Ben, Becky, Karalee, Kiersten, and Evangeline

2012-02-10T08:15:00.000-08:00

We had my brother Nic, his 2 friends, and some friends of ours over for the superbowl on sunday. It was a fun time, and Ben was pretty happy with the outcome of the game. Of course I didn't remember to take pictures while everyone was over, but I did take a few before the party.
Evie's jersey is too small, but Ben really wanted her to wear it, so she just wore it without the snaps between the legs done up. These 2 did look pretty cute together. Ben has now lost over 40 lbs, and is looking good!

Kara absolutely refused to wear her jersey, and Kiersten was sad that she doesn't have one, so that problem was easy to solve by Kiersten wearing Kara's jersey. It kind of matched with mine, so we had to get a picture. Ben is kicking my butt in our weight loss competition, but I'm still proud of my 31 lbs lost. I still think I have a chance to catch up and beat him to losing 50 lbs.

The kids were kind of scared of Nic's friends, but they warmed up to him right away. Evie spent a lot of time following him around, and begging to be picked up.

Kara made chocolate chip cookies for the party, and Kiersten made chocolate dipped strawberries. She was so proud, and had to tell everyone that she had made them.

I had a different idea I saw on pinterest, but it involved white chocolate, which I thought I had, but didn't. so we improvised, and just tried to dress them up like little footballs. They looked better the night before.

On monday, Ben found out that he got a promotion at work, that is taking us to St. Louis. His first day there is feb 27th, so it's going to be a quick move. Our renters down in our spanaway house, also decided to break their lease, and move out this past weekend. so we are busy with those 2 things right now. When we have more details about when we're moving exactly, and get the logistics figured out, I'll probably be doing another post. We are super busy and stressed out, but also really excited to be moving and for Ben to be getting this promotion that he has deserved for a really, really LONG time!

2012-02-06T12:31:00.000-08:00

My etsy shop is being featured on the pink senorita blog today! head over and check it out if you get a chance. there is a small giveaway going on as well.

9 years married!

2012-02-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

We celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary on wednesday. It is crazy to be married for 9 years now! I never thought I would still feel like a newlywed after being married 9 years, but I totally still do. I love being married to Ben, and still want to spend every second together that we can. I am definitely looking forward to the rest of our lives together. I got pretty lucky when I snagged my Benniboo!
I gave him a super lame-o gift this year. It was a game and a football shirt, but he liked it. It's hard being married to someone who is too impatient to wait for what he wants. He just buys everything he wants for himself. Lucky for me, he buys me nice gifts like this new set of china. I didn't want to get it all out of the packaging yet, so I just took a picture of one of the salad plates. This is exactly what I've been wanting for YEARS!

He also surprised me with a kindle fire! It has been so nice to have! I love that I can read at the gym without haing to try to keep my book from falling or closing, I can read in bed, or while the girls are in dance class, and I can check my email, etc whenever I want. Ben has seemed to really like using it to play angry birds.

Happy Anniversary to my fabulous husband!

back to dance

2012-01-28T15:11:00.000-08:00

Kara finally talked us into letting her take dance lessons again. She is taking a "kid's pop" class, and thought it was really cool that there are 3 boys in her class. It was supposed to start January 12, but the first week was postponed because the teacher had a conflict, and last week was canceled for snow, so thursday was the first class.

Kiersten had to go an entire month with no accidents to be able to take a dance class. She was successful for the entire month of December (and most of November). She is so elated to be a ballerina. She is taking the "ballerina enchantment" class. There are only 4 girls in her class. She was so proud to show me all the things she learned in her first class. Her class is right before Kara's, so that part is pretty convenient.

Most of the pictures i took ended up like this. Kara would wait to do her pose right as I took the picture, and kept blocking poor Kiersten. She was pretty worried about it.

I finally got Kara to do an arms down pose.

Ben ordered Evie a plush Mickey and Pluto to complete her collection of clubhouse buddies. They arrived this week, and I cut the tape off the box so she could open it. As soon as she saw pluto, she started saying, "hot gog! hot gog!" and clapping her hands and dancing around. She was so excited, and once I got the mickey out of the package, she squealed even more happily and gave him hugs and kisses. Then she ran in my room and started begging to watch, "cubhow". (mickey mouse clubhouse).

Happy 6th birthday Karalee!

2012-01-24T10:40:00.000-08:00

Karalee is 6 years old today! She has been so excited about her birthday. Her party was on saturday at a bouncy place in the supermall. Here are a few pictures from her party.That's Evie sliding down on her belly.I planned to make her cake wednesday night, but the power had gone out, and by friday it was still out, so Ben ordered her a cake from safeway. I was happily surprised that they were able to make it by 10 the next morning. I had a really fun idea for her cake, but this one was really cute.All the kids liked sitting up in the birthday chair.Last night Kara stayed up a little past bedtime to decorate cookies to take to school today. Her teacher always makes sure they are class helper on their birthday. She had a hard time deciding what to take for show and tell because she got so many fun gifts at her party, and also has her christmas gifts to choose from.She chose to open her gifts from us and family this morning before school. She decided last night right before going to bed, so I didn't have too much time to get everything wrapped, and the table decorated. but if it looked lame, she didn't seem to notice. I thought she should open in her jammies, so she could pick out new clothes to wear to school (as that's all she got from us, after so many toys at Christmas). But she just wanted to wear the t-shirt Ben brought back from St. Louis so she could match with Kiersten.I stuck a candle in her muffin for her to blow out after we sang happy birthday to her.All she wants for dinner is mac and cheese. She even specified, "the kind in the box. NOT the kind mommy makes in the oven!"

yucky snow storm

2012-01-23T13:01:00.000-08:00

We had our first snow of the winter this past week. Of course, school was canceled, so the girls got an extra week off from school. My parents left on tuesday morning, and then Ben went out of town wednesday morning. He saw his flight was delayed, which was going to make him miss his connecting flight, so we ended up getting him moved up to an earlier flight, and had to rush out of the house and over to seatac for him to make it. We got to the airport fine, but on the way home, the girls and I slid down what is normally a very busy street. Luckily the snow kept traffic away, and I was free to slide across the oncoming lanes, tap the guard rail, and then slide back over to my side of the road. It was kinda scary, but we were all fine. When we got home, I just could not get into the garage. Ben had shoveled the driveway before we left, but it had continued snowing, and my car got totally stuck in the street. A neighbor tried to help shovel me out, but we eventually gave up, and I left the car parked on the street in front of my driveway. Later that night, the power went out. It wasn't too bad the first night, as it went out after the girls were in bed asleep, but it started getting pretty cold the next day. I thought I would use the grill to make dinner, but I found it frozen shut, because after the snow, we had a freezing rain, and then more snow.

The freeze rain did look kinda pretty on the trees, but it also caused Seatac airport to be closed the night Ben was supposed to come home. So he got stuck in Salt Lake for the night. Luckily, my sister in Eagle mountain was able to let him spend the night at her house. I was really glad that is where he got stuck for the night. Thanks again Shelly and Troy!

All of the trees in our yard ended up breaking:(

I put candles all over the house, and also used a little LED lantern we got from Ben's old boss a few years ago for Christmas. The girls each have their own little princess flashlights, that I found for them, but they kept going into the dark rooms without them, which resulted in a Kiersten/Evie crash in the hall. Kiersten got a bloodied lip.

The girls kept telling me to take pictures, because they liked when the camera flash lit up the room for a moment. But I didn't want it to die, so I just took a few. Since we couldn't cook anything for dinner, and every pizza place either didn't pick up, or was a busy signal, we had cheese and crackers for dinner, and some raw veggies. yum! I did lose about 4 lbs in 3 days, so I guess that's the upside. In the future I will think more about keeping food in the pantry that doesn't need to be cooked. Once it got dark, and the girls were pretty bored, they just kept asking for snacks every 10 minutes.

Kara thought this picture would be so cool.

the girls all brought their pillows and blankets to my bed, and we kept each other warm all night. When I went to bed, it was around 52°. when we woke up it was 48°!

The girls thought it was kinda funny to be all bundled up inside the house. By the end of the day, they were also in coats and scarves.

Ben made it home on friday morning. I had gone out early to try to dig out my car and shovel the driveway. The whole car was encased in at least an inch of solid ice. So I started chipping away at the door handles so I could get it open. I pulled a pretty large piece off the driver's door, and it pulled a chunk off of the window as well. A few minutes later, as i was trying to get the back door out, the driver's window shattered into a million little pieces, all over me, the snow, and the seat. I didn't know what to do for a minute, and then just went in to get a towel to cover it. I had the tires mostly dug out, so I decided to see if I could get it out of the snow before I brought the girls out. I ended up sliding back down the street in front of my neighbor's house, into a spot, that I couldn't go forward or backward. the tires just spun. So I tried to call ben to tell him to take a cab, but he didn't answer. so I called his boss, to see if someone could just get him, but she said they didn't have many people there. So I told her if he couldn't get a cab, he'd call in to see if anyone was able to get him. I tried calling him after his plane was supposed to have landed, but his phone was dead. So he got a ride with the guy he sat by on the plane. He got dropped off near our street, and just walked home. I was so happy to see him! the neighbor was trying to dig out our car again, so Ben went out and helped him. He was able to get it out. Then he went and got food for us, and got plexiglass put in the car window until it could be repaired the next day. Then he had to go to work, which was hard to have him leave again. but he did help me get a fire going before he left. After work that night, we stayed at a friend's house, and it was so nice to be warm! Saturday was Kara's birthday party, and afterward, we stopped by our house to get some clothes, and the power was back on! Ben and I were so happy, running around turning on lights, and making sure everything was okay. I'm super glad that storm is over, and hopefully we wont have another one for a while.

Hair bow giveaway!

2012-01-21T14:54:00.001-08:00

visit my facebook page and enter my hair bow giveaway! 2 big prize winners will get an assortment of handmade items, and I will add more bonus prizes if I get enough participation! you can enter for yourself, or for someone else you know who would love these items! https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Pretty-little-bows/303955119640664Go visit my page for the details on entry. Be sure to click on the picture to see the rules, deadline, and enter to win this fun stuff!

Also, if you want to check out my etsy shop, use the coupon code: FRIEND to get free shipping! I am also sending a free set of mini crochet flower clips with every order placed during january. So take a look, and see if I have something you'll love!

I love snow days

2012-01-16T07:40:00.000-08:00

Well, I may not exactly love snow days, but my kids sure do. Yesterday we had our first snow of this winter. The girls were up early and watching it fall out their windows. As soon as breakfast was over, they both got dressed and ready to go out. I thought they looked super adorable. I've been making scarves for the girls lately, and trying to decide whether to include scarves in my etsy shop.I did have some fun throwing snowballs at them. Kiersten built a little snowman on the top of these steps. She found twigs for the arms, and I had to help her dig into the snow to find little rocks for a face. She asked if I was going to take a picture, so I went inside to get the camera. When I got back out 2 seconds later, Kiersten was crying, and Kara was proudly standing over the trampled snowman carcass. I don't know why she thought that was okay. Kiersten ended up going inside after that.Evie didn't do a whole lot in the snow, but she was determined to stay outside as long as possible. This was her first time touching or being in snow. Later, Kara got to open a few early birthday gifts from my parents, and from my sisters in Utah. She got some pretty fun gifts! Thanks guys!She has really been wanting one of these bounce balls. She had fun on it all evening, going up and down the hall and around the house on it.Evie really likes it as well. She is certain that it is hers. She can't stay on by herself, so she keeps dragging it up to us, and whining, "need help".

Mom and Dad are here

2012-01-13T10:02:00.000-08:00

My parents flew in on Wednesday night. It has been so fun having them here so far. Yesterday after Ben got off work, we took a drive up to Seattle. Here they are near the space needle. (Well, abaout as near as you can be and still get the whole thing in a picture). We also got food from some of Ben's favorite restaurants.

We realized after living here for 5 years, we had no pictures of the space needle ourselves, so we posed for a picture too. The girls were all asleep, so they didn't get a picture. But it's nice to have a few pictures of just Ben and me without the kids occasionally.

