This is teamwork. One holds the camera and the other presses the button. Only engineers would think of that. ;-)
We went to New Hampshire for our anniversary. Dan and I traveled two nights alone for our first anniversary after Daniley was born, and haven't traveled without the girls since. Honey & Gpaw offered us a sneak-away, so we went for it. Monday night, we sat in the room like "What do we do without the kids?" By Tuesday we had come to our senses, and we were on the slopes. We had a GREAT time. Dan skis like a Grandpa. Check out this video. That's me behind the camera...ski a little, look and wait. Ski a little, look and wait. Then I got this:

Don't worry, I won't be laughing much longer.
Here we are at dinner on our anniversary. Happy eight. Hopefully we'll have eight more, then eight more, then eight more....
Wednesday we went over the mountains into Conway and shopped on main street. Picked up souvenirs and ate. We watched for mouse, bears, and even birds, but came up short. Here we are at the creek, yes, walking on the ice.

It's nice to be able to run!

Here's my snow angel. Worry about having a wet a$$ later...have a little adventure!
Thursday we were back on the slopes. We moved from green trails to blue. We both took it slow. On the last run on the way back to the car, tragedy struck. I don't know what happened, but here I am finishing the descent.
Then to first aid. I tried to make light of the situation, so I was cutting up with my first responders. But seriously, I was hurt. I haven't extended my leg since the accident. (Dr. appt. Monday morning.)
Here's a cute picture of us before boarding our final flight home.

Dan would like to make SURE you get the full picture.


Happy anniversary James Daniel! This was one of the best, despite the injury.

This brings "we got our baby a walker" to a whole new level.

I'm not scared!!

I'm really busy!!

Saturday we went to Marissa's birthday party, were in a cowboy parade, and had ballet pictures made. It was the 3 events in 3 cities in 3 hours tour. Haha. The party was a lot of fun but we had to leave early in order to make it to the parade. My mother gets very excited about parades and so she made it so that all we had to do was show up and put our costumes on. I don't care squat about being in parades but she said we were, so we were. :-)
I had not seen Little Darlin's ride until I arrived. We strapped her in with a dog leash and when we got on our way, she really got to giggling. She giggled all the way down main street. I can assure, the rain ONLY bothered the adults. The kids had a GREAT time. I have to give it to my mom, she did a great job getting everything prepared.

2 hours after a trip to Urgent Care. Do you think she's okay?

What do we do on a Saturday night when we have nowhere to be?

You think the picture is funny? Should have been at the party!

This was a Western themed birthday party and one of the most fun we've been to. Thank you Laura for the invitation. We had a blast!

Dan and I are home alone tonight. We were talking and I told him I sort of missed living in my trailer. I said, "There was nowhere to go but here" as I stood right under him, all in his personal space. He said "Yeh, and people bucking me out of the shower and stuff." OMG!!! I forgot all about that. I DIED laughing.

Dan and I both graduated college making decent money, but like most newlyweds, we had humble beginnings. We spent our money on a big piece of land, but we lived in a trailer. An old trailer. A fixer-upper trailer. It was cozy. We were happy.

We both had to be at work at the crack-of-dawn. Neither of us wanted to get up earlier than the other. Neither of us wanted a cold shower either. Our water heater was small. So we woke up together and showered together every morning. It's not personal information. It was life, the best we could do. One morning, as we were changing spots (only one of us got the hot water at a time, the other one stood in trembles), I said to myself "I wonder just how much extra room we have. He's making me smoosh all up in this wall to get by." So as Dan passed by, I gave him a little buck. It was just a little buck.

OUT of the shower he tumbled. Upside down, on his back, screaming holy terror. He tore down the shower curtain. Ripped the rod right off the wall. And he grabbed the towel bar to save himself...and tore a gaping hole in the bathroom wall. When he landed in the floor he was wrapped like a present in the shower curtain. I stood there in shock, not believing what I had just done. I had to try REAL REAL hard not to die laughing and act all concerned. "Oh Honey are you okay??" Those were the good 'ol days. :-)

