18 Months Old

Tomorrow Piper turns 18 months old. Yes it is hard to believe that I have a year and a half year old daughter but I have to say she's certainly acting her age.

She still loves books and her pink bunny blanket.

She goes nuts over trips to the library and the park.

She loves all animals (even creepy ones like snakes and bats) but her favorite animals are cats and horses.

She loves toast, cottage cheese (or ah cheese as she calls it), Qdoba, and any and all fruit.

She loves Sesame Street, Super Why, Blues Clues, and Wonder Pets.

She lets you know she's having fun by saying "Happy now".

She loves riding the mechanical horse at the grocery store but she doesn't freak out when it's out of order, she just says "neigh neigh broken".

She pretends to call Papa on the phone everyday but if he's actually on the phone she will not talk to him.

She knows most letters in the Alphabet but her favorite letter is W.

She loves bath time and play time.

She learns something new everyday.

She's the reason for the smile on my face.

Happy 18 month Birthday Piper!

Craft Night

Poor little Piper fighting a cold and just isn't herself. We decided to have a craft night tonight to get her mind off things. We are getting a little excited a bout Halloween so we made some bats, a cat, and Josh also made a raven(not in the picture) for our front window.

Piper made some little hand print ghosts. She also finally got to use her white crayon. She tries to draw with it everyday on her white paper and now that we have black paper it finally made a mark.

Craft night was a huge success and it got Piper's mind off of feeling yucky.

Three Photos From The Last Three Days

Piper got to ride a horse again this weekend at an apple festival south of town. It was cold and busy and all Piper wanted to do was play in the bounce house. After about a half hour of her flailing around in the bounce house I finally had to crawl in and take her out. I guess she did enjoy the animals too but when I ask her about the apple farm she seems to only remember playing.

I took this photo at the park today. It's kind creepy and it  reminds me a little bit of The Shining.

It was a beautiful night tonight and Piper was able to get outside and play with the neighbor girls. She loves when they come over and draw with sidewalk chalk. She always seems to end up with more chalk on herself then on the driveway. Oh and yes that is my hubby riding bike in the background.

I Heart a Touch of Sun

The challenge this week at I Heart Faces is a touch of sun. I've been fortunate to take a lot of sunny shots this past summer but this session was one of my favorites. My little sis needed a nice photo for some reason or another and I of course volunteered to take it. Here's one of my favorites.

 Make sure to check out all the other sunny shots this week!

Family Fun on a Dime

Josh has had some time off this week so we've been able to spend lots of time together as a family. Our hot water heater also decided to poop out this week so we have had to find family activities that don't cost a lot and is within a short driving distance. Yesterday we did a few activities that didn't cost much at all.

After lunch we headed over to the Outdoor Campus. They have a great little museum and it's free! Piper loved running around and looking at the fish and the animals.

They also had a great little sunroom full of puzzles and children's activities. We also liked watching all the birds, squirrels and ducks out the window.

Yesterday evening we decided to all try our hand at water color painting. It was a lot of fun and surprisingly relaxing. Piper really loves art projects and it's been fun teaching her the basics. I'm extremely excited to have a future craft partner.

In other news Piper has constantly been saying "sorry". When I ask her why she's sorry she always smiles and says "cause". I sometimes wish I knew where she picked this stuff up.

Well the weekend is here and we have a couple more family things planned.

Hope you all have fun weekend too!

Recent Reads

Four years ago today Josh and I packed up and set off on our Portland adventure. Looking back we now refer to it as our 3 year vacation. I'm so happy that we had the opportunity to live in Portland and to meet so many great people.

One year ago today Piper and I hopped on a plane and headed back to Minnesota. Josh followed behind with the moving truck.

Lots has happened in the last year since moving back to the Mid-west. We bought a home and are settled in Sioux Falls, Piper has grown and changed so much, and we are now expecting a baby boy. I do get a twinge of homesickness for Portland everyday but I'm so happy with our life here in Sioux Falls. If I've learned anything in the past 4 years it's that life is full of changes and surprises. There is not much you can do but hang on tight and enjoy the ride.

Palisades State Park

We were all feeling a little cooped up yesterday and with the knowledge that it may be the last nice warm day for a while we decided to get out of the house and head to Palisades State Park.

We had a fun time exploring and letting Piper run around. Piper wasn't real interested in the hiking trails so Josh and I took turns going off on our own to check out a couple of the trails.

Piper loved trying to find grass hoppers and try to catch them. She also kept talking about something that Josh and I couldn't understand. We thought she was saying pine cone but we later found out she was saying play ground.

When we got home she told us all about the big rock that she and Josh sat on. I know her favorite part of the day was climbing on the playground and going down the slide but it sure felt good to get outside and get some fresh air.

Fort Belmont

Today Piper and I met up with my mom in dad in Jackson Minnesota at Fort Belmont. I've been driving past Fort Belmont all summer seeing their sign for the Fort Belmont Rendezvous. I've used to go to Rendezvous as a child and I asked my parents if they wanted to meet us there. The sights and smells definitely brought back memories.

The Rendezvous was real small but we still had a great time. Piper loved the horse pulled wagon rides, and getting to go inside all the old buildings.

While my mom, Piper and I were checking out the fort tower and the sod house my dad was busy buying toys for his future grandson. Some how he managed to find him a bow and arrows and a sling shot. I told him these are toys baby boy will have to keep at Grandpa and Grandmas house.

We all had a lot of fun and here are some of my favorite photos from our little adventure.

Cat Mask

Piper and I took a trip to the craft store today so I could get supplies to make a Halloween picture frame. Piper spotted a cat mask and got a big kick out of putting it up to her face and saying "meow meow".  I thought it might be fun to let her paint it. She did an awesome job. Of course the first thing she did with the paint brush was dip it in the yellow paint and stick it up to her lips. Once I explained she should paint the cat she got the hang of it right away.

I added some whiskers while she was taking a nap.

After it was nice and dry she had a great time pretending to be a cat, and seeing how all her stuffed animals looked when she held it up to their faces.

Piper had an electrifying trip to the park tonight.

Halfway There

I'm 20 weeks pregnant and that means I'm halfway there. It also means we had my 20 week ultrasound and I know the baby's gender!

We found out today that we are having a little baby boy! We are so excited!

Everything looked great during the ultrasound and he also gave us a little smile.

Only 20 more weeks and I get to meet my little guy.