The girls absolutely LOVE having visitors. Kara really wanted to play games on wednesday night, but she had to go to bed, as it was a school night. So she was quick to break out chutes and ladders as soon as we got back from Seattle last night.

hairbows

2012-01-06T17:26:00.000-08:00

just a note to tell everyone to check out my new etsy shop for my hairbows. Even though I have 3 darling girls, I still have been making way too many bows, so I decided to start selling a few. Friends can get free shipping this month by using the coupon code FRIEND. so check it out if you have girls, or friends and family with girls, and you can like my facebook page too.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/beckyblb?ref=si_shop

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Pretty-little-bows/303955119640664?sk=wall

New Year's Eve

2012-01-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

This year we talked about having a new year's eve party. But Kara and Evie both started throwing up, and Ben and I were both sleep deprived, so we decided to just keep it to ourselves this year. We all watched a movie together, and then played some wii, and finished up the night with board games. Last year it went by so fast, but this year we kept looking at the clock and trying to think of more things to do. I was tempted just to tell the kids it was midnight, and go to bed, but I knew Ben would never go for that.

The girls still insisted on getting dressed up a little for the holiday. Kiersten got to have her daddy daughter date that afternoon. I know they went out for ice cream, but I can't remember what else they did.

Kara wore her favorite dress. she calls it her "always dress". because she always wears it as soon as it gets ironed and put back in her closet.

I made a few snacks this year, but not as much as usual. Kara and Kiersten kept changning into different pary hats all evening.

Evie couldn't really blow the party horns, but she did a pretty amazing job of mimicking the tone.

We made it to midnight, and the girls loved setting off a few little popper fireworks.

Happy New Year!

2011 girls update

2011-12-30T10:17:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the last day of 2011, so I want to update about the girls again this year.

Karalee Ilyana:

Special things about Kara:

She is so smart and always looking for things to learn. she seems to be interested in everything. She has gotten good enough at nintendo that she can beat me at several games (without me letting her win on purpose). She takes her role as oldest sister very seriously, and reports back to me if she thinks anyone is doing something they shouldn't be. She also likes to encourage Kiersten to help clean up. She loves making friends, and always asks if she can have play dates. She is still a rule follower, and can get a little upset if she feels the rules are being broken by someone, especially herself.

2011 accomplishments:

This year Kara played on a soccer team, started kindergarten, had her first crush, became a star speller at school, counted to 1000, learned to make suckers by herself, rode a horse on her own, was a flower girls in Katie's wedding, got her own room, learned to swim (pretty well), and was tall enough to ride almost all of the rides and disneyland and seaworld.

Here are her favorite things. I used the same questions I asked her last year. It was kinda funny to see some of the different answers, and some things that haven't changed.

favorite color-pink
favorite animal-cat
favorite food- mac and cheese
favorite song- "wouldn't have nothin' if I didn't have you"
favorite game- disney universe
favorite movie- Frosty the snowman
favorite tv show-strawberry shortcake
best friend- Kiersten ( I was surprised she said that)
favorite playtime activity- playing my little ponies
favorite toy- Strawberry shortcake doll
favortie non playtime activity- making snowflakes
if she could see anyone in the world at this moment- Daddy
favorite outdoor activity- playing rapunzel on the swing set
favortie outfit-black and grey dress she wears at least once a week
favorite thing to do with mommy- make projects
favorite thing to do with daddy- play nintendo
one food she doesn't like-spinach
one thing she doesn't like- her sisters making messes

as of today, Kara weighs 42lbs and is 49 inches tall.

Kiersten Joy:

Special things about Kiersten:

She is such a sweet little thing. She loves all of her dolls and stuffed animals, and takes great care of them. She hates other people fighting, (though she doesn't seem to mind doing it herself). She is fascinated with people being in love, movies about love, and books about falling in love. she is already looking out for her own future prince. She is very clever, and picks up on everything. She is happy to be doing whatever Kara, Ben or I happen to be doing, even if it doesn't really include her. She will gladly sit and watch Kara and Ben play nintendo, and is content to pretend she is playing too. She just wants to be with the rest of us. She is the snuggliest kid ever. Instead of sitting by me on the couch, she keeps scooting closer, and trying to climb up on top of me. Ben calls her the ultimate space invader. She tries to hug all of her classmates everyday when we leave school, though some of the boys run away from her. She also would hug Kara's soccer teammates this fall when we left practice and scream that she loved them.

2011 accomplishments:

This year Kiersten started preschool, learned to write her name, counted to 100, learned to spell a handfull of words, danced and sang in a recital, learned to use scizzors, started cleaning her own room, and started helping with housework. She also was a flower girl in her aunt Katie's wedding.

Kiersten's favorite things:

Favorite color-green

favorite animal- white cats

favorite food- french fries

favorite song- "Once upon a dream"

favorite game- hide and seek

favorite movie- the little mermaid

favorite tv show- strawberry shortcake

best friend-mommy

favorite playtime activity- playing barbies

favorite toy- wedding princess polly pocket dolls

favortie non playtime activity- coloring with crayons

person she wishes she could see right now- Papa

favorite outdoor activity-bouncing balls

favorite outfit- purple flower skirt

favorite thing to do with mommy- paint

favorite thing to do with daddy- go to the candy store

one food she doesn't like-brussel sprouts

one thing she doesn't like- Evie hitting her

Kiersten is 34lbs and is 40 1/2 inches tall.

Evangeline Rebecca:

Special things about Evie:

She is a happy little girl. She know she is the baby, and feels that everyone is around to amuse her or do things for her. She loves fruit, and we have had to start keeping our fruit bowl higher, so she doesn't just help herself. She loves to push our little stool around the kitchen to reach up onto the counters. She loves candy and if she sees anyone go near the cupboard where we keep snacks, she very vocally requests a snack too. She really likes to watch tv. We never worried about the girls' tv watching at that age, but Evie would sit in front of the tv all day if we let her. She loves to mess up the girls while they're tidying up. If she sees them in the play area putting toys away, she runs over as fast as she can to throw something on the floor. She thinks she is very funny when she does naughty things. she gets a big grin and snickers at you when she does somthing she knows she isn't supposed to.

2011 accomplishments:

this year Evie turned 1, learned to walk, learned to run, learned to jump, started dancing (especially the hotdog dance), learned to say mama, dad, Kara, mine, clubhouse, hotdog, need help, apple, and a few more words that escape me at the moment. She grew some hair, and celebrated her first valentines day, and easter. She sort of learned to brush her teeth and hair.

I know some of Evie's favorite things for sure, and others I just have a pretty good guess.

favorite color-anything bright

favorite animal-she really likes birds and squirrels

favorite food-fruit (especially apples, pears, and bananas)

favorite song-Mickey's hot dog song

favorite game-peek a boo

favorite movie-Mickey's Christmas carol

favorite tv show-Mickey mouse clubhouse

best friend-toss up between mommy and daddy

favorite playtime activity-throwing toys on the floor

favorite toy-babydoll

favorite non playtime activity- watching tv

person she'd most like to see right now-probably her daddy

favorite outdoor activity-sliding

favorite outfit- she loves any fancy dress the twirls and is fluffy

favorite thing to do with mommy-cuddle

favorite thing to do with daddy- climb all over him

one food she doesn't like- any kind of meat

one thing she doesn't like- being hugged/held down by Kiersten

Evie weighs 23lbs and is 32inches tall.

Happy New Year everyone!

Family Christmas Eve

2011-12-26T18:18:00.000-08:00

We aren't always able to be with family on Christmas, so this year, it was a special treat to have Kerry and Lana with us for the holiday. Ben took them to a few stores early saturday morning, so the girls and I had lots of time for projects and games. The girls asked to have their picture taken together in their dresses. I am not usually a fan of siblings in matching clothing, so this year I decided to challenge myself and match the girls. They all looked so adorable. And they even sorta liked having the same dress.They got to decorate their cookie we made the previous day. It got interesting.This is how it turned out. I was secretly relieved they ran out of sprinkles. I don't think it would get eaten, if it were all covered in that much frosting and sprinkles.I decided to let the girls help make a centerpiece for dinner. I pulled out all these items, and just started letting them pick things out and tell me where to glue it. I was surprised Kara really had an eye for balance, and kept it looking just about how I'd have done it myself.They love making place cards for everyone when we have holiday dinners. In this picture Kiersten started crying because she had accidentally written, "bad" instead of dad. We were able to fix it though.Kiersten got to make cards for mom, dad, and herself, since those are the names she knows how to spell.Kara did the rest of the cards.Once Ben got home with Evie, I got a picture of my three lovelies. He said Evie got many compliments at the store.One moment everyone was smiling and posing, and the next Evie was screaming her head off. I guess it was an effective way to put an end to the picture taking.Kara was distracted with something, so Kiersten took the initiative to set the table herself this year. She just started asking me for plates, glasses, etc, and she did a great job. She was so proud. She thought very hard about her seating arrangement.Ready to eat.We always open a gift on Christmas Eve. Since Evie is the littlest, she got to go first. She ripped off a bit of paper, and ran to the kitchen to throw it away. Then she came back and did the same thing again. So I brought in a trash bag so she could open it without leaving a mess. She is just so funny.We ordered their jammies from the online disney store. Our order arrived, and Evie's jammies didn't have her name embroidered on them. So Ben called to complain. They said they were out of those jammies, but would send her an embroidered bathrobe. A few days later, we got a package with 3 more sets of jammies, this time all with names. then a few days later, we got another package with the robe. So they all ended up with 2 sets of identical jammies, (except one of Evie's doesn't have her name). Plus Evie had the robe. the girls thought it was pretty funny to get 2 nightgowns that were just the same.Papa and Grams both got new robes.Ben loved his ninja turtle pants. He only wears his christmas pajamas once, so I got him the cheapest ones I could find. But just look how happy they made him.bundled up baby. The robe is her favorite part.gorgeous little girl.Bed time beauty.Leaving cookies and milk for Santa Claus. Kara even wrote him a sweet little note.We always go for a drive to see the neighborhood Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. Evie and Kiersten fell asleep rather quickly, but Karalee was awake for over an hour of driving. So we went home and put her to bed. She only came out once to go to the bathroom. When we were going to bed around 11:30, I checked in on her and she was still awake. I have no idea how late she stayed up.

Christmas morning

2011-12-26T17:51:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning is sure fun with 3 excited little girls. Ben was woken by Evie at 3:30, and never went back to bed. It was nice to have the dishes all put away out of the dishwasher, and everything else perfect when I woke in the morning. Kiersten was up at 7. she was able to wake Evie and me successfully, but Kara didn't want to get up. So I went down and got Ben, Kerry and Lana, who were watching a movie, and we let Kiersten and Evie come find their stockings and gifts from Santa. I was worried about that shopping cart Evie got. She loved her last one, but it just kept falling apart, so Santa brought her a new one. She wanted nothing to do with it when she saw it. But today she has loved it, and pushed all her things around in it, so I guess she likes it afterall. She only cared about those tubes of mini m&m's. once she saw those, she wanted them opened, and didn't care about the rest of her goodies. She carried them around til after breakfast, I think Ben distracted her long enough to make them disappear.

Kara woke 45 minutes to an hour after the other girls. She was really cute and excited about everything. Kiersten had her stocking emptied, and tried to show her everything in there in about 15 seconds.

Evie kind of loves/fears this bunny from Grandma Howard.

I knew Kara would love this doll, but I am surprised how much. It hasn't left her side since she opened it.

The girls were opening everything so fast. Kerry and Ben had a hard time keeping up with getting things out of the packaging.

Evie's new baby doll is probably her favorite gift. It is constantly being fed and put to bed all day long.

Kara's big gift from us, was her own camera. I was looking through it this morning and she has some pretty cute pictures. I got her a memory card today, so now she'll be able to take as many pictures as she wants.

We gave Kiersten this story telling Belle. She is pretty fascinated with everything it can do. She's also worried about her perfect curls getting smashed.

We gave Evie this fun discovery table. She was getting sleepy, and laid on the box, so I couldn't get it open for her. She wouldn't get off for quite a while.

Being a little tired, she was not cooperative for her picture with gifts. This was the best we could get.

Kiersten with all of her fun things. I know a few things got left out of the picture, in the chaos of our livingroom, or Kara playing with her stuff. you can kind of see her santa gift in her lap. It's a set of little disney princesses in wedding gowns marrying their princes. She is in love with those things.

