It's what separates us from animals....

This is what the nurse splinting Tyler's thumb today told us. Oh, REALLY!?! I had NO idea! Well, in that case, we'll take EXTRA good care of it from now on. Tyler broke his right thumb today at work. Yes, he is right-handed. He was lifting (team-lifting) a log into the chipper when it slipped and crushed his right hand between the log and the metal on the chipper. That was at 11:00 this morning. He tried to shake it off and continued to work. When they took a brief respite he took his glove off and saw (along with one of his co-workers) that it was pretty swollen. He continued to work as well as he could until lunch, then asked one of his co-workers to drive him back to the shop. He called and asked me to meet him at the Dr's office so I could fill out the paperwork for him. They took an x-ray and he has a pretty bad fracture in 2 (possibly 3) spots on the bone between the 2 thumb joints. They put him in a splint and said they were referring him to a hand specialist, which we'll be seeing later this week. We'll keep you posted!

Winding Down for the Night

Here's the crazy baby winding down after a big day with her good friend DeNae.

Boxes

With our tax refund we decided to get a DESPERATELY needed new vacuum and splurged on a two-seater bike carriage. Here's the little squeaker checking out her new gear. Her little squeal of delight - too cute! Here she is helping me break down the vacuum box. Here we are actually getting ready to move some boxes of stuff to a storage unit. She was having a pretty good time climbing on them.

Never Say Never....

I swore I wouldn't be one of those moms that stripped their kid down when they ate. However, on this day, we had already been through 3 outfits. It was almost time for bed and I didn't want her to get Clementine juice all over her PJs. And so here we are, eating in the buff (with her diaper on, of course).

Easter dress

This is an adorable Easter dress sent to Elsie by her Grandma Archibald. Actually, it is her birthday dress. When Grandma Archibald called to see what Elsie might want for her birthday I thought, of course! An Easter dress! And, of course, it is adorable. It has a cute, wide yoke collar that Elsie loved, and kept playing peek-a-boo with during church. Thanks Grandma Archibald! Awe! Here she is with daddy.This picture cracks me up. It is Elsie squealing, laughing, and slapping her little hands together because she is so excited. All ready and on our way to church!

My little helper

Here's the little squeaker helping me load the dishwasher. We took the regular silverware out so she could put in her utensils. So much fun... I turned my back for a second, and surprise! Mommy's little helper.

Easter Basket Fun

This seemed so harmless when I got the Easter basket down for her to play with. Tyler, who was reading, cautioned me against this as I quickly lowered the basket to the floor. Oh, she'll be fine... And she was. It was a lot of fun. She played in it for a whole 10 minutes while I watched, smiled and took pictures. After we finished I started to pick things up, and this is where it took a turn for the worse. I don't know how many of you have tried picking up the super-static pieces of Easter basket stuffing, but it's a pain. Once I had all the most offensive handfuls in the garbage I took a lint brush to get the strays that were still in the carpet. Needless to say, a week has come and gone and I am still finding and picking up the stupid strands of Easter basket fun (ugh). I'm sure Elsie's thoughts were somewhere along these lines: "Oh! What's this!?! Mom got it down for me and it's so shiny and clingy. Oh look, there's mom now. Smiling and laughing... ...Oh my goodness, there's so much!......hm. That was fun. Next?"

Vacuuming

Elsie is helping Tyler vacuum. Her mouth is open because she is mimicking the sound of the vacuum. "Ahhhhhh" "Ahhhhhh" . She's got perfect pitch!

Birthday Girl!

Snarfing down her breakfast. Gotta love that hair! Birthday bath! We can't have you turning 1 without cleaning off all that food! All dressed up and ready for church. She was so happy all day. Until.... She has one of those clips that you can clip her binky onto her clothes so she doesn't lose it. Well, I had just come down from saying the closing prayer at the podium and was clipping her binky onto her sleeve. Unbeknown to me I had gotten some of her skin in the clip and as I shoved the clip closed she gave me this horrible "what are you DOING!?!" look and totally started to scream her head off. Luckily, it was the end of the meeting and I was able to make a dash for the door. She had a hard rest-of-the-day after that. Even after a good, long nap. Poor thing. I felt so bad. Especially since she had been so cheerful for so long prior to that. It left a pretty bad bruise. Good thing we're getting rid of the binkies this weekend, so we can hopefully avoid something like this happening when we doll her up in her Easter dress this Sunday. This is her sign for "More". More food, more drink, more fun, more.... whatever. It is helpful, and funny. She will give you a really intent look if she doesn't feel like you are paying enough attention and just keep digging her finger into her hand until you get her what she's looking for. Since I was taking the picture, Tyler is the one that is getting the "look". We had some great friends over to help us eat cake and ice cream. We had her hair in pig-tails (as seen above). By the end of the party she had pulled them most of the way out, so I took them out. This is her post pony-tail crazy hair.

Bedroom Wall

Poor Elsie is sharing her room with our food storage, desk, and whatever else we can find to shove in there (which is a lot). I finally took pity on the girl and decided to jazz up one of the (only) bare walls in her room. It turned out super cute. I wish there were more room so I could put more stickers up, but this will have to do for now.