9/27/11

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.

Katie's wedding

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.

4/6/11

In the april fool's day post, I mentioned I'd try to do something fun for dinner. So here is what I came up with thanks to family fun's website. The girls were pretty thrilled to see cupcakes were for dinner. Since we aren't all meatloaf fans, I just did my meatball recipe, and cooked the girls' in cupcake liners. The "frosting" is mashed potatoes, and you can't really see the shredded carrot on top for sprinkles. Kara kept saying how delicious her cupcake was until we told her it was really a meatball. Then she tried to say she didn't like it, and wanted a regular meatball like mom and dad were eating. since they had dessert for dinner, I gave them dinner for dessert. These are nilla wafers with chocolate icing for the patty, laffy taffy for the lettuce and cheese, and red icing for the ketchup. I saw several different versions of this online, so I just decided to use things the girls like, and I thought would taste okay together.

I also did white chocolate and starburst eggs, and tootsie roll and caramel bacon. Kara was so excited to see bacon. But as she picked it up, she sadly declared that it was plastic. I told her to bite into it, and she cheered right up as she realized it was candy bacon.

I didn't end up tasting the little burgers, but the girls said they were good.

Kiersten falling asleep in a weird spot yet again. I can't figure out how she gets comfortable enough to fall asleep.

Since the girls have been wanting to play video games and watch tv a lot lately, I declared yesterday to be a no tv day. They also didn't get to play any video games, including their leapsters. So they ended up having a lot of fun finding things to do, such as playing ring around the rosie with Evie. She LOVED it.

they also played tag, hide and seek, I spy, animal guessing game, and did cool tricks. We also played some board games. Here are some of their cool tricks they came up with.

this little girl is sure being a cutie today. she has just recently started foot tapping and bouncing up and down when she hears music. My camcorder was dead, so I got a few pictures of her dancing around.

I just love her, she's my little sweetheart!

trimming the tree

First, I have to share this picture of the girls. They fell asleep on the way home from school friday. I always wake them up and send them into the house, but they decided to go right back to napping. I think Kara has outgrown her little pink couch... what do you think? little holiday crawler. I don't think I can call her an official crawler yet, but she can get around pretty well now.

Ben wanted it noted that he was singing black sabbath to Evie to get her smiling like that.

Ben took Kiersten on some errands saturday morning, so Kara and I decided to get started with the decorating. I had to run to walmart for some wall hooks, and forgot i had been christmas shopping early that morning. When I opened the back of the car to get Kara in, Kiersten's christmas present fell out and knocked her to the ground. I quickly explained that our neighbor left some presents in our car for her daughter's birthday, and sent Kara in the house to sit down and recover while I hid the gifts in the garage. when we went back out, she asked if she is gonna be invited to the fictitious birthday party. I told her I think it's just a family birthday party... I've asked her about it a few times since, and am convinced she sort of saw kiersten's gift, but didn't really know exactly what it is. She saw other boxes still in the car, but didn't see what they were. phew.

When Ben and Kiersten got home, we decorated the Christmas tree. I whined a lot about having to put those beads on. (just ask Ben) but it really didn't take too long.

Evie took a break for some baby food!

we went with our black and white decorations this year.

they did a pretty good job. Kara is tall enough this year, that I didn't have to rearrange the ornaments too much.

hanging the stockings!

for some reason, they always like hanging out under the tree.

Kiersten came home with suckers for her and Karalee.

Kara was excited to decorate this little tree. She remembered it from last year.

we found an unopened christmas cd that we must have bought on clearance after christmas last year. We put it on for the girls to dance to. They love having dance parties.

santa baby.

Ben, Kiersten, and Evie went to bed early, so Kara and I wrapped up a bunch of my jewelry boxes with left over wrapping paper scraps. We filled up this sleigh for a cute decoration. I knew there was a reason to keep every little box that I've ever gotten jewelry in. We did about half of them.

Kiersten already opened one, and was disappointed to find it empty. But better that, than opening the actual presents, I guess. Kara made that little Santa in the front at school last week.

Daisy's favorite hiding spot is back this year.