A moment

Messy hair...wrinkled pjs...watching the ducks waddle by...no idea I'm watching you. I love you, baby girl.

Ryan found a new Christmas album {on Jack Johnson's label, Brushfire Records} called This Warm December. Click the link to listen to the whole album, but our favorite is Jack's song, 'In the Morning'. I swear he's singing to Reesie:

"Your crazy curly morning hair, your maka piapia stare, {it means 'eye boogies' in Hawaiian}

smiling down from the top of the stairs, you're so sweet.

Your robot pictures spread around, I swear your feet don't touch the ground,

once it starts, it don't slow down, but I don't want it to.

And these are the gifts we keep, and this is the morning that we breathe, and then we see:

these moments are the only gifts we need."

Some of my favorite Reese moments at the moment:

She says 'Whoa! Really slippally!' when the bathroom floor is wet.

She always wants to 'turn' {stir} my coffee.

Anytime I walk into the kitchen, she comes running, 'I help you, Mama, I help you?'

She started calling her sister, 'Day-lay' instead of 'Day-day'.
{This actually makes me a little sad, but I love that she sounds like Paula Deen when she says it.}

When Daly takes something away from her, Reese says, 'Fwipah, no fwiping!'

{Even though I'm not really a fan of Dora or her exploring.}

She's knows that knives are 'jangerous' and to turn on the water in the  kitchen sink 'lowly, Mom, lowly'.

Anytime someone gives her a snack or piece of candy, she immediately asks, 'Day-lay too?"

When she wants to be picked up, she says 'I hold you, Mom?' just like Daly used to.

She'll randomly climb into my lap and ask for 'Rocka Baby'.

I like to think she enjoys the cuddles, but she's really just excited about 'When the bow breaks, the cradle will FALL!' when I pretend I'm going to drop her.

Writing blog posts like this takes eleven times longer than it should because wants to sit in my lap and 'pusha buttons.'

She loves naps on the 'chowch'.

~~~~~

And.....we're down to single digits people!!! We only have to go to bed 9 times.

9 times?

9 times before we get to board a plane to LAX!!!!!

The chain is getting so short we need a chair to tear the rings!!

Thanks for the awesome idea, Shelly....the girls absolutely love watching the chain get shorter and shorter! {We're working on patience and counting too. Bonus!}

Daddy

Lots of Ryan things today!

First of all, if you haven't already {apologies if this is the third or fourth or seventeenth time you've heard/read me talk/write about this, but we're just so proud!} please click over and vote for Ryan for the Manawatu Sports Personality of the Year. It's the last day to vote, so go go go!

Click on this link: http://www.sportmanawatu.org.nz/personality then click 'Vote Now' next to Ryan's picture. If you're in NZ, text 'Ryan' to 3100 to get an extra vote.

Okay, on to the cute stuff. I saw a pin the other day with a Father's Day questionnaire. It's meant to be printed nicely and put in a frame, but I couldn't resist. I started asking Daly and Reese and typing their responses.

Doing Halloween crafts together a few weeks ago.

What is Daddy's name?
Daly: My dad's name is Ryan.
Reese: Why-an.

How tall is Daddy?
Daly: He is 2 feet.

Me: He’s 2 feet?
Daly: Yeah, we have two feet!

How much does Daddy weigh?
Daly: One, two, free!
Reese: One, two, fwee, fo-ah, fife, six, seben, eight, nine, seben!

What color is Daddy's hair?
Reese: White.
Daly: His hair is brown. {I love how she answers in complete sentences.}

What color are Daddy's eyes?
Daly: His eyes are brown.
Reese: Pink!

What is Daddy's favorite tv show?
Both yelled simultaneously: Basketball!!

What does Daddy like to do?
Reese: Go pahk! {park}
Daly: Basketball.

What is Daddy's favorite thing to eat?
Daly: He likes rice, and blueberries, and those spicy chips. {our favorite corn chips from PaknSave}
Reese: Opa-meal! {oatmeal}

What is Daddy's favorite drink?
Daly: Daddy loves coke...{pause}...and beer.
Reese: Coke!

Daly: I don’t like coke.
Reese: I like coke!

I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time.

These girls are simply head over heels in love with their daddy. One of their favorite things is making pizza with Ryan.

Daly is so attentive. She watches and asks questions and wants to help however she can.

Reese watches, and listens, and eats.

If it completely grosses you out that she's eating a pat of butter...ummm...pretend it's cheese.

Early morning cuddles

Only 15 more...

Is that the cutest? The girls woke up ridiculously early this morning {well, early for them...they usually sleep until 8:30 or 9}. They were up at 6:30 and 7. I thought we were in for a looooong morning of cranky girls and lots of fighting. And Ryan was away this weekend...so there was no escaping the wrath of two tired toddlers.

To my surprise, Daly crawled into bed with me and fell back to sleep. A few minutes later Reese came in, pointed at the spot next to her sister, curled up, and drifted off too. I tiptoed out to get my camera, snapped a few pics, then ran as quietly as I could to make a cup of coffee and enjoy a quiet hour with my mug, my computer, and my couch.

Trick or treat!

Grab your beverage of choice, have a seat, and get comfy...this post has grown much, much longer than I anticipated, but it's a good one!

