Haircut, Miss Arkansas pageant, my birthday, dentist

I got 10 inches of hair chopped off and mailed it to Locks of Love.  I was so sick of my long hair and needed a big change!

Brian, Paisley and I went to Hot Springs to see our sweet friend Sloane in the Miss Arkansas pageant.  Aunt Monica and family came over and watched Paisley at our little house we rented while Brian and I went to the pageant and they had a great time playing together.  And our friend won Miss Arkansas!  We are planning our trip to Las Vegas in January to go to the Miss America pageant.  I'm so excited to go!

Paisley had two firsts - her first popsicle (many more of those to come!) and her first dentist visit.  Her dentist visit was just a consultation about her frenum growing between her two front teeth.  Although they said it was moderate to severe, they did not want to do anything until all of her permanent teeth come in because sometimes it fixes itself.  So, we scheduled our first teeth cleaning for the end of August.  She loved the dentist office though!  They had all kinds of animals inside to look at.

We went to Boingo Bounce last week and Paisley had a ton of fun.  They have a bunch of bouncy houses and slides that she can play on.  She was cracking me up the whole time and we went down the slide what seemed to be a hundred times.

Funny story: While emptying the dishwasher, Paisley likes to help me by taking things out and handing them to me.  She had some play shoes on that clip clop through the house.  She saw a spatula and said "golf!" and clip clopped off.  Then she came back with a golf ball and starting hitting the ball with the spatula!  Where in the world did she learn that I wondered...!

My birthday was last weekend and Paisley stayed with daddy Friday night so I could spend the evening with my mom and sister.  We went to a mystery dinner theatre and then to the landing in Branson where there were some past contestants from American Idol singing to raise money for the people in Joplin.

Paisley and Daddy at the park.  Paisley is 2' 8" tall!

Daddy let Paisley get away with a few more things than Mommy...

On my actual birthday, Brian set up a babysitter and we went to the movies and saw Hunger Games.  Then I opened a bunch of wonderful presents and ate yummy cake!

Paisley started swimming lessons this week.  We are having so much fun in the mom and tot class.

The new thing for Paisley is to sit in a basket and say "swing?!"  She loves for us to swing her in this basket.

In dance class this week, the girls wore their tap shoes for the first time.  She had fun clip clopping all around.

July 4th, Dance Production and Other Silliness

I was SO excited to take Paisley to the zoo!!!  We went to Springfield for July 4th to visit Grandma and Papa Clark.  Aunt Monica, Uncle Greg and Maddie and Bee came up so we got to have a few days together for July 4th.  We had so much fun taking Paisley to the zoo.  We got to see all of the animals that we talk about and I was so excited to show her!  It was a super hot day so we didn't stay long because it was so miserable for everyone.  But we got to see her favorite - elephants!  We saw giraffes, monkeys, lions, bears, a fox and a hippo!

Paisley had so much fun with Bee's play pots and utensils that I HAD to get her a small table top kitchen.  She'll get a bigger one when she's a little older but she has had so much fun with this - giving mommy and daddy "coffee" and tasting whatever it is that she's making!

This past weekend Paisley's dance class went to an assisted living facility in Springdale.  I was so proud of my little dancer.  She definitely put on a show for the residents and staff!  Afterwards, many of the residents said that Paisley was the best one. I guess I am not too biased afterall!  She loves dance class and I'm excited to watch her progress by continuing with classes!

This girl cracks me up.  She is constantly getting mommy and daddy's shoes out and walking around in them!

Mommy, Daddy and Paisley took a trip to Toys R Us and found quite a few things that we wanted.  Daddy and Paisley rode a bicycle around (although we didn't get that yet!) and she HAD to have a Caillou doll.  Boy does she LOVE Caillou!!!

Florida Trip

Boy have we been busy!  Paisley and I went to Florida a couple of weeks ago and had so much fun!  We went with my sister, Lagena (Ah Jah according to Paisley) and met up with my brother Greg, Dad and brother Terry, his wife Lisa and their kids Alicia and Jacob.  Paisley LOVES her cousin Jacob!  She talked about him every single day for weeks after we got back!  She followed him around and wanted to be a part of everything he was doing!

We all went to a wine festival where they played live music and had a grape stomping contest.  Paisley loved dancing to the music and Lagena, Lisa, Jacob and I all tried the grape stomping.  Lagena WON!  I was so proud of my grape smashing sister!

