she's going...

but she comes running (no joke) around the corner of the kitchen into the living-room and pulls the hat off with a look of - ha,ha... I scared you!

Such a silly girl ...

15 months & 15 weeks

October 6th marked 15 months of life for Leinna!

I thought the "independent stage" wasn't suppose to start until age 2, but we definitely have 'little miss thang' ruling the house right now. I love the picture above - looks like she's got so much attitude! We are definitely experiencing some 'terrible two' symptoms. I love it when Leif looks at me and says, "What's wrong with her?" HA, HA, HA!!! Poor Leif has very little experience with young children. I usually reply with, she's testing us to see if she can get her way everytime - so when she throws herself on the floor and screams because she didn't get her way - walk away and don't give her any attention. Leif tells me he's glad I know what I'm doing. HA, HA - again -- if only I did know what I'm doing.


More times than not though we have our happy, smiley girl!

Her 15 month check-up went well. She's almost 25 pounds and 31 inches tall.
Yah, she's no small child that's for sure.


We also celebrated 15 weeks for "Nugget" on October 6th.

I'm already slacking on my photos for "Nugget" compared to my pregnancy with Leinna. I suppose it's due the fact that I'm so tired by the time Leinna goes to sleep - the last thing I want to do is take a picture. Fortunately, I snapped this one before going to work - a rare morning that we had some extra time :O)

Old Man Winter - Just around the corner

Finally - the weather is changing in our part of the world. We had some heavy frost on our deck this morning. While it was a sunny, beautiful day in Cordova, the sun did not hit our deck and we had the same level of frost when we got home. We know it's getting closer to winter when the direct sunlight doesn't hit the house anymore. :o( Although, I'm looking forward to Leinna playing in the snow. She loves being outside and I think she'll have fun playing in it.

Exploring With Dress-Up Clothes

Where do I even begin to tell this story... Papa was off to a training for work and Momma was taking a shower. As long as Momma leaves the door open, I'm happy to entertain myself until she's done. Today, I decided I would try her clothes on.

Momma laughed so hard when she saw that I put her shirt on by myself. I was a little upset that I couldn't get the shirt back off, but when I found the arm holes, I thought it was pretty fun to play dress-up!

I also like to pull open the shower curtain while Momma is in the shower. She's finally got smart and holds it closed with her toes until I find something else to amuse me. Anyways- it was fun wearing Momma's shirt this morning.

Momma also wanted me to share that "Nugget" is doing well. She's feeling good and getting a bigger tummy. When Momma asks me, "Where's Momma's Baby" - I'm so smart and point to her tummy. We head to Anchorage on Friday for a check-up for me and my "Nugget" (aka - Baby #2). Happy October 1st and have a wonderful week!

Just the Girls

This past week it was just Leinna and I. Leif was off to Anchorage for a one day conference and then went north for some moose hunting with his dad. No luck moose hunting, but Leinna and I had fun just the two of us plus the dogs :o)

The weather has been pretty rainy and yucky but we did have some sunshine on Sunday. Before Leif flew home, we got the dogs out for a walk. As you can see, Leinna is just as excited to get out of the house as the dogs were. I wish I could take credit for the owl hat, but I must give credit to our wonderful friend Heidi who bought it as a gift for Leinna.

When Papa would call for the night - Leinna would get so excited to hear his voice!

I think Leinna is trying to give me a hint that we need to get her her own little chair to sit on. I don't think Koda much appreciated being used as a resting spot.

With "Nugget" (aka Baby #2) on the way, we find it rather entertaining that she likes to put her diapers in the trash. When she's completed the task, we always tell her thank you or good girl. Now she beats us to it and says "goo-grl" or "ank-u" - so stinking cute!

September 11th, big girl bed and more...

Today marks the 10th anniversary of September 11th. I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing on that tragic day. I will be forever grateful to the men and women who serve our country.

