Hales Angels

Last Few Weeks in Utah!

2012-02-08T15:17:00.000-08:00

As we prepared to head to Arizona for a few months, we held several parties to see our friends and squeeze out as much fun as possible. Some of these pictures were taken during one of Kylynne and I's workouts. Also, my friend Jill Rasmussen had a house warming party at her new home and I was able to get some pictures with some of my favorite Brigham City people. Meg came over almost everyday in the last few weeks that we were there and we had a lot of fun being together. We appreciate all of our friends in Utah and the girls miss them so much already!

First Contact

2012-02-08T14:09:00.000-08:00

We received our first letter from Heath last Friday. Apparently his first letter was returned to him for insufficient postage. It was short and sweet, but he did say he was surviving on little to no sleep and had to write letters during his sleep time. He is happy to be there and is looking forward to the upcoming weeks for the experiences he will be having at that time. Saturday he gave us a call...that we missed! Calling the cell phone didn't work for some reason so he called my parent's home phone and we weren't home. He left us a message and said that he was pulling 15-18 hour days, but that that part was coming to an end soon. He sounded good and happy, which is all we can hope for. He is now to the portion of training that allows him liberty on the weekends, so we are looking forward to receiving more phone calls from him. I am adding that Heath called us right after this post to sing Happy Birthday to Gillienne! It was so fun! Then we checked the OCS website and found only ONE picture of him, and here it is.

Must Post Something!!!

2012-01-29T22:12:00.000-08:00

I feel like I have to at least report something about the trek to Arizona and leaving Utah. I have so many pictures to post as well, but for now. We are in Arizona. We made it. Heath is in Virginia and has completed his first week of Officer Candidates School. And, no Willy, I do not know how he has survived it, except that he hasn't come home yet. So that is a good sign. We actually have no hope of even a phone call, until next weekend. The first three weeks are supposed to be the most intense, so if you have time to say a prayer for him or to write him a letter please do! His letters need to be addressed: Candidate Hales, Heath C.
C Company, 3rd Platoon
Officer Candidates School
2189 A Elrod Avenue
Quantico, VA 22134--5033

The girls are loving being near family and friends. They want to spend every breathing moment with Lily and Vivian Harris, and sadly we just can't seem to make that happen. Although we did see them six days out of the past seven. Hopefully they won't get tired of us. We aren't leaving next week : )

Ginny misses Utah and told me on Friday, "Mom this isn't working out for me. I like Utah!" I said, "Yes, Utah is a nice place." and then she said,"I like the weather there!" Later in the day she said to me, "Arizona is too hot for me mom!" So, I asked her if she liked the snow and she said, "Yes, I like the cold." I told this to my cousin Heather and she said, "Wow, it's not even July, yet." I said, "Heather, its not even February yet!" So, that is us in Arizona. Lots of dirt and lots of fun!

How Do Bones Grow?

2012-01-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

This past week Ginny has just begun to say that bones grow from crying and that screaming makes the 'white stuff' . I really don't know what exactly she is talking about or why she thinks this is so. She has said it several times this week and as you can see in this video she firmly believes it. I have tried to tell her that vitamins actully help her bones grow, but she isn't listening.

The Walkers

2012-01-08T12:54:00.000-08:00

Friday night we had a special hang out with some of our friends, the Walkers. Heath originally met Jon when they worked together at ATK. Eventually we started to do things together with our families. Sadie was in my first ever basement ballet class! Ginny and Gillienne really enjoy their kids. One time I asked Sadie (5) if she had any cousins. She thought about it and then said, "Uh huh, Ginny and Gillienne!" So sweet! They are also from elsewhere, meaning not Utah, and rarely see any cousins. Their son, Will, has some pretty fun ideas. Friday night he approached Heath and said,"So you're in the Army now, right?" Heath grimaced since he isn't IN anything yet, and it won't be the Army if he is! Then Will went on, "I have figured out a way that we can defend our coast from enemies. We can have a huge wave of boats covering the whole coast and that should stop people who are trying to attack us." A little bit later he walked up to Heath and said,"So, can you tell your boss about my idea? Thanks." Hahahaha! Who would have thought that BOATS were the key to national security?! I told Heath that Louisa needs to keep a blog just to keep track of all of his great ideas. We have really enjoyed their friendship and will miss them when we move!

Snow!

2012-01-08T12:46:00.000-08:00

So, I feel sheepish. After my depressing post about winter it became unseasonably warm and actually stayed that way until Saturday. We actually were able to play at the park on Wednesday afternoon. I think both girls just wore long sleeve shirts. I can't remember that happening EVER in January, since we have lived in Utah. Needless to say we were definitely excited to see snow when we woke up yesterday morning. The girls threw on their snow clothes and played outside while Heath shoveled the driveway. Ginny also shoveled snow and Gillienne made footprints. That is one of their favorite snow activities, besides eating it of course!Later in the afternoon Heath took the girls to the same park, and they went sledding. Actually, Gillienne watched and Ginny went down the hill alone. Pretty impressive!

The Haircuts

2012-01-08T12:38:00.000-08:00

I missed one monumental part of 2011. That is that Ginny chose New Year's Eve night to cut both her and Gillienne's hair. I posted pictures of it on Facebook and then forgot about the blog. That is why I mostly don't post on Facebook. Then I forget about the blog. That's no good. Anyway, the haircuts. Yes, they were done with bright yellow children's scissors. Yes, they are much worse than can be seen in the immediate after shots I took, but don't worry, you will be seeing just how bad they are in all pictures for the next few months. We are waiting to touch up Ginny's hair until we can have it done by Nana. Unfortunately, Ginny is ridiculously proud of her hair cut and will actually say to people, "Did you notice my new haircut? I did it myself! It was growing out and getting longer, I just wanted it to be short". Or other similar things. We skyped with my parents last weekend and Papa made a HUGE mistake by telling me, in front of Ginny, that it really doesn't look that bad! That only helped her to feel that she truly did the good job that she believes she did. Gillienne looks a lot like Mrs. Brady from the Brady buch. She has super short hair in the front and a flip in the back. Luckily with gel, I can fake that their hair looks normal, but it only lasts for a few hours. So here's my version of the old joke, "What's the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut?" Answer: "The person cutting the hair". The only positive was that Ginny had tried to clean up the hair and had put it into the garbage can. Oh, and she did make sure they were in the bathroom when she cut their hair.

Gillienne the Conversationalist

2012-01-08T12:27:00.000-08:00

Today we attended our new ward. This is we were put in a new ward last week and so it was our first and second to last Sunday there! When we came home Gillienne asked Ginny,"Did you go to Primary?" I prompted Ginny to answer. Finally she did and told her that she was scared and that people who go to Primary are scared. Gillienne asked her, "Why were you scared to go to primary?" Ginny didn't answer so I suggested she tell her about the songs they sang. Gillienne beat her to it by asking, "Did you sing 'I Am a Child of God?'" Well, yes they did! Ginny just did not want to talk and all Gillienne wanted to do was ask her sister 20 questions. I thought Gill was pretty cute with all her questions, especially since no one had given her the idea to ask Ginny about Primary in the first place. She is on her way to being quite the conversationalist, and we can only hope, a better listener than her mother!

It's Just My Nature!

2011-12-31T22:23:00.000-08:00

This year I found a book that really has improved my life. Its entitled, "Its Just My Nature!" by Carole Tuttle. This book discusses four main personality types, with their strengths and weaknesses and how to make the weaknesses in each personality a strength. She also shares her philosophy that you should dress for your personality. I was totally in a funk and feeling unsure of what I wanted in life and from myself. It was such an awakening to think of myself as an acceptable individual, even though so many of my traits can be viewed as negatives. I realized that I was the Type I personality, or the Idea Person. Creative and always moving, but never in the same direction. I cried when I read her descriptions of this personality type. I seriously wondered how she could know how I feel about certain things or how I would view things. It also helped me to realize that maybe I have been trying to be too much like Heath, who is a calm and steady personality Type IV. It is common for a 1 who is married to a 4 to try to be more serious and one of the major ways they do this is by wearing black. My wardrobe, at the time I read this book, was almost completely black. I always straightened my hair because I felt that I looked less professional and sloppy with it curly. In High School I remember thinking that my curly hair was a perfect reflection of my bouncy personality. Sometimes I think I knew myself better then than I do now. In an effort to start dressing in a way that better expresses my personality I have been jogging my memory for all my favorite outfits from years past. They all fit the descriptions for a Type I. Since my secondary personality Type is the III, I can get away with some jewel tones and sleek looks, but mostly I look best in pastels, patterns and flowing fabrics. Most of my best friends are 3's and very few are 1's. I find that kind of funny. My friend Kim has also embraced the personality philosophy and has been transforming her wardrobe. It really is interesteing to watch. She used to wear a lot of pastels, but as a three that wasn't the best thing for her. She told me that people seem to be more drawn to her when she wears louder colors and asymetrical shirts.
For me, this book was a much needed insight into myself. Heath scoffs at the idea that I would need someone else to tell me about myself, but not all of us have self-concepts that are as strong and clear as he has of himself. He truly does not care what anyone thinks of him. He can't understand why I care and I can't understand how he doesn't! That is another way this book has helped me. It has helped me to understand other people better and to accept that some things are just not in their nature and expecting people to think more like me or behave more as I do is not realistic, and this is particularly in reference to my husband. Understanding his nature better has helped me to just accept who he is and not to worry about trying to get him to change. So, no matter how silly he thinks it is, it has still benefitted him : )
This is probably one of the things I am most thankful for in 2011. If you are interested, I would definitely recommend reading this book...its a lot of fun.

The Last Week of 2011

2011-12-31T21:51:00.000-08:00

We mostly spent this week having playdates and playing with our friends. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but included here are Ginny, Gillienne, Lawson, Heaten, Ally and Treysen all playing in a bucket of rice. Tons of fun, I promise : ) And my friend Emily and I. She was visiting from Nebraska. We also played with our friends Josie and Katie and I had Meg over yesterday. We opted out of celebrating New Year's, at least for tonight. We may sleep under the Christmas Tree tomorrow night. Those plans are still up in the air.

We bought the girls their own tree on the after Christmas clearance at Wal Mart. They selected a sparkly pink one that matches their bedroom perfectly. They had a lot of fun decorating and undecorating it yesterday. I am hoping that they will play with this next year and not my tree. Frankly, our tree is hideous at this point and I can't wait to put it away! We have had ornaments strewn all across the house and it has been an endless clean up job! So, hopefully this tacky pink tree will be my sanity next year.

Gillienne's Santa Gloves.

