bath time

We started throwing this one into the bathtub with us during a morning shower and this little one loves it!!! At first she was content to just splash the water, until she discovered the running water. Now when I take a shower she sits at my feet to be under the shower head. We make sure to put her under in the tub while it fills up for the girls bath, too since she LOVES sitting under the water spout and getting soaked!!! Funny adorable baby!



She gets as far underneath it as she can!!! And laughs and laughs and is just too cute! Never a dull moment!

Why We Love Our Daddy!

Happy Father's Day!!!! While Daddy is behind me saving the world on his computer (and oblivious to what is going on around him) I thought I'd share a few of the many reasons we love our Daddy and what makes him so special (thanks for the idea Lisa M!)...

Our Daddy is so much fun!!! He loves to tickle his little girls, chase them around the house and playground and tease them as much as they can handle!!!!!

He loves to play with his family....legos, computer, remote control cars, games, bike rides, and anything else that can be made fun!


He loves his Heavenly Father and serves the Lord and is a wonderful example and incredible patriarch for our family

He can fix anything!


He is still my best friend...we have the best time together!!!

He loves his family and loves to be with them

Dr. Chicken saves us from the evils of the world (with the cutest little boy grin!)


Daddy is the best person to take naps with!

He is still a kid at heart

He is lots of fun to play with and has fun on his weekly Daddy dates with each of his girls!

He's the world's best deep fryer!!!

He's the best Daddy and we're so grateful for all the time we can spend together and for all the hard work he puts into our family! I couldn't think of anyone better to spend my life with or be the father for our family!! Thanks for all you do!!!! We love you!

Our Daddy Through The Years

As I was looking through some pictures I found these old ones and thought it would be fun to see him become a daddy...enjoy!

Dating before his mission

Our wedding

It's a girl!!!

I'm a daddy!!!!

Blessing his little girl

Our family

Daddy decides to become a scientist

Graduation!!

Daddy graduated with honors a few weeks before E was born

The newest member of our family

Daddy blessing E

Our family

Just before going to grad school Daddy went to spend some time teaching in Malaysia and Daddy and M loved the gifts he brought back!

Our family 2003

While in grad school we welcomed another beautiful little girl to our family!

Our family 2005

And most recently our little A joined our happy family!

So happy together! Thank you Daddy!!!

SCHOOL'S OUT!!!!!

I am so happy! We got lots of fun planned for the summer, I don't have to drive to the school 3 times a day, A can get good naps and not be interrupted constantly, and life is good. At least for awhile! Horray summer!!! We have lots of plans to go to parks in the morning, teach the girls to make their own exciting lunches, have plenty of reading and quiet time after lunch and then craft and workbook time in the afternoon. And of course plenty of playdates and other activities. Hooray for summer!

New Favorites

A few new favorites have turned up in life that I must share...

My grandmommy introduced me to these a few weekends ago and I am in heaven. It just happened to be on sale last week and I wish I had bought one more bag. I like dark chocolate but was not impressed with theirs. However their "milk chocolate with a meltaway center" is to die for...I can't understand why I'm not losing weight!!!

Another favorite

Our library recently had a used book sale and I was able to purchase the entire series - I read these as a kid and I still love them!!!! It has been a lot of fun rereading them (you can see my intectual level lately - "Little House on the Prairie" books and webkinz!)

A few week ago M brought home this book from her reading group - it's a 20ish page full color book with the text taken from the little house on the praire books. It's wonderful and she absolutely loves them! I was so excited! We then discovered our library has many of the books from this series as well as a chapter book series which is probably a little more appropriate for her reading level but right now she loves the pictures in these books - they are gorgeous! (don't click on the picture hoping to search inside - it's a picture from amazon.com - you can go there to look inside!)

And my last current favorite - a website my sister sent me

http://shedoeshair.blogspot.com/

It's full of instructions and pictures on how to do little girls hair - and my girls and I are having lots of fun since we discovered it yesterday. She also has a link to "girly dos by jen" that we like. The websites inspired these "dos" for school today (I must tell you they were done VERY quickly this morning and without any practice but I was pleased for a first attempt and no time to make corrections!)...

A favorite activity of the girls to do at home is their new jump ropes. The pe teacher at the girls school was selling the speed jump ropes as well as the double dutch ropes so I got some specific for the girls size and they are having lots of fun trying all new tricks including the one E is showing here. She can even jump with a ball bouncing and M is mastering the "double under." Daddy and some neighbors even had fun the other night trying to jump double dutch (with two ropes)...M and E were both able to get in and do it (daddy did better turning the ropes than jumping!)

And last but not least we must share Daddy's new favorite thing...

