Role Playing

Conni has started to get the concept of role playing! On Wednesday, she got her plush Minnie Mouse and was carrying it around the house. We got out her doll's sippy cup and Conni would give Minnie some milk. Then we were playing in her room. She recreated her bedtime routine with Minnie: she read some stories, put Minnie's milk by her bed, put Minnie in bed, put the blanket on her, and then gave Minnie a kiss goodnight! Then she insisted that we turn out the lights and she closed the door.

I love to see her little brain figure things out! She's such a cute little bug :)

Grandpa (Longer Post)

My Grandpa has been sick lately, and it has got me reflecting. Since this is just as much my journal for myself as anything else, I wanted to post some of my favorite memories of my Grandpa. I'll try to keep the stories short, but a lot of them are really funny :) And some of them won't be funny to anyone else, but I sure enjoyed taking a minute to remember!

Bucket Lid Frisbees:

My grandpa had a body shop in Murray. He bought the house across the street so that they could take care of his mom. One day, after Grandpa had retired, he invited me and my sisters outside to go play Frisbee. Well, we didn't have any Frisbees, so Grandpa breaks out the 5 gallon bucket lids. We were playing in the courtyard area in the center of all the garage bays having a great time. Then one of the lids broke a window in one of the bays. We looked at Grandpa mortified at what had happened. Grandpa started to giggle and told us to aim for the windows ON PURPOSE! We had so much fun! We finished breaking all the windows and went back to tell Mom and Grandma what had happened. Come to find out, Grandpa was getting the windows replaced the next day anyway, so might as well have some fun!

Lace on a Gunny Sack:

We stopped at my grandparents house after we had been out trying to find a dress for an upcoming dance. We weren't having much luck, and my grandpa wanted to help. After sitting there for a few minutes thinking about it, he offered to go get a gunny sack, and he would sit down at Grandma's sewing machine and add a row of lace at the bottom. Then if that wasn't long enough, he would add another row. (My grandpa is a very mechanical man, but the thought of him sewing was a little ludicrous!)

Hiking at the Cabin:

My grandparents have a cabin in Big Cottonwood Canyon just below Solitude. Its a great place to be in the summer to get away from the heat. One day we were up and Grandpa wanted to take us hiking. I was in high school, and I'm not much of a hiker, so I didn't want to go. I had worn sandals on purpose thinking it would get me out of the hike. But, Mom insisted that me and my sisters go hiking with Grandpa. So we headed out. I have no idea where we went. We kept finding all this "trails" that were probably more just animal paths. Grandpa said we were fine and we could go that way. Then we came to a "No Trespassing" sign. Grandpa giggled and said that it didn't apply to us, and that we could go on thru. I looked at Sarah a little skeptically, but knew that we needed to stay with Grandpa. So we did, and soon enough we came out to a road, without incident. I love being in the mountains with Grandpa and the history he shares and the knowledge he has of nature.

Grandpa's Shop:

I mentioned above about my Grandpa's auto body shop. When I was little we would go visit him at work. I remember the orange chairs in the waiting room. He also had a soda machine stocked with the half-size soda cans. He would give us each 50 cents and send us in there to get one every time we visited. I felt so grown-up getting my own soda!

Jokes:

My Grandpa has a great sense of humor. The only problem, is that some of his best jokes he learned in the navy and are not suitable for my young and sensitive ears. I love to watch Grandpa sit in his chair and watch the wheels turn in his head. He will giggle and then shake his head and then think some more. Then he will call me over to his side, and start giggling again, and tell me the cleaned up version of his joke. Half the time I didn't get them, but it was just funny cause Grandpa and the other adults were laughing so hard.

The Purple Billy Goat:

When we were younger, my little sister was quite gullible. (I'm sure I never was - ha ha). Grandpa used to always try to convince her that there was a purple billy goat that lived across the street with the chickens. We would all tease that we could see it, but Steph never could. Then when Steph finally got her contacts, we stop by to "show" grandma and grandpa. She looked out their picture window and said "Grandpa, I found the purple billy goat!"

I could go on, but I just wanted to share a little bit about how fun a guy my Grandpa is. He is very special to me and I love him!

Beating the Heat

We got a little kiddie pool for Conni to splash in. Here's a cute video of her enjoying it.

And yes, I know that her swimsuit is not quite long enough to cover her adorable little tummy. This is the 24 month suit that looked like it would fit her that we bought last year. She can wear it a few times and then we'll break out the 3T suit. Its just too cute :)

Hair Bows

I have been making these hair bows for Conni for a few months now. I love how they look in her hair. I am thinking of making them to sell on etsy.com and I would love to know what you guys think.

They are about two inches in diameter and I am thinking of selling them for $5 a pair. Would you pay that? I would also have the option for custom colors as requested.

The other thing is that I would have to come up with a name for my store. I have some crocheted afghans and stuff I would sell too. So I was debating the name "PattisProjects" for my store. What do you think of that?

Please comment and let me know what you think. I would really appreciate the feedback!

Conni wearing her cute bows

(such a cheesy girl)

Bow colors I've made so far

Top and Bottom of the bow

Such Good Friends

Tini has been down this weekend with her family visiting. She and Conni are such good friends. Mom and Steph and I were in the family room visiting. Then we heard the girls laughing really loudly and screaming in delight from the back bedroom. My mom went back to investigate and she called for Steph and I to bring a camera.

We get back to the bedroom to find both girls in one bed, tickling each other. They were pretending to be asleep, then waking each other up. They were laughing so hard and so were we!

Girls Camp Skit

Here's the video of my girls doing their skit up at YW camp. I'm sorry the vid is so shaky! Enjoy - they worked hard on it!

Conni's Headboard

I picked up some vinyl letters from the dollar store. Dave suggested we put Conni's name on her headboard. It was a super cute idea, and this is how it turned out!


Conni loves her letters. We are working on learning ABC's and helping her recognize her name. She will lie on her bed on her tummy and trace the letters. She points to them and says her version of "Conni". Its so adorable!

Finished Deck

Dave finished our back deck a while ago, but I kept forgetting to put up a picture. Here's our cute Conni posing on the steps after we were playing with sidewalk chalk. Thanks for your hard work sweetie - we love the deck!