Kara is pretty pleased with her spread as well. Her santa was that my little pony next to her on the couch.

the girls made all of us play twister.

This morning Evie kept wanting to wear the little glasses that came with one of her baby dolls.

Her new favorite toy. Kara has the cutest picture on her camera of Evie kissing her baby this morning. I guess she was carrying it around and stopping every few steps to give a kiss.

Hope you all had a merry Christmas this year!

the week before Christmas

2011-12-24T10:13:00.000-08:00

The girls have been having so much fun this week, being out of school. Here they are jumping on some bubble wrap that came in a package from my parents. Notice they each put on one shoe to help them pop it.Ben got these littel masks for them to color. Kara is a reindeer.Kiersten is a snowman. Evie had an elf one, but I didn't get a picture.We also made little tiny gingerbread houses. That was a huge hit.Ben also got them these ornaments. They colored in the area meant to put a picture, but I'll probably add pictures in later. This is the one Kiersten made.There's usually quite a difference in Kara's coloring, and Kiersten's. Kiersten is getting better lately, though. This is obviously Kara's.On another day we decorated stockings for Papa and Grams. The girls have just been thrilled about them coming to spend Christmas with us this year.Kiersten tried so hard, but her decorations all turned into blobs. Papa and Grams loved the stockings when they arrived yesterday morning. The girls were very eager to show them.Here is some of the candy the girls helped me make. I didn't remember to take a picture til it was already mostly gone.making chocolate suckers. Kara did a very good job on some of hers. Good enough that I put some of them on the plate I sent to work with Ben.Here are some cute foam ornaments the girls made. Kiersten actually wrote "Anna" on her snowman, because that was what the picture on the packaging said. Kara kept making fun of her for it. I just had her write her own name on the back, and we decided her snowman is named Anna.Kara's santa and snowman.Yesterday they got to help me bake a giant snowman cookie. We did chocolate chip. They haven't decorated it yet, so I don't have a picture of the finished product. They were great at helping me clean off the spatula and beater. Who needs a dishwasher?Since Kerry and Lana are here, we decided to go to zoo lights last night. It wasn't nearly as cold as the last 2 years. It was crazy busy though. Here's our little group, sans Ben.Notice Papa is smiling while being smacked in the face by a light wand. He's a great sport!Evie really enjoyed the lights. She was so cute running around and pointing and jabbering excitedly.Our annual picture in front of the purple and green tree.The girls are so excited for Santa to come tonight. Kara keeps pestering me about the gifts under the tree that say, "Christmas Eve". You really can't sneak anything past her. We have 3-4 more projects to do today, and I also need to get the girls running around a lot so they'll be extra tired tonight. Kara is on a kick of trying to stay up all night. She tries it at least once a week, and resists going to bed almost every night. I think she'll be willing to go to bed tonight, but I do suspect she may try to stay awake in her room. So I especially want to get her super tired.

Ben's 30th

2011-12-19T12:11:00.000-08:00

What kind of guy brings his wife breakfast in bed on his birthday? Ben is that kind of guy. Yesterday was his 30th birthday, and I got to start the day with a delicious breakfast in bed, and all 3 girls up and fed first. It was even sweeter, because the reason he was up and cooking early, was due to Evie waking up at the crack of dawn. And since she had been a stinker, and kept us up most of the night, Ben got up with her and let me sleep in. Just another one of those small things that reminds me why I love him so much. People always say that you love someone because of the small things they do, and I agree. I love my birthday boy, and I'm so glad I married him. I married him because he's the kind of guy who makes me breakfast on his 30th birthday, and because he's the kind of guy who gives up his beloved football watching saturdays to take his daughters out for daddy-daughter time. He's the kind of guy that remembers to compliment Kiersten's pigtails, because she requests her hair that way just for him, and the kind of guy that calls Evie in to let her help take off his socks, since he knows how happy she is to help him. He's the kind of guy who plays nintendo with Kara, even though she slows him down, and messes him up. And when he unexpectedly beats a game after she's gone to bed, he doesn't save the game, so he can beat it again the next day so she can watch. When we got married I didn't know he would do any of those things, but I knew he was that kind of guy. I knew he told me on the first night I met him that his hero was his dad. I knew he was the kind of guy whose Grandma is one of his best friends. I knew he was a sweet, caring, and thoughtful guy, and I feel lucky to have snagged him! Happy Birthday Ben!

The girls were anxious for him to open his gifts.

His favorite birthday gift. He really wanted this hat, and kept saying he was going to just order it for himself. I knew his mom had gotten it for him, so I had to keep telling him just to wait and see if he got it as a gift. So he had a good idea he'd be getting it. If he looks trimmer in this picture than last year, that's because he has lost over 30 lbs in the last few months. He makes it look so easy!

Kiersten was the only one that wanted to help me make his brownies. She's a great little helper.

I completely intended to put 30 candles in his brownie, but he got to it too quickly, and started eating it. So after dinner, Kara said, "we haven't sang happy birthday to dad." I told her to go sing to him, but she said he needed a cake so he could blow out his birthday candle. I didn't want to make one, and he doesn't even like cake, so I made this candy cane out of apples and bananas. He was pretty surprised.

singing happy birthday to daddy.

12/17/11

2011-12-17T22:37:00.000-08:00

Friday was Kara and Kiersten's last day of school until January 9th. They had a Christmas open house at the end of the school day for their parents and siblings. I still can't believe I forgot the camera, but I did, and got no pictures. Some of the other parents had cameras, so I can probably see if someone will email me a few. They got to perform their dances again from the recital. So we got to see Kara dance with her partner this time. Kiersten was so cute strong arming her little partner, and telling him what to do. They also sang some Christmas songs for us, and then gave us gifts they bought for us on their field trip on wednesday. Then they had their gift exchange. They each had to bring 12 gifts earlier in the week, and the teacher wrapped them all up, and put them in giant gift bags. So each kid got a big bag full of little gifts to open. She also had gifts for the siblings. Evie was thrilled to get her own little bag with a few books, a ball, a stuffed owl, and a sucker. As soon as we got home, they all got into their goodies, and spent most of the evening coloring, and doing projects.

I really appreciated their teacher for having something for Evie. It truly made her day. I tried to get her picture playing with books, but of course she insisted on standing up in her picture spot.

They got mostly the same things, but a few things were different, so they made a good effort to share all the things that were different. Their teacher sent home a packet full of worksheets and projects for them to do over the break. Kara is almost completely finished with hers. I'm not too worried about them getting bored, though. I have several projects planned to do with them, and Ben came home from playing basketball and football this morning with another bag full of little projects he found at the store.

I did get this picture of Ben reading with Evie. This was before she noticed the camera.

These are the girls' pictures with santa. You may notice a difference between the two santas! I took Kara and Evie a few weeks ago, and Kiersten the following week. Kara and Evie were with me when I took Kiersten, and Kara definitely knew it was a different guy. She had been so sure the real santa was there when I took her and Evie, and as soon as she saw this guy, she whispered to me, "mom, it looks like Kiersten doesn't get to see the real santa. She should have come with us last week." I told her not to say anything to Kiersten about it. When Kiersten was on his lap, he kept trying to talk to Kara too, and asking her questions, but she really wanted nothing to do with him. It was hard not to laugh, and he was definitely confused by her. He gave her a candy cane as we were leaving, and she handed it straight to Evie.

dance recital

2011-12-12T09:51:00.000-08:00

The girls had a Christmas dance recital on saturday.Kiersten was so excited to be in the recital, instead of watching Kara from the audience.The last 2 years, they have done "santa claus is coming to town". So I was happy and surprised that they did "rudolf the red nosed reindeer" this year.For their second dance, they did a partner dance to silver bells. Kiersten has been so excited about this. At first she was upset that Kara got to dance with Devin, who is the oldest boy in class, and all the girls wanted to dance with him. but he refused to dance with any partner but Kara. So Kiersten got to dance with Chayce instead. They were a perfect little dancing couple.It turned out not to be such a great thing to be Devin's partner, as he got sick the day of the recital. The teacher told Kara to just pretend that she was dancing with a partner. I was worried that she wouldn't take it very well. But she actually did a really good job with her pretend partner. Some of the younger kids were still watching her to see the steps. I couldn't help but laugh a few times, and I think the video I took ended up a little shaky because of that. I was pretty impressed that she was such a good sport about it.Last night the girls drank some hot chocolate and wrote their letters to santa. Then we made some more snowflakes for the wall. Kiersten wrote her entire letter, with a little help from daddy to tell her which letters she needed to write. She asked for a princess wedding set.Kara didn't need any help writing her letter. A few months ago, she was telling us she wanted a 3DS for Christmas. around thanksgiving, when she was looking through toy catalogs and coming up with a list, she decided she didn't want one anymore. Ben even tried to talk her back into it a little, and she insisted that she'd rather have a toy. That was fine with us, of course, given the price difference. Then when I took her to see santa last week, she told him she wanted the 3DS. We panicked a little, as we knew that wasn't in santa's plan. But we talked about the possibility of changing up a few things so it could happen. But then last night when she wrote her letter, she didn't mention the 3DS. just the toy she has been wanting. So that was a relief.
This is their last wek of school before a 3 week break for Christmas and New Year's. They have a field trip on Wednesday, and then a Christmas party on friday. I have a few fun projects and ideas for them to keep busy during their break. They are getting pretty excited about Christmas, but this morning when I dropped them off at school, Kara exclaimed, "I can't wait til thrusday of next week!" Her teacher asked why, and she said, "because I can't wait for it to be the first day of WINTER!". hopefully she wont be expecting to suddenly have a bunch of snow.

snowfall

2011-12-09T08:57:00.000-08:00

Ben made some paper snowflakes with the girls this weekend. They have wanted to make more every day after school. It's kinda funny to me because I spend so much time trying to think of new ideas for things to do with them, that it's easy to forget how much they like doing simple and easy things like this too. I took a few pictures of the snowflake making the other day, but this is the only one of my pictures I ended up posting, just to get one of Kara in there. Kara asked if she could take a picture too, and she snpped a bunch. I ended up liking her pictures better. She has asked for a camera for Christmas, and has been reminding me about it a lot lately. "If I had my own camera to use..." is what I hear at least once a day.

Kiersten wanted to make them herself at first, but soon decided just to direct me how to make them for her. She would choose the color, and say, "now cut a triangle, now cut out a butterfly shape," etc. She is still quite proud of them, and they look so bright and cheery taped up all over the diningroom.

I got this same picture, but from an adult level. I really liked Kara's shot from her pov.

I didn't even notice Kara taking pictures of Evie, but there were several of them on the camera. She was happy for the ones on the fireplace, then I could tell Kara was trying to pose her in other spots, and Evie wasn't happy about it.

I have to admit it was kind of fun for me too. I don't remember the last time I cut a paper snowflake, but it's definitely more enjoyable than I remembered.

12/7/11

2011-12-07T12:06:00.000-08:00

Kiersten was very excited for her daddy-daughter day on saturday. She even got all dressed up, and wanted her hair curled. She has been being a really good girl lately. I can't remember the last time she needed a time out. She must know that Santa's elves are watching her.
I tried to get a picture of Evie by the tree. This was the best I coud get, as she insisted on getting up on the fireplace for the picture.

While Ben and Kiersten were on their date, i took the other girls to the mall to get some things for Ben's birthday. We saw santa there, and he didn't have much of a line. Kara kept wanting to walk past and get a good look at him. She finally decided it was the real guy, and she had to go sit by him, in case the real santa doesn't come back to that mall before Christmas. Evie fell asleep in line, and after Kara sat on santa's lap, and whispered with him for a minute, I set Evie on his lap too. She kind of snuggled up into his sleeve, and then very sleepily opened her eyes. Right as they were taking the picture, she looked up at Santa, panicked, and started screaming. She looked around frantically until se saw me, and then started screaming and reaching for me. So we ended up with an interesting picture. I'll scan it in when we get Kiersten's picture with Santa this weekend. They got candy canes and a coupon for free cotton candy at Kid's Korner. so after we got the free candy, we headed home.
Here is Evie sitting at the table in her new booster seat. She eats a lot better now that she sits with the rest of us.

