Quiet Time

I've started to realize that when chatter stops, I should get concerned! The majority of the time Cutie is doing something that she shouldn't. The other times, I can peek into her room and catch her doing a little reading up in her big chair! We usually have a couple books on her little table, left over from story time the night before. She'll crawl up in her comfy chair, move back and forth to make it rock, and one by one go through all the books that are at her reach! It is so sweet :)

She recently discovered a box of mini books all about animals (which is what she's reading below!). She loves them! She'll open the box, pull out every one, cry until I put them back in and repeat. It's TONS of fun ;)

The other quite times...she's probably doing something like this!

I was finishing up some laundry, took her clothes to her room and came back to find THIS!

Just In Case...

Just in case you weren't aware...

With my purse, ponytail and sassy sandals :)

Breakfast Please

My little climber has graduated from her rocking chair to the kitchen table! I was checking my email yesterday and turned around to find Elly sitting in one of our kitchen chairs just watching me! For those who haven't seen our itty bitty house, my laptop is on the bar top directly across from the kitchen table. It took the girl 2.5 seconds to climb up into that chair! Little monkey :) I caught her in the act again this morning. This time I was prepared with the camera :)

What's for breakfast?

CHEEESE!

Texas Summers and 16 Months

Texas summers are just NO fun! It is so unbearably hot, being outside is not much of an option. Like her Mommy and Daddy, Elly gets quite stir crazy sitting in the house all day. She loves going to Miss Kelly's where she gets to play with her friends all day (seriously, she can't get away from me quick enough when we get to her door!), but when we are at home she gets bored with just plain old Mom to play with. We decided to go for a swim first thing in the morning...before it hits 107! I have to admit, I actually joined Elly in the pool last weekend. I'm sure it was a sight to see but in the Texas summer, a girl does what she has to do!

Filling up the pool...cutie takes this job VERY serious!


Put down the hose and jump on in!


Wait a minute...What happened to the water???


Her new favorite...standing up and falling on her booty to make a B*I*G splash :)


She would fall, laugh and start clapping :)


Her new favorite word...Ewwwwwww! When she sees something that is a little odd, she'll scrunch her face, point at it say "Ewwwww" until you pick it up. Lately we've had a little problem with Cutie going poopie in the tub (definitely EWWWWW!). It TERRIFIES her! She'll start freaking out with "Ewwww" galore until Daddy cleans it up! Yes, Daddy. That's his job :)

What's that I see? Bird poop! Her best "Ewwwww" face :)


We've been working on a "cheeeese" face as well. I actually use the cheese face when we brush teeth! "Elly, say CHEEESE!" She'll smile and imitate "Teeeees"


I can't believe our girl is 16 months! She has quite a personality and shows it! She had a full on conversation with a plumber across the street the other day. Literally, we were on our sidewalk and he was fixing some pipes on the house across the street. She stood in our driveway jabbering away, waving her hands in the air for a good 5 minutes. He was a good sport and humored her by returning the conversation. She knows a few signs that she uses regularly now. She can tell you; more, please, cookie and all done. Her vocab is also growing by the day! She has quite a few words that she uses regularly; mommy, daddy, shoe, go, bubbles, doggie, are the main ones. I've been working on 'more' and 'please' but she doesn't want much to do with them. She imitated tweezers (more like teesahs!) this morning but won't say 'please' or 'more'! Have I mentioned that the girl does WHAT she wants WHEN she wants! Kris says she gets her hard head from me. I beg to differ!

The Small Things

While paying some bills tonight, I suddenly had an old memory flood back to me. It made me realize the impact of the small things and how they can leave funny memories of their own! It may be the wine talking, but I'm feeling a little "journal-ie" tonight. Since I don't have a journal, the next closest thing would be my good ole blog!

It all started with an ADD evening (started cleaning the tub, realized I still had towels in the dryer, went to fold towels, saw some bills that needed paying, started writing checks, went to get my address labels which are by the dryer, forgot about my towels and finished folding them...I'm exhausted just typing that!). As I was putting my address labels on a few bills, and sipping wine in between, I remembered when my mom would let me pick out my own address labels as a kid. She would hand me the catalogue and I would thumb through it a million times dog-earing the pages of ones that I took a liking to. Bears dancing on a piano jumps out at me! Do you remember those mom?! Who would have thought that address labels would do that to a 10 year old! Being a mommy of my own now, I hope that I remember the impact of the little things. It's not always about the biggest, best and most expensive...sometimes a little sticky paper with words and numbers (and maybe a dancing bear or two) will make the most impact :)



Can't blog without Cutie!! We just finished up Elly's swim lessons!! She sure enjoyed the first couple lessons. After that she was bored and ready to do her own thing. That pretty much sums up our days...The girl knows what she wants and will scream until she gets it ;)

Hey Nana...

