If You Give a Girl a Camera...

A while back we got Cortney her own camera.  It wasn't expensive at all, and she has thrown it a couple times and it still works great!  We got it to distract her from my new camera at the time, and it worked wonders!  It stores all the pictures in itself and for a while now it has been full and I finally got around to going through all the pictures. 

I wish I had done it sooner!   It was an unexpected and interesting experience!  I got to see from Cortney what was "picture worthy" for her.  The things she wanted to take a picture of, the things that mean the most to her!

Many of the pictures were completely black, white, or too blurry to even see what it was about.  I would say about of 1/4 of them (out of about 700) were of me - which was humbling in itself to think about - although most were very blurry.  There were also a couple of other good gems I wanted to share!

This was the first picture we took with the camera, I remember, she was so excited!

This was the first picture she took by herself..little blurry but I thought it was fun to remember!

 Her with awesome glasses...PS the next couple pictures (Including this one is from the day Jenn and Spencer got engaged!)

 Uncle Ryan!  (Pretty good shot too!)

 Half of Honey!

 Self Protrait

 Daddy!

 She took this in the car...I have no idea how the picture came out this good!  Not really blurry at all!  I think it was on our yellowstone trip!

 Another self protrait

 This is a picture of an old chair we had...I miss it and this is a fun little reminder!

 Candy from Halloween!

 Toys in her room!

 A little dog from a block set Nana gave her.

 A Quilt on her wall

 A view from her old room... I loved those old wood floors!

 Ming and her Mama  - so cute!

 Ming and Magenta in her tool box - she calls it their "boat"!

 Audrey - one of her good friends from Utah!

 Jenn and Spencer!

 Aunt Jenny!

 Uncle Spencer!

 Joesphine - another friend from Utah

 Toys in her room

 Her pony "Orange".

 A view of a rug in her room.

 Her play kitchen sink

 Her old backpack

The last one is one we took when w got the camera...like I said most of the pictures of me were blurry, but this one wasn't bad.

It was so interesting for me to go back and see her little view of the world.  I copied all the pictures into a folder on the computer and emptied out the space for her to take more...cant wait to see what she will take pictures of next!

Our Little Composer!

Yesterday we finally bought a keyboard...we have been waiting for a while to get one, and we didn't really get a nice one, but just having one is super exciting for us!  Especially Cortney, she will spend 1/2 hour on it just sitting and playing.  She even uses earphones, which is awesome for me, a little extra quiet time!

Today Cortney took out a piece of paper and told me she was going to write me a song, this is what she drew: (kind of hard to see the border of the picture because it is on white paper and I just scanned it, but it takes up most of the page)

She really loves music!  Life is a song for her, everything she does she sings a song with it, and her nursery leaders told us she basically runs singing time in there.  If I ask her to go do something she has this little theme song she sings as she runs to what ever it is, I will need to video tape it sometime, but basically it sounds like dng ga dng ga dng, over and over again.  Love it!

Here are a couple pictures of our little composer at work!  There are only a couple, because the other ones didn't want to upload, so maybe I will put more up later!

 This is what she does when she is "thinking", I think she was trying to show me where middle c is, a little off but she is 3 - even knowing that there is a middle c is impressive!

I love this one, she is totally jamming out to her music!  By the way - if you are interested in what "my song" that Cortney wrote for me, it sounds suspiciously like "I am a Child of God" it just has different words. 

I found some great resources for teaching young kids about music and piano!  I think we will start out with rhythm games on her drum, and work slowly from there.  I don't want to push her to learn it too fast, I want to make sure she learns it because she wants to.  Plus - like I said she is 3, we have plenty of time for her to learn, but I love she is so interested so early!  I also love that she is writing "her own" songs - such a creative little girl!

Sweet Cortney!

Today Cortney's new backpack came!  She starts school in almost a month, and least to say she is very very excited!  She has known for a while now that the mail man was going to bring her a backpack and she asks nearly everyday if it is going to come, and today it did!

The UPS man came and knocked on the door I went over and saw the box.  I asked Cortney if she knew who it was and she said "who?"

"It was the mail man!"

She suddenly got up and started squealing and running around, I love when little kids get excited, they never know quite what to do with their hands!  We took it out, and she tried it on and was all very excited.  Suddenly she stopped and was thinking for a minute, then said.

