Joyful girls

Hal and I often remark on how joyful the girls are.  “They’re so joyful!” we say.  There’s no other word for it.  It seems to be their natural state, the one that they continually gravitate back to.  They may be curious, or absorbed, or sad, or playful, or cranky.  But the state they want to be in, that they always go back to, is joy.

 

It’s sad that we so seldom feel that sort of joy as adults.  We laugh, we are amused, we are happy, sure… but brimming with joy?  Hardly ever.  I most often feel it when I look at the girls, when they have a delighted grin on their face, or they emit one of those crazy, cackling laughs that indicate that they are thrilled to the bone with something.  It might be a tickle or a kiss on the cheek, or the dog sniffing their face, or the cat playing with a piece of string on the floor. Something simple, but whatever it is, it causes the joy within to bubble over, and I feel lucky that I get to witness it and share it.

 

Watering pots

Haley watering flowers... and Payton upset because I'm not letting her take the hose away from Haley so SHE can water the flowers.

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Everybody Loves a Parade

The girls and I have all had a touch of the “sickies.”  Summer colds for Mommy and Payton, a little virus for Haley.  But I think (I hope) we’re all on the mend now.

 

We went to the Littleton “Western Welcome Week”  parade on Saturday.  It was a pretty good one, and the girls really enjoyed it.  Haley was waving and blowing kisses.  She also tried to join the parade a couple of times, but I held on to the seat of her pants to keep her back, much to her amusement and that of the other parade-watchers near us.  She especially liked pointing to all the horses.

 

Some other tidbits…

 

The other day Payton said she wanted to tell me a secret, so she came over, put her mouth to my ear, and went “Pss pss pss psst.”  

I told her I said I had a secret to tell her too.  So I put my mouth to her ear and whispered “I love you.”

Payton laughed and said “Oh, Mommy!  That’s not a secret!  I KNOW that you love me!”

 

Awwww…

 

Haley’s newest word is “meow”.  So when she sees a kitty she says “Kit-tee!  Mao.  Mao.  Mao.  Mao.”

 

Payton just got a new batch of hand-me-downs from her cousin.  She said, “Mommy, Phoebe sure ungrows a lot of clothes!”

Pictures

We had these pictures of the girls taken at the beginning of July.  They had new dresses from Mimi, so it seemed like an auspicious time to do it!  It was quite the ordeal… we were “walk-ins” at Sears Portrait Studio, and they couldn’t fit us in right away.  By the time we started taking pictures, it was getting a little too close to Haley’s nap time and she was a basket case.  We ended up leaving and coming back later that night when Haley was happier.  

 

Conversations with Payton

P:  Mom, who made the world?

Me:  That’s a good question.  I don’t really know who made the world.

P:  Just like I don’t know who made that sidewalk right there.

Me:  Well, that’s true.  Although, that sidewalk was made by a person, we just don’t know who.  The world is pretty big – it probably wasn’t made by one person.

P:  Maybe the World Guys made the world.

Me:  The World Guys?  Hmmm.  That may be.

P:  Yes, and maybe they’re over there in that car.  Actually, they’re in two cars.  Because it takes a lot of World Guys to make the world.

 

Paytonisms that I miss already:

 

Macaroni and cheese:  Mac and aroni cheese

Hippopotamus:  Hippomopotamus

 

The other day, we went to the park and they were setting up for a festival.  Later, Payton told Mimi that we were going to a “vegetable.”

 

Payton was playing with a sticker book.  She told me “I’m putting this beaver over by the river.  That way he can beav.”  Makes sense, right?

 

 

 

Payton the Mermaid

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hike in March

We’ve had beautiful weather here lately.  We went on a hike with the neighbors and their two girls, Stella and Addie, on March 15.  It was 70 degrees!  Haley slept for the first half of the hike, but wanted out of the stroller the second half.  She wants to GO!  Unfortunately, crawling on a dirt trail isn’t really an option, so there was lots of walking holding Mommy’s hands, riding on Daddy’s shoulders, being carried by Mommy, etc.  I got stung by a wasp, and our neighbor Scott was stung by a bee.  In March!  Luckily it wasn’t one of the girls.  The girls enjoyed climbing on rocks, seeing some bighorn sheep, throwing rocks in the stream, and generally running around.