Easter

New Easter Dress from Grandma, Jonathan's Mom.

Waiting for church.

So pretty

Easter presents from Me-Maw and Da

Easter basket and eggs

She loves her new Little People camping set. It even had a bunny!

And so it begins....

And so it begins.... I have begun " rewarding her good behavior with positive reinforcement by using a visual aid to spark interest and show a tangible reward" you know, fancy talk for bribing my kid to do what I want so we can all live peacefully... some what normal... you know... so I don't go "mad mom" on her cute little tush.

And seeing how my house had become a non stop wonderland of this:

And yes, that is her telling me "No" for the 100th million time that day when I asked her to pick up a few toys.

So we needed to start reigning in that "terrible two I'm the boss" attitude before she ended up shipped back to Texas.

One of the biggest things was her total disrespect for prayers. She did great at folding her arms for a long time. But then she turned 2 and apparently you don't pray when you are 2. Oh think again sweet child of mine- you need all the prayers you can get! It had gotten bad..... my brother commented on it, my mom noticed, and her BFF yelled at her to fold her arms and she still didn't. Oh yeah.... time for a beat down... I mean a teaching opportunity.

Enter: THE CHART.

That's right, I typed up a Big Girl Chart. It consisted of 6 things- 3 she was good at and 3 things she needed to work on. One trip to the dollar store for 100 girly fun stickers later and we were in business. I wasn't sure it would work, but I under estimated the power of sparkly stickers. It was a hit!

She was so proud of herself. She got to pick the sticker and put it on the chart herself. What a big girl. There is a happy dance involved after each sticker placement. That's right... BY ME. The things I do to get my way....

She even started getting stickers in the ones that she needed to work on.

And best of all: The girl is back to folding her arms and saying prayers- now without any help from mom.

Her prayers go like this:

"Dear( mumbles something here- cause she is trying to say heavenly)Father, Bless daddy. Bless Mom. Bless me. Hooray. Go Party Amen"

I can't make this crap up. Everything is a party to her. :) And the back talk and yelling no are better- which is great because nothing makes me go crazy screaming I'm going to have a nervous break down mom like her talking back to me.... yeah yeah.... I know: it's not like I never back talked my mom.... but it's a button. and pay back I'm sure... whatever mom.

Zoo Trip and Best Friends

She was excited to see the "B-low" (buffalo)

She's quite the climber. If she can climb it- she does.

Ally: Come on Lucy lets shut the door and hide.

Lucy: *Smiling* Okay they'll never find us and you won't have to leave!

Lucy: Those are Mere Cats.

Ally: You're so smart Lu.

Mom... more juice.... about all I'm good for these days... fetching her drink.

Ally said "wow" a lot as she saw each animal.

Lucy taught Ally how to accessorize as well. Ally now thinks she can not leave her room until she has some sort of accessory on. Then and only then is she "done dress mom" (done getting dressed)

While we were down in Texas we of course made time to visit with our very best friends Christie and Lucy! Lucy and Ally were so excited to see each other. There was the typical shouts of mine and no and we had to make them have alone time a few times, but they loved being together and so did their moms! Lucy and Ally hugged so hard one time that they tumbled over. Ally laughed and said " Funny Lu!" Of course it was my giant kid crushing her, so Lucy didn't find it that funny until Ally was lifted off her! Lucy was kind enough to take Ally to the zoo, which was Ally very first time. We had so much fun visiting and I hope that the Lott Family will soon join us in Arizona so we can have many more play dates.

Gracie's Baptism

My oldest brother Stormy's family.

While we were down in Texas, we got to attend my oldest niece's baptism. Gracie is such a special girl and I think a lot like myself. She is a great sister and a great big cousin to Ally. She takes care of everyone, loves everyone, is friends with everybody and just a joy to have around. See.... JUST like me. :)

I was so glad that I got to be at the baptism. All I could think about was that I remember the day I held her in the hospital the day she was born and the day I brought Jonathan to meet the family and she promptly told me he was HER boyfriend. She grew up so fast! **Sigh**

You did good big brother! So proud of both of you!

And because there aren't a lot of pictures of me out there. Here we are.

Spring Break-out

She had a lot of fun Me-maw time. She loves to swing. This is out at Stormy and Kim's house in Texas.

She thought she was as big as everyone else-even on the trampoline. Love the mid air shot.

We also got to visit with my aunt Carol and her kids. We went to a park near my mom's house. Ally really liked my cousins Ashley and Anna. She insisted that they play with her- and they were so fabulous to let me rest while they did! Love them!

Ally and Audrina reading with my mom, their Me-Maw. They are just over a year apart.

Ally and her cousins. We were only missing Sienna, too bad we weren't able to fly her in too!

The Story....

The plan was for Ally and I do road trip to Texas and spend spring break with my family. It sounded good at the time, but really- one of the dumbest ideas ever.... the driving alone part. I'm not proud of this- but I totally panicked and ended up all sick and had to beg Jonathan to fly in and drive us back. I know! I don't know what happened but evidently I need the boy for things like driving on long road trips. The ride back I was only a little sick and totally worth it even if it meant Jonathan practically traveled the equivalent of cross country to do it. He's a good guy. He got a steak out of it though- so I'm sure it was worth it to him too. :)

Anyway, we lucked out and Audrina, my brother's Sheldon's daughter, was in town as well so we got to see all but one of her cousins on my side. She had a blast and we loved seeing everyone.

Fairy Tales and Renaissance Road Trips

We went to the Annual Renaissance Festival just outside of Phoenix this weekend. We drove for 3 hours or so to the Festival. Ally did really well with the drive and I only got a little sick- (seems to be a new thing I've developed out here- car sickness) The picture above is the Renaissance Fairy- if you find her you're supposed to take a picture of her for good luck.

We walked around and looked at all the shops and crafts. I think that Ally got nervous with all the costumed people, she hung out on her dad's shoulders the whole time and didn't want to be in pictures. Not like her at all!

We saw lots of street performers.

We hung out at the Royal Pavilion...

and met the King and Queen....

and caught a few shows.

Ally didn't want to sit still for most of the shows, so we didn't get to see one all the way through. We ate tasty food and after about two hours Jonathan was ready to leave as the people were getting a little too weird looking for his taste. However, we had a good time with our family road trip and festival goings.

This weekend Ally and I get to embark on our first solo road trip, as we are heading back to Texas for a visit. Hopefully all goes well and my new found talent for getting car sick will prove to be a passing phase.

One-Eyed Willie

Jonathan vs. Metal sliver

Well he lost. He got a metal sliver in his right eye that had us trying to track down an eye doctor Saturday morning. There is one doctor in Eagar, but they weren't open on Saturdays and when we called in the emergency the doctor couldn't help us any way because he was in Utah. But he did recommend two doctors in Show Low, which is an hour away. Only one was open on Saturdays ( how do you get away with not being open on Saturday is beyond me) so we loaded up and traveled to Show Low. The Sliver was deep- in the third layer of the eye and we only have five layers I believe, and it had rusted to his eye because it had been in there for more than 4 hours. Who knew? Anyway, so the doctor numbs his eye and goes to work. They remove the sliver, the rust and the damage tissue. He's got to wear an eye patch for 2 days and hopefully it won't get infected nor will it scar too much or it could affect his eye sight. It was a rough day! Ally was fine until she saw the eye patch and realized that her daddy was actually hurt- she cried almost the whole way home " my daddy eye my daddy eye" She's been trying take care of him all day. It's really cute. He slept when we got home and she cracked the door to our room and kept checking on him. We go back to the doctor tomorrow- he's opening up just to check it out for us- so we will see if the nickname one-eyed Willie will stick.