snow day

We have been getting a lot of snow the last few days. (well, lots of snow by western washington standards.) Though it is not fun to drive in, and resulted in Kara's school being canceled, the girls are LOVING it, as usual. They played out in the backyard a few times yesterday.Regardless of how many times I told her not to, Kiersten kept eating snow. Finally, Kara teased her that she was eating bugs and dirt with the snow, and she finally gave it up. Why didn't I think of that method?

Kara kept wanting to have a snowball fight. I asked her not to throw this one at Kiersten. She set it carefully down and made a smaller one to pelt her sister with.

Kara made a snow angel. this is another Kiersten eating snow shot.

Kiersten gets cold after about 20 minutes, but Kara would stay out there all day if I'd let her. She is definitely a snow lover. She certainly doesn't get it from me! When Ben got home from work, Kara was just coming in, and she was pretty thrilled with daddy for making her some hot chocolate to warm up with.

puppy party and playing at the park

This morning Kara and Kiersten hosted a birthday party for one of kara's stuffed animals. It's a puppy that they both love to play with. Kara did ask permission to make some decorations, but when I said okay, I didn't realize she was gonna be taping stuff all over the wall. The little purple dot near the center is what Kiersten made and GLUED to the wall. Good thing glue sticks are washable. the long, skinny things are tails for "pin the tail on the puppy". Kara said this was the party photo. Then she said, "this is the funnest party I've ever been to!" So I guess next year we can do this exact thing for her birthday and save a couple hundred dollars.

and the guest of honor with his birthday cake. I suspect that they just used their leftovers from snack time to make it though...

The party was going fine, until I saw Kiersten laying on the stairs with her eyes squeezed shut. I asked what she was doing, and Kara said, "I'm being her mom, but I wasn't keeping an eye on her at the party, and a man came and took her in the woods and shot her." I usually let them play what and how they want, and use their imaginations, but that one was too much for me. i told them I don't like them playing games about killing or guns, and that they had to play something happy instead. Kiersten jumped up and said, "a big dinosaur came and got the bad guy, and I came back alive!"

Last week I took the girls to the park to play. It was the first nice sunny day in a while. Here are a few pictures of the fun.

Kara was a little disappointed to have to sit in a baby swing. Sometimes there is a normal swing there instead, but not this time.

Kiersten is so proud to be able to pedal her bike on her own. The other day she pedalled all the way around the block twice by herself when we went on a walk. usually she gives up and walks or rides in the stroller. I was glad not to have to push or carry the bike home for once.

Evie got to swing for the first time. She kind of liked it.

She also got to slide for the first time too.

St. Valentines Day 2011

We pretended that valentine's day was on sunday. the girls don't really know the difference, anyway. Ben made breakfast for everyone. He asked me for a heart shaped cookie cutter so he could make the girls' plates look like this. The U is toast that he cut out with a knife. I thought it was pretty cute. After breakfast the girls got to open valentine's from us. Evie got a cute little stuffed frog, and a bear that was free when I bought the frog. Kiersten has really taken a liking to the bear, and keeps asking Evie's permission to play with it. Evie hasn't had a problem with that so far.

The girls were so happy to finally get pillow pets. they have wanted them for so long. Evie got one for Christmas, and they have been totally jealous.

Kara got the unicorn she has been dying to have. She named it "pretty big fluffy bottom cutie".

Kiersten has been wanting the puppy. There was a red valentine's version of it, so that's what she got. I've heard her call it "love puppy", and "ruff ruff". So one of those must be his name.

We spent the rest of the day at the NW trek. The girls really love it, and I think Evie even enjoyed it this time.

Monday, Kara had a valentine's day party at school, and also class picture day. She had lots of fun, and was bouncing off the walls when I picked her up from school. Kiersten and Evie got to do a few valentine's activities in the daycare at the gym too. We always eat a heart shaped pizza for dinner. Our first valentine's date 9 years ago, was at Pier 49 in Utah. Not all the heart pizzas are as good as that one was, but pizza is pizza. This year, Ben brought home papa john's. The girls were pretty excited about it.

