Mom's Birthday

My mom's birthday was Tuesday, so Wednesday evening we had my family over for dinner and dessert. These are some pictures of the fun we had that evening.

My dad allowing Melanie to play with his legs. He really is a great "Pa" as Melanie calls him.

Mom and Amber lounging on the couch

Flying toddler!

My dad and Grandpa Greenlee did this with us as kids, so now it's my kids' turn to carry on the tradition.

This picture is out of focus, but you can see the sheer joy in Melanie's face. As soon as dad would pop her back to the upright position she would lean forward as if to "dive" again.

Grandpa the Tickle Monster

Hiding behind Aunt Laura

He found her!
(Laura was apparently a casualty of the attack)

Directing Pa on who to go tickle next.
Everyone was a victim, even Nana (Great Grandma McHugh) except me.
I don't allow myself to be attacked. It's simply not allowed.
I know I'm a party pooper. She'll get over it.

Lovin' on her godmother

Daddy dog pile

It's never a good thing for anyone that is ticklish when my dad and Matt are on the same team

Observing the silliness

Pa doesn't discriminate when it comes to tickling

Giving Pa a taste of his own medicine

The thrill of the attack

Playing with Nana while sitting on her walker

Aunt Amber attacks!

Claire really likes noses

Laura requested a picture with her nieces

Four generations

Claire Thinks She's Big Stuff

Our little Miss Claire is quickly becoming our not-so-little Miss Claire. She sits herself up with ease, log rolls, pivots to change directions, is working on her "crawling" - which is getting more organized and looking more and more like actual crawling each day. And within the last couple of weeks she has decided she'd rather be standing whenever she can, pulling herself to an upright position. I'm tellin' ya, Claire is going to give Melanie a run for her money with this mobility stuff! The race to see who will have walked first is on!

Stairs are more enticing than ever now

Since Claire thinks she's such big stuff I thought I'd put her to work at the new house

But then she just tried to eat everything, so I decided to just let her go back to being cute to earn her keep ;)

Melanie's Painted Piggys

Mom painted my toe nails for the first time today!

They're "pit"!
(pink)

Look at my toes Claire!

Aren't they pretty?

I said LOOK AT THEM!

Getting Caught Up On Pictures

Just some fun pictures from everyday life through the last few weeks.

Forget toys, I want paper!

Melanie was trying to push daddy around in the laundry basket, but to no avail.

This photo has a two-fold purpose.

1. Melanie fell asleep like that on my lap, despite how uncomfortable it looks
2. She has started to change her clothes from time to time,
thus the oh-so-attractive outfit she is wearing

Busted chewing on something I shouldn't!

She's not pouting, she's actually sleeping.

So I realize some of you will find this amusing given my aversion to
excessive physical contact, but Melanie has finally started to hug us back.
Up until now she would just lean in and allow you to hug her.
Now she has to hug everybody goodnight.
It's pretty sweet.
And yes, I do allow her to hug me whenever she wants.

Claire was having technical difficulties with her bow

That's hilarious dad!

Melanie likes to make Claire wear hats.
Fortunately Claire is very tolerant of it.

And finally, the day we signed on the new house I made pancakes for breakfast and decided it would be fun to try to make them the shape of a house. Getting contrast on the detailing turned out to be a more delicate process than I had anticipated, so several of the pancakes turned out like this. The smoking chimney was just too much to be able to flip them successfully.

Matt's house pancake.
He was disappointed that my pancake wasn't an accurate representation of our new house.

I finally got a good one!

An Evening Outside

When we finally got the house ready to go on the market I instantly felt like I didn't want the kiddos (more specifically, Melanie) playing inside as much because that just meant there was more for me to have to clean up again before a showing. Since the weather was still really nice at that point the girls and I spent a few evenings in our front yard enjoying the mild weather while it lasted. These are some of the pics I snapped on one of those evenings.

She really is such a happy baby!

Goofball

Not sure why, but I really like this one.

The beloved car

Claire scooted herself to the edge of the blanket
(which was no easy feat to accomplish)
and enjoyed feeling the grass for the first time. She was mesmerized!

Preview of the teen years?

This next series I was trying to snap a nice picture of both of them, but I got these instead. I still think it's a fun series though - a better depiction of real life with kids :)