PS. When she borrows your chapstick, this will help you visualize....

www.photoshootusa.com

VOTE NOW!!!!!!!!!!

I have entered Daniley in ChickfilA’s Cutest Cow contest and she needs LOTS of votes! Can you pretty pretty please take just a second of your time and vote for her? If you have friends or co-workers that wouldn’t mind voting for Alabama’s cutest calf, please forward this on and ask them to vote too. If you have multiple email addresses, please use them all. She needs 300 votes to take over the winner!

Here’s how you do it:
Click on the link below. Fill in your name (or a fake name) and your (real) email address. They will confirm your intent to vote with a link back to the email address you supply. (This took several hours to get the email back.) Click the link in your email and your vote is tallied.
This is NOT a spam operation to collect email addresses. The point of the email is to try to make sure everyone just votes once. Please click the link now! 

Thanks for helping make my little cowgirl a star! I love her so much!

http://www.showusthecow.com/vote.php?id=652

I LOVE these pictures! I knew when I snapped them they were going to be perfect!

Hint: If you click "View All Images" above you can see all the pictures full size.

James Dexter stayed over Saturday night and boy did we have a blast. We went to my BFF Jamie's daughter's birthday party and just had the best time ever! You can pretty much see from the pictures what all we did. Daniley and James crashed out in the car for a 10 minute nap and once arriving home just took off all over again. They played chase and other secret games that only Aunt Danica knows about because she's the only one brave enough to take on the sleepover! We have to do this more...and don't worry James and Daniley, your secrets are safe with me!

This Cowgirl Ain't No Chikin!!!!!

In a couple of days this photo will be on the Chick-fil-A webpage in a Cow Photo Contest! You can't vote yet but I will post on here when you can and give all the details on how to find Daniley's cute Cowgirl picture on the website!

Here are the pictures from fishing this past weekend. :-)

Not a real hectic weekend...but still we had plenty to do.
Fireworks in Alabaster at Veterans Park:





Swimming at home:


Went to Lele's for a hotdog for Uncle Michael's birthday. We went fishing and Daniley and her Daddy caught a fish. Maurice took their picture...maybe I can get it to post. At Lele's we visited with my grandmother. My grandpa AJ went to the hospital Friday and is headed from there to the nursing home. If you know my grandma Imogene from Wilsonville, she could use visits. Right now will be the most emotionally difficult time for her.
So I finally got my new ovens installed. I'm trying to cook more. I need recipe's for stuff that's good but fast. If you have something to recommend, email me at danicadear@aol.com. I don't particularly like cooking, mainly because I work all day and I don't want to spend my last 2 hours of the day preparing meals. I'd rather eat a sandwich and have fun with my family! Anyway, here are my ovens and proof that I did cook. (This was homemade salsa, with our homegrown tomatoes.)


Monday we hung out at G-Paw and Honey's where we played with James Dexter and Baby Eli. Swimming was the main attraction. :-)

NEWS FLASH! NEWS FLASH!!
Daniley has had some major accomplishments lately that I have not shared on my blog. I am so proud of her because....
At 20 months she could count to 10. About two weeks later, she was counting in Spanish (although not as reliably).
At 21 months she could correctly name colors, about 10 of them.
At this time, 22 months, she is talking up a storm. She is using cohesive sentences, many of which begin with "I need...." LOL. She is like a parrot, repeating everything, so be careful what you say.
And, the most exciting of all, at 22 months.......SHE IS USING THE POTTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My "goal" was to have her wear panties to her 2nd birthday party but we have met that with 2 months to spare. I'm sure some people thought I was crazy for trying to train her so early, but my efforts have paid off and I'm looking forward to not buying diapers anymore! At least for awhile anyway........ :-)

This weekend we did, among other things, swimming lessons, Liberty Day parade, visit with cousin James, then Daniley went off to Honey and G-Paw's for a 3 day summer mini-camp. Sarah Katherine joined us at the parade and we had lots of fun. Also had a blast playing with James Dexter. Looking forward to next time!