He also surprised me with new jewelry! yay! I gave him an out this year, (and I deserved for him to take me up on it...), so I thought I'd get flowers, or candy, or one of those baskets people sell on the side of the road. So I was thrilled to get this pretty necklace, and earings! All he got for valentines was a new wii game. but that's what he likes, so he's happy with that.

Evie wearing her cute heart shirt. She is able to do about 14-15 steps now, so we're calling her a walker. She really is a sweet girl.

Kiersten saw valentine t-shirts at the store a week ago. She asked if she could get the front one that she could see. I started looking through them and reading what they said. As soon as she heard this one said, "I love Grandpa", she insisted on getting it. There were cuter ones, but who am I to get in the way of a 2 year old expressing her love and admiration for her grandpa?

Kiersten picked out a shirt for Karalee, but I didn't want her to wear it on picture day. So she is wearing it today instead. Her hair was curled when I took her to school, but when I picked her up all the curls had fallen out. I used tons of product to keep the curl, but I'm hoping it looked good for the pictures. they were first thing in the morning. Her teacher is too smart to try to do pictures after they are full of sugar.

a few steps...

busy baby

Evie is getting to be such a fast crawler! I have to really be on top of her to make sure she doesn't get into trouble. I'd like to let her just roam and crawl around, but she is always on the hunt for things to put in her mouth, and things to get into. On friday, the girls played dress up, and they cleaned up well, but one of them left out a small ring on the floor. I heard Evie make a noise, and looked at her. I could see the ring in her mouth. As I moved to pick her up, she quickly tried to swallow it. Luckily, I was able to reach in her mouth and hook it with my fingernail and pull it out. Ben came home from work to find me still teary eyed about it. She could have choked to death! so now, she has to sit in her high chair, walker, or the excersaucer if I'm doing housework or anything else that takes my full attention away from the little stinker. She also found a hairball Daisy hacked up a few days ago. Ben almost lost it that time. She is such a good crawler, that she has decided to try to learn to walk too! She can take up to 3 steps without falling, and the falling is usually voluntary and controlled, because she gets nervous. She also does a crouch down thing, and then stands back up without holding on to anything. She must have strong thighs, because that kills my legs when I try it. I took a video of her taking steps this morning, so I'll try to post that later.

another new trick is opening drawers. Sometimes she gets the knob in her mouth and then backs up to open them, but usually she just pulls them open with her hands. She loves getting into things that she isn't supposed to get into. The playroom, for example, has lots of small toys, choking hazzards, chalk, and other off limit things, so I don't let her in there. But if she ever sees the door open, she makes a beeline straight in there to play with her sisters.

I thought we were going to dinner for our anniversary on wednesday, but Ben called on tuesday afternoon, and was expecting to go that night. I was gonna try to get a babysitter, but since it was short notice, I just got the girls ready, and took them up with me to meet Ben. We had a nice dinner with them there, anyway. They are starting to be pretty well behaved at restaurants. Kiersten still has a few issues, but she's not too bad. Ben gave me a new sansa clip mp3 player to use at the gym. I really love it, and especially loved that he spent all day transferring all of our cds onto it. I know that makes us seem old, but we have hundreds of cds, so I don't want to pay to download anything, if we already have it on a cd. I was so glad he did it for me, because with the 3 kids, I would never be able to devote that much time to it, and it would only get a few cds on it.

This picture is of the girls ready to go up to meet daddy for dinner. They insisted on wearing dresses, even though it was a cold day.

Ben let Evie have her first taste of lime.

she didn't seem to like it at first, but after a few tastes, she kept going back for more, and even tried to get Ben's water glass to get at the lime.

I just like this picture. It's a good illustration of how Kara is always hovering around Evie and trying to help me monitor her. Evie was wearing one of Ben's favorite baby outfits that day. He bought that for Kara 5 years ago, and they've all worn it now. unfortunately Evie's feet are too big for the little cowgirl boots the other 2 wore with it. She is my littlest baby, but has the biggest feet!

Here is the latest Kiersten-sleeping-in-an-uncomfortable-spot picture. This was friday.

