Azalea catches her first fish! (sort of)

I took Azalea outside with me this morning so I could shovel and she could play in the snow. Instead she was very interested in the minnow bucket that I have in the garage. There's several leftover crappie and sucker minnows in there since my outing on Sunday was most unfruitful. I took a scoop and fished a few of them out, so she could see them close up. Then she decided she wanted to try... at first very unsuccessfully, but then she got the hang of it. I shoveled the whole driveway and walkways while she sat and "fished" in the bucket. She kept smiling and giggling when she would catch one, and then would bring it out to me to show me. She was very excited. Then she learned one of life's hard lessons... don't stick your hands in a bucket of water in the cold winter! That ended her fishing trip, as her hands became a little frozen. Tears were shed, she was quite upset, and we promptly came indoors to recover from the shock.

Buggies!

Azalea is really into girly things... like balls, trucks, trains and bugs. One of her favorite things to do at Grandma and Grandpa Hudson's house is to look for bugs outside. Grandpa helps her find the bugs, and then they collect them in a strainer from the kitchen.

She decided she just had to do this on Thanksgiving day. Karen and Foster had a bunch of the family out, and Azalea and grandpa Foster went out to get bugs right after Thanksgiving dinner was done. There were a bunch of frozen bugs on the back of their house. Azalea and grandpa picked a bunch of them and put them in the strainer (there must have been at least 30). Then Foster let her bring them indoors. He put them all in a small tupperware container for her. When the bugs came back into the warm environment they started to thaw out and come back to life. They were crawling around in the box like crazy. A bunch of the family was still sitting around the table having pie and other desserts. Azalea was very proud of her bugs and brought them up for everyone to see.... she put them in their faces and kept saying "EWWW... buggies."

Then it was naptime, and grandpa let Azalea take the box of bugs to bed. She looked like she was going to fall asleep right away, so I thought it was OK. Big mistake of course. A few minutes later I came back to find Azalea up out of bed, with the bug box open and bugs crawling all over in their guest room. I opened the door and she said, "Oh no! Buggies... EWWW."

Sweet Potatoes

Naomi was really liking the Sweet Potatoes!!

An after dinner desert?

halloween pics

Trick-or-Treating was a blast. It was Azalea's first time. She had to be bribed in order to get her costume on but now that she knows what it's all about I'm sure next year will be easier.

Azalea was a bumble bee, which is one of her favorite things. We had lots of bees around our house back in September so that's where she learned about bees. Here she is about to trick-or-treat at great uncle Donnie and great aunt Sharon's house.

At Great Auntie Pam's house enjoying some candy. Daddy got a piece, too.

Halloween pics

Trick-or-Treat Pam!

She is so excited because she has it figured out now.

Getting a sucker from a sucker....she didn't want to take a group picture.

Here's our little bumble bee.

And here's our pretty flower.

Parenting Trials and Tribulations

Last night, right before Azalea's bedtime, Azalea was going from room to room yelling at the top of her lungs "Leo." Leo is a "Little Einstein" figurine that came with her "rocket" toy she got for her birthday. Since Saturday she has had Leo in one hand and Annie (the other figurine from the toy) in the other. She even brought them to church on Sunday. So apparently we lost Leo. I knew she wouldn't go to bed without it. So we looked and looked knowing that it could be anywhere. After about an hour Mike finds it! "I saw her eating pretzels" he said. There was Leo sitting on the shelf in the bottom cupboard of the kitchen. She must have needed to put Leo down in order to get into the bag.

The Sun Came Out!

Hello, boy were we happy to see the sun. We have been outside a lot these last two days. Using the new wagon Azalea got for her birthday from her grandparents. I was happy that she wanted to share it with her sister. She hopped in and said "Baby, too" and patted the other seat. We got back from a walk and I noticed she didn't have the toy drumstick that she had on the trip so we had to go on another walk in the afternoon. But I couldn't find the brand new toy. When we got back and put the wagon away I found the drumstick on the shelf in the garage next to her other toys. She must have put it there when I wasn't looking. Our neighbor said "she knew where it needed to go."