Much catching up to do...

I like Facebook for catching up with people you haven't seen or talked to in a while but it has really hurt my blog. So I am going to really try to keep up better on my blogging. Here is the last month or so in picture/stories:

Samantha really enjoys sticking her finger up her nose and just hanging out that way...its lovely I know. One day in the car I turned around and saw this pretty site:


She was completely serious until I pulled out the camera and then she cracked a little smile. She continued to sit this way for about 5 minutes. Classic Samantha.

A few weeks ago we met up with some friends at the park and Hannah enjoyed making sand angels:



Of course Samantha had to copy her big sister:


But then Samantha enjoyed laying in the sand so much and apparently felt the need to get a tan and soak in the sun.


I love the crossed leg:


Again Classic Samantha.

Here my girls are ironing after they saw me ironing...hopefully this continues for the rest of their lives...they see me doing chores and they want to help. :)



A close up of Samantha's fabulous ensemble with binoculars and pacifier included while ironing. She may need the binoculars to see some of those wrinkles really close up. :)


Earlier this month the Farmer's Market here in Davis had Pig Day. I still don't really know why they have a whole day devoted to pigs but they always have fun activities.

A picture of my little "pigs". They really wanted these pig noses (luckily they were free) and then wore them for the picture and then were done with them.


One of the fun activities were pony rides...too bad they were not free.




And here is a reminder that the Aggies are #1. :)


My great friend Jill had her daughter go through all her dress up stuff and gave my girls lots of new to them dress up clothes and a huge bag of shoes. Well my girls just were in LOVE with all the new shoes and that was the first thing they headed for. Although Samantha had never put on high heels before she took to it like a pro.



I love Hannah's pose...she is ready for her model contract.


Adam's firehouse had their annual pancake breakfast and like many years past it was raining quite a lot. The girls loved this because they could play in the rain. Samantha was so cute because she was holding her little umbrella and doing her best to shield her friend from the rain. I thought that was so thoughtful.


Hannah and her friend in the firetruck.


My girls love seeing the buses here in Davis and they love riding them even more. From time to time we will take the bus downtown on the weekends just to enjoy the ride and use our Lifetime Free Bus Riding pass. We realized though that it had been years since we rode a double deck bus since they only operate during the week. So we made plans to ride a double deck bus. As we walked up to the bus Samantha was terrified. She just kept saying "No! No!". But once we got on sat down and the bus started to move she just giggled and laughed with excitement.





Once we got off the bus Hannah ran after the buses with my phone trying to take pictures. She LOVES to take pictures with my phone.





Last but not least Samantha gave up, or I should say was forced to give up her pacifier just this week. On Sunday I went to give her the pacifier at night and I realized there was a huge hole in it that she had chewed. I pulled out the extra one we have and same thing. I rushed it to Adam and we contemplated over what we should do with it and then we both realized now would be a good time to just go cold turkey and stop using it. One problem...Samantha is addicted to her pacifier. We only let her use it while she sleeps although she has convinced us to use it while she watches t.v. too. She had 2 pacifiers, one blue and one yellow and she called them by their respective colors. So when she wanted the blue one she would say "Blue" and when she wanted the yellow one she would say "Yellow". She would usually suck on the pacifier and then rub the edge of her crocheted blanket that Adam's mom gave her and since Adam's mom goes by the name of Nali to the grandkids Samantha appropriately named her blanket "Nali".

So when we came to the conclusion that this was going to be the night that Samantha gave up her pacifier we told her that blue & yellow had a hole in them and were broken. The Pacifier Fairy was going to come (a trick we learned from Super Nanny and used on Hannah too when she gave up her pacifier) and take her pacifier, fix it up and give it to little baby to use. In turn, Samantha would get a gift from the pacifier fairy. She seemed to understand this but as our night time routine started she started asking for "blue" and when we didn't have it she started crying. I tried to give her the all important "Nali" blanket but she wanted nothing to do with it. She just continued to cry for "Blue". It took her a while to fall asleep because she kept crying for "blue" and then sometimes for "yellow". She looked so sad and it was heartbreaking but she eventually fell asleep. We knew she could fall asleep without her pacifier because everyday she naps at school without it but she was just so use to it at home. She woke up in the middle of the night crying for it again and just sat there completely sad when we would not give it to her but eventually laid down again...poor thing!

The next morning we packaged up her pacifiers in an envelope to the Pacifier Fairy and Samantha bravely walked them down to the mailbox. She opened the envelope a few times as if though she was taking one last look at them and then as you can see from her facial expression she wasn't too sure she wanted to do this.









And when she got home low and behold the Pacifier Fairy left her a package!



Opening her package:


So excited to see what is inside!!



Samantha had this St. Bernard dog that she loves and calls the Mommy dog so the Pacifier Fairy got her a Daddy and baby St. Bernard dog to go with it.



Although she says that the baby is Samantha and kind of looks around as to where the "Hannah" dog is. So what did we do the next day...why of course go get a "Hannah" dog b/c that silly Pacifier Fairy forgot her.

So the last few nights she has continued to cry for "Blue" but we remind her that the Pacifier Fairy took it and gave her the dogs instead because she is a big girl. That really hasn't stopped her from crying though. Last night was our first night with no crying!! Yay! She did a whole lot of talking but at least no crying. Hopefully that continues tonight.