Grandma Will Memorial Service

We spent this past weekend in Colorado for Grandma Will's (Grammy) funeral.

She past away in March, but was cremated so they just had the funeral. (which was very fun explaining to Caitlin and Ashlee who are adamant that they DO NOT WANT TO BE BURNED when they die. Good to know).

Friday night Chris and I got to see his friend and former classmate, Hannah, perform in Legally Blond in Fort Collins.  It was great to see her perform again, she did great!!

The rest of the time we hung out mostly at the house with family.

We all played a little game of soccer, except for Molly who was a spectator and cheerleader.

The funeral was Saturday afternoon at the Good Samaritan Village in Loveland where Grammy had been living when she passed away. The service was very nice, and perfect length for the girls.

After the service we had chocolate cake or cherry pie (Grammy's favorites) and hung around to chat for a while. 

Ashlee fell asleep, but Caitlin and Gavin had a ton of fun walking over and over and over the heating vents so that Caitlin's dress would be blown out from the air.

That evening we spent several hours back at Chris' parents house going through and dividing some of Grammy's things.
Molly loved carrying around this big teapot. She liked the lid to be on upside down. It anyone fixed it, she would set the teapot down and put the lid back upside down.

Grammy never had her ears pierced, so she had a bunch of clip-on earrings.  Caitlin and Ashlee each picked a few pairs to keep for dress-ups as well as a necklace.  Gavin also picked a necklace and earrings and wore his the rest of the day too. Dress-ups are fun for everyone!!!

It was a nice weekend and we are glad we could have a special time to remember Grammy and what a great women she was.

Cinco De Mayo

For FHE yesterday I made these individual pinatas for each of us since cinco de Mayo was on Sunday. 

I got the idea from Family Fun magazine, but made it my own way and should have made a better plan for the pull string. But it was still fun! The candies inside were our treat.

Even Molly had one filled with cereal that she could eat! She was already in bed Monday night, so she got hers on Tuesday. She was very cute with is and very possessive of it. She held it most of the morning and would cry if the cereal spilled out or if anyone took it away from her.

This Sunday

Before church today I came downstairs and Caitlin was nicely reading the Friend to Ashlee.

I love to see that, especially since there had been plenty of fighting prior to this moment.

Then a rare picture of me with the older girls.

And we haven't had a picture of our whole family for ages, so we set the timer and hoped for the best.
The flash didn't go off in this picture, but a little editing at least allowed us to be seen. And then I could see that is was just a silly picture!

Luckily we had tried one other one and we were all actually looking, even Molly. A pretty big feat for a timer picture.

Artwork

Caitlin had a piece of art selected for the art show at the Community Center, so we went to see it on Wednesday. There were only about 5 pieces selected from each class, so it was exciting.

She did a great job on the picture, we are so proud of her!!

Ashlee's computer time

Ashlee loves to play PBS kids or Disney Junior on the computer. She would be happy to play everyday, but I usually only let her once a week for about an hour.

She is great at navigating the games.  Kids know so much about computers.  Luckily we have safety features in place so she really can't get into anything she shouldn't.

Month of April Cupcakes

Our cupcake calendar has been super fun, especially for the girls.

We made the February cupcakes, but they didn't turn out like the picture at all, so there were no pictures of them.

Then we skipped March, but will go back and make them at some point because they look and sound delicious.

Yesterday we made the April cupcakes. Perfect cupcakes to help Chris and I get in the mood for our upcoming cruise (as if we really need help)!!

They were a very delicious Rum punch cupcake (we didn't have rum extract so we left it out) with waves and sand.  They girls love the little umbrellas also.  And we have TONS of them now.

I usually make cupcakes from a cake box, but these were from scratch and were divine. So moist and delicious.  Yum yum.

One Year Stats

Molly went for her 1 year check on April 10th.

Her head is 18.5 inches (90th percentile) her head is very long from front to back.

She weighs 19lbs 2oz (14th percentile)

Her length is 30 inches (70th percentile)

She loves watching Caitlin and Ashlee at swimming lessons.  So far she is happy to just watch (and not try to get in) so she is easy to bring along.

Our very gummy girl is finally getting more teeth.  One of her top has popped through, and we think the other is following suite.  That will put her up to 4!

She still loves to eat, and is very good and pretty clean when it comes to feeding herself.

