Twitchell Family

Settled

2011-09-02T20:43:00.000-07:00

So - to make a long story short - we moved.

We've settled in. Jobs started. School started. Life going as well as can be expected with all the changes.

:o)

How's that for a blog update, huh?

Oh...

Really?

You think it needs pictures?

Hmm.... okay.... I suppose I can get some pictures on here. Just for you!

Mallory turned 7!!

Mallory started 2nd grade

Brit and I went on vacation to none other than....VEGAS! We did all the touristy stuff we never did while living there (like trying out flavors from around the world at the Coca-Cola store, seeing Mystere and Tournament of Kings, etc.)

Hannah started Preschool....and is her usual silly self!

The girls turned into fishies and spent a LOT of the summer in a pool!

The end.

New Hair-Do(s)

2011-07-01T13:03:00.000-07:00

Mallory has been begging for a haircut for weeks! I finally got around to cutting it myself... however, it went a little shorter than I planned. (Her hair has a knack for being super long while wet and then SHRINKING like crazy when it's dry!) Mallory also loves having her hair straightened - so we did that this morning... and also straightened Hannah's super thick hair too.

Don't they look like sisters?? ;o)

Hannah's hair is so thick and crazy - it was very hard to straighten!

Mallory decided this morning (without telling anyone) that she didn't like the bangs cause they kept getting in her eyes. SO - she took matters into her own hands and cut them SHORTer (only it looks more like a 2 year old did it)! I couldn't figure out why they were so bad - while I was straightening them - I didn't remember doing such a bad job last night! She finally felt guilty enough to tell me that SHE cut them again this morning! hahaha! I just had to laugh! I am not really wanting to fix it - it would make them all super short. I figure the short ones will eventually grow out! (Depending on how she has them brushed to the side - you sometimes can't even tell.)

I sure love my girls!! Aren't they just beautiful?!

More Soccer

2011-06-04T17:19:00.000-07:00

Mallory's last soccer game was today! She had a great time!! After the game they had a pizza party and awards were handed out. Mallory was SO thrilled to get her very first medal (and certificate) for soccer. She says that "today is the best day ever!" :o) Here are some pictures taken by the coach's wife.

Beautiful Soccer Sweetie - Mallory!

Coach Jeff and the "Black Widows"

The silly picture! (Mallory doesn't know how to be silly for a picture??)

Team huddle (Mally is #22)

Practice

Mallory getting her medal

A bit of Mally's last game (and showing what Hannah and the other little ones do at the game)

Soccer

2011-05-11T01:31:00.000-07:00

Mallory started playing soccer this year! She loves it! She plays on a team named the "Black Widows" (which she is NOT thrilled with - but since there were more boys than girls on the team and their colors were red and black - they didn't think it appropriate to be named the Ladybugs)!

This is her first game - probably the coldest day of the year!!!! Poor kids were freezin!

She is #22

The team is only 6-7 year olds - but most of the kids have played before.

Her team practices once a week and has a game every Saturday.

This is her soccer practice outfit!

Other than one of the games (where the two goals that were scored for the other team happened to be when she was given a turn as goalie - oops!), her team has won!

She hasn't decided if she's going to want to play it again in the fall or try a different sport - but we're proud of her hard work so far!!

EaStEr WeEkEnD

2011-04-25T20:44:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter holiday! Here is our weekend in pictures:

Hannah coloring easter eggs

Mallory coloring easter eggs

Our beautiful eggs! ;o)

Easter Sunday morning - discovering what they got in their baskets

(Not sure why Hannah wasn't smiling - she was excited but tired!)

Girls in their new Easter dresses and wearing the necklaces they got in their baskets and got to string together themselves.

After church we did a little egg hunt in our house (since we couldn't make it to Gma & Gpa Fry's traditional egg hunt - Gma sent the girls an egg hunt in a box)!

Hannah pretty much followed Mallory around hoping to find the eggs! Didn't work very well - so we ended up having to help her out a little!

Opening the eggs and discovering the goodies!

Calling Grandma to thank her for the eggs

Hannah talking for a minute before hurrying back to her treats.

One thing that the girls found in their baskets was this delightfully messy Crayola Bath Paint!! I made them wait till tonight to try it out! (They had red, yellow and blue paint to play with.)

Aren't they SO talented? Two little artists in the tub! haha! They even had a fun time rinsing it all off (which made a TON of bubbles - since the paint is pretty much just colored soap). What a fun bath!

We hope you all had a great Easter holiday too!!

Hannah's 4th Birthday!

2011-04-02T15:51:00.000-07:00

Today we celebrate Hannah's 4th birthday! We had a bunch of little friends over and also both sets of grandparents! She also had her Aunt Amy, Uncle Nathan and 4 cousins come for the party too! What a spoiled little girl today! She wasn't so sure about so much craziness going on for awhile (she didn't eat much breakfast - too excited - so she quickly got hungry/grumpy)! Thankfully all the fun activities distracted her and she ended up having lots of fun! Here are lots of pictures from the party and some of the details!

Here are the favor boxes and shirts for painting

Hannah with the presents from Mom, Dad and Mallory (Can you detect the "subtle" theme going on??)

Opening up presents from Grandma and Grandpa Twitchell

Another pic with Twitchell's gifts

Hannah opening up gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Fry

Posing with her Rapunzel tower cake (Which can be seen in more detail HERE)

Each of the party guests (or as many as I could get ahold of) posed with Hannah inside the tower. First off was Mallory with Hannah!

One of the activities we did: making sun necklaces (painting ceramic suns and putting beads on the necklace)

Rapunzel loved to paint - so we let the kids paint the "wall" just like Rapunzel does!

Hannah painting her sun necklace

After singing Happy Birthday, Hannah blew out all her candles (this was the part she's talked about for weeks!! She could not wait to do this!)

Hannah opening presents (and being a bit selfish with them)

April 2nd is also my Mom's birthday! So we made sure the girls posed with her in the tower too!

I didn't get pics of the kids playing this game since I was helping with it - but it was Pin the Frying Pan on Flynn Rider! (This makes more sense if you've seen the movie!)

This (sideways picture) is of another game we played - Feed Pascal (who is Rapunzel's pet chameleon).. the kids tossed plastic fruit into the holes!

After most the guests left - quiet time coloring with one of the presents she received!

This was the sign hung up to lead the way to the eating area (outside - until it got too windy...then they all brought their food back inside)...it also helps to understand it if you've seen the movie!

This is the tower that I made from a refridgerator box! It was a lot of fun!!

I'm hoping Hannah enjoyed the special parts of this exciting day!! We are so grateful to have her in our lives! She has so much character and is a lot of fun to be with!! She keeps our lives interesting and we love her to death!! :o)

Green

2011-03-17T18:57:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today we all wore green and had some yummy green food! I sent Mallory to lunch with a clover painted on her sandwich, a green marshmellow krispy treat, a green apple and some gogurt. She said she was the only one in class that had a green lunch!

For dinner, I made "Irish" Toast, green scrambled eggs, green apple and green lime/pineapple punch! It was yummy!!

We hope you all had a wonderful green-lovin day!

Visiting Teaching

2011-03-16T16:19:00.000-07:00

I posted a question last week on facebook about visiting teaching. I got quite a few responses to the post... but I didn't really share my thoughts/opinions/feelings on the topic as much as I would have liked. So, I thought a good ol' blog post would suffice to get those thoughts out in the open (since I know ya'll are sitting on pins and needles, anxious to hear what I have to say...)! ;o)

I've had VTing on my brain a lot the past couple weeks. I read a really good article in the March Ensign about what it means to be a VTer. (And it turns out that being a VTing Supervisor is my new calling! So the thoughts must have been put in my head for a reason!) Have said all that - know that I am in no way the "perfect" VTer when it comes to making the monthly visits. A lot of my feelings on this subject come from what I feel that I need in a VTer....and therefore - what I'd like to BE as a VTer.

I've heard all the excuses (and given a few of them myself) about why we don't bother with VTing. "I'm too busy" being the most popular one! But really - if we sit down and think about it... no one is THAT busy to where they can't even make a phone call, send a text, or a facebook message letting their assigned sisters know that they care, right?! I'm not expecting miracles to happen every month... but knowing that someone is there for you goes a long way. I've heard before about people not liking that they feel obligated to be someone's friend. And yes, a VTing assignment may start out as being an obligation thing...but if you get to know the sisters you visit - you become friends! It becomes something you Want to do - and not something out of obligation.

Most of the people who responded to my facebook post - told me that they wish they saw more of their VTers. I don't think they even necessarily mean that they're missing the one time a month where someone comes into their house to give them a spiritual message (though maybe they enjoy that part too)... I think they miss having someone who is there to care about their well-being. Coming from someone who doesn't live in the same city as ANY family members - having VTers is very important. Sure, you have a spouse and even some friends who care... but having someone in the gospel who is charged with making sure you are doing all right is an awesome thing! Maybe they are there for you when you need a babysitter, or can bring a meal if you're sick... but just knowing that there is someone you can call on is priceless.

Getting to the point where you trust your visiting teacher isn't easy. I think that is why those monthly visits (or phone calls/texts/FB messages) are important. It lets the sister you're visiting know that you care enough to make the time to see her regularly. If she knows you're there and that you care - she will feel comfortable letting you be there when she really needs someone. It's not easy to ask someone for service (we'd all like to think that someone would just notice when we need something...but we all know that it doesn't usually work that way). It's so much easier to ask for help when you know that it's not a burden to the person you're asking. Becoming a friend - not just a VTer - is how you get to that point.

I have also learned another important part of VTing: reporting how your sisters are doing. Reporting VTing is not just about the numbers.... it's important to let the leaders in the ward know if the sisters you visit are in need of help! It's just not letting them know "Yes, I visited all 4 sisters this month" end of story. It's important to pass on relevant information if you feel it necessary. Or you can also let them know that the sisters you visit are doing well and you've got things under control! :o) If something is a sensitive topic - you don't need to report it to the "supervisor"...go straight to the RS President. The point is to make sure every sister in the ward is taken care of (spiritually, emotionally, and even physically). The RS President can't make it to visit everyone in the ward...she's too busy for that. It's our jobs as VTers to make sure that everyone feels loved and supported and even needed!

Having gone through a rough time at the last part of last year - there wasn't a month that went by that I didn't wish I had someone who felt the need to make sure I was doing okay. Someone who could lend a listening ear (who wasn't already sick of hearing about my "problems") would have been a lifesaver at times. I eventually got up the courage to ask the VT coordinator about it - if maybe I could be "assigned" to someone who might make the effort to show they care. Since I'm not perfect at visiting teaching...I felt awkward asking for a change... but she assured me it was okay and that she'd see what she could do to help get me a VTer. Knowing how much I've needed those people in my life, has made me, I think, a better visiting teacher! I try to be more thoughtful of what the sisters I visit are going through...and I try to let them know I'm here.

It's all about making the effort - not about being perfect!! :o) There - my two cents neatly tucked into a blog post. I'm sure you all feel better now that you know how I feel about visiting teaching! haha!

Jump Rope for Heart

2011-02-19T22:03:00.000-08:00

Mallory is participating in a fundraiser called Jump Rope for Heart by the American Heart Association. In school they are learning about how to keep their heart healthy...and one way to do that is through exercise - jump rope! The money goes towards helping kids with "hearts that don't work right", towards educating the public about being heart-healthy, and research to help better prevent heart disease.

Please help her reach her fundraising goal!! Even a small donation helps! Thanks!!

Use this link to go to Mallory's donation page:

Jump Rope for Heart

Cajon Chicken Sandwich

2011-01-11T18:06:00.000-08:00

Tonight we had the yummiest chicken sandwiches ever!! They were soooo good that I just had to share the recipe with ya!!

Cajon Chicken Sandwiches:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into strips and flattened to 1/4" thick

Mix 3 Tbsp olive oil with 2 Tbsp Cajon seasoning

Spread all over chicken and place on grill (or in skillet). Cook till done.

While chicken is cooking - mix 1/4 c mayo with 2 tsp dill weed and 1 tsp minced garlic

Spread onto toasted King's Hawaiian sandwich buns

Place slice of Provolone cheese, tomato and lettuce leaf onto buns

Add chicken to sandwich....and Enjoy!!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T16:08:00.000-08:00

We've had a great month of December at our house! I finally graduated from the nursing program on Dec. 17th! It was awesome!! I had so many family members come down to support this important event!

The girls have been waiting anxiously for Christmas to arrive! And it finally has! Here are some pictures:

Girls in their Christmas Eve PJ's (along with pj's for their dolls)

Mallory

Hannah

Christmas morning - waiting excitedly for Dad to get home so they could go downstairs and see what Santa brought!

They got to come downstairs and saw what they got!

Checking out their new barbie dollhouse from Santa
Mallory reading the note from Santa

Opening presents followed.

Hannah with the customary money found inside a book from her Gma & Gpa Fry (Every time she found $1 she would say "I have one hundred dollars!!" haha!)

Mallory with the money found inside her book!

Spoiled Hannah with her loot

Spoiled Mallory with her loot

Girls playing with their presents

Girls playing and Daddy setting up our new Wii

We were all very blessed this year! We look forward to beginning a new year! We hope all our family and friends are well and know how much we love and appreciate them!!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-05T16:04:00.000-07:00

Here is this year's halloween post - better late than never!! I'm too lazy right now to put the pictures in order - so they are pretty random!

Mallory after our church trunk-r-treat

Hannah after our ward trunk-r-treat

The girls waiting in line at the school's trunk-r-treat (had a ridiculously LONG line just to go around maybe 15-20 cars)
At the school's Halloween carnival

Mallory's up-do!

Mallory as Mariposa (Barbie)

Hannah's up-do
Hannah as a flower fairy

Picture taken at the school carnival (by the talented Tami Huntsman)

(She even got Mallory to give a real smile!! YEA!)
The girls had a great time and we are still enjoying all the candy!

Now it's probably about time for me to take down my few Halloween decorations!

Pumpkin Painting

2010-10-11T19:55:00.001-07:00

Tonight for FHE we painted our pumpkins. We decided not to carve them this year - too time consuming and messy!! (We even made Daddy paint too!!) It was a lot of fun!!

The beginning...Getting closer to being done...

Hannah.... um.... yeah.

Mallory making her's with flowers and rainbow stripes

And the lovely (and a little crazy/scary) mommy and daddy pumpkins!

They all took residence out on our front porch. Hopefully they make it through the rest of the month out there!! :o)

Fundraiser Time!!! Pull out those wallets! ;o)

2010-09-10T19:39:00.001-07:00

So Mallory's school is doing the same fundraiser that they did last year - selling stuff from the "Cookie Dough Man." She is super excited about doing it again!! (They get little prizes depending on how much stuff they sell.) So....you can look under September 2009's blog posts to see the stuff... though there are a few differences this year (like the bread only comes in apple, cream cheese and raspberry)...and there's now a red velvet cake roll. Anywho...if you choose to order - you need to do so soon!! They're only giving us till the 20th to get our orders in!

You can also go to: www.cookiedoughman.com and choose to see the fundraiser products they offer (though don't try to purchase through them...make sure you order through Mallory).

If you can't find the price - let me know and I'll look at Mallory's papers and find it for you! You're welcome to send a check, made out to Alamo PTA! :o)

Thanks ya'll!!!!