Move O-V-E-R G.I.Joe. There's a new soldier in town.

This weekend was another fun one. Friday Daniley and I got up early and ran errands and did our shopping. Friday afternoon we went out for more shopping, due to Father's Day. We did take in the carousel at the mall which was great. It was the longest ride I've ever ridden. Seemed like it lasted 5 minutes long. Daniley loved it...but I wasn't prepared with my camera.
Saturday morning we had swimming lessons. She's doing really great. The bravest in her class...I'm sure none of my regular readers would be surprised by that!




After swimming lessons we headed straight to Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum where we took a train ride with some family from Mississippi. Daniley loved the train ride. Can't you just hear her saying CHOO CHOO??




After this we headed to G-Paw's house for Father's Day where we had such a perfect afternoon playing with James Dexter and Eli. They played so good together, although Daniley barely acknowledges Eli. I didn't have my camera there either but I'll soon post an image Honey took. (Thanks Honey and GPaw!) Happy Father's Day G-Paw. Daniley loves you very much, as do we!

Sunday Daddy opened his Father's Day present then we went to church. My dad was out of town so it left the day just to us. I wanted to see my grandma in Wilsonville but Daniley took a 3.5 hour nap in the middle of the day which messed us up a little bit. By the time we got going it was 5pm. We headed down to Buck Creek Park and played. Then we walked to the creek where Daniley went swimming. She was fully clothed with her whole body under water roaming around on her hands yelling CWOCKODILE. First she was looking for one, then she was acting like one. LOL. It was lots of fun and we hope Daddy had a GREAT Father's Day. He is an awesome Dad. Daniley loves him to DEATH. She is a Daddy's girl but there's plenty of love for Momma too. :-) PS. I love Dan too. :-)

I'm slightly behind. Sometime it's hard to time find to post everything. We've been wide open for several weeks. Back a couple weeks ago I got off a plane from Oregon and we went straight to Alabaster's City Fest. I don't like concerts that much so we didn't go for the music. We just went to play. And that we did! Here are some pictures to share.

The last few weeks have been nuts! Nothing has been "normal." I've been on the road a good amount...to Portland, Oregon for half a week, to Greenville, AL for a night and two days, plus all the regular stuff in between. Daniley has been shuffled around a little more than usual but I have no problem with that. I think time with each of her family members is fun, important, and makes her more well rounded. Seems like things are getting back to normal now and we have no travel planned in the near future. :-)
This weekend was pretty fun...Daniley and I played hard Friday...appointment, lunch (from Piggly Wiggly on Clairmont, my fave) with GPaw, visited Dadu at work and said hi to old friends, shopping, etc. Friday night was playtime at Chick-fil-A and running around the Alabaster "mall," that is, from one end to the other. Saturday she had swimming lessons, then Saturday night she was off to Pawpaw and Deba's. She had a great time there. Then she was home where we got a visit from Katelyn (and Brad and Rachael) and Honey and GPaw. It was a really great weekend...seemed really long and packed, which is just the way I like it! :-)

You know the place was rocking....

Today we were invited to lunch and swimming at the neighbor's house. We had a lovely lunch and a lovely time. Daniley has been around pools and water and we've tried all kinds of floating devices. Floaties allow her to sink. Life jackets make her throw fits. Boats make her jump overboard. Rings make her go squirmy. Today we tried a floating swimsuit. It provided just enough support that she'd sink if she didn't put forth some effort, but she could swim if she tried. After just a few trips around the pool she got the hang of it and was swimming on her own. This is what we've been waiting for!! You can see just a short swim here but she was swimming all over the pool. Now she knows how to move through the water so all she has to do is learn to float and we're set!! There ain't a scared bone in this child's body so I imagine swimming will come sooner rather than later.

