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!

Egg Dying

Today we dyed our Easter eggs! I thought that there are usually 6 colors, but ours only had 5.  I guess you really only need the primary colors.

We told them they could each only do 6.  That way Ashlee couldn't dye all of the really quick like she did last year. Ashlee's approach this year was to keep them in the dye as long a possible to get the richest color she could.  Caitlin took her time coloring pictures on each of her eggs before dying.

We ended up with a cartoon full of very colorful eggs!

While the Big Girls Were Away

Caitlin and Ashlee were so lucky and got to spend last weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Will and their cousin Gavin and Uncle Nate and Aunt Amy in Granby, CO.

They were so excited for the trip and had so much fun!

They went skiing for the first time, and by skiing I mean ski school.

Ashlee and Gavin were in the same class and worked on their stance.

They also went rock climbing. Caitlin was a champ and climbed all the way to the top, and Ashlee got halfway up!

They also went roller skating and sledding and played basketball, and just had fun the whole time.  They left Friday morning and I picked them up in Rawlins on Tuesday.

And this girl was stuck at home with Mom and Dad- poor thing!

She had no idea what was happening, but she was sure excited to see her sisters yesterday. She cried and cried when I buckled her back in the car for the drive home because she just wanted to play!!

That was our longest time without some of our children and our house was quiet, but we sure missed them!

The Birthday Celebration

On her birthday Molly had blueberry pancakes for breakfast for the first time and really liked them.

Poor girl fell right before breakfast and got that bruise on her forehead.

Ashlee got bubbles from playgroup, but decided she wanted to give them to Molly.  Molly loved her blowing bubbles for her to try to pop.

Ready to open presents after she woke up from her afternoon nap.

The girls helped her open her presents.  She really had no idea what was going on.

Ashlee gave her bath books and animal crackers and she LOVED them.  The animal crackers were open and leaning against her chair, so she would just reach her hand right down into the bag to get another one. It was very cute and humorous.

Caitlin gave her some cars, which she also loved.

She got a shaker from Annie, which she loved to eat, and shake.

She also got some books (which she just wanted to eat), some stuffed animals, some kids songs (which she loves to listen to in the car), a dress and sweater, and Chris and I gave her the giraffe rocking horse.  She didn't like any of the stuffed animals or the rocking horse and didn't really want anything to do with those items.  Mostly, she just wanted to eat everything!

After dinner we put on birthday hats and sang happy birthday and had cake.  By this time she was very tired and feeling pretty overwhelmed by everything that was going on. But she was a trooper and seemed to enjoy her cake.

Side not about her cake: Ashlee took a bite out of the top of her 1 candle; eating, and SWALLOWING the wax and the wick! She was in big trouble and will probably never do that again.  Luckily we had another candle we could light.

She got the entire top layer of her up-up-up cake.

She ate a little of it, squished a lot of it, and then was ready for a bath and bed.

We were glad Grandma and Grandpa Will could drive up to spend Molly's birthday with us!


About Molly:

She loves table food, and macaroni and cheese, but her favorite thing is cottage cheese!

She stands and dances when the girls turn on Just Dance on the Wii.

She is very inquisitive and into everything.  She gets gets her fingers shut in cupboards and drawers after looking whats inside.

She loves taking baths.

She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth.  We have to fish things out of her mouth all the time, but luckily we have not had to perform the heimlich.

She likes to stand at the storm door and look outside on warm days.

She likes to reach up and play the piano.

She can say "ma ma ma" "da di" and "yay" and shakes her head no.