Every morning Papa would show Paisley outside and they would watch cars drive by.  I could hear them talking and it was so cute to hear them together.  Papa also showed Paisley how to stomp in puddles which she has done since she's been home!

Paisley got to stay up later than usual while we were there and if she fell asleep before we would get the hotel, she would think it was just a nap.  Well, here is Paisley after a bath.  She fell asleep on Papa (which he loved!) and then this video was after her "nap" at 10:30pm!  Uh, it's bedtime silly girl, not time to dance!!

This girl loves her some music!!  She had a blast playing Jacob's drums!

Paisley, Uncle Tay-ree and Jacob-a

Paisley LOVED the airplane ride and wanted to look out the window at them!

Father's Day & Other Things

Grandma and PaPa Clark came over on Tuesday night last week and watched Paisley all day on Wednesday since I went out of town for two days and Brian had baseball.  She loves spending time with her grandparents!  I heard they did a lot of playing and Paisley was wiped out and asleep by 6:45pm that night!  Way to go Grandma and PaPa!

This was the morning that I left.  Oh how my heart melts for this little girl!

I went to a school counseling conference in Hot Springs and got to meet up with a bunch of Springdale counselors.  I had a great time but was ready to get back to my family!  This is a picture of Fisherman's Wharf, a restaurant on the water in Hot Springs.  It was such a beautiful night to be outside!

Paisley LOVES books!  She just may be a teacher someday.  She mimics a teacher and holds the book up like she's reading to her class.  I got three videos like this.  She just kept reading and reading.  I was having trouble not laughing while watching her!!

We celebrated Father's Day Sunday!  We got up and gave daddy our presents.  I got him a watch that is made out of wood.  For every watch bought, they plant a tree.  How cool!  I got it at Red Envelope which is a great place to get manly gifts.  Paisley made this stepping stone for Daddy - with my help.  She had a lot of fun placing the stones and jewels although she kept putting them in her mouth and I kept having to tell her to spit them out.  I could not get her to stop doing that!

This morning we took the tricycle up to our neighborhood and found two little girls there already.  It didn't take long for Paisley to make friends.  They were all looking around for roly poly's and found a bunch!  Paisley thought it was funny that the bigger girl let them crawl on her arm.

And she hugged one of them two times and gave her a couple of pats on the arm.  They all went down the slide so many times!  She's getting so good at doing all of it by herself!

After playing at the park, Paisley wanted to play in her new apron that I got her in Hot Springs.  I had her name embroidered on it.  So cute and the hairbow matched so I thought it was a cute touch.

Lastly, we read her book "Potty" and talked about it.  I asked her if she wanted to go to the big potty and she said she did.  She walked in there and we talked about the big potty.  Then I put her seat on it and asked if she wanted to sit on it and she said yes.  We took her diaper off and I sat her up there and she hated it - just like the other times we tried it.  But, I took her off and we talked about it and finally after several times of not wanting to be up there, she grabbed the handles and sat up there all by herself and just looked around.  I kept telling her to let out her peepee.  She didn't end up doing it but at least she sat up there and knows what she's supposed to do up there!  Progress!

Lovin' P Time

This week Paisley and I did some fun activities together!  Along with her Wednesday night dance class, we went to our neighborhood park a couple of times.  We are so lucky to have this super nice area that is walking distance - or tricycle distance on this awesome tricycle that grows with Paisley.  Right now she can't reach the pedals so there are separate pedals she can rest her feet on.  It also has a very handy little handle that I can push her and a seat belt so she is safely strapped in.

We took two trips to the library this past week.  Paisley loved the "Baby Bookworms" where a lady came in a read books, sang songs and had a puppet and other props that all of the kids enjoyed.  Today a lady came in with a guitar and Paisley danced around and had a great time.  There were TONS of kids there today.  After Baby Bookworms we went into the kids area and looked at a bunch of toddler books.  We saw two little girls there with their moms from Paisley's dance class!

We surprised Daddy this week and made brownies so he saw them when he got home!  Paisley enjoyed mixing and playing with the box.

We also made a surprise project for Daddy for Father's Day but I can't post pictures of that yet since he hasn't seen it yet!  I will post those next week.  PaPa and Grandma Clark are coming this week for a visit.  They are going to watch Paisley all day on Thursday so Brian can work and I can go to a school counselor conference in Hot Springs.  They always have so much fun!