Christmas with Kailee and Ava

I thought I'd try and capture a little of our winter/Christmas celebrations for the grandparents and family out there who we won't be able to be with for the Holidays. We love you all and can't wait till next year when Beau will be done with school and we can see you much more often!

Our First Snow lasted a couple days but we got in some good fun. Poor Beau had to try and make a snowman for Kailee with very un-packable powder and Ava enjoyed her first winter being able to play in the snow.

We also enjoyed making our traditional Christmas Cookies! Kailee and Ava are always ready to help mommy in the kitchen. They love to eat all of the yummy ingredients like chocolate chips, nuts, and cookie dough. Ava even samples the cinnamon and baking powder. I never know quite how much of the ingredients they've stolen out of the bowl though so it's always a miracle when the cookies turn out ok.

Finally, we decorated our Tree. Once the girls had about 3 ornaments on every low branch, Daddy had to lift them up to finish off the top of the tree. They did a great job!

I hope you all have as wonderful of a Christmas as we are already having! We love you all and I will try to get Christmas morning pics up asap too!

Less Than 2 Months To Go!

Sorry it took me so long to get a pic of my tummy! I've heard the camera is supposed to add some weight so lets just say that mine adds 45 lbs. (and for those of you here in PA that have seen me in person, please just go along with the camera explination). Ashley, I hope this public humiliation brings you a little more holiday joy!

Home can be a Heaven on Earth!

Ava's not a huge cuddler so we have to take our opportunities when she gives them. Yesterday morning both she and Kailee were cuddling me on the couch as we watched "My Friends Tigger and Pooh." Even though I didn't want to get up and miss the moment, we only had 20 more minutes till I had to get Kailee to school, so I ran upstairs to get clothes for her. When I came back down, this is what I saw....I just love that they love each other so much!

Disappointment!

I know movies are never as good as books, and I tried not to get my hopes up but I was soooo disappointed! I have heard from a few people who loved it but I don't get it! Even the critics said it was better than the books! Better than the books?? The only reason it was somewhat entertaining was because of the books. As a Twilight fan I was able to enjoy parts of the movie but here are my reasons for not liking it:
1. It was so cheesey! I think the characters were good actors but it almost seemed to me like the director was making fun of it!
2. It didn't develop characters, or explain things well enough. I think that people who haven't read the books would be lost and confused and think the whole story is just dumb. I don't think anyone will be reading the books as a result of seeing the movie. (which is sad because they would love the books).
3. It seemed way too much like a low-budget movie. Tip: if you aren't going to spend the money to make special effects look somewhat real, then don't put them in (especially if they are not even in the book-like with the hopping from tree to tree sceene.) Which leads me to my last complaint...
4. "You better hold on spider monkey." Like Edward would ever say anything as dumb as that!

Let me know what you all thought!

I have a 4 year old!?

So it appears I'm going to be blogging about once a month now. Is that because I'm so busy or because I'm so boring that I only have things to blog about every once in a while? Anyways, this past week was a big one! Beau's mom was here which was really fun! We can't wait until he's done with school and we can see family a lot more often even if we don't get to come right back to Utah. The day after she left was Thanksgiving. Thankfully, we have some awesome friends who agreed to have Thanksgiving with us so we wouldn't be alone. Our kids play together perfectly since they have a son Kailee's age, a daughter Ava's age and a 6 year old daughter who keeps them all playing nice. So, we were able to play wii all night. Aside from Beau busting his finger open on a beam,that runs long our cieling as he was executing a very enthusiastic tennis serve, we had a great night!

Then, on Saturday I got to throw my first birthday party! I can't believe Kailee is 4! She just seems to be growing up so fast! And I can already tell Ava will be even worse because she tries so hard to keep up with her big sister. I guess thats why I've been craving a baby so bad! Anyways, up until now we have always just celebrated Kailee's birthday as a family with maybe one or two family friends, but this year we have been going to Chuck E. Cheese alot and she has seen the birthday parties there and I know she would love to have one of her own. She listed about 15 friends she wanted to be there so needless to say with our being so poor, we couldn't give her the REAL Chuk E. Cheese party, but they were sooooo nice and accomodating. I brought my own cake, ice cream,and goodie bags and bought tokens for all of the kids with half off coupons. They still offered to help me set up, kept my ice cream in their freezer, told me not to worry about cleaning up, and made sure Chuck E. Cheese came out to see Kailee while he was out for antoher party. All-in-all, it was a success! Kailee didn't even expect to get presents, she was just so excited to have all of her firends in the same place! And when I asked her what her favorite part of the party was, she told me it was the cake! Which was the right answer since I stayed up till 3am the night before to make it. Although I think she just meant eating it, in which case I could have just done cupcakes!

What a Month!

The festivities have been ongoing all month long! Every weekend we have had some Halloween event to take the kids to, trick-or-treating at the zoo, at Idlewild, the Primary Halloween party, etc...However, I think the constant trick-or-treating is what finally motivated Ava to start walking a few weeks ago. She likes chocolate as much as her mom!

First School Picture!

Isn't my little preschooler cute!? I can't believe how quickly they grow up. Only one complaint....couldn't the picture mom have tamed that run-away bow?

My New Pet Peeve

Ok fortunately I can blog about this since none of the wonderful people that read my blog are guilty.......

Why is it that 90% of the people I tell that I am having another girl act sorry for me!? Even complete stranges respond with "Awww....were you trying for a boy?" No! I was trying for another baby! I'm thrilled I'm having another girl. They have obviously not met my other two daughters because they are the best children in the world and I feel fortunate to be blessed enough to have another one (although I'm sure every mother feels the same way). I've even been told that since we are living our lives right, we will eventually be blessed with a boy! Like a girl is not a blessing!? AAArrrgggg!! So, FYI we are both thrilled to be having another daughter and if we decide to have another baby in the future it is not because we are trying for a boy but because we would like to add another wonderful spirit to our family! Ok, I feel better.

Finally walking!! (mostly)

Finally! After 2 months of deciding, Ava is walking about 70% of the time now! When Kailee took her first step, it was only 3 days before she abandoned crawling. Not Ava! We knew she could do it because she would when she wanted to but if we tried to get her to practice she would stubbornly sit down or just go all noodle-legged. She even spent about a month only walking when she thought we weren't looking. We went to our amusement park the other day which will only allow kids on the rides if they can walk. (we had been hoping all summer Ava would walk so she could go on with Kailee since thy would both have so much moe fun). Anyways, this time she finally walked up to each ride so they let her on and she had a blast. Ever since, she has apparently seen the benefit to walking and has increased her efforts! Stubborn thing! She must get that from Beau ;)

Half-Way Point!

We officially reached our half-way point of Beau's 27 month program! Only 13 1/12 more months or going into debt until we can start climbing out! But who's counting? It has already gone by so quickly, I'm sure a new baby will make the rest of the time fly. I'm starting to like it here a little better too. There's still no way we're staying unless we find a job that offers an insane amount of money, but it's atleast getting more tolerable. 4 more LDS families just moved onto our street and 3 of them have kids