Groupon

2010-09-03T17:17:00.000-07:00

I'm trying out this new coupon thing! It's called Groupon. I might be super slow to catch on - and most of you probably already do this... but it looks like a great deal! It sends an email once a day (or to your phone) about a great deal going on (like Buy $10 worth for only $5). Anywho... thought I'd pass on the word for anyone else who is slow to learn about these things! :o) If you're interested - use this link to check it out!! http://www.groupon.com/r/uu7313557

Two Front Teeth

2010-08-31T19:58:00.001-07:00

This week is all about Mallory! She started 1st grade and then the next day lost her two bottom teeth!! She had to have them pulled by the dentist though - poor thing! She had one tooth already growing in behind the baby one. It missed it's "mark" and didn't grow up under the tooth (which helps disintegrate the roots and makes the tooth loose). So, we took her in to have that tooth pulled...but the dentist felt it necessary to remove both bottom ones at the same time - because the other one would have done the same thing! Mallory was very brave and didn't even cry!
These are pictures we took tonight after bath time... she saw the picture and said "Mom, I look weird!" haha!

Open Wiiiiide!
This is Mallory's tooth fairy bear. She collects these Cherished Teddy figurines...and got this one for her 6th birthday! I thought it was perfect!! So now, the "tooth fairy" can get the teeth from the bear, instead of from under the pillow! ;o)

Showing the bear and teeth! (Poor Hannah isn't getting enough attention this week!)
Here's the two little teeth!

1st Grader

2010-08-30T19:48:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official - I have a first grader now!! Mallory's first day of 1st grade was today! She absolutely loved it (except recess - which she says was too crowded... coming from the kindergarten playground to a playground with all other grades - I can imagine it would be a little crazy)! She told me about some kids she already wants to be friends with, but wasn't too thrilled with the girl she sits by (who is a bit naughty). She loves her teacher and is excited about all the stuff they're going to get to learn!
I walked her to her line today, even though she insisted I didn't need too. (Though after seeing how crazy it was out there - I think she was glad I helped her!) She is getting so big!! I can't believe it. Here is her picture right before we left this morning!

Happy Birthday!

2010-08-09T17:27:00.000-07:00

Today we celebrated Mallory's 6th Birthday!!! (And my 27th!) We threw a princess party for Mallory and some of her friends! Here are some pictures from the eventful morning!

These were the little goody boxes we filledThe bowl of chocolate and all the princess dishes
Chocolate covered strawberries - fit for a princess! Royal crown sandwiches!

Mallory this morning getting to open the presents from mom, dad and hannah! She got three new dress-up outfits and lots of other fun stuff!
We started the party out with decorating crowns and making other foam crafts. All while wearing their special princess capes that had their names on them!
After finishing the crowns and getting their princess picture taken - they colored these frames that would then hold their picture.

Time for the royal princess lunch! The biggest hit of the party seemed to be the pink lemonade with the red punch ice cubes in their princess goblets!

Drinking so dainty!
Now time for birthday cake (that was a huge nightmare to make - as it always seems to be when I try making my own kids a cake)! It was nothing like I wanted it to be - since I ran out of fondant and didn't have the stuff to make more! *sigh* Thankfully Mallory seemed to like it anyway! Oh and I forgot to buy CANDLES!! Duh! I'm not used to providing the candles for the cakes I make! haha! So - we had Mallory blow off the crown (that was just like their hats - since the fondant one I made broke after I put it on the cake)!!

After doing our princess present pass (music going while a little present was passed around the circle - when the music stopped that was the person who got the present)... Mallory got to open all her presents from her friends, cousin and Grandma/Grandpa Fry!
Saying Bye to her Grandma who wasn't feeling well and had to get back home! So sweet!

Mallory got to play more with her friends after Gma Fry and her cousin Miranda left - they all had a great time (and made a gigantic mess)! :o) We are so thankful to have such wonderful family and friends in our lives who help make this day special!

Kindergarten Graduation Fun

2010-07-06T18:39:00.000-07:00

Today was Mallory's Kindergarten Graduation. I can't believe she is old enough to go on to 1st grade!! My baby is getting so big!! She has been practicing so much for this program today - and she did SO good!!

They lined up and as they walked down the middle they sang their first song "Riding the Walking School Bus." Then they went up to the stage two at a time and said what they want to be when they grow up. Mallory said she wants to be an artist!Mallory got to stand in the back (she'll probably always be in the back since she's so tall) next to her friend from church!This is Mally's whole kindergarten class - all 30 of them!
Mallory after getting her certificate. (My camera was not doing so well today - all the pics are blurry!)At home, after her graduation. Such a cute girl!!
We were blessed to have Mallory's Great Grandma, Grandma, Aunt and Cousin come down to see her program. They stayed for awhile after so the girls could play!

We were entertained with a musical performance!

Hannah needing some attention from Grandma!
Best to leave you with thoughts from my dear older sister.....
Or not. :o)

Cookies

2010-06-24T15:20:00.000-07:00

I made these cookies today and thought I'd share the recipes! The first ones are my hubby's favorite (made by his grandma, his mom, and now me)!

Oatmeal Applesauce Chocolate Chip Cookies2 C sugar

1 C butter or margarine

2 eggs

2 C applesauce

2 tsp baking soda

1-2 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

2 C quick oats

3 1/2 C flour

1 pkg chocolate chips

Bake at 400 degrees for 11-12 minutes

This next recipe comes from my mom! It's the best chocolate chip cookie recipe that I have come across (and most people who eat them agree). Today I'm not sure they turned out how they usually do - I think they're a little too dry this time because they usually spread out more.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

3 eggs

3 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 C sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 C brown sugar

1 tsp salt

1 C shortening

3 C flour

1 pkg semi sweet chocolate chips
Bake at 350 degrees for about 14 minutes

ENJOY!

First Day in Our New Home!

2010-06-20T21:54:00.000-07:00

As most of you know we made the "big" move this weekend! Okay - so really it wasn't a big move - we moved to a home less than 1 mile away from our old home! But after living in our house for 4.5 years - it felt like a big move!! A lot of crap is accumulated during that many years!

We had lots of help from Brits parents, brother and sis-in-law and my mom!! We are blessed to have family who loves us!! We would not have been able to do it w/out them.

Today was our first full day in our new home. I forgot to take a picture of the outside - so it will be coming later on. However, here are some random pictures from the house and the yard!

This is our front room - taken from in the kitchen. We are obviously still unpacking - there are boxes all over the house!

I'm still getting used to the light green walls! My favorite part - the kitchen!!! LOVE it!!
In between the kitchen and front room - where the table and computer desk are!
Mallory's room! (Decorated with butterfly wall stickers! But haven't finished her bed yet)
Hannah's room w/out decorations and unfinished bed.

The girl's bathroom

Master bathroom (sorry - no closet or bedroom picture - still full of boxes!)
The owners of the home have a beautiful little garden and we harvested the "fruits of their labors" - onions! Tasted yummy with our dinner tonight!
Part of our backyard (with the girl's purple chair that does NOT belong outside!! Little stinkers!)

Other half of the backyard - complete with fake grass! Love it!!

We would welcome anyone who wants to come visit us!! :o)

Haircuts

2010-05-27T19:25:00.000-07:00

We got the girls' hair cut today! Mallory only got an inch or two off her's and she's been freaking out that she wanted it shorter ever since! I'm not sure I would be okay with her hair any shorter (the curl is at the ends...and I'm not so sure it'd do well being short). But she looks super cute with it this length!!I had them chop off a LOT of Hannah's hair. It was getting too crazy!! It was extremely difficult to comb through each day. So I'm hoping this makes life easier (and less painful)! She looks SO cute with it this length! It was really hard watching the lady cut off so much - but we all love it! (And this is why Mally wishes her's was shorter.)

Aren't they both beautiful?! Going to have their professional pics taken soon! So I'll post those when I get them back!

DiSnEyLaNd :o)

2010-05-22T18:30:00.001-07:00

I know you have all been patiently waiting for this post about our trip to DISNEYLAND!!! :o) So - here it is!!! (It's not all in order - because there are SO many pictures... but it's close!)

Aunt Eliza, Mallory and Hannah on the way to Cali!

In line for our very first ride in Disneyland : Peter Pan!

Our first character sighting! Hannah wasn't so sure about standing next to Donald Duck - so he made a point of standing far behind her and staring at her! It was funny!

Hannah still wasn't too thrilled to stand with her Aunts Eliza and Deysha and Mallory with Donald Duck!

Trying to pull out the Sword in the Stone
On the boat ride for "Storybook Land" It was so worth the wait to see Mickey Mouse!! Hannah had been saying weeks before this trip that she wanted to give Mickey Mouse a hug. She finally got to do it!!

Aunt Deysha is driving - SCARY!! ;o)
Girls with Mulan
The girls with Sleeping Beauty
The girls with Cinderella

Eliza, Deysha, Mallory and Hannah waiting in line for the Monster's Inc ride

Mallory with Sully (who was trying to leave)

The Girls waiting for the Bug's Life show with our "Honorary Bug" glasses
After riding the River Run and getting soaked!
The girls with Minnie Mouse ready for flight!

Mallory holding seaweed that's as big as she is!
Freezing at Huntington Beach

Mallory with Pluto

Mallory with Goofy

Mallory with Dale (Hannah was sleeping through all these pics!)

Tigger was pretty crazy - and Hannah wanted nothing to do with him!
The girls with Pooh Bear
The girls with Aladin (His show was AWESOME!)

Eliza and Hannah on the Jungle Cruise
Mallory and Hannah in Tarzan's Treehouse

Honey Lime Chicken Roll

2010-05-11T18:45:00.001-07:00

Tonight I created another new dinner! Hannah HATES dinner and has to be forced to eat more than a couple bites. Tonight, however, she scarfed this down faster than anyone else!! I wasn't originally going to post it - but after she loved it - thought it was blog worthy!

I named it:

Honey Lime Chicken Roll (for lack of a better description)

Defrost about 3 chicken breasts. Then slice in half to make thin pieces.

Put about 1 Tbsp olive oil in pan and heat.

Place chicken breasts in pan and add:

about 2 Tbsp lime juice

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

about 1/2 tsp season salt

Cover and cook till barely done (flipping chicken over once or twice to cook evenly).

While cooking chicken, unroll crescent roll dough and arrange on cookie sheet.

Spread honey mustard on dough and place a slice of Monterey Jack cheese over the wide part of the dough.

When chicken is barely done - take out of pan and shred/slice into small chunks.

Place chunks on dough and roll dough up as best as you can to minimize cheese melting out all over the pan (unlike the one pictured below that has the cheese spilling out all over)! :o)

Cook at 350 until rolls are lightly browned (about 12 minutes)

We ate the rolls with crispy Sweet Potato Fries!

(The GF version of this dinner would be to keep one of the chicken breast slices in the pan and spread honey mustard over it and then place slices of cheese over the chicken to melt. Eat w/out any bread - or cut the chicken up like before and place in a corn tortilla and roll up.)

GF Cinnamon Apple Donut Holes

2010-05-08T17:35:00.000-07:00

I remember when I was little and my mom made donut holes. She also made gluten-free ones for me! I've always wanted to make them - and finally got brave enough today! I found a recipe and changed it a little to make it work for me!

Cinnamon Apple Donut HolesSift together:

2 1/2 cups rice flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

Set dry ingredients aside.

Cream together:

2 eggs

2 Tbsp oil

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

Add dry ingredients alternately with

1/4 cup milk

Mix well

Add in 1 cup applesauce

Mix.

Heat oil in deep pan

Drop small spoonfulls into hot oil in batches and cook till done

Drain on paper towel and then roll in powdered sugar.

Let cool.

Enjoy!

Summer Citrus Salad

2010-05-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

I created this yummy salad tonight and thought I'd share it!! We ate it with "homemade" rolls(AKA frozen Rhodes rolls that I raised and then baked). So, you first want to get those going, because they take an hour to raise and then 15-20 minutes to bake. The salad:

1 bag spinach leaves - ripped or cut into slightly smaller pieces

1/2 bag (4 oz) of raw snow peas - ends cut off and thrown away and then the remaining bunch cut into smaller pieces.

1 can of mandarin oranges - cut into small pieces.

3/4 c. chopped pecans - carmelized (1 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp brown sugar - stir over medium heat until bubbly then set out to dry on plate)

1/2 c. shredded mozzarella (or any cheese)

Dressing:

1 good sized orange juiced and strained - to get about 1/3 c. juice

1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp water

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 Tbsp sugar (more or less depending on how sweet/sour you want it)

1 tsp honey dijon mustard

Blend together or shake very well until mixed.

Pour over salad till coated (I didn't use all the dressing - it made more than enough!)

Serve with warm rolls!

If you try it...

Let me know what you think, please!

Upcoming Events and Random Updates

2010-04-18T18:06:00.000-07:00

I decided to update the blog with a few random things floating around in my head lately! Sorry ahead of time for the lack of pictures!

I haven't blogged about Mallory for awhile. She is growing so fast!! Just today Brit was helping her read from the scriptures and I was so amazed at how many words she can read all by herself!! She is loving kindergarten - and I think she will love 1st grade even more (because she'll get to stay for the full school day)! The questions she asks can be a bit overwhelming at times - but I remind myself that she is learning so much and is so smart!! She has also grown so much as evidenced by her actually LIKING everything I've made for dinner in the past week!! She's gotten over her picky phase and scarfs down whatever I give her (she must be physically growing too - cause that child is hungry all the time lately)! She is also my little helper - she begs me to let her vacuum or dust or help in any way! (Wish this phase would last forever - but I'm sure it won't.) And she is such a big help with Hannah (sometimes too much of a help - I frequently have to remind her that she is not Hannah's mother)! :o)

I only have a few more weeks of school before summer break and I can't even tell you how excited I am!! This semester hasn't been my favorite one (not a fan of pediatrics or postpartum nursing). I've been able to see some pretty amazing things though (25 week old living baby, 8 week old -dead- fetus, being handed a newborn straight from the mother's uterus after a c-section and getting to clean him off, seeing many babies born, getting to check a laboring woman's cervix to see how dilated she was, etc). It's been a good experience - but I'm ready to be done with Peds/OB/GYN stuff!

Speaking of school - it's not quite official yet (still working on making this HUGE decision)... but I will be continuing on this summer by taking some online classes in preparation of getting my BSN. I am considering going on in school to get my MSN and becoming a Nurse Practitioner. It's still a ways down the road - nothing set in stone yet... but my graduation in December with my ADN will probably just be the beginning! Scary and exciting all in one.

Before pluggin along in more classes this summer, we are taking a super exciting vacation!!! It's been SOOO long since we've taken a vacation other than to our parents' homes! The girls and I (along with two of my sister-in-laws) will be going to Disneyland!!!! Brit can't go - he has to work (and he's not a huge fan of DL anyway). But this is the first time the girls have been - and it's been about 7 years since I've been!! We are SO excited!!!! We are going to drive down one day, go to the parks 3 days and then drive back one day....so 5 days total! It's been fun to arrange this trip and I can't wait to spend the time with my girlies and two of my beautiful "sisters"!!

Anywho - that's our random update and upcoming events! The next time I blog will probably be after this semester's done and after this super fun vacation! And that post will make up for in pictures what this one is lacking!! :o)

Hannah's Birthday and Easter

2010-04-05T22:05:00.001-07:00

Hannah turned 3 on Friday!! She's getting so big!! We were lucky to be able to spend her birthday with most of my family and some of Brit's family! We had a super fun birthday party to celebrate Hannah turning 3 and also my Mom turning 55 (they have the same b-day)!

