Then and Now

We can hardly believe it has been ONE YEAR today that Angela joined our family. It does not feel like one year. In that year we have been through a lot: learning to crawl, eat regular food, walk, broken wrist, head surgery, learning to talk, feed herself... oh my goodness, the list can keep going. She now will just burst into song singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." She knows all the words (mostly) and can stay on tune for all the words. She is starting to learn "I am a Child of God" and "Jesus Once Was a Little Child." She LOVES being outside, which for us is a good thing because we are always outside. She loves the dogs, and they love her. Our lives have been blessed to have her - she is an Angel - at least most of the time.

now


Then

Play Time

With the good weather that is upon us, and Angela's love for the outside, we finally got her an outside toy. A really cool slide with a rock wall, ladder, and a platform with a telescope. She loves to stand on the platform and "bark" orders at the dogs (no pun intended). So between the bridge, stones, and the slide, she keeps herself and us busy.

We also had a friend give us a Sit-N-Spin. Boy, have they improved the design - if you can call it an improvement? The makers added buttons on top that play through music while they spin - and there is NO OFF Button!! yep - no off button. She likes to hit the button and play the music then just dance to it.

Dress Up

With all the cold and rainy or snowy days we have to find new things to do. Angela loves to play dress up and did we have the perfect accessories for her. She had a ball in these clothes and had lots of fun. But can you believe one of her most favorite things to play with is the swifer? Yep - she will pull that out and start pushing it all over the floor. So mom always makes sure that there is a cloth on it so it will clean the floor - may as well make the most of it right?! These are from the end of March.

Helper

Butterfly wings

Dress up

Dancing

Happy Easter

We had a great Easter, once we got over the sickness. Angela was sick Wednesday night through Friday!! We finally got her to aim for the bowl so that was a good thing. Saturday she wasn't 100% but Blake took her to the neighborhood egg hunt while Lorena was on the couch sick. Angela had missed her Easter party at preschool so she was excited for this. Lorena made her Easter basket which she loved, and so did everyone else. How adorable was she in her Easter dress - what a steal from Kid to Kid - we love that place, cute clothes for cheap! Amazingly enough, she left her hair band in for the entire church meetings, usually we are lucky if it is still on while we walk through the doors.

way CUTE!!

Determined to find them

Looking for eggs

Easter Basket

Spring

A few weeks ago we had some fabulous weather - shirt sleeves and no jackets. It was wonderful to be outside and not have to worry about coats and such. We worked in the yard and took walks and played. The daffodils are blooming and Angela loves to pick off the petals so she can feel them. We try to get her to just look, but that isn't good enough.

Bears

This past week we attended the International Sportsman's Show at the South Towne Expo Center. We had a good time seeing the booths and everything. Unfortunately Alaska trips are not discounted like we thought they would be. But it is fun to see everything. The Yellowstone Bear World has a booth with live bear cubs and they let you hold one and take pictures; so we did. Angela didn't quite know what to do with the cubs and wouldn't touch them. We even saw some fabulous mounts of bears and she wouldn't touch those either. She would wave and say "hi" to them as we would pass. She recognized the moose right off and would say "hi moose"; and make bear sounds as we would pass them.

with bear cub


in front of bear mount

Tubing

Last weekend we had a great time at Soldier Hollow tubing. This isn't your normal tubing in the mountains where you have to hike up a hill then slide down just to hike it again. This one is hi-tech. The inter-tube it hooked to a tow rope that pulls it up the hill while you just hang out in it, then you slide down the hill and do it all over again. Pretty fun. Angela likes the snow but didn't know quite what to do about the big hill. We started her out on the little hill then we moved up to the big one. It is quite fast, with no control over what or where you go. Angela's snow suit is like the kid in "A Christmas Story." when she falls -she can't get up - it is hilarious.

At top of big hill

at bottom of little hill

end of day

end of day - playing