"I don't need my other backpack any more, I should give it to someone who needs it."

I told her she could keep it in her room if she would like.

But she said, "No, it is too small, and I have a new backpack now!"

With a little thought we found a "small" person who she could give it to, her friend, audrey's little sister Paige.

Cortney even found an old baby toy to put into it for her.

One of those days when I feel like I have done something right!  Sometimes, especially with young ones, I feel like I repeat everything 10 times and it never really sinks in.  I feel blessed to have a loving thoughtful girl who would give one of her favorite toys away to someone else.  We had a talk right after we went over and dropped it off, how Cortney, Paige and everyone else was just so happy because of the choice she made!  Cortney said she likes choosing the right, especially because it makes her happy!  What a wonderful, loving, sweet surprise I got from my miss Cortney today!

Here are some pictures!

Cortney and her "old" backpack.  She has had it for nearly 2 years and she cannot fit it on her back anymore, but she still would play with it a lot.

 This was the "baby" toy she gave to Paige.  Still makes me so happy that she would do something so sweet!

 Cortney's new backpack!  She picked it out all by herself!

 Looks big in this picture, but it isn't really.  It might be a little too big, but I wanted to get one she could use for a couple years!

 It even has her name on it!

 My sweet thoughtful Cortney!  I hope I can continue to raise her to be the same way she is now!  It reminds me a lot of her baby blessing.  The main thing I remember from it was that Cortney was blessed to be charitable and loving to others.  She certainly is!

PS -if you cannot tell (because it is hard to see)  Cortney has 2 braids in her hair today!  You can kind of see one on the right side!  They are pretty small and her hair is still a little crazy but I have been loving doing her hair different ways lately!  It is finally growing in!!!  Maybe she will be able to have her first haircut before the age of 5!!!  Fingers crossed!

But Mom, clowns aren't scary!

After sneaking away for a date last week and seeing the new Batman movie (we have a new babysitter we love - yay!  Not as good as Nana but she will do!), it inspired Chris and I to watch the other Batman movies at home.  After Cortney goes to be we either play games or watch a movies or something.  We had the movies down on the TV stand and Cortney found them.

Some how she already knew who Batman is, and she found the cover and excitedly brought it to me.
"Mom, look it is the Batman movie!"

"Yup.  That is Batman!"

"I want to watch it!"

"Honey this movie is a little too scary for you right now."

She turns over the cover and sees a "clown" on the back:






















"But mom, clowns are not scary!  They are fun and nice!"

"Well honey, sometimes they are not very nice.  This clown isn't, he makes bad choices and it makes him sad, crazy, and scary."

"Oh, well when I have big hands like you, then I can watch it."

"Ok honey."

Fun little conversation I had yesterday!  Oh and by the way that is her new thing to say - "when I have big hands like you!"  I don't know why but she loves hands.  She loves rings, and looking at different sizes of hands, especially baby hands (those are her favorite).  I told her once her hands were to small to do something - I think I was cutting up some raw chicken for dinner and she wanted to help.  Ever since then she always asks if her hands are big enough yet.

Friend update:  Audrey (not to be confused with baby Audrey from Utah, Cort is still struggling with it a little)  and Cortney are so cute playing together!  I was talking to her mom the other day and by coincidence they had both added each other to their prayers.  Cortney was thanking Heavenly Father for her coming over to play, and Audrey was praying that Cortney would be healthy - her dad is a PA.  The girls are about 5 months apart - Audrey is older.  It is nice to have someone so close to Cortney's age for her to play with so close!  It is also kind of nice that they can play with each other in Corts room, and let me get some housework done, because I don't have to watch them every second!  My baby is growing up!

It Occured to me Today...

So I have no real reason for thinking this at all.  It didn't happen to me, or anyone I know really.  But as I was buckling Cortney into her booster seat for some reason I thought - what if I accidentally locked her in the car, and I couldn't get her out (see I have no reason to think like that).  But then I thought, she would be ok.  She is a big girl, who is good at taking direction from me, I could get her to get out of her chair, climb up front and unlock the doors!  Then I felt much better.   Hopefully it never happens, I don't see why it would, but if it did at least I know we would be ok! 