Mallory is such a good helper with opening Grandma's and Hannah's presents! :o)
I made cupcakes and a cake for the party! (To see them in more detail check out my cake blog through the link on the side!)
Took Hannah a little while to blow out the candle - but she finally got it!

And then she took a bite out of the chocolate butterfly!

Then on Saturday we had a lot of Easter fun! We went hiking (forgot my camera) in between sessions of General Conference to the beautiful Pioneer Park (which happens to be the same place that Brit proposed to me more than 7 years ago)! After conference we had a fun Easter egg hunt outside (with plastic eggs), and then the girls and their cousins dyed and decorated hard-boiled eggs.

Even though it was Gen. Conf. on Sunday the girls wanted to wear their new Easter dresses. Who was I to argue - they looked super cute!! Of course, I didn't remember to take pictures of them until later in the day!

In between conference sessions we let the kids go outside to blow bubbles and get a few wiggles out! They were all so good during the 8 hours of conference those two days!

We had a great time celebrating Hannah's birthday (and my mom's) and Easter!! We had a delicious dinner and then played some fun games before heading home!

St. Patty's Day

2010-03-17T18:33:00.000-07:00

Today we did a couple of fun things for St. Patty's day. The girls got a fun package of green stuff from their Grandma this morning - which was a great way to start the day! We put green clover "tatoos" on their cheeks so that no one will pinch them! ;o) Tonight we had green scrambled eggs and instead of corned beef (nasty!) we had corn dogs! I was going to dye their milk green too - but I thought they might be too afraid to drink it!
After dinner Mallory read - all by herself - Green Eggs and Ham by Dr.Suess! She is getting so big!!!
We hope ya'll had a great green day too!!

New Giveaway Blog

2010-03-04T22:33:00.000-08:00

I've never been into giveaway blogs - but my sister-in-law just started one and it's super cute!! She's doing her first giveaway and I decided to become a fan of giveaways!! She's offering a really cute girly bow product!! Go check it out (and tell her I sent ya)! She's excited about this new adventure - and I'm excited about supporting her!!
http://mamasfantabulousgiveaways.blogspot.com (also see her super cute button at the left of my blog!)

Messy

2010-02-20T21:06:00.000-08:00

Today we made lots of messes!!

Making sugar cookies with neon frosting!

Hannah mostly put some frosting on her's and then licked it back off!

But Mallory did a great job frosting the ones she cut out!

And we also "painted" with a fun set that my mom gave the girls for Valentines Day!

CRABS

2010-02-15T23:08:00.003-08:00

Tonight threw me a little out of my comfort zone! We took some advice from a friend and went to eat at Joe's Crab Shack! Now if you've never been there - I do suggest going - just for the crazy experience! It's not like any other restaurant!! The music is crazy loud and the place is decorated a little strangely! The servers dance occasionally and encourage the patrons to dance as well! If it's your birthday they want you to ride around on something pretending it's a pony while they sing to you. (Thank heaven's it wasn't any of our birthdays!!) And if you order crab (and there's little else on their menu - so you better like working for your food) - they place a bib on you! Mallory and Hannah thought seeing mommy and daddy in bibs was hilarious! So, of course you don't HAVE to wear them - but still!! And then they bring out the crab in a bucket! And it's Super messy!! They have a roll of brown paper towels to use as napkins. I don't know how many I went through! I'm not used to eating with my hands in a restaurant - but I had no choice if I actually wanted to get anything in my tummy tonight!!

(This was what Brit's meal kinda looked like - he had clams with his crab - not lobster.)

It was a great place to take the girls - since there was so much to look at (and the dancing servers was entertaining for them). And they also have a playground outside - which we let them play on for a few minutes after dinner (would have stayed longer if it weren't so late).

Brit let Mallory keep one of his clam shells (just like a cool sea-shell you'd find on a beach)! She loved it! She'd clap the shell together with her fingers and thought it was the coolest thing! However, when we got home, she decided to let the clam shell come along with her to the bathroom. *rolls eyes* Yep - she ended up accidently dropping the shell into the toilet! Of course - being the horribly mean parents we are - we made her fish (haha, get it - fish!) it out by herself! I can't even describe to you how horrified she was to put her hand in a couple inches of water/pee to get this shell out. You'd think we made her cut her own hand off or something! It was SO hard not to laugh (and so we laughed)!! I think she'll remember Joe's Crab Shack and her pee-shell for a very long time! ;o) Brit and I both decided that this restaurant would definitely NOT be the place to take someone on a first date!!

New Hair

2010-01-13T20:15:00.000-08:00

During bath time tonight we played hair salon!! I needed to trim Hannah's hair because her curls were getting out of control crazy! And Mallory decided to whine about how Hannah has bangs and she doesn't! So, after cutting Hannah's hair....

I decided to give Mallory some bangs!! (That aren't very straight....oops! I'll fix that tomorrow!) And she's been loving her hair straightened lately - so we did that too! She looks like a whole new Mallory!!

Aren't they both beautiful!?

Library

2010-01-05T20:27:00.000-08:00

With some $ I got for Christmas (from my parents) - I bought four new novels. I have finished all four of them in six days. I can't seem to read them slowly, which makes the enjoyment not last very long! I was complaining the other day about how these books cost so much and I don't feel like I'm getting my money's worth out of them!! So, I'm going to list the books I own and anyone is welcome to borrow them! Here in Las Vegas they don't have these LDS fiction books in the library! If you have some books that I don't have on this list - I'd love to borrow them! And feel free to come by and borrow any of mine!! (That way they're not just sitting there collecting dust on my shelf - and then they'll be worth what I payed for them!)

LDS Fiction books that I own (listed by author):

Rachel Ann Nunes - Flying Home, Where I Belong, Saving Madeline, Winter Fire, By Morning Light, No Longer Strangers, Chasing Yesterday

Jennie Hansen - Code Red, The Bracelet, The Emerald, Shudder, Some Sweet Day, All I Hold Dear

Betsy Brannon Green - Hazardous Duty, Above Suspicion, Until Proven Guilty, Silenced, Murder by the Book, Backtrack, Don't Close Your Eyes, Double Cross

Clair M. Poulson - Dead Wrong, Coverup, Mirror Image

Michelle Ashman Bell - Written in the Stars, Pathway Home, Finding Paradise

Anita Stansfield - A Dance to Remember, Where the Heart Leads

Lynn Gardner - Vanished: A Maggie McKenzie Mystery

Jack Weyland - Emily, Cheyenne in New York, Jake

R.K. Terry - A Familiar Ring

Gregg Luke - Altered State

Dorothy Keddington - Aisling of Eire

Other Novels I Own:
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Choice by Nicholas Sparks
Amazing Grace by Danielle Steel
Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer
Invasive Procedures by Orson Scott Card
Gone by Michael Grant

Christmas Party

2009-12-12T18:52:00.001-08:00

Today we had a little Christmas party with a couple of Mallory and Hannah's friends. I had offered (through facebook) to have as many kids who wanted to could come. I thought we'd have more - free babysitting and all! But I didn't give very much notice - so we only had 3 kids join us (which turned out to be plenty)!

We frosted sugar cookies, decorated ornaments, made paper chains, and made candy cane reindeer. It was a lot of fun!!

I was hoping to have more kids join us - so I made a TON of sugar cookies. This was (some of) the before pile.After the girls all made some and took them home - I had 74 sugar cookies left to frost. Yes - SEVENTY-FOUR!!!! So, with the red and green frosting left (originally had red, green, blue and white) - I hastily frosted all 74 cookies. They are all on plates in bags ALL over my counter!!! If you want some cookies (and live close) - please come take them!!Earlier in the week we got Hannah a "big girl" bed. We put the girls in separate rooms again (the together thing was just NOT working). They LOVE it!!! And I love not having to yell at them every single night! They go right to sleep and do so much better apart!! When this picture was taken, we hadn't yet got Hannah sheets to match her room.

Halloween Happiness

2009-11-02T16:13:00.001-08:00

Happy belated Halloween to ya'll!! We had a great Halloween - and we'll be eating candy for the next few months!! Mallory had her first class party on Thursday and loved it!! She came home with a ton of treats! Then Thursday night we had our ward trunk-r-treat at the church. These pictures are from that night (didn't bother getting any on Saturday).

Mallory was a generic princess (no supporting Disney this year!) and Hannah used Mallory's old Ladybug costume.In the church parking lot during the trunk-r-treat. Mallory and Hannah each had some hot chocolate (and spilled it all over)!
Sitting in our decorated "trunk" - after getting way too many treats!
Time to go home now! We're pooped!

Mom let us have one more treat before going to bed! Yea!!
What a nice mom we have! :o)

Brit took the girls out for a little bit on Halloween, while I stayed home to pass out the candy. I think I had to open the door a total of 7-8 times! We had hardly any trick-or-treaters this year - due to the lack of people in our community! So, we ended up still having most of the candy we bought to pass out! Anyone need any sugar?!

New Internet Connection

2009-10-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

Just an update that some of you should know!! I know some people have the live feeds on their blogs (that tracks who visits their blog and from where). We just got a mobile internet connection and it now lists us as being in "Kirkland Washington." (No clue why!) So, just if you see it pop up on your live feed - it's just ME visiting your blog! :o)

Halloween update to come soon!!

Mental Health

2009-10-05T21:25:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit emotional today, and felt the need to write about it. One of my classes this incredibly hard semester is Mental Health. I have MH clinical on Mondays - and we have been going to a mental health hospital not too far from where I live (which is nice - I don't have to leave quite so early). This hospital handles adults, youth, children with various problems and adults with chemical addictions. We rotate which section we're on each week. (I will be seeing the youth/child unit next week.) This week I had to interview a patient for a 20+ page case study. I, of course, can't share details about this patient - but let's just say that her story made me so sad and also grateful to the family I was blessed with. I also heard a story from another patient about his young daughter being killed recently - which just about brought me to tears. I see all these regular people who have had (or are having) such intense trials and it makes my heart ache. Going into Psych nursing was something I'd previously considered - until today. I left the facility today (and I'm sure it'll be even worse next week working with kids as young as Mallory) feeling like the weight of the world was on my shoulders. I like to stay in my own little bubble - believing that everyone has wonderful, supportive families (like me)! I ache knowing that I can't do anything to help these people! That their lives probably aren't going to be any better once they leave the hospital. Especially the young ones - who don't know any different! They might never have the chance to feel love and support! I decided that I can't handle that - and I am going to dread Mondays for the rest of the semester.

We also strained my own mental health today by signing paperwork to sell our house for about 1/3 of what we bought it for. We never planned on being in this house this long - but it's been 4 years now and I've grown a little attached to it. Now that the time to move is actually becoming a reality - it's going to be hard to say goodbye to our first home. And now we have the added stress of finding a house to rent within our limited budget that also fits our needs. We're really wanting to stay within our ward, and even harder to do - stay within Mallory's school boundries. (Kids in our ward go to three different elementaries. Crazy, I know!) This will not be easy to do - especially with our crazy schedules!

Anywho - I feel better letting some of that emotion go by typing it out! Thanks for "listening" - ya'll are great listeners (or at least I like to pretend you are)! :o)

Random Update

2009-10-02T22:51:00.000-07:00

I just uploaded all the pictures from my phone and my camera... so I thought I'd do a random update from some of those pictures.

(Side ways picture - forgot to turn it around!)

I bought 35lbs of tomatoes from a lady in my ward (who orders them in bulk from somewhere in Utah - for food storage). Here is the beginning process of my first bottling experience!Here is the final product - the fruits/vegetables of my labors! :o)

3 quarts of tomatoes, 5 quarts + 12 pints of salsa

I was on my way home from school on Thursday (almost to my house!!!!) and I was hit by a huge white van!! He didn't see me and tried to change 2 lanes to get into the upcoming turn lane. I wasn't hurt, thankfully! But I was SO mad!!! Thank goodness I wasn't far from home, and Brit came to my rescue!
Here's the officer that eventually came to handle the accident report stuff.

Here's the damage that stupid van did to our lil' beater car! (It has enough trouble as it is - now he just made it worse!!!)
Mallory loves all her schoolwork displayed on a closet door downstairs! This is all the work from her first week of class (they haven't done much fun stuff since - just workbook type stuff)! She is now recognizing some words, and trying to sound out and write many others!

Just a warning to those who don't care for blood and guts type pictures : PROCCEED WITH CAUTION!!!

This next picture is of my foot - 3 days post plantar-wart removal "surgery." I was totally unaware of what the procedure entailed when I said "Go for it!" after the doc asked if I wanted him to remove them. Being jabbed with the needle with anesthetic was the worst - I wanted to fly through the roof when he put that thing into my foot!!! After my foot went numb, the procedure wasn't bad. However, I went into this apt wearing flip-flops and having driven myself. I left with my entire left foot bandaged up and not able to get it into my shoe! I was quite the site leaving the office!! haha! And now - it is in the process of healing - but is still quite painful and nasty looking (though not near as bad as it was on Tuesday)!

Anyway - there's our little random update! (Sorry if the last one grossed ya out!!) :o) And sorry if those of you on Facebook have already heard all these updates!

1st day of school (only 4 weeks later!)

2009-09-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

I'm really slow at getting this posted - sorry!! Mallory started school on August 24th! My big girl is in kindergarten now - and LOVING it!! She did so good on that first day - no tears! She has three friends from church that are in her class, but she's also making new friends each day! She loves to come home and tell me all the names of kids in her class that she can remember. She also has to tell me which kid had to go to the office (two have thrown up, one has wet his pants) - like it's HUGE news! She is already learning so much and is so excited to show me everything she does. Here are some pictures of her on that first day.Waiting in her class line with her friends Leah and Elizabeth
She wasn't too sure about me taking all sorts of pictures! But what kind of mom would I be w/out documenting my first child's first day of kindergarten?! (Poor Hannah has like NO pictures!)
After lining up in their class (with the entire school) and doing the morning announcements and pledge, they make the long walk back to their classroom door. (Love how Mally's holding up the line! Walk faster mally!)
Entering her classroom after waving bye to me! What a big girl - not even looking back!

She is totally loving kindergarten (and I'm totally NOT loving how much homework she has to do every week)! OH! And don't forget - there's still time (till Sept 22nd) to order from her first fundraiser (see following post)!! :o)

Mallory's 1st Fundraiser!!! HELP!

2009-09-11T16:28:00.001-07:00

Mallory came home today SUPER excited!! She had her first assembly today! And wouldn't ya know it - 3rd week into school and it's time for a fundraiser already!! So, get those checkbooks out and support Mallory's school!!! :o)

They're selling quite the assortment of items: goodies, flower bulbs/seeds, a couple silicone kitchen gadgets, and magazine subscriptions. Mostly we've been talking up the goodies - so that's what I took the time to scan and put in this post. But if you'd like more info on the other stuff, I'd be happy to tell you more about it! Of course the stuff is so totally overpriced - but it's for a good cause - the betterment of my child's education (hahaha)!!!! I'm asking for everyone's help in ordering (plus if she orders a certain amount - she gets prizes)! If you live in Vegas - I'll deliver it right to your house (on or slightly after Oct. 1st). I'll plan on making a trip shortly after I pick up the orders to St. George - so I can also deliver up there! Or, I can even mail it to you (depending on what you order). If you want to order - they accept cash or check only (checks made out to Alamo PTA) and I'll need the money before Sept 22.

Thanks so much for your help!!!! (Look below for the details of all the goodies!)