~~~

What a fun Halloween! This was definitely the first year the girls really understood getting dressed up and going trick or treating with friends. The timing, however, was terrible. Almost every year since Ryan and I started dating, we have been pretty creative with our costumes. 

We met mid-October 2004. I wasn't invited to Ryan's Halloween party that year. I think he said something along the lines of, 'I would hate for you to be uncomfortable since you don't know any of my friends.' How thoughtful. I have yet to let him live that one down.

Halloween 2005 - Rainbow Brite and Captain of the Fallopian Swim Team.

Yes, you read that correctly. There was actually an entire team.

 

Halloween 2006 - A wrastler and his coach.

Halloween 2007 is mysteriously missing from my photo files. I'll have to see if Ryan can remember if we dressed up, but I was about 4 months pregnant with Daly. There's a chance we skipped that one. 

Halloween 2008 {Daly's first}

The Chicken, The Egg, and The Causality Dilemma

Halloween 2009 {Reese's first} - Fishermen and Our Clownfish.
Daly was absolutely obsessed with Nemo.

I wore my grandpa's old sun hat. I can remember him wearing it everytime he went out back to garden. Makes me sad that my girls didn't get to meet my papa.

Halloween 2010 - Throwback Lakers, a basketball hoop, and a basketball.
I think Reese wore her basketball 'costume' for about 17 seconds.  {I cut an old basketball in half, punched holes on top, and tied ribbons to hang the halves over her shoulders. I wish I had a picture.} I also spent infinitely more time on Daly's costume than the amount of time she actually wore it. She called it her 'hoot' and loved looking at it. She just wasn't into wearing my foam board, ribbon, glue gun, and felt creation.

Parents of the Year alert...I just noticed Daly's milk cup next to Ryan's beer. Nice.

Which brings us back to Halloween 2011 and its awful timing. My first week back to work, landing on a Monday {the night we play in a volleyball league}, following the weekend of one of my best friend's bachelorette party {which I helped plan and hosted here at the house.}

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about any of these things. I'm so thankful to have a wonderful job, coaching volleyball for kids in the community. I love the friends I've met through volleyball, and that Ryan and I get to play together on a team...so fun. And Bex's bachelorette party {they call it a 'hen's night' here in NZ} was an absolute blast.

It's just all these things didn't leave much time for Ryan and me to channel our Halloween creativity skills into fantastic costumes for ourselves. Ryan saw the black and white tutus I made and the super cute orange and black tutus my mom made for the girls and sent over the ocean {Thanks, Mom!}...and came up with our family's costumes. It's not epic, but it's better than nothin. We even wore the tutus to volleyball after trick or treating. Gave everyone a good chuckle.

At least there's a theme...

My dancing queen, ready for candy collecting!

Our friend, Shelly {Jessie from Toy Story}, organized trick or treating for the kiddos. She's from Missouri and misses all the hoopla of an American Halloween just like we do. {She also writes a really great blog, 1 sock missing.} Halloween is not huge here in New Zealand. In fact, Shelly went around the homes on her street the week before to let them know we were coming. If she hadn't, most probably would not have had candy. 

Handing out pre-trick or treating candy...just in case.

Gotta love a man confident enough to wear his daughter's stuff in public. Ryan will do anything to give his girls great memories {and make everyone laugh.}

A girl, her dad, and their tutus.

Shelly was so amazing with the kids. They were mesmerized.

Reesie and Bex.

Our first house. She was SO surprised to see so many kidlets dressed up!

Seeing this next picture come out blurry was such a bummer. I was so in love with the expression on Reese's face, I couldn't bear to hit 'delete'. She was so proud of all her candy!

So I worked some picnik magic...it's dark, but I'm in love. {I'm still stunned it's a free site.}

An ongoing Halloween tradition...Ryan stealing checking the girls' candy.

~~~

In other Daly news...we're getting very close to a trip back, back to Cali, Cali. We are beyond excited! The girls and I made a paper chain to count down how many times we have to go to bed before we get on the airplane.

16 more sleeps!!

Inspiration

My first costume inspiration for Reese came months ago from Pinterest. I instantly fell in love with this photo, this little girl, her mini-swagger, and this outfit.

Source: etsy.com via Lyndsey on Pinterest

With all the cute tutus I'd seen floating around, I was itching to make one or two or nine for the girls. I found this tutorial and was on a mission.

Here's my version.

Next it was Daly's turn. I thought blonde, fun, beautiful, dresses, high heels...Marilyn.

photo via chicfashionista

photo via sodahead

photo via oliviadarcyhawks

The girls clearly have no idea who Marilyn Monroe or Audrey Hepburn are. My hope is that I'll be able to give them an appreciation for old Hollywood, classic movies, and the wonderful actors and actresses of that time {the way my mom did for me}. Hopefully, somewhere down the line, they'll look back at these pictures and smile at the inspiration {and loose interpretation!}

Reese was not excited about being in front of the camera. No amount of bribery worked this time. By this point, she was ready for the dress to come off.

Daly, forever my little starlet, had no issues posing, dancing, and smiling...as long as she could see herself in the windows.

Finally wanting to show off her dress. 'Look me, Gramma! Look me!'

Officially one of my favorite photos ever.

Talking to my mom and Heather on skype.

We took the girls up to a friend's house in the early evening for a bit of trick or treating. What a blast! More photos to come...