Summer Time

I know it's been ages since I last blogged about something.  We have been having a fabulous summer though.    We are loving all the time in the sun, the cool temperature of our basement apartment when the outside temperature is 90+, watching one of 4 Disney movies that Julie loves (the original Winnie the Pooh, Tangled, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid... luckily they are all movies I love, too), and spending time together as a family now that Arek's evenings are free of homework.  Here is some of what we've been doing:  

     - SEWING (at least I have been).  My cross-stitch is getting so close to being done and ready to be framed.  SO excited about that.  Also, I decided to make Julie a dress for the 4th of July that could also dub as just a fun summer dress.  Here's how it turned out

 

I made the dress a 3T so it would fit Julie for a long time...  it is a bit big but not by too much.  I can't believe how big my 21 month old girl is!

It's been a long time since I made a bow for Julie's hair because she hates making them, but I had extra fabric so I decided to make a matching one for the dress.  I got so excited when Julie wanted to wear it... I'm glad I snapped these pictures because as soon as they were taken she pulled it out of her hair and refused to wear it again.  The dress she does like to wear, however... thank goodness!  

    

     - FINGER PAINTING  I decided to help Julie make Arek a picture frame for Father's Day with her handprints on it.  She had never played with paints, but she loved it.  Here are some shots of her playing in it after the frame was complete and set out of the destruction-zone.  

We will definitely have to do this again sometime soon

 - VISITING UNCLE JARED in Idaho.  We also got to visit Arek's cousin Jaxon, his wife Britney, and their sweet newborn Eleanor.  Julie had never been around such a little baby before and she loved it.  She held her on her lap (with help, obviously), sat beside her, 

and even got to give her hugs.  

Precious

     - PLAYING WITH GRACIE, Julie's bff.  Those two girls love each other.  On days when we don't see Gracie and her mom (my friend, Nicole), Julie constantly asks me if we can.  And almost every time we get in the car, Julie asks if we are going to Gracie's house.  I love that she has such a good friend.  We go to lots of parks together and also swim a ton.  

Both girls could live at the pool if we let them... 

     - TEMPLE TRIPS  We found a couple of walking paths from our new apartment that put the temple only about 1 mile away.  We love to take trips there and sit by the fountain, 

run up and down the hill, and take pictures. 

 I love that the temple is so close.  Earlier this month Arek's cousin got married there and it was so nice to be able to walk to the temple for the sealing.

We've been doing a lot more, but that at least helps fill in the blanks from the multi-week absence.  Happy summer playing!

Pigtails

I love that Julie's hair is long enough to have pigtails now.  Everyday that she sits still long enough, that's what we do with her hair.  

How cute is she?!  :)  I can't get enough of her

April Fun

It has been a whole month since I last wrote.  What a full month it has been.  Arek turned 27!  We celebrated with a YUMMY mouse-filled, ganauche-covered chocolate cake (although it didn't turn out to be as visually pretty as I was hoping, the taste was amazing!) and homemade cookies-n-cream ice cream, as well as dinner out and a trip to the movies. 

Also, I fianlly got curtains made for Julie's room.  I think they turned out pretty cute and I really had fun sewing them.  Julie really loved the fabric - she kept calling out "bubbles!" whenever she saw it.

Julie has been busy being Julie.  We have been playing LOTS outside: walking, playing on many different play grounds, drawing with chalk, blowing bubbles.  It's been a blast.  We are both sporting very nice summery tans... can't wait until it warms up a bit more and we can go swimming as well.  I always forget to take pictues outside, but here's what she does inside: 

 She LOVES play-acticing with dolls recently.  They come everywhere with her, and she loves for me to wrap them up in blankets and she rocks them, both on and off her horse

Driving the mini-ex

This weekend Arek shared another love with Julie... concrete. And not just concrete but tools associated with doing construction. His dad is adding on to their barn so Julie and I have been out watching as they dug the whole for the foundation and everything else associated with adding on to a barn... Anyway, Arek put Julie on the mini-ex with him and let her "drive" it (meaning he drove it around and let her move the controls) She LOVED it. It took him a while to get her to come OUT of it once she was in.

Conclusion: She may look like me, but she loves the same things that her dad does!

