Imelda Marcos in Training...

Holy Cow. Mom and I just took Karah shoe shopping, and MAN, that girl loves shoes!! We turned down the shoe isle at Target and her eyes just lit up and she gave a delighted gasp. And that was when she was still in the basket! I can't even describe her euphoria when we let her out to look at and TRY ON the shoes! She is definitely Megan's relative, because she made a beeline for the infamous "hideous purple shoes" and kept going back to them. Anytime we'd give her a new shoe to try on, she'd squeal and run to us. Sometimes that was the only way to get her to stop modeling the shoes for the other shoppers. Mom and I were constantly giggling at this little girl's shoe fettish. She had so much energy, and it was nice that Jayden and Daddy were having their own adventure elsewhere in the store. We were looking at shoes for 45 minutes, and finally Mom and I had to call it a night. That child was still going strong, looking for any and every shoe she didn't get to try yet. We had to stick her in the basket, buckle her in, and then put a new pair of shoes on her feet to get her to think about calming down. In the end, Karah chose her own new tennis shoes. They have Cinderella, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty on them. (Anyone surprised?) It was a tough decision for her, though...there was a pair of pink shimmery-type shoes that she ran around in for a while and seemed to like a lot. The final choice was between those two, and the Princesses won out. I just hope we got them big enough to last a while so Mom and I have time to recouperate!!

Jayden's Girlfriend

Over the last few years that I've lived in Utah, I haven't really gone out of my way to make friends, so I wasn't really liking it here. I decided that I would take the matter to Heavenly Father to help me find a good friend that could totally relate to me, and who also had kids that my kids would get along with. (Let's face it...the kids get to pick our friends now) I also was looking for someone who we could hang out with as a family or couple. (Meaning the husband would get along with Dan, also) We have gained many friends now that we've been a bit more social, but we still hadn't found the "magical everyone loves everyone" family. I'll admit that our expectations are pretty high. We needed kids that wouldn't fight, someone who could talk "nerd" with Dan, and someone to understand my "unique" personality and embrace it. One day, I don't remember how far back, I was on Dan's Facebook and his friend, Debbie, from his pre-ME days started chatting. We became fast internet friends and would giggle and chat through Facebook. We added each other to our friend's lists, and continued to enjoy our conversations. On her page, it said she lived in PA, but she'd just forgotten to change it when they moved (3 years ago.) . We discovered that Dan and I live just down the street from her parents, and that she lives about 1/2 hour away from us! We started planning right away to get the kids together for a play date. Her daughter, Ava, is 2 and Simon is 2 months old. We decided to do an Easter Egg Hunt with the kids the day before Easter to kind of prepare the girls for Sunday. It was a BLAST! The kids did not fight ONE SINGLE TIME! Jayden and Ava were both so sweet with one another and they included Karah in everything they did. We were there from noon until 5:30 pm!! We were having so much fun that we decided that Debbie, Chris, Ava, and Simon would come down to our house and eat dinner with us so Dan could meet our friends. Lo and behold, the men were able to have a wonderful "nerd" conversation, the kids continued to get along fight free, and the mommies were having a wonderful time not having to worry about the kids and just giggling at how this was the first time we'd actually met in person!

Ok, now that I have the background out of the way, Jayden has decided that Ava is his "girlfriend". These two are so sweet with one another! He just adores her! After Ava went home, that is all I heard about for the rest of the week. I called Deb and relayed a conversation Jay and I had about Ava:

Jay: "I want Ava."
Me: "Do you miss your friend, Ava?"
Jay: "Not my friend, Mom...my GIRLFRIEND!"

Debbie started laughing and relayed a story about how Ava lectured a little boy that came over that only she and "Her Jayden" could play with a certain toy! We went back up this last weekend for Simon's baby blessing, and the two were so excited to be able to see one another. Deb and I cracked up, because their outfits matched! They were just so cute, and we did a "photo shoot" with the two of them. Debbie took the pictures (I'd left my hardly working camera at home), and they are posted on Facebook. I don't know how to do the links, but I was tagged in the pictures and a completely adorable video.