diet coke, anyone?

It's true. I love diet coke. I tell people all the time that diet coke is my coffee. And, my favorite kind of diet coke is straight out of the fountain. There have been many a trip to random gas stations and fast food places just so I can get my fountain diet coke (thank you, Mathew!). Sometimes I wonder if the love of diet coke will carry on to my daughters. Thoughts?

{Miriam at five months and Abbie at five months}

i'm free!

(or three, rather. It just sounds like 'free' when Miriam says it). Today is our sweet little Miriam's 3rd birthday! Is that even possible? It is incredibly amazing to think of how much she has changed in these three short years --from a helpless, tiny newborn baby to a spunky, talkative little girl with a personality all of her own.

We have had two celebrations for Miriam's birthday and will have another one in a few weeks. We celebrated last Sunday with my extended family. I don't think Miriam knew that she would be showered with so much love from everyone (and presents!). She got so many wonderful gifts from clothes to an abacus to a camera. She just loves them all. She was also so excited for her birthday cake that she managed to take a huge bite out of the side before it was even cut.

Then, for her actual birthday today... we asked her what she would like to do. So far, we've been to McDonald's for lunch (complete with some time to play in the play place) and an attempt to go to the apple orchards. Unfortunately, the orchards don't have apple picking until next weekend and also didn't have the huge inflatables set up as they usually do. So, we will try a visit there again soon. We will hopefully have some sort of ice cream dessert (by her request) this evening.

Here are a few pictures from last week's celebration and this morning when she opened up her gifts.

And, I thought it would be fun to look back at her past birthdays:

big, blue

and beautiful eyes

you're killin' me, smalls.

The weather around here has been simply delightful the past two days. We've been taking advantage of it by spending much of our days outside: walks, drawing with chalk, playing in the sandbox, swinging, picking cherry tomatoes, running, pulling weeds, chewing on small toys while sitting on a blanket, and sitting around a fire roasting marshmallows (obviously some of those pertain to a specific members of our family. Matt doesn't chew on small toys very often and Abbie doesn't usually pick cherry tomatoes). Anyway, I digress. This evening we decided it was the perfect night to sit outside around our fire pit and roast marshmallows. A few weeks ago, simple marketing got me at Wal*Mart when they had a display of marshmallows, Hershey's, and graham crackers all lined up. I picked up one of each and we finally were able to take advantage of our new (used) fire pit and make some s'mores tonight. Miriam had never roasted a marshmallow by herself, so she was pretty eager to get the fire going and start roasting.

After her first s'more was almost done, Matt asked, "Miriam, do you want another s'more?"

To which she replied, "s'more of what?"

"No, another s'more."

"But s'more of what?"

To which I replied, "you're killin' me, Smalls."

caps for sale

Anyone remember that wonderful book? I'm pretty sure I still have a copy of it somewhere. Anyway, I was reminded of it when my sister-in-law Kim came down to my parents' house yesterday and snapped a few pictures of Miriam and Abbie modeling the hats that she has for sale. So, anyone want to buy a hat?

an attempt at a photo shoot

Yesterday afternoon I was outside with both girls and thought it would be fun to try and get a few pictures of them. As I assumed, it was nearly impossible to get an almost-three-year-old and a five-month-old to both look at the camera at the same time. And, asking them to smile if they did happen to both look was even more of an impossibility. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful day... the flowers looked beautiful... and the girls are adorable. With that, I would say the pictures still turned out pretty well. Enjoy!

hi papa!

These are the smiles Abbie gave her Papa last weekend. I think she missed him a lot while we were visiting my parents. She always lights up whenever she sees him.

splish, splash

ham or turkey?

A few mornings ago, Miriam and I were coloring on a little whiteboard when I decided to write a few small words down for her to start practicing her phonics. We are certainly at the very beginning stages of reading, but it's fun to have her try a few letters and sounds. So, I wrote the word "HAM" down for her to read. First I asked what the "H" said and she replied, "huh." Then, I asked what sound "A" made and she said, "aaah." Finally, I asked about the "M" and she said, "mmmm." So far, so good! Then, I started putting the sounds together repeating, "huh...aaahhh...mmmmm," over and over again. After a few times, I asked if she heard what I was saying. She thought for just a minute and then shouted, "turkey!" I think she should get a few bonus points for that --not only did she hear the word ham, but she associated it with turkey! We have a smart little girl on our hands!

visiting parents = use of very nice camera.

...and I don't think it's possible to take a bad picture on it! I have fun pulling it out and snapping photos to capture all those "normal" moments that I don't want to forget.

hi mom!

"I just can't help being so adorable!"