Last Vacation of the Summer

2009-08-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

We went on our last vacation of the summer this past week! We first went to meet Brit's brother, Jory, at the airport - he was just returning from his mission! The last time he saw Hannah, she was only a few months old...so it was fun for her to get to meet him. We then went on to Cannonville to spend a few days with the Twitchell family! We had a great time!! Brit went fishing with his dad and brothers (and sis-in-law) and they caught a lot of Rainbow Trout (which I later learned to filet) - yummy!! Mallory and Hannah had a blast playing with their aunts, uncles, grandparents, and little cousin, Cambri. We also got to meet the newest addition to the Twitchell family - tiny baby Kagen - who was born the day before Jory got home!!

After spending time with the Twitchell's, we returned to St. George to spend time with my family! Brit had to go on home to work - but the girl's and I stayed and played till Friday. My mom took us up to Brian Head to see their work-in-progress cabin! Mallory loved it!!! (The Cabin and mountain are beautiful - too bad allergies and whiney Hannah had to come along!)

The following are some pictures (in really random order) from our week!

This is the front view outside my parent's cabin.

This is Hannah pouting on the stairs.
Mallory after coloring a beautiful picture on the stairs!
Hannah and Mallory leaving their mark on the unfinished cabin stairs.
Front of the work-in-progress cabin! Will be beautiful when it's done!!
My mom with the girls- collecting pretty rocks.

Mallory holding new baby Kagen!
Hannah trying to poke baby Kagen!
Brit with all his siblings and parents! They're finally all back together again (before almost all leaving again a few days later - us to vegas, Kam, Jory, and Deysha to Cedar).

We love spending time with both families!! That's usually what our vacations consist of - and we love it! The girls miss them all!!

Mallory's 5th Birthday!

2009-08-09T19:26:00.001-07:00

Mallory turned 5 yrs old today!! She goes to kindergarten in two weeks!! I can't believe it! Following are a few pictures of her with her cake and presents.

This is her reaction when I brought out the cake!

Mallory with her colorful flower cake! (To see better pics of it, click on my cake blog)

Mallory with all her presents (except from the Twitchell's - who we'll see next week)

She got her own MP3 player that's pink!! She loves listening to all the songs (provided by her Grandma Fry). She also got a little princess couch that folds out to beb a "bed." (It was a little smaller than I thought it'd be when seeing it online.) And she also got a Ken barbie doll with an extra set of clothes, and a princess book, and the outfit she's wearing. Her Fry grandparents got her a backpack for school with a couple supplies in it, and they also got her a barbie car (that Hannah sure thinks should be her's)! Her primary teacher gave her a CTR necklace and earings (but can't wear yet, cause her ears aren't pierced - and won't be till she's MUCH older)!

Mallory had a great birthday!! And we went to dinner last night at the place that Mallory picked : Chili's! What a spoiled lil' 5 year old! :o)

Look!!! A TREE!

2009-08-04T20:18:00.000-07:00

Today we decided to escape the Vegas heat and drove about 45min up to Mount Charleston. You'd have thought my children have never been near a mountain before (they have! I promise!). Who knew they were so deprived? We had a lot of fun doing a short hike and seeing some of the sights. Here are some pictures from the day!

Notice the 104 temp (around noon) in Vegas

Now notice the 73 temp at Mount Charleston!

Taking a breather at a nice rock bench when we went to look down on a valley Brit with the girls overlooking a valley.
Mallory at the top of our hike to what was called "Robbers Roost"

Brit with Hannah, and Mallory working our way up the rocky trail.

Look!! A tree! (We heard this a lot!)

The girls had to feel this fallen log.

Brit helping Hannah (though she often thought she was big enough to do it on her own!)

No, This isn't a real chipmunk that Hannah is holding!

Brit bought the girls these little finger puppets at the visitor's center before our hike. Mallory chose a jack-rabbit...and yes, it appears she's got her finger stuck up it's... uh... yeah. Not the greatest spot for a finger puppet hole! :o)

The girls were crazy grumpy by the time we were headed back! Their mother kind of didn't think of the hike taking place during nap time. Duh! So the ride home wasn't as fun as the rest of the trip! But over-all it was a good experience for us! We've lived here for 4 years and hadn't ever actually been hiking up there. Who knew that there was fresh air, and cooler temps so close to Vegas?! :o)

Las Vegas to St. George to New Mexico and Back!

2009-07-24T22:16:00.000-07:00

This week the girls and I took a trip to visit my sister, Kelli, with my mom. It's a 6 hour drive from St.George to Farmington, NM! My mom and I split up the driving and the one not driving handled the munchkins! The girls did quite well on the long drive - considering their ages!

We had lots of fun visiting Kelli and her family! We took the kids to a children's museum and they had a ton of fun!! (Of course, I forgot my real camera - so these blurry pics are all taken with my phone!)

Mallory and Helen going down a slide

Mallory "driving" Hannah, Corwin and Helen on the train
Mally and Hannah playing with magnetic pieces
(Corwin in the background testing the viscosity of different liquids)

The last day we were there, we went to a nice shady park (felt SO good in the shade - a far cry from the Vegas heat)!

Mallory found this cool branch and was being a moose!

Mallory and Corwin (such good buddies!) doing a "train" down the slide!

Hannah and Helen monopolizing the bottom of the slide!

My mom trying to slide down with Hannah AND Helen - didn't quite work (I know - I tried it too! Ouch!) They ended up all on their sides.

It was sad to leave them behind and make the long drive back to St. George. We wish they could have come with us!! Instead of continuing to drive back to Vegas on Wed. night....we stayed in St. George until Thursday evening.

Mallory had her first friend disapointment on Thursday. I never realized how heartbreaking it could be to see your child so sad!! I got teary eyed while comforting Mallory when she was crying. I wished I could tell her that it will all get better - and that friend "fights" will never happen again! She's not even 5 though - so she still has many more years of those heartbreaking moments! I wish her memory wasn't so good also - because this disagreement was with a cousin her same age! I want my kids to have 10x better relationships with their cousins than I ever had with mine! Hopefully Mallory is resilient and keeps on being a good friend!

Anywho... that's our week's update!! Next up - Birthdays, Kindergarten, and 2nd semester in Nursing school!! Stay tuned! :o)

Prayer, Pee and Party

2009-07-11T19:53:00.000-07:00

As you might have guessed from my lovely title - this post is an update on some random things!

First off - I had to tell ya about Mallory's new prayers. She is starting to get to that long-winded, bless everything you can think of (twice!) stage in her praying. Tonight she blessed just about everyone she could think of that they would have fun in church tomorrow! :o) And she blessed her Great Grandma Twitchell that she could get better someday. It was too cute! The things she's starting to say are so thoughtful - yet funny! I was amazed that Hannah stayed relatively still while Mallory prayed tonight. They're both growing up so fast!!

Second - PEE!! Hannah went pee in the "big girl potty" for the first time tonight. She's been super afraid of the real toilet for a long time - freaking out if I even suggest she sit on it. But tonight she was dying to sit there before having a bath (just like Mallory)! And she actually peed a little! YEA!!! We're still a far cry away from real potty training - but at least she did something! (Mallory was already being potty trained at this age - and doing pretty good at it. But I just don't feel that Hannah is intellectually ready yet.)

Third - Party time! The girls and I went to a birthday party today! My cousin's son turned 2! They live in our community and we love them to death!! (The girls especially!) They had a pool party and played games and had pizza and cake/icecream! They asked if I'd make the cake to go along with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme. I started working on it last night and was getting to the fun part (of putting it all together and adding the cutesy decorations)....when it totally fell!! I had just put the black ball cake on top of the half-ball red cake. But I guess I didn't support it well enough - and it toppled over...smashing it and rendering it un-repairable. This was at 11:30 last night...and Brit was at work - so I couldn't go get stuff to start over. Ugh!! I was freaking out!Well, I decided to start a new cake this morning, before the party at 10am. I managed to pull it off in two hours!! It wasn't near as cool as the MM Clubhouse replica was going to be - but it was a cake that worked okay with the Mickey theme.

The top part of the cake was covered in chocolate, with cookies (also covered) as the ears. The chocolate part wasn't quite working how I wanted - but since I was super short on time (finished it at 10am!) it had to be good enough! And since the first cake was totally covered in fondant - and I wasted it all!!!- this one was almost fondant-free!! (Just the red Mickey shapes are fondant.) My cousin's son dug right into the cake - so it must have been good enough!! :o)

No Crying Over Spilled Milk!

2009-06-30T18:26:00.001-07:00

This is what happens when you have too much stuff in the back of an SUV!! When opened - your two gallons of milk come tumbling out and splatter ALL over!!!! (The gutters were completely dry today - seeing as how it's around 105!! All of that is my brand new milk!!!)

Girls' New Pictures

2009-06-24T20:09:00.000-07:00

Hannah turned two in April....and I finally got her "birthday" pictures done (along with some of the two girls together)!! I had them originally taken at JCP Portraits - but she wouldn't smile and the good choices were extremely limited! So, when my in-laws had the girls for a week, my very talented sister-in-law (Janice) took some new ones and they turned out very cute!

Here is Hannah's only good JCP picture!

Hannah and Mallory at least both looking at the JCP camera!

Now on to the CUTER ones!!

Mallory
Hannah getting sad, but Mallory cheesin it!
So sweet!!

Look at those beautiful eyes!

Mallory's collage

Hannah's collage

Hannah glaring at the camera! I thought this picture was absolutely beautiful!!

Hannah smelling a flower
Mallory being a butterfly in the tree - trying SO hard NOT to smile!
Yea!! A real smile!!

Isn't she hilarious?! SO cute!!

Classic sweet Hannah

Alrighty! You made it!! There are many more pictures - but I'm getting tired of waiting for them all to upload to blogger!! :o) Thanks so much, Janice, for doing the girls' pictures!!

Belated Wedding Pics

2009-05-29T21:32:00.000-07:00

Hey ya'll! I finally uploaded the pictures from my camera to my laptop! So I can now show you a couple of the pictures from Brit's lil' brother's wedding reception! I am dying to see the professional ones done by my sis-in-law, Janice! So, these won't compare - but it shows the girl's super cute dresses! We had a great time visiting them a couple weeks ago...and had my camera battery not died, I would have taken more pics from the whole weekend!

Here's a shot of Mallory smelling the flowers! Her hair turned out way cute!

We could not get the girls to smile for us nicely! Here's Cambri, Mallory and Hannah sitting where the Bride and Groom were to be during the reception.

Here are the girls terrorizing the picture table!

It was so hard for Hannah not to touch all the pretty decorations!

And of course I had to take a picture of Kam and Eliza's cake - even though I didn't make it! (The only thing edible on this cake was the fondant - the whole cake was styrofoam and the beads were plastic! Um....yeah?)

The Cucumber Chronicles: Tales of the ER

2009-05-16T20:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my parents came down to stay the night. My cousin's wedding was scheduled at 8am this morning in the Vegas Temple. I was going to go with them to the ceremony while Brit stayed home with the girls. Mally and Hannah were super excited to spend a little time with their grandma and grandpa! And they were even more excited when Gma and Gpa brought pizza to our house for dinner! I needed to use up some produce in my fridge (cucumber and grapes), so I added that to our pizza dinner! We enjoyed the evening playing and eating!

At around 9:00, shortly after the girls went to bed, my stomach started really hurting. I just figured I'd ate something I wasn't supposed to. Soon enough, I was spending more time in the bathroom (if ya know what I mean) than out! The pain just kept getting worse. I then started vomiting - which I almost NEVER do! This was definitely not the normal gluten-reaction! At about midnight, Mallory woke up needing to go potty and saying her tummy hurt too. After using the bathroom, she went back to bed. About 15 minutes later she comes rushing back into my room saying she threw up, and then proceeded to continue doing so in my bathroom sink! Ugh! This was the beginning of the longest night ever!

At about 2:30, I couldn't handle it anymore. My stomach pain was so unbearable, and Mallory had already vomited on just about every possible surface (bed, floor, couch, etc). I woke Brit up and had him take us to the ER. Thank heavens that my parents were here and could stay with Hannah (who slept peacefully the whole night). They gave Mallory some anti-nausea meds and eventually got her to eat a popsicle (they didn't want to put an IV in unless absolutely necessary). I wasn't so lucky.

They started an IV in my arm (which wasn't easy to do since I hadn't kept anything in me for hours)! They put some anti-nausea stuff in there and said it should help soon. Then they left (and Brit was with Mallory in a different area). That medication caused my stomach to tighten up like crazy and my pain seemed to increase. I started hyperventilating - going into panic attack mode. Unfortunatley, no one was around to help me calm down. It got so bad that I was barely coherent, my hands were stuck in an awful position and I couldn't feel or move most of my body. I eventually started crying uncontrollably because I couldn't really breathe. Finally someone heard me and came rushing in! The nurse gave me a medication that I later learned is 8 to 10 times more potent than Morphine. (Why?! Who knows!!) This was to help calm me down so I could regain control of my breathing. Not fun. Brit and Mallory joined me, but I insisted that Brit call my Dad to have him come get Mallory so she didn't have to be there during all this. So, he left to go do that.

The next little while isn't something I remember well. I remember finally starting to get control of my body - barely being able to move my fingers again. And then I calmed down - to a point where I "fell asleep." Of course, I wasn't hooked up to any monitors (stupid people!) and no one was around for awhile. When Brit came back and tried to wake me up, he wasn't able to. He alerted the nurses to the fact that he could barely tell I was even breathing. They immediately took my vital signs. My pulse oximetry (oxygen saturation of the blood) was in the low 60's. The normal is 95-100. NOT good! I remember waking up to having an oxygen mask on blasting oxygen at me, and hearing the doctor tell Brit that the meds they just gave me would help wake me up. I remembered the name of the drug he had just given me - Narcan, a drug used to reverse an overdose of narcotics...causing the body to go through withdrawl symptoms. I guess my body couldn't handle the morphine-like drug, and it was way too much for my system. The large dose of Narcan they put in me caused me to have crazy intense withdrawal symptoms. I was shaking uncontrolably (like a fish on land). My teeth were banging together so hard I thought they were gonna break! I wanted nothing more than to have the morphine-like drug back in me!!! It took what seemed like forever for my body to calm down and the effects to wear off. This was worse than my original stomach pain!

So, we went in for what was possibly food poisoning - from the cucumbers (since only me, Mallory and Brit ate them)....and ended up almost in a coma from a drug overdose! Around the time I was finally feeling a little better, Brit started to feel sick. We barely made it home before he had to go rushing to the bathroom. We didn't get home till it was too late for my parents to get to the Temple. They stayed with my girls and took care of them during this awful night/morning. I feel so bad that they didn't get to go, but also grateful that they were here when we needed them most! Brit has had a rough day, and Mallory continued to throw up anything that she drank until around noon. We're all exhausted now, but starting to do better.

I am determined that the next time I spend the night in the ER - it will be because I'm working there, not paying to be there!!!!! And no more cucumbers for us!!

Circle Sandwiches

2009-05-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

My friend asked me the other day how I did my girls' sandwiches. I kinda forget that not everyone has this super nifty sandwich cutter!! So, I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite kitchen gadgets (and it has nothing to do with cake)!