I bought a bunch of ornaments on clearance after Christmas last year. We ended up deciding to use black, silver, and purple on the tree this year, so I used the new ornaments to make a little wreath. I think it turned out pretty cute. The girls loved helping make this, and it was super easy, and just what we needed for the guestroom door.

This picture didn't show up too well, but this onesie was ruined by pen marks all down the front. I was going to give it to goodwill, but then decided to see if I could fix it up somehow. I figured if I messed it up, I wouldn't care, since I was getting rid of it anyway.

The new look. Kiersten is also in the picture, wearing a skirt she wanted me to make on sunday. I was too lazy to get out a pattern, so it could have turned out a little better, but she's happy with it, and was excited to wear it to school on monday.

A close up of Evie's onesie. It's supposed to be lolly pops. I think it'll look even cuter after it gets washed a few times and the fabric starts curling up more. I just looked online for ideas and found this great tutorial.

our tree

2011-11-29T12:30:00.000-08:00

We decided to set up our Christmas tree and get out all the decorations on sunday. We've never done it so early in the past, but I'm glad we got everything out. usually by the time I find the advent calendar, several days of december have already passed, and the girls get a bit disappointed to see those doors with nothing in them.

Evie only got to put one decoration on the tree before she went down for her nap. Later, she took and ornament off the tree and broke it. She cut her hand on it, and has left the tree alone ever since.

Kara was so proud to be able to reach high up on the tree. She kept telling Kiersten to decorate the lower brances, and she'd take care of the higher ones.

Of course Kiersten still tried to reach as high as possible.

Now the livingroom feels nice and festive. If only I can get up the desire to finish decorating the rest of the house. I can't wait til Kara's older and can do more of the decorating for me, since she loves doing it, and I'm not too keen. you may notice there is no tree topper. Ben decided he hates the one we have, and tasked me with buying a new one. I found one at fred meyer, and hopefully he'll install it tonight to finish things off. It's a little insane to me that it's not even December yet, and we already have everything purchased and wrapped for Christmas. I'm sure I'll still end up busy the rest of the month, though.

The girls are eating so many apples lately. I feel like I'm buying 8 -10 apples every few days. Once in a while I find a half eaten one in their rooms, but they usually eat the whole thing.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-26T16:24:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving day 2011. The girls love any reason to get dressed up. As soon as I put Evie's hairbow on, she went straight to the fireplace to get her picture taken. So I decided we could do a few pictures. She didn't want the other girls in the picture, and kept shoving them out of the way. Ben went to play football early n the morning, and the girls were excited for him to get home and see they were dressed up and ready for the day. When Ben's brother Jason, and his wife Lisa arrived, the girls were going crazy. Kara came upstairs and shouted, "I'm... so... EXCITED!". It was pretty funny. Evie took a few minutes to warm up to them.The big girls didn't get to stand on the fireplace to get their pictures taken, because Evie was going crazy if they were there without her, and I was seriously afraid someone would get hurt.

I tried to talk Kiersten into a dress, but she really wanted to wear her fuzzy vest with a skirt.

Evie Pie. She is so funny about getting her picture taken in that spot. Last night Kara came upstairs and saw me on the couch holding the 2 other girls, and said, "what a cute picture." Evie immediately got up and went over to her picture spot to start cheesing it up. Kara wore this same dress for thanksgiving in 2006. It was too big on her though. This year it was the perfect size for Evie.

I made the girls these fruit turkeys while we were waiting for dinner to cook. They thought it was so funny. I liked it because, other than a slice of pie after dinner, they didn't have any sweet snacks the rest of the day, since they had these sitting around to snack on instead. nobody ate the limes, though.

Sitting down to our thanksgiving ham dinner.

just a cute picture of our rootbeer floats last night after dinner. I love the look on Evie's face. I hadn't made her one, and she was upset, so I made her a very small one, and we let her sit at the table, so she loved that. We decided to get rid of the highchair. Ben got her a booster seat, so she will be happier during meal time. She is always upset not to be at the table with the rest of us.

30 years

2011-11-21T12:24:00.000-08:00

I turned 30 years old on the 17th. It was a good day. Evie and I went to breakfast after dropping the girls at school. We just played around all day, and I did as little housework as I was comfortable with. When the girls got home, they wanted to play games all afternoon for a birthday party. It was pretty fun and funny.When Ben got home, we went down to a private sale at morgan jewelers in Tacoma. I got a pretty new ring, but don't have a picture, as it was sent out for sizing. I also got some fun free stuff too. then we all went to dinner, and the girls were really well behaved. We didn't have room for dessert, which upset Kara because I had told her instead of a birthday cake i was going to have dessert at the restaurant. (she had wanted me to help her bake a cake earlier). So she was unhappy that I didn't have dessert, so Ben stopped at dairy queen and got an Ice cream cake, and we went home. I had a few gifts to open, and Kiersten was glad we woke her back up to see me open them all.
Posing with the jewelry bag. you can see my new feetie pajamas on the couch that Kiersten gave me. I wanted them so much to stay warm in our drafty house. the part I didn't think about was what a pain it is to go to the bathroom when wearing them. you can kind of also see the chore board I got from my mother in law, and my new purse. I should have gotten a better picture, but I was so ready for bed!Once Evie saw Ben taking my picture, she got right up on the fireplace to get her picture taken too. Her personality is getting so fun lately!More than half of the cake is still sitting in the freezer. I'm sure we'll finish it soon enough, though, if the girls would just finish their dinner so they can have dessert.I absolutely LOVE my card from Kara.

I guess I thought turning 30 would be upsetting, or hard, but it was actually great, and I don't feel the least bit sad about it. I think maybe if life wasn't turning out well, or if I were unhappy it might be upsetting. But my life is everything I could want it to be. I have an amazing husband that I adore and admire, 3 gorgeous, healthy girls who love me, and great family and friends. So I'm pretty happy to be where I am at 30 years.

11/15/11

2011-11-15T15:53:00.000-08:00

I just really liked this picture of my 3 girls the other day. and I also wanted to share it to get a picture of K &K in there, since most of the pictures I took this week were Evie solo.
She's starting to take after kiersten, falling asleep everywhere except for her bed. on this day, I had tried to put her down for a nap twice, and she just wouldn't go to sleep. Then as soon as I let her stay up, she was crashed out on the floor.

Another day last week, she fell asleep while I was vacuuming.

She has taken a real interest in the girls' sunggies the past few weeks. She has definitely noticed she didn't have one, and would stop at nothing to get wrapped up in Kara's or Kiersten's.

My sister Jackie's husband, Josh was in Tacoma for business last week. So we had him over for dinner one night. It was really fun. It had been a while since we'd seen him, so it was nice to catch up. Of course the girls loved having him around too.

Since i didn't get any good pictures of Evie in her cave baby costume, I put her back in it the other day before packing it away. She was happy, and felt special to be the only one playing dress up.

After searching for a baby-sized snuggie unseccesfully, I decided to make one for her. I know there are blanket sleepers, and jammies that would keep her just as warm, but she really was getting obsessed with the snuggies, and getting pretty jealous when the big girls wanted to wear them. So I found this cute fabric, and it was actually way easy to make. I thought the sleeves would be tricky without a pattern, but I had no problem at all.

She watched me like a hawk the whole time I was sewing. i tried it on her a few times to get the right fit, and she knew I was making it for her. She had to wear it as soon as it was finished. She was so cute parading around in it, and waiting for her sisters to see.

Then I used some scraps to make sleeping bags for the girls' barbies. Now they can all go camping together.

Toy Story on Ice

2011-11-10T10:24:00.000-08:00

The girls have been really excited about Disney on Ice. When we got home from school they were super happy to get changed into their dressy clothes, and we didn't have any problem getting them to eat their dinner.
Ben got them each a souvenir. Kiersten picked out this hat. The back has a yarn braid attatched. She didn't end up wearing it too much, because she was proud to show off her hairbow. When we were in line for the bathroom, the lady in front of me gasped, and said, "I didn't see those! where'd you get that bow?". She was visibly disappointed when I said I had made it. I took that as a compliment. I had made a bunch of extra ones, and Ben was saying I should bring them to sell or hand out. I guess I should have listened.

Kara's sno-cone came in a Jesse mug, and she also got cotton candy that came with an alien hat.

candy face Evie pie! She was pretty excited to be there, and was way cute when she saw the characters. She was getting antsy by intermission, and then she slept through most of the second half. When she saw the pictures as I was loading them on the computer, she started giggling and clapping her hands.

The toy stroy theme was pretty cute, though there weren't as many different characters to see as there have been in the past years.

Kara didn't like the part with Zurg. She told me she hates bad guys.

Luckily Buzz Lightyear came to save the day. This has to be the part of the show that got the MOST applause.

Dancing Barbies. I thought thier role in the show was too long (and the green army men too) But the girls seemed to really like it.

Kara and Keirsten both said their favorite part was when Ken and Barbie met and fell in love.

By the end, the girls were up and dancing to every song. A lot of people were watching them and laughing. I don't think it was bothering anyone. (I hope not, anyway).

trick-or-treating

2011-11-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

Kara and Kiersten were super excited to wear their halloween costumes to school on monday.
Evie wasn't too thrilled to get dressed up for trick-or-treating, but once she saw herself in the mirror with her hat on, she loved it.

We didn't think she'd wear the moustache, so Ben had the idea to stick it to her binky. That worked out great. I know I told Ben to get a picture with Tommy and
Whitney too, but there wasn't one on the camera. Grrr...

We were the first ones out on our street. You can see Tommy dressed as a cute little monkey behind Ben.

Evie was prety proud to walk along with the bigger kids.

As Ben was helping Evie down the stairs at one of the houses, I guess he pulled her arm a little too hard, and her elbow got pulled out of place. She started screaming, but quickly calmed down. She seemed to be okay unless someone tried to move her arm, and then she'd scream. She also was refusing to use her left arm or hand at all. So after dinner the others went trick-or-treating again, and I took her to the urgent care to get it set back in. The doctor tried 3 times, and said he just couldn't get it to pop back in place. Finally they took some x-rays to make sure nothing else was wrong, and sent us home, saying he thought it was back in place, but really wasn't sure. He told me to see how it was in the morning, and gave me a referral to an orthopedist just in case. The next day she still wouldn't use her left arm, and was crying when we moved it, so Ben made her an appointment. The dr. couldn't get it back in at first, but was able to on the second attempt. He also showed me how to set it back in if it pops out again. He said she is a high risk to slip back out for the next week or two. But I was amazed that by the time we got home, she was using her arm, and just back to normal as if nothing was ever wrong with it.

Halloweekend

2011-10-31T16:07:00.000-07:00

Ben's Mom and his sister Nancy and her husband and kids came to visit us for halloween. They arrived thursday evening. On friday after the girls got out of school, we got started on making treats for a halloween tea party.
the girls set the table and made place cards for everyone.

Evie suddenly loves her animal train again now that her cousin Tommy came and likes playing with it.

Kara did really well at her soccer game saturday morning. It was really muddy and cold, so she and some of the other kids were upset by the end of the game. Later that afternoon, we went to a halloween party hosted by Ben's boss. It was really fun, and decorated super cute.

I made costumes for the first time this year. We were cavemen with a cave baby. You can't see the picture very well, but Evie had a cute little bone on top of her head. I loved her costume the most.

Vicky forgot to bring a costume, so luckily we have this cow costume she was able to wear. Here she is indulging in a little snack.

and...planking?...
my lovely princess peach and Halloween princess. I'll have better pictures of their costumes when they go trick or treating.

all the kids at the party. It was sure a lively group of kids, and hard to get a picture with all of them looking.

Evie fell asleep about 5 minutes into painting pumpkins.

Kara and Kiersten both worked really hard on their creations.

Nancy and I decorated a halloween gingerbread house with the girls. it was fun, though there were a few mishaps. We also made halloween suckers for the kiddos to take to their class party the next morning. It was a projecty day.Be on the lookout for cute trick-or-treating pics in the next day or two!

pumpkin palace

2011-10-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

Evie and I got to chaperone the girls' field trip to the pumpkin palace in Orting, WA.
The big girls were so good, and stayed with their buddies the whole time. Evie was teething, and cried pretty much the whole time.

Kara is almost 4 pumpkins tall.

The kids were excited about lunch.

