Ella's new trick

Ella has a new trick to show off you all of you. She has been so close for a few weeks now and on Saturday she finally mastered it like a champ. This means trouble begins. I guess it's true that the second one starts everything early....

Zoo time....

Last week we headed out to the zoo. It was a perfect day to be outside and enjoy some animals. We were sad that the Africa animals were not there, but had a great time with the farm animals.

Alivia was a little taken back by the goats, but soon warmed up to them when she found out she could brush their hair.

Making the goat pretty if that is even possible.

Oh we spent a lot of time watching them wash the horses. For some reason this was pretty amazing to watch for a two year old.

Checking out the Leopard.

Big new things in the Varley home

This last week has been a week of new beginnings. Both my girls have started new chapters in their lives. Ella started eating cereal and Alivia is now in a big girl bed. Last weekend we started climbing out of the crib so that was our sign she is ready. So far everything has gone smooth. Ella has been doing really well getting that awesome no taste slime down and my big girl Alivia has taken to her bed like a champ. She has been so excited about it and when someone comes over it's the first thing we show. First night went down great and slept all night without a peep. Clint was getting ready and out she walked like such a big kid at about 7:10am. I might have been a little teary eyed when switching her room over, I guess that means she is not may baby anymore. I am glad we waited till she was ready because it's been such a easy adjustment.

Where has the time gone with this little one. Pretty soon Ella will be crawling and talking. Thank god my baby days are not over... (no I am not pregnant, but we will have more)
Who couldn't love these two. Ella has gotten down the "what" look and Alivia has taken to her new role as mom #2.

Love you Ella Joy

Here she is so excited about the new bed set up. We also got this awesome night light that she can have in her bed. It's a little dog that lights up for 30 minutes and then shuts off. My scared of the dark child loves it.

I think she sat here for the whole afternoon so excited.

I still have to get new sheets and pillow cases, but the gate was the most important so far. We have all weekend to get new decor and fun things.

Breast Cancer 3-day walk!!!

Year #2 down for my sister who walked 60 miles in the 3-day for the cure. We are all so proud of her and love coming down to the capital to welcome her home after walking and camping for the days. This year the Minneapolis Breast Cancer walk raised over 6 million dollars for research which is amazing. Thanks to my sister and all the other walkers for making a difference.

Steph and the kiddos
So happy for you....

Waiting and waiting

Mom and daughter

Alivia and Presley

Enjoying the sounds of girls

Don't you just love the sound of kids..... This has been my favorite sound these days enjoy....

Where did my babies go?

My little Ella is getting so big. She loves to play and is just my happy baby.

We went from 2 yrs old to 18 pretty fast. We love to wear mommy's shoes these days.
We also like to check ourself out in the mirror and tell everyone we are pretty.

Iowa weekend....

We had such a great time in Iowa over the weekend. Alivia was in her glory being with grandma, grandpa and Chad. She even got to play with all of her friends that she has grown to love. We packed in a lot of fun things in a short time starting with great grandma Varley's 80th birthday party which was a good time. The kids played outside on the playground thanks to help from Chad and grandma Annette.
Saturday we jumped on the trampoline, feed the cats and went grocery shopping with grandma. In the afternoon we went to a pool party for Eli's 8th birthday and then headed to Lance and Megan's for a lot of food and fun. To finish our weekend we went to Adventure land on Sunday morning and had wonderful time. It was great weather for a perfect weekend.

Ella enjoying her dolly

Alivia having a great time playing with grandma's shoes

I think it might take a few more years of practice to get a good make-up face done right. We did have a lot of fun playing in grandma's vanity though.

Some of grandma's old hats from her grandma

So cute....

Playing in the pool at Eli's party. The boys were playing some game that really didn't make sense, but it was fun. Jump to daddy. We did a lot of jumping and not always to daddy. Alivia would run and try to jump in without daddy being there. I guess this was the weekend of being a big girl.

So fun...

The babies hanging at the pool

Chloe and Alivia

Playing with the little ones. Jonny and Stella are right up Alivia's alley.

What a fun game of catching elephant peanuts.

Alivia did a great job at helping Eli open presents. She was really concerned with the calculator and thanks to Lance he got it open, but we used it as a phone instead.

Keciah and Alivia working on some toys

Waiting patiently for the cake
One of the crowd these days

Adventure land...

Loving the plane ride.

Awesome

Like a old pro driving the trunk. I don't think we took our eye's off the road once.

I think the boy next to her was more interesting on this ride.

If I only had a video of this ride. Alivia looked like she was going to loose it, but then came around towards the end. This one brings you up and then drops you down and then repeats. It was priceless to watch.

She had this awkward look on her face like I think I like it, but not sure. It was the bit down for life...

An old pro

Grandma and Alivia having a blast on the dragon

Look how high we are

We took it down a notch on this old wagon ride

Having fun with grandma

Summer days

With this heat wave we have been having the girls and I have been swimming a lot to keep cool. Alivia has become my little fish and has no fear of the water. I don't know what we are going to do when the cold weather comes which is hopefully not for a long time.

Swimming in our backyard
At the Edina pool and it was a hot one

Jack and Alivia

The girls were playing mermaid which is some sort of fun game 2 and 3 year old play

My little lady enjoying this hot weather

It was so hot my camera would fog up

Double trouble