Helping Daddy with a project!

When we moved into our new house, we bought a new washer and dryer, and they are both the front-load type.  Neither Mommy not Daddy could see themselves spending the $200 a piece on stands for them, so Daddy decided he'd make some!  After finding some plans, he got to work and came back from Lowe's on Tuesday with a big pile of wood.  I was going to help him assemble them!  I knew this meant I'd need my tool box, so I went and got it before we started.  He was sure to need me to measure something with my tape measure!

I got to help him use a drill and even a hammer a few times.  And when they were all assembled, he let me do a little of the painting too.  I was a big help!

They actually turned out pretty nice, and we put the washer and dryer up on them this evening.  After one test run of laundry, no problems yet!

Air Force Museum

Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH is home to the Air Force Museum, which is a huge collection of aircraft and aviation artifacts from the Wright brothers to the present.  And it's just 15 minutes away!  So today we all headed over there and had a great time.  I know Daddy and I will be back a lot!

Daddy even let me ride of his shoulders some to get a better look. 

Of course this means I had to scare Mommy!  But I've also learned how to get back up all by myself.

This airplane had Dumbo painted on the nose!

What a big tire!

I was pretty excited when I saw I could be an astronaut again!

And then I tried out the spacewalk simulator.  I was very focused.

Then Daddy and I got to fly it together!

We went out to lunch, and then when we got home noticed it was over 50 degrees!  Since it has been 30's or below since we got to Ohio, this really felt warm, and all the snow melted too.  So Daddy and I decided to go ride our bikes!  We rode around the block and found out it's more hilly than in Oklahoma.  So we got some fast downhill sections and some slow uphill sections.  But it was fun and nice to get outside and ride again.

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas morning and I even slept into about 8:30, which Mommy and Daddy really liked.  But when I woke up, I was very excited about presents!  We ran downstairs and saw all the presents under the tree and I couldn't wait to start opening them.

Look at all these things in my stocking!

Since I always want to be an explorer, Mommy got me a binocular and compass set.

I got a lot of games, including Chutes and Ladders, which I now really like and have played over and over again already today.  I also got a lot of great comfy clothes from Grandma and Papa Roslewski, including a Buzz and Woody shirt that I wanted to put on right away!

Mommy and Daddy were able to open some presents too, and I was very eager to help them tear the paper off.  I picked out these nice cozy pants for Mommy all by myself!

I got a roll-out indoor hopscotch game!

I had gone swimming at the YMCA a couple of times while I was staying with my friends Zoe and Mia the last couple of weeks.  They are taking swimming lessons there, and it's all I've talked about since - "Can I take swimming lessons too?"  Well, Grandma and Grandpa Stoller signed me up for the next class starting in January!  I can't wait! 

I did love tearing open the presents!  This one was from Daddy.  I love being his big helper when he's working with tools, and have had a lot of fun with his big tape measure lately.  So he got me my own little tape measure and a Piper-sized tool box to keep the three tools I have in.  It's purple!

After a fun time opening gifts, there was just one more left for me, and it was from Santa.  It's something I've been wanting ever since I saw the one Mia has, but Mommy and Daddy told me I'm not quite big enough yet - a booster seat instead of my car seat!  I was very excited about this as asked Daddy to put it together right away.  Which he did!

And of course, I got to help, so I brought over my own toolbox with my three tools and we got right to it! 



It was a great day already, but it got even better since we had Zoe and Mia and their parents over for dinner too.  Of course this meant a lot of playing, and one of the things we did was all get in the dress-up clothes I had in my room.  Some even fit Zoe!  We sure had a lot of fun.

Merry Christmas!

Cleaning the house and getting ready for Santa

Daddy was vacuuming his office and I asked if I could do it.  Sure!  I did most of the room and the living room too.  Then I did the carpet by the front door.  I really did a great job and Daddy said I could vacuum anytime!

Right before bedtime tonight, as I got in my pajamas, I was very insistent that Mommy and Daddy get in their pajamas right away too.  Of course, they had told me that Santa doesn't come until we're asleep, so I wanted to make sure they went to sleep too!  Once they were in their pajamas, we went downstairs and Daddy read us "Twas the Night Before Christmas".  Then we put out a cookie for Santa.  I picked it out from the ones we decorated yesterday.  I think he'll like it!

Needless to say, I had a little trouble falling asleep and got up a few times looking for Mommy and Daddy!

Decorating Christmas cookies!

Mommy and I went over to Zoe and Mia's house to decorate Christmas cookies! They had already made the cookies, we just had to do the decorating.

I thought there sure were a lot of cookies!

Can you see the cookie in my bowl underneath all the sprinkles? Mommy says I got a little carried away.

We got to bring a lot of them home any they sure were good.

We put our tree up!

We don't have many Christmas decorations up this year, since most of them are still in moving boxes.  But we did get the tree up and decorated yesterday and today!  I was a big help with setting up the tree, stringing the lights, and putting on lots of ornaments.

I found these funny ornaments in the box and thought they'd make great earrings!

I had a great time putting ornaments on, and made sure the bottom branches of the tree were well decorated.

