she's a quirky little thing

Quirk Number One: Sometimes when I'm working on projects I let Paisley play with boxes full of craft items. They seem to entertain her longer than her toys. The other day I looked up from my scrapbooking to this lovely little sight. Do we have a fashion designer in the making? She wore the embroidery floss around the house (obstructing her vision and all) for an hour or so until we had to go out in public.

Quirk Number Two: check out the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juDeSu9ez8Y

p.s. she's walking!

La Florida

Here we are with our favorite Floridians. And yes, that is a real goat.

Polka Dot

Paisley is modeling a skirt we made for our friend's baby shower tomorrow. Do we have to give it away?

Spence and Zo

We couldn't be more thrilled to have Zoe join the family. The wedding and reception were beautiful. I was impressed that Mamma Smith made a lot of the food herself, including the delicious carrot cake. I got to help out by making Zoe's bouquet and putting the flowers on the cake. I was a little intimidated, but pleased with how it turned out. Paisley was a doll the whole trip. She even loved the plane rides. Thanks for everyone's advice. The most valuable tidbit: "Dress her up cute because people will be more tolerant of a cute baby." I guess those little pink and orange shoes and the flower in her hair did their magic, or else the passengers were just really relieved to have some entertainment because they played peek-a-boo with her the whole time. She moped for three days straight when we came home. An outing to the grocery store did bring some relief, but she was a little perplexed when the shoppers didn't return her smiles and laughs as enthusiastically as her relatives. More pics from the trip coming soon . . .

brown paper packages tied up with strings

I'm a little apprehensive about our flight to Florida tomorrow. Keeping Paisley on our laps for an hour during sacrament meeting can be torturous. But I'm feeling a little better now that I've gathered all this loot. Paisley's favorite play things are ordinary household objects. So I got all the small containers and objects I could come up with. One idea that I'm hoping will be a hit is a photo album with only pictures of her. (She's so vain but who can blame her?). The two purchases I made- the box of crayons and the mini teddy bear. She was introduced to a box of crayons the other day and played happily (crayons in the box...crayons out of the box...) for a couple of hours before I confiscated them so they wouldn't loose their novelty before the flight. Just can't remember where I confiscated them to. Lately she's loved her stuffed animals but they're all as big as her, so I thought the teddy was a good find at the 99 cent store. Oh, and the screaming monkey slingshot--Its scream scares her so badly that she'll cuddle calmly with me for half an hour. It's a last resort in the evenings before Brandon gets home. I try not to use it too much. The vacuum and the hair dryer already lost their magical calming power. I'm sure no one on the plane will be happy about hearing a screaming monkey. But it just might be better than a screaming baby. Well, even if Paisley isn't entertained, at least I had fun. Any tips from seasoned travellers?

Kung Fu Baby

Can't get enough of those giggles

Thanks for making Paisley happy, Gigi. Miss you already!

the patio garden

Isn't this beautiful? I love plants! And all the better when they're edible. It was mild enough to have a garden all winter. I was so surprised how easy it was and how much we could grow in such a small space. And it cost under $10 because we found all the pots in the dumpster. Mommy's little helper. Paisley loves to play on the patio.

Our best crop.

The other plus about Las Vegas winters--perfect hiking weather. We LOVE the backpack we got for Christmas. Thanks Nana and Grandpa!
And a random photo I couldn't help but post. Isn't that the cutest expression?