It was a busy, fun day!

We had so much fun today! EC has not been into coloring much lately. She makes me color all the time. She makes her Sunday school teachers color and her dance teacher color, but she does not actually color her own pictures. Today I found her doing this:

This was kind of a big deal. Check out that two toned Boots! I was so proud! And I think she did a pretty good job trying to stay in the lines!

She also surprised me by doing connect the dots today. I printed a bunch of stuff from nickjr.com. She loved everything! She asked me if we could do more when we finished! Even after we did the chore charts!

She had such a great time and loves her new chore charts! Mommy thinks they are awesome too!!

We shared some carrots with AB and was kind of upset when AB took the fork with the carrots one time.

Then Weston and Kelly came over to play! EC was a little tired because she refused to sleep again. How a kid that tired can lay there and read books for two hours without falling asleep is beyond me.

I feel like she is saying, "Are you really going to take this shoe from me?"

Both girls are passed out now, thank goodness!! Goodnight everyone!

She always has a lot to say

EC woke up this morning and the first thing out of her mouth was, "Oh, we have to get ready for church. Daddy will you snuggle me just a minute?" Then it was, "I have to put on a beautiful dress and big girl panties!" She is all talk non stop from dawn till the wee hours of the night - when we let her stay up =)

There are times, when she is very tired, that EC just cannot quite find the words to say. It is so cute to listen to her stumble through something. It reminds me that she is still a little girl. She stumbled through her sentences a lot when her friend Kirsten came to play. Kirsten is 15 months older than EC. It was so much fun to listen to them talk about being princesses and pretend mommies. They even had a little "concert" with ballerina clothes.

Well, today was the first weekend we have attended our church since the children moved up to the next class. So they both had new teachers. EC didn't mind. She said hello to the kids and didn't even notice when we left. After church Bo picked her up and EC's teacher asked, "How old is Emma Catherine." Bo replyed that she is two and her birthday is in October. The teacher told him, yep that's what she told us too. She is just so tall and knows so many words!

Their are a few phrases she has picked up that I do not care to hear come out of her mouth like "I don't want to" and "I can't do it". We are working on them. I pull out the phrase my big sister taught me, "I can do hard things." So for every "I can't do it" that comes out of her little mouth, EC has to follow it up with "I can do hard things."

This afternoon EC was asking us if we had any ingredients as she pretended to cook. I need to thank Grandma Sandra for teaching her the word ingredients because she is always cooking for us and talking to EC! It is just so incredible what their little minds pick up! Incredible and challenging!

Does anyone have a clever response for her "I don't want to" phrase??

Kathy's visit and AB's first teeth

My sister Kathy and two of her children came to visit at the end of August! We missed Jim and Rachel, but I'm so excited that Rachel is drum major for her high school band and I understand how important her part in band camp is this year!

It was so nice to see Kathy, Robert and Caroline. Robert and Caroline were the babies of the family until Mark, Scott, and I started having little munchkins! So this trip was a little different for them because they were "the big kids" of the bunch. They went from being the babies,

to being the middle children and now they are "big kids". Wow how time flies!

I love how EC is trying to take care of Eden and Eric is climbing the couch in that picture! So funny! EC thought she was as big as Caroline! And she had the best time playing with her.

Caroline was such a doll and played just about everything EC wanted. EC was in HEAVEN!

Everyone enjoyed some time in the back yard!

Here they are soaked from running in the sprinklers!

And hanging out in pjs!

And just playing!

Cousins are fun!

And I do not have a picture, but AB cut two teeth! I notice the first one on Monday during her shot visit at the pediatrician's office and the second one on Wednesday. She also decided to climb a stair on the same day. She didn't cry or run any temp with the teething, but she was a little cranky and clingy during Kathy's visit the week before. We knew something was up!

