Is it really possible to love somebody this much?

I LOVE MY DAUGHTER! She is growing so fast and getting more and more adorable by the second. Yes, my patience is tried numerous times every day, but honestly, my life is perfect now with my daughter in it. I just had one of those days that I thought, "Boy how my life has changed in the past 2 years, but I wouldn't change it for the world because I have the most amazing daughter in the whole world." She is getting so big, and I have to remind myself that I really do need to stop and enjoy every minute I have with her because I know someday she's not going to want me around and that's going to break my heart. She's becoming this independent little girl, and I get to see it every day. Man, am I lucky or what? So here are some funny little stories from today for your enjoyment.

We went to the grocery store today, and she was really good. She chatted away to anyone and no one. I got her a piece of cheese from the deli, and her face lit up like I just gave her a Tiffany bracelet or something. We had a fun time goofing around and giggling the whole time we were in the store. As we were getting back in the car, I heard an airplane flying overhead, so I pointed it out to her, and she got all excited and yelled airplane. I then started to put her in her carseat, but not before I bumped my head on the side of the car. I yelled out "OW" which prompted her to start laughing hysterically. I then, of course, found her laugh amusing, so I started laughing too and forgot about the bonk on my head. Good use of distraction, Inara.

After we got home, Inara helped me put the groceries away, because she loves to be mommy's little helper. I then asked if she wanted to walk outside, so we took a short stroll in the front yard. It was super bright outside. I stated that mommy should have got her sunglasses. Inara then stopped, pointed to herself and said sunglasses. I asked, "Does Inara want sunglasses too?" She replied yes. My little girl is getting so smart, and we are able to have conversations now. It's so awesome! Also during our walk, she was fascinated watching the water run down the gutter. I explained to her that the water was from the snow melting. She then stood there and said bath. Yes, the water is going down the drain like it does in the bath. I was impressed that she was able to associate the two. She's going to be a genius I can already tell. :-)

Now that all our guests are gone, I put the kid potty we're borrowing from Avery in the downstairs bathroom. So today when I went potty, Inara came in, lifted the cover on her potty, and sat right now. It was funny because while she sat on the potty, she also drank wawa from her cup. After mommy got up, she got up, put the cover down, and flushed her potty just like I had done. It's crazy to watch her do so many things that I do. I get to see her become a little girl, following mommy's lead, and most impressive, is that she understands exactly what she's doing. This is the part of parenting that I am in total awe of every day. I was so happy to see her back to her bubbly self today because she had been under the weather and ran a fever for 3 days all due to teething I'm pretty certain. So today was a fantastic mommy and Inara day, one of those days that I wish I could have videotaped everything she did. Let's face it: my sweet pea rocks!

Bon voyage to my parents and brother

My parents and brother headed back to CA today despite the horrible weather. It's been snowing here for the past two days and doesn't seem like it's going to let up regardless of what the weather reporters say. I'm worried about them leaving in the snow because their car is rear wheel drive, but I'm sure everything is going to be OK. It's not like my dad is an inexperienced driver or something. They are going to have to go the long boring way down toward New Mexico and Arizona rather than head up toward Vail and go through Utah now because of the snow in the mountains. This only means another long drive with nothing to look out at. I hope the three of them don't end up wanting to kill each other again since it took them 18 hours to get here, and by then, they were finished with each other.

Our week with my parents and brother was less eventful than I had hoped. I feel bad because it seems like whenever my parents are here all we do are projects on the house, which I can tell my mom is getting bored with. I don't think my dad dislikes it as much because he hates just sitting around and is one that prefers keeping busy even on vacation. Plus, I'm always worried about all my guests and think I should be planning all these outings, but it's kinda hard since my dad doesn't like tourist-y things, my brother is on a budget, and my mom gets car sick (so much for taking them to Red Rocks or Lookout Mountain). My brother, mom, Inara and I did get some shopping in at the outlet mall. I also got to take them to 3 Margaritas, which they all LOVED, and The Counter, the build your own burger place. I was really excited the 3 of them went with Inara and I to My Gym on Thursday so they got to see all the new things she does like climbing all over the apparatuses. Of course, they also got to see how she hates sitting down for circle time and fights me because she wants to run and jump all around instead. I don't blame her. What 19 month old wants to sit still for 10 minutes? I know my dad and brother got some good pics and videos of her playing, so I hope to share them with you all soon.