It's the end of another wonderful weekend. We attended my cousin Payton's birthday party with the girls and a nephew. They rode bikes and played on the playground (it was at a park) and had a really great time. We attempted to meet up with Bentley but she was MIA again. (Brooke, one day I will find out where you are hiding.) Saturday night we started our Pinterest Party group. I am REALLY excited about this. Once a month a group of ladies will be meeting to do a Pinterest craft. It's much like Bunco, except no Bunco....craft instead. Sunday morning I woke up praising God for all my blessings, one of the most important laying right up under my arm. My sweet little family went to church this morning (sermon take away: You make time for what you value!) and went for a bike ride this afternoon (me and Daniley ride, Dan and Lil' Darlin' stroll). Now it's bedtime. Have a great week everyone!!
Here is my Pinterest Pal group and the cute wreaths we made:

WARNING: THIS POST MAY BE DELETED BY MONDAY. lol
Just got back from Habenero's. Not much I can remember except being asked "Small or Medium?" and replying "How big is LARGE? YEH, I'LL TAKE IT." LOL.
That's right. Mom has checked out.
Good... night. Man. As usual, trying to save a dollar.... "is a large cheaper than two smalls?" I should have known better when they served it with two straws!
I better not write any more for now...but I will say....I ran into two VERY special ladies on my way home this evening.

So thankful for a great husband. He may as well had 3 children for the last couple hours. Daniley and I got to playing at the dinner table, trying to stuff sweet-n-low packets in each others' mouths. We both were laughing so hard we could barely breath. I remember hearing Daniley's DVD on the way home..it's a learn-to-read DVD and apparently they were making the IG sound and I told Dan something about those lifting rigs you designed at work.....and he reminded me they were lifting LUGS so i better just sit down and shut up....Had a great night with the fam. bye bye til tomorrow.....LOL......

This afternoon, Daniley and her Dad built a new strawberry patch. Daniley loves picking and eating strawberries. I vaguely recall my Mawmaw Nina having a strawberry patch when I was a very young girl. I couldn't WAIT to get out there and get those strawberries. Now Daniley will have the same opportunity. :-)

Today after a sewing project, Rachel, Everett and my gang went to ChickfilA. Rachel is a much more "proper" parent than me (she does everything right, I do everything in some kind of survival mode, LOL) and one of our conversations was "Do you think a lot of kids throw up in there? I mean they eat...and then go jump around in there." I said "Well, I've never heard of that but you did read my blog post the other day, right?" Laughter followed, but she let Everett go in anyway. LOL. Little Darlin' was ready to go up and play she just couldn't get there. (Click the collage to blow up, but don't skip ahead before reading.)
This was, however, Everett's first trip in the play area. First Rach let me take him down. I bumped his head and he cried just a tad; I wasn't sure if it was the head bump or the slide. So after some contemplation, Rach took him down again. This was his expression: I HATE THIS. I MIGHT LIKE THIS. I LOVE THIS. LOL.
They left for a nap, but we stayed and played. A little boy with a crush on me came in. I took his picture. :-) He asked me if I drove a racecar, like an Indy car. I said no, but I'm cool anyway!!

Sunday the Daniley, Danslen, and I had a Girls Day Out. We snuck down to Pawpaw's and while he was asleep on the couch we took off with his saddle and horse! (Click each collage to blow it up.) I was cool as a cucumber until I came up on the scene and Danson had the horse running. I didn't completely freak out but I was a little uneasy...it would definitely be a long fall.
Then Daniley decided that she wanted to lead the horse so Lil' Darlin' and I bravely got on. (Danson was just outside the camera frame--no worries.)
That was all well so we went back to Pawpaw's house and took a little rest. Daniley decided she wanted to walk the horse and Pawpaw encouraged me to let her do it by herself (GASP!) but it turned out to be just fine. Unc, Pawpaw, and I got to chatting and thank goodness still Pawpaw had his eye on her because I didn't see her try to lead the horse into the gazebo, and honestly I'm not sure if I would have immediately recognized the danger in that. But we stopped the horse just short of entry. Hahaha.
Then Daniley decided she would rather just catch a chicken so that took us all in a different direction....

