New Videos

For Alina's first birthday, Auntie (MD) Ana got Alina a little kitty with a car that makes the most obnoxious meowing noise. Well, Alina now LOVES to make the car "meow" and then "meow" herself.

Since I have a new phone now, I took the battery out of my old phone and gave it to Alina to "use." I don't know who she's talking to, but apparently she has some pretty in-depth conversations.

New Kitchen and Bathroom

So although we're not completely done with getting everything in the house fixed (the kitchen tile and the hallway carpet isn't fixed, yet) I'm still going to post our new kitchen and downstairs bathroom for you to see. I saved the pictures from when we first moved in so I'll post them for comparison (in case you haven't been to the house, yet).

Although the contractor and his workers are complete idiots, I think overall everything turned out okay. Most of the work is "transparent" since they had to rip out and replace drywall, repaint everything, and fix the plumbing.

kitchen before

kitchen after

kitchen before

kitchen after

bathroom before

bathroom after

Big Girl Shoes

Alina's new favorite thing is to wear Mommy's shoes. She tries to put on my shoes and walk around... even my heels and my flip flops! Yesterday she figured out that she can easily walk in my work flats... and today she wasn't going to let anything stop her.

The Adventure of Green Peas

Last Christmas, Adam and I got Alina a toy shopping cart that came with various toys shaped like grocery store items. One of those items is a "can of green peas." Alina really likes playing with this "can of green peas" for some reason... she also has started to enjoy putting things in random places, spaces, and holes. Example: a few weeks ago I found my cellphone in her dirty laundry hamper.

Well, last night, Alina took her "can of green peas" and put it in the speaker box in the living room. Here is what went down in pictures:

Green peas get lost in the speaker box.

Alina tries to save the green peas with her own bare hands... failure.

Daddy tries to save the green peas with his own bare hands... failure.

Daddy and Alina begin to formulate a plan to save green peas.

Daddy uses an ordinary clothing hanger to pull green peas out of the speaker box.

Alina tries to put green peas back into the speaker box for adventure number 2. Daddy, not agreeing that green peas want to go on another adventure, stops Alina.

Alina moves on to find another adventure.

Alina's First Plane and Tractor Rides

This 4th of July weekend we went to Sacramento for the big Marshall Family Weekend. Alina had her first plane ride (she did so well) and her first tractor ride with Great Uncle Jeets. We had a great time swimming, bbq-ing, going to a small-town 4th of July parade, and visiting a railroad museum.