Goodbye Summer

Summer is coming to a close, but that doesn't mean that the fun stops there. We have been filling our last few days of summer, with quite a bunch of fun things.

Arista loves to go on Walks in the park with Daddy and Vader. She loves to hold onto the leash and pull him in the opposite direction he is trying to go. After about 15 minutes Vader is pooped, and enjoys sitting the in wagon for a ride.








Eating while watching Barney


Yes, visiting Bob again.


Arista has been obsessed with coloring lately. She rarely like to color alone, and loves it when you join her. She loves to throw the crayons at Vader and watch as we try to retrieve them from his mouth. Silly girl.


If there are high heels, there is Arista. She love love love love loves shoes! Not her shoes, MY shoes. She has perfected walking in heels, and has attempted walking down our stairs with them. Her favorite shoes are pink and brown heels, that I got at an estate sale a while ago. I am sure the woman in heaven is loving the use they are getting.



About once every 2-3 weeks we take Vader to the vet to have his shots. This is an adventure that I dread. The appointments are usually around Arista's nap time, and I am usually waiting for quite a long time to get into the vet. Once I can get both of them into a closed room, we tend to do better. As long as Vader and Arista stay away from each other. I am excited for the day when his shots are all done!





Arista and I have been enjoying our surroundings and about once a week we go and try something new. Last week we went up to Glen Echo Park for a Wizard of Oz puppet show. Arista watched the entire thing, and LOVED Dorthy's silver sparkly shoes. Being a HUGE Oz fan, I loved it as well. 3 weeks ago I took Arista up to Wolf Trap Children in the Woods preformance. Arista loved dancing to the singers and watching the "dinosaurs" fly around.




I have been meaning to blog about this a month ago, but Arista has gone potty in her own little potty 4 times! I rented the video "Once Upon A Potty" from our library and we watched it a dozen times, before I knew it Arista was becoming very aware of what was happening in her diaper. Chris and I went out and bought her this little potty and sat her on it, and she went! The secret has been using M&Ms. We don't want to start potty training her fully until after we get back from our Disney World vacation in October. (I don't do public restrooms) My friend sent me this E-book that worked for her daughter, where she was potty trained in 3 days. I look forward to train her the beginning of November. Not going to lie, I shed a few tears when my baby went potty.




During our summertime fun, we also had some summertime scares. Last Tuesday I was getting ready to lay Arista down for a nap when the house suddenly started shaking, and things started moving. My first thought was that we were being attacked. I grabbed Arista and ran downstairs and called my parents and Chris. Apparently there had been an earthquake. 5.8 on the scale! Our phones wouldn't work for hours, so Chris came home from work to be with us. I was so scared I slept for a good 3 hours when Chris got home. That night I had a horrible time sleeping, because I was so afraid of it happening again. Luckily we didn't have any damage except for a figurine. We are blessed that it wasn't worse.

To add to our obscure weather, we were hit by Hurricane Irene over the weekend. Luckily I was prepared and bought water early from the stores, because they ran out quick. We filled our bathtub with water and then went and filled Chad and Sue's as well. Our power went out for about 36 hours, and the howling and rain kept us up late into the early morning hours. Arista painted a picture of what the storm was like. We were so lucky that there wasn't damage. The only thing that fell was the little tree in front of our house. Another huge blessing!









We have had such a great summer, and are grateful for all the great memories we have made. We are grateful for being safe during the storms, and for the chance we have to spend our time with such a beautiful, happy and spunky girl. Arista has brought such a huge joy back into our lives, and we are constantly laughing and smiling when she is around. We are looking forward to the fall to celebrate Preslie's 3rd birthday, Arista's 2nd a trip to Disney World, and a new nephew. Hello September.