Afton is three

Afton turned three a few weeks ago while we were in Washington. I took her out one morning for a quick photo shoot in the Dursts' front yard. It was only 8 in the morning, but the sun rises so early there... The sun was strong.

And pardon her chapped lips, too. She's not used to low humidity.

Ever since we got back from our trip she acts like a cat at least once a day. Today she woke up and said, "Meow" first thing. She also says, "The cat is hungry. The cat wants some bread. The baby cat wants to drink her milk on the mommy cat's lap." Oh, dear. I know her cousin Wendy went through a tiger phase. Has that stopped yet?

 She's got a little Ariel pool toy that she plays with sometimes. The other day she said, "Mom, do you know why Ariel wears purple glasses?" (She was referring to Ariel's seashell bra.) I said, "Uh, no. Why?" Afton: "So she can see underwater."

 She loves to play with Sam and misses him while he's at school. His first day, she asked if we could go back and get him after he'd only been gone about an hour.

 She loves chicken nuggets and ketchup and would eat them for every meal if we let her. Despite that, she's also pretty willing to try most other foods. She still loves a cup of warm milk in the morning, one before her nap, and one at bedtime.

 At her three year check-up, she was in the 75th percentile for height and weight. But she's really thinned out this past year, I think.

 She is a total girly girl. She wears a skirt EVERY DAY. I've made her four skirts and she's got one more. I inevitably end up either doing laundry twice or pulling one out of the dirty clothes basket for her each week. She refuses to wear shorts or pants. I'm sure that will change once it gets colder. Or I'll have to make her some long fleece skirts.

 She is a sweet snuggler. She loves nursery, babies, books, movies, dressing up and spinning around with Dan.

 She still likes me to hold her a lot, but she weighs 38 pounds so thankfully it's not as much as before. She sleeps well at night but is starting to skip naps sometimes. (NOO!!) We love having her in our home.

We are so thankful for Afton.

And here's the interview I did with her in Washington. It's funny how kids' answers depend so much on where they are or what they've experienced recently. I mean, that girl's only had fruit by the foot like twice.

Sam's fifth birthday interview

I realized in July that I forgot to do Sam's birthday interview. So I did it and here it is. It's kind of long. Watch to the end for a classic Sam move.

2013 Washington trip

(Forgive me for saying "a day or two." I underestimated how busy we'd be with school, closing on a house, etc.)

Earlier this year, Dan's family tried to coordinate a family reunion. Unfortunately, it was planned during the week Dan had to take the bar. So we had to bail. Other people had to bail, too, so the reunion was canceled. We still wanted to go, so we picked a different week later in the summer and fortunately, most other families could come, too. It wasn't an official reunion, but still great to see most of the Dursts.

We drove up to Baltimore the night before our flight and flew out on a Wednesday. We stayed with Dan's parents and the kids loved seeing the dogs, chickens, sheep, and cats. 

 (That's Texana below.)

They also loved playing with the toys that Grandma Durst has kept for such occasions. Most of all, they loved playing with and watching their cousins. Sam played with Texana quite a bit, but most of the older cousins have different interests from Sam.

We happened to go to Kennewick at the same time as their annual fair. Two of our nephews are in 4-H and had sheep at the fair, too. We learned a lot about sheep that we may or may not have wanted to know. For example, did you know that a sheep with a short tail is more likely to expel her uterus during labor? I found that out while eating a plate of spaghetti.

Carnival rides are a major rip but we let the kids ride a few.

They liked them most of them, but on the strawberry ride (which spins a lot), Afton got thrown from her seat and you couldn't see her. You could just hear her crying as she twirled around and around. The carny man stopped the ride and let her off. I didn't get her tickets back.

Afton liked petting all the animals.

 Fair overload?

We had lots of family meals.

 Friday I got together with my roomie, Betsy, for a fun lunch. It was so great to see her!!

Later that day I watched the kids while Dan, Heather, Matt, and their parents went to the temple to do work for their mom's ancestors.

We swam some. Sam loved this inner tube thing that went around his stomach. He just floated around splashing everyone in his path until they told him in a quite irritated way to cut it out. He seriously loves to splash. It drives me nuts when he's doing it to me, but pretty funny to watch him splash other people.

G&G Durst bought a giant hamster ball for the kids to roll around in, too.

The kids were always pretty exhausted by nap time.

 Here's a rare picture of Afton and Lucy together. I think they kind of look alike.

Saturday was Afton's birthday.

 As she's gotten older, she's noticed the need to keep her body limber.

 Dan went out shooting with his dad and Matt while I stayed home and got the cupcakes done. Afton helped clean the beaters.

 She refused to blow out her candle so Dan and Sam helped her out. She can be quite the diva.

 Matt and Amy got Afton some jazzy Minnie Mouse light-up high heels and two My Little Ponies. She loves them.

 That night people were out at the pool again and there was a beautiful sunset.

 Sunday I did a mini-photoshoot with Afton for her birthday. I'll post more of these pictures later but here's one.

 That night we all went to Matt and Amy's for dinner, dessert, and games. We had so much fun!