Just A Little Afton

So one time, about 2 1/2 years ago, I had a little girl named Afton.  I had no idea back then, what fun this little girl was going to be.   And maybe it's just because 2 1/2 is my favorite age ever, but I LOVE hanging out with my Afton!  Every day is something new, something smart, something funny, something girly...

Like one day Afton decides she is going to sit in, not on, IN the pickle chair for dinner.  She sets her table, gets her food, sits in the chair- the rest of us are sitting at the normal table.  Looks comfy...?

Afton LOVES her babies and her dresses! Here we just made a matching tutu for her baby so they can be twinners.  Afton will say "Mommy, baby sad.  Need food." and she'll get the bottle to feed it.  She'll say "Mommy, hold my baby." and if my hands are busy for a minute, she'll stand there and wait for me gently rocking her doll until I can hold it.  She always runs off but comes back in a minute to get her baby and make sure she is okay.  Sometimes, she'll run the doll all the way downstairs to tuck it into the cradle for a nap.  She's going to be a great mommy!

Afton is already and always my Princess.  I call her Princess Buttercup most of the time but I'm really hoping to avoid the princess attitude- we'll see how that goes...:).  So the other day I went to a great warehouse sale for Little Adventurers.  I picked up a dress for Afton, one for Liesel and one for Lydia.  When I got home I showed Afton the dresses. Well, Lydia's was a Cinderella dress, Afton's was not.  She's never seen the movie (until this week because I found it at DI for 50 cents) but she has a shirt with Cinderella and Belle on it. Anyway, when Afton realized the Cinderella dress was not for her, she was a little put out.  She didn't scream or throw a fit but she went into her room, found a Cinderella book (I have NO idea where it came from!) and she read and carried that book around the rest of the day.   Really?  Now I feel really great!  Luckily, I called up some sources and Kristi let us have Lydia's too small Cinderella dress and Afton was very pleased.  I haven't been teaching her the princess ways. I think they are inborn...

Afton is adventurous and loves to go hiking, bike riding, on big slides, long walks... the problem is she usually falls asleep!  Doesn't matter when we go for a bike ride, she's almost always asleep by the end of it.   This was our hike up to Battle Creek with my family last week- of course, Afton's asleep.  But, I like it when she naps because without them, she is one grumpy girl.  But, if I say "Afton, why are you so grumpy?" She says "No YOU grumpy!"  Course, when I'm in a bad mood she'll break out in a little "Dee doo DA DA!" just to get a smile. :)

Speaking of sleeping, Afton has also decided that she no longer sleeps in her pink bed.  At night, I tuck her in sing her a song, say good night and the next thing I know, she's sleeping in my big chair in my room. So I carry her back to her bed for the rest of the night. If she wakes up in the night, she gets back in the chair. Often I won't even know she's gotten up until the morning when I find her there.  At nap time, I don't even fight it.  I say "Do you want to sleep in your bed or in my chair?" And she says "I want sleep yours big snuggly chair in yours room."  And then she goes right to sleep.  I'll take it.

Last week, she got a cold. Now every morning (though she's much better) she says "Mommy, I have yucky cough!" and then does a little fake one so I can hear it.

Afton's been saying prayers all by herself lately and they go something like this "Heavenly Father, thanks home. Bless Hyrum Daddy Weston school. Karate guys 'Ha!'. Bless food. Mommy's food. My apples. Mommy's apples. Bless Maama Pa Robby. Maama Pa safe home. Amen.

You never know what random things might pop up in the prayer- it might just be the Muppets... My favorite thing though, was one day I was saying the prayer and Afton whispers "Bless my tiny baby" so I had to put that in too. :)

I feel like, no, I know I'm missing a million things that make Afton Afton so I'll probably just have to keep adding to the list but those are some of my favorites!

I love this pretty little girl!

Conference Time!

Hyrum scored us some tickets to conference from the Bishop for the afternoon session on Saturday SO we made arrangements for Weston and Afton to go to Maama and Pa's for the day and Zach, Hyrum and I headed up to Salt Lake early while listening to the first session on the radio.  I was bracing myself for the worst because the last couple times I actually went to conference (yes, it was probably 11 years ago) the traffic was dreadful and we ended up late for sessions, or not back in time for the next or just sitting on the road for hours... But we did it anyway.  Turns out, with the freeway construction almost done, people directing traffic in the city, and parking lots assigned to everyone with tickets we drove strait up to SL with no problems, parked and ate lunch (McDonalds in City Creek, Hyrum's choice.:) before the next crowd came flowing in. Nice!  We also ran into my old Bishop and his family, the McMullins! at the mall.  It's always crazy to see someone you know when you are in such a HUGE crowd.  I love it.  On our way to the Conference center, we walked past the Deseret Book where Alex Boye was giving a little concert, just up close and personal and Lex De Azevado was signing cds.  Zach took a minute to ask the clerk about their up and coming items and got an enthusiastic plug for his dad's new D&D reference companion.  Yeah, he didn't tell the girl he actually wrote 30 articles for the book... :)
Though he has been to performances in the conference center, Zach had actually never been to a session at the conference center so it was a first for Zach AND Hyrum.  Sadly, I didn't bring my camera because back in the old days when the Conference center first opened, if you had a camera you had to check it in at a desk in the back and then pick it up when you were done. I just wanted to avoid any hassle so I left it in the car and took no pictures of our adventure.  Turns out, it's too hard to take cameras and phones from every person in the  audience so they don't do it anymore.   Thus, there were still guys playing on their phones DURING conference.  Hello, people!  Anyway, we had great seats pretty close to the front, Hyrum brought his binoculars to see things even closer up and we got to hear and see our Prophet and leaders... pretty cool.
My favorite talk for the session, I think, was Elder Gay's "Would you sell your soul for a nickle?"


After the session I was just sure it would be crazy traffic getting home... but it was perfect. We got home by 5, dropped Zach off at our house so he could go with his dad and brothers to the Priesthood session and Hyrum (who slept the whole way) headed to Maama's house to get the little ones and then go to Kristi's house to make some fabulous Haunted Gingerbread houses with all the girls. This, I
do have pictures of!

How's that for a party day?  Whew!  Good times, good memories...