Carolyn's been picking her own clothes out each day for about a month now. Usually, I guide her into finding something that matches, and for something like church I pick 2 outfits and let her pick which one she wants. Any day that her black velvet pants are clean that is what she wants to wear, with a solid black turtleneck. She wears this outfit at least once a week. She puts it on and says "I all black" very proudly. I try to add a red cardigan sweater to it if we are going anywhere. Zach thinks she looks like a little mime.



We played outside in the snow yesterday for a good 45 minutes (right until it was getting dusk at dinner time). Carolyn found a "walking stick" and used that to walk around the back yard. She loves to use her sand bucket and shovel outside to dig the snow.


Carolyn has a fire hat we got from a tour of the firehouse last year. She loves to wear it and run in a circle yelling "fire, fire, fire" very loudly. Well, yesterday she was down in the basement playing with her slide and all her outside riding toys. She found this old washer hose and immediately wanted to go upstairs for her fire hat. Next thing you know, she's telling me how this stepstool is her fire engine, she has on her fire boots (pink snow boots), her fire gloves (daddy's work gloves), and she's standing on the fire engine stepstool to fight the fire with her hose. I didn't have anything to do with any of those ideas and she was so amused with herself for creating such a fun game! Here she is on her fire engine (no gloves yet though).


After she was done playing fireman, she stuck the hose on her nose and announced she was an elephant!

We had a fun Valentine's Day! In the afternoon, Aunt Sue came over to make cookies with Carolyn and me. We made some hearts and then some fun shapes that Carolyn picked. After the cookie-making, Zach and I went out to dinner and a movie!!!



Carolyn got ahold of Zach's flash light and it's become one of her favorite toys. She likes to have all the lights off and do things by flashlight lately!


And, Carolyn's quilt is ALL done!! I'm really excited about that. Now, I'm working on some throw pillows to co-ordinate! I'll post pictures as I finish things up!

Dave's Big News!

In my update post I left out the biggest news of all!!! My brother Dave proposed to Amy Saturday and they are engaged!! Zach and I are so happy and excited for them! And Carolyn is of course ready for her second flower girl experience!

Some Updates!

Some updates.....

The picture of the painting we hung in our bathroom (that Carolyn was hammering the nail in for on my last post). It's a watercolor my grandmother made. It goes perfect with our colors!!!

Carolyn's quilt. SO close to being done!! I just need to finish the corners of the binding now.

The best Valentine's Day present ever! I vacuumed our whole living level spotless in 8 minutes! And I couldn't have picked a prettier color for it myself!

My little baker.....


Today's weather....4 inches of snow with sleet and freezing rain for the rest of the day. Ick. Carolyn and I went out to get her iron levels rechecked (which were up!) and she was thrilled to wear her purple boots. She walked through all the snow since since "my boots keep my foots dry!" She did great for her toe-prick (to get the blood for her iron check) and the nurse told her she was very brave. Carolyn told the nurse she was "brave through and through!" (Which is what Franklin turtle's doctor tells him after his operation)

Things are back to normal around here and I'm over the terrible cold I had last week. Carolyn never got it and Zach seems to have a lesser version of it. :)

We enjoyed a really nice weekend with Zach's parents and Carolyn had a great time showing off for Nana and Pap. She's so funny how she can alternate between terribly shy and unbelievably giddy.

Carolyn using her "bammer" to help daddy hang a painting in the bathroom. It's a watercolor that my grandma did and was always on the wall in their spare bedroom. I'll take a picture of it - the colors were perfect for our bathroom!

Carolyn playing in her ball house. She had the greatest time throwing balls in and out of the house with Nana and Pap.


Carolyn loves to play my old recorder. She calls it her whistle and boy can she play!!!

Carolyn loves to read and so does Nana, so they enjoyed a lot of good books. Carolyn's attention span for reading continues to grow. She and Zach sat in a chair and read for over an hour the other night while I cleaned!

A Weekend Trip

My grandmother died on Wednesday of last week, so this weekend was a busy weekend spent mostly driving to get to and from the funeral. It was a doozy of a weekend. Carolyn was not an easy traveler and funerals are emotional! We got a flat tire, and Carolyn and I both came home with colds to boot!

Of course, there are always some pleasant moments in between the chaos! Here are some pictures...
Zach was already signed up to volunteer at the homeless shelter for breakfast Saturday. So, I finished up packing and Carolyn entertained herself. She lined up all her bears on the couch and then stuck stickers all over her jammies. (Both of these are daily events at our house!)

Carolyn getting her babies all ready to go!

Carolyn played with a red pen on the drive down and ended up with red ink on her face. Oops. Thank goodness for baby wipes!!

Carolyn wore a beautiful hand-me-down dress that my cousin brought for her this weekend! Interestingly, she hates to wear dresses to church, but LOVES to wear very fancy dresses.

A Quilt for Carolyn

Finally some pictures!!

I've been working on Carolyn's quilt since this summer. It had to be put aside for a long time due to different series of interruptions, but I finally have a front and back put together! I still need to do all the quilting and bind the edges, so it's far from done, but so exciting to be at a point where it looks how it will look!

The purple-blue background fabric matches the curtains that my mom and I made for her. I have some extra fabric that I'm using to make matching pillows to complete her room.

After the quilt is finished we'll starting thinking about moving the munchkin to a toddler bed!