Birthday Week 3

Charlotte loves to read books. I don't ever have to worry about her being quiet, because she is normally always over at the bookshelf reading some books. We love that she loves to read books.

The other night we were on the couch and the girls were reading books and Charlotte was reading a book aloud to herself and pointing at all the pictures. It was the cutest thing ever.

Enjoy these pictures. Her face says it all.

As you can tell, she loves books, but she has to pull them all off the shelf and then ends up "reading" them all, mostly looking through them. The thing that surprises me the most though, is that when she is done, all I have to do is tell her to put her books back and she does, the best that a almost 1 year old can. She watches her big sister a lot and sometimes that is a good thing. :)

She loves to bring her books over to the windowsill and reads them. It's so fun to watch her discover new things about her books.

Birthday Week 2

Charlotte has learned to scrunch her nose up. It's the cutest thing, because she does that, closes her eyes, and lifts her head up.

She also loves to smile, especially for the camera! I'm so glad she is so happy, most of the time. She has many faces and loves to sit and crawl into tiny, unexpected places.

You can see her bottom teeth and the top two cutting through!

Birthday Week 1

Charlotte won't be my little baby girl come Friday this week. I decided to dedicate a weeks worth of birthday posts to her, describing who she is and all the little things she does that make her Charlotte!

To start off the week, our little Charlotte loves bananas! She has a banana every morning with her Kix cereal. She loves it and can't stuff her face enough! :)

When she gets up in the morning, she patiently waits for mom or dad to come get her and when we come she looks up to us, hands us her blanket and then immediately signs banana. It's so cute.

If she could have a banana at every meal she would! :) That's how much this girl loves bananas.

Charlotte, I love that you can communicate to us what you want. Its make mornings so much . easier to deal with. I make sure we have bananas to last all four of us for week, so I don't have to deal with a girl who can't have her bananas. I don't want to find out what will happen if she doesn't get her banana. haha:)

 I love that at such a young age you found something you love to eat. :) I hope you continue to find things you love. You are such a sweet, funny little girl.

We love how much you love to eat your bananas!!

Simply Lace

We have started a new little home decor business and we are thrilled to get going. Our business is called Simply Lace.

We are so excited about starting this new adventure. I have come to love creating little projects to make my apartment a home. What do you think of when you here the word home?

Some may say family, memories, loud, busy, kids everywhere, and we can go on and on. Well, when I think of a home, I think simple, elegant, and peaceful. A few of you may know what that is like, but those you have little ones, know it's not the case sometimes, or ever.

No need to fear, I am here. These feelings: Simple, Elegant, Peaceful,  are feelings I want to bring into your homes and lives. A picture on the wall to stop you for a moment in your busy, crazy life and remember that it is the small and simple things in life that matter, that bring the most joy and happiness to you.

Take a look around and take the simple, elegant, and peaceful feelings my "Simply Lace" has to offer.

We are doing a giveaway now over at our blog. You can find the link Here. Check it out and Good luck!

BV Carnival

Apparently every year, the fire department puts on a carnival in town. I have lived here for 5 years and have just found out about this. I'm very disappointed in myself!! With that being said, it was must that we go. So we took Friday night as family night and went.

We ate some yummy food, the best deep fried Oreo's, and Zoie rode rides. There were only 3 she was able to ride on, but she rode each one like 20 times. She had so much fun. I don't know which one was her favorite because she liked them all. She went on the Merry-Go-Round, the cars ride, and a Fun House. She also did get to ride a pony and she was so excited. Zoie and I played some of the little carnival games. Zoie won a little stuffed whale, alligator, and seal and I won a little teddy bear.

We had so much fun and it brought back so many memories for Zoie. When we were walking home, she was walking with Daddy and she said, "lets go Grandpas house now." I think she misses Grandpa, Grandma, and everyone. It was funny, we had to laugh.

It is so much fun and important to us to go to places and create memories with our kids. I did it growing up and it's because of all those trips that I bonded with my siblings and grew a love for just our family time. We hope to instill the same thing in our children and give them a childhood  they will never forget and will always come back.

