Friday, February 21, 2014

Alice the Talker


Alice has been talking a ton lately.

It's so much fun.

She knows about 25 words and about 10 animal noises.

She recently fell in love with strawberries (she hated them before) and is having a hard time with that word.

For some reason she always says something like, pa-dee, pa-dee-do and even once pa-du-wa.

I think since strawberry is so hard a word for her that she just says a random made up word.  She uses the same word for bubbles.  It's strange.

She also babbles a ton.

It is so fun having fake conversations with her.

She has so much to say and looks you in the face really seriously when talking.

A lot of her "sentences" sound like they end with a question mark.

Unfortunately her favorite word is still "no."

Thankfully she has yet to say it defiantly but she does say it in a very whiny way sometimes.

I can't believe I am already dealing with "tone of voice" issues, isn't that supposed to wait until like 13!

Probably the cutest thing she says is "amen".

We sing the doxology with her every night before bed and at the end she says "amen".

And I die.  Too much cuteness.

I turned the camera on my phone so Alice could see herself then got her to say some of her words and noises.

Some of Alice's words (she puts her hand to her check when she say's "hi" because she is pretending she has a phone):


Animal noises:



Body parts:


Her newest word, more death by cuteness:



Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Christmas in California: Part 10


Alright, last post about our California trip.

Stephen's parents headed back home on Sunday and we stayed in Ventura until Tuesday.

Sunday we went to church and then hung out at the house and let the kids play.

Alice decided that Mae was having so much fun with the helmet that she wanted to too.

Alice also fell on their brick steps and hit her head right between her eyebrows.

Thankfully it was just a little bump and nothing serious and she had all her cousins to distract her from the pain.

The next day we went to the Santa Barbara Zoo.

 Checking out the elephants.




Mae seeing the "grr grrs" (lions)


Avila gets really sad that she can't take one of these foxes home.


Then we fed the sheep and goats.


Alice learned what a sheep says.  She is a pro at animal noises.


Sharing the sheep food.



Kids table for lunch.



Back at home, Alice tried on Mae's helmet and loved it.



Had a great dinner that night all together at a pub in downtown Ventura.

That night Alice crashed with daddy on the bed.



We left the next morning.

Alice did great on the flights and killed time during our layover walking the opposite direction on the moving walk ways.  (what a great way to get a toddler tired!)

We got home at exactly 12am on January 1st.

So that is the end of our Christmas in California.

Lots of pictures, lots of fun.

Thanks for hanging in for my 10 part series!

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Christmas in California: Part 9


One of the things I was most excited about in going to Ventura was taking Alice to the beach for the first time.

So thankfully the weather was nice and we all headed to the beach.







 Alice loved to playing with the wet sand.




Then she put her toes in the water, which was very cold.

She loved it!

My little adventurous girl.





Then she sat in the water.

Thankfully I brought a change of clothes for her.


The kids then all played at the beach playground.

We got some amazing tacos.

Then back to the house to celebrate the December/January birthdays, Mae, Avila and Nana.

 Alice found the ribbons again.


What was left of Mae's cupcake :o)


Her pretty ballerina.


Reading time.


Watching their new movie Planes.




Walker and Grandma Patti.


 Walker and Nana.


Brewer, the most patient, long suffering dog ever.


Friday, February 7, 2014

Christmas in California: Part 8


Next morning we got to do Christmas morning #2.

Alice just helping herself.





Alice, again, liked playing with the bows best.

That and she discovered pancakes that morning.

Trader Joe's multigran pancakes that Michelle made.

I have never seen Alice eat that much of anything.

She just kept sneaking them off the plate all morning long.



Avila, our little ballerina, with her new nutcracker.



After opening all the presents Emma and Avila were surprised with new bikes (the boys stayed up late the night before putting them together).



Nana reading to Alice and Mae.

Mae loved her new helmet and wore it most of the morning.


You had to be careful or Avila and Emma would pin you to the couch indefinitely to have books read to them.

Grandma Patti didn't mind too much :o)


Nana and Walker.


Then the kids went outside to play, because it's southern California and the weather is nice even in December :o)

Alice loved this car, mostly just sitting in it.


Play time with cousin Emma.




That afternoon we did a family photo shoot.  (Michelle's present to all of us)

I am pretty sure Alice ruined at least 80% of the photos.

She did not want to be held or hold still.

It probably didn't help that we were at a park and she could see the playground but couldn't play on it.

By the end of the shoot I think most, if not all, the kids were crying for some reason or other.

Photo shoots are hard work!

But at least we got some nice pictures!


Here are a couple preview shots we got.

Photos by DESA Photography

https://www.facebook.com/DESAphotos



We had a fun dinner in downtown Ventura then it was back home for Papa Wolfe to read (as is tradition) King John's Christmas.