But she LOVES to touch her hair while she's eating, or drinking her bottle, so she ends up with all kinds of food in her hair.

Walking!!!!

Molly has been taking 2-4 steps occasionally for a few weeks now, but has not been really walking.
Today we were babysitting a little girls who is her age (they are 1 week apart), and she is walking a little bit.
Molly saw her walking and seemed to decide right then and there that she was going to do it to.
She stood up and took about 6 steps over to the basket of toys and looked so happy that she had done it!
Then tonight she was taking many steps over and over again, so Chris started recording it.
And she walked clear across the room!


Hooray for Molly!!
She is officially our quickest walker.
Caitlin walked at 14 months, Ashlee at 14 1/2 months, and Molly is just 2 days past 13 months!

Earth Day

Because Caitlin is in school, she informed us it was Earth Day and wanted to know what we were going to do about it!

So, for FHE was talked about the earth and made an earth wreath with all our helping hands.

Then we cleaned up some trash in the back yard (in the snow and FREEZING cold).

 And finally we had "earth" cookies.  We mostly just looked like play dough.

I am happy our 1st grader can keep us well informed about these things!

Visiting Grandma!

Last Saturday we drove to Logan to spend the day with my Grandma Garrett.

The girls love Grandma, but Molly did not want to sit on Grandma's lap and she was trying to GET DOWN!

And we got to visit with Aunt Shirley and Uncle Greg also (they live in the house upstairs).
The girls loved all of Aunt Shirley's dress-ups and the LOVE her doll house.
She is so nice to play with them because they talked her ear off the whole time.

Hopefully next time we visit it will be warmer weather so we can play outside and walk down to the river.

Date

Last night Chris took Caitlin and Ashlee on a daddy-daughter(s) date to see Peter Pan the musical at the high school.

The girls loved it and have been playing Peter Pan ever since.

Helpers

We have great helpers at our house, but occasionally we have more help then we need.

Sometimes Dad has more help then he needs when he's trying to work on his computer!

And I often have more help then I need in the kitchen!

Molly can clear the drawers in a matter of seconds.

Hannah Visits

One of Chris's classmates from the RSAMD (grad school) is doing a show in Colorado and had some free days so she drove over to hang out with us for a few days!

There were only 12 people in Chris's class, and they did everything together, so they became good friends.  We especially loved Hannah!

The girls loved having her come, even though Ashlee could not remember her name (rhymes with banana!)

One night they put on a play with her. 

During the day she would go and hang out with Chris at work and observe his classes.

We can't wait until we get to go and see her show next month!

Flipping

Caitlin has become fearless about swimming and jumping off the diving board.  Last week she did a flip off the diving board!! (it is a kind-of flip, she is working on perfecting it)

WWCC Free Day 2013

The college puts on a free day for the kids in the community every year. And we go......every year!

This years free day was last Saturday.

This year the girls participated in more of the big organized events and less of the little activities.

They enjoyed Jazz class in the dance studio.

They made a bird house and are so excited to see if a bird will actually build a nest in it this year.
Caitlin told me that it wasn't that fun building the house because "they just sat there and Dad built it." But Chris vehemently denied this.  They helped hold and pound the nails.  It turned out great.

Their very favorite thing was cheer camp.

They finished off the day spending a couple of hours swimming at the pool.
Molly and I joined them for lunch and we watched the Jazz dance class.

Our Easter

At our house this year, the girls each got an Easter basket from Chris and I, and the Easter Bunny hid some candy filled eggs outside for them to find.

I made a scavenger hunt for them to find their baskets.  It took them back and forth and up and down the stairs about 6 or 7 times before finally finding their baskets in the dryer. They loved every second of it, and even put all the eggs back to repeat the hunt later in the morning.

                                 

                                                    

                               

In their baskets they had a headband, new flip-flops, a chocolate bunny, and new skirt and shirt and a personalized plate.  (I had a personalized plate when I was little and I LOVED it).  Molly had the shirt and skirt, plate, eggs filled with M&M's (yum!) and a watering pot.

I made the skirts using this tutorial.  They wanted to try them on right away and then wore them the whole rest of the day, so I guess they liked them!

After finding their baskets they headed into the backyard to find the eggs the bunny hid.

It was a beautiful day, so we snapped a few pictures outside before going to church.

Happy Easter!