Mrs. Wright tried to get the kids lost in the corn maze, but Kara's sense of direction was right on, and being one of the stronger personalities, she kept getting them to the end, and Mrs. Wright would lead them back into the maze.

The kids love playing on this giant woodchip pile. Even Evie cheered up a little.

They had a few running races before we left. I though Kara would be exhasted for soccer practice that evening, but she was energized as ever.

Eagle Mountain visit!

2011-10-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

My sisters Shelly and Angie had baby girls a week apart in september. So I had to run out there for a visit. I took Evie with me, but the other girls stayed home with Ben so they wouldn't miss school. We left on friday and came back yesterday. Angie and Clint came to pick me up from the airport. Makayla stayed at their house with us that night, and watched their kids while they picked us up.
Cute little Kyrie. She's a funny girl, and was happy to have us stay in her playroom. She kept asking me if she could jump on the bed. Angie and I accidentally stayed up talking til 7 am. So we slept in a bit on saturday, and Clint and Makayla were nice enough to take care of the little girls.

On saturday we all went to provo for a family birthday party for all the october birthdays and mine. All the kids had tons of fun playing in the leaves.

Nic was pretty excited about a new job he got at the state mental hospital.

Sweet little Brynnleigh. She is so tiny. At about 7 weeks, she's still smaller than Kiersten was at birth. Shelly and Angie made lots of baby stuff together, and their babies had the same blanket and headband on. Shelly's husband Troy came up to me right after this picture, and had to ask, "is that one mine?" I had a good laugh about that.

holding Brittleah and Brynnleigh. They both had such adorable outfits on!

my nice birthday gifts from my family.

Shelly opening her gifts.

Dad about to open his new blueray player. all of us girls went in on it for his birthday gift. He always lets the kids help him open gifts.

He seemed pretty happy with it. I was glad because he can be hard to shop for.

Evie cried a lot on the flight home. I was a little stressed out by the time we landed. But I was so happy to see Ben pulling up to pick us up, and thrilled to see Kara and Kiersten's smiling faces waiting in the car. Also waiting in the car, was a jewelry bag for me! I was surprised and happy to get this beautiful necklace from Ben. It might be my favorite one he's ever given me. I just love it. Isn't he the best. and I don't know if I can say even better, but almost as good, he cleaned out my car, had the house really clean, and dinner waiting for us at home. That was great to come home to.

10/21/11

2011-10-21T13:38:00.000-07:00

I don't have many new pictures this week. I've been busy with getting our dishwasher replaced, getting ready for my trip to Utah with Evie, and getting things back in order from Ben being gone last week. Ben took this picture of the girls while I was at the gym. He didn't like me going at 5 am, because sometimes Evie would wake up, and he'd have to get up with her. So I've been going after dinner, and he has been great about getting the girls to bed without me.
I just got out our box of 18 month clothing and size 5 shoes for Evie. She loved going through the bin of shoes and picking out the ones she liked best. My little squirt is just growing up too fast!

The girls are doing great in school, and they are both learning new things. Kara is learning subtraction, and still hasn't gotten less than 100% on the weekly spelling tests. Kiersten is doing better writing her numbers and letters, and is very excited that she's been doing better at the running races they have. I think it helps that on thursdays I've been making sure she is wearing the right kind of shoes for it. Evie has gotten over her ear infection, and is a much happier girl this past week. She is still a little clingy to me, but starting to ease up a bit. Ben is still working hard as usual, and has been enjoying playing basketball. I've been busy making stuff for my 2 new nieces, Brynnleigh and Brittleah, who I'll be seeing when I go to utah. I also made halloween costumes for Ben and I, but I'll keep it a surprise what they are. It was actually quite easy to make them without a patten. I guess since they are just costumes I wasn't too obsessed with perfection. we already have a costume for Evie, but I'm thinking of making her a second costume to match with ours, to wear to a halloween party on saturday.

10/14/11

2011-10-14T16:05:00.000-07:00

The girls were a little confused, and thought we were picking up daddy from the airport yesterday after school. When I bursted their bubbles, that we wouldn't be picking him up for several hours, I had a few sour-pusses on my hands.
He told me he was bringing me something I would really like, so I was pretty excited to find this box when we brought him home late last night/this morning. what could it be?

yummy and adorable marzipan! hooray! And they look like little fruits. so cute, I had to take a picture to remember them by, as they certainly wont be around very long. He had to walk an hour and a half around boston in his work shoes to find the store. He came home with huge sores on both his feet. :(

Evie was pretty excited to see both Ben, and the little teddy bear he brought back for her. She gave me the least trouble, being woken at midnight to go to the airport. The other two girls were SUPER cranky when I was getting them into the car.

The big girls liked their new boston t-shirts so much, the both wore them to school today. They are also excited to have daddy read the new book he got them when he comes home from work tonight. Their teacher let us send them to school a few hours late today, so they could sleep in to compensate for being woken up in the middle of the night. Kiersten was still up at 7 am, and was kind enough to get Evie out of bed too. So I didn't get to sleep in, but Kara and Ben both did, and then he took them to school on his way into work.

zoo and princess party!

2011-10-11T18:59:00.000-07:00

On saturday, we decided to go to the zoo. We haven't been for several months, so it was pretty fun to let Evie run around, and see everything. She was impressed with the walruses. It brought me back to when Kara was a baby, and loved watching them.
Checking out the tiger. They have tiger cubs, but we didn't end up seeing them this time.

The kids had tons of fun running around in the shark room with their buddy, Zac.

Kids in the shark bite, looking scary!

and a smiling one too.

They always love the playground. We have to go there last, or the kids wouldn't want to go see any animals.

climbing Kara

Yesterday after school, Kara invited us to a princess party. She said we had to have it before Daddy came home so his feelings wouldn't be hurt that he was not invited. Kiersten insisted on being called, "Lady Kiersten". We also had to speak like princesses, and say things like, "this strawberry is simply divine".

Evie enjoying her hot chocolate and cheese.

After the tea party, we played a few board games until the girls started arguing and fighting. Every time someone had to fall down a chute, Kara and Kiersten would laugh wildly, and Evie joined in too, though she didn't really know why she was laughing.

Kara said she would like to plan a halloween tea party when Grandma comes at the end of the month. So I'll have to help her think of a few ideas for that.

October projects

2011-10-06T15:59:00.000-07:00

After we made the paper pumpkins last week, the girls were very excited to put out halloween decorations around the house. When we were done, Kara said she thought we had more decorations. I thought so too, but I couldn't specifically remember anything that was absent. I decided we should do a few decorating projects to halloween the house up a little more. Kiersten found these wooden peanuts halloween magnets when we were at the store getting fabric for her halloween costume. She picked one out for herself, and each of her sisters.

As usual, Kara took a really long time trying to get hers just right.

I colored Evie's first, and then gave her a crayon to do some scribbling over the top.

Here they are proudly displayed on the refrigerator. The girls love rearranging and playing with them.

I've had this fabric sitting around for months, so I decided to sew myself a skirt. I made it one size too small, to encourage myself to keep losing weight. That's why it's so tight in the picture. I thought it turned out pretty good, and I only had to do the buttonhole once, which was great.

We found a foam jackolantern kit in the halloween box. i must have bought it on clearance last year after the holiday. The girls had fun creating their faces. I let them each decorate 3.

I also had a foam ring that I bought and never used. So I decided it should be turned into a halloween wreath. I just got some fun colored ribbon, and tied it closely together all the way around. This is how it turned out. I really like it, but Ben said it was weird. I guess that's okay for a halloween decoration.

I also bought some cheap-o window clings that look like little green goblins looking out your window. Yesterday, the girls didn't notice them, so today when we got home, I said, "It looks like someone is peeking out the front window." The girls both freaked out! I thought they would get that it was a fake decoration, but they both got upset and thought there were bad guys in the house. Kara refused to go in the house until I went in to make sure the monsters really were fake. (even though I'd already told her they were, and that I'd put them there.) We came in and I pulled up the blinds for the girls to see and touch them. Kara refused, but finally believed they were plastic. She said, "who would want to scare kids with pretend monsters in their house?" I felt pretty bad about it, so they might have to go. But I think for now, they are not scared of them anymore.

9/30/11

2011-09-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

One day this week, I decided to make the girls' snack into a spider I had seen somewhere online. My grapes were huge, though, so the legs looked weird, and I did the face differently, but the girls really got a kick out of it.

Kara is still having soccer practice 2 nights a week. Some of the other younger teams have changed to only practicing one night a week. I secretly hoped that our team would do the same. But the kids are getting better at each practice.

Kiersten and Evie love playing on the playground during practice. Evie had so much fun this day. It was the last day before she started getting sick, so it's nice to see smiling pictures of her. All I've seen the last few days, is a sad, miserable face.

As we were about to leave for practice, I noticed Kiersten was in dress up clothes. I didn't have time to make her change, as we were already a bit late. So I let her wear her outfit to the practice. There happened to be another little sister on the playground wearing a tutu and fairy wings. They decided to play together right away, and spent the entire hour together.

They usually spend a lot of their time at practice fighting over snacks.

On wednesday, the girls wanted to do a project after school. So I let them make paper pumpkins. They both were so proud to get to use the paper cutter, and the stapeler.

Here they are with the finished pumpkins. Now Kara really wants to get out all the halloween decorations. I told her we'd probably do it this weekend.

Since Evie was too sick/too little to help, I made her a smaller pumpkin so she wouldn't feel left out. It was enough for her to get to touch the supplies and tools, and she ended up almost as happy about her pumpkin as the other 2.

I think they turned out really cute for such an easy project.

We ended up hanging them from the fans in their bedrooms.

Yesterday was Kiersten's first class helper day. She woke me up in the morning, all excited, and wanted to get her hair curled. Because she got dressed and ate breakfast so quickly, I had time to do the curls for her. She was so proud, i really should do it more often. She decided to take her baby zhu zhu pet for show and tell.

After school, she kept telling me that she was so special, and telling me excitedly about her day. When i tried to get her to tell Ben around bed time, she didn't really have much to say. I guess she was tired of talking about it.

Kara was class helper today. She ended up taking Kiersten's Ariel and Eric barbies. Ben tried to talk her out of it, but Kiersten was okay with it, so that's what she took. I'm sure Kiersten will want to bring prince Eric for show and tell herself, so the kids will just get to see him twice. Today was also their first field trip of the year. they got to ride a ferry boat. they both had lots of fun. I was glad I didn't volunteer to chaperone, because i ended up taking Evie to the doctor today, and she has a double ear infection. So I'm glad i didn't have her out and about, and crying the whole time.
After I took their picture together, Kiersten said, "mommy, you need to take a very special picture of just me on my best field trip day ever".

9/27/11

2011-09-27T11:18:00.000-07:00

Kara has recently discovered our dance dance revolution game for the game cube. We hadn't played it in years, but when we moved, it surfaced, and she loves it. she's getting better each time she plays. She just graduated from easy to normal, and is quite proud of the accomplishment.

A few days ago, I didn't know where Kiersten had gone. She was there one minute, and then next, I couldn't find her. Since the baby gate was up, I knew she was upstairs, and after a minute of looking around and callling for her, I heard a giggle and saw the pillows on the couch moving. She thought it was pretty clever.

Last night I was putting Kara and Kiersten to bed. While I was tuckingKiersten in, Evie made herself comfortable in Kara's room. I just had to get a picture of it. Kara thought it was hilarious, and was thrilled when she thought Evie was going to have a sleep over. Unfortunately for her, Evie lost interest in being there after less than 5 minutes.

Evangeline is wearing her first ponytail today. I was waiting til she had more hair to try it, but she is so obsessed with the other girls getting their hair done, and always wants hers brushed too. This morning, she came to me all excited with a brush and comb and sat happily in my lap, so I decided it wouldn't hurt to try. She loved it, and sat really still (for her). she was so excited when she saw her little hairbow in the mirror.

Puyallup fair

2011-09-22T10:16:00.000-07:00

On sunday we went to the Puyallup fair with some friends. We didn't take tons of pictures, but we did get a couple. The kids loved the petting zoo. Evie was so cute, tackling a baby goat, and thinking she could pull it over. Here's the bigger girls petting a duckling.
It was rainy, but not too bad, just a drizzle mostly. Evie was very happy to get out of the stroller for lunch.