Another funny thing during Kathy's visit was hearing EC say swagger wagon! Hilarious! Scott and Amelia finally broke down and purchased a minivan. Bo had not seen the swagger wagon you tube video, so we were talking about it and showing it to him. And we all know EC has to try out every new word she hears, so that was her new word/phrase of the week. Swagger wagon ;)

The Little Monkey is Experimenting

AB is experimenting with standing and pulling up these days.

Honestly, I'm surprised it took her this long. Perhaps it is because we went a whole week without her walker.

The doctors don't recommend walkers at her age, so maybe that is why it took her so long to try this out.

Then again, EC used a walker and it didn't seem to slow her down. Maybe this is just another example of how no two people are exactly the same.

Either way, I don't regret letting her use a walker. I was lucky it took her so long to learn to pull up! She fell at least 5 times today and pulled a countless number of EC's toys down on top of herself. Her rule of thumb is if it is taller than me, I must pull up on it no matter how unstable it may be. Every time I turn around she is pulling up on something new. Quick! Move the sharp knives!

So here's to hoping she becomes a lot more stable very quickly, or someone may call child services after seeing the result of trial and error. AB doesn't think I'm very funny.

I have always wondered...

How in the world do babies fall asleep in their highchairs? I have asked myself this question ever since EC was born. AB is a much better sleeper than EC, but I didn't know how good she was until I turned around to see this

I no longer wonder how my mom has at least one picture of each child asleep on their plate of spaghetti. It just happened! It is very funny AB chose this day to fall asleep in her chair, because just the day before I had been pondering how in the world any baby actually fell asleep in a highchair.

I really love this girl!!

So I have obviously been on another blogging hiatus. There have been many things to blog about, but every time I sit down to start blogging I just think - nah, I would rather pin stuff, watch tv with Bo, read with the girls, work on Thirty-One stuff, etc. I just have not wanted to spend time blogging. I do love having this memory book of our family, so I will get caught up eventually....

I started writing the following post last week when my computer ran out of memory and I had to wait for Bo to back up and clear off some of our pictures. So here is the post from last Monday. Maybe one day soon I will get the motivation needed to catch up on July and August!

Today was a very big day at the Lane house! EC went to her first dance class!

Please disregard the clean laundry in the background =) I like folding laundry so much less than blogging, ever.

We started of the day with a trip to DanceMax. EC walked right into the store and picked out a cute pink and black outfit. After that, she was finished shopping. That was all she wanted.

I thought "Whoa, wait a sec. That has black in it. I don't know what daddy is going to think." So the sales person and I looked through the huge wall of dance outfits to find something "pink and precious". While we were busy looking, Laura and EC were in the dressing room with the pink and black outfit. When she came out of the dressing room, I thought she was ABSOLUTELY adorable. However, I was still convinced that maybe one without black would be much cuter. So I bribed her to try on just two more, but nothing was as cute as the one she picked out.

We barely got her out of her "new dress" for the ride home.

With promises of going to dance class after nap, she finally gave in and took her nap. Too bad that was only about 45 minutes before we needed to leave.

I had to wake both girls up from nap and rush out the door. This was right after Bo told me someone at work called him desperate for his help and he probably wasn't going to make it for dance class. Thank heavens Laura was here to help today! She was my extra set of hands, my photographer and babysitter. Thank you Lala!!

We made it to the craziness that is dance class for 2-3 year olds. Which really means any where from almost 2 to almost 3. In some children the 1 year old still showed. Next week, the class will be spit into two separate classes. This will be a welcomed change. However, tonight was probably the most precious thing I have ever seen.

They did more with the girls than I expected, but my expectations were fairly low =)

We loved the teachers

There was one song where the girls pointed their thumbs at themselves in reference to being a monkey. But when the teacher asked where the monkey was, EC was the first to tell Ms Hannah that she was the monkey =)

And maybe Isabelle is a monkey too!

The best part of dance may have been the rewards! Stamps were a big thing!

And this simple little sticker was so awesome - just ask EC!!

It was a big day.