This is called a "cut-n-seal" from Pampered Chef. You've probably seen those ridiculously overpriced Smuckers sandwiches that you can buy in the freezer section. Well, this cutter makes sandwiches exactly like that!! It's the neatest thing ever!! Mallory almost always asks for a "circle sandwich" for lunch! And I'll give Hannah half a circle (one peice of bread folded over and then cut and sealed). It makes for less mess and makes it easy if you have a kid who doesn't like the crust! Anywho...so here's my product advertisement of the day! ;o) The cut-n-seal costs $9...but it's worth every penny!!!

Sick

2009-04-24T22:46:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've posted on here - been busy with other things! I've done a couple cakes since I posted last...so if you want to, hop on over to my cake blog and see 'em! I have two more weeks of school left (plus finals)! I can't wait!! I am anxious to spend the whole summer just being a wife and mother (and possibly make a few cakes)! I've been going to school for the past year and a half straight - with minimal breaks. I'm exhausted!

Speaking of being exhausted - my body is screaming at me to take it easy. In the past 6 weeks, I've been sick 3 times (each lasting 1-2 weeks). I've had enough!! Thankfully the girls and Brit have only got it one time (brit a few weeks ago...and the girls right now).

We are loving the warmer weather lately! The girls are able to spend lots of time playing outside. We also loved spending some time with my sister, Jen, and her kids (Tanner, Nikki and Matthew) a couple weeks ago. We hate that we don't get to see them more than twice a year! It's never enough!

We had a good Easter...just staying home that weekend. Of course, I forgot to take pictures of the girls in their dresses (just like Christmas)! I think I'll have them wear them again on Sunday - so I'll try to remember to get one then!

Since I try not to blog w/out posting some pictures...here are some old ones! This was when my other sister, Kelli, and her kids came with my mom to visit. (We did the same things with Jen and her kids and my mom...but those pics are on my phone since I forgot my real camera.) We love going to see the aquarium at the Silverton hotel/casino. We've missed the Mermaid the past two times we've been there - but I think I've posted pics of her before. Anyway...here are pictures of Corwin and Helen and the girls watching the fishies!

And I told my mom I would most definitly HAVE to post this picture...and then I forgot about it! Well, here ya go, Mom! Sorry! :o) They had these hilarious shirts in the huge Bass pro shop store attached to the hotel. We loved 'em!

Happy Birthday Hannah!!

2009-04-05T20:24:00.000-07:00

Hannah turned two on the 2nd! We waited to celebrate until Friday, when Brit's parents and lil' sister came to visit! Hannah opened her presents, we had pizza for dinner, then had cake and ice cream. It was lots of fun spending the weekend with the Twitchell's! The girls were sad to have them leave. And tonight, when I put Hannah to bed I go through a list of people who love her (the same list every night)...well usually after saying her 2 sets of grandparents, I'll just say "and your aunts, uncles, and cousins love you..." Well tonight after I said Grandma and Grandpa Twitchell, Hannah had to make sure I added "Dee-da" (her Aunt Deysha)! It was too cute! Anyway...I have a bunch of pictures to add to this post - so here it goes!

Grandma Twitchell, Daddy, and Hannah

Mallory being such a big helper! (Where's the smile, Hannah?!) Mallory gave Hannah a new Barbie that has a bed (yeah, she chose it!) They love playing Barbies together!
Grandpa Twitchell helping Hannah! They gave Hannah some cute clothes, a new Barbie with puppies, a new book and this super cute "goat" puppet that sings a song from Sound of Music when you move his mouth.
Hannah with new puppy and riding her new "bike"

This is Hannah's replacement, since the Fry Grandparents' dog, Dudley, died! (He barks and wags his tail among a few other things! She loves it!!)
This is the cake that I wish I could say someone else made! It just would not turn out how I "saw" it in my head!!! I was so frustrated with it! I was not sad at all to see it get cut into and eaten! It's supposed to be "princess" Hannah with her favorite blankie. She loves stars and princess stuff...so the stars say Happy Birthday. Hannah having cake and ice cream (neither of which she's all that crazy about! Strange child!)

These next pictures are of the girls, tonight, in the bathtub. Gma & Gpa Fry gave Hannah these cool bathtub block sticker things. When they're wet, they stay on the wall. The girls played in the tub for about 1/2 an hour!! They had so much fun with them!

This is a video of the girls playing in the tub with the toys! (If it works!)

Economy Schmonomy

2009-03-30T23:56:00.000-07:00

Okay...so hypothetically speaking (haha)... say your neighbor's house was selling for $101,000. It's the same size of your's - almost same everything. Your mortgage is for $259,900. Your monthly payment is insanely high (let's say it's in the ballpark of $1700+). Your house will never (possibly ever) regain its value. So many people you know are walking away from their houses (that don't have numbers even close to being as depressing as your's). What do you do...you know, hypothetically speaking and all!

Oh - my family? We're doing great, thanks for asking! I'd like to take Hannah in to have her ears checked...cause she doesn't listen to a word I say! :o) And Mallory has more attitude every day - and hates every piece of clothing in her closet cause they all BUG her! And Brit...well... he's busy workin, obsessing about the economy, and trying not to sleep while watching the girls. I'm still trudging through the mountain of busy work that this nursing program throws my way (and doesn't even give points for towards a grade - just "pass or fail" stuff)!
We had a great 6th anniversary! We went to my parent's for the weekend and my mom watched the girls while we went to the Temple and then out to dinner. We had a great time visiting!! (Except for Hannah. She was super sad and whiney most the time because my parent's dog, Dudley, had died. She kept saying "Dud-dee ah-gone?" She looked for him numerous times during each day. Too sad!)
We are looking forward to this weekend - celebrating Hannah's 2nd birthday (I can finally say she's in her "terrible twos"....."terrible ones" just doesn't sound right)! Brit's family will be joining us for the weekend and we're super excited to see them too! (Aw, nuts....I guess I gotta find time to clean my house.... ugh!) :o) Anywho... life's crazy busy as usual...but we're all doing good! I still haven't been around to all your blogs....but I recently discovered facebook (not sure that's a good thing...but thanks, Kelli!)....so I guess I keep caught up on some of your lives through that! I hope you're all doing well and that the economy isn't getting ya down! :o)

6th Anniversary

2009-03-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, March 14th, is our 6 year wedding anniversary! Can you believe it's already been SIX years? I look back at the pictures and it's hard to believe it's been so long (and, man! I wish I could fit into my wedding dress again)!
I don't have many of our wedding pictures around our house. That was the one thing I wish I could change about our wedding - having a professional photographer! A family friend took them...and they're fine and all...but I have seen some absolutely beautifully done wedding pictures...and ours are not like that! Anywho...I have most of them in a scrapbook/photo album. However, it's in Hannah's closet...and she's sleeping. So, I rounded up the ones I have around the house to add to this post! :o) This first one was taken the day we did our engagement pictures. I love it - mainly because swinging is a favorite pasttime! And because our first kiss was at "Discovery Park" (haha, appropriately named) in Cedar...at the swings (in the dark, on Halloween)!

This next one was taken on the stairs of the St. George Temple (on a very cloudy day).

And even though Brit has his eyes mostly closed in the next one, it's one of my favorites. This scan of the picture doesn't do the tree justice - but the blossoms were in full bloom and it was so pretty on the temple grounds!
I really enjoy funny cards (no mushy, lovey dovey ones for me!)...so I thought I'd keep this post a bit humerous as well. Here is a funny piece that kind of sums up what the beginning of our marriage was like:
INSTALLING A HUSBAND
Dear Tech Support,
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.
In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs such as * Romance 9.5 * Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as * NBA 5.0, * NFL 3.0 * Golf Clubs 4.1.
Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.
Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?
Signed, Desperate

DEAR DESPERATE,
First, keep in mind, * Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while * Husband 1.0 is an operating system.
Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6..2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0update. *
If that application works as designed, Husband1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.
However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5*
Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)
In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0-program
These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.
In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly.
You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend * Cooking 3.0 and * Hot Lingerie 7.7. Good Luck!
Tech Support

:o) Our marriage has come SO far since those days! He is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me and I'd be totally lost w/out him! I'd go on and on about how much I love him right now, but that's what my anniversary card to him is for (and besides, he doesn't ever read "our" blog)! So, Happy Anniversary to us!

(And as a side note: he got me (okay okay, I bought it myself) a really nice stethoscope for our anniversary! You know - listening to the heart and all....very romantic! haha! And I got him (okay okay...he's buying them himself) a new pair of bball shorts he's wanted for awhile! You know you've been married for a few years when you give up on surprising each other - and just get your own gifts!) :o)

CAKE

2009-03-06T17:04:00.000-08:00

I'm doing two cakes this month! Wahoo! I created a blog so that I can let the buyer see the progress of their cake. Feel free to check it out and leave comments/suggestions! Thanks!

3 Test Week

2009-02-26T21:29:00.000-08:00

Whew! I just wanted to blog real quick. I finally have a free moment! I had three tests this week (Mon, Tues, Wed) and then my 6 hour clinical today! I'm exhausted! But I'm happy to say that between all three tests, I only missed 9 questions! (So, two A's and a B.) And today I got to "pass meds" and give an insulin injection! It was awesome!! And I also got to suction out nasty greenish phlem from a mouth/throat - talk about FUN! Haha!! As crazy as this program is, with so much to do every week, I'm really enjoying it!

The girls are doing well! Hannah continues to try my patience and Mallory gets more dramatic every day! Yesterday she declared that we needed to have a "long talk" about how she gets sad when I get mad at her. Oh man! It was all I could do to hide my chuckles so that I didn't upset her more! She's very smart and very dramatic with her opinions! Brit and I had a good laugh about it last night (after she'd gone to bed)! We've had to talk with her more and more about being good in Primary. Last Sunday she told her teacher that her class was boring! Oh the things kids say! (We took her teacher some brownies and a cute card that Mally made - to say sorry!)

I am anxious for spring break in March!! I'll be doing two cakes that week and I'm way excited! It's been awhile since I've done one (let alone two the same weekend)! Wahoo! Anyway..I have a lot of reading to catch up on (since I've just been studying the past week)...so I better get some done before I go to bed! Sorry there's no pics today - hopefully I have some fun ones next time I post! And sorry I haven't checked any of your blogs... but I hope all is well!

Much Needed "Vacation"

2009-02-16T13:54:00.000-08:00

We spent the weekend (and today) at my parent's house in St. George! We had lots of fun! (And I got some much needed rest - thanks to my wonderful mother!) I have plenty of pictures to add to this post this time! Enjoy!These are pictures of the girls (taken like 5 minutes ago). They are making a huge mess all over their grandma's counter!

Mallory loves the glitter glue and it's all over everything now!

This is Miranda, the girls' super cute cousin! She's three weeks younger than Mally and they're great friends!

See the mess? Stickers, crayons, pencils, paper, glue stick, glitter glue.... SO much fun!

Hannah playing outside with the sand - taking it out of the sandbox and piling it on the brick wall. This was her saying "boogers" instead of "cheese" for the camera!

This is the greatest sandbox ever! Too bad the kids don't know how to keep the sand in it!

You might remember the wiggle rider from my Christmas post. Hannah is now able to do it all by herself!! It's so cute to see her do it (even in her jammies)!

This picture is of my dad with 3 of my nephews. This piano was my Grandparent's and now belongs to my parents. It's over 100 years old. It's a "player piano"...where you put in a music roll and then you push your feet up and down on the peddles to make it play. I have great memories of choosing songs for my grandpa to play when I was little. Now my girls can have the same kind of memories! (I didn't have my camera around when it was mally's turn to pick a song.) We had so much fun playing with "the cousins" yesterday (after going to church with them)! It's been a great weekend (that will end in a couple hours when we go back home)!

Quick Midnight Update w/out pictures

2009-01-28T00:34:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update from us! (I'm not used to letting my blog sit idle for "so long" and it's bugging me!) The girls are adjusting okay to me being back in school again. They aren't being too whiney when I leave for class - which is nice! However, Hannah has decided that bed time and nap time are evil! (Not sure if it's related to school or not?) When I start to give the girls a heads-up about bed/nap time coming up soon...Hannah will tell me in her own darling little language "No yaba daba blah blah ni-night!!!" Basically she's insisting that she doesn't want to go to bed. If it weren't so stinkin cute - it might be a little frustrating. The insisting part isn't so bad (and actually funny) up until I go to leave her in her crib and close the door. She screams bloody murder! Two nights ago she even climbed/fell out of her crib and scrambled to open the door before I could even get back to her room to see what the thud was! Mallory never did that!! I was a little freaked out that she can get out of her crib!! Ack!! Anywho...it's been an uphill battle every bed/nap time to get her to go to sleep. Mallory now prays that Hannah will go right to sleep and not cry so that it doesn't wake her up. haha! She's getting really cute with her prayers - more and more creative every day! I love it! Mally has also been such a great reminder for us to read our scriptures every day (unfortunately she quite often will get out of bed to tell me when we forgot... which means it's not gonna happen that night)!

I've survived my first week and a half of nursing school! It's not uncommon for me to be up till around 1:30am doing all my reading and homework. (Like right now - just finished making myself an outline of the 11 chapters covered on next week's test - 8 typed pages!!!! And I had to plug my laptop back in to print it off - so of course I had to come here too!) I will be learning how to do "nonparenteral" (anything but injections) medication administration on Thursday. That will be the first "fun" and new thing so far (as most has been a review of the CNA course that I took last spring). Anyway...sorry for neglecting all your blogs. I've glanced at a few (and been relieved to see that many weren't updated either)...but I didn't have the chance to reply. I'm sorry if it's more of a one-sided blogging friendship for awhile! Just don't give up on me - I could still use lots of friendly support! :o)

Twas the Night Before Nursing School

2009-01-19T19:48:00.001-08:00

Twas the night before nursing school
and all through the house
the girls were sleeping soundly -
quietly as a mouse.

The school books were packed
with the college ruled notebook.
The backpack was full,
filling each and every nook.

Mom can't stop shaking,
wondering if she is crazy.
She'd rather watch TV
and sit around being lazy.

This program is very hard,
so everyone said.
Mom better stop blogging
and just go to bed.

Haha! Okay...so tomorrow is my first official day of being in the nursing program. Everyone says to "say goodbye to your family and friends." So, I suppose this is what I'm doing. Please forgive me if I rarely comment on your blogs. I will do my best to stay updated by checking them when I have the chance though. I suppose that for the next 15 weeks I will be a little busy with a lot going on (mostly in my head). I am already starting my countdown till summer!!

Just a quick note on the girls - they're doing well and driving me crazy! Nothing new! ;o) Hannah thinks she's two already and still finds it funny when I yell at her. Argh! Mallory said the sweetest prayer tonight - blessing me that I'll be able to listen "very well" in my nurse class. So cute! She is a little short tempered with Hannah lately - but seriously, who isn't!? Over all - we've been enjoying the beautiful weather here and the girls play outside a lot (digging holes all over our tiny back yard - watch where ya step)! Here's a couple random outside pictures from this past week.

Beautiful

2009-01-04T19:47:00.000-08:00

My girls finally got to wear their Christmas dresses to church today! They were both so excited! When I put Hannah's on her she kept saying "Princess!" It was too cute! It was a miracle I remembered to take pictures though - these are taken right before Hannah's bed time.