Since Kiersten ate her lunch, she got to get some cotton candy. She shared a little with Kara, but she made sure Kara remembered it was hers. As soon as she got it, Kara asked for her burger so she could finish eating it, and get a treat too.

Evie did pretty well being stuck in the stroller for most of the time. We definitely knew when she was ready to go home, though.

The kids riding the carousel. They saw it right when we got there, but we made them wait to ride until we were on our way out. Poor Zac ended up getting scared and crying during the ride. It was so sad.

It only took a week for us to get tired of the girls backpacks being thrown around everywhere. I wanted to get a cute coat rack for their rooms, but i couldn't find anything I liked. So I bought these hooks, and painted them. Then I bought cheap little wooden shapes, and painted those, and glued them on to look cuter. I love how they turned out, and the girls were super excited when they saw them.

this one is in Karalee's room. Ben didn't hang it crooked on the wall, I just took a crooked picture.

This is the one in Kiersten's room. I don't know what I was thinking, taking these pictures at such weird angles. it was kinda late at night though, so maybe that explains it.

school: week one

2011-09-19T11:27:00.000-07:00

The girls had a great first week of school. Kara got 100% on her spelling test, and won an award for star speller. Kiersten was so proud to bring home a certificate saying she completed her first week of preschool. It had a pencil taped to it, which she calls her "prize pencil". she hasn't let me sharpen it for her yet, and it is still proudly taped to the certificate on the fridge. Since they have been mostly in new clothes all week, they've been wanting their picture taken every morning before school. Here's Kara, excited for her day as class helper. She took her my little pony hot air balloon for show and tell.

They both loved these shirts, because you can't see in the picture, but the buttons are sparkly and shiny.

On friday, I said we didn't have time for a picture, and Kiersten got upset, and asked, "how will I know if Aunt Nancy likes my boots?"

On saturday, we wanted to make sure Kara ate a good breakfast, so she'd have energy for her soccer game. So I did pancakes, eggs, and bacon. I decided it would be fun to jazz it up a little, which is something I've been trying to do a little on the weekends lately. For Kiersten's plate, I tried my best to make it look like a sun. I saw something similar to this online, but had to make my own adjustments, of course. Kiersten thought it was hilarious.

I destroyed the eggs trying to make Kiersten's sun rays, so I couldn't do the same for Kara. So I got the idea to try to make hers look like a bird. It's standing on a branch. Ben couldn't tell what it was supposed to be, but Kara knew right away. I wish I'd taken pics of some of the other things I've done lately, such as a pb&j sandwich looking like a watermelon slice, and a grilled cheese to look like an ice cream cone.
Evie loves playing with Kara's old backpack so she can be just like her sisters.
On saturday, it was Evie's daddy daughter day. She was so excited to get to go with him. He took her to the rhododendron gardens and took her to buy candy and a balloon. He had more fun than he thought he would.

We didn't take pics of Kara's soccer game on saturday, but she did much better. Her energy was way higher, and she scored her teams only goal. She was a lot more willing to get in the cluster and take the ball away. It was raining the whole time, so Kiersten and Evie were a little whiny, but they still had fun too. Kara got knocked down a few times. The first time, she started crying, but after that, she made a point to be tough and stay out on the field. After the game her coach told Ben that he thinks she has a natural skill for soccer, and encouraged us to keep her in it.

While Ben and Evie were gone on saturday, Kara made a family apple tree. I thought it was pretty cute. That's me to the left, the pink paper is a drawn picture of Kiersten, Ben is floating in the middle, the monkey sticker is supposed to be Evie, and the tiny picture in the apple on the trunk is Kara. I thought it was a cute thing to do.
Kara's 2 best buddies at school are Alex and Devin, both boys who have been in school with her the last 2 years. Her teacher told me that Devin keeps writing I love Kara on his work, and I thought that was so cute. Then Kara came home from school with a mobile she made. when I turned it over, it said "I love Devin" on the back in 2 places. I laughed about it, but Ben didn't think it was very funny. He confronted her about it. At first she said she didn't know who wrote it, but eventually admitted it was her. He warned her not to love boys or say she loves them, and she got really upset about it. I tried to step in, but she could tell he really meant it. Later she came to me crying that daddy wont let her be friends with Devin and Alex anymore. I explained that's not true. He is glad for her to have friends, as long as she doesn't think they are "boyfriends". He told her she can say or write that she likes them, but he doesn't like her saying she loves any boy but daddy, or her grandpas. I think he needs to deal with the subject more gently in the future, so she doesn't feel like she's getting in trouble about it. Later, she showed him a picture she made, on which she had written, "I sort of like Alex and Devin".
The other thing he didn't like is this picture Alex made for her. It's a picture of her saying, "hi alex" and him saying "hi Kara". He is giving her a flower, and at the bottom, it says, "they kist". Again, I thought it was kind of cute, but Ben wasn't happy about it. Poor Kara...

first day of school

2011-09-12T10:40:00.000-07:00

The much anticipated first day of school is finally here! The girls were so excited last night to help me pack their lunches and set out their clothes for the morning. Karalee even insisted on setting her alarm clock to wake her up. Kiersten will be doing the preschool program and Kara will be one of 5 kids in the kindergarten program. I am relieved there are other kindergarteners in the class. In Kara's first year of preschool, there was only 1 kindergartener, and she seemed to be doing more babysitting than learning. So I'm glad that Kara will have a group of peers her own age to learn with. Kiersten is really excited to show her teacher that she can write her name.

They are also excited about their new shoes and backpacks. I guess I didn't get that great of a picture. Kiersten's is my little pony.

Kara has a Mario Kart backpack, featuring princess Peach. She also has a lunch box to match, which she is pretty excited about.

arriving at school

Kiersten has been dreaming of the day that she would be staying at school with Kara, instead of spending the day with boring, old mommy. She immediately started introducing herself to her new friends, and even told Mrs. Wright that she isn't going to have any accidents today. I hope that's true! Her shirt had a detatchable necklace and chains, which she broke off on the way to school. She was really upset about it, and crying. I think I can fix it though. I wasn't to worried about it, because I got that shirt for $4.00.

Kara immediately went into "big sister" mode. Being overprotective, bossy, and extra sweet to Kiersten all at once. I've warned her several times not to boss Kiersten around at school, but I knew she would. I also know her teacher wont let her get away with it too much. She's had siblings in her school at the same time before.

On saturday, Kara had her first soccer game. Here are the Tigers waiting patiently on the bench and cheering their teammates on the field. Kara is to the right.

It took her a few minutes to be willing to go after the ball. She seemed to be worried about being rude to the other team, by taking it away. Ben and the coach both had to tell her it was okay.

She did better in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of play. by the last quarter, she was hot, tired, and upset, and didn't want to go back on the field. She just wanted to sit in the shade eating snacks. Ben has lots of ideas what he wants to work on with her. We also decided that next week, she needs to have a bigger breakfast than just a bowl of cereal to keep her energy level up better. I think all of the kids will do better next week, now they've played an actual game instead of just practicing and doing drills.

fall cupcakes and sprinklers

2011-09-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

This was our last week before the girls start school, so we've stayed pretty busy. Kiersten has been begging to make cupcakes, and on wednesday, she cleaned her room, and talked Kara into helping clean the playroom too. So I went through a cookbook with them to pick out a flavor. They ended up choosing a yellow cake, which was good for me, because it was a simple recipe.

They took turns putting in ingredients and turning on/adjusting the speed on the mixer. They both still complained that the other was getting to do more or better ingredients.

Evie really wanted to be involved, so I let her down from the highchair to participate. She didn't get too many jobs, but she still felt like a big kid helping out. the other 2 were going crazy over who got to put in the eggs, so Evie ended up getting to do that part. She almost smacked away the measuring cup I'd put them in for her, because she was clapping so wildly for herself.

They looked through my hello cupcake book, and chose to do pumpkins. there was a template for the faces, but being a little lazy that day, I just melted down some colored chocolate and free handed the faces. They are on that wax paper to Kara's right. I didn't have any yellow, so I used a neon green to look like they were glowing, then I outlined them all in black. In retrospect, they would have probably looked a lot better had I just used the templates, and it probably wouldn't have taken much longer, but owell, too late now.

We made a vanilla buttercream, and colored it orange. Then I piped that onto the cupcakes with a star tip to make it look stripey. Then Kara's job was to put the faces on. I kept reminding her to keep the stripes vertical, but she did several of them horizontally, and they didn't look too bad.

I happened to have some chocolate covered sunflower seeds, so i decided we'd use those for stems. That was Kiersten's job. she kept saying she wanted to make them girl pumpkins, and asking if she could put bows on their stems. I told her no several times, but she ended up doing it anyway on most of them, and they actually looked kind of cute, I have to admit. Both of the girls only wanted to eat the boy pumpkins, though. Maybe they were trying to keep the girl ones around longer or something. Some of them got named, but I can't remember the names. See what I mean about the faces turning out a little sloppy? That's what I get, I suppose for being lazy.

I made enough faces to decorate 15 cupcakes. Even though I cut the recipe in half, we got 32 mini cupcakes out of it. So I sent a bunch of them to work with Ben to share. They are certainly not perfect, but good enough to make the girls happy. Kara also had a few issues with the spacing of the faces, but I guess it doesn't matter.

They were very proud of their creations. It was torture for them to have to wait until after dinner to eat any.

Since only 15 got to become pumpkins, we made some chocolate frosting for the rest. I also let them use the sunflower seeds to decorate the chocolate ones. They turned out very...interesting... and artistic...

Today was super hot, so after we got back from grocery shopping, I got out this sprinkler beach ball for the girls. Kara picked this out weeks ago, and this was the first time they've gotten to play with it. We've just been so busy for the past month.

She kept trying to run and jump over it, but she'd just end up hitting the top and bouncing back.

Kiersten complained a lot about getting wet. I don't think she had much fun. The only reason she kept getting back in the water, was to prove Kara wasn't having more fun than she was. She took a nap when we went inside, so I'm sure she was just tired and grumpy.

Ben went grocery shopping the other day at sam's club, and came home with this cute little picnic table. It's perfect for the girls, and they are always asking to eat in the backyard. When we had people over on monday for burgers, Kara took her plate out here, and sat by herself to eat.

space helmets and sassy soccer star

2011-09-07T12:33:00.000-07:00

Ben recently decided to have a daddy-daughter date with each of the girls individually on the weekends. On saturday, he took Kiersten out for a movie, candy store, and other fun stuff. So that left me at home with Evie and Kara, who was determined to make our day fun at home. Right after breakfast, she made up a list of things to do, and told me we'd just keep checking fun things off the list til we ran out, or it was time for bed. One of the first things, was to have a party on mars. So she made these paper hats for us to use as helmets, and we all sat on her bed (the rocketship).

Evie's space helmet.

I let Kara take this picture, but I was trying to help her hold the camera still, and my helmet fall back at the last minute. I hoped I'd caught more of it than just a small corner, but I'm sure you get the idea what it looked like from seeing the others.

After the rocket ship landed on mars, we played a few games and watched "open season 3". According to Kara, it was the first movie the martians had ever seen. We had time for a few more fun activities before Ben and Kiersten got home, and then we went to a birthday party. I forgot the camera, but it was really fun. The girls had a blast, but were exhausted by the time we came home. They sure love those bounce houses, even Evie. Maybe we'll have to do that for one of their birthday parties.

On sunday, Ben helped his friend move, and took Kara and Kiersten with him to play with their little boy. So Evie and I went school clothes shopping without them. At first, I was kinda sad they would rather play with thier friend than go shopping with me, because it can be fun. But I have to admit that it was way easier, and faster with just Evie. We got everything they need, without them begging to get more stuff they don't need. we stopped at a sale Ben wanted me to check out, and still had time for a cinnabon and time to let Evie play in the kiddie area for a while. So it was a nice day. Monday was low key. We had Sandy and Jen over and Ben made burgers. It was a nice, relaxed afternoon.