Zoie riding the fire truck 

Charlotte just chillin'

Zoie and the fire truck. 

the fire truck was her favorite car to "drive" 

Zoie and Mommy on the Merry-Go-Round 

Zoie walking through the Fun House 

Zoie climbing the ropes in the Fun House 

Zoie crossing the bridge in the Fun House

Zoie coming down the slide in the Fun House

Mommy and Daddy

Daddy and Charlotte 

Zoie having a blast 

fire truck was taken, so she went for the next biggest car

Zoie, Charlotte, and Daddy riding the pony 

Zoie, Charlotte, and Daddy on the pony.

Charlotte was trying to figure out what she was on. 

She loved it!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

I asked Ryan to make a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake for Memorial Day. It was delicious and very peanut buttery. He is doing a great job with chocolate and vanilla cheesecakes, but his fruit ones haven't turned out so well. But I am for suggesting new cheesecakes to try making. I love cheesecake!

Charlotte Roo

Miss Charlotte Roo loves strawberries! 

waving "hi" to the camera 

mouth full and juice running everywher 

such a big girl now 

I just love her smile. She's so petite and adorable!

Strawberries Galore

I just thought I'd show you all of our delicious strawberries! We have eaten a bunch, I have dried a bunch, and the rest is all pureed and ready for strawberry jam and strawberry watermelon jam. Can you say YUMMY?! I'm very excited!

all of our strawberries 

soaking in the sink with water and vinegar to get them really cleaned 

all cut and ready to go

Body Attack Buddy

Zoie loves to do Body Attack and she did it with me the other day. But she has to be in her work out attire just like Mom. :) She comes up to me and says " I need my Body Tack shirt" and we will go get all decked out in our work out clothes. It's so funny. I'm glad she loves to work out with me. She can actually do some of the moves now. She is awesome and it makes working out so much better. Sorry the pictures are a little blurry, we were moving of course!

Strecthing

step-touching

step curling

Charlotte wanted to join in too!

Clark County Fair: Face Painting

Zoie, Charlotte, and Me all got our faces painted at the fair with my family. Zoie loved it. The lady who did the painting has been painting for like 35 years. She was really good and was nice and painted a ladybug on Zoie's arm for free. Surprisingly, Charlotte sat really still and let the lady paint her face and she didn't even mess with it. She's such a good girl!

After face painting we rode the train and went to the pig races with everyone. I'm glad that we were able to take Zoie to the fair with my family she loved it so much. I hope we can continue to do so and she'll grow to have a love for it like me and my family does.

 Zoie-princess sparkle, Charlotte-butterfly, Mommy-dragonfly

Mommy and Aunt Blythe

Handsome Elliot at the pig races!

Clark County Fair: Bull Riding

We had a siblings night one night at the fair. It was me, Blythe, Shelby, Matilda, and Nathaniel. We just walked around to all the booths, ate some delicious teriayki chicken on a stick (this is to die for), drank some amazing cherry limeades, and went bull riding. It was so much fun to hang out with each other. It's been too long since we have done something like that.

We are always crazy with each other and do crazy things, hence the bull riding. We convinced Blythe to talk to the guy who runs it and get us a deal for riding. She is good at things like that. She got us a great deal.

We went two girls together and then Nathaniel wanted to be the man and go by himself and beat us girls (sorry no picture of him)! It was funny. My sister reminded me of how everyone laughed and cheered for us when two girls went together. They were all drunk and probably thinking we were couples. It was hilarious! We love being together and we were glad we got to hang out with just us siblings.

I LOVE AND MISS MY SIBLINGS!

Blythe up front and Shelby in the back

Me up front and Matilda in the back

Strawberry Picking

We finally ran out of our strawberry jam we made last year 3 weeks ago. It was a must to make time to go strawberry picking. We went strawberry picking on Memorial day with Ryan's parents. It was so much FUN! We love to spend time as a family and make memories that will last forever.

 Zoie loved it and was so excited to pick strawberries! She kept saying "this a good one!" Charlotte loved grabbing strawberries from the box and playing with them, sometimes we'd find them on the ground. Silly girl. We came home with 4 crates full and I was in heaven!! We are ready to make jam!

Ready to go strawberry picking!

Walking to the Strawberry patch with Daddy 

Zoie and Daddy picking strawberries 

Mommy and Charlotte 

Mommy and Charlotte picking strawberries 

Zoie running to put a "good one" in the box and Poppa picking strawberries 

Daddy picking strawberries 

Daddy had to make a funny face with the boxes of strawberries 

Zoie and Grandma Marj picking strawberries