After mixing our play-doh together which is a big no-no in Fairy Princess Palace. The crayon princess proceeded to use her crayons for many other uses such as building a fort and did you know a piece of the fort can double as lipstick. As you can see from the picture. The Crayon Princess strikes again! lol

What would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phone?

What if:We carried it around in our pockets or purses.
We turned back to get it if we forgot it.
We flipped through it several times a day.
We used it to receive messages through the text.
We treated it like we could not live without it.
We gave it to our children as a gift.
We used it as we traveled.
We used it in case of an emergency.
We upgraded it regularly to get the latest version.
But unlike our cell phone, we don't ever have to worry about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill.

Today we woke up and I told Anna we had to fix her hair because it got messed up in her sleep last night. With wide eyes she said, "Mommy who was messing up my hair while I slept!?"

What a day! I have been living with little drama queen lately. I guess it's God's way of helping you love the things you hate. lol However, everything that doesn't go her way she immediately throws a kicking, screaming and hitting the wall. We've spent lots of time in time out. Then she knows she was bad but can't really seem to ever remember why. lol It's a strange world, her world. Here is a picture in a ballerina outfit that she threw a fit to put on but after having it on acted like it was wonderful until of course the camera stopped taking pictures then cybil returned. lol I am told it's just a thing they do as they get closer to three I am hoping four will hurry on down but of course I have awhile before then since she is still two. Maybe she's smack dab in the middle of the terrible two's in that case I hope the three's aren't worse like everyone's been telling me!

Just add water... LOL if only it were that easy!!

Today I was trying to clear off the table and clean up the kitchen from dinner. Anna was still eating at the table when I got up. However, when I turned around she had sit her food to the side had spagetti all over her face and was wearing her place mat on top of her head. Of course I had to take a picture. lol

When we first moved for FL we made friends with a couple that had a boy around Anna's age named Eli. She loved Eli. When Eli was in the nursery we knew she'd be okay because she had someone familiar. She would talk about him at random times through out the day then.
However, we've moved about a hour away from them and yesterday was the first time she got to see him in about a year. We talked about going to the aquarium with them for the week working up to the aquarium and she was so excited. She remembered that they were both dinosaurs last halloween and all week asked is Eli coming. So I thought yea! She is going to be so excited.
We get there and Eli runs up and says, "hi Anna!" Anna immediately hides her face with her hands and proceeds to turn around in her stroller somehow lodging her head in the back opening of the stroller that we never knew existed. So there we are at the aquarium with Anna backwards in her stroller crawling out the back of it with her head lodged in the only hole she could find to escape into. I know now why she enjoyed the turtles that uncle Neil showed her so much because secretly she wishes she had her own shell in which to hide. LOL
Needless to say Eli tried to rekindle an old friendship and Anna ran the rest of the day. She stayed up in Daddy's arms away from anyone trying to befriend her. You would've never known we all came together. Eli went one way Anna ran the opposite.
It was great to see our old friends Olga and David though. We miss our friends that are scattered everywhere. Olga and David have a congrats in order as they have a new addition coming to there family!! Pray for them as Eli's part time caregiver he's had from birth is retiring and they'll be faced with finding someone new they are comfortable with leaving Eli and the new addition with while at work.

Today Anna went to her friend's Jayden's birthday party. Jayden turned 3 today and we celebrated at Chuck E Cheese. Anna was riding the big kids roller coaster simulator when she yelled, "I'm so happy I am at Chuck E Cheese today!" She loved it. She crawled through all the tubes at the ceiling of the restuarant and she was so proud to finally be big enough to do this on her own. For those who don't know what I am talking about it's tubing like you'd see at an outdoor McDonald's except the tubing is over the whole ceiling with many entrances and exits.

We've been making lots of crafts lately and she loves it. We made paper bag puppets and we were entertained for hours. LOL

Tomorrow we go to the Children's Museum again and then it's off to the Aquarium the next day!! I'll try to keep you updated!!

Stephanie

Another day at the aquarium. Anna's been keeping me busy. We had a play date there with two other moms and their kiddos. She was happy that the ship wasn't there because she still hasn't gotten over how it blew it's horn last time and scared her to death. She loves having her picture made she'd run from one exhibit to the other saying, "mommy, look you can take my picture here." LOL She's going to be so good for scrapbooking. Ha!

Today mommy is resting...well okay not resting actually cooking dinner, playing play-doh, and updating this blog all at the same time but since we had a full week I am staying home. LOL

Love ya Lots,
Stephanie

Daddy had a day off so we went to the aquarium. Anna loved it!! She was so excited running from one fishy tank to another looking at all the fishy's. LOL We then came to a room that had the fish back inside little cave like windows. She loves hiding and watching fish so she was having a blast. Then she looked up at me and said, "oh, mommy I want to stay here forever and ever okay?" LOL (and that was before we visitied the water feature!)

Then it was off to the water feature. They have a sand boat, a playground and a pirate ship that shoots water everywhere and a little water slide. She was so excited to get to run in the water. She told her daddy as we were leaving " I had a good day seeing the fish dad." Jason said, what was your favorite part and she said "playing in the water". Surprise , Surprise!!!

She had a picture made with daddy and the alligators. Then she had her picture made with the mermaid. She told me tonight before she went to bed that, "tomorrow we can go back to the aquarium and let you take my picture with the mermaid. " LOL She loves having her picture made and she loves mermaids.