Today, Memorial Day, meant more to me than I ever remember Memorial Days in the past. Part of it is probably due to age, where you think more about what things mean, and part because one of my grandfathers passed away a couple years ago. He was a veteran in the Korean War and he was shot 5 different times. He earned 5 purple hearts! Not many people get shot 5 times and live to tell about it. He was one great and wonderful man and I'm glad to married to a man that is as handy as my Pawpaw was. I have missed him especially today on Memorial Day. He fought to make me free. So many people don't realize the freedom isn't free. Today I thank our troops and the families of those who made the ultimate sacrifice. On September 11 we were reminded that we are still vulnerable to threats around the world. We must be united and fight for what we believe in. Gooooo USA!!!

I loved loved loved LOVED this weekend. It was one of the best ever. Things were perfect in every way. Friday Daniley went to her Honey's and GPaw's house. She loves going over there. When Honey picks her up she runs to get in the car and never looks back. While she was there I got the house cleaned up for a party Sunday afternoon. The house hasn't been cleaned (well, the upstairs anyway) since...uhhh...the last party. :-) So once it's cleaned it removes this huge burden of me knowing the upstairs is a wreck and I should be up there cleaning it (even though I never get to it/do it.) We met Daniley and the grands for lunch early Saturday. Then later we went to a good friend's little girls birthday party. It was lots of fun, especially seeing all her family that I haven't seen in a long time. Sunday morning we went to church where we had a sermon on marriage. Last week the sermon was on childrearing. I found both of these sermons to be so good and useful. (I love Westwood by the way.) Sunday afternoon was our Memorial Day grill-out/party. We had just a handful of family and friends here. We were late getting in the game and most everyone already had plans. But for those of us who didn't, it was so fun. We had a dance-off upstairs and you can be sure that I won it. I'm paying for that today. :-)
We blew up the big water slide (thanks Brooke). Most of the kids loved it...well all the older kids loved it, plus Daniley. Hahaha. The other kiddos her age weren't touching it with a 10-foot pole. She is such a little daredevil. She isn't scared of a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g. Here she is going down this slide that she can't even climb up by herself.

Here are some other pictures from the day. My camera went dead so thanks Jenn for the pictures I ripped off from your facebook page.

So with post I know I'm going to catch of lot of flak (and the guilty dog always barks so perhaps deservingly but the pictures are too cute not to share). I know my regular readers recall my vaseline incident. Well...it's happened again. To my defense, I moved the Vaseline and all similar products from the bottom of the changing table many weeks ago. Thursday I put Daniley down for a nap. I went to check on her...she was asleep. I knew it was about time for her to awaken so I went ahead and fixed her lunch. Then I went back to check on her again. I noticed from the living room the bedroom light was on. No one else was home....and Daniley can't reach the light. I walk in the bedroom and she is sitting up on top of the changing table where apparently she now goes EVERY TIME she wakes up. She's perfectly able to open the door and come out...but no. This time she got her diaper ointment and spread it all over herself like lotion. She did avoid the hair and other items in the room this time. I grabbed the camera real fast to record the evidence and the little fart said "CHEESE." She NEVER smiles for the camera or even looks at it when I want her to but this time she was ready for a full blown photo shoot. Little stinker!!! I guess now I'll clean the goods out of the top drawer of the changing table too. Next time I guess she'll be on top of the chifforobe. :-O

Daniley is at my grandmother's tonight. Dan is feeling frisky and he likes to play while she is gone. See for yourself. (I promise it's G rated.) :-)

On our last day at Disney, we went to Camp Mickey Minnie (Animal Kingdom) While there, we found a man playing guitar. I've played my guitar for Daniley before and she likes it, so we stopped by to see what he was up to. He was just walking around the street singing random songs. He asked Daniley's name and where she was from, and went into a song about her. If I had known she would stand there and dance with herself for the whole song I would have gotten my camera out sooner. I was holding back tears because she was just so cute and the moment was just so special. Everyone was watching her dance with her shadow. She's my angel!!