Including all these bells!

When we were done, I got to put the angel on the top.

I think we did a pretty good job!

Spending this week with Daddy

The last two weeks I went over to my friends Zoe and Mia's house during the day so that Mommy and Daddy could get a lot of unpacking done.  This week, though, it's more back to normal and I'll be staying home with Daddy while Mommy goes to work.  She'll get some more time off this week too, but Daddy and I are going to be together all day long!

I really love Candy Land!

Although it's been almost a year since Mommy and Daddy got me the game Candy Land, I've just now really taken a liking to it.  I know how to play (the right way) now, and all I want to do is play it over and over again (in fact that's how I say it - "Can we play Candy Land over and over again?").  This week with Daddy and me home all day, he's had to put a limit on how many times we play or we'd get nothing else done.  I really like it!

"When Mommy turns 90 again..."

I haven't quite figured out how old different people are yet, but I'm trying!  Earlier today I knew that Mommy had turned 40, but I told Daddy that he is 6.  He pointed out that my friend Zoe is also 6, so he had to be a little older than that!

And then this afternoon we had some leftover cake from Mommy's birthday party.  I asked Daddy, in all seriousness, "Daddy, when Mommy turns 90 again, can we get another cake?"  Daddy, of course, started laughing really hard.  Mommy on the other hand...

I'm working on it!

Holiday party at Wright-Patterson AFB

Today Mommy and I went to a holiday party at the hospital at the base.  We went with my friend Sophia, her brother Lluc and their mommy, who works at the hospital.  They had a lot of fun activities (like decorating cookies), some games and lots of food.  I really liked decorating the cookies!  Sophia is to my right.

We got matching gingerbread man tattoos!

It was a lot of fun and Sophia and I were glad to see each other again!

Happy Birthday Mommy

Since we arrived in Ohio, it has been a pretty crazy 10 days for Mommy and Daddy, and a pretty fun 10 days for me!  Mommy and Daddy looked at a lot of different houses and were finally able to find one they liked enough to live in.  In the meantime I've mostly been staying with my friends Zoe and Mia during the day, which I have absolutely loved!  Of course I also love the snow, which is has done for about 7 of the 10 days we've been here so far.  Wednesday 12/8 the movers delivered all of our things, and since then it has been a jungle of boxes in our house.

Today is Mommy's birthday, and she decided that even with all the boxes and clutter, she wanted to have our friends over to our house. (This way we have an excuse for it to be cluttered!  Smart Mommy.)  So Zoe and Mia and their parents came over, as did Sophia and her Mommy.  We four girls had a fun time playing together, and I got to show off our basement, which Mommy and Daddy have told me is "mine"!  We had pizza and then what I really wanted, the chocolate fudge cake.  And then presents!

I had picked out some flowers for Mommy earlier in the day.  Daddy and I were at Sam's Club getting the cake, and he said "let me know if you see anything Mommy might like".  A little bit later, when passing the flower display, I said "Mommy would like THOSE!"  pointing right at these flowers.  And I was right, she did like them!

Of course, I was ready for the party long before anybody got here...

So I decided to play a little music while I waited.

Finally the cake!  I helped Mommy blow out the candles.  Zoe is on the left and Mia is on the right.

Yum! Sophia liked the cake too!

After our guests left, we opened some presents (which means I helped Mommy).  But I also had some nice early Christmas gifts from Grandma Bunny and Aunt Jennifer.  And even better, a great box for me to play in!  Yes, I fit completely inside and Daddy could close the box and give it to Mommy as another "present"!



Happy Birthday Mommy!

Our trip to Ohio

The last three days we spent driving to Ohio.  It's only a 12 or so hour drive, but since the Air Force gave us 3 days to do it (and since we're towing the car behind the truck), we took it easy.  And that meant we could stop along the way!

In Missouri, we stopped at the welcome center, which also had a playground.  So I got to run around a little and stretch.  It was getting cold, though, a theme that would follow us for the rest of the trip.  We did get a picture near their sign.

We had an idea to get a picture on entering every state, but as the temperatures got down to around 30 degrees and stayed there for the rest of the trip, and it was windy too, we didn't want to stay outside for very long!

We did, however, stop at the arch in St. Louis!  I started calling it "Arch" as if it was a name - "Mommy, is that Arch over there?"  Mommy and I did a good job holding it up.

In the welcome center, they had some phones to hear information about the arch.  I needed two of them!

We got in the tiny elevator cars and rode to the top.  Daddy and I loved it!  Mommy wasn't so crazy about looking out the windows but was a good sport.  This is the courthouse in downtown St. Louis, famous for many civil rights cases.

And another group picture, 630 feet above the ground!

When we reached Indiana, it started snowing lightly on us.  This would continue all the way to Ohio, and in fact it was snowing heavier the farther we went.  So our first welcome to Ohio was in the snow!

I was a really good girl the whole way.  We got to play a lot of "I Spy", which I thought was fun.  I colored a lot, we sang some, and I only watched a couple of movies.  I even took a few naps.

And now we're in Ohio!