Mallory had white tights and black shoes on earlier in the day. She looks so cute in red!
This is the dress that I ended up spending only $6 on for Hannah!!! What a bargain!!!
They were being really sweet with each other tonight. Hannah was really upset before dinner because I wasn't making it fast enough. But once I put her in her highchair and she saw what we were having - she threw a huge tantrum and refused to eat any of it! So, I got her out and Mallory and I continued eating (Brit had to work). Of course she wasn't happy about being down either and she continued to shriek! Mallory, being a sweetheart, asked Hannah if she wanted a bite of her food (which was exactly the same as Hannah's). Hannah went over to Mallory's chair and laid her head in Mally's lap. It was so sweet. It's like I was the evil mommy monster trying to force potatoes and chicken in her mouth, and Mallory was the sweet fairy who saved Hannah by asking if she wanted some potatoes and chicken! Seriously! Then Mallory let Hannah share her chair with her and got her to eat a couple bites. It was SO cute! And from then on, they were very good to each other...and as the first picture shows - Hannah loved laying on Mallory's lap! Aren't my girls beautiful!? :o)

**CHRISTMAS**

2008-12-31T21:04:00.000-08:00

We started out our Christmas morning when Brit got home from work at 7:30am (the girls and I stayed upstairs till he got home). We opened up presents at our house. The girls were so blessed and received WAY too much!! Along with the gifts we got them, there were also presents from the Twitchell's (that were sent home with us after we saw them Thanksgiving weekend). This picture below is of Hannah opening up her "Peek-a-boo Baby."
Though this picture has Mallory giving me a silly smile, she was SO excited about getting this Diamond Castle Barbie Princess (we LOVE the movie! haha!)....she sings. Yea. (Thanks Grandma Twitchell!) Even Hannah loves carrying this barbie around whenever Mallory will let her!
This is Brit spending all his time opening up the girls many presents! (Why do the toy companies make it so difficult?!) Hannah got lots of Little People play stuff - this one was of a car that pulls along a camper with two little people. Way cute!Then after we were all done creating a huge mess in our family room - Brit went to sleep and the girls and I went on to St.George. It was a yucky wet drive - but thankfully there was minimal traffic (I don't think I've ever driven through Vegas with traffic being so light)! We opened the presents from my family and were again very blessed. My parents gave us a grain mill grinder thing (can't remember it's actual name)....they do a food storage type item each year! I'm way excited for this one! My mom says that it is supposed to grind rice very fine...so maybe I can make my own rice flour now! Cool!!

My sister, Amy, and her family gave my parents this fun thing called a "wiggle car." We've all seen them at the craft fair every year (and I guess Costco sold them for awhile). Anyone up to 200 lbs can ride it. It is SO much fun!! Mallory caught on to it really fast. This picture is of Mallory with her 6 year old cousin Corwin (who she had SO much fun with)!

Mallory also had a blast playing with cousin Miranda (who is 3 weeks younger than Mally).
Even though Hannah was so sick the whole weekend - she still had fun riding the wiggle car with my mom!
These next two pictures don't do the situation justice! My parents give us each a book and inside the book is money (since their family is so big now...makes it easier than getting everyone a bunch of gifts. Then we get to pick out what we want.) My dad gets a HUGE kick out of getting brand new (very crisp) dollar bills and they put them randomly inside the pages of the books. (Thank goodness the adults didn't get $1 bills this year!!!) Hannah was SO in heaven with discovering this money in her book!! She had this pile of it around her and just wanted to hold it all and carry it around with her! It took a major distraction to be able to get it away from her and safely tucked away in the diaper bag! It is very appropriate that she can't say "Grandma" and "Grandpa"...her word for these special people in her life comes out sounding like "money." :o) No joke! It's the cutest thing ever!! She yells "MONEY!!!" when she wants them! Well here is "Grandpa Money" with Hannah!

As mentioned before, Hannah was so sick! I ended up having to take her to a clinic the day after Christmas. She had an ear infection and croup (very nasty cough with some very serious possible complications - which she thankfully didn't get)! She's still on antibiotics and her cough is awful - but starting to get better! If you remember - she was also sick over Thanksgiving and got my parents sick (along with the rest of us). Well, thankfully my mom still let us come up! Hannah was very attached to her the whole time we were there. But this was a rare moment before bedtime that she just wanted to be cuddled up on the stairs. It was too cute. (Unfortunately she has gotten so attached to that blanket...she cries for it if she can't find it. Washing it has become difficult!)Hanging out before bedtime. We gave mallory this cute pink "laptop" that plays letter and number games. She loves it (almost as much as the pens and paper set her Gma Twitchell gave her! Seriously - pen and paper got a bigger reaction than a laptop! Crazy child! haha!)
We went back home around naptime on Saturday so that we could spend some time with Brit! I'm not sure he was so anxious to have us back though - since we were all sick by that point! haha! I was sad that the girls weren't able to wear their Christmas dresses on Sunday...but can't wait for this Sunday!!

Brit's parents came to visit us this week! They got here on Monday evening in time for dinner. We love it when they come to visit - because it's just time to play and have fun! OH! I forgot to mention the gift my parents gave everyone....NERF guns!!! I thought they'd gone crazy at first... but it turns out that they are SO much fun!! So, we got them all out and me, Mally, Brit, Monty and Rita all had a huge Nerf war after Hannah went to bed Monday night! It was SOOOO much fun (except for me getting hit in the eye)! Who knew it could be so much fun to shoot darts at your spouse, in-laws and child!! Talk about a total stress-reliever! I think these nerf guns are gonna come in handy during the next two years of nursing school!! ;o)
(Yeah....Hi Daddy's feet!!) This was before Twitchell's got to our house...and Mallory was trying to shoot me and Brit! You never can be sure where her dart is going to end up though! We've had them all over our house (even on top of the cupboards in the kitchen)! Hannah can't do the guns yet though she occasionally gets shot in the pants! She was looking mighty cute in an outfit that her Aunt Deysha got for her while playing with more little people stuff!
Wow! Talk about a long post! Other than being sick we had a great Christmas and enjoyed the couple days we got to spend with both families!! We hope you all enjoyed your holiday as well!! Now on to 2009! Gotta start all those new years resolutions (which I've never been into doing...but I really gotta do some this year - like lose a TON of weight)!! Happy New Year to you all!!!

Christmas Eve Jammies

2008-12-23T20:49:00.000-08:00

My family always had a tradition on Christmas Eve where we got to open one specific gift after reading about the birth of Christ out of Luke 2. This gift was always something we could use that night - and quite often it was pajamas! I have been doing this tradition in my own family for a couple years now. We bought the girls each a pair of jammies (Mallory - tinkerbell and Hannah - Ariel). They were super cheap at Walmart! However....then my ward did an enrichment where they were making pj bottoms. So, I decided to pull out my dusty sewing machine and go. This was a couple weeks ago, and I just barely finished these jammies last night! (And I can still make one more pair...but probably won't get to it till after the holidays.) I decided to just make them for Mally - since Hannah has all of Mally's old ones (and couldn't care less yet). She helped me pick out the fabric. The middle one - with the bears - matches her quilt that my mom made for her when she was born! How cool, huh?! So, I guess she'll probably be wearing one of these tomorrow night instead of her cheap tinkerbell jammies. :o) I was pretty pleased with how they turned out...it's just too bad I don't know how to make shirts to go with them!

We hope you all have a great Christmas!! We will be spending some time with my family and then Brit's parents will come down next week! We hate that Brit won't be able to come to see my family with us....it's just not the same w/out having him there. He had last Christmas off...so he has to work this one. That's life I guess!! We hope you all drive carefully if you're visiting family too. We love you all!! Merry Christmas!!

"Snowing!!!!!"

2008-12-18T21:02:00.000-08:00

This was what Hannah was saying all day long (yesterday) - "Snowing!!!!" She got the biggest kick out of watching the flakes come down. We got more snow than Vegas has seen in about 30 years!!! My kiddos were dying to play outside in it....and I just couldn't seem to convince them that it was no fun! So, they got bundled up and went out back to play. They stayed out for maybe 5 minutes (just long enough to get some pictures)...and then came back in shivering and crying (well, not Mally). We are just not snow people! :o) They now understand why their mom hates snow!! (This was really wet, slushy snow...not the soft powdery kind!) So, here are some pictures of their snow day! (Thank heavens it has all pretty much melted!)

At this point there wasn't very much snow on the ground....so there wasn't really anything they could do with it. However, it was enough to make our oleanders bow under the pressure! This last picture is of the girls deciding they'd had enough and were coming in!

A Christmas Lesson

2008-12-14T21:11:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Mallory was able to learn a really neat "Christmas" type lesson! I needed a few things from the store, so we went to Walmart yesterday morning. Outside the doors there were a few firemen (and nearby was their bright yellow firetruck). They handed me a paper about a toy drive they were doing. Mallory, being her incredibly inquisitive self, asked what the paper was about. I was tempted to just stick it in my bag and shrug off her question. Thankfully I didn't!! I explained to Mally that the firemen were trying to get some new toys for kids who won't be getting any for Christmas. I told her how these kids probably don't have lots of toys like we do. And that they might be pretty sad on Christmas morning with nothing to open. (Yes, I know...this was getting into the more commercialized christmas explanation...but it was something she understood!) I then decided that we would go straight back to the toys and pick out a couple to give to the firemen. She was very excited to do this (not even begging for any for herself! Yea Mally!)! We found a princess type toy and then we got a bulldozer type truck and then a little finger skateboard thing (that I remember my nephews liking). So three little things that were appropriate for different ages. Then we went on to get our other few items that we needed. After we bought our things, I let Mallory hold the bags of toys and hand them to the firemen. They did such a good job at thanking her that I think she really felt good about helping!!

This was a really cool moment for me, as a mom! It was fun to get to teach her that there's more to Christmas than what she's dying to get under the tree. It's about giving - especially to those in need. I'm sure there are many more people this year who are struggling to make ends meet this Christmas. Even though we aren't able to do much for our own kids this year because of our insanely tight finances....it was so worth spending $16 just knowing that some kids in a worse situation than ours will get to have something special to open that morning. It just gives me that "warm fuzzy" feeling!! :o) How cool is that!!

(Oh - and later that night we finished up our shopping...and I got a beautiful dress for Hannah for only SIX dollars!!! After sale prices and a $10 "savings certificate"...normally a $40 dress and I payed only $6! Talk about a great deal!)

Thanksgiving Weekend

2008-12-03T22:01:00.001-08:00

I'm a little slow posting about this - sorry! I had two tests this week that I had to "focus" on! (Ha!) The girls and I went up to my parent's house for Thanksgiving! We were so sad that Brit couldn't come with us - he worked the whole weekend! We left on Wednesday morning and came back Saturday afternoon. We had a great time - though it was awfully quiet! All my siblings were with their in-laws this year...so it was just my parents, us and my grandparents! We all fit around my mom's table w/out the additions even being added on! It was a little strange - but nice at the same time! I'm not one who enjoys tons of craziness going on for a long period of time! Anyway...it was a nice relaxing weekend! (We also got to visit with Brit's mom and sister and sis-in-law for a little bit on Friday! That was really nice too!!)

Here are some of the random pictures I took over the weekend... though I failed to get any on Thanksgiving day! Mallory and Hannah had so much fun having their grandma all to themselves!! :o)

The girls had lots of fun trying to pop some old balloons that were in the playroom! Then we blew up some new ones and they had fun dancing with them! I don't have a picture of it - but Hannah was so cute trying to hold two balloons in each hand!! She was obsessed over keeping them just right!!

They also loved playing with the hullahoops! They did this little train thing all over downstairs while laughing and laughing!!

We can't forget the games of air hockey that were played! Mallory loves this game and is actually getting quite good at it!! These pictures are of my mom helping Hannah play against Mally!

We had a ton of fun and it was hard for the girls to leave! We now all have some nasty colds and unfortunately passed them on to my parents as well. When I apologized for getting them sick, my mom said it so perfectly - she wouldn't have it any other way...she got to hold and love my kiddos... a little cold was worth it! (Okay - so I'm totally paraphrasing cause I can't remember her exact words...but you get the idea!) :o)

And to end this post - we finally put up our tree tonight! Mallory had SOOO much fun getting to hang the decorations!!

Oh yeah - and here's a way cute picture of Hannah! This is the bag of gifts that was sent home with us from Brit's family (since they won't see us till after Christmas). I've had a hard time finding somewhere for it to be... and it hung out on the floor for awhile. Hannah found it to be a great chair!! (Hopefully nothing is seriously injured! haha!) :o)

Celiac Disease

2008-11-21T21:26:00.000-08:00

I decided to post about my disease tonight. I've had it on my mind a lot lately and thought I'd share my story with those of you who aren't familiar with it. :o)

I recently had a little scare and have visited the doctor a few times - and have an appointment scheduled with a Gastroenterologist (first time in over 20 years) for Tuesday. Just to make sure things are all okay with my insides! Anyway... let me start at the beginning by typing some of a letter my parents wrote to me when I was little.

"When you were 14 months old you had symptoms of the flu. After a week of diarrhea, we took you to the doctor. We treated you for the flu for 6 weeks, hoping it would run its course. When it became apparent it was not the flu, the doctor sent you to have blood tests and a sweat chloride test (for CF) - which all turned out normal. He wanted to put you in the hospital for 24 hours on an IV to 'cean out your gut'. We know something was wrong that just 24 hours would not heal. In the meantime you had severe diarrhea (up to 14 times a day) and occasionally throwing up. We took you to another doctor and he had a blood test done. This time your platelet count was down to 20,000 (normal is around 150,000-200,000). We rushed you to Primary Children's Hospital, where you were tested for leukemia and all kinds of other things - which all, thankfully, turned out negative. We took you to a gastroenterologist and she suspected 2 different things - Celiac Sprue or Giardia. The small bowel biopsy couldn't be done until your platelet count went back up or you could have bled to death. Meanwhile you were so sick tha tI held you all day every day. You didn't eat or sleep well and remained quite motionless all the time. Everday I didn't think you would make it through another day. You had two very worried parents. Your platelet count came back up and you had your biopsy done. Sure enough, Celiac Sprue was the diagnosis. A gluten free diet was prescribed and after 4-6 weeks you should have been fine. No - you were the exception to the rule. Your malabsorption was, by then, so severe you still could not absorb any nutrients. You were literally starving to death. Your doctor (then in May 1985) put you in the hospital. You had an IV central line surgically placed for a long term IV hookup. Your Dad and I learned how to connect and disconnect the IVs. Within days in the hospital on your special IV solutions you drastically improved! After 2 weeks we left the hospital, bringing your IV set up home with us. Other than a blood infection, causing a 106.2 fever, an dyou chewing the cap off the tubes - causing blood to back up all over your bed - all went well at home. You continued to flourish. We loved watching you progress and how you changed before our eyes. By the end of August you seemed to be digesting food by yourself. Your doctor had your central line removed and did another biopsy. This time the biopsy showed you had healthy villi in your intestine. Good news after almost a year of bad! If you stay on your diet, you will do just fine. We are so glad tha tyou decided to remain with us. There were so many times we thoguht we were going to lose you."

I cherish having this letter - as I obviously can't remember any of this happening! It was obviously a scary time for my parents. I have 3 older sisters and my mom was pregnant with my little brother at the time this was all happening! Can you imagine!? My parents are, as you can tell, amazing!!

I've done the gluten-free thing since before I can even remember....so it's not been a really big deal. I do remember hating when kids would bring cupcakes to school on their birthdays - cause I could never have one. But my mom always made sure I got something special when I got home to make up for it! I also remember hating eating lunch all throughout school - because I never had a regular sandwich. I always had a rice cake or some homemade GF bread. I was so self-conscious eating in front of other people! (It's taken a LONG time to get over that!) I hated being so different! But other than that - it wasn't very hard!