Fleeing the Cage

2011-12-29T20:36:00.000-08:00

This post may come across as melodramatic, that is unless you have lived in Winter.
I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am totally cheating this year and leaving Winter on January 18. I am leaving it to bask in the Valley of the Sun. I feel like each year my dread of Winter has heightened. Although I do truly enjoy the snow and wintry weather for about six weeks. The middle of January always bring the realization that I still have a few months to go and unfortunately, though the fun has worn off, there is little to do but suffer through.
In the Spring when I should be rejoicing at the thaw and freedom to bask in the sun, that barely exists, I am instead realizing that the end only means there will be another begining of Winter. This year around March or April I had a dream. I was in my spin class at the gym and I looked out the window. I could see it was snowing and dark outside. My chest tightened, my breath quickened and I woke up with a knot in my stomach. I had a minor panic attack just realizing that Winter would be back to claim me. Towards the end of Summer I begin to feel a small panic as I realize I am soon going to be confined to my cage. It seems like the more winters I spend here the harder they are to endure. And Summer is just a realization of what I have so little of. Sun.
Today, I realized that true Winter has settled in. This means that I don't ever really feel that I have woken up for the day. It is mostly gray all day and although we haven't had a lot of snow, it is still too cold to play outside or go to the park or run. The sun doesn't come out to say hello and it seems that there aren't many other living things around. It will be dark for a full hour and a half before we even eat dinner!
So with JOY I bid thee farewell Winter! I may have to meet you again next year, but this year I have the upperhand, I outplayed you and I WIN! Arizona here I come!!!

*In no way are the references made to Winter the Season, at all meant to be confused with my delightful and cheerful niece, Winter. They just happen to share the same name. I don't believe at any time she has been accused of locking a person into a cold dark cage for 5 months!*

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T23:14:00.000-08:00

The Little Mouse

2011-12-25T22:41:00.000-08:00

Today in church Gillienne was very vocal. She doesn't have much of a volume control, yet. So, after several loud exclamations over who she saw sitting up on the stand and then several more loud requests for gum, I told her that she need to use her little mouse voice and then she could have gum. Still, she didn't lower her voice. I said, "Gillienne, where is your little mouse voice?" She said to me, "My little mouse voice is hiding mom."

What I Want for Christmas

2011-12-25T22:23:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve with the Tomany's

2011-12-25T21:53:00.000-08:00

Meg Tomany

Cozy on the couch watching the movies.

Opening their presents.

Reading with Grandma Margaret.

Family picture in front of the tree.

Me and Meg...or as Mama Fawn would always correct, "Meg and I".

Leaving donuts out for Santa.

Sleeping in the movie room and watching "Gotta Catch Santa Claus".

Bedding that I made for this doll bed. I am pretty proud of it. It coordinates with the girls bedroom.

We had the Tomany's over to celebrate Christmas Eve with us this year. It was a lot of fun. We enjoyed yummy Mexican food and watched some movies depicting events surrounding the Savior's birth. Then we watched several different trailers and commercials that different people wanted everyone to see : ) The girls sprinkled the ground with oatmeal and glitter to help the reindeer find our house. The girls each opened a present and received books from our neighbors. The Tomany's have been our Utah family for five and a half years and it was nice to celebrate this holiday with them. We appreciate them so much and are going to miss them a lot when we move!

Piraaaaate!

2011-12-25T21:21:00.001-08:00

Cookie Parties

2011-12-25T21:21:00.000-08:00

We hosted three cookie decorating parties this Christmas season. We started out with one the first weekend we were home for Arizona and hosted our last one this past week, on the 21st. We had a lot of fun with our friends, enjoying yummy cookies. Unfortunately, I didn't get my camera back until this past Tuesday so we only have pictures from the party we had this week. This party was pretty small since a lot of people were sick this week. Still, we had a great time!

We're Moving!

2011-12-25T21:01:00.000-08:00

While we were in Arizona, we found out that Heath had been accepted into the Marines Reserves. He will be reporting at the end of January to basic school. This means that the girls and I will be in Arizona for a few months before joining Heath in Virginia. We are really excited about this opportunity for Heath and our family. I know I am excited to get to live in a different part of the U.S. of A. So, big changes are ahead for us and we will definitely try to keep the blog up to date on our whereabouts.

Annual Trip to Arizona

2011-12-25T19:43:00.000-08:00

We headed down to Arizona to celebrate Thanksgiving and get some quality time with our family. We left on the 18th of November and stayed overnight at my cousin Jeff's in Payson, Utah and then headed down on Friday the 19th. My parents were watching Lafe and Bryndee's girls, Lily and Vivian, while Lafe interviewed for two different residencies in Utah. Incidentally, we had dinner with them on our way to Jeff's house. We stopped at the Little America truck stop in Flagstaff and took these pictures of the girls on the green dinosaur. They love that dinosaur! We had dinner Friday night at my parents' with Steve, Shirley and Ashley. The girls got right down to having fun with Lily and Vivian as you can see in the pajama pictures. Vivian celebrated her third birthday that Sunday and Monday. Her birthday party theme was Minnie Mouse. Bryndee did a spectacular job of entertaining all the little girls. They had their faces painted like a mouse and wore headbands with bows on them. They even had adorable Minnie Mouse cupcakes. It was a blast!
We were able to finally meet our famed cousin, Baby Emery. She did not disappoint. The girls were and are just as enthralled with her as they were before they met her. They loved watching her and touching her hair and toes. She has the tiniest little feet and they loved them! Unfortunately I didn't snap a picture before Thanksgiving and then I left my camera at Thanksgiving dinner in Central, at my Uncle Mark's house.
On Thanksgiving Day, I ran a Turkey Trot with Jay and Ashley Lee. I ran it pushing Gillienne in a jogging stroller. This was the first time that I ran a race pushing a stroller. It was fun and I will probably do it again, but only a fun run : ) After my race and Heath's game of Football, we drove to the Gila Valley and went to Thanksgiving dinner at my Uncle Mark Bryce's home. It was a very nice dinner. There were several good activities for the kids and volleyball for the adults. Oh, and football to watch, of course. Gillienne thoroughly enjoyed the sand box and almost missed dinner because she didn't want to leave it. The girls, along with Jeff's girls, Bethany's girls and Lily and Vivian, set up a business selling cups full of water. They also played dress-up and played in the hammock. Maryanne led the kids in a craft making turkeys out of an apple, spice drops and tooth picks. Luke, Bethany's little guy, got very into to his turkey making. Actually, he made a machine. It was pretty cute.
We stayed the night at my Uncle Michael and Aunt Kathleen's house. Friday morning we had the opportunity to attend our first session in the Gila Valley Arizona temple and also to be with my cousin MaryAnne as she received her endowment. She is going to be serving a mission to Belize and El Salvador. After the temple we headed to a small Harris Thanksgiving in the Solomon ward building. It was not as big as Harris Thanksgivings of yesteryear, but it was fun to see people that I don't get to see very often, or in some cases, haven't seen in seven years or more! I don't have pictures because I had left my camera and so from this point on in the trip there are no visual aids. One experience of this short visit to the Harris Thanksgiving will forever be seared into my memory. Since our group was small, my Uncle George asked that we go around the room and say who we are and something we are thankful for. Heath took his turn and sat down. Ginny was next to him and then my brother, Bryce. Bryce stood up to speak, but was quickly stopped by Ginny who stood with purpose and in a very loud and clear voice said, "My name is Virginia Elizabeth Hales and I am three years old. My next birthday is June 19th and then I will be four years old." she paused and looked around and then said,"My testimony...well, you see the problem is..." and then she commenced to ramble and we tried to silence and seat her as quickly as we could : ) I was laughing so hard that I was almost crying. I was totally shocked. I knew she wasn't shy, but I hadn't realized that she had the confidence to silence her six foot three Uncle Bryce and speak boldly to a room full of adults that she had never really met before. All I can say is "Wow" and I am so proud. I do need to say that the part about Ginny's name, age and birthday, were something she had memorized as one of her weekly activities. I had never been able to get her to actually say the whole thing. This just proves how she will learn, but still be unwilling to show me what exactly she absorbed. Sighhhh...
We helped Grandma Shirley decorate her Christmas tree that night. The next day, My mom, Ashley, Shirley, Bryndee and I all went out to eat together and had a little Girl's Night out. It was very nice to get to spend time together without the kids. When we got back to mom's Lafe and Heath were still trying to watch their movie so Bryndee and I snuck off and did some shopping.
Emery was blessed the Sunday after Thanksgiving and we had a fun little celebration afterward at Ashely's house. Ginny had another opportunity to shine at this event as she sang "Jolly Old Sang Nicholas" word perfect. The boys had been playing their violins and piano and Ginny was invited to perform some ballet. Since one of Anna's girls had previously played "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" and I knew how likely Ginny was to perform ballet, I suggested the song. Ginny thoroughly enjoyed singing and graced the audience with several bows before and after her performance.

Heath flew to San Antonio for our second week and the girls and I tried to catch up with Kim and her kids and Heather and Tiffani and theirs. We had several fun playdates with them. We also did another photoshoot with Lily and Vivian at Nana's house. My mom and I were able to got shopping one morning, thanks to Bryndee. Oh, and we also got to view the Mesa Arizona temple lights. We got to see some of the first granite slabs placed in the Gilbert Temple. After Heath returned from his trip we headed back to Utah and began preparing to move...

Witches Night Out

2011-12-25T17:20:00.000-08:00

Gardiner Village, a small boutique-shopping plaza, hosts a Witches Night Out each year in October. This year I attended with my friends Meg and Carrie Tomany and Erin Messer. We met up with some of the Harris clan, Aunt Carol and Aimee and Aunt Jane and Ruth. It was a lot of fun and very entertaining. I would definitely want to do this again. The only thing that I would change would be to eat before we go. The restaraunt has a two hour wait and you have to keep checking in to make sure you don't miss you time. Other than that, it was a lot of fun. Ginny so wished she could go, so this coming year she and Gillienne and I will have to have our own Witches Night Out. She is already looking forward to it! The dress I wore belonged to my great-grandmother Winny Elizabeth Bigler Smith. She was my mom's grandmother. The fun thing is actually fits me perfectly. It's like it was tailor made for me. Its kind of neat to wear her dress and realize that she must have been about my size. I never met her and so it is a way to be connected to her.

Sunday

2011-12-17T22:12:00.000-08:00

I just thought these two were too cute one Sunday and had to take their picture.