We had a friend over to watch the superbowl, and he brought stuff for nachos. One of the items was a can of black beans. Kiersten LOVED them. I gave her several spoonfuls throughout the day, and when I was cleaning up the kitchen she grabbed the can off the counter and just started stuffing her face. It ended up getting even messier than this picture.

8 long years...

just kidding! the last 8 years have actually seemed to go by so quickly! And I just want to say Happy Anniversary to my Benni-boo! 9 years ago today, he kissed me for the first time. (after 3 months of dating exclusively, sheesh!) and 8 years ago today, we got married in Provo. We met in the fall of 2001 at his apartment. I used to hang out with his roommates, and we met briefly a few times, but didn't really talk until halloween. And we've been together ever since. I just realized a few days ago, that by the end of the year, it will have been 10 years since we met. We'll also both be 30 by the end of the year. so We'll have spent 1/3 of our lives together. Seems kinda strange when I can remember the night we met like it was yesterday. In honor of our anniversary, I want to think of what we have done, or what has happened to us these past 8 years. This is off the top of my head, so sorry, Ben, if I forget something significant.
2003- We got married, moved to salt lake, I got a job working at wal-mart with Ben, I totalled my first car and broke my pelvis in a car wreck, we totalled our other car a month later, our apartment was burned down by our neighbor, we moved across town to holladay.
2004- Ben quit working at wal-mart, and went to work with Prudential Financial, I got a promotion at work when I transferred to the new holladay store, Ben gave me a cat, Daisy, when he had to go on a business trip and didn't want to leave me alone, We discovered Ben had eosinophilic esophagitis because he kept getting food stuck in his throat, and he had his first surgery to enlarge his throat.
2005- We bought our first house, and moved to West Valley, I got invisalign, we decided to stop birth control at the end of february, and hope for a pregnancy by the end of the year, on may 20 we discovered I was 5 weeks pregnant. I was scared to tell Ben because I thought he'd be mad that it happened so fast, as I'd told him it'd probably take 6 months to a year to concieve. He wasn't anything but happy, though! Ben changed jobs again, and went to work with Fidelity investments at their phone site, I bought a crappy car and painted it pink.
2006- Karalee was born jan 24, one week before our 3 year anniversary, I transferred back to the west Jordan Wal-mart to sell cell phones, and then I quit working at wal-mart, and went to work for data 2 logistics processing shipping invoices, we bought a new buick for me to replace the crappy, pink nissan I was driving, Ben got promoted at Fidelity to the non profit investments group.
2007- Ben got a promotion to the Seattle branch with Fidelity, and we moved to Seattle, we quickly sold our house in Utah and bought a new house in spanaway, Wa, Kara and I moved into our new house while Ben was in Florida for training, I became a stay at home mom, in may we decided to stop birth control again, july 13 we found out I was 4 weeks pregnant with our 2nd baby, I finished up with invisalign, and had to get braces, yuck!
2008- Kiersten was born march 12, I got my braces off, yay! We went to Reno and to ocean shores, Kara got a pet fish named Bubbles, We had a big snow storm here in Washington. Ben missed several days of work, and we were snowed in our house for a few days.
2009-We wrecked and totalled our beloved buick, and replaced it with an SUV of all things, definitely a family car, Ben transferred to the Tukwila branch, which really shortened his commute time every day, we went to Disneyland with the kids and Ben's dad, Karalee took ballet lessons, and then she started preschool, in may we decided to stop birth control again, and in july we found out I was pregnant with our thrid child. sadly, the baby died at 8 weeks, and I had to have a d&c on sept. 2. much to my surprise, I found out I was pregnant again on nov 5. I was really nervous, but felt better after my first dr. appointment when I got to see and hear her heartbeat.
2010-Evangeline was born, and had her first road trip at 2 weeks old to attend Grandpa Howard's funeral in utah, Kara was in a ballet performance in Tacoma, and started her 2nd year of preschool, Ben finally got to see the KC Chiefs play live in Seattle.

I obviously left out plenty of things that have happened in the past 8 years, but those are the things that stand out, good and bad. Being together has made the happy times even better, and the sad times easier. I can't imagine that there is anyone out there who loves someone as much as I love Ben! Happy Anniversary!