Butterfly Festival!

Yesterday, Annabel went to visit butterflies in Plano. Of course, our camera battery was dead so these are pictures taken from our phones. Better than nothing!

At first, our cutie pie was a little cautious about getting up close and personal with the butterflies. She thought they were a tad unpredictable!

The butterflies were mostly monarchs. There were hundreds of them! So beautiful.

After a few minutes, she decides they aren't too scary after all and tries to get to know them a little better.

We had to be careful to keep an eye out for stowaways!

They seem to really like Chris. Not that I can blame them!

This one tickled my head.

This picture is actually blurry because my daughter wouldn't sit still, not because the butterfly was in motion.

They gave us little cotton swabs dipped in red Gatorade to attract the butterflies. So no, those aren't matches!

It was really fun watching them "eat" from those cotton swabs!

Annabel was really enjoying the whole experience.

Time to go! Annabel gives the butterflies kisses.

Cheers,

Cookie dough... Or not

(This is one of those blog posts I've had sitting on my phone for awhile. Finally getting it on the blog! Whew!)

Annabel's latest favorite toy is Play-doh, which she refers to as "cookie dough."

You guys are well aware of my position on candy during the holidays by now, I'm sure! So for Halloween last year, I found these big bags of mini Play-doh cans to give away.


I had a bunch left over because we didn't have very many trick or treaters (I can't imagine why!) So it came in handy when it came time to fill Easter eggs for Annabel's pre-school class. Don't worry, there were colors like pink, green and yellow that I used for the Easter eggs. Imagine getting black Play-doh in your Easter egg!

So of course, Annabel got some Play-doh in her school Easter basket and demanded we open it as soon as we got home. (have I mentioned how bossy she is getting? Hmmm... I wonder where she gets that from...) I played with her, but the real fun started when Daddy came home.


See all those round circles of Play-doh? Chris introduced the idea of using the Easter egg half as a cookie cutter... Hence the labeling of her Play-doh as cookie doh.


See how much fun this is, Mommy?

Wonder what the next hot item will be in Annabel's world?

Cheers,
Cathy

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

There's nothing like handmade

My friend, Emily, who has become a sewer/knitter extraordinaire, made a poncho for Annabel. We were inspired by one that we saw online on Etsy, and it must be said that the one Emily made is so much cuter!

I know the poncho doesn't match her outfit here. We were heading out the door to go the lake in our neighborhood and grabbed it at the last minute when we realized it was getting chilly. But still, the glaringly non-matching pants don't take anything away from the adorableness of the poncho. Or the girl in it!

Here's the view from behind. Another nice thing about it is that it's roomy enough that Annabel will be able to wear it next year too.

With her daddy. She's saying "cheese!"

And with the hood off. Annabel loves her new poncho! Thanks, Em!!

Cheers,
Cathy

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Let's go fly a kite

Yesterday we got a fun little kite as a party favor from a birthday party we went to. So since we are getting gale force winds in these parts, we took the kite out. Annabel loved the "pretty kite!"


The kite is that tiny yellow dot above the house. It got pretty high!


Chris attempts some tricks with the kite. Shortly after I took this one, it nose-dived into the backyard.

I took a turn with the kite too, and it was pretty fun! Chris took a couple pics on his phone, but I wasn't pleased with how I look in them. So as the author of this blog, I reserve the right to withhold less-than-flattering pictures of myself. Ha!

After a bit, the wind got the better of us, and the kite took a header into one of our trees. We were too busy trying to extract the kite to remember to take pictures, so here's one of the aftermath:


That's the poor kite's tail still in the tree. I guess we'll try to get it out... someday...

Cheers,
Cathy

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Daddy and Daughter

I originally titled this post "Daddies and Daughters," but I really only talk about one daddy and one daughter here, so I removed the plural. Not sure it has the same impact, but oh well :-)


I love my husband. He is the best husband and the best father I could ever ask for. He works very hard at his job, providing for his family as the sole breadwinner. We used to be a dual-income household, but after getting laid off and not being able to find an equivalent job, I decided to stay at home with Annabel. And Chris fully supports my decision to do so. He does household chores and pitches in with mine when he sees that I'm a little overwhelmed. He goes above and beyond in caring for Annabel, and - even better - clearly loves every moment of it. Even changing stinky diapers! He absolutely loves Annabel and me, and tells us and shows us a thousand times, a thousand different ways every day.