Pop was quite the busy guy while he was here. First off, he painted the coolest mural in my kitchen. It says "The Kitchen is the Heart of My Home" and has various fruits and veggies in the background. It's awesome! Now my kitchen has some personality, especially since this is MY room and it was so drab before and didn't reflect my personality in my opinion. So thanks so much Pop for doing that. I know it wasn't an easy job. He hung two big lights in our garage, which was greatly needed since lighting in there sucked. He also helped with yard work (again!) and hung some pictures I really wanted up. Funny that they have nothing in them yet, but at least they are hung up and that was the hard part for me since I'm so darn short. Pop went with me when I bought our patio set since there was no way I could load all the boxes myself in my CRV. I can't wait to put it together and set it up once the weather clears up. He also went to Home Depot with Shawn to get our lawnmower and other odds 'n ends we needed. He also puttied the front walk where there was a crack between the house and the porch. That was really bugging me, so I'm thrilled it's fixed. He helped me spray paint the shelf for Inara's room and installed her curtain tiebacks. Another project I really wanted to finish was the wood bench in my foyer. I bought it awhile ago at a garage sale for $7. It was unfinished wood and needed a little cleaning up, so Pop showed me how to sand it and put a semi-gloss finish on it. Now, in Shawn's words "It looks like a $100 bench." I swear after my dad is here my house looks better and better every time.

My mom's big task was washing Inara's summer clothes. I got a box of clothes from a friend of mine back in CA and also went through all of Avery's 18-24 month clothes. Plus, I had bought some stuff at consignment sales and on clearance at Old Navy. My poor mom was doing laundry for 3 days I think. Given, she is very particular about the way she does laundry, so it does take her longer. But now Inara is set for whenever the sun comes out and the snow decides to go away. So many cute sun dresses. This alone makes me excited for warm weather.

Back to weather...I've been waiting for a snow storm like this all winter. Funny that we're getting it in mid-April. I begged Shawn to go outside with me yesterday to play. We threw snow balls at each other and my brother, who was a real sport about it. Then Shawn tried to show me how to use the boogie board in our backyard. I failed miserably and did a belly flop from hell. Think I bruised a rib even. Michael got video, so I'm sure he'll post it on facebook to embarrass his big sister. Inara in no way liked it when Shawn and I were playing outside. She cried pretty much the whole time. The girl hates the snow! My mom stayed inside with her since she wasn't about to go play in it either. This morning I even went outside and helped Shawn shovel snow. Now he can't hold that over me any more. My dad was out there shoveling too. I asked him if he ever thought he'd see me shovel snow. He said hell no. Too funny. I know some people hate the cold, but honestly, I love it!

Besides the horrible drive out here, the one bad day of my family's visit was Tuesday night when Inara decided at 10pm she didn't want to sleep any more and was up until 3am. Shawn and I were so frustrated and then got to the total exhaustion point and laughed about it all. I don't know what got into her, but Inara was wide awake and playing in the middle of the night, waking everyone at various times. Shawn even took her downstairs to the basement to play with her kitchen and new pots and pans that Grandma NeeNee had just bought her. When he brought her back upstairs to our room, we turned the tv on hoping that would relax her. Unfortunately, Barney was the only thing on, which drove me crazy. You just can't sleep with Barney on in the background. Then when Sesame Street came on, she was going "Uh oh" as loud as should could when Elmo was hiding. Ugh. Needless to say, Shawn and I only got a couple hours sleep. Poor Shawn struggled at work that day. He made up for it a couple other nights when he crashed on the couch though.

The best part of their visit though was getting to watch Inara interact with my parents and brother. She does love her NeeNee, Pop, and Paypee (Spanky). Everywhere she went, she would look for my mom and yell "NeeNee." When we were at Park Meadows mall, she walked with Pop along the waterfall area and even got to throw rocks in the water. She also loved doing her wood puzzles with NeeNee and Pop. Mom also got her to sit down quite a bit and color with her. Paypee introduced her to Backyardigans, which she really seemed to like, and chased her non-stop. On the downside, I think all three of them are burned out with watching Curious George cartoons every day. Hope they will DVR some for when we come out there. The girl cannot live without watching her "Ahh ahh ahh." I guarantee she's going to miss having the three of them around. Let's hope next time they come out we will have better weather and I can come up with more fun things for them to do so they don't get cabin fever and bored in the house after a week.