The Theater

2011-12-17T22:02:00.000-08:00

The second weekend in November I took Ginny to the Box Elder High School performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. Ginny thoroughly enjoyed it. After the first chorus of "Go go go Joseph" (which was complete with the Box Elder marching band and exploding streamers) Ginny ended with the choir by standing with her arms high over her head. When Pharoah sang Ginny said to me,"He loves me". She also had taken on the role of "Girlfriend" for attending the theater. She said that the boy sitting next to her was her boy friend. Really he was some poor, ten year old boy who was incredibly uncomfortable with Ginny's long looks and attempts at engaging him in conversation. After the performance we met up with our babysitter, Michelle, to commend her on her performance as a Joseph Fan. We happened to be in the hall when the boy who played Pharoah came out. I told him what Ginny said and he gave her a hug. As we walked away Ginny said,"Pharoah loves me!" She was so excited, but then refused to tell her dad about the encounter. She did however proudly display the streamers that she salvaged from the auditorium floor before we left.

Baking Cookies

2011-12-17T21:50:00.000-08:00

Ginny and Gillienne got busy one morning in November "baking" cookies. They dressed in aprons made by Grandma Shirley and got culinary. It was adorable. I love seeing them play together and enjoy each other. It really does warm a mother's heart.

The March of the Nutcracker

2011-12-17T21:42:00.000-08:00

For our fall session of basement ballet, I choreographed a simple dance to Tchaikovsky's March of the Nutcracker. The girls did remarkably well. Heath had never been to a preschool level dance recital before and therefore he was rather surprised by the performance. The parents were pleased and Ginny actually participated in the performance so her mother was pleased : ) I was also rather impressed with how well Ginny knew her dance in relation to how much time she spent or didn't spend rehearsing.
I am including pictures that were taken throughout the fall session in this post. What I learned from teaching ballet to my daughter is that she may be more interested in gymnastics and may respond better to another teacher. I also learned that Gillienne is very interested in ballet and rather good at it for being so young. So, it looks like next year Ginny will be trying out gymnastics and Gillienne will be starting ballet. Ginny really does loves to do somersaultss and standing on her head while watching television. She does that all the time! Still, she did enjoy the idea of being in the Nutcracker, and I will give her another chance at ballet in a few years.

Trick or Treat!

2011-12-17T20:50:00.000-08:00

This year's Halloween and Trick or Treating was so much fun! Gillienne is old enough to really enjoy the holiday now. I asked her if she liked Halloween and she said, "Yeah, you get to pick a candy." She figured that one out quickly enough! In our cute little town there are several festivities to choose from on and around Halloween. It is definitely our busiest month when it comes to our schedules. December does not compare. So, on Halloween proper we went to the trick or treat at the local market, Kent's. The store has several stations with treats that the children can take as they follow a path marked by large orange arrows. After that event we went to a new assisted living facility that was hosting a trunk or treat. There we were able to meet some of the residents. Our friend Jill's grandmother has recently moved there and we paused a moment for a picture with them. We also went to friends' houses in our neighborhood. Our first stop was the Tomany's to see Meg the Dead Cheerleader and Grandma Margaret. Ginny was scared out of her wits by our neighbor Blake, who was dressed and stuffed as a scarecrow sitting in a chair holding a bowl of candy. There was a sign on his lap that read "Take one". I approached since there was no door to knock on and I jumped three feet when he said, "Boo!". After that Ginny didn't want us to approach any homes with scarecrows, including our friend Delores Merrill's home. Heath had to carry her past the benign scarecrow on her front porch. For Halloween, Gillienned declared she wanted to be Tiana or Snow White. We don't have either of those costumes, but our friend Ally has a Snow White costume so I called her mom and asked if we could borrow. That is how Gillienne ending up being Snow White for Trick or Treating. She changed her mind many times, which isn't surprising, but Ginny never changed from being Sleeping Beauty. That did surprise me!

Pumpkin Carving

2011-12-17T20:19:00.000-08:00

The girls had so much fun helping dad carve pumpkins. Heath asked Ginny what kind of nose she wanted, she said a triangle nose just like hers. She thought her pumpkin looked just like her in the end. We didn't get around to painting pumpkins until the day after Halloween. Some other festivities we enjoyed in the weeks leading up to Halloween were a Halloween carnival at one of the elementary schools and a hay ride at Willard Bay that is illuminated by several displays of Halloween lights. After the hay ride the girls were able to pick a pumpkin to paint and to play in a maze made of hay bales. They loved the maze and went through it several times. They also enjoyed jumping off of hay bales into piles of hay. We also made caramel apples with apples from our backyard. The last day of Ginny's library storytime classes was a few days before Halloween and all of the children dressed in their costumes. Gillienne chose to wear her Little Mermaid swimsuit with matching heels. She wore a different outfit each time they dressed up. We love Halloween and October is always such an enjoyable month for us. This year Heath went hunting every weekend in October. My friend Meg spent most weekends at our house and that was a lot of fun for all of us.

The Halloween Spooktacular!!!

2011-12-15T20:34:00.000-08:00

We threw a Halloween Spooktacular this year in our backyard. It was a family party with potluck soup and rolls and carnival games. The kids had a blast, which meant that I had a blast. The cakewalk was an especially big hit. There was a point in the festivites when any winners of the bean bag toss had to locate Gillienne, who had confiscated the treat bucket, to claim their prize. Surprisingly, it was a successful system!My mom flew in for a few days to help me pull the party together. It was much appreciated help and more fun having her there. Heath and a few other dads were absentee because of hunting season. Unfortunately they were not successful on any of their hunts. Gillienne showed up as a ladybug and Ginny went as Sleeping Beauty. Our guest list included Kylynne, Ryan, Ally and Treysen Huber; Sarah, Scott, Lawson and Heaten Greener; Heather, Codie, Maddy and Jenaye Braegger; Sarah, Ryan, James, Sariah, Emma and Eliza Schmitz; Margaret, Meg and Carrie Tomany; Amber Dankwe; Jimmy, Amanda, Mae and Lily Higley; Louisa, Will, Sadie, Whitney and Talmage Walker; Danielle, Maizie, Cody, Allyson and Colton Romney; Crystal, Reagan and Jaycee Bodily; Elizabeth Harris; Michayle, Ginny and Gillienne Hales.

Highlights from September 2011

2011-12-15T14:56:00.000-08:00

Somehow I have really let my blog go this year! I think blogs are becoming passe with the quick accessibility of Facebook, and yet, I feel that they still have a place and I am not yet ready to give up on mine! For me it is a way to record our family and our lives. I don't keep baby books and this is my only means of keeping track of my awesome little girls! If you are bored with it, please let me know because I know other people who want the email slots. I only have ten.
Anyway, September was a beautiful month. We went up to the Tomany's cabin/trailer in Black Smith Fork Canyon the morning of Labor Day and then had a barbecue with the Romney's in Sandy in the evening. We also went to the Dinosaur park with Danielle and Colton later in the month. The girls had fun riding their bikes at the park with their dad, okay, I was there too. They took time at the park to walk on the walls several times. Both enjoyed that a lot. It was still warm enough to play in water outside, and they did! There are also some pictures showing that its official...Gillienne has curly hair!!! Yippee! That is easy street for a mom and I am so grateful. This was also the month of Ginny's infamous Asymmetrical hair cut. Sighhhhh...Still trying to grow it out, but people do seem to like it on her.

"I be a doctor"

2011-12-15T14:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I lay down by Gillienne as she was getting ready to take her nap. I decided to fill her mind with positive things so I told her some of the reasons that I think she is special. I told her she had a good mind and that it would really help her as she got older. Then I asked her what she wanted to be when she was older. Since she didn't answer right away I thought I would offer up motherhood. "Do you want to be a mom?" In a monotone soft voice and staring straight ahead, she answered, "I be a doctor." She is 22 months old. Of course, it may or may not be an original thought since last week Ginny wanted to be a doctor and Gillienne ended up in the doctor's office and received a cathater. I let Ginny and Gillienne watch the whole process and we discussed at length why the cathater was necessary and how it was really helping Gillienne even though it scared her and was uncomfortable. Still, I thought that her response was priceless. She is such a doll and constantly amazing me with the things she is thinking about, and then of course, actually saying to me. I can't wait to see what next year will bring us!

I HEART Ginny

2011-10-24T14:14:00.000-07:00

This week we had a visit from my mom. On the way to the airport to pick her up, Ginny said, "I wish on a star that I can go to Disneyland. What is your wish mommy?" "I think I wish to go to Disneyland, too." "No, you can wish to go on a 'bisit' to Arizona." "Okay" So, we are starting to enter the airport proper and Ginny says, "I am waiting for the magic to happen." "What magic?" "I will close my eyes and go to Disneyland, then when I open them I'll come back to the car.....(silence)....its not working!"
When we were on our way home from dropping my mom off at the airport last night, Ginny said, "See all those stars out there? Those are all my wishes...in my heart."

I was laughing and thinking how much I love her and her little deep thoughts. She is so preciou!

2011-10-18T15:51:00.000-07:00

This video is from August. This is about the time that Gillienne starting to play pretend. First she told me when she got out of the bath one day , " I baby Heaten" which is our little friend. Often Ginny will be Lawson and she will tell Gillienne that she is baby Heaten. Well, then she started saying, "I a bunny" and hopping around. I love it! She still does it and it is pretty cute. She usually says, "Hop! Hop!" as she hops around the room.

Going Buggy!

2011-10-18T15:37:00.000-07:00

This summer our girls have loved to watch and sometimes interact with the insect life that surrounded them. We decided to start collecting the cool bugs we found that were already dead. We now have two butterflies, two dragonflies, two wasps and a leaf insect in our collection. Gillienne especially loved the lady bugs and had no fear in picking them up. Ginny took awhile to warm up to touching the bugs, but she eventually followed Gillienne's lead and starting holding them as well. The only thing I feel bad about is that they usually loved our ladybugs to death! It got to the point where I would just tell them to leave them alone. Now Gillienne wants to be a ladybug for Halloween. She is going to make one cute ladybug!

Rhino-Bruscus

2011-10-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

Ginny has taken to drawing dinosaurs and their eggs. The dinosaur is usually name Rhino-Bruscus. Here she is reading us her story that she wrote/drew about her dinosaurs. Gillienne is also interested in drawing dinosaurs. We took a trip to the Dinosaur Park last month and they seem to have been hooked!

Can I...?