I'm not trying to brag, or paint him as this perfect guy. He's about as perfect as I am, which is to say, sooooooooooo not. I'm just trying to say that I appreciate him.

While I like having family portraits done with all three of us (and when we can, including the red-headed, four-legged kids), I really enjoy taking pictures of Chris and Annabel together. They are my two favorite people in the world, after all.


Cheers,

Duck, duck... goose!

Before we get into the actual duck, duck... goose post, I wanted to tell you (if you didn't know already) that Annabel has RSV. RSV is a respiratory virus. Annabel's pediatrician said that while it's prevalent in kids, it can show up in adults as bronchitis or bad cough. He also said that it's the pre-cursor to Croup, which is a respiratory disease (something about "laryngeal" something or other...) It's shows up as a cough that sounds like a seal bark and can be painful.

So far, Annabel is handling it fairly well. There's the usual fussiness and extreme grouchiness that comes with not feeling well, and of course she tires easily. But for the most part, she's doing ok. She's a trouper! Here's a quick shot of her from this morning saying "cheese" for the camera. Notice all the lovely slime on her face from snot, saliva and who knows what else!


Today, her fever seems to have leveled out at about 99, which is great. So it looks like she's hopefully on the mend very soon. Thanks for the well wishes and great advice that we've already gotten from my friends who've been through it. We'll keep you posted!

OK, now for duck, duck... goose! This past Saturday, the weather was really beautiful. So after Annabel's nap, we loaded her into her wagon with some of the heels from our bread loaves and took a walk to our neighborhood lake. It's always heavily populated with ducks and geese. We thought she'd get a kick out of seeing them in real life as opposed to just in a book.

I'm still getting caught up on pending projects, so these photos are pretty much SOOC (straight out of the camera).

Walkin' through the 'hood on our way to the lake. Riding in her good ole Radio Flyer is one of Annabel's favorite things! And of course, this RF isn't just any wagon... we had to get the "all-terrain" version. You DO know my husband, right?

The ducks come swimming when they see the munchkin tossing out bread. She kept quacking at them like she was having a whole conversation with them, "Come and get it! And don't worry, my mommy only buys whole grain, so it's good for you."

She wanted to get a little closer, so Daddy had to hold on tight! I love how she squats a little and sticks her butt out to throw the bread.

Another angle on her throw. She gets some pretty good height in her tosses, but no so much on the distance. Can you see the little piece of bread she's throwing?

There it is!

Then Daddy took the camera so Mommy could have a turn with Annabel. Of course, the ducks have thinned out a bit. Probably because they've figured out we're just about out of bread by this point. So while Daddy has the camera, he decides to take a few shots of his favorite ducks...

Duck...

Duck...

GOOSE! These guys didn't venture near us for bread, but they definitely kept a sharp eye on their territory. They would get rather honky if they thought we got too close. They kinda freaked me out, to be honest. And I'm not sure you can tell here, but they were HUGE.

We attempted a family self-portrait, but as you can see, our one attempt didn't work very well.

And we'll close with the cutie patootie giving her best, cutey-est, patootie-est face for Mommy's camera. We'll definitely be heading back to the lake with our little munchkin on nice weather days!

Cheers,

She's got the blues

My Photoshop went belly up on me, so I had to reinstall it. Of course, that means I have to reinstall all of my pre-sets and actions too. So I've been a little behind on blogging because there are these great photos that I want to post, but I can't because Photoshop crashed! As I type, I am loading my pre-sets and actions (I'm blogging while it processes) so that I'll be off and running tomorrow and can get caught up.