Fun stories from Hotel Tomlinson

Life here has been pretty busy with visitors. The last weekend of April Shawn went to Vegas and returned Monday with Mike & Nina in tow. We last saw them in Nov, but they hadn't seen Inara since last May. Boy were they in for a treat with all that she does now. They had a great time playing with Inara. I was surprised to see just how good Mike is with little ones and how well Inara was playing with people she doesn't see all the time. She went right up to the two of them and gave hugs from the get-go. It was great to catch up with them since Shawn and I haven't had much time to talk with them like we used to. We ventured out to Golden on Wednesday while Barb watched Inara. We visited Red Rocks Amphitheater, one of our favorite places to drive to, and had lunch at Woody's Wood-fired Pizza. We then headed to the Coors factory for a tour only to find out they're closed on Tue and Wed. Jacked! Our luck. We decided to drive to downtown Denver and then ended up at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. What a great place! We all loved it. I can't wait to take my parents. They have great animal displays with various animals such as polar bears, walrus, penguins. And the displays look fantastic. I was happy to learn the animals aren't stuffed but are man-made.

For one dinner we took them to 3 Margaritas, our favorite Mexican restaurant, and had our friends Brian and Tracy meet up with us. Another night for dinner we had Brian and Tracy over here along with Shawn's old high school buddy Marco. It was fun to have a houseful of dinner guests.

Practically every night Mike and Nina were here we played board games, especially an old one from Shawn's childhood that we all fell in love with called Survive. Basically the gist is to surround Shawn's players and attack them with sharks, whales, and sea serpents. "That's just nasty," was Shawn favorite saying of their visit. Mike and Nina flew out Friday morning and Rob, Kelli and Alex flew in that night. I'm tellin' ya Hotel Tomlinson is a popular place these days.

I was sooo excited to have Rob and the girls come visit. This meant so much to me to share my new Colorado adventure with Rob. One of the reasons I fell in love with my house is the "guest suite" on the main floor, which worked out perfect for Rob. Kelli and Shawn picked up a couple pieces of plywood to get him in the front door and given how open our main floor is, Rob had plenty of room to get around. Inara loved watching Rob rolling around too. It was so adorable watching her watch Rob. She would walk around the house looking for him too and yell out "Rob" very well. She wouldn't sit on his lap, but we did get some great pics, which Shawn is uploading tonight.

Even though they were only here for a few days, we sure packed in a lot of things. Saturday we laid low, and the three of them got to see Inara in action. That night we went to dinner at 3 Margaritas (gotta introduce all our guests to this place!) for Kristi's birthday dinner. Then back to their house for cake and ice cream and for Rob, Kelli and Alex to see Kristi and Thane's house. Sunday we did the drive to Golden stopping at Red Rocks and lunching at Woody's. It was getting close to Inara's nap time, so she and I headed home while Shawn drove the threesome around to see where he grew up and through Downtown Denver. Monday the guys worked from home and us girls went to Park Meadows Mall for some shopping. We did pick up a late lunch on the way back home so we could also introduce them to Noodles & Co. Shawn went into the office on Tuesday, so I got to be the tour guide and show the cousins around. They wanted to see one of the rec centers we have here in Highlands Ranch, so we first went to Southridge only to find out it is closed for maintenance this week. We then went to Eastridge and walked around. I had never noticed, but Kelli pointed out the chair lift in the hot tub, so I asked the lifeguard if they have one in a pool at any of the rec centers and found out there is one in the lap pool at this center too. Perfect for Rob's next visit. They all were really impressed with how nice our centers are and how much they offer. After this, Kelli started talking about moving out here and having Alex apply for college here. Wouldn't that be awesome!!! I'm determined to get some of my family moved out here if it kills me.

Of course during their stay we also had to introduce them to Survive. Alex is now hooked and asked me to keep an eye out for one at garage sales. We also played a couple other board games. I can't remember the last time I played a game with Rob, so this was a lot of fun. Many laughs every night. The best part of their visit, though, was getting to just sit and talk with the three of them. Rob & I had some great talks about our family, especially in light of our grandpa's recent passing. I felt like I learned even more about him and the family, which was awesome. Kelli's fantastic too. We talked about inlaws, kids, everything. And Alex...I just love that Alex! She's growing up to be such a beautiful young woman. Too fast though of course. I feel like just last year she was the flower girl in my wedding. Now she's in high school. Crazy! Inara also had a blast playing with Alex, and Al (as I like to call her...hee hee) did a great job helping me with Inara wherever we went. She's a pro now at getting Inara in and out of her car seat and stroller. We kept joking that Alex is going to come out this summer to be the nanny, but honestly, I would love to have that girl come out here whenever she wants and not just as the nanny. She's a special young lady and I'm lucky to be able to call her my cousin. She's so cute and asked Rob if they could go to CA this summer when the three of us are going to be there. I hope they can work out a trip to SoCal the same time we're there so we can see them again this year. Sadly, Rob, Kelli and Alex headed back to WA today. It was fantastic having them here 5 days and getting to share my new "home" with my cousins. It was so special to be able to do this, especially with Rob. I love you guys and hope to see you soon!!!