He found some speakers on Craig's list that he has been wanting to buy for a year or two. His subwoofer gives him great delight as he plays computer games with his buddies on Wednesday night and he is a happy man wandering around with his cute little boy grin! :) Life is good!

Webkinz

E went to a birthday party a little while ago and her friend received several "webkinz" and everyone was VERY excited. Of course E wanted one and so I learned all about them and our home lived and breathed webkinz. Girls happily and quickly did their chores and life was good. I have to admit even mommy became engrossed in them. When we went to a store here in town to show them to M the lady at the store told me I was probably the last person in the city to learn about them. Wow. I guess I'm out of touch! If it's not at walmart or target it doesn't exist in my world!

Anyways, you buy a little stuffed animal and it has a special code on it's collar and you go to the webkinz website, enter in your code and your animal is now on the computer. It comes with a room for you to decorate and you can buy more rooms and decorate them and add furniture and on and on. You play little games to earn money for it and I have to admit I love it! It is geared for their age so they can do most of the website themself and it is a big treat in our house. The best part - M can use Daddy's old laptop upstairs and E can use our computer downstairs and their pets can visit each other's house! They can play games together and life is wonderful! We don't do that very often but they sure enjoy it!

E has a mommy and a baby black and white cat, M has a unicorn and Mg has an alley cat. E wanted one for her birthday and her birthday happened to be near "webkinz" day - if you bought $10 worth of merchandise at our local store you got to spin a wheel and get a free webkinz! So I bought her present early, spun the wheel and Mg got the alley cat. Actually - the alley cat (Lily) is the one I play with when the kids go to bed and I feel like wasting time :)

E was very excited about the mommy webkinz she got from grandma because the other grandma got clothes for it and life for my dressup princess was perfect!

When I was taking pictures of the webkinz this little one wanted a picture with her bunny...this child won't go to sleep without this bunny! She has loved it since she was very little. Like all good bunnies it has multiplied. I think there are about 6 in our house at the moment! This way we don't have to look too hard to find one!

I guess since we can't have real kitties here our virtual ones will have to suffice!

Our Little A (that does not stand for "angel")

I love this baby! She is growing up SO fast - most of these pictures are alrady outdated but here they are anyways to show you what she is up to (and why I am SO much busier lately!!!)...

This child is obsessed with food. Want to see her throw a temper tantrum? Show her some food and then don't give her any! She knows when you open anything and has mastered how to crawl fast so she can get there in time for handouts! She loves water as well. We gave her her first piece of watermelon - she LOVED it! She quickly figured out which is the better side to eat and it kept her entertained for a long time!

My favorite stage for babies is when they can sit up and play, but before they can crawl. Since she loved her tummy so much she was a little slower to sit up but was so cute!

However, this stage was short lived...a few days later (literally!!) she figured out how to crawl!!!! It was crazy...and my life changed since now I have to keep track of her so much more and make sure the floor is always picked up. The first weeks of her crawling were really difficult for me. She is so happy crawling though!!
Whybother crawling when you can walk? After she figured out the crawling thing she decided it was time to start pulling up on EVERYTHING. I'm not kidding...this was all in the span of 2-3 weeks! She has been so happy moving and pulling up though...it's cute!! (she's not walking (yet) just likes to pull up on anything she can!)
Then the dreaded happened...she discovered the stairs. And, as with everything else, quickly figured them out. For awhile she only climbed them when she happened to find the stairs (which is hard since they hide at the back of our apartment) but one day I quickly went to the bathroom (am I even ALLOWED to do THAT anymore?!) and freaked out when I couldn't find A afterwards. E calmly said "oh, she's upstairs." WHAT??!!! Sure enough that little monkey had found and climbed the stairs to the top and into the bathroom upstairs (where there is a stool that she can pull up on!). This kid is so quick!!! I have a gate for the stairs now but I still let her climb them when I am behind her (I'd rather her know how to safely do it!). But when she climbs she is SO fast! She is also very happy and proud of herself!!! (little monster!). She laughs and giggles and if you come up from behind her and she squeals and tries to scramble even faster. If someone is at the top cheering her on (a favorite sister activity) she laughs and gets so excited!

(A's disclaimer...look at me...I'm sweet and innocent can't you tell!!!)
Don't let her fool you!

Random Pictures

I have lots ot catch up on but here are a few that I meant to get up earlier. We had a ward karaoke party - M loved it, except she was disappointed that she didn't get to be on the stage with the lights on and everybody watching her (they just stood on the ground in front of the tv while everyone else sat and chatted). The next day Daddy found an old tape recorder karaoke machine we bought years ago for them to have fun with...even daddy sang a duet with E from high school musical! :)

We're back in hair business again! A few Sunday's ago I stayed home with two little sick girls. Since I didn't have to have us all ready early in the morning I had more time to spend on their hair and they enjoyed that!