Dad

Happy Father's Day to one of the best dads around.

We love you.

Disneyland

Last week we took Kate to Disneyland. I knew Leah would be miserable with a week of strollers and standing in line, so we took the opportunity to have some one on one with Kate. We had an amazing time, there is nothing more magical than Disneyland with a 4 year old! Kate was in heaven with the princesses and the alone time with mom and dad. We overlapped our trip with two other families, so we had different friends with us different days. The combination of perfect weather, magic, good friends, and my family made for a great trip!!

Sweet pose!

Small World with the Winterhalders

We went to Ariel's Grotto for lunch and met all the Princesses.

Kate almost passed out from excitement!

Nighttime swimming after a long day

Lunch with the Hunter's

Kate LOVED the rollercoasters

Dad and Mickey

Belle

Huntington Beach

It was a little chilly when we first got there,

but it warmed up and we got sunburned

And, the best part:

Coming home to this little love!

OMG

From this day forth, I do solemnly swear, I will get my carpets cleaned on a regular basis.

Barf.

I swear, I really do clean, every week. I was horrified!

PS I blame this on children and the dog

4 years old

Where did my last four years go? How is it possible that Kate is 4?!?

Happy Birthday to my sweet, spunky, independent little spirit. What would I do without you?

2011

As a whole, 2010 was a hard year for a lot of people. Death, cancer, job loss, sadness all filled 2010. But for me, in my little world, things were good. I suffered along with my sick and grieving friends and family and felt a little more grateful for what I have. A hard working husband who loves me (and I love him); two amazing, adorable, healthy, spunky little souls; a solid family to call my own. Add in a stable job, a warm house, food on my table and I can't ask for anything more. Thanks 2010 for the memories!

Christmas

We were super excited for Christmas this year. For 6 weeks, I shopped, planned, wrapped and envisioned a perfect Christmas Day to include:

• a fun filled family morning
• a leisurely, yummy breakfast at grandma's
• a good, restful nap
• a delicious traditional dinner complete with rolls, ham, and funeral potatoes

This is how it really went:

• a fun filled family morning starting with tears because Kate didn't hear Santa
• a brand new, hot pink nail polish spilled on the carpet
• a three year old's try at covering the evidence
• a lecture
• more tears
• a hour late to grandma's
• yummy breakfast with cinnamon pull apart rolls an hour late because we were a hour late
• a shortened nap
• forgotten rolls never set out to raise because of the nail polish event
• forgotten corn flakes on the funeral potatoes
• barfing three year old from 5:00 pm til 4:00 am

Oh well, I wouldn't miss a Christmas with my family for anything!

Halloween

We had a great Halloween and were only slowed a little by the bad weather. We had our annual family pumpkin carving dinner and trick or treating with our friends. Kate had two costumes because she was less than happy about the butterfly I picked out for her, but was a good sport and wore it for trick or treating. Leah was just excited to see the other kids come to our door!

Kate and Daddy carving pumpkins

The finished product and our fam, minus Lex
which made us sad she wasn't there

Pumpkin head

Leah and Kate

Super Kate, the costume Kate picked

out and "designed" herself

(thanks to my friend Sheree for sewing her K cape!)

Cornbelly's

Cornbelly's is always a good time. We went with the Hansen's and Kate, Issak, Leah, and Lila made some awesome farmer's and monsters! These kids make me laugh!

Poor Honda

On Wednesday, I was driving home from work and a sweet 16 year old girl tried to turn into Foothill Village during rush hour. Not the best idea! She didn't see me and gunned it to get across the three lanes of traffic and my poor Honda didn't survive. The airbags went off, I spun through traffic and hit another car. I was immediately grateful I hadn't picked up the girls yet. I was fine, just some awesome bruises from the airbags. The insurance company officially declared it dead today. RIP Honda, we loved your gas mileage!

Birthday

Happy 1st Birthday to my sweet Leah! You add so much to our family and make me smile every day. We love you!!

Leah really, really liked the cake!

I heart my girl

( Well, girls really. Leah is on the pack on my back, you just can't see her!)

Stupid Bees

Last night we rode our bikes over to the park and Kate got stung by a bee. She was so mad! She just could not understand why a bee would do that to her. After a few minutes of crying, we decided to head home and she says to us, "I hate bees so much that I am never wearing that dang costume ever again!!"

Halloween 09, the "stupid bee"

MockingJay

I loved, loved, loved Hunger Games and the sequel Catching Fire. I couldn't wait til the third and final book came out. I stayed up all night reading, I couldn't put it down. And I am disappointed. It wasn't what I wanted it to be. And it gave me nightmares. There's nothing worse than being let down.........

Anniversary

Happy 8th anniversary to my hubs, who was sweet enough to plan a surprise trip to Snowbird for the weekend. A yummy dinner, an uninterrupted conversation, a free concert, a yummy brunch and beautiful weather. What more could a girl ask for?

Cave Explorers

This weekend we went to Great Basin National Park to visit Lehman Caves. It was a scenic 4 hour drive, just kidding, has anyone ever driven past Delta? Wow! There is nothing but a straight road and desert. Thank you portable DVD player! It was great weather and fun to see things we had never seen. The cave was awesome and the girls loved it. There was a river in our campground that Kate loved and most everyone took a hike to see these trees that dated back to 200 BC. Most of all, I loved spending time with my family, my wonderful in laws and my favorite brother.....

My Family, Papa Scooter, Grandma Tina, Uncle J, Aunt Lex,

Uncle Greg, Daddy and Kate

Inside the cave

Hot Leah after napping in the tent

Dirty Kate

Hiking with my Lex

Portrait

Kate drew this picture of me tonight. She thought it looked just like me with fat cheeks. I can kinda see the resemblance....

Dancing Queen

Kate had her first dance recital last night. I was a nervous wreck. At class, she is easily distracted and likes to play with her dance friends instead of actually dancing. I really didn't think that she would dance, but she got up there like a pro and danced her little heart out. She only had a few times where she was distracted and we only had one random twirl thrown in. I was beaming with pride. How did my tiny baby become that little girl on stage in front of all these people?

Lazy Sunday

Kate is very into "twinners". She wants to be the same as me.

Sunday I washed my car, so Kate washed hers. She was super excited to be "same, same" as mom.

Leah just sat in the grass and smiled like her usual happy self.

Weekend Highlights

We spent the weekend in Wayne County with Justin's whole family. I was going to post a ton of cute pictures of our activities, but blogger is dumb. So....I'll tell you about it instead. We spent time:

• hiking, this picture was taken from the top of "bathtub hill" and if it were big, you could see our cabin from that spectacular view
• bird watching
• checking out beautiful Capitol Reef scenery I'd never seen before
• playing baseball, toddler style. Whiffle balls, not baseballs, no strike outs, everyone gets to run one base, everyone is the winner
• laughing
• chasing lizards
• watching a baby cow in the first few minutes of life
• being grossed out by the "after birth" of a cow
• eating
• playing horseshoes
• getting very, very dirty
• shooting empty cans
• good conversation with some of my favorite people
• riding four wheelers
• playing on the swings
• playing in the sand
• playing with cousins
• lots of playing :)
• watching the sunset
• loving every minute with my girls
  

Carnival......