In the meantime, here's a short video of Annabel gettin' down on her harmonica with her daddy. It's only about 45 seconds long, but unless you're one of her grandparents, you'll probably be done after about the first 15. LOL! That's ok, I forgive you for not sticking it out. There are just some things only a mother (or grandparent) can love.



Cheers,

It's all about the lighting

Chris had a project last night. We thought we'd add a little light to Annabel's kitchen set. The place in our house where it sits now isn't super bright without turning on all the kitchen, breakfast and hallway lights. That means $$$ on our electricity bill! So we got some under-cabinet lighting at Ikea and installed it in her kitchen.



Voilà! Didn't her daddy do a great job?

On a separate note, I had a chance to stop by the hospital to say hi one of Annabel's new friends the other day.



Welcome, little Kate!! Isn't she a cutie patootie?

Cheers,
Cathy

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Who's in the kitchen?

Annabel is! Thanks to her Ba Ngoai and her daddy. Ba Ngoai got Annabel an adorable kitchen for Christmas, and Daddy put it together for her. The whole story is a bit of a fiasco, with a rare mess-up from Amazon. But that's over and done with, and the new kitchen arrived earlier this week. Daddy put it together last night:


He's quite a handy dude, that husband of mine. The reviews I read of this particular kitchen set said that it was a bit on the challenging side to put together. Not for my man! All said and done, it took him maybe about 30-45 minutes. Can you tell I'm proud? Nah...

So here's the finished kitchen.


Super cute, no? The only thing missing is a refrigerator, but we can always get that later. The original kitchen that we ordered that Amazon did NOT send us was pink and included a little stovetop/oven/sink and a separate fridge. I was just a tad worried about the pink-ness of it, so when it came time to order a different one (did I mention that Amazon did NOT send us the one we ordered?), I looked for one in natural tones.

When Annabel found it this morning, she immediately set to putting things in the little microwave, cabinets, pushing buttons and loving it. I have video of that, but my phone is acting a bit wonky right now, so I'll have to post that later.

To other news, I'm going on a little girls' trip -- a cruise to Cozumel and Yucatan! I'm leaving tomorrow! I'm nervous as hell about leaving Annabel for this long for the first time. Not because I don't think she's in good hands (she's got an awesome Daddy, and lots of loving helpers). But because I don't know how I'M going to get through the next week with her. I can count on one hand the number of times in our marriage that Chris and I have been apart for a week or more. So that's hard enough, much less missing my Binkie too??!! Oh well, at least I know I'll be with my girls, and they'll help me through it :-) Any advice from you other Moms out there?

In related news, I guess this means I'll be missing some days posting on the blog while I'm on this big boat in the Gulf of Mexico. I'll blog when I can, I promise! But apparently they charge you for every little thing you do on a cruise, so I'll have to be careful with my onboard expense account. Wish me luck!

Ciao for now,

Testing, testing... Blogging from my phone!

So supposedly, Blogger has this function where you can send an SMS, MMS or email from your phone and it'll post to your blog. And it's a free function, as opposed to buying a blogwriter app from the app store. Of course the app is only $2.99, but these days, I'll pinch every penny I can get! So here's my photo post for today.



With Chris being on stay-cation all this week, Annabel has been loving every minute with her daddy. One of their favorite things to do is play the flight simulator game on the computer. It's a flight simulator for remote-controlled airplanes, not the real thing, hence the giant remote thing they are both holding. I snapped this on my iPhone while they were totally engrossed in their flight. I think with Daddy being at home, Annabel's love for all things remote- related has amplified. Lord help me. :-) Ok I'm going to hit send now and see how this thing works. Fingers crossed! Cheers, Cathy

ETA (that's "Edited to Add" to all you non-message boardy types): So it looks like the picture uploading from my phone didn't work, since all you see up there is a big, blank, empty space between the paragraphs. From what I can tell, my iPhone embeds the photo into the email, and the mobile blogging function only works if the photo is a separate attachment. Ugh! So I guess I'm going to have to shell out the $2.99 for the app after all. It better be worth it. Grrr....

Since I'm on my computer now, I can manually upload and post the photo I'm sure you've been eagerly awaiting. And here she is!