Haircut

Our little Ashlee's hair was getting longer, but was still so thin, and MANY different lengths. So we cut a little off to help even it out and maybe make it look a little thicker.

She looks so cute, and I'm sure if would look thicker and fuller if we didn't have to deal with the terrible static all the time.

We Love When Grandma Comes!

Grandma Berta (my Mom) visited last week. We love any visitors, but especially Grandma Berta. We did many, many fun things while she was her.

The girls showed off all their dress-ups, we played games, rode bikes, went shopping, the girls went out for lunch with her and Chris and I had a lunch date, read tons of books, went to swimming lessons, saw pre-school, had a Pampered Chef party, went to Tangled at the movie theater, had tea parties, went to story time at the library, etc. etc. etc.......

one tea party:

reading our favorite Knock, Knock book I found at the library

On Friday we drove to Logan to drop her off and visit with Great Grandma and Grandpa Garrett. It is amazing how well Caitlin can figure families out. At the lunch table she said I was her mom, and Grandma Berta was my mom, and Great Grandma Garrett was Grandma Berta's mom.

reading the Knock, Knock book to Grandpa Garrett.

(we read it to anyone who would listen, it is a great book!)

another tea party:

a fun Japanese umbrella:

marching around singing Soldier Boy:

My grandparents:

Grandma Berta and the girls:

the girls

This girl is looking so much older. She is turning from a toddler to a little girl so fast. And she is just beautiful.

I love that her eyes are filled with her big tears. Don't let her crocodile tears fool you, those huge tears have been flowing since she was 3 weeks old!

And this girl is getting so smart and is so helpful.

I've always loved her eyes.


We just love our girls, of course. They make us laugh so much.

They LOVE Mary Poppins, and like to act out parts of the movie. The other night Caitlin was Mary Poppins, and she asked Ashlee is she wanted to be Jane or Micheal? Ashlee replied that she would like to be "Burp". He is her favorite after all.

We have seen a herd of antelope right across from our house twice in the last week. They like to remind me that we have seen them. Caitlin calls the "cantaloupe" and Ash calls them "ante-lows".

Caitlin put on her sunglasses, dress-up shoes, and jewelry and said, "I am a Rocket Star!"

Chris was calling his mom with Caitlin but her cell phone was off and it went right to the message. Caitlin said, "Dad, can I push 1 for more options?" (ha, ha, it made us laugh)

Shhhhhhh

For Caitlin's 2nd birthday I made her a quiet book. I literally spent HOURS making all the pages, but I wasn't really sure how I wanted to put it all together. I decided to 3 hole punch the pages and put them in a 3 ring binder. My logic was that I could add pages later, and it would make for easy sharing in future years (as I was very pregnant with Ashlee at the time).
Well, I didn't really like the book that way. It was just to bulky.
So a few weeks ago I started a major overhaul of the quiet book.
I made 3 new pages and then put the pages together in 2 separate books.

Here are a couple of the pages. Now just imagine 7 pages in each book. Tons of hours of work.

I am glad I made the books, and that they are finally done to my liking.
But they were so much work that I will never make another one- ever!

Making Snowmen

Caitlin was assigned to bring the snack for preschool this week.

They were learning about snowmen, so I found a snack idea on-line.

She went to school with the snowmen snacks, and came home with a different snowman.

We love her pre-school. She makes so many fun things and is learning so much!

Dates, dates, dates

Over Christmas Chris and I managed to go on a few dates, which was so great.

My Mom, Dad, and sister were kind enough to watch the girls for 2 days and 1 night and Chris and I went to Tucson for a fun date.
We finally saw the Harry Potter Movie, did some shopping, some great eating, and went to the butterfly pavilion.
Hard to believe that was our FIRST time since Caitlin has been born that we both have been away over night.

In the butterfly pavilion- it was really humid.

Butterfly Beth:

Butterfly Chris (who apparently just emerged from his cocoon.)


We also got to go to the temple together since there is one just 10 minutes away from my parents house.

And finally, my younger sister so graciously watched the girls one day in California so we could have our own day at Disneyland! So fun.

Thanks to an awesome family who helped us out to have some quality "us" time.

What were we thinking

when we went out tonight for ice cream after dinner.
The temperature was only 20 degrees.

Well, we had to celebrate.
It was the first accident free day since starting to potty train Ashlee over a month ago.
It is about time!
I am hoping these accident free days will happen a little more frequently now.

A Magical Place

We did it! We went to Disneyland last week, and we had so much fun!
Between Christmas and D-day the girls got really excited.

