Our little fish

Hope has completed her first session of swimming lessons. She's graduated from a Tadpole to a Goldfish. Her first lesson was interesting. She spent most of the time pouting with her arms crossed and didn't want to participate. She warmed up for the second lesson and by the third she was a pro. Her instructor said she's "her little fish." I love how she would turn around and give us the two thumbs up when she did well. Papa and GG came to watch at her last class. She was excited to show them what she had learned.

Swim baby swim!!! We love you and are so very proud of you!!

First day of preschool

Hope's first day of preschool was last week. She absolutely loves going to school. She's goes two half days per week. When asked, she will tell you all about it. I love the expression on her face when I pick her up and our talks in the car on the way home. She tells me everything from what she did that day to the snack she had. Snack time seems to be a big hit. As I was getting her ready Thursday I told her to go potty before we left and she said, "Why mommy?" and I explained that I didn't want her to have an accident at school. She says, "but mommy they have potties at my school, baby ones." What can I say, this child cracks me up!

3 year old photos

I'm slacking on Hope's blog. I have so many things to add but haven't had time. Here are some of my favorite photos we just had taken. Where does the time go? I can't believe she's 3 already!

Meet Winston

This is our new family member, Winston. He's a Malkie (or Morkie), half Yorkie, half Maltese. He weighs all of 2.6 lbs at 9 weeks old. This is Hope's first dog. Yes, we still have Peyton and he's adjusting well to the new addition. That is until Winston steals his bone then we hear a little growling but no fighting.
Getting Winston was an adventure. Hope and I went to Lebanon to see her grandparents and we planned to stay one night. The next morning we decided to head to the lake and check out the outlet mall. I hadn't been to the outlet mall in years and I wanted to get Hope some fall/winter clothes. So we headed down to the lake and Brinnon's dad decided to spend the day with "his girls" and go with us. We were glad to have him with us and he drove. He wanted to drive my new car and I think he really enjoyed it. He kept saying "if this car had wings it would fly"..lol. We hit the Carter outlet, Osh Kosh, Gymboree, The Gap and Bath & Body. One the way home we starting talking about getting a puppy. My mother in law had the paper in the car and started looking at the classifieds. Phone calls were made and before we knew it we were on the road to go see a puppy. It ended up taking an hour and a half to get there. We were on old rocky highway roads in a downpour. We laughed alot. When we finally found the house with the puppies it was raining so hard we waited in the car for a few minutes. We decided to just go for it and got drenched. The minute I saw this puppy I knew it was the one. After visiting with the family and getting all the paperwork done we headed home. I sent Brinnon a text telling him he was a daddy to a new puppy. I think his response was something like "good lord"...lol. Hope was excited. She called her dad later that night and said, "Daddy I got a baby doggie". We stayed the night in Lebanon and headed home in the morning. Both Hope and the dog slept the whole way home. She's so proud of her new dog. She thinks she needs to carry him everywhere. She's very gentle with him now. It took a few time outs for her to realize just how fragile he is. She was calling him Baby Doggie but today she informed me that I had to call him Winston "because that is HIM name mommy"...lol

Big Girl Bed

Last week we got a big girl bed for Hope. I've put it off so long since she was such a rough sleeper as a baby. She was perfectly content in her crib and hadn't tried to climb out of it so we just stuck with it. Recently she started wanting to sleep with us every night so we made a big deal about getting her a bed like ours. I was worried how the transition would go but so far it's been going quite well. I went with a full size and it's perfect. Brinnon and I have been taking turns staying with her until she falls asleep at night. It takes about an hour. It takes 30 minutes for her to make sure every stuffed animal she owes is in the bed and another 30 to settle down to sleep. She comes to our bed around 2:00. She is so proud of it and has to show it to everyone that comes over.
This is the bedding that I picked out from JcPenny's. I got it on clearance and saved about $400!!!

Some funny things Hope has said recently.

As I changed her diaper I said "oh god" because it was a messy one. Her response was, "mommy does God poop too? Is it stinky?" NICE! I have to get this child potty trained!!!

I overheard her playing on her phone and she said "Darn it." When I asked her what she said she replied "ohhhh maaannn." Just like she knew she was busted.

For lunch one day she wanted pizza, when I told her we didn't have any she made a face. Well I found Bagel Bites in the freezer so I heated those up. When I handed her the plate she says, "Mommy thems looks like pizza."

I need to blog about our vacation to St. Petersburg but haven't had a chance. Here is one picture of Hope with a huge ice cream cone. I can't believe she ate the whole thing!

2 funny things today...

Hope was sitting on the kitchen counter washing her hands aka playing in the water and wasting a bunch of soap. She picks up a banana and tells me she wants it. I tell her that's fine as I turn around to look at her I notice she's already taken a bite out of it but it hasn't been peeled. I asked her if she took a bite out of it and she says "yes mommy". I made a face and asked her if it tasted yucky. She looks me in the eye and says "it's really ok mommy."

The thought of biting into the peel of a banana makes my skin crawl. Aughhhh.



Before her nap today I pulled out all our old scrapbooks from before Hope was born and showed them to her. We went page by page and I told her what each one was about. When Brinnon got home from work he wanted to look at them. As he was paging through Hope had to see it again. He says to her "all this happened before you were born" and she says "yep, THE END"....