Courtney LOVES to "color". Here she is showing Grandpa how it's done.
Now she's getting him into the act.
Look how they're concentrating.
Note behind them the works already completed.
Isn't this a pretty flower?
Maybe Courtney will turn Grandpa into an artist yet! ;-)
Sorry to make you more homesick, Mark. ;-)
(Actually, as I'm getting this ready to post, the snow seems to have pretty much stopped. I think the storm is fizzling out. Well, it was "fun" while it lasted. ;-) )
Courtney LOVES stickers! And stickers are powerful incentives! Since we've been doing the potty training thing, Mommy started giving Courtney a sticker to put on a chart as a reward for pooping in the potty. So Grandma gave her a sticker last week when Courtney finally managed to do it here.
Courtney DOES NOT FORGET a thing!! Especially a GOOD thing! So yesterday she worked really hard... I mean REALLY hard (picture a very red little face)... to earn another sticker. And she got one on her first potty trip! And on her second... and on her third... and.......
Yep, that's how our day went. She managed to squeeze out at least a little nubbin SIX TIMES! LOL! And she was duly rewarded her stickers from Grandma. (Thanks, Highlights magazine, for all those free smiley stickers! Little did you know! Maybe we'll have to subscribe to the magazine for Courtney sometime down the road in appreciation for those wonderful incentives.)
She had fun finding creative places to stick her stickers, too.
(Click to enlarge.)
(Looks a little tired, doesn't she? After all that effort, you would, too!) The last one was placed carefully on the bottom of her shoe.
Auntie Jess will appreciate that the first four stickers Courtney chose were all ORANGE!
Courtney got her very own lawn chair for her birthday from Great Grandma. She loves it and found it's good for lots of things.
The Etsy shop is now empty of buckets again. We've sold 20 of them already! Jess just received a couple more yesterday, one of which is already spoken for along with 2 custom bags. And 2 other bags have sold in the last couple of days, so we're down to ONE of those left in the shop! Guess who's gonna be even busier at her sewing machine! I may disappear from the blog completely! No, I wouldn't do that... honest. But I might get even slower at posting.
Here's a new color bucket that I just made. It's fun to be able to do so many different color combinations.
I almost forgot to post these pics, but they're so cute I had to go back and dig 'em up. If you remember this post, you'll know that Courtney was quite wet here when Mommy purposely said, "Go give Auntie Jess and Uncle Alex a hug!" She was very obliging. ;-)
She gives such great hugs that nobody cares if she's dripping. :-)
(Click to enlarge.)
Looks like it'll be blooming for quite awhile yet! Unfortunately, the other two amaryllises have nothing to show for themselves but leaves. Maybe my thumb is turning brown. Or maybe it's gotten pricked by pins too many times when making buckets. ;-(
Jess has hers all marked down to half price this week in the Etsy shop. That makes them only $5! What a deal!!
I must get caught up on my backlog of photos!
Okay, so these pics look more like birthday than Christmas, don't they? Well, they were taken the weekend we celebrated Christmas with Jess 'n Alex. But we also celebrated all the birthdays that we aren't always together for. We more often than not go to Chicago (or J&A come here) sometime around Jess's, mine and Grandpa's, so this time we celebrated Courtney's, Alex's, Suzi's and Nate's. We had party hats for the birthday "kids", cakes (very LITTLE ones), candles (one apiece), ice cream and all. Quite a wild party it was. ;-)
Don't they look eager, though?!
Nate blew his candle out with one blow, and Suzi was determined to do the same.
As Suzi gloated about her success, Alex seemed to be worried that he wouldn't be able to match their blowing power. ;-)
Look at that lovely blow! Was it enough???
Yep, he was quite successful. No sweat at all.
And the YUMMY little cakes and ice cream were enjoyed by everyone.
Wednesday's post became this:
And they've been shipped to Jess to hopefully be received today.
Many more to make!
Courtney got a little peek at one of the gifts before the official opening time!
Nope, she wasn't being naughty. Grandma G wanted to get a pic of her cute hair before it got messed up, so back in the bedroom Grandma H suggested we let her peek in a gift (from Grandma H) to get her to hold still long enough for a few shots. Of course, Courtney was delighted with that idea, and it didn't take her long to dig in. ;-)
Notice how the tissue paper wrapping got tossed far and wide.
Ooooh... a cute set of dishes, with matching napkins in the cups, even!
Afterwards, Grandma H carefully tucked everything back into place, and nobody was the wiser. And when it came time to open all the gifts, Courtney did a great job of pretending like she'd never seen it before! So shhhhhhh... let's keep this our little secret!!
Grandma was guilty of not getting as many buckets made in the last week as she needed to, but for a good reason, I think. Several months ago, Jess showed me this little tutorial for a child's pool robe. I thought it was so cute and knew I wanted to make one, and I finally got around to it for Courtney's birthday. It took more time than I thought it would, but I think it turned out to be a success.
She had her fun party yesterday. Here she is with one of the cakes Mommy made. Isn't it cute?
Just a little taste of the frosting so far!
And the big blow! She got it!
We missed Auntie Kris and family who couldn't come because of illness. And Great Grandma who will see Courtney later. So the pics are especially for them. And there'll be more. Gosh, I only took 111 pics! I've whittled them down to 94. :-) I hear ya... some "I hope she doesn't post 'em ALL!" and some "I want to see 'em ALL!" Well, I can't do them all, but I'll eventually show you the best of the best. Later. Today I have to make buckets, or Boss might fire me. I know it's Sunday, but she's paying me double time. ;-)