2011-10-18T15:08:00.000-07:00

Gillienne has started using the most adorable phrase, "Can I hold it, mommy?" "Can I try some?" "Can you hold me, mommy" "Can I walk, mommy?" etc. She is so full of things to say now. I get to hear her and Ginny as they talk to eachother and it really warms my heart. True, most of it is Ginny giving directions and Gillienne refusing, but I still love it! You know, things like, "Gillienne you are Barbie." "NO! I BABY!" Repeat several times. Gillienne does not let Ginny push her around and I really appreciate that. I am glad that she has a strong will and her own identity. I was worried that Ginny's strong personality would tend to dominate, but Gillienne has shown she will not be dominated. She does like some of Ginny's ideas and she likes to follow her in a game, but only to the point of stealing the idea. She draws her line at being told what to do. A few days ago I took this picture. Gillienne going on a walk in heels and sunglasses. The classic toddler girl picture and I had to take it! She is so adorable and always keeps me on my toes with her questions and insights. She notices just about EVERYTHING! She is truly her father's daughter. And I like that.

Sending Off Elder Ian

2011-09-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

So, as I mentioned in a much earlier post, my baby brother Ian received a mission call to the German Alpine mission. He left for the MTC on August 3, 2011. Lucky Ginny, Gillienne and I got to pick him up at the airport and drive him to the MTC. He was so happy to see us! Okay, only kind of. He told me that seeing Ginny and Gillienne after just saying goodbye to Lily and Vivian in AZ was like a kick in the stomach. Nice description. He was so ready to be in the MTC and starting his mission, it was a little tough for him to spend the two hours with us that he spent. He loved his flight to Utah, sitting with all the missionaries and just feeling the excitment. Once in Utah, we drove to Tucano's a Brazilian steakhouse. We had a lot of family meet us there for lunch, which was really fun. Ian enjoyed it and really appreciated seeing everybody. Still, he didn't order any meat. His stomach was a little too queasy for that! Finally the time to drive to the MTC came. My cousin, Joe Bryce, let us follow him since I had never been there before. It was a pretty cool place, at least from what I could see on the outside! I could feel the excitement and energy that that place was bursting with! Heck, I was jealous of Ian. I have never wanted to serve a mission, at least not until Heath and I are retired, so this was the first time I have ever really had the desire for that experience. Ian was soooo ready to be gone. I wanted to take a few pictures and document the whole thing. He wasn't having any of that! He turned to missionary greeting him and said, "It's always the family that can't leave, right?" I got the point. "Okay, you want me to leave, I will." He turned on his heel and was off! No goodbye! Boy, was he excited! I started to cry as I drove off just thinking of how much fun he would be having and all the awesome, amazing experiences ahead of him. His letters have been so upbeat and he is loving learning German. He only has two weeks left in the MTC. He leaves for Germany on Oct. 3. Pretty awesome! We love you Elder Uncle Ian!

The Half Marathon

2011-09-20T12:56:00.000-07:00

It has never been my intention to run more than six or eight miles, ever. My running partner, however, is rather ambitious and before I had ever met her, she had set her sights on a half marathon and possibly a marathon. I know a lot of people who run marathons, often. Or at least half marathons, often. These people are crazy. Certified. This opinion is definitely influenced by my experience at the Top of Utah Half Marathon last year. My cousin Bethany ran it and rocked it, but while I waited for her to get her drinks etc. I mistakenly stood by the first aid booth. The people being brought to booth looked awful!!! I thought, "Why in the heck would anyone want to do that to themselves???"
Kylynne started talking about the half last fall. I was dragging my feet, but I could see that she really wanted it and I am her running partner, so I caved. We purchased spots as soon as registration for the Top of Utah Half went live in February. Then I kind of kept hoping she would get over it, but she didn't. I had a crazy schedule in the Spring and early Summer so we didn't even start our real training until July 13. Our race was on August 27 in the Cache Valley. I did not want to do it. But I did it. So, what did I learn? I learned that there is a lot to be said for just doing something. As in just going on that long run at 5:30 p.m. when it really is the hottest and deciding to run the steepest hills because heck, this is training right? Just doing something even if you don't want to actually pays off! My goal, if I had to have one, was to finish in 2 hrs or less. The race is 7 miles downhill coming out of Black Smith Fork Canyon, then you curve into Providence, Utah, which is still mostly downhill. It wasn't too bad. I had to go to the restroom by mile 3, but I told myself to try and get to mile 6, by mile 6 I decided I could make it to 9 and at 9 I decided to just finish and not waste time on such a minor inconvenience. The last two miles were definitely the hardest for me. I let my partner push on without me, kind of my M.O. Still, I didn't finish too far behind her. My biggest motivation at the end was knowing that Heath and the girls would be somewhere in the last mile waiting for me. I almost missed them! But, I heard, "Hey, there's mommy!" Awesome! My little girls train with me for all my races (excluding the long run days) so I feel like it is our accomplishment and I want them to be part of it. I want them to do hard things and to love to be active. Hopefully all the time they spend in the jogging stroller is instilling these values in them. When I crossed the finish line the time was 2:00:59. I ran as hard as I could to cross before it turned to 2:01:00. All I wanted was Gatorade and a Fatboy. They hand those out after the race. It was such an exhilirating and amazing feeling! I wanted to do more, but since the euphoria has worn off I have decided to keep my promise to Heath not to do another one. My knees hurt pretty terribly through all of my training. Amazingly enough they didn't hurt as bad after the actual race. They did start hurting at about mile 5 or 6, but not bad enough to slow me down. So, once home, Heath said, "You know, you didn't start at the front of the race so you may have had a faster time than the official clock showed." What a novel idea! I called Kylynne and she was still at the race. My official time was 1:59:59:7. I know that is a lot of colons, but basically, I made it in under 2 hours....barrrreelly, but I made it.

So, that is the tale of the Half Marathon. A wonderful experience not to be duplicated. I mean, if I run another one, I'll want to beat my time and then where will it ever end? It won't! Also, in regards to the pictures, Heath didn't realize the camera was in the diaper bag so he didn't get any live action pictures. A big bummer. But, I do have some horrifying after race pictures that you are welcome to view in charity.

She Draws!

2011-09-20T06:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Ginny drew her first real picture. Why is this a big deal? Why is this blog-worthy? Her drawing was guided with me asking her about the picture and who the person was etc. As I asked her questions and she began telling me the story of her picture, I saw a light go on and it made my heart leap. Ginny has realized that she can express herself through drawing. Now she has another creative outlet for all her stories and her incredible imagination. That isn't unusual for a small child, but it makes me particularly excited because this was one of my favorite past times as a child. I would sit and draw for hours. I liked to color, but I enjoyed drawing more and I rarely colored in my pictures. My drawings were not just pictures, they were stories. I would talk to myself aloud and tell the story I was drawing. It was very engrossing and I loved it! But don't worry. I didn't for a minute think it was normal and I was very careful to only let my mom be present in the room if I was drawing. Recently I caught Ginny talking to herself in front of the bathroom mirror and I have been hearing her talk to herself in the bathroom a lot, as well. That was another of my favorite things. To tell myself stories in front of the mirror. I am so excited to see how Ginny learns and develops. She is so creative and imaginitive. Its exciting to see that she enjoys many of the things that I enjoyed as a child. We definitely have a lot in common. Hopefully that will always be a positive thing!

Lafe Block

2011-09-18T07:45:00.000-07:00

"Its all your fault! You got us into trouble!" Two small children are shouting into an apartment complex parking lot over a gray, cinderblock fence. As you may have guessed, they are angry. Their alter-egos, Lafe and Michayle Block, have gotten them into trouble-again. And that my friends, was my childhood. My older brother, Lafe, had a vivid imagination. I believed anything and everything he told me. And he told me quite a lot. Aside from learning the basic facts of life from him, I also learned that we were twins, that we had alter-egos who did all the bad things that our mother accused us of doing, and that the world was a magical place in general. You know, the kind of place where you could roll yourself up in a blanket and suddenly be a member of the worm family. Or where people really can disapear, at least in the case of your older brother pulling his "curl up under the chair and tell Bryce he can disappear stunt". Then, you keep Bryce distracted and eyes closed, while Lafe runs downstairs and climbs into the top shelf of your cupboard. Bryce opens his eyes and Voila! Lafe can still be heard, but not seen? How did that happen! See, Magic. Everyday. Or at least on Sundays.

I know I have been known to say that Lafe is the best sister I have ever had, but to be fair, he does make for a pretty good brother as well.

This magical brother did a rotation at the University of Utah in Salt Lake this summer. First, he and his family came up three weeks early for a wedding and then he stayed on for three or so more weeks. It was awesome! He spent the weekends at our place to the enjoyment of all. I mean, who doesn't love an uncle who will give you waaaaay more fortune cookies than is socially acceptable at a Pei Wei diner?And who doesn't love a brother-in-law that lets you run him into the ground, literally, and still willingly works out with you again and plays raquetball with you and does just about anything you want to do, except play basketball? And who doesn't love a brother who just loves to hang around you all the time and run all your errands with you and delay studying for his part II of boards just so you don't have to go to the 24th of July parade alone?(Heath had work) And who doesn't love a brother who aces the boards anyway? Yep, my brother is pretty cool. He is especially cool because he has never been too cool for me. As kids, he always included me in games with other kids, especially boys. Some of our cousins didn't let their younger sister play army with them because she was a girl, but my brother would say, "Michayle can play with us too." And there was no arguing. So, then I would have to say that I couldn't play unless they would let B.B. play as well. And then we were all playing together. Why? Because Lafe included me no matter what. He wasn't too cool to have a baby doll, or a ken doll or sleep with his Grumpy carebear. He still calls me and recommends good books to read. He can read and absorb more information than any human on this earth. He is in medical school and still he reads more (recreationally) than I do. Impossible!
And so, my brother left and went home to Arizona. Before he did. I cried. Bryndee flew back to Utah to drive home with him. When I met up with her for lunch she told me that Lafe had said that he thought his sister was really going to miss him. I starting choking up and she told me that she had agreed and then Lafe said, "No I mean I think she is really going to miss me!" I starting crying and said, "He's right. I am really going to miss him!" Its okay that I cried because he called me a few weeks later and told me that he had been trying to spend as much time as possible with Mike Mortensen and Jed Hewson, but that they just didn't seem to want to hang out all weekend long I did. Well, that's because we are family and really there is no substitute for that, is there?

A REAL Indian princess

2011-09-01T19:13:00.000-07:00

"Mimi, did you know that I am a real Indian Princess?"

"No, I didn't know that."

"Uh, huh. I am. My great-great-great-great-grandpa was Chief Massosoit and he was part of the Pilgrim's first Thanksgiving! I saw his statue!"

"Wow, that is really cool."

"Mimi, do you want to pretend that you see me and I am a real Indian Princess and I don't talk to you."

