Happy Thursday!

Here is Amelia in a new spring outfit that we got from her real life fairy godmother Margie.



Amelia's skills now also include:

• signing that she is tired
• signing that she is hungry
  
• signing that she wants a bath
• signing that she wants more--of anything
• signing that she is done eating
• sticking her tongue out on command
• pointing to her belly
• she can throw things in the trash when asked

We will probably just put her in kindergarten next year.

3 cute videos - morning, noon & night!

Amelia does a lot of talking -- at breakfast, outside in the afternoon, and before bedtime. It makes me wonder what she's thinking and wanting to say!

Mr. Mischief

Someone got himself into some mischief today... good thing we're dog people and we find this very funny :)

There could be hope...

If
this
family
can put their house
on the market,
then so can we...

(do you like my poem?)

Live Traffic

I just took of the live traffic feed because my friend Rich said it freaked his wife out.

Now you can check our blog without anyone knowing you did--except for the FBI.

Why we love rural life...

It's a cute idea...

...but she won't cooperate!

Amelia's lounge chair

This weekend Amelia got a new chair - it is this cheap foam thing that is a chair and then folds out into a futon with a little sleeping bag attached. She LOVES IT. She likes to lounge in it (just like her momma) and she will drag all of her toys over to it and then sit in it. This afternoon when she was ready for her nap she went over to it and laid down - she seems to love having her own space to veg out downstairs...she's definitely like her mom :)

Reading a book in the chair.

"Heyyyyyyy, party at my crib later on. BYOM."

With some of her toys that she dragged over to her chair.

A visit to the Windy City

Yesterday we returned from a fun long weekend visit to Chicago where Amelia got to see her grandpa Jones, Heath, and her aunt and uncle Sophie and Eli. She did great and was manageable on the airplane rides... there was some screaming... especially on the descent of the flight home... but we survived... and do not plan on flying for another year :)

On Saturday we went to Eli's 7th birthday party, which was a roomful of blow-up bouncy slides and houses. We took Amelia down the slide and she has never been so happy (or so she acted). As soon as we got to the bottom she began to furiously do the sign for MORE over and over and over again. The picture above is a little fuzzy but you get the idea...

We hope you can see her joy in this picture...

Amelia playing with Sophie and Eli. She was in love with them - no other way to put it!

Sophie plays with Amelia. Amelia loved her so much that today when we were at the playground we saw a blonde haired girl and I think that Amelia thought it was Sophie!

There is lots of love for Amelia!

We think she's very cute.

Video #1: Amelia earns her keep around here. It's about time she started pitching in!
Video #2: Amelia plays with her beloved Easter bunny from Grammie. She loves this thing and dances along with it and asks us to turn it on for her all day long...

Old Room - New Room

April 2008

April 13, 2009

This is about the most awesome change I have experienced since living here - it even beats the bathroom because I did it ALL BY MYSELF. From now on, I am in charge of room decorating and Tom is in charge of manual labor. Seems like a fair trade, eh?

Now that I am addicted to room changes, I will be sure to post my next big project: turning our purple kitchen into a light green kitchen... wish me luck!

A fun comparison

March 16, 2008

April 12, 2009

(isn't it nice that she's sleeping in both pictures?)

Big Work Day

Today I worked on the house a ton. I painted the floor in the den that Heidi had painted but then Yoda stepped in.
Then I repainted the deck.
The big project of the day was to redo the kitchen floor. We weren't sure if we needed to do this but it seemed like--if we were fixing everything else then we should fix the floor too.

And here is Amelia doing some work.

Dancing Queen

Got it! Finally! Here is our little dancing queen!

The best dancing I could get....

I have tried for a few days to get a video of Amelia doing her cute dancing...and this is what I got. I still think that she's pretty cute even if she won't dance on command...

Our Shetland Pony

Yoda, September 08

Yoda on his new dog bed last week.

I know we mostly focus on Amelia and our marvels at her growth and development, however, Yoda is currently winning the prize for "most changed" in the past few months. He's huge. Nearly 70 pounds and he's only 9 months old. I can't believe he was such a teeny little puppy not so long ago. Not only has motherhood made me get gooshy about my child growing up, it has also made me gooshy about my dog. Sigh...

Lastly, I am trying to get a video of Amelia showing off her new trick: Dancing. It is super cute but not always easy to get on video. So be patient (Rachel, I am trying to get you a video!) and we will hope for tomorrow...

5 Random Finds...

Today Tom and I spent the day throwing out junk. Here is our problem: We are both pack rats - and when two pack rats get married... well, you get the idea. I think that when two pack rats get married they should be required to go on that show on TLC where they help you clean out all your junk. Anyway, I digress. I think Tom would agree that he is a worse pack rat than me and today while I was going through boxes of random slips of paper and knick knacks, my point was made. We only got in one minor argument when I was accused of going through "his stuff" that he had already sorted and I was "messing with." Here is a transcript of what seemed to transpire throughout the day:

T: "Wait, I've already sorted that box, what are you doing?"
H: "Okay, so what is this for?" (hold up some random item/piece of paper/bottle cap/dinosaur bone)
T: "Oh, you can throw that out."
H: (Say nothing - roll eyes. Toss said item purposefully into trash bag.)

While sorting through Tom's pre-sorted boxes, I decided to choose my five favorite finds and share them with you, dear reader, to prove my point that Tom is a bigger pack rat than me:

5. An invitation to a retirement party at Concord High from 1999. Apparently, Tom wants to remember partying like it was 1999. With retirees.
4. A cigar tube that contained about 50 pennies.
3. The garter from our friend Chris & Emily's wedding 6 years ago (or more? I"m not sure...)
2. A list of the specials from Damon's, the ribs place where Tom worked almost TEN years ago.
1. An MCI bill. How long ago did MCI go under? You get my point...

To be fair, Tom just called (he is still at home cleaning, while I"m at Grammie's w/Amelia - yes, I know he is a saint...) to report that he has found at least 7 tubes of neosporin, many unopened. All purchased by me. He said he thinks that if we ever have a house full of burn victims, they will be well cared for...

Thunder Storm

For those of you that don't live in NH--we don't get as many thunder and lightning storms as you do out west. We just happen to be having a big one right now though. The last blast was enough to rattle the dishes in their cabinet.

We are back at Grammie's house for the night. We only have one car for a bit because a sharp edged granite curb jumped out and smote the wheel of Heidi's Civic. We had to take it in for a new tire and a new wheel. So it is easier for us to be here so Heidi doesn't have to drive me to work at 5:30 am.

Tomorrow we begin a long process of trying to sell our house. Tomorrow we are going to try to get rid of all of the things that belong at the dump. I am a great collector of these things so it will take a while but I think we can do it in a day or so.

Next weekend we will be moving out some of our bigger furniture so as to make the house less cluttered looking. Then maybe we will bring in furniture that is 3/4 normal size so that the house will really look big. Then we might bring in some very small people to look at the house so they won't notice that the ceilings are only 6.5 ft. tall.