These are a few of her favorite things

I thought it would be nice to actually archive some things about Leah...things I say I'll never forget but am sure to do so.

Height: 34"

Weight: 26 Lbs.

Nick names: Grace, Gracie girl, Little Lady Leah Lou, Gracie Lou Freebush,

Favorite food: Chicken nuggets, tortilla soup, and chocolate milk

Favorite color: PINK and pink, and anything pink

Favorite song: Happy Birthday, Popcorn Popping and I am a Child of God

Favorite Phrase: Where's mommy? or anyone else she can't or even can see at the moment

Favorite Person: Eleanor Duncan "Ellie" Leah is a bit over the top about Ellie and goes as far as to sleep with a laminated picture of her.

Best friend: Lily Tracey

Favorite book: Doggies, or anything by Sandra Boynton

Lovies: Leah has two blankies and a stuffed chicken named Betty Bok-bok.

Favorite things to do: Sit on the potty, brush her teeth, take a bath, dance dance, read books, play chase, bother her brothers, cry on mom's leg, get dressed (at least 5 times a day), sing, play in Tia's room, put on chapstick, watch Elmo, story time, coloring, wave out the window at anyone leaving the house, and many many more.

Leah is a very active, and very, shall we say, determined little girl. She really can set the tone in the house with her huge personality. She is so much fun to have around and is growing and learning so fast, she's starting to make jokes, and learning how to make people laugh. She's learning to count, and is recognizing letters and is trying to sing her ABC's. Life would be pretty dull around here without our wonderful Gracie girl. We feel so blessed to have her in our lives.

Leah's TWO, cont.

Leah got lots of awesome gifts, but the best were PANTIES!!!

We all had a great time. Happy Birthday Leah Girl, we love you!

Leah's TWO

Our Little Lady Leah turned two this Sunday. I feel like we've been going through the terrible twos since she was 6 months old. So, bring it on twos we've been waiting for you!

Leah got to choose breakfast and she wanted pancakes and eggs. We put candles in her pancakes and sang happy birthday.

After church it was so beautiful that we spent some time playing outside.

Stan was on call on Sunday so we brought dinner to him at the hospital. We sang happy birthday again.

Then on Monday we had friends over for cake and ice cream.

Tia and Andrea made awesome balloons for the kids to take home

This is Leah and her Best friend Lily

And this is Leah flirting with her favorite man, Uncle Nate, Lily's daddy...yes it is a rivalry between the two of them.

We had all of Leah's favorite people there to once again sing happy birthday

Why you been so agro?

I had a terrible night last night, actually in all honesty, my whole day yesterday was pretty crappy. I was yelling at people who don't deserve to be yelled at and I was inpatient with people I should strive my very hardest to be patient with. So I guess this post is an apology to all those who were in my wake yesterday. I'm so sorry. On the up side at least I found out the main culprit for my behavior. I must have been eating WAY too many of these.

I guess I've really got to lay off the Agro Berries, they're doing a number on my sweet tempered personality.

Why didn't any one tell me?

So, Matty and I are sitting at lunch the other day and I started singing to him along with the radio. He looks at me and says "Stop singing mom you fweak (freak) me out!"

This wasn't a single incident either, a little while later I tried again, and got the same reponse. Apparently my voice is fweaky. Why didn't anyone tell me my voice was so bad. I had to hear it from my 3 year old?!

It was an honor just to be nominated

Today I got a phone call from Ethan's school and they said I had been nominated for the PTA president. Seriously? They must not know me that well, I can't even run a household, how in the world would I run a PTA. Plus I'm completely irresponsible. Today, for example, I woke up knowing it would be a beautiful sunny 65 degree day, I wanted to take the kids and play outside all day so I just didn't take Ethan to school. Easy peasy, no big deal. Forget about learning, or responsibility, today we PLAY! I implore, is this the type of person that should be leading a band of parents and teachers?! I should say not!

Mostly I declined simply because it's like pulling what little teeth people have left here to get any parent participation. I'm the homeroom mom this year, and I end up doing everything on my own. I can't imagine doing that on a much larger scale. I ended up volunteering for secretary. I figure I can still be involved without playing dentist.

Bed and Breakfast

For our anniversary and Valentines day Stan gave me this

He conned Andrea and Nate into watching the kids for the weekend and he took me to a quaint little bed and breakfast outside of Lexington Kentucky.

It was an incredibly beautiful 160 year old home that used to be a plantation, and was also used as an encampment for the civil war.

They also raised Alpaca's

And sold lots of alpaca goods, which we were more than happy to try out

We had such a wonderful time just being together the two of us

And it was very romantic

Saturday morning after an incredible gourmet breakfast we drove on to Louisville and went to the temple.

We have so much going on in life right now, between a really demanding residency and three little kids, that maybe we forget just how important and rejuvenating it is to be Stan and DeNae for a day and a half. I love this man so much, but the care free passion and love that brought us together gets lost between snotty noses, broken bones, piles of bills, long hours and sleepless nights, and lots and lots of diapers. It was so good to feel love without any interruptions. I had a wonderful trip!

For our anniversary and Valentines day, I got Stan these. That's right folks, a pair of socks.

(but they're really cool running socks)

What have you been up to?

Stan was in Utah all last week so I tried to keep my self and the kids busy while he was gone to help pass the time. Here's some of the things we've been up to.

We made homemade (edible although I can't see why in the world this would be appetizing unless you were two) play dough. The kids had an awesome time playing with it. Each kid had their own set of colors, and we've been playing with it for days.

Our good friends the Tracy kids came over to play, and we decided to make a hopscotch board down our hall. Stan appreciated the fact that I used painters tape on our new wood floor and not duct tape or something. Everyone had a great time, and I learned all sorts of new hopscotch rules, as each child made up their own.

Stan's sister Lisa recently had a baby boy. So I kept busy doing some things that I enjoy doing. I made a little package to send out to her.

Then there's the ever so favorite pastime of ignoring my children while they sit naked in the front window playing with cords. Yeah, that'll teach Stan to leave me alone for a week with the kids!