"Okay, so you are pretending to be an Indian Princess?"

"No! I am a real Indian Princess!!! Pretend that you see me."

"So, I see you and you're pretending to be an Indian Princess? Right?"

"No!!!! I am a real Indian Princess."

" Oh, you are a REAL Indian Princess. Got it. I'll pretend to see you and you don't talk to me." "Okay, Mimi."
I thought you might like to meet my niece, Lily, the real white bread Indian Princess. She is about as white as they come and I could barely keep a straight face as she emphasized her true lineage to an Indian Chief. She keeps me laughing and I had sooooo much fun having her here at our house this summer. Her little game actually got more interesting and so I have to finish sharing it. Apparently, she was supposed to keep running by me, at my post watching the other three girls on the back porch, giving me sly looks etc. but not responding if I said "hi" or called out to her. Finally I said,"Why won't you talk to me. I am just trying to be nice."

"I can't talk to you because we are different."

"We're not different."

"The only difference is the color of our skins!!!"

"I don't care about the color of our skins! Can't we be friends and talk."

"The only way I will talk to you is if you send a hunter with a gun into the forest to talk to me." "Okaaay. Ginny go be a hunter to chase Lily."

" No, it has to be a pretend hunter."

" Okay, I'm sending a pretend hunter."

A few minutes later Lily comes back "dragging" something. "Here's your hunter. There was an accident. No, really we got into a fight. I hurt him."

The End!

Torriente Tornado

2011-08-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

My cousin Heather and her two children, Merrick and Stella, came to visit us the Monday after my mom and Ian left. My brother Lafe did spend some time with us that weekend, but he will get his own post : ) So, Heather was in Utah to visit her inlaws and other friends and family. I was lucky enough to be part of that group! We had her and her children Monday morning through Wednesday evening. It was quick, but it was so much fun! My Facebook Wall post after Heather left said that three days with her is worth six months of Prozac. I stand by that statement! Some people just renew and uplift you and Heather is one of those people for me. Our kids had a lot of fun together, which helped. Watching Gillienne and "Stellaphant" play, I realized that Gillienne hasn't really played with a little girl her age before. Crazy! They really enjoyed eachother. Also, Heather and her kiddos were able to go with us to see our Moroni statue placed on our temple. Unfortunately it rained while we waited, waited and waited. Finally, we were told that due to the high wind levels they were going to delay the placement. We went to lunch on Main street and when we came out they were placing it. It was kind of fun to see! We also did a lot of antique shopping and took Heather and her kids to the chocolate factory in Logan. They loved it! If you come to visit, I promise to take you there as well! It was a wonderful three days and the end of our company for the summer. Sort of.

More Harris Family Fun

2011-08-30T13:56:00.001-07:00

While helping Papa pick out chocolates, Gillienne Kept saying, "Chocolate, Wow!" over and over. It was adorable!

So, after our Happy Harris week with Lafe and Bryndee and family, we had a few days respite and then my mom and Ian showed up. My dad and Bryce arrived Friday July 1 and we all headed down to Lindon, UT for an extended family reunion with the Harrises and Farrs. This event was held at my Aunt Carol's home. It was fun to see family and reconnect. Our little family spent the night in Saratoga Springs with My cousin Neil Bryce's family. The following day, they took us out on their boat. The girls were a little nervous at first, but they warmed up to it and had a great time. Bryce and Ian chose to kayak, but my mom and dad joined us for a little water skiing. Mostly only Heath and Neil's wife Michelle actually skiied. I tried. Neil and Michelle have twins six months older than Ginny and she loved playing with them. They also have a one year old who is pretty much a little angel.

We returned my home and took my dad to Idle Isle chocolates to pick out his Father's Day gift. The Fourth of July was on Monday this year and we hosted a family barbecue that included some Harris and Bryce cousins, as well. It was a lot of fun and we had a great turn out!

My dad and Bryce had to fly out Monday night so they could get back to work. My mom and Ian hung around until Thursday. Then we drove them down to meet up with Lafe and Bryndee. They were Bryndee's escorts home to AZ. She and the girls headed home and left Lafe at her grandparents in Bountiful. He finished up his rotation at the end of July.

While Ian was here, we took him on a double date with a girl from my Sunday School class. They had a lot of fun together and Heath and I just had a lot of fun hanging out with teenagers. It can be really refreshing and it really makes you feel like you are on a date. Is that weird? Anyway, It was fun.

We had a lot of fun with my mom and Ian. Its hard for me to remember everything we did, now that I sit down and think about it. Oh, now I remember! The Wednesday before they left, we went to the Discovery Children's Museum in SL with Bryndee and the girls. That was a lot of fun. Those girls are a blast! I am saving an awesome post for you, just about Lily : )

It was sad to say goodbye to my mom and Ian, but I did have some fun ahead of me that kept me cheery. I was getting ready for the Magnificent Merrick Torriente Touring group! Woo Hoo!

A Tribute to Friends and Thoughts on Life

2011-08-23T14:29:00.001-07:00

I am not yet finished chronicling our amazing and fun filled summer. Yet, I haven't found the oompf! to finish it and I still want to blog about other things. So, I am skipping some photos and moving ahead. I will still post the other stuff later.

I have had an interesting year. I have had a lot of emotions. Most of you are thinking, "And this is a new thing for you?" Well, actually, I haven't had a lot of emotions in a long time. So, this has been overwhelming at times and interesting. I have been trying to find the source of this well. Why is it springing now? I have read a few books that have helped me get perspective on my life and my reactions to it and why I may be feeling the way I do. The bottom line realization is that I am so lucky, lucky to have amazing friends in my life. Life long, strong friendships that I can take with me wherever I live. Even when I feel like I am tucked away in a quiet and rather drab hole in Utah, I still have these vibrant, revitalizing friendships that help me to feel whole. They remind me of who I am and what I love to do. What matters to me in my life and what I want to accomplish. Mostly they help me realize that I am not alone no matter where I live. I am so grateful for that.

The wonderful thing about these friendships, and they are all as different as the people that they are with, is that they always help me get perspective on my life and bring me back to the most important goals that I have. Primarily those goals encompass motherhood, at this time in my life. I am grateful for the support I get from them during this time of life. It really is one of the more taxing and lonely times of life. You spend so much time alone, tutoring and teaching and playing with children that it can feel isolating. Sometimes I just feel boring or bored. Luckily, through some of my self-realizations, I am starting to take more joy in playing with my children and being spontaneous with them. I am not worrying so much about the day to day work of the house and I am trying harder to just love these cute little girls. Their childhood is slipping away quickly and I don't want to miss a minute of it! Feeling like I am not the only mothering soldier helps me to take joy in what I do and to feel less alone and unglamorous.
It's very liberating to know that somewhere in the world there are people who for sure want to hang out with you as long as you want to hang out with them, and then a little longer. People who want to be with you and will make sacrifices to do so. People that you can sit with and not have to have the inner conversation of "Am I talking too much, too fast etc." People who love you for who you are.
I appreciate friends who help me to laugh and take this life less seriously. Who are willing to tell me when I am a crazy nutball about germs that I am just that, a crazy nutball about germs and I should let it go. I appreciate their perspective and I can swallow their criticisms because I know it is rooted in a deep and long lasting friendship. I am so grateful that when I was given a family that held no sisters for me, I was able to find them in my friends and my cousins. God has truly taken mercy on my sisterless plight. Sometimes I feel like maybe I make too much of not having a sister, but last week I was reminded of their importance. I had a bad day and finally got to talk to my dad. Half way through my schpill he said to me, " The real problem here is that you don't have a sister. This is why you feel so lonely all of the time." I knew he was right and he was speaking from experience since his wife doesn't have sisters. At least I have my surrogates. They are awesome and I am forever grateful to have them for standing in when I need them most!

Happy Harris Week (You should have one, too!)

2011-07-28T15:16:00.001-07:00

Lafe and Bryndee graced us with their presence for a week. A WHOLE WEEK! I love it when people visiting Utah prioritize me, I feel so special! Anyway, that may sound selfish, but it was sooo wonderful to be with them. Bryndee is a major helper. She cleans constantly and doesn't need naps. I think she is super human. Who doesn't need naps? Oh, did I mention that we stayed up 'till midnight most nights catching up on The Voice? The girls had so much fun together. This first picture is actually of Ginny and Lily saying "Good bye". Heartbreak. But, please do find the humor in the situation by looking at Ginny's shoes. We went on a tour of a chocolate factory and of course purchased tons of chocolate. The we went to the Great Harvest Bread Company and had lunch and then went to the cheese factory and bought some of their famous flavored milk. Bryndee particularly liked the banana. After that we went to the Willow Park Zoo. It was a long day. We celebrated Ginny's birthday. We played at several parks and we went to the Bird Refuge. It was so much fun and wonderful to connect, bond etc. One of the major pluses was that Bryndee runs and so she and I ran several times during the week. Lafe joined the gym for a week and worked out with Heath everyday. It was awesome! I don't think we gained any weight : ) We had a little weenie roast on the weekend and make apple crisp in the dutch oven, our first dutch oven dish ever! Bryndee canned the apple pie filling last year. It was amazing and maybe I did eat too much of that...
Luckily it wasn't goodbye forever. We did end up seeing them again a few times while they were in Ut. Lafe just bid us farewell this past Monday. He has been doing a rotation at the U of U and has spent his weekends with us. I was pretty sad all of Monday realizing that we won't get to hang out with him for awhile. I do get to see Bryndee tomorrow for lunch since she flew up to Ut to drive Lafe home. I can't wait! I only wish the girls could see their cousins again. Sooner than later I hope. At the end of the week we found out that Heath is "A party in a box", which was good news : ) And looking at all these pictures I can see that Lily and Vivian are much more practiced at posing and are just generally easier to photograph. Sighhh. My kids move so much. Oh, and Bryndee validated my feelings of being overwhelmed by two rambunctious kids by telling me that they were a handful. Good. Now I know I am not making it up! Thank you for your visit! We will miss you!

