Pick Your Battles...

Lydia is to the stage where she tries to be very independent in everything she does. She wants to brush her own teeth (I let her start and then I take over), put her shoes away, pick up her toys (sometimes), open and shut the door, and several other things. Many of these I'm very thrilled about. However, she also is starting to want to wear certain things. If I get out a dress she wants a skirt. I get out flip flops and she wants tennis shoes. Even her under ware has to be what she wants. Over the past couple of weeks I've fought her on things like this because of the crazy weather. Yesterday morning, I gave up. I had out capris, a t-shirt and flip flops. She wanted to wear her Aerial jammies with rain boots. It then occurred to me that who really cares what she wears. The only people that see her are the people at Casey's in the morning. So, she wore her jammies and we put her clothing in a purse. I did fight the rain boots because it was supposed to be warm and her feet would get all sweaty. She looked so funny walking out of the house. I wished I had taken a picture (I may have to stage it). So, I'm slowly learning to give up control of things that really don't matter and letting her be independent.

Easter Pictures

I have done several posts today of all pictures. I realized that I hadn't posted any since September. They go clear back to Christmas. I hope you enjoy them.

Lydia's Easter goodies from mommy and daddy.

Lydia waiting to see what the Easter Bunny brought her.

Checking out mom and dad's gift.

Easter Bunny candy.

More Easter Bunny.

The bunny even hid stuff on Papa while he was asleep.

The hunt is on.

The "Easter Bunny" resting. Mom helped me hide all of the candy.

Lydia with all of her candy. It didn't seem like that much when I bought it at the store.

All dresses up for church.

Hayden, Lydia, and Claudia had an Easter egg hunt after lunch. They had fun searching.

Look everywhere. They each had a different color egg to find. It was a lot of fun.

Hayden and Claudia

Lydia

Hayden

Claudia

I love this picture. All dressed up and riding on a tractor.

Watching the Chipmucks 2 with Grandma.

Mimme (Grandma Mary) bought the kids kites for Easter. Lydia got a Dora kite.

Daddy and Lydia flying her kite.

She was impressed with Dora that she could fly so high.

Watching

Giving Landon her "expert" advice.

New Couch, Lydia's Nightly Buddies, and My Little Helper

Here is the "new" couch that we bought from my brother.

The "new" love seat. I didn't a picture of the recliner, but it is just dark brown. Lydia loves the new furniture and will tell people about them when they come to you house.

These are the buddies that Lydia had to sleep with each night. After she goes to sleep I go in and take most of them out.

Here is (by name) Sheep, Tall Pig, Dolly, Baby Kate, Pink Pony, Giraffe, Alice, and Bella.

Pink Baby, Green Baby, Dora, Baby Piggy, Brown Horse, Horse, and Mouse.

And here is one happy little girl to be surrounded by her buddies.

Those of you who don't know, I enjoy cleaning. Lydia also loves to dust and vacuum.

Here she is helping me vacuum under out bed. She even holds the real vacuum cord.

Valentine's Day Dinner

I'm not a creative cook by any meals, but I was pretty impressed with my Valentine's Day Dinner I made for Gail.

I boiled Penni pasta.

Cut a package of Hillshire Farms sausage and sauteed it with green peppers and onions.

Added a can of diced tomatoes right at the end. Then you mix that with the pasta and spaghetti sauce in an over safe pan or bowl. Sprinkle with a little cheese.

Put in the oven until the cheese melts and YUMMO!!

New Year, New Toys, New Troubles

We started off the new year by purchasing a stock trailer. Our old one was in bed shape when we bought it, but replaced a lot of the metal and repainted it. We were kinda attached to the thing. However, it started getting flat tires EVERYTIME Gail used it. Even if he hauled a few sheep for his brother the tire would go flat. He couldn't figure out what the problem was, but decided it was time for a new one. Gail was really proud of this trailer.

My Grandpa Franklin died on January 2, 2010 on his 93rd birthday. The grandsons were to carry the casket the day of the funeral. My aunt decided that they should wear sweaters. Of the 6 grandsons only 3 had sweaters. Gail hasn't worn a sweater since she was a little kid so we had to borrow one from Joe. Gail was not happy that I took his picture, but it is the only time it will happen so I had to capture it.

When I clean I usually pile the toys on the table so I can vacuum. I turned around and Lydia was up there playing away. I grabbed the camera and then got her down and told her it is unsafe to be on the table.

Our kitchen water pipes froze in January. Gail got down in the crawl space to see if he could do anything and Lydia (Little Helper) had to check things out as well.

Our first snowman of the winter was built in January and melted the very next day. A short life he lived, but he was pretty cute. I had bought a snowman kit with came with the stuff you see and couldn't wait to use it.

We exchanged one of Lydia's Christmas gifts because she got doubles and got this tee ball set instead. She loves it and it quiet the little slugger. Yes, we let her use it in the house, but there isn't much that she can break.

Batter Up!

Christmas Pictures

New Christmas Jammies. She gets a new pair every Christmas Eve so they look nice in pictures.

Her stuffed dog that Santa brought.

The tree and presents on Christmas morning.

Lydia had fun helping Annie and Charlie open their stocking. They got new collars.

They also got treats and bones under the tress. Lydia had to help with that also. The dogs just stood by licking their lips. It was cute.

The BIG gift was her play kitchen. After I bought I read reviews about it on the Toys R Us website. People said that it didn't hold together and was hard to put together. I was really bummed out because I'd gotten it back in July and was excited to give it to her. It was not that hard to put together, but did take 2 of us. And it has held up really well. In fact, it looks the same now (April) as it did when she got it.

Before she even had the paper torn off she washed her hands in the sink.

Over Christmas break we went as a family to Lydia's first movie. We went to Chipmunks 2. It was a fun and Lydia LOVED it. She was dancing in the aisle.

Darla's birthday is on December 29th so the borrowed the kids and we decorated cupcakes. Claudia and Lydia wanted pink and Hayden wanted green. They had fun.

They were thrilled to show her the finished project.