The weekend and a general update

So this weekend Bryan, Penny, & I headed up to Reno for my cousin Lisa's wedding. We went up a day early so we could spend some time with B's family since we don't get to see them all that often. The trip is about 2 1/2 hours and it went really well - Miss P sleeps like a champ in her carseat (yea!) and Harley-Quinn (our puppy) is a good traveler also. We didn't have to stop once we hit the road and Penelope woke up just as we got there, sweet as can be after her long nap.

It was really nice to visit with B's family - we stayed at his grandparents house (Grandpa built it himself and it's beautiful!). Penelope was a huge flirt the whole time and was quite taken with her great-grandparents.

Here's a picture of Penny and her great-grandpa Smith


We didn't get any of her and great-grandma this time around, although here's one of her & great-grandma from Christmas:


Amazing how much a couple of months makes!

Anyway, Lisa's wedding was a lot of fun too, even though we were only able to stay until the first dance. We were hoping Penny could sleep through most of the reception, but it was a tad too noisy and she was getting a little crabby. So we left, but not before we were able to visit with my cousins. All of us second cousins grew up together, we would spend summers at my great-uncle's cabin in Butte Meadows and we all have really fond memories of camping trips there. Once we all got older, visits happened less often, but now that we're all getting married & having kids I think we'll see each other more often. My cousin Jason has a 19 month old son named Tyson, Lisa just got married, Terra gets married in May, Michael is engaged... I forgot to pry into Chrissy's love life. I'll have to do that in May at Terra's wedding :) Jodee has been with Ken for what seems like decades. Jeffery, Sam, Ian, & Savannah are the last of the "big" cousins, and Savannah is going to be a senior in High School (I can remember when she was born, that makes me feel so old!).

The "little" cousins are (in age order): Macy, Reece, Hailey, Payton, Riley, Dakota, & baby-girl due in June. I hope I got that age-order right! It's pretty close at least.

Alright - on to everything Penelope.

She's laughing more often, it's pretty cute. She loves to laugh at the baby in the mirror. Actually, she loves to talk to the baby in the mirror. Come to think of it, she just loves to talk. This morning I had her on her play-mat while I finished my breakfast, I have a baby mirror attached to one of those annoying arches that blast terrible kiddie music when you pull the rings (the mirror block the rings, P doesn't like them anyway and the music makes me want to claw my ears). Anyway, she was chatting away at the baby in the mirror for 5 whole minutes - with only brief pauses to catch her breath. Gah-goo-bah!

It was really flipping cute. I'll get it on video one day.

I do have more video to upload, but I haven't gotten the chance to cut/edit it. Maybe I'll be able to do that during P's naps this week. She's finally started to get herself on a schedule. So I have at least 2 (generally more like 3) stretches of 30-45 minutes every morning and afternoon to get stuff done. Lately that's just been laundry & catching up on my recorded Ellen shows (ha!) but now that I'm current with Ellen I'll have to make it a priority to edit video.

Tomorrow I go to Kaplan University to check out their Masters/Teacher Credentialing program. I really hope this pans out b/c it will get me to my educational goals while allowing me to keep P out of daycare for awhile longer.

Ok, almost time to pick up the kidlets - I haven't seen them since Wednesday and I miss them!