The Princess and Pirate Party

2011-07-28T14:46:00.000-07:00

Ginny had a fabulous Princess and Pirate party in our backyard. We made necklaces, wands and even had a treasure hunt! We finished off with a "nice little spot of tea". Ginny was the perfect hostess and refilled everyone's tea cups without any prompting! We had pink princess cupcakes and chocolate dipped strawberries, which are a favorite of Ginny's. Aunt Bryndee was such an amazing help to me. I would not of have been able to pull it off without her! She kept the kids under control so that I could decorate the yard. The kids had a lot of fun, but as my luck seems to always turn out, Ginny refused to wear one of her princess costumes. She insisted on wearing a t-shirt with a princess skirt. I was a little disappointed, but in trying to keep to the broader perspective, I relented. The broader perspective is the theory that is Ginny's birthday party and therefore she should be allowed to where whatever she wants. That is what my husband would have reminded me had he been present. I did catch a picture of Bryndee and I together, but (this is not very characteristic of me) I am unwilling to post it. I didn't have time to put my make-up on or do my hair and I felt hideous. Photo evidence reveals that that was a true assesment of the situation. So, please enjoy the pictures of the true princess of the day, who are all beautiful no matter what they wore!

Father's Day with Daddy and Uncle Lafe

2011-07-28T14:30:00.001-07:00

We celebrated Father's Day with Lafe and Bryndee's family. This beautiful chocolate cake is three different types of chocolate and I made it especially for my hubby. He declined this cake for his birthday, but then asked me every week thereafter when I was going to make it for him. I told him I had lost all my motivation for making that cake. For Father's Day I mustered all my energy and pulled it off. Luckily he loved it so it was worth the effort! He also made a batch of homemade butter with some of the leftover cream and it was very tasty and well done. This was a fun day and a good reminder of how unique and awesome my girls dad really is. I love him so much and I am so grateful for the wonderful husband and father that he is. We are three lucky girls!

Ginny's Birthday

2011-07-28T14:15:00.001-07:00

Ginny celebrated her third birthday in June. Since it was a Sunday we had her party later in the week. The best part of her birthday was getting to have Lily and Vivian over for a WHOLE week!!!

2011-07-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

One day I was working on the computer and I looked over and saw Gillienne Jamming on the drums! Soooo adorable!

The Ballerina Experiement

2011-07-28T13:42:00.001-07:00

I am a little bit spontaneous. I get great ideas and I have to act on them ASAP! So, at the end of May, maybe the end of June, Ginny was dancing around the house and I asked her,"Would you like to take ballet?" and then my wheels began turning and I asked,"Would you like to take ballet from Miss Michayle?" She said,"Yes!!!" So, within two hours we had printed beautiful (complete with rhinestones and ribbons) invitations that we walked to a few friends. They were informed that they had been accepted into Miss Michayle's School of Ballet. There was no charge, all I asked was that the mothers take turns watching Gillienne while I taught the class. I did this so that Ginny could take ballet, but not have the strict environment and not have to pay for classes she may not participate in. I am sooo glad I made this decision. She didn't even come to the first class. The second week she literally did log rolls across the floor while I was teaching. I have seen that behavior before in students and I was totally relieved and grateful that I wasn't watching it from a window in a studio where we were shelling out the dough!

May Days

2011-07-28T13:21:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday to Me!

2011-06-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

So, I have had another birthday. It was a very nice day. Some of our friends went with the girls and I to the Bird Refuge just outside of Brigham City. That was a lot of fun and I can't believe we haven't been before! This is the world's largest migratory bird refuge. I have to say that having company has helped me think differently about where I live. Now I realize that there are so many cool things to go see and do. My friends and I comitted that day to go on two outings like this a month. So far we have done pretty good.

We had pizza for dinner and Heath got me sweet rolls for breakfast. My visiting teachers came over and stayed forever right after lunch. I loved it! If they hadn't come over I would have been alone with my kids for another four hours before Heath would get home. It was a drizzly day and I really appreciated the company. I also had a visit from my friend Annette.

I asked Heath to take pictures of me since I am always behind the camera. This is what he got. You will just have to guess what I looked like that day : )

I received a 10 piece glass bowl set that I am using every day! I love them. I had told my friend Meg, in Heath's presence that I really needed bowls that I can put in the microwave. She spent the night last night and watched me prepare a meal. I used four of those bowls in my preparation and she said she was glad that I enjoyed them so much. It made me realize that I may not have told Heath how much I appreciate them! They were a very thoughtful gift. I accidentally opened the girls' present to me early. It was a necklace and earring set. A little fancy, but I am trying to wear them as often as I can. When I opened them Ginny said, "Put them on now mom!" I could tell she picked out princess jewelry for me. So sweet.

Finishing up with Arizona

2011-06-14T15:10:00.001-07:00

So, the actual impetus behind our trip to AZ was for me to get to spend some Quality time with my baby brother Ian. He turned 19 while I was there, received his mission call and took out his endowment in the Mesa Arizona temple. This picture represents all the people present at that event. I hadn't been in the temple with my whole family since Bryce's endowment, which was about four years ago. And my Mama Fawn was there with me. I stayed with her and rode the elevator with her etc. I remember that it was the first time in a very long time that she was able to go to the temple after having her stroke in 2003. That was a special experience.
I was able to have some wonderful visits with Kim, Heather and Tiffani and Bryndee. We had a girls night in party at mom's. I don't have pictures, but it was awesome. I had some seriously poor planning when it came to my camera on this trip. I forgot to put the pictures from Sascha's visit onto my computer before we left for California. As a result we had to buy a new memory card the day before Disneyland. Then, at Disneyland, the battery died! I had forgotten to bring the charger! These are Cardinal sins that usually, I try to be sure to avoid above all, including above not packing enough underwear. Cameras are high priority! Oh, well. I have still managed to have enough fodder for several posts, which I am sure you appreciate so very much! I am waiting on a picture from my sister-in-law Bethany so that I can post pictures of Ginny with her cousin Ivy. They were in town visiting from Wisconsin while we were in town. We had a lot of fun getting together with them.
As always, I love Arizona and all the fabulous people it houses. Aside from Ginny getting violently ill for about three days, we had a blast!

Happy Easter!

2011-06-14T14:39:00.000-07:00

We were so excited to get to spend Easter in Arizona with Heath's family. Easter is my co-favorite holiday with Thanksgiving. I realize it is uncommon to favor any holoiday over Christmas, but really without Easter who cares about Christmas, right?

Ginny and Gillienne had a blast hunting for eggs. Gillienne surprised us by being very observant and remembering exactly where the eggs had been in the previous search. As soon as we finished hiding eggs again, Gillienne would run straight to the spots that she had found egss in previously. And she ran around yelling, "Mo! Mo!" as she looked for more eggs. Once Gillienne figured out that some of the eggs had candy in them she started biting all of the boiled eggs looking for candy. The result- far fewer deviled eggs than we had planned on. Ginny is sporting some pretty awesome ankle bracelets in these pictures. She wore those bracelets on her ankle for about two months! Since they have been gone for about a month now, I almost forgot about them until I saw these pictures. She is so funny sometimes!
We made fun cupcakes to go with our Easter dinner and we attempted an Easter dress photo shoot. Ginny picked out the dresses. She was adamant about them, actually. Given many choices she always came back to these dresses. I hope you like them as much as she does.

The Happiest Place on Earth

2011-05-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

Or was it? After hearing about San Diego, you may be thinking exactly what I was thinking, "Why on earth are we taking two small children under three to Disneyland? Why???". Well, as it turned out, it really was the happiest place on earth for us that day. The girls were in heaven! Gillienne enjoyed the rides just about as much as Ginny. I was really surprised given the behavior problems I had been dealing with all week. They were jewels. Maybe they sensed that if they messed this up they may not get to come back for a long, long time. Whatever the cause, be it the magic of Disney or just luck, I am grateful. We did stand in a very long line to meet some princesses, and then in another one to meet a fairy, but it was all worth it! The girls both loved the tea cups and cried when they had to get off the first time. Ginny ended up riding them four times and Gillienne three. We stayed through the fireworks, which start at 10:30 p.m. I couldn't believe it. Really, those girls did so well. Ginny was decked out as Cinderella and I am so grateful that I had the foresight to dress her up before we went. It saved us a minimun of $45 that we didn't need to spend. I don't know that I could have refused her a princess dress if she weren't wearing one already. We did ride the Pirates of the Carribean ride while Gillienne napped in her sling. Ginny was a little spooked, but still enjoyed it. That was the one adult ride we went on. We only rode rides that had no height limit. Luckily I had hardly been on any of them before, so I enjoyed them, too! I was cruel and made Heath ride "Its a Small World", apparently the song just haunts him. I had never been on it and thought Ginny would like it. After we had been home a week or so we started watching a documentary on Disney parks. When they showed the Small World ride Ginny asked, "Where am I mama?", she thougth it was a home video! So, it was fun, memorable and best of all...Happy.

San Diego!!!

2011-05-26T14:19:00.001-07:00

Ahhhh! San Diego! Heath had a convention with work that took place in San Diego. He generously invited the girls and I to join him on his trip. We gladly accepted and that is how just 4 days after we said goodbye to the Goodmans and Grandma, we started out on a trip of our own. We elected to make the trip to San Diego in two stages, so we spent the first night in Las Vegas and arrived in San Diego Sunday evening. We stopped at a burger joint in St. George the first day and the this picture of Gillienne chowing down on a burger made her dad so proud! She hijacked my burger and made pretty good work of it, too!

We stayed in a Hilton in San Diego, which was very nice, but Hilton's don't tend to have very many features that a traveling mom is looking for i.e. a microwave, refrigerator or a laundromat. It was very clean, which I appreciated very much!! Also, it was right on San Diego Bay. It was beautiful. One of our windows looked out onto a shipping dock and Ginny loved watching a large Dole barge unload. It took a few days. We went running on the boardwalk along San Diego Bay, through Sea Port Village and all the way to the Midway and back. That is for those of you who know or care. Unfortunately Ginny did have a few accidents while were in SD. In fact her first one was at the door of our room when we first arrived and were desperately trying to open it in time. Oh, well. She has thankfully recovered from that time of accidents, which were very inconvenient when you realize we only had so many pairs of underwear and no washing machine!

The first full day we were there, a Monday, we went to the SCRIPPS aquarium. The girls absolutely loved it! They really love fish so it was very interesting to both of them. In the evening we drove over to Coronado and ate at Miguel's and had ice cream at Moo Time Creamery, a family tradition. Gillienne dripped her chocolate ice cream all over her sweatshirt, sling and my wrist brace. It was the biggest mess of ice cream I have ever seen. We walked to the beach and I had Heath take some pictures, amazing foresight as you will see as you read on.