...can you make us cousin's something cool???


Growing up in Utah, my parents had a "professional hopscotch" painted on our back patio. Is there such a thing? Well...it was pretty cool so it must have been professional ;) I remember having an entire collection of Hoppy Taws that I cherished as though they had a stash of gold inside! I thought they (and I) were the coolest! So...when Elly asked her Nana to make something super cool for she and her cousins, of course her Nana made a hopscotch!


"Go Austin go!"


"Hey guys! Wait for me!"

Cutie strikin' a pose ;)

Happy 4th x2

My goal for the weekend...to get a picture of all the cousins together in their red, white and blue! We have a cute one from last year and I want to keep the tradition alive! I guess my first mistake was waiting until bedtime to take it...DUH! After her bath, I got Cutie all gussied up in her RWandB. She was perfectly happy cruising the backyard and checking out flowers. Things started to go down hill the moment we stuck her on Meghan's lap. She wanted down...NOW!

Perfectly content doing her own thing. God forbid you try to make her do YOUR thing :)


1st shot...not too bad, but starting to get a little concerned.


Starting to get a little angry. Would have been the perfect shot...geesh Elly! ;)


This is when all hell broke loose!

Put her down...happy as a clam :)

CURLS!!!!

Somewhere in the mix of things we held a fishy funeral. Complete with burial and not so elegant words from Uncle Kris.

And of course...fireworks!

All in all it was a fun filled and jam packed weekend. Can't wait 'till next year!

Happy 4th...

...and 3rd and 5th! Whew, what a weekend! I have so many great pictures that I am going to have to break it up in two posts :)

The Roebuck's started off a great weekend with the annual Ryan Place 4th of July parade. This year it was actually held of the 3rd. To be honest, we actually forgot about it until we saw a firetruck heading down our street. So, unfortunately, cutie is not decked out in her red, white and blue. Oh well...we had plenty of that in the days following!



My favorite float! For those of you non Fort Worth-ians, The FW zoo opened up a fabulous new amphibian exhibit...the MOLA (Museum Of Living Art).

Maybe I was a little partial to the GIANT horned frog tagging along ;)

Saturday afternoon, we headed out to Granbury to take in some Independence Day weekend festivities. We had one pooped little girl on our hands! We were able to see off Grandpa, Nana and the cousin's as they headed on their way to the golf cart parade. After a few trips down to the runway and through the grass, Elly was DONE! We made our way back to the house to rest up for the 4th!

My little Amelia Earhart striking a pose on the runway ;)

I'm spent! Take me to my kingdom!

Off to the parade!

What did I ever do...

...before I had my cell?!

The Roebuck's have taken full advantage of the last few overcast days. We hadn't been on the bikes lately, nor had we taken Elly to park. So, what did we do? Loaded Cutie up in the bike trailer and made our way down to Tillery! The clouds have been a nice change from the blazing sun, but our trip didn't last long due to humidity that you could have sliced with a knife! The heat didn't seem to phase Elly. She was off! With her cell of course ;) The girl didn't put the thing down the ENTIRE time we spent at the park. Not to mention the entire way to and from! On the way home we heard a frantic scream...translated baby speak, "STOOOOOP!!!! I've dropped my PHOOOOONE!!!" Sure enough, she had dropped it onto the floor of the bike trailer. She is so stinkin' funny when it comes to that phone. She'll carry it around, stop mid stride, put it up to her ear and have a full on conversation. She has even started imitating us by holding it, hand less, between her shoulder and ear. Too funny :)

"See ya! I've got things to do and people to talk to!"


She would fall, get back up and check to make sure her phone was in good shape :)

"Hold on dad, I've got a text coming in..."

The tongue swings creeps me out a little bit. Elly sure liked it. Not that you can tell by her lack of enthusiasm! She was SO busy that she didn't crack many smiles today.

It wouldn't be a trip to the park without daddy having some fun too!