Kara had her second soccer practice yesterday. She is loving it. There are 4 girls and 2 boys on her team, all 5 years old. They have their first game on saturday. The coach asked them for team name suggestions, and all he could get were "princesses", "fairies", and "charging unicorns". So he told them all to talk to their parents about it and come to practice on thursday with a few better suggestions. She is definitely the most aggressive/confident player so far. I'm sure the other kids will get more daring after another practice or 2. Kara was doing so well at dribbling, so the coach had her run around trying to steal the ball from the others as they practiced. The first time, as soon as she ran toward the others, they all kicked their ball out of bounds rather than face her. So he made them try again, and they all tried to keep dribbling, but she was able to get them all out. She was so proud to be chosen to steal the balls. It's all she talked about on the way home. Kiersten and Evie don't have as great of a time watching her practice in the heat for an hour. Hopefully as it starts to cool off a bit, they'll be a little happier. Here's a picture of my silly little poser before we left for practice. She's pretty proud of her "soccer clothes". I wish I could share the look on her face when we got her uniform yesterday, when she saw that it was black and gold, and more than a bit oversized. She said, "I only have to wear that to the games, right?"

and since Kiersten has no intention of being out-sassed by Kara, here is a picture of both of them, posing away.

9/2/11

2011-09-02T11:48:00.000-07:00

On wednesday, a new Disney store opened up in the south center mall next to Ben's office. So, being the disney lover he is, of course he told me about it and suggested I take the girls to the opening. We got there about 9:55, and had to wait in line until 11:15. I thought of leaving, (especially since I'd forgotten the stroller) but the girls freaked out at the mere suggestion. So we waited forever to get in. Once we were in, we were too late to get the free gift (which was just Mickey ears, so the girls weren't that disappointed). But I thought for standing in line that long, I'd better get them something in the store. So I told the girls they could each choose 2 things. I ended up spending less than I planned, as they luckily chose things that weren't too pricey. Kara chose a princess stamp set, and a set of fairy figurines. Evie chose a Daisy duck doll. Kiersten chose a large princess Aurora doll (not surprising, as she's one of her favorites). Her other choice was a prince Eric doll. If you know Kiersten well, you probably know about her obsession with, and determination to marry Prince Eric of The Little Mermaid. She talks about him all the time. So she is beyond thrilled to have this new doll. She hovered over me as I opened the package, and kept warning me not to rip his sleeve, be careful with his arm, don't let his boot fall off. Once he was out of the packaging, she said, in her manly-est voice, "thanks, Kiersten's mother. don't you know I have a wedding to get to?"

After a few minutes of dancing with Kiersten, he, Ariel, and all of the barbies and polly pockets got dressed up for the wedding. Kiersten wanted to wait to have the wedding after Ben got home, but happily for him, she couldn't wait that long for them to kiss, so they were married right away.

With the girls starting school soon, I want to make their last few weeks of summer really fun. So I got these sun catchers for them to paint. They really enjoyed it, and made hardly any mess.

I think they did a fantastic job painting, and I will get them hung in the window as soon as I'm satisfied they are dry enough.

Kara's first soccer practice was yesterday. It was only 6 miles away, but it took forever to get there, because of a Blink 182 concert. Once we were there, the 2 little girls settled on a blanket to watch the practice.

There are 6 kids on her team, but only 4 were at practice because of confusion over which school it would be held at. If you can't tell, Kara is to the right in pink shorts.

I'll have to get a closer picture of her in her soccer gear at her next practice on tuesday. She looks like such an adorable little soccer player. She had so much fun learning her new skills.

The lady in pink to the left is the school custodian who came to kick us off the field. Something about, they didn't water the field enough during spring, so now they have to water it every night during the summer. Looks pretty dead to me, but owell. The coach was really mad about it. They finished up their practice on the basketball court. She learned, throwing in bounds, stopping the ball with the side of her foot, and passing and shooting. He even tried to teach them to do a header, but all of them backed away at the last second. She is excited for her first game, and keeps reminding me that her coach told her to practice at home. one more quick story, sorry no pic to go along with it though. The other night, the girls were all in bed, and Ben and I were downstairs watching a movie. He heard Evie crying, so I went up to get her, and found she had gotten out of bed, and instead of going into the hallway, she ended up in the closet, and somehow shut herself in there. When I opened the door, she was pounding and pushing on the wall, and was so upset. It took her a long time to calm down. She had dropped her binky and cup in there, while she was trying to get out. I felt so bad. she really was terrified. Kara started crying when I told her about it, and said, "that must have been so scary for her, mom!" Isn't that just the saddest? Ben felt sad about it too. so now, we have to make sure the closet is closed and the door is open when we put her to bed.

Kara's first flower arrangement

2011-08-29T18:40:00.000-07:00

I haven't taken many pictures lately, so just a short update today.
A few days ago, the girls were playing in the backyard, and admiring the pretty flowers. Kara wanted to know if we could cut some flowers for the kitchen table. So I let them each pick out a few flowers, and put them in a vase. We had a lively few minutes when we discovered an earwig had hitched a ride in the house, but he was easy to deal with. Kara was the main "stylist". The white ones were droopy at first, but much perkier the next day. (now they're all dead, because I didn't change the water). I think in the spring she'll really like doing some little arrangements, because we have tons of other trees and bushes that I think will be really pretty.

Kiersten totally thinks she helped more than she actually did. I'm glad to let her think so, she was just as proud as Kara, even though she didn't touch the flowers once we brought them in the house. She was a contributor after the fact, though. The next day I found some dandelions floating around in the water, and today, before I threw them out, I saw a silk flower floating in there as well.

An updated pic of Evie's head wound. It doesn't look nearly as bad as I thought it would when we took off the bandage. I think it still may scar, but it's looking better now, and hasn't bothered her at all. Hard to believe such a small thing caused such a big fuss, but it was really scary at the time, and SUPER bloody. I should take a pic of her now. We went to a birthday party over the weekend, and she was diving headfirst out of the bouncy house, so now she has a few scratches and bruises on her little face.

how we spent the rest of our trip

2011-08-22T08:29:00.000-07:00

On sunday we headed over to Kerry and Lana's for brunch, and to spend the night. The girls talked Papa into saddling a horse for them to ride. Kiersten loved being up there by herself. she was all smiles.

Karalee got to ride without Papa holding and leading the horse. she is getting so big. It's fun to see them doing things like this.

Even Evie got to take a turn.

We had our friends Aerik and Brooke over with their little boy, Chase, who had not been on a horse before. It took quite a bit of persuasion, and a little trickery to get him up there, but he seemed to like it. Afterward he said something like, "I'm 4 and I can ride a horse!" His 4th birthday was the day before.

On monday we drove to Montana to stay for the night. We went to this fun water park called Splash montana. It was perfect for kids. The main pool doesn't go deeper than 3 1/2 feet. I didn't even notice the deep pool with swimming lanes until we were driving away. We had lots of fun here.

Ben and the girls enjoying the lazy river.

Kara was barely too short to go on the big water slides, but she still had fun on the little kid slide.

We stayed in a hotel in missoula that night, and left after breakfast the next morning. We got home around dinner time. Ben and I both showered, and then Ben headed out to get some dinner for everyone. While he was gone, Evie was sitting on the couch playing with some toys, when she stood up, smiled at me, and then just fell off sideways, hitting her forehead squarely on the coffee table. I can still see it in slowmo in my head, and keep wondering, why didn't I jump up to grab her as soon as she stood up? Why didn't I set her back on the floor as soon as she climbed up? I guess because she climbs everywhere, and hasn't ever fallen off the couch, but that's really no excuse. In my head it seems like I had time to catch her as she was falling. But it happened anyway, and she started screaming of course. As I picked her up, I saw she had a red scratch running across her head, that didn't look too bad. But as soon as I noticed it, that red line turned black and popped open, spraying both of us with SO MUCH blood! It was terrifying. I rushed into the bathroom, and got it as under control as I could and tried to call Ben, but I heard his phone ringing from the other room. So I got dressed and got her ready, and looked up ER's in the gps, so I could leave when he got back. He was back within minutes, and I told him what was happening, he saw the bandaid on her head and said it couldn't be that bad, but when I lifted it to show him, he agreed that she needed to go to the hospital. the neighbor came over with a first aid kit, and we got it bandaged better, and off I went while Ben stayed with the other kids. Having always waited hours in the ER, I was prepared for a long night. But show up with a one year old bleeding profusely from her head, and you get taken care of straight away. Everyone there was really nice, and she didn't cry at all. When I walked in, both the receptionists looked at me and said, "coffee table?" I was shocked, but they both just laughed and said it happens to every kid. ( I guess Kara and Kiersten were some miraculous exception) The Dr. decided she could close it with dermabond, so she didn't need stitches, which was great. So the hardest part was just holding her still for the glue to be applied, and I had 2 nice male nurses to help me, so it wasn't all that bad. One of the nurses gave her a soft little teddy bear to snuggle with, and she was happy with that and grapes from my purse. So, it was a scary and sad night, but it turned out the best it could have, I suppose. here she is all glued shut and bandaged up. It hasn't bothered her, unless she see's her reflection in the mirror. Then she picks at the bandages a little.

Katie's wedding

2011-08-19T11:02:00.000-07:00

Katie's wedding was on saturday. We went to the temple to see them come out, and to get my bridesmaid dress (which was miraculously sewed the night before. I literally got fitted for it at 5pm, and it was done by the next morning!)
After the temple, everyone headed over to the Hilton for the ring ceremony. Vicky and Pam waiting for the ceremony to begin.

Ben and me walking down the aisle together.

Kara and Kiersten were flower girls. Evie didn't walk when she was supposed to, so Ben ended up just grabbing and holding her. It was really hot, so Kara was a little whiny.
She didn't walk down the aisle, but still made an adorable little flower girl.

Tommy wasn't too happy about his role as ring bearer. I love this pic of the 2 groomsmen holding their fussy babies.2 of our favorite people to hang out with.
It was a really sweet ceremony.

Kiersten and Jason after the ring ceremony.

the wedding party. Kara kept putting her hand over her eyes and complaining about the sun, so that ruined some of the shots. I guess that's what happens when you go from 70° weather back home to 90°+ in Idaho.

bridesmaids

Back for the reception. We let the girls take a nap after the ring ceremony, and came back around 6 for pictures, and the reception. The girls loved playing out on the lawn, and it was cooler, so they were much happier.

I wanted to take a picture of Kiersten, and she immediately made a silly face.Daddy-daughter dance. Kiersten was so excited to dance with Ben, but noone realized when it was time to join in, so they missed it. He made up for it by dancing with her tons later on.

Mother-son dance. More than one person asked why I wasn't out there, and I had to remind everyone, I have no sons! Vicky looked thrilled to be dancing with Jason.

And Ben danced with Lana, who seemed to enjoy it until he unexpectedly dipped her.

Daddy and Kiersten

Ben dancing with Abby.

Erika was nice enough to take a few shots of Ben and me dancing. I love this one because it looks like Brennon is shaking Katie up and down.

of course he had to dance with the bride too. Katie looked so happy all evening. I've never seen her smile so much.

more dancing.

groomsmen doing the YMCA dance

Kiersten kept asking me if she could dance with Victor, and I told her to go up and ask him. Finally she came to me in a huff, and said, "Victor keeps dancing with Nancy, and not ME". so Ben was kind enough to dance with Nancy, freeing Vic up to dance with Kiersten. you have to look over Ben's shoulder to see them.

they left through a bubble tunnel. It looked really cute.

they also realeased all the butterflies that had been part of the centerpieces. On landed one Ben's arm and stayed there until he picked it off and handed it to Trevor.

playing in Island Park

2011-08-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

Since we were going out to Idaho for Katie's wedding, we decided to go out a few days early and spend some time at Mark and Vicky's cabin in Island Park.

Even Katie came up for the afternoon on thursday. We had tons of fun playing in the water, and made smores later that night. Uncle Charlie roasted a little bat that had been terrifying Ben and Nancy in the cabin that morning.

We also went up to big springs, which was just a few miles away.
Kiersten really took a liking to uncle Charlie, and wanted to hold his hand, talk to him, and ask him questions all day.we were disappointed to find that instead of tons of really huge fish to feed, there are now one or two fish and tons of seagulls.

Vicky bought this blow up toy, but it had a few holes in it. So Ben made her crawl in there first to prove it was safe for the kids to use.

The kids all loved playing in the water. We had a couple of really nice days, and amazingly, no one got sunburned.

Ben and Kara on the jetski.