Tuesday we thought we would go to the beach. I had actually planned on going Wednesday as well, but Tuesday didn't go as well as I had hoped. Ginny came down with some sort of terror syndrome or other and literally freaked out the closer we got to the waves. Once we had set up camp she lost it when she saw a seagull. She was hysterical and crying that she wanted to go back to the hotel. Maybe I would have given in, but I was tired and frustrated. We had left the hotel at around 10 a.m. and after a grocery stop (we were on Coronado, which was only a ten minute drive from the hotel) and a quick (as in maybe ten minute) trip to the library we had finally landed on the beach at 11:45. I was alone and belatedly trying to smear sunscreen, mixed with sand at this point, onto the girls. Ginny finally decided to show me that she meant business and grabbed my flip flops and started running for the car. I am laughing now. At the time I could barely believe this was happening. Isn't it every childs dream to go to the beach and get dirty? I got her to come back and sit in my lap and told her we weren't going anywhere until she calmed down. It took her about a half hour. Her hysterics were really getting Gillienne worked up as well. Ginny would only sit in my lap and then I had to put my arm around her. I had Gillienne crying on my side and I put my other arm around them. Somewhere in all of this I realized that we left the camera at the hotel. Honestly the car would have been too far for me to retrieve it from at that point. Through the grace of God, and I mean that literally, Ginny calmed down and somehow had fun in the sand and then eventually in the waves and in scouring for sea shells. Gillienne loved all of it! She was only about two months younger than Ginny was when she went to the beach for the first time. Gillienne would run along the beach with her bucket and shout, "Mo! Mo!" Meaning More or another sea shell. She would scoop it up and be on the scent of another shell. The day ended well, but Wednesday morning when I proposed an outing to the beach Ginny said she didn't want to go. I let it go at that. I didn't want to be accused of child abuse and really, taking Ginny to the beach could possibly be considered that. We spent some time in the pool and just hung out at the hotel. I was very disappointed that I didn't get to go to the beach again. Especially to get pictures. That evening we went to the Ghiradelli's chocolate shop in downtown San Diego with one of Heath's co-workers, Kim, who was also at the conference.

Thursday we had reserved for visiting the tide pools on Pt. Loma and touring the light house located there. The park opened at 9 a.m. and to see the rocks while the tide was still out we had to be there as soon as it opened. I was really excited and I thought the girls were going to love it. One did, and one...guess who...didn't. It was a smaller version of the beach. Heath had been to the tidepools before and I still haven't forgiven him for not warning me that you have to hike down very steep and slippery rocks to get to the area where the sea life are. Ginny was really scared hiking down the rocks and so, imprudently, I picked her up. Within seconds we were slipping and falling and the poor girl fell right onto the rock. I couldn't hold two children and brace myself at the same time. She was in tears, but luckily alright. I mean really lucky, because she fell on a rock. Somehow I had kept ahold of Gillienne so I was the only one of the two that hit the rock. At the tidepools Ginny was too scared to touch anything! Gillienne wanted to touch everything. I really wonder what they will be like as adults. Ginny was much more daring when she was younger and has since become more careful. She was also extremely clingy on this trip. Ginny did love the light house, but I forgot my camera in the car and that was another long walk with two small children and no stroller! Sighhh. Getting the girls up the very long hill to the light house was like pulling teeth. The positive was that they were going slow because what they saw around them was so very interesting i.e. dirt, wood chips, a ladybug, other bugs, birds etc. So at least they were happy and slow instead of otherwise. We climbed the light house three or four times because Ginny absolutely loved it! It was pretty neat and we did get a Christmas ornament to remind us of how much we enjoyed it. Once we were done I grabbed the camera from the car and snapped a picture with the light house in the background. Ginny had so much fun I wanted some small picture for her to remember it by. That evening we went to a laundromat in San Diego and washed all of our clothes. Then we went to sleep so we could be ready for our Big day coming up. What was so special? Only the Happiest place on earth...DISNEYLAND!!!

A Good Time with the Goodman's

2011-05-26T13:43:00.000-07:00

Heath's sister Sascha, her husband Binki, and two girls Winter and Valor, paid us a visit in early April. Binki only stayed for a day and a half and then Shirley, Heath's mom, flew up to join their party. Sascha had embarked on a cross-country trip with her two girls. They live in Pennsylvania and traveled across the South to AZ and that is where they met up with Binki. From AZ the stopped by the Grand Canyon on their way to our house. We were so excited to have them with us and felt pretty special be included in their journey. We were able to visit an extra day thanks to poor weather- we felt pretty lucky!

The girls had a lot of fun together. They played dress up, made necklaces and decorated fancy visors. We visited Temple Square while Binki was still with us and celebrated Sascha's birthday that night. The next day we went to a Baby Animal event that was almost rained out. There was enough mud to make the lines and wait somewhat miserable, but not enough to cancel it. The girls really enjoyed petting the animals, which did make it worth it. We tried to tour an ice cream bar factory, that it turns out doesn't give tours so we went to a small cheese factory and had some wonderful homemade ice cream. We went out to dinner for Sascha's real birthday, since she unexpectedly was still with us to celebrate it. It was a lot of fun and we are so glad they came to see us. It was so nice to see Grandma, as well. She was a trooper and spent the next two weeks in a car with Sascha and the girls as they made their way east and back home. Shirley actually arrived home only a day before we arrived at her home! But that is another post...

On the Run

2011-05-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

Hello, Hello! We have been absent from the blogging world for quite some time. It only would make sense that the absence resulted from many many fun and wonderful things that we need to blog about! These pictures were taken right before we got very busy with family. I had just started running again-something that is still infrequent thanks to inconsistencies in Utah weather- and Ginny and Gillienne decided to pretend that they were jogging with their babies. It became a Kodak moment when Ginny stopped to stretch. With very labored breathing, she put her hands on her hips and said, " I have to stretch!" and starting bending forward and back. I was pretty embarassed to realize that the labored breathing could only be an imitation of one person-- Her tired and not so in shape mother! At least she knows about stretching, right? Unfortunately Ginny doesn't perform for the camera so I don't have a good video of her stretching. She also decided that her necklace

was sunglasses and so that is the weird picture of her with a necklace over her eyes. Oh, and Gillienne also learned how to fake a fall during this photo session and I do have a lot of footage of her falling down and saying "Whoa!!!".

To the Beat of My Own Drum

2011-05-24T17:36:00.001-07:00

4:30 p.m. Also Known As After Nap Time. Not my favorite time of day. Today as I stared the 4:30 p.m. stretch-to-dinner time down, I realized I just couldn't do it. I would have to literally just sit and wait for Heath to come home. This isn't my usual M.O., but somedays I have exhausted all my creativity and I don't like to lean too hard on TV. And also TV only entertains one child, so its effectiveness is very limited. We tried calling and inviting friends, but the list was short and no one was available anyway. I had the lightning bolt idea (after applying a bandaid to Ginny's face) that we could play with stickers. That was actually rather effective. Once the mess exceeded the fun, we cleaned up. I began preparing dinner and then another lightning bolt- since the girls had already unloaded the serving utensil drawer and were banging on the floor I suggested they bring out the drums. And that is how I became the drummer for "Angelina Ballerina". Suddenly, I realized as I sat cross-legged on the floor using a spaghetti spoon and a ladle to beat on #10 cans and empty Hot Cocoa containers, sometimes assisted by Gillienne, but mostly watching as she rolled herself and two ponies up into a blanket and Ginny spun and piroutted around the room, This world is not such a bad place and perhaps does have room for the hours four, five and six p.m.

The Eggman

2011-04-01T15:04:00.000-07:00

We have recently begun purchasing our eggs from a local farmer. There are many reasons we are doing this, but I have been surprised by some of the benefits I hadn't counted on. One of these is the sheer joy I get in gazing at my beautiful eggs! They are so pretty with their speckles and bluish-green tones. I love seeing them sitting in the basket in my fridge. Right now it is getting me excited for Easter and spring. Another benefit is that Ginny and Gillienne get to enjoy seeing farm animals up close. Our Eggman is not really a farmer, but some retired gentleman who really loves to raise chickens. He has about one hundred of them. They roam free over his property, along with a black swan, some geese, a tom turkey and two hen turkeys (one of which "chased" us to our care one day causing much fright in the driver). They also have some horses, but these do not roam free. There is a pond for the swan and the geese to swim in and it is very pleasant to see them gliding across its surface. Ginny loves to visit the Eggman. A few days ago we had to make an egg run right after our library class. We invited Ally and her mommy and brother to come with us. I couldn't have picked a better day to invite them. The night before one of the horses had given birth to a new foal. She was so beautiful and taking a little nap, but the kids were able to pet her and her mother. I was impressed by the length of her legs and how skinny she was- you could see her ribs. Gillienne almost leapt out of my arms in her excitement to pet the animals, while Ginny stayed very close to me and did not pet any of them. We were also privileged to pet some of the new baby chicks that they have in the garage. It was so much fun and kind of amazing to realize it is only four miles north of our home. The Eggman has really enriched our lives and provided a wonderful solution to our egg dilema- answering the question of whether or not we would be raising our own chickens. Yes, it is with a sigh of relief and some regret that the answer is now "No". But, really it isn't very much of a let down since we can have the experience anytime we want at the Eggman's house.

The Oregon Trail

2011-04-01T14:05:00.001-07:00

We had the opportunity to travel to Portland, Oregon last week to celebrate our nephew Remington's 14th birthday. Number one- if you have never paid a visit to Ashley Lee then you had better plan one! She is an amazing hostess and makes you feel more than welcome- maybe a little like royalty! Ginny's little heart was won immediately with some gifts that had princess all over them and a Dora the Explorer umbrella. They had a small tent set-up for Ginny to sleep in, which she did and enjoyed immensely. We had a wonderful visit with the Lees-Heath's sister Ashley's family. We went to the Tillamook cheese factory, which is a pretty impressive place. Lucky us, they also make their own ice-cream! We all enjoyed a cone and purchased specialty cheeses that were amazing! After the cheese factory, we drove to the coast. It was very beautiful and very windy! Gillienne loved the beach the minute she set foot on it. She kept chasing dogs and barking at them. Ginny, on the other hand, was cold and it took her awhile to want to play. The water was a beautiful color and I felt like the experience was very different from a California beach.

Ashley and I went to a little shopping district to check out the cupcake shop and a little toy shop that was adorable. We celebrated Remington's birthday with yummy ice-cream cake and three cheese grilled cheese sandwhiches.

We started out Saturday with some very tasty doughnuts. Apparently Portland has several very good doughnut shops. These were pretty darn good and we ate more than we should have. After the doughnuts, we went to the Multnomah waterfalls. Here we hiked a bit and just stood in awe of the beauty of nature. Gillienne really enjoyed feeling the moss that covered everything! She also said "Wow" for the first time when she looked at the main waterfall. After the falls we went to look at a dam and its fish ladder-a pretty impressive and interesting thing. The ladders allow the salmon to swim upstream without being hindered by the dam. We were able to see a few salmon swimming around-you can see them in a picture with Heath. They are beautiful fish. We also visited a fish hatchery and saw a HUGE sturgeon fish. Both of the girls loved seeing all of the fish. Gillienne wanted to touch them. We had a relaxing day on Sunday and just enjoyed Ashley's great cooking. As in, we experienced for the first time meatloaf wrapped in bacon. Pretty amazing stuff. Heath gained 12 lbs.!