We saw Chip (or Dale?) right after we got into the park. The girls were in awe of the life size character and couldn't stop looking.

Right after that we met Mickey Mouse. Hooray!

We went with my sister, Katie, who lives in the L.A. area. Her husband, Ryan, had class everyday so he couldn't join us at the park.

Our first ride! Pirates of the Caribbean, which happens to be Chris' favorite ride. Ashlee was a bit scared and had a death grip on Katie's arm the whole time.

Ashlee was timid about approaching any character without Chris or I, until we saw Tiana. She marched right up to her for a picture.

We enjoyed all of the kid rides in Fantasyland like the carousel.

more rides

Caitlin met Snow White's Witch. She was awesome! She was so good at being "mean" without being "mean".

and then we ran into Snow White herself, and Sleeping Beauty.

Typical "in front of the castle" pose.

We were excited to meet Aladdin and Jasmine.

and that ended our Tuesday at Disneyland.

Thursday we started off the day with breakfast with the Princesses.

Ashlee didn't want to put her dress on, but was soooo excited to have it on once she saw Ariel with her pretty dress.

Beautiful Belle. We had actually seen all the princesses, except Belle, on Tuesday so we were all excited to see her.

Cinderella

Snow White

Sleeping Beauty

Before the BEST Toy Story ride.

The girls picked a Woody and Jessie doll as their Disneyland purchase. And were so excited to see Jessie (and we gave Woody high fives). Ashlee was standing by the army man, but moved to the other side so she could stand by Jesse.

We love Toy Story

Ha ha, Ashlee always wears her sunglasses upside down, and it was no different with her 3D glasses.

Caitlin loved seeing the Cars after being scared to death on Soarin' over California.

And we couldn't leave without a picture by Mickey right in the front gates.

The girls had a blast, we had a blast......it was a good trip.

happy birthday to us

New Year's Eve is a great day. Not because it is a day to reflect on the past year, or look forward to a new one. Not because you get to set new goals for a new year or because you have an excuse to stay up late. It is great because it is mine and Annie's birthday!

This year was no exception, we had a great day. It is always fun to be together for our birthday.

This was a big birthday: the big 3-0. But I'm pretty sure that 30 is the new 20, so we are happy.

We opted for banana royales this year.

We also had fun ringing in the new year with friends from our Laramie days. Our roommate from college, Brenda, drove over from a different part of Arizona; and a long-long time Laramie friend, Erica, has moved to the Gila Valley so she came over. It was a lot of fun.

Celebrating Christmas

We had a fun Christmas in Arizona this year with all my family, except my brother and his family (we missed you guys!).

The girls loved having other adults besides Dad and Mom around. They especially loved Grandma and Grandpa, and would wake up and climb into their bed at obscene hours of the morning. But Chris and I sure loved sleeping in a little longer.

No trip would ever be complete without a tea party.

(my Dad looks amazing! He has lost over 70lbs in the past 6 months)

This is a girl feeling well and having fun Christmas Eve.....

This is a girl feeling sick and throwing up on Christmas Eve.

Caitlin throwing up? I know, shocking.

This is a girl trying to feel better to have fun and participate in our silly Christmas song.

Elves in the song.

The Christmas trees in the song.

Baby dolls in the song.

Our nativity. The pregnant one gets to be Mary!

(which is not me, in case anyone got confused)

Our Christmas Eve ended with Ashlee entertaining us for 30 minutes or so.

She is one crazy and so funny girl.

We asked her who she got her funniness from and she said "Mom." I'm not sure about that, Ash.

Our new pajamas.

Katie and I both arrived in Arizona the evening of the 22nd, and we spent most of our spare time the next 2 days making pajama pants for everyone.

Ashlee LOVED her Jessie doll that Caitlin gave her.

Caitlin liked the Ariel that Ashlee gave her, but kind of wanted a Jessie doll too.

The girls opened their present from us that was a trip to Disneyland.

This sums up their reaction......

They were not excited AT ALL. It was all very anti-climactic.

But now we are in California and going tomorrow and now they are excited.

Who even needs presents when you can just jump on the bubble wrap.

We also made humanitarian kits. The girls were both great helpers

The girls fed the ducks on 2 different occasions

And we played horse-shoes.

The girls team made an incredible comeback and ended up winning!!

We really are good, I just threw them off by only throwing it half-way to the pit the first time.

The boys may, or may not, have been poor losers.

We had a great trip with more documented events for other posts, and many more undocumented events. It is nice to be with family and out of the freezing cold.

We are in California with Katie and Ryan now and heading to Disneyland tomorrow!