Side note, ballet went well this week!  Chris is enjoying his job, and after being an intern for so long in Salt Lake is enjoying all the responsibilities he has!  And I also realized we never made a post about getting a new car!  It is very exciting for us, and we are loving having 2 cars, and at least one of them with AC!!!  Probably one of my favorite parts!  I also enjoying having a beep beep that works really well, the ones for our volvo were getting a little old and you had to stand right next to the car to push the button to unlock the doors, at least they still worked though.

Oh, thought of another fun Cortney story.  The other day one of her toys was having a birthday party while we were playing in her room.  I asked how old the toy (a little Belle Doll - from beauty and the beast)  was.  And she said, she was turning 8! 

So I asked her, "How old is mom?"

"8!"  (I know my whole life I have looked younger than I really am, but that is a little bit of stretch)

"I am 25 years old!"  I said

She started laughing at me for a minute then said, "What?!  25, that is old!"  So it is official: now I am old :)

Ballet, Berries, & Jenn's Baby!

It has been a busy couple of weeks!  Cortney has started ballet, which is adorable to watch.  We have been picking berries and finding delicious ones at a growers market.  And we went to visit Jenn and Spencer with their new baby Aniston!

First Ballet!
First Day of Ballet!  Cortney was the youngest of all the girls, half of which had already had a class, so between that and her being so excited, lets just say she was a little wiggly, but she looked darling!  There are also some pictures of the second class as well.  Right now she is in a 6 week program for the summer, still deciding whether or not to put her in it for the school year too.  She did do much better listening in the second class!

There is a little lounge we can sit in to watch the girls do ballet it is Disney themed - it even has a little castle thing the girls loved playing in!  Also without knowing it 3 people from our ward signed up for the same class - kind of fun to have all the girls in there together.  Cortney is at the bottom of the picture showing me a book.

Here are some of the fun things they get to do! (This is the view I have when I watch her!)

First they sit and stretch on this parachute

She has a great teacher, Miss Melissa, who is very good with the girls!  The older girl in the pictures is her daughter Anna.

She looks a little bored in this one, but the class in the in morning, I think she was just a little tired still.

Then they get to play!

This is one of those times Cort had a hard time listening, luckily the next class was much better!

She is doing better in this picture though - still learning how to point her toes out!

They also do this thing where they pretend they sleep, then they wake up and dance around, it is cute to watch them all lay down and pretend to sleep!

At the end they do this little course the teacher sets up - this is Cortneys favorite part.  They call it the princess dance, and they play Ariel music with it, so she loves it!  Again - props to the teacher, she is so good!

Cortney was so tired after the first day she feel asleep right in the middle of lunch!  In case you are wondering what is on her plate it is a quesadilla, made with a green wrap tortilla.

Pictures from ballet class #2
Cortney is on the very far side, which is why it is hard to see her in this one.

Berries!  The other day we went blueberry picking!  Fun and yummy!

Caught in the act!  (PS - the little boy is Blake, and the girl behind her is Audrey - She is in Corts ballet class, they have become fast friends!

We picked about 14 cups of blueberries!  So yummy - I put the apple in to give you a sense of scale:

We also went to a growers market where I found the most amazing strawberries I have ever eaten!  They are completely juicy and sweet - almost no tart at all.  They are red all the way through instead of white like the ones you buy at the store.  I bought 3 little baskets worth and we are already into the last basket the next day!  I will be going back next week for sure!





Jenn's Baby!
Cortney and I went to Idaho to visit with baby Aniston!  This is Cort's first cousin so it was pretty exciting!  I also took newborn pictures which turned out great!

Aniston has the chubbiest little baby checks ever!  She also eats just like Cortney used to.  Cortney had a lot of fun looking at and helping with the baby.  She has this obsession with baby hands, and loved to look at them:  Here are a couple pictures of them together.   PS - Aniston has Jaundice - she is doing better now but I'm afraid in these pictures she is a little orange - just wanted to make sure you knew why she was that color.

It was a fun trip!  And exciting that Cortney finally has a cousin to share at least one of her grandparents with!  Still the only grandchild on the Nield side.  We will being seeing them again at the begining of september for Anistons baby blessing in Utah!