Kiersten's turn to ride.Evie had fun in the water too. She loved borrowing Tommy's little float toy.

Ben and me in the water after wiping out.

Vic and Ben playing around on friday morning.

Nancy took Tommy and Kara out in the paddle boat.

The girl's thanking uncle Charlie for having us up to the cabin.

I just downloaded 300 pictures off my camera from our trip, so I'll be posting again soon!

8/9/11

2011-08-09T00:29:00.000-07:00

Just a few pics of the kids enjoying the new swings Ben put up for them.
Ben's friend, Jon came over with his little boy to play for the afternoon.look how she's enjoying that swing! :)We all had to play several rounds of "guardian". Kara's been wanting to play it with daddy forever.It took the longest time to get all the balls past Ben. He was a pretty good guardian with those long monkey arms.Evie is fighting her nap lately. Yesterday I just could not get her down for her morning nap. So when i put her in the highchair of lunch, she was asleep after the first bite. Not the preferable way to get her down for a nap, but lately this is one of the few places she's falling asleep.a little stowaway. She thought it was so funny to be all zipped up in this bag.

bedrooms and bathrooms

2011-08-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

Kiersten now shares a room with Evie. This is Kiersten's side of the room. The walls are a pale green, it didn't show up too well in the pictures. So We let her pick out a few things to make it feel more girly for her. We got those pink bins under her bed at ikea. They work perfectly for the items that were homeless, when she lost the drawers on Kara's bed, that she had in our old house. We also put the tea party table in here, so it wouldn't be taking up half of the play area. to the left of the window is a small little mermaid painting Ben ordered for her. She loves the little mermaid. Ariel is by far her favorite princess.
This is Evie's side of the room. We turned her crib into a daybed, but then we added the cinderella panel to keep her in there better. That flower on the wall is a nightlight, except it's a little too bright to leave on all night, so she still has a plug in night light. Evie is sleeping in here every night for at least part of the night. Sometimes she stays in here all night, but most nights she wakes up and comes in bed with us. just another view of the room.
Kara was upset when she saw that her room had blue walls. But she soon decided she could girly it up with decor. That star is a nightlight, but not as bright as Kiersten and Evie's. The painting on the wall is a Kinkaide Cinderella painting that Ben ordered for her. It's cooler than I realized. It is very detailed and has some hidden characters, such as Peter Pan, Pinocchio, and Snow White. It's more impressive in person. She loves her own room. I put a toddler lock on the door, so when she wants her privacy, she can close the door, and Kiersten and Evie can't get in. She loves that, though Kiersten is not too happy about it. We gave her the cd tower Kerry made for Ben. She is so cute keeping her cd's on there, and inviting her sisters in to have dance parties.
We also gave her this white bookshelf that was in the playroom. She had it all decorated before I got the chance to fill the shelves. There are still a few things I will probably change. To the right of the bookshelf is a 3D Cinderella sculpture and some decals Ben put up for her.
another angle in Kara's room. She gets to keep the dvd's in here. We gave her this dresser that used to be in our walk-in closet. So now she has more than enough space for all of her things. I had the drawers all set up how I wanted them, and she already took it upon herself to do some rearranging. I thought that was kind of funny. She put all her pajamas in a seperate drawer from her nightgowns, and seperated her pants and shorts, and also seperated long sleeved shirts from short sleeved shirts. She's a funny, particular girl.
This is the girls' bathroom. They don't keep it very clean, which is bad, because this is also the main bathroom on the upper level. So I've really been getting after them to clean up after themselves. Kiersten still gets toothpaste EVERYWHERE, but I really want her to brush her own teeth, so she can learn.
another view of their bathroom. the bathtub is to the left, just out of the picture.
We have a much smaller master bedroom, but we worked it out to fit all our stuff. I did regret having so many clothes at first, but I just had to start putting things in drawers that I used to hang. I love being able to sleep by Ben again, now that Evie doesn't sleep with me all night.
another view. This is the tv that used to be in our livingroom. We still haven't got curtains in here, but there are blinds, so that works for now.
The master bathroom. It only has 1 sink, but we've gotten used to that. The only thing I don't like, is that there is only 1 outlet in the entire bathroom. That door you can kind of see to the right is a huge linen closet. The floor has a laundry shoot, which has been nice to be able to dump the laundry down all at once, instead of making several trips up and down with baskets. I didn't get a picture of the laundry room, but I LOVE having a large laundry room again. There is even a nook in there which I am using as a scrapbook area. Ben hung a shelf and bought a light to hang for me. The bad part about the laundry shoot; the other day, Ben found Kiersten dangling her legs down there, because Kara had told her to go down the hole. It was SO scary. So the girls have been banned from opening that door. I think we succesfully scared her from ever trying that again.
This is the downstairs bathroom. I hate the curtain, so that will be getting replaced eventually, probably with some sort of roman shade. The jetted tub has been nice.

taking the tour

2011-08-06T12:29:00.000-07:00

We are finally unpacked enough, that I felt comfortable taking pictures of our new house. This is the familyroom, which has 4 functions; tv room, playroom, office, and sewing room. This angle shows the tv area, and to the left, you can see some chairs. That is my sewing area, which I didn't really get a picture of. Our glass table is there in the corner with my sewing machine, and bow making stuff.
This is our office/computer area. We just got that desk and the bookshelf on the left at ikea when we moved in. Ben has been great about putting things together every weekend since we moved in.

The play area is on the other side of the bookshelf, and behind the couch. I was nervous about losing our playroom, and having to have all the toys out, but the girls have been doing a good job of keeping everything straightened up.

we went from having a walk-in pantry, to no pantry, and fewer cupboards. So some things are in the garage, but we also bought this cabinet to keep some pantry items in the kitchen. There is also a broom closet outside of the kitchen, with a shelf that we are using as a pantry as well.

The kitchen is a good size, and is working out really well. Ben and I have disagreed about the placement of a few things, but I get the last word, since I'm the one using the kitchen several times a day. Some of the cupboards and shelves are high up, and hard to access, so we found that stool at sam's club.

This is the livingroom. My favorite part is how nice and bright it is. Our old house doesn't have a window in the front room, so it was always dark. Ben's least favorite part is the windows. I open them as soon as he leaves for work, and he closes them as soon as he gets home. our old computer desk is in the left corner, and to the right is the new tv Ben decided we needed for this room. I don't love the baby swing there, but we probably wont be using it much longer.

We sold our dining set when we moved, so this is the new one we got. It came in 5 boxes, and said it would take 2 adults 2.5 hours to assemble. Ben did it all himself in that amount of time. My contribution was keeping the kids downstairs and out of the way. and I also organized some of the screws for him:)

This is the mess that was left behind after he was done! I was reminded why wal-mart always had one person whose job was to follow Ben around cleaning up. He is quick, but messy. It took me over an hour to break down all this cardboard, and haul it all down to the recycle bin. I was covered from head to toe in little cardboard crumbs. But it was worth it for a brand new dining set!

Here it is in the diningroom. I've wanted to get a counter height set for a while now, but we kept putting it off. We had said around the end of the year we would get one, so I was thrilled when Ben decided to get this table the other day!

this is the view of the diningroom from the kitchen.

Here we are enjoying the new table. We don't need the 8 chairs on a daily basis, but it will be nice when we have guests over. The leaf folds down into the table, so we can just have a square table if we'd like as well. and it's nice not to have to worry about storing the leaf anywhere.

There is a little deck outside the diningroom. There are no stairs, though, so you can't get down into the backyard. The landlord came over and put that piece of wood around the bottom, so we don't have to worry about the kids falling off. We carried the grill upstairs, and then it wouldn't fit through the door. So Ben had to remove the door and put it back afterward.

He bought some wood and built a frame to put this tent on top of the clubhouse. we still might paint it, but that's something that can wait til later. He also swept and cleaned it out really nicely for the girls.

I cleaned the slide with bleach, but you can see it didn't come fully clean. but it looks much better. Ben attatched that, and we bought these new swings with plastic over the chains, so the girls don't get their hands pinched. you can kind of see the baby swing we got for Evie. Kara wanted a tire swing, but the plastic tire was $60! so we may try to find a cheaper tire later, or let her ask for it for christmas. We didn't realize swings cost so much. They've been having so much fun out here. I can't wait til all the wood is gone, because I don't want them climbing on it.

I will do another post with pictures of the bedrooms/bathrooms, as this one is getting long.

Girls' pictures

2011-08-03T12:51:00.000-07:00

we had these pictures done back in June. But they were one of the first things packed and one of the last things unpacked. So I thought it was time to share them here. I loved Evie's adorable Easter dress, so I had to have her wear that for the pictures. I usually don't go for the super fancy outfits in their pictures, but she just HAD to wear this dress again!

you wouldn't know from the pictures that she was SUPER cranky in the studio. The photographer was really great with her.The photographer didn't seem to even like this one, but I just loved that innocent little expression on her face. She wont be so baby-ish too much longer:(

Kiersten did a great job in the studio, except she kept trying to look pretty by blinking her eyes super fast.

She was so excited to tell everyone in the studio that she was 3 years old.

She was really funny in the car, trying to lean forward to protect her precious curls. I should curl her hair more often, but it's a lot of time and work for something that doesn't usually last very long. She loves seeing her picture with the curls by her room.

Kara got her picture taken at school back in february. I don't know if I'll have them get theirs taken this year. There are only a few packages to choose from, and the photographer only takes one shot of each child, and that's what you get. I just wish they could have coaxed a more real smile from her. She was smiling like this for a while after some kids at school were laughing about the gap in her front teeth, and calling them "bunny teeth". It took a few times of telling her how beautiful her smile is, and assuring her that the gap wont always be there, but now she has started smiling normal again. Beautiful as she is, seeing this picture makes me a little sad, because I remember her coming home from school upset about her teeth.

playing in the yard

2011-08-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of our new backyard. There is a play structure which the girls were so excited to see. But they weren't able to play out there at first, because of all the cut logs stored down there, and also, I wanted to get it cleaned up first, and make sure it was safe. The landlords cut down 2 80ft trees back here before we moved in, so there is tons of wood. They are selling it on craigslist, but Ben finally just decided to move some of it so the girls could play. they were asking every day when they'd be able to play out there.

We also sprayed the whole yard for bugs. This gate was covered in spider webs. But I think Ben got most of them. We haven't encountered any since.

finally swinging. We have since bought new swings, and fixed up the clubhouse a bit, and cleaned and put the slide back up, so I'll have to take another picture to show the difference.

this is just a view from the playground to see the back of the house.Evie loves playing outside. But I have to be following her closely, as she keeps trying to get down to the playground by going down the hill side, instead of the stairs. Also, there is a non working fountain back there, with some standing water. She hasn't been too curious about it yet, but I still wouldn't want her falling down there.

Kiersten on her trike.

Kara loves playing "guardian". which is either a game she made up, or learned at school, I'm not sure. It's basically like soccer, but with 7 or 8 balls, instead of 1.Evie honestly thinks the trike belongs to her. Kiersten can't ride it too long, without having to let Evie on, and then push her around. She's a good sister.

She can scoot it along by herself a little bit when Kiersten gets tired of pushing her.

I'll get a few pictures of the playground with the changes Ben made to fix it up, and also post a few pictures of the house. The girls' rooms aren't quite finished, and we are getting our new dining table tonight, so it should be all finished by the end of the week.

rotary park in centralia

2011-07-28T10:49:00.001-07:00

Ben's cousin Emily has been in washington visiting her parents down in Vancouver. So on sunday we drove down to centralia, and Emily and Jill drove up to meet us for lunch. We always have so much fun hanging out with these guys. Emily's 2 little boys are the same ages as Kara and Kiersten. It was nice to get a break from all the unpacking and organizing for an afternoon.

Kara and Lex made up an obstacle course together. It was really cute. I loved when the ice cream truck came around, and Lex informed us that, "my cousin needs ice cream to cool her off".

as fun as the playground was, the kids all ended up under the pavillion, playing with Ben's 3DS, and Emily's IPADs. It made it easier to keep an eye on them while we adults played a few rounds of boggle.

Jill hiding from the camera.

Evie had fun, but ended up crying for much of the drive back. There was really bad traffic for a sunday.

Now that we are getting the new house organized the way we want it, I will try to take a few pictures soon.