I really enjoyed spending time with Ashley discussing a common passion-entertaining and decorating for special events. She gave me some great new ideas that I am looking forward to using as soon as I can. Ginny loved spending time with her cousins. She also got to know Heath's cousin Gina's kids. Gina also lives in the Portland area and joined up for some of our excursions. I had fun visiting with her and getting to know her better as well. I was reminded on this trip, just how much I love family. I am so blessed to have married into such a wonderful, fun and loving family. I really love my in-laws and getting to spend time with them.

There are some pictures on here of Gillienne and some stuffed bears. These were at one of our truck stops and she was mesmerized by them! She kept walking from one to the other and showing them to me. It was pretty cute! We drove through Caldwell, ID on this trip, my father's birthplace. I had to take a picture of one of the signs, just for posterity's sake. Also, Ginny did amazingly well on this trip and made it to Oregon and back with no potty accidents! That was a wonderful surprise. Of course, Ashley's carpet wasn't so lucky, but we won't go into that. Thank you Lee's for a wonderful vacation!

Princess Tea Party

2011-04-01T13:54:00.001-07:00

Ginny and I had the opportunity to attend a Princess tea party at our local paint your own pottery place. They hosted a party at which you could paint your own tea set and then enjoy a yummy cupcake. Ginny enjoyed her cupcake most, but has loved the finished product of her tea set. Luckily I took pictures as soon as it arrived home. Within about fifteen minutes the sugar pourer was broken and within a few minutes of that, the creamer. Still, we had a lot of fun creating it and now she can play as rough with it as she would like!

1000 Days of Ginny

2011-04-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

The week of St. Patrick's Day Ginny celebrated her 1,000th day of life. These are holidays that Heath has initiated in our home. I think they are fun since they add so much more celebrating to our lives and I never complain about a little celebration!

Ginny received a bike for her birthday and enjoyed some princess cupcakes. These 1,000 days have been some of the best days in my life. I am so grateful that this little princess came into our home. She is someone that I would like to spend the rest of my life celebrating!

It's St. Patrick's Day, Hooray!

2011-03-18T13:34:00.000-07:00

We really got into St. Patrick's Day this year. We checked books out from the library about St. Patrick's Day and began reading them last week. This familiarized Ginny with shamrocks, Ireland, leprechauns and St. Patrick himself. Then, on Tuesday night, we watched Darby O'Gill and the Little People. That was Heath's contribution to our celebration, along with the suggestion that we eat green eggs. Ginny loved the movie and the leprechauns. I enjoyed watching the special features and learning about all the work that Walt Disney put into the movie. He filmed a short film showing how he caught King Brian, King of the Leprechauns, for his movie. It was very entertaining. Finally on St. Patrick's day we held a party for all of our little friends to come and celebrate. Everyone wore green and brought green treats. We read a few of our books from the library and were lucky enough to catch a leprechaun that happened to fall out of our book! He gave us clues to follow that lead to several more leprechauns and eventually...the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! This was definitely the high light of the party. I ordered green bread from our bakery to make PBJ sandwhiches with. That was a big hit as well. We had Corned Beef and Cabbage and potatoes for dinner, along with the leftover PBJ's. Ginny loved her corned beef! I was the discussion leader for book club last night and we discussed the book, "Ireland: A Novel" by Frank Delaney. I took corned beef and cabbage for our snack. It was a great discussion and a great way to celebrate Ireland and St. Patrick's Day.

Today, while cleaning up the decorations, we rocked out to U2 (Irish music, as I informed Ginny), Big Bad Voodoo Daddies, and Weezer. We danced with the streamers we had taken down and had a lot of fun. It was one of those moments for me that make me realize how awesome, fun, rewarding and so worthwhile it is to be a mom. Today, these girls are my best friends! We have had so much fun. After our clean-up party, and it was just that, we went on a walk to the park and ran down the hills, went down the slides, climbed on the ladders and just had fun. I love having two toddlers. Gillienne gets in on all the fun, now, and that makes it double fun. So, I guess I can thank St. Patrick for two awesome days. The color green may be able to take some credit for it, too!

No! I'm not Ginny I'm Just____________.

2011-03-15T14:46:00.000-07:00

You fill in the blank. That is how Ginny's identity works these days. We are role playing about 95% of the time now. Some of our characters include Friends and Family: The Greeners (Sarah, Lawson and Heaten) played in order by Michayle, Ginny and Gillienne (this is the general order when we are playing other families; The Hubers (Kylynne, Ally and Treyson); and The Marbles (Jornen a.k.a Jorden, Bethany, Maren and Celiese, Luke is usually at school). The Marble family is the only one in which Heath has a character. Usually only Gillienne and I get assigned a character. Some of our other characters are taken from Movies: Alina (Barbie Fairytopia); The Three Good Fairies from Sleeping Beauty: Flora-Gillienne, Fauna-Ginny, and Merryweather-Me; Aladdin, Ginny is Jasmine when she is playing with her hooded bath towel; Peter Pan-Peter Pan (Heath), Wendy (Me), John and Michael switch between Ginny and Gillienne. And oh, there are so many, many more!

My absolute, hands down favorite, is Cinderella. There are two versions. In the first version we are people and Ginny is Cinderella, Gillienne is a step-sister and I am the Step Muver. Ginny's lines sound something like this, "No step muver, don't tear my dress! Don't steal my necklace!!!" These have been said upon entering the church building and amid strangers. I always wanted to stand out in someway when I was a teenager, but I don't think that my 1960's bubble shirt, playing my violin on the sidewalk for money or any of my other antics, really ever accomplished the entertainment value that Ginny possesses. Oh, to be two again.

The second version of Cinderella takes place among the mice. I am not a character in this drama, but Gillienne is and she gets to be "Gus, Gus", while Ginny is Jaq. The first time Gillienne was ever dubbed "Gus, Gus" was pretty funny. The girls had just gotten dressed in their pajamas and Ginny told me, "I'm Jaq." Then she walked over to Gillienne (who does posses a rather rotund tummy, and who also happened to have her shirt above said belly at the time) and pulled Gillienne's shirt down over her tummy, then said, "Gillienne's 'Gus, Gus' ". Someday Gillienne will probably resent her character, but for now she is pretty willing to go along with whatever Ginny calls her simply because she has no clue what is going on. Last week I went to the Dr. and for reasons beyond my control the girls went with me. The Dr. asked Ginny what her name is, her response? "Hmmm.....Ummm....Michael." When I explained she was Michael from Peter Pan, he replied, "So, we have multiple personalities." And how! Now you have a basic idea of what a day in Ginny's life is like.

Just Accessorize!

2011-03-15T14:35:00.000-07:00

Gillienne and Ginny love to wear necklaces and bracelets. Today they were all decked out and I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of them and their girlyness. Ginny was actually assembling her jewelry in an "egg carton" and trying to sell it. Gillienne, quite obviously, was just trying to amass as many necklaces as she possibly could. I think she succeeded.

P.S. If you think Ginny's hair looks awesome, you shoul see what mine looked like-I had on one of their headbands and two flower clips. Also, Ginny refused to look at the camera and her shirt is on backwards.

Saturday Night Slumber Party

2011-03-15T14:27:00.001-07:00

Lately Ginny has been wanting to sleep in the bed with Heath and I. We tell her no, but I was starting to feel sorry for her (I remember always wanting to sleep with my parents) and so offered her the olive branch of a Saturday night sleep over in mom and dad's bed. We put Gillienne to bed at her normal time and then Ginny, Heath and I watched the movie Tinkerbell. After that we bedded down for the night with a story that Ginny actually read to us! Once the lights were out, Ginny only lasted about 15 minutes. She informed us that she wanted to sleep in her own bed. Heath took her upstairs and that was the end of our slumber party!

Happy Birthday Meg!

2011-03-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

My dear friend Meg celebrated her birthday while we were on our trip. In some ways that was a relief, since I am terrible at thinking of what to give people for their birthdays. I am always worrying about it and then the birthday comes and goes and, usually, I am still worrying about it because I didn't do anything for them. Its not because I don't care, but because I want to give meaningful gifts and it is really hard to think of those! So, Meg likes cook books and I started thinking maybe I would just get her one. She is one of those people who has a bookshelf full of cookbooks and she actually reads them. My friend Carlee is also like this. I didn't want to get her just any cook book, it would have to be one that I knew was good. The truth is, I don't really know any that are really good and that is how I hit upon the idea of compiling my favorite recipes into a cookbook for her. Kind of a crazy idea, but it actually worked. Of course I can already think of several ways that I would like to revise it, but it is finished. I started on Saturday the 5th and finished compiling it last Saturday morning, the 12th. Yes, I did it in one week. That is one reason I haven't blogged lately. Anyway, Meg came over and we made a meal out of the cookbook, stuffed eggplants. It is totally delicious and something you would serve for a nice dinner in your home. We had a few misunderstandings, luckily nothing that damaged the dish permanently, though! We snacked on an appetizer of homemade bruschetta and french bread and also had our dessert of homemade coconut cheesecake (compliments of Heath) first. I really enjoyed compiling the cookbook and I am excited to get to work with my mom on our "Family History" cook book that we have been talking about for a few years now. Meg, by the way, did love her gift and that made all the toil worth it. Now, I can start stressing over Christmas! Aaah!

Good Bye Chloe!

2011-03-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

Our friend's the Donegan's moved to Wisconsin in February. They actually moved the week before Valentine's, but I was too busy to post the pictures of our last hoorah. The girls got plenty of dress-up fun and hugs. We were so sad to see them go! Heath worked with Myles in his very first position at ATK. I met Chantel when we were both pregnant with our first child. She and I have had fun doing things with our girls and sharing our love for crafts, cake decorating etc. She is, was rather, one of my only friends in Utah that shares these interests with me. She is expecting twin boys in May and I am so sad that I won't be able to see them, let alone be there to help her out! I know they are going to have fun in their new home and with their new experiences, but we will still miss them! Just last week Ginny told me she wanted to invite Chloe to her St. Patrick's Day party. I want to, too! Her mom told us she is actually going to go to one in Wisconsin, now how do you like that!?