I have been able to do many school presentations on this little-known (yet quite common) disease (my latest being in my Anatomy class over the summer). I've really enjoyed being able to tell people about it now (who knows why I was so embarrassed by it in the past?!). Just last night, our Enrichment was a progressive dinner all about tastes from over the world. When we got to the house hosting the European theme (mostly Italian type foods....like pasta)...I just decided to skip out on eating - not wanting to take any chances. I got a few questions about it and I really enjoyed talking about it!! Which is what has led me to this post tonight!

I also recently looked up the Gastroenterologist -that quite frankly saved my life- and sent her a letter telling her how grateful I am! She wrote me back and sent my medical records from the time I was her patient. How awesome to read through those - scary though!! I just wanted to include that letter she sent as a close to this extremely long post!

" Dear Karleena,

What fun to receive your kind letter, life-story and pictures! I remember you well. I even remember the room you were in at the old Primary Children's Hospital.

Your records are enclosed. Back in those days, we thought that since your symtpoms did not improve initially on a gluten free diet, that you had tropical sprue rather than celiac sprue. In retrospect, we know that you had what we call "recalcitrant" celiac disease that just needed the intravenous feedings at first to begin the healing of the bowel.

Please give my fond greetings to your mother. She showed skill and grace in the face of a very difficult situation when you were so sick!

I think we will frame your letter and put it up on the wall so that we can give hope to others.

Love, Dr. Janet"

Below are two pictures from those days:

Calling All Happy Thoughts...

2008-11-14T20:34:00.000-08:00

If you're bored and have already read my last posts here.... feel free to hop on over to my Random Thoughts and read about my overwhelming day. I could really use some uplifting comments over there if you've got some time! Thanks!

Haircut

2008-11-08T19:46:00.000-08:00

If you haven't already seen the last post...go look at it to see how long Mallory's hair was! And because it's curly - it's much longer than it actually looks. I've been meaning to get it cut for weeks...and finally got around to it today!! We had a LOT cut off and she looks SOOOO stinkin cute!! With her hair so long and yucky before...I'd rarely been leaving it down cause it just didn't look good. But now I can leave it down more often cause it looks healthy and beautiful! I just took these pics with my phone before she got ready for bed...so they're really blurry! Sorry!

Fun Day + Lots of Pictures = Long Post!

2008-11-06T20:07:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!!

We had fun taking some random pictures today while we played and I thought I'd share them! The girls and I had lots of fun playing with toys, dancing and bouncing tons of little balls all over the house! It was a good day for us - definitely a day worth blogging about (even though we didn't do anything big or out of the ordinary)!! :o) Here are some cute pictures of my girlies!

My future Doctor??

Such a sweet lil' face!

Say "CHEEEEESE!!!!" (Hannah was doing these seriously hilarious faces!!!)

Sitting so nice by each other (till Mallory wanted one of the dolls.....)
Yes, I'm adorable and I know it!!

It's Doctor Mallory.... everyone RUN!

Okay, Dad, next time you want to eat popsicles on the couch....please feel free to throw the sticks in the garbage so that Hannah doesn't permanently become a walrus!

Hannah threw herself over my legs and was hanging her head slightly upside down. She decided to make this funny face to Mallory! (Look at those eye lashes!!!)

I was just telling Marchezt the other day that I'd been slacking off when it came to being creative with Mallory's "preschool" lessons. I made up for it tonight. Mallory had picked the letter S for this week....so I came up with a paper plate/cotton ball/pipe cleaner Snowman! She had SO much fun making this guy and just wanted to keep holding him (even though the glue was sticky all over)! It was all I could do to make her leave him to dry and go to bed! :o)

Halloween!

2008-11-04T21:58:00.000-08:00

I'm finally getting around to posting what few pictures I have from Halloween!! We had our ward party on Thursday and I forgot my camera!! Argh! My friend, Marchezt, took pictures that had my girlies in them and posted one big collage on her blog. I thought I'd be able to "steal" individual pictures from that collage...but it didn't work. So, you can go see some cute pics from the party at her blog (just click on the collage and it'll get bigger).
My parents came to be with us on Halloween - a total surprise for my girls!! The doorbell rang and I let Mally open the door and there were her grandparents "trick or treating"!! She was SO excited to see them - and to find out that they were staying at our house that night (which they've never done before). Gotta love "peer pressure" (Brit's parents always sleep at our house when they visit)! :o) We left Brit at home and the 5 of us went trick or treating that night! The girls had lots of fun!! Hannah is totally obsessed with suckers and couldn't care less about any other treats! As we went around the neighborhood...she was fine sitting in her stroller as long as she had a sucker in each hand. Too cute! Anyway...here are some pictures from after we got home from trick-or-treating. WAY too much candy!!!

Mallory wanted to try everything... and would keep spitting out stuff she didn't like!

Hannah was perfectly content with her sucker - even with loads of candy on the table!

Look at all that!!! As if I didn't have a hard enough time with losing weight!

So nice to share with Grandma!!

My cute little Angel (never hurts to wish, right?) and Snow White in absolute heaven with all that candy and having their grandma and grandpa there! It was so sad when they had to leave...and when I put all the candy in the cupboard - only to be had for a snack and occasional random moments!

I have enjoyed seeing halloween pics on all your blogs!! Looks like everyone had a fun and safe halloween!! Now on to Christmas!!! WAIT! We have to have Thanksgiving first!!! Someone tell Walmart they forgot Thanksgiving!!!!! ;o)

Husband Tag

2008-11-02T21:52:00.000-08:00

Sorry...I haven't gotten my halloween pics off the camera yet...so stay tuned for that post!

I was tagged by my sister, Jen, to do this tag about my hubby....so here it goes!

5 things Brit loves:
- ME
- Mallory & Hannah
- Movies
- The Gospel
- Family

5 things on his to-do list:
- Get out of our mortgage/sell our house
- Be hired with Parole & Probation
- Home teaching
- Build up our savings
- Learn more about his family history

5 snacks he loves:
- Hot Tamales
- Chips and Salsa
- Popsicles
- Carmel Popcorn
- Jerky

5 things you might not know about him:
- He is quick to say he's sorry
- He is a total night-owl and frequently falls asleep on the couch (of his own doing!)
- He snores (which is okay if he's asleep on the couch! haha!)
- He can fall asleep in a matter of seconds...one minute he's talking and the next he's out cold.
- He would love to go back to school and get a Masters Degree

5 places he's lived:
- Cannonville, Utah
- Cedar City
- numerous cities around Fresno, CA
- Las Vegas
- Logan, Utah (as a baby)

5 quirky things about him:
- He is horrible at remembering names...but will remember details about the person
- He quite often talks very fast
- He's obsessive about not letting the gas in our vehicles get below a quarter of a tank left.
- He has a very interesting sense of humor and is very sarcastic/playful
- He eats quickly but drinks slowly.

5 people to tag:
- Janice
- Marchezt
- Kristine
- Lacey
- My sisters who haven't completed the tag from Jen!

YEA!!!!!!!

2008-10-29T23:37:00.000-07:00

I figured this was worthy enough of going on our family blog (since it affects everyone)!! I found out today that I got accepted into the nursing program at CSN!!!!!!! YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've been waiting to hear this news since September 1st (when I applied). It's nice to finally be able to be excited/nervous/scared-silly/thrilled!!!! I think I'm crazy for being so excited about adding a crap-load of stress onto myself for the next 2 years! I should have my head examined to make sure I've not gone mad! Oh well. I've worked hard the past 10 months to get this acceptance phone call (guess they're too cheap to send a letter? I have to go pick up my info packet on tuesday)! I have two months to celebrate this....before reality hits and I start wondering what on earth I was thinking!!! :o) AH!!!

Picture Memories

2008-10-24T00:11:00.001-07:00

After seeing a new tag that I hadn't seen before, I got interested in seeing what pictures I have in my folders. The tag was to post the picture that happens to be in your 4th folder and is the 4th picture. The picture that honestly fit this was of Mallory at her dance class - one of the few times we actually went (she hated it). She was trying to master the hula hoop. It wasn't a very clear picture so I decided not to post it. However, one of the folders right by that one contains the newborn pictures of Hannah that were taken by the seriously talented Sarah Gourdie (I had the priviledge of being her visiting teacher when she was getting her photography business up and running and she did these pics for free)! Anyway...I thought I'd share some of my favorite ones that just make me smile! :o) Can you believe how dark her hair was when she was born!? Now it's almost lighter than Mallory's!

Bishop Fry

2008-10-15T23:27:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went to visit my family to support my dad as he was called to be bishop of his ward. We also got to visit with my SIL, Janice, and her cute little girl, Cambri, on Friday. Here are a few pics of the weekend!Hannah LOVES my parent's dog, Dudley! She even enjoys having him lick her face - especially upside down!
Mallory also likes Dudley...but usually from more of a distance. She doesn't like him to lick her!
Mallory had a ball clipping out all of the coupons from my parents' newspaper.
When she's concentrating on cutting, she makes this funny face - sticking her tongue out just a little.

This is the cake I made for my dad in honor of him being sustained as bishop. It's a bishops desk on top with a cup holding pens, a sign reading "Bishop Fry" and a paper thing.
Around the cake were signs saying "Bishops Office", "U Gotta Wanna" (a phrase my dad "came up with" a LONG time ago for a youth thing), and "CTR".

When we were playing with Janice and Cambri, we went to feed the ducks at a nearby golf course pond. Hannah actually got ahold of the feathers on this goose!
Mallory preferred to stay back a little and watch the ducks and geese, but Hannah was dying to get close to them and feed them from her hand!

Cambri also loved getting close to them!

We had a lot of fun over the weekend with family and friends! I also got to go see the play The Secret Garden that my sister, bro-in-law and nephew were in. I didn't realize that Preston could sing so well (he's only 10)! It was a lot of fun! I also got to visit a friend from high school (Kammi) and see the beautiful cakes she's created! It was all a nice break from reality and it was hard to get back into the swing of things this week!

More Preschool - Letter H

2008-09-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

We haven't been up to a whole lot lately - besides this preschool thing a few days a week. Life got a little predictable and somewhat boring....so I'm sorry if you're tired of seeing the same type of post from us! :o)

This week we're learning the letter H (Mally picked it). We did the usual writing and sound stuff. The fun things we did this week are pictured. We did them different days...but I forgot to take a picture of Mally with her Hippo...so she's in the same jammies in both pictures (cause tonight's preschool was done after bath time).

Mallory cut most of the pieces of this hippo and then glued them onto the paperbag. She loves making it talk and having it "eat" people!

Tonight we saw how Heat changes things. We put an ice cube on the counter and then another ice cube in a cup of Hot water. We watched to see which one changed first. And then we saw how Heat changed Hard pieces of apple and made them soft and squishy. We then smashed them up and made applesauce! I asked Mallory if that applesauce could go back into the Hard apple...and she definitely knew the answer was NO! Once Heat changes some things - they can't go back to how they were. She loved this!

B is for Blue

2008-09-19T19:46:00.000-07:00

We're still pluggin away at this preschool thing. I've found that after Hannah goes to bed is the best time to do it! Mallory really seems to look forward to that time. This week we focused on the letter B (though I am going to start letting her pick the letter for the week - starting next week she wants to do the letter F). We practiced writing it and sounding it out...and we also did the number 3. One night we went around and found things in the house that started with the letter B and I took a picture of each of them...then I put them all on one page and printed them out for her. Then tonight she put all sorts of blue items onto a big letter B. She loves using glue so this was really fun for her! :o)
Unfortunately - yes, that is a Bruise (....B for Bruise...so not planned!) under her eye. We went to the park the other day with Marchezt and Kaedie and the girls were playing in the spray park area. Well this little boy was cruisin along way too fast on the slippery ground and ran right into Mallory - knocking her down. She somehow got bruised on her shoulder and right under her eye. That quickly put an end to our fun! Poor thing!

This bottom picture is of the girls playing in Mallory's room this morning while I was getting ready. Mallory laid out all the pillows and blankets she could find and then both girls got into the toy boxes (with toys still in them). I guess the boxes were boats or something? It was too cute!!

A is for Apple

2008-09-13T19:52:00.000-07:00

I have been doing preschool with Mallory on weekdays - starting this week. I wasn't able to get her into the preschool I wanted...and we decided we'd save the money another preschool would cost...and I'd just "teach" her. I decided just to go back through the alphabet and really focus more on the sounds each letter makes and having her "perfect" writing them (she can already write most of them). This week we started with the letter A. On Monday we
worked on writing and the sounds. On Tuesday we did an art project - where I cut an apple in half (she ate half) and we used half to dip in red paint and then put it on a paper. It made little red apples (and then she drew a stem on them). Turned out really cute! On Wednesday we worked on #'s 1 and 2 (writing and recognizing them). On Thursday/Friday we talked about Ants and wanted to find some - but weren't able to. Apparently Vegas specializes in Cockroaches and Crickets (perfect for our C week)! So, she drew another apple and we taped the seeds of an apple onto the drawing. We used the apple core to "lure in the ants"...but we gave up with that idea and caught 4 crickets instead. Mallory used her magnifying glass to look at them. We actually got to watch them eat the apple. After we dumped them back outside (apple and all)... we checked back on them today - and most of the apple core had been eaten! The hundreds of crickets outside our house had an apple buffet thanks to Mally! :o) Anyway...here are some pics of Mally studying her catch of the day!

P-A-R-K

2008-09-11T23:07:00.000-07:00

Lately Brit and I have had to start spelling things out when we don't want little ears to know what we're talking about. Well now Mallory tries to do the same thing! She'll say some random letters and then ask me if I know what that means. It's too cute! Well, this evening we went to the park with Mandy and Zac! P-A-R-K is a word that Mallory is starting to recognize! She's so smart!! She now looks for words when we're driving, or if I let her have some junk mail...and she'll spell the word and then ask me what it says. I seriously think she should have gone to kindergarten this year! :o) Anyway...here are some pics of our p-a-r-k adventures!
Mally, Zac and Hannah sitting on the "lizard"
Mallory trying to scoop up the sand - but she's not quite big enough to do it on her own yet!
Hannah holding on to the "snake"
Mandy helping the kiddos with the scooper
Mandy and Mallory rolling down the grassy hill!

Our New Adventure

2008-09-08T22:51:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!! I just wanted to let you all know of my new adventure! In addition to school (to PAY for some of school) I created my own "business"!! http://www.customcakesbykarleena.com My hobby lately has been cake decorating (as you might have seen on my Random Thoughts). It's something I find to be stress-relieving and relaxing! Well, I'm working on getting better at it...and hope to earn some money from selling my "cake creations." Please check out the website I created and let me know what you think (any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated)! :o) Thanks!!

Our Trip to Cannonville

2008-09-03T20:15:00.001-07:00

Mally's 4 yr old Pictures

2008-08-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of Mallory's birthday pictures we had taken a couple weeks ago. We just did them at JCP (unfortunately we couldn't afford to have Sarah do them again this year). They did a pretty good job. Mallory is having issues with her smile lately - she hates smiling "with her teeth" but when she gives a REAL smile - it's SO cute! So, some of these "teeth smiles" are too forced... but she's still cute as a bug as always! I have tons more pictures...but I need to get stuff packed tonight for our trip! So here's two of my favorites!