Oh, and she also LOVES to "drive" the car lately, too... with her daddy's sunglasses on, of course :)

Like Father, Like Daughter

Practically anyone who knows Arek knows that he's a car person. Has been since he was a wee tot. Well the other day this is what I walked into the kitchen to find:
I couldn't stop smiling. They were having so much fun together. Those trucks were Arek's when he was a kid, and I'm glad Julie loves to play with them... but only on the kitchen floor for some reason. Every day she takes them from the living room and drives them on the kitchen floor. Precious!

And here is what their next activity was... and it is fast becoming one of Julie's favorite daddy-daughter games:

I made cinnamon rolls the other day and Julie was helping me knead the dough before it rose... and then she had a blast playing in the flour once I was done!

And lastly, I am (finally!) half-way done with my cross-stitch project. Hurray! I've been working on it for about two years now (with other projects in between). I am really excited to see the end result My hope is to have it finished sometime this year... fingers crossed!

Changes

The past few weeks have been crazy busy and I have not had time to even get on a computer, let alone blog. We are now officially moved into a new apartment. Arek is now done working as a maintenance man at our old apartment complex, which means starting next week he's only working one job again. Hurray! We love our new place. It's closer to Arek's school and his (now his only) job, which means he has more time at home with us. It feels strange to be gone from our old place since we'd been there for 2 1/2 years, but it feels so refreshing to be in a new place (probably due to my army upbringing). Julie and I are loving exploring our new neighborhood, but it is nice to still be in the same city so we don't have to relearn where everything is. Everything is unpacked and only a few boxes have things left in them, and those are mainly things I never used in our old apartment, and haven't quite figured out what to do with them yet. In the next while I'm sure you'll see pictures, mostly as I take pictures of Julie and such. But since it's been several weeks, here is what my beautiful girl has been up to in the past month.

Trying on Daddy's snowboarding boots

Julie loves to iron... don't worry, it's not plugged in Julie loves to climb into everything

She was so excited when we took down her old carseat out of the closet... she's been sitting in it ever since

Snow days!

14 Days of Valentine's, Part 2

Well, Valentine’s Day is over. We had a great evening. Arek appealed to my sweet tooth this Valentine’s Day, and we celebrated with homemade rootbeer floats and Reese’s pb cups (not together though… that mix doesn’t sound very appetizing to me). And I finished giving him the rest of his 14 Valentine’s gifts. It was a lot of fun to do. I tried to be better at taking pictures this last half, so here’s what I did:

These are the cards I made to go with various gifts... now on to the days:

Day 9 – I heart attacked the front door. Each heart said “I Love You” in a different language. No judgments if some of them are wrong… I just googled the phrase! Arek’s favorite (and mine) was the one I had Julie color. She loves to color, although sometimes it is a challenge to keep her from eating the crayons while she’s coloring. :) Here’s both pictures, the whole thing as well as Julie’s:

Day 10 – Movie Night! I presented Arek with this coupon that I made and then after school and work we went to Lee’s and picked a redbox and some goodies. The ultimate choice: Contagion (Real Steel, which was what his first choice was, wasn’t at that redbox). It was really good but SUPER intense. Both of us never wanted to touch something outside of our house again after watching it… so we put in a fun movie to lighten the mood before going to bed.

Day 11 – A mushy love note and rootbeer milk from Gosner’s Dairy. (There had to be ONE love letter in this 14 Days thing!)

Day 12 – A heart-shaped, double layer cake... plus a few cupcakes because there was extra batter.

Day 13 – The big Valentine Dinner: cordon bleu focaccia bread sandwiches. This is quite possibly Arek’s favorite dinner ever, but I rarely make it because it takes a lot of prep work. I honestly felt like I was cooking all day long. But in the end it was definitely worth it because it was DELICIOUS. We had sandwiches as well as cheese-filled focaccia bread that we dipped in homemade alfredo sauce. Mmm… mmm… good!

Day 14 – the best for last, at least sentimentally. After the big dinner I guess today’s gift might seem small, but I loved it. I made a photo album compiled with photos of Arek and me. 4 years ago on Valentine’s Day Arek and I decided to get married (although we didn’t become engaged for another month). It has been a wonderful 4 years with him. I love him so very much. And I am glad he had a good Valentine’s Day.

Here’s what my sweet, busy, croup-free Julie has been up to:

She LOVED the Day 12 cupcakes! With her friend Gracie... finally able to play again after they are both croup-freeShe found some old knee-high stockings of mine and thought they made excellent gloves.