Hey guero!

We have started our corruption of our daughter. Today Jillian learned her first Spanish slang word. Although she now knows the meaning of guero and can pronounce it correctly, I'm not sure she knows the meaning of white person. We told her that the next time she meets Grandpa to say, "Hey guero."

New York, New York!

Today was our last morning with Michelle before we dropped her off at the hotel for the convention. As I said before, she and Jillian really made a connection. By last night, Jillian wanted Michelle to put her jammies on, watch her eat and even race her to the potty! (a little game we play to get Jillian to go...) Yesterday, John had to work a few hours and Jillian made it clear that she just wanted to hang out with the girls! We even were invited to Owens for dinner too.
This morning we all went to Ugly Mug Coffee and sat around and relaxed. Jillian had a Voodoo Donut with vanilla icing, sprinkled with Tang!
Later, Jillian and Michelle were engrossed in a conversation about The Sneetches. I'm pretty sure if Jillian had a star tattoo, she would have put it on Michelle's belly.
The last is of "The Girls". We won't soon forget this trip and look forward to planning a cross country trip sometime in the future. (Owens family may be on board for that as well with their family) P.S. You'll knock 'em dead with your talk, Michelle!
*yes, Jillian got a hair cut on Friday afternoon. so cute!

From New York with LOVE

My friend Michelle came to visit and attend a lawyer's convention. I picked her up Thursday afternoon and by Thursday evening she and Jillian had bonded.
After a busy day on Friday, I think, Jillian wanted to "rest" with Michelle on our bed. It wound up sounding like 2 giggling girls at a slumber party!
Jillian was also more than excited to lay the hands on Michelle's tummy to try to feel baby Zoe in action. Sorry to say, there was no child to belly play date...
Car pic is of Jillian playing, "I'm a ghost" in the car on the way to drop Michelle off at the hotel. She said she wants to go to New York to visit soon! We miss you already, Michelle!

sprinkle the sprinkler

Today after school I got out the sprinkler and Jillian and I played around for about an hour. She was so excited to not only wear her swimsuit, but without a swim pull-up! She's such a big girl now! Maybe tomorrow we'll get out the kiddie pool...

CHOCOLATE!!!

The easter bunny left a little something at Uncle Bob's house for Jillian. We've been able to keep it out of sight for a week but Julie was cleaning out he fridge today and Jillian saw the bunny. Since she ate a good dinner we let her have a little bite... Dada got a little bite... Mama got a little bite. Then it was put way in the back of the fridge.

WOW!

It seemed to me that traffic was getting lighter on my commute to work. Today the state released the latest unemployment figure. At 12.1% unemployment we could be the highest in the country. The federal government releases the figures for all the states on Friday. The only 2 states ahead of us were Michigan and South Carolina. Let's see if Oregon can be first in something.

Peter Cottontail part II

I mentioned before that we hid the eggs inside quite a few times, well, Jillian also hid them for us to find. John had much fun finding eggs! Jillian was the last to wake up Easter morning, well after 7:30. The second pic is of her checking out her loot. (thanks to Texas grands for the presents and Auntie Donna for the basket and check!)
Picture of Jillian and Mommy kissing is because Jillian tried her first hard-boiled egg on Saturday and she likes the Yoke best. She was kissing me with a messy mouth so I guess the yoke's on me!
The last is just a sampling of the beautiful eggs we colored.
Happy Easter 2009!

Here Comes Peter Cottontail!

This Easter we went out to my parents' house. We headed out on Saturday and spent the night so I told Jillian she should leave a note for the Easter Bunny so he could find us.
We decided to do some Egg Hunts Saturday afternoon since it was going to rain on Sunday. I think we hid eggs 2-3 times outside then about 12 times inside the house. Lots of fun!
Later in the day we dyed eggs and then on Sunday the rest of the family came to eat and have specially decorated sprinkled Easter Egg cupcakes.

Our Little Genius

Jillian came home from Grandma's house this afternoon and my mom told us to have Jillian write her name for us. What? Well, the evening progressed through dinner and a shower to coloring. I asked Jillian to write her name for me and she DID! She also did it LEFT handed which we've seen her do since she learned to hold a pen correctly at 9 months old. I wrote some names down and lines beside them and she wrote them all : Mom, Dad, Owen.
She has also been in panties since Thursday and pedaled her big girl bike all by herself this afternoon. Our little girl is growing up. Now if we can just get her to read so she knows what she is writing! We could not be more proud!

She did it!

Well, she made it. Julie has finished her first half marathon. Sorry about the bad pictures but I got to the finish line just in time to see her coming across the line. (She was supposed to call me at 11 miles so I would be prepared.) Now she has to train for the full marathon in October. We're all proud of you, honey!

B&W film

I have been putting my digital camera off to the side and shooting with B&W film recently. I really like the results. Some people may not understand going back in technology, but there is a certain feel to the camera as well as the film grain that you can't get with digital. I then take the film and scan it to make prints. The only draw back is when Jillian wants to see the picture after I take it. She has now started asking, "Is it film?" and then knows she has to wait if the answer is yes.
The top picture I've titled sidewalk artist and the second picture is so far untitled. I'm planning on making 16x20's of these soon.

April Fools!!!

Well, the day is coming to an end so I guess I must confess.

Jillian's smile is fully intact. She will not be getting a gold cap! 

The whole story was a farce fabricated by yours truly. 

I made John do the photoshop of the pic...

For those of you that bought it, HAAHAHHAHAHAHHA AHHAHAHHHAHH AHAHAHAHAHA!

I have been berated on the phone, told I was, "sick",  had threats to kick my ass, and told it was, "a great one." 

I am pretty sure I pulled off  one of the greatest jokes in my history. With that said, I may just retire...

C'mon, there's always next year.