Escape

We made our escape from a very snowy Rock Springs Tuesday afternoon. We were a little concerned we might get stuck getting out of our driveway, but we made it and it was pretty much smooth sailing after that.

Chris has never seen the lights on Temple Square, so we stopped and did that. The girls were tired and bored until the lights finally came on, then they were enthralled.

This was the pre-light boredom

Trying to keep them entertained in the Tabernacle until the lights came on.

They came on at 5:30, and were beautiful, this is the Assembly Hall.

The Temple looking so beautiful.

They had Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus in the middle of the reflecting pool. It looked really cool.

We spent the night in Utah, and got up early the next morning to finish our drive south. Some dense fog slowed us down just a little, but we had perfect roads and made it by 7:20pm totally exhausted and glad to be here!

Off to bed so we can have a visit from a jolly, round man dressed in red.

An early visit

We were all surprised yesterday morning when we went downstairs and there were a bike and scooter by the Christmas tree with a note from Santa.

When the girls wrote their letters to Santa they told him we would be at Grandma and Grandpa Bishop's for Christmas this year.

Santa was sure thinking because the bike and scooter would never have fit in our car to bring back home!

Caitlin rode it around in the house, and then around the block a few times in the afternoon even though it was so cold and there was a dusting of snow on the ground.

Ashlee is a little bit unsure of her scooter. She likes it, but would rather walk then ride it. I'm sure she will warm up to it once we can be outside more.

Santa Came! from Beth Will on Vimeo.

More tea parties?!

Caitlin loves having tea parties with her little tea set, so she was over the moon when she received a new tea party set at her pre-school gift exchange. (which, by the way, I obviously missed the part about a girl bringing a girl gift. Girls like Chutes and Ladders, right?)

The new tea set is the beloved Belle set, and the girls got to have a party for snack yesterday.

Now, with both sets, we have service for 8. Anyone for tea? (a.k.a. water)

Goodie Making

This week we have been baking a lot of scrumptious holiday goodies.

(By "we" I mean myself and Caitlin and Ashlee. Chris was giving finals all day Monday and Tuesday.)

We made fudge- for the first time ever. Chocolate fudge and peanut butter fudge. It turned out pretty good, although I'm not sure I cooked it quite long enough, the elevation thing throws me for cooking candies.

Breaking up candy canes for chocolate candy cane sandwich cookies.

They really liked making these cookies and kept saying, "Daddy will love these," because they know their daddy loves candy canes.

We had an assemble line. Ashlee helped spoon on the frosting and Caitlin put the "lids" on.

I am glad we gave most of it away, or we would all be gaining 40lbs this Christmas.

The girls played in backyard yesterday afternoon. I inadvertently left the sandbox toys out this year, but it is just as well because there is NO SNOW in the backyard. It has even melted away from all the places that never see the sun in the winter and so usually have snow all winter long.

I can't believe our yard looks like this in mid-December. (although we did get a dusting of snow last night)

When you have nothing else to talk about

This is what a sad potty girl, who doesn't feel good, looks like:

Ashlee has been a little under the weather lately, and yesterday seemed to be the climax. Poor thing.


I know there have been a lot of potty posts as of late, but that seems to be most of what has been going on with us lately. Chris was out of town recruiting at the end of last week, so we litterally have just been at home potty training for days. We did go out for a McDonald's playland lunch and for a choir concert last night that Chris sang in. I think we will begin moving on with our lives today.

Update

We have been at home, mostly, for the past few days and the potty girl is doing pretty well.
She is getting the hang of it.
We still have plenty of accidents, but they are getting fewer.

I might be really kicking myself for doing this when we embark on our 15-18 hour drive in a week and a half. But she was ready, and the reward is worth it. No more diapers!

(if only we could stop buying pull-ups for night time, but alas, someone seems to have a very small bladder.)

Potty Girl

We are working on potty training Ashlee, and she is getting to be a pretty good potty girl.

We officially started yesterday, although she used the big girl potty the 2 nights before just before bedtime. When she had success Monday night we cheered and cheered for her and she smiled so big and said "thank you, thank you, thank you" while moving her hands in front of her body in a gracious manner. Ash, you are so funny!

Yesterday we had 4 successes and 3 accidents. Not to bad for the first day with a stubborn girl!

We set up her bunny, a bear, and all the animals in the Ark to anxiously watch and wait for her to use the potty. She loved it, and kept saying "Mom, they all washing me."

A little good reading during potty time helps also.

We are proud of you Ashlee, our potty girl*. Keep up the good work!

*although Ashlee would say "I not a potty girl. I Ash-she."