She's also very excited about Halloween. I told her she got to dress up in her fairy costume and go knock on the neighbors doors and say "trick or treat" and they'll give you some candy. She came to the top of the step about 20 mins later in her fairy costume stating she was ready to go!! I had to explain to her that it would be a month or so they only do it on one night a year. lol

Anna and I went to the Tampa children museum with a friend of mine and her two kids. Anna thought it was so fun playing put the teeth in the dinosaur she decided to really get "into" it! LOL She also enjoyed the small supermarket just her size she could shop in and play at the deli. She liked it so much she made a dish of her own called, Anna surprise! LOL Enjoy the pictures!
Lots of Love,
Stephanie

These are some pictures of Anna and my friend's little girl. We stayed with them on our long trek back home. They loved being girly together! It's so good to see a friend from childhood I miss my lifetime friends. It's good to catch up with each other's lives but the good thing is you know they'll always be there no matter what the distance.

Today Anna, myself and Dora had a tea party. I play the role of "darling" or "pirate" depending on Anna's mood at the moment. So today when I was playing the role of pirate she proceeded to tell the pirate this story.

Pirate, the alligator bit my thumb. Then it took a stick and knocked me down!! Then what happened? said the Pirate. Then the door creaked and another alligator tried to crash me but I got up and ran because I didn't want the alligator to get me. Then what happened? said the Pirate. Then the door creaked open and then another alligator tried to eat my thumb but I didn't like it because he crushed me open and broke down my chair. Then the door creaked open another alligator drank all my tea!!

Who knows maybe she'll be an author! LOL

Today Anna woke up whimpering. Jason went to get her, I took her to use the restroom and she said she was hungry. So we proceeded to walk down stairs. I commented on my foot hurting because I hurt it yesterday while doing my morning walk. Then she burst into tears and started crying uncontrollably. I said it's okay mommy's okay. She didn't stop so I said what is wrong anna? She replied, I wanted you to paint my fingernails!! LOL I had just painted them pink the day before and she wanted me to paint them red. LOL So we painted fingernails and then went down for breakfast all the while I was thinking, "Oh dear God help me survive her teenage years!"

Anyone who knows me knows I don't deal well with drama. LOL This is why I spent most of my teenage years avoiding girls and their drama and hung out with the guys. It was the same way in college. Luckily I found a female friend who hated the drama too and had spent her teenage years being friends with the guys as well. I can only hope that by the time she reaches her teens that she has the same feelings about all the drama that I did and do. LOL

I told her the other day we were going to visit a friends house but they had a kiddy pool so mommy wouldn't be getting in the pool it would just be her. She replied, "Oh Boy! Kitties love to swim, don't they mommy?!" LOL

I am always so amused at all the cute things she does and says. It is truly amazing how fast they grow up. However, when I was breast feeding I thought she wouldn't grow fast enough (LOL) and now it seems she's going at warp speed. It is so sweet hearing her say the Lord's prayer and then "Now I lay me down to sleep" I am so amazed at two years old she can recite the Lord's Prayer.

She runs around all day singing as loud as she can and although it's a little off key sometimes it is such a blessing to hear and as parents we think it's wonderful. This made me think of the other day when I heard someone making fun of someones singing in their church. I thought it doesn't matter what someone sounds like to us the Heavenly Father gets a wonderful blessing out of it and it probably hurts His heart to hear us or others making fun of his children singing his praises just as it would hurt our feelings if someone were making fun of our children singing to us. It really makes you rethink how we pass judgement and make fun of people we don't even know, because these people are God's children too.

We give Anna manner beans whenever we catch her minding her manners. It's a jar I titled manner beans and filled with jelly beans so it's nothing to large to spoil dinner but to get her motivated to mind manners to receive one.

When we came home from vacation and she told her daddy "tank you, daddy for the toys" her daddy said, "oh you minded your manners and I missed you so much I am going to give you two manner beans but don't tell mommy." Later that day I caught her using her manners again and gave her a manner bean and she tried to get two. I said no just one for every manner you use. She said, "But daddy gives me two". I said, "well daddy's only suppose to give you one for every manner you use." that was about a week ago.

This morning Anna says, "mommy I told daddy he's only suppose to give me one manner bean not two." I said, "okay good." I thought maybe she was just telling me that b/c she'd remembered what happened for some reason or another. Then when Jason came home he proceeded to tell me about how she instructed him that he was only suppose to give her one manner bean not two. LOL

Anna is so cute. You can tell her she's beautiful and she'll say, "I am beautiful" Or that she's a princess and she'll say "I know I am a princess". If she were an adult we'd say, " oh my she is so conceded" but why do we teach that confidence is a bad thing? We would all do our self esteem a great adjustment if we truly saw ourselves as the princess and prince. It is my prayer that one day she will be a true princess by accepting Christ into her heart and becoming a kingdom kid!

Lots of love,
Stephanie

After returning from constant attention and excitment of being on vacation have having nonna and the rest of the family she could con into being a constant playmate Anna has been really bored. I have been busy cleaning after leaving my husband home by himself for two weeks the house needed a bit of a scrub. Then I had all the vacation laundry to do thankfully Jason had all his laundry finished so I could start mine and Anna's. So yesterday I said, Anna I am so sorry it's been so boring lately because mommy's had lots to do. She replied, " it's okay, mommy" and patted me on the shoulder and I thought how did I get this lucky?!!! She is amazingly adorable.

So today it finally stopped raining but it was so hot out we couldn't go to the park so I took her to the libary. Since this was the first time in two days we'd been anywhere she wanted to stop and get a happy meal on the way home. We stopped and I gave her, her french fries and started to pull away when she said, "no don't go, I don't want to go back home, mommy let's just eat in the car." So we sat in the parking lot and happily ate our happy meals. LOL