Who's Who in 2012?
The girls are about 1 month apart in these pictures. It's really no trouble for me telling who is who. At times I think they look a lot alike but in these pictures I don't really think so at all. Anyway, it was fun going through the old yearbook tonight and playing dress up and taking photos! Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

In creating my Connell Yearbook, I look back through old photographs and blog posts. They bring back beautiful memories of my children and family. We really are blessed!!! My kids are precious jewels and I am so thankful we have done so many fun things together and look forward to many more!!! Every day is adventure. I don't want to miss a minute.
With that said, I am making a commitment to press on with the blog. In going back and reviewing, there are stories on there that I haven't really forgotten, but I would have not remembered them for the yearbook. A wise lady (Mrs. Jackie) told me to document the stories, and oh so quickly I see why! I was cracking up when I went back to read some of the things that happened just a year ago! I would never have been able to tell the story as accurately today as I did then. Thanks for stopping by the blog, and caring enough about us to see what we're up to. Love to you all!!

When the Tide is Rolling, this is how WE'RE rolling....
(This is Bentley, always recognized by the awesome hair!!)

(

This is a leash. Daniley likes to wear it. She likes to tell us to hold her tight while she tries to get away. It wasn't long before we were at this:

For Christmas Daniley got a Barbie bike. She tells EVERYONE she meets, "My name is Daniley. I'm 3 years old. Santa brought me a new Barbie bike." We rode her bike to Honey's house today and she stepped over to talk to the neighbor and I heard it again. She is doing REALLY well with her bike. She thinks it is so cool because it has brakes. Of course it still has training wheels, but she's fell off several times and she always shakes it off and gets right back on.
I'm not going to put Daniley's entire Christmas spread on here, but she got a lot of presents. I anticipated her being much more excited so I wrapped lots of gifts. After about 3 presents, she was just ready to play. By the time we were nearly done we were BEGGING her to open her gifts. Note to self: a one year old needs one present. A two year old needs two. A three year old needs 3. We'll see how it goes next year. :-)

Daniley started school Friday so she could mind someone besides family members, wait she doesn't mind family members, ok, so she could learn to mind. ;-) And Mommy would like some time alone with Little Darlin' because I really haven't had any time to focus on just her. Here is our "First Day" adventure.

Before school, Daniley decided what she needed most for that day was Fluffy Tinkerbell, a sippy cup of water, and Polynesian sauce (from Chick-fil-A). I couldn't stand the thought of Dan dropping her off for her first day without me, so I took her myself. We arrived and she was the first one in her class. She will always have about 45 minutes one-on-one with her teacher because she gets there so early. (I like that!) Anyway, her teacher told her that her outfit was cute and she put her hands out to the side like a model and smiled and delicately said "I know." Of course I'm used to such responses but her teacher just cracked up. Her teacher said, "I can tell already, we're going to get along GREAT! She's my kind of girl!" Daniley then began to play. I stayed with her about 45 minutes. A couple more kids came in and they were making wooden circles. Daniley told a little boy she'd help him and he said "No, I'll do it." She said, "I'll help you. I'm great!!"
Daniley isn't shy and she's not lacking any self confidence either. LOL. Mollye Gray is in her class (there are a few we remember from the infant room). She is so stinkin' cute and when I picked Daniley up the teacher told me she and Daniley have very similar personalities. She said, "One minute they are hugging, and the next they are fighting." I stayed with Daniley about an hour when I picked her up. I read the little girls a story and participated in group time. I love her class and we are both really excited about this new adventure.

So last night while cleaning I got a question from Dan the Man while he was teaching Daniley how to play checkers. "Can you only move diagonally, or can you go over too?" GASP!! My Pawpaw would roll over in his grave if he found out I married someone that couldn't play checkers. So I answered the question and waited a moment before going in to find that Dan had their men (in this particular case Doras and Swipers, since it is Dora Checkers) on BOTH colors of squares. That's right, BOTH colors of squares, he just used the board however he wanted, I guess making it up as he went along and telling Daniley to whom it was as good as gold. So I think to myself, "Easy Win. Sit Down. Play the game." Victories over Dan don't come along that often. We clear the board, and Daniley and I play on one team, against Dan. I manage to swipe a couple of his men, get crowned, and rule the board. Then suddenly, I put my KING Dora right in the way of his Swiper. You should have seen the grin on his face when he jumped my beloved King. It was short lived, though....you should have SEEN his face when I fell on the couch laughing after jumping ALL his remaining pieces in one big swipe, claiming victory as my own!