Another event to remember on 9/11 is that Leif purposed to me back in 2004. We had just started our master's program and had to travel to Silverton, Colorado to meet our class cohort for the first time. Leif had a football game to coach Saturday morning back in Steamboat which was about a 2 hour drive away. So, I went to class and thought nothing of it. Late in the afternoon Leif called to say the game was over and he was just leaving Steamboat. Okay -so I figured I'd see him in about 2 hours. To my surprise he showed up about 10 minutes later! Okay- at this point I knew something was up but I wasn't sure what exactly. We went out to dinner at a local pub and Leif kept rushing me to finish. At this point, I knew. After dinner we went for a walk along the docks. Leif distracted me by looking at some bird and when I looked back at him he had the ring across his heart and asked me to marry him! The rest is history....

Time for big girl bed :o) Leinna was all to excited to help put things together. We were thankful to get the bed from a friend in town who no longer needed it for her little girl.

The bed looks so tiny where the crib once was, but Leinna does well sleeping in her big girl bed. I did wrap the headboard with the "bumper" pads from the crib for a little bit of comfort. She only took a face plant once - the afternoon we were setting it up and getting organized. She busted her lip open a little but is a quick learner and now goes feet first to get out of her bed.

So, you may be wondering why are we putting Leinna into a big girl bed when she's only 14 months old? Well....


That's not a picture of me gaining weight - it's a picture of baby bump #2!!

Leinna's nickname was 'Peanut' and Baby #2 is going to be nicknamed 'Nugget'. We are happy to say that 'Nugget' has a due date of end of March/early April. First appointment went well and we learned there was only 1 baby - we thought maybe there were 2 as I have started to show much earlier than I did with Leinna and with this pregnancy - I can eat non-stop and never feel full!

So "Nugget" will remain "Nugget" until he/she is born. Like with Leinna we plan not to find out the sex of the baby nor share the names we are considering.

Until the next update- we hope everyone is doing well.

Legos With Papa

Okay, okay - so this isn't a picture of Leinna playing Legos with Papa- but I promise I posted those too. I just couldn't resist putting this picture up. I did give Leinna another haircut. I just trimmed up around her eyes so she could see again. I feel bad having to put her hair up every day just so she can see. So now- when she pulls her pony-tails out (little stinker use to leave them alone - not any more!) she can actually see where she is going.

Same day- just after having BBQ's for dinner. Leif just rolls his eyes at me when I let Leinna feed her self. I say, let her have at it - when else in your life is it cute to be this messy after eating?!?

Okay... Legos with Papa

When I try to play Legos with Leinna, it's a race to see if I can get more than 3 pieces connected before she tries to take them apart. Thus my surprise when I finished doing the dinner dishes to see Leinna helping Papa build a tower on wheels!

After she'd give Papa the next piece, Papa said, "Thank You" and I swear Leinna said, "welcome"

Finishing touches :O)

Not much else to report. We enjoyed the nice 3 day weekend by hanging out in our PJ's and watching some college football. We also enjoyed the down time to get over our colds. Seems like everyone is on the mend! Leinna has all 4 molars coming in now - it's so strange to see those big teeth in her mouth when she smiles really big. Just one step closer to being a big girl!

Laundry Basket Peek-A-Boo

While Papa has been back at work for almost a month now, it was Momma's first week back in the classroom. She was pretty tired each night but still found time to keep up on some house work. One of my favorite things to do is to help fold the laundry. I'm so big now that I can climb into the basket without any help!

Momma had just finished washing some bedding and I thought it would be funny to play Peek-A-Boo with the pillow cover.

"Where's Leinna?" Momma would say.

Ha,ha...Peek-A-Boo!

Momma just laughed and laughed. I think she needed me to be funny to relieve some of her back to school stress.

The only other news to share is a have 2 molars coming in now! Oh, and I use to have to crawl over to something to pull myself up to start walking. Well, this week I figured out how to stand up anytime and anyplace!!

Be sure to make someone laugh this week- smiles are contagious!