Fun With Colors

2008-08-26T20:24:00.001-07:00

I had fun a few days ago, playing with my camera and the cool things it can do! These first few pictures are of the girls with only one color showing. The last picture is of Mally in the same purple princess dress - only I tried to change it's color to the color of Hannah's shirt. I've learned that the camera has to be held quite still to get these shots to turn out - so that last one is pretty blurry. I guess I need a tripod! :o)

A Little Bit of Hannah

2008-08-20T20:28:00.000-07:00

Here are some cute pics of my crazy lil' Hannah! She keeps us all on our toes. I definitely need to get one of her newest thing - climbing onto the table! (And a picture of all our chairs on TOP of our table to keep her from doing her new trick!) :o) She's definitely a hand full - but she's just so cute that you can't help but smile even if she does something naughty! This is Hannah with her crazy hair! It was almost bedtime and she'd been pulling out her hair things all day - so I pulled up "all" her hair into a pony tail on the top of her head. It looked SO cute!!

Here is my little Shoe Monster! We have plenty of shelves devoted to our shoes, but somehow they never manage to stay ON the shelves! Hannah is quite good at walking around in mine and Mally's shoes...but she met her match when she tried on Daddy's work boots!

This is Hannah's favorite spot (and unfortunately probably the dirtiest in my whole house). She loves to eat her snacks here and bring toys here.

Hannah has somewhat recently discovered typing on the keyboard! I've given in to letting her pretend when the computer is off. (But if I forget to turn it off - and she gets to it - ACK! She managed to delete my "wallpaper" from the computer screen the other day!)

This is Hannah before getting ready for bed tonight. I put her up on my bed to get her jammies on - but she LOVES to snuggle into my pillow! She was doing the cutest "sleeping" pose, but of course by the time the camera took the picture - she was up! It still turned out way cute though!

Fun Time With Family

2008-08-15T20:28:00.000-07:00

On Sunday morning we went up to my parent's house to spend a couple days! My sister, Jen, and her family were making their once a year visit from New Jersey. It's a rare thing to have my whole family together (2 parents, 3 sisters, 1 brother, 3 bro-in-laws, 1 sis-in-law, 6 nephews, and 3 neices + my lil' family of 4). We got family pictures taken on Monday night! It was hard to get all the little ones looking at the camera. The photographer tried being so very silly - which made for some pretty funny smiles on some of our faces (uh....mine!) :o) On Sunday night my family threw a little birthday get-together for Mally and I. I brought the rest of Mally's Ariel cake and everyone finished it off! (It looked so bad after being hacked up at the party - that little Matthew thought it was a Volcano!! It was so cute! He kept saying he wanted a peice of the 'cano!!) Mallory got a new helmet for her bike (thanks Amy!), a Cinderella play set (thanks Jen!), a beautiful hand-made princess cape and "crown" (thanks Kelli!!), and the movie Fox and the Hound (thanks Aliese!). It was a lot of fun!

Mallory had lots of fun playing the piano at Grandma and Grandpa's house! Someday I think I'll get her to take lessons. Here's a cute pic of her playing with Grandpa!

And a cute one playing the piano with Hannah...On Monday my mom took Mallory and some of her cousins to a place called Jumpin' Jacks. It's this building with tons of bounce houses and slides. From what I heard - it's a ton of fun!! However, I guess Mallory wasn't so sure about it and spent a lot of time whining to her Grandma. :o( They went not too long after she fell off her bike for the first time (trying to turn too sharply), so I guess she wasn't quite up to having fun yet. My mom took some pictures though:
And this one last picture is of Mallory and her cousin, Nikki (she's 7)! Mally had such a good time playing with Nikki!! Sometimes Mally has a hard time playing with other kids, if they don't talk much or interact enough...and then she'll get bossy. But Nikki was just bossy enough to give Mally a challenge, but not enough to where they couldn't be friends. It was great!! I hardly saw Mallory when Nikki was around. What great memories Mallory will have of this cousin she doesn't get to see often enough! She was SOOO sad when they had to go back home before we did.

Party Time!

2008-08-09T21:33:00.000-07:00

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY MALLORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe my lil' one is getting so BIG! Another year and she'll be in Kindergarten (though I'd like to send her there this year)!! Time goes by so fast! 4 years ago I was just barely embarking on this wonderful, crazy parenting journey. Mallory was the sweetest baby ever! She was so good (till she hit the terrible twos)!! And she's my little smartie pants. The child can seriously talk your ear off if you'll let her! She's constantly asking questions and inquiring about what everything is (in fact, if she heard me use the word "inquire" she'd most certainly ask me what it meant).

Today we had an awesome birthday party for her! I was totally shocked - all but 1 of the friends we invited came! There were 9 kids (counting Mally) in my tiny little downstairs! Ack! haha! Actually it was a blast! We played Pin The Fin On Flounder, and did a little fishing game where after they pulled up their fish they had to do a fishy-type action to get a prize. And we played with sparkly playdough and made shell-bead necklaces! Mandy helped me decorate with tons of crepe paper streamers and balloons! It was an "under the sea adventure"!! Mallory got WAY too many presents and has spent the whole day playing with them all! It was a little hard for her to share at first - but she gradually started to open up to the idea of letting Hannah join the fun too! :o) She is insisting on taking all this stuff to Grandma Fry's house tomorrow!!

Mally also got a new bike today!! It is mostly from my parents (from the money they gave for Mally's b-day) - but they said we should let her open it up here. She's pretty good at riding it - but struggles to watch where she's going (no different than when she's walking though)!

All the pictures are posted below in slide show format (which took me forever to figure out how to do)!! There were just too many to post in the normal way! Enjoy!!

Mally's Party

2008-08-09T21:32:00.001-07:00

Mally's Bike

2008-08-09T21:01:00.001-07:00

Splish Splash!

2008-08-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

I had fun with my camera tonight! It was bath night and the girls had lots of fun splashin! They were also being real cute after their bath! I love these moments when they get along!

Fun with Zac

2008-08-02T20:36:00.000-07:00

On Thursday and Friday we had lots of fun watching Zachary! Here are some of the way cute pics! (Oh yeah - I convinced Brit to let me have my b-day gift early - my wonderful new camera!!! Ah! Gotta love clear pictures!) Isn't he a cutie!?

Zac loved pushing the stroller around! It's definitely not something he has at his house!

Hannah wanted nothing to do with her lunch - she'd rather have Zac's peas and carrots

So sweet!!

Yes, I know, they're related - but it was SO cute!! They were both wanting to give kisses!

Cute lil' buddies!

Say Cheese!

Mallory did a great job entertaining the little ones!

Still a bit wobbly on those feet - sometimes crawling was easier!
Hannah being her usual silly self! (Brit was readjusting her carseat straps - so it was in the house and she had a ball playing on it!)

Mally's Prayer

2008-07-30T19:34:00.000-07:00

Tonight my class was very short, so I was able to be home before the girls went to bed. After getting Hannah to bed, I helped Mally (who really doesn't need or Want help anymore). We knelt down by her bed so she could say her prayer. It was the cutest thing - I totally had to hurry on here to post it before I forget what she said. She started out by blessing everyone in our family, then she said, "I hope we can have fun at Grandma's with the pine-corns and hide and go seek and tag you're it." (haha!! We're not visiting either of the grandma's for another couple weeks...but her Daddy was telling her tonight that when we do visit them, that they have more room to play tag and more places to hide for hide and seek! And I have NO idea where she got the "pine CORN" thing! haha!) Anyway...then she went on to pray about tomorrow - "I hope we can have fun with Zachy and I hope that Hannah and Zachy can be nice." We're watching Stuart and Mandy's little boy, Zac, tomorrow and Friday for around 5 hours. Mally's very excited about this!! I absolutely love hearing her prayers! She doesn't usually want any help - so you never know what she might say! But it's so sweet! She's got the beginning and ending down perfect and usually comes up with the middle on her own! She's getting SO big!!! (Now I need her to pray about mommy being able to find her a preschool to attend in a month!! Argh!!)

Fun Weekend

2008-07-25T00:07:00.000-07:00

I'm a little slow posting about this past weekend (life's crazy sometimes)! Brit's parents and little sister, Deysha, came to visit for the weekend! We always love having them visit and this time was no exception! They came on Saturday afternoon and we all went up to see where Brit works. He took us on a tour of the government building. Pretty neat! We even got to go into the Governor's press conference room...where he stands in front of the State Seal and gives speeches. (Shhh! Don't tell!!) ;o) We took some pictures. Mine, of course, were from my phone (can't wait till my new camera comes!!) so they're WAY blurry as usual.

Grandpa holding Hannah, and Deysha holding Mallory

There were huge floor to ceiling windows on the opposite side - so that's why the glare is so bad.

They went to church with us on Sunday and then we all had fun visiting! On Monday morning we went swimming in one of our community's pools. We had it all to ourselves! So fun! Mallory did so well swimming this time! She mostly hung onto the inner tube and played with Deysha (she's such an awesome aunt!!!) Hannah wasn't too sure about this whole swimming thing - but for the most part seemed to enjoy it. She hung out with Grandma for awhile, so that I could swim some laps (it'd been way too long since I've done that)! Here are some pics (taken with my video camera).

After swimming, the girls all went to the mall to do some birthday shopping for Mallory. And Brit and his Dad put in ceiling fans in the girls' rooms and did a little of their own shopping. It was sad to have the day end with me going to class and the Twitchell's leaving for home. We're excited to go visit them over Labor day weekend! (And we're excited to go visit my family in a couple weeks!) Hope ya'll are doing well! I recently updated my "random thoughts"...so if you have a few minutes, hop on over there to read a very personal story! :o)

Memories

2008-07-12T22:44:00.000-07:00

I am a little hesitant to post this memory tag thing. I'm sure hoping that some of you can come up with a positive memory! ;o) Oh well...here goes nothin!

The Memory Post

1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember! If we're only blogging friends, write about a post that is the most memorable for you.

2. Next, if you feel so inclined, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll be sure to write one about you...!

3. If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. ☺ And please do this on your page, too, so we can all share in the fun times together. :)
Please take some time to help me remember those times that your mind may have retained that mine might not have.

Owies

2008-07-11T23:43:00.001-07:00

Do all little kids get so many bruises and owies!? I feel like Mallory constantly has bruises on her legs. She's no where near graceful, but I guess I didn't realize she was SO clumsy. Granted - our house is small and there isn't much space to run around...so when she does run around there is a great chance that she's gonna bump into something and/or fall. It seems like she's always getting hurt! On Monday Brit took the girls to the library. Mallory always wants to walk on this little brick wall thing (which I Never let her do...usually cause my hands are full and I can't help her). Well she ran ahead of Brit and got on the wall before he could tell her not to. She took like 2 steps and fell - scraping the inside of her thigh and bruising it. It's not pretty! I want to put her in a plastic, padded bubble so she stops getting hurt!! Seriously - is this normal for a 3 year old, who isn't even incredibly active, to have so many battle wounds?? Is she getting more owies because she's wearing shorts, or am I just noticing them more because so much of her legs are bare? Any thoughts?!

Mermaid Mania!

2008-07-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

We had a blast this evening! The girls and I went to the Silverton Lodge to see the huge aquarium and Mermaid! (The mermaid's name is Timery and she was in my Bio223 class. How would you like to be a mermaid for a living?! Cool huh!) The girls LOVED it!! It was pretty crowded since it was a Saturday, but we managed to get a spot right up by the tank. The mermaid, between breathing into the thingy, interacts with the kids. It's so cute! I didn't get many pictures of Hannah - since she was just chillin in the stroller. Sorry! Anyway, I definitely recommend seeing it! SO cool!!

Swimming upside down and waving to Mally!

Stingray is smiling for the camera!

"Where's the Mermaid, Mom?!"

Swimming along...

The Mermaid did this really cool bubble blowing thing to Mallory!

Blowing kisses!

Mermaid's gotta take a breath before smiling at the kiddos!

Looking up at all the fish and trying to see the Mermaid!

Cute fishy face, Mally!

Hannah watching in awe!

Hello Mr. Stingray!

TONS of fish!
Bye Bye Mermaid!!

Chili's

2008-07-04T19:09:00.000-07:00

Today we had lunch at Chili's. We were too lazy to get up and go to our Stake 4th of July breakfast early this morning....and Brit is working tonight. So- that was our way of "celebrating" the holiday. We decided to try their Spinach Artichoke Dip appetizer - which was really good! Well Hannah started whining about wanting some (just sucking on a chip wasn't good enough for her). I decided to let her try it - thinking she'd spit it right out. Not so! She LOVED it!! Kept begging for more!! I tried to get a picture - but it came out really blurry. I'll post it anyway and you'll get the idea. Isn't she such a sophisticated eater?! :o) Mallory, on the other hand, was perfectly content to stay FAR away from the green-globby stuff! She loved the pizza and mandarin oranges! She's a lot like me - very predictable and not readily willing to try new things! :o) (I took these pics with Brit's phone, not mine...so they came out really tiny with a huge white area around them. I really don't feel like editing them. Pull out your magnifying glass!)

Eye Spy

2008-07-03T16:07:00.001-07:00

I was playin around with the camera today and thought these pictures were pretty cool! Can you tell who each eye belongs to?

My Random Thoughts

2008-06-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let ya'll know that I created another blog! It's for me to post stuff mostly about ME so that I can keep this blog mainly about the girlies! It's kind of like my online "journal" of sorts. So - if you're really really bored and dying for something to read - feel free to check it out occasionally. It's listed under my "friends and family" links (I'm part of my family!! haha!) But this main page is where all the fun stories and cute pics will be - since it's all about Mally and Hannah! :o)

Birthday List

2008-06-27T19:25:00.000-07:00

Mallory has been obsessed with her birthday coming up for some time now. Well today she wanted to tell me everything she wants! So, I had her write a list. She'd tell me what she wanted and then I'd spell it for her as she wrote it down. She's getting SO good at writing!!! I just had to take a picture of her birthday list to show ya'll!
I'm not really sure how much of the things she listed are what she really wants. She kind of just started looking around and telling me things she saw. :o) She's been asking for a bike for about a year now - but I'm not sure I'm ready to commit to teaching her how to ride in the limited space we have. As I tell her...."We'll see."

Okay, so now I need some opinions here! I was just wondering what age everyone thinks is a good age to start doing friend birthday parties. I've decided I want to do them on the even years (like my mom did for us when we were younger)...and then the odd years they'll just have "family parties." Is 4 years old too early to have a friend party? Should I wait till she's 6? I think she has a few pretty good friends - mostly from her sunbeam class - that we could invite. But how do most other parents feel about b-day parties for little kids? This is new territory for me. And say I did decide to do this for her this year - what kinds of things do you do at a 4 year old party? Any ideas? I'd really appreciate any and all input - for or against the idea!! Thanks! Hope ya'll have a great weekend!

Straight

2008-06-21T20:15:00.000-07:00

I know I just posted the other day, but I actually have pictures this time!!! And, just FYI, I have decided to print out most of my posts and add them to my girl's journals. I used to be really great at writing in them - but I haven't been so good lately...and I can type a lot faster than I can write. This way some of the memories are still being recorded - just printed. :o)

After the girls had a bath, and after I put Hannah to bed - I had some fun with Mally's hair! I bought a straightener a few weeks ago when I got my hair cut, and Mally's been buggin me to use it on her hair. I finally did. I just can't get over how cute she looks with straight hair! (I mean - she's adorable with curly hair...it's just fun to see something different!) She loved it!! I might have to do it again for church tomorrow (if we can get ready on time....hahaha!) So - here's the pics of my cutie-patootie!