Ornament Painting

A couple nights ago the girls each painted an ornament. They LOVE to paint, so they loved it even though half of the paint was dry. (As can be expected when it comes from a dollar store I guess)

Ashlee was in the middle of singing "Happy Birthday" to her Bamba Bishop.
They combined all the colors, so we got beautiful greenish-golden-brown ornaments. They look great on our tree!

Decked Out

Yesterday we realized that we were dressed Christmasy to the max without even planning it.

So we took a picture:




And a few of the girls:


They are so cute together, and they truely love each other. When Caitlin is gone, Ashlee can't wait until the moment Cait will come home again. Today when she was at swimming lessons, Ashlee spent a long time and worked so hard setting the hopstotch up so they could play when Caitlin got home. She was so proud to tell her "I did it all myself!" So precious.

decorating kid style

Yesterday afternoon Chris was busy with auditions for his spring musical, so the girls and I decorated the tree and house without him. We did leave him the village which is his favorite to put up :)

I let the girls hang all the ornaments on the tree themselves. They did a great job!

You can tell how high they could reach, and the spot Caitlin figured out she could reach if she stood on the couch.

You better believe that Ashlee hung 9 ornaments on 1 branch!

I looked up to see that, had a little giggle to myself, and said "Ash, maybe you should look for a different place to hang."

Otherwise I made no comments and let them do their work.

Caitlin loved it all, Ashlee got bored halfway through.

This morning some ornaments had fallen off, so I helped Caitlin spread them out. So they do cover all the tree now.

I also had to laugh when I saw that Caitlin had put the Christmas tree skirt on for her dress-up. It fit her great!

While I was at work.............

.................Chris and the girls got the Christmas tree set up. Don't they look thrilled.


They were not in a picture taking mood, because it sounded like the really enjoyed themselves. We have a busy week, but hopefully we will have all the decorations up by the end of it.

thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving and had a lot to be thankful for, including missing snow storms on the way down and on the way back up.
Our first few days were spent in the mountains at Chris's parents cabin.

We had fun eating, playing games, watching movies, and sitting by the fire because it was COLD outside.


We ventured outside for about 5 minutes to look for pine cones, but the wind was brutal. I, actually, only lasted about 1 minute.


The Will men crafting- making pine cone turkeys.


Friday night we drove up to Estes Park to catch the Christmas light parade. It was FREEZING, but we had fun. The girls loved the parade, and didn't seem to even get cold at all.

We made poticia which was fun and yummy.


And the girls found a fun toy at Grandma and Grandpa's house.


We are thankful for a wonderful loving family who we know we will always have fun with.

Finally some snow

We are not complaining at all this year, because we didn't really have any snow to speak of until Monday, November 22nd. That is crazy, unheard of, very rare, and we couldn't be happier! It meant that we actually had a very nice fall this year.

The girls were excited to gear up and shovel with Dad.

So Tired

Poor Ashlee has been so tired lately, some from being sick and some from just plain lack of sleep.

Last Saturday and Sunday night she could barely keep her eyes open during dinner. Her sleepiness equaled great entertainment for us.

Eyes getting Heavy from Beth Will on Vimeo.

Annie visits

Annie came and visited last week, Wed-Mon.
We were so glad she could come and visit and we had so much fun with her.
The girls love anything and everything about her. And whats not to love?
She reads them books, plays games, does hair, makes dinner and lunch, doesn't care if they wake her up at 4:30am, goes to swimming lessons, and she looks exactly like their mom!

We did alot of things while she was here.
While she was here Ashlee LOVED the dragon costume that she won't have anything to do with at Halloween :)

We had pudding for snack in fancy bowls!

We played hop-scotch (how great that a picture can be so deceiving as to make one believe that Ashlee really knows how to hop on 1 leg)

We played games like Toy Story Yahtzee.
Everyone say "Buzz, Buzz, Buzz" If you ever join us in a game you will know what I am talking about.

We had a tea party.

Up close and personal of Ashlee using her "cut"

Besides that we also had ice-cream cones at Little America, she and I went to Zumba twice (i love zumba), we went swimming, did some shopping at our mall, went out for Tai, saw "Oklahoma" at the college, and basically just had fun hanging out together.

After I got back from dropping Annie off at the airport Ashlee said to me, "Are you Annie?"

I said, "No" and she said "Ohhh-kay Mom." I think she was disappointed :)

And she keeps asking where Annie is. I tell her she went home and she asks, "At the airport?" Since Annie flew up to visit, Ashlee is convinced that she lives at the airport. Caitlin told her that would be silly.

I asked Caitlin what her favorite thing about Annie coming to visit was.

"Watching a movie on the way to pick her up at the airport" was her answer.

What!!

Don't let Caitlin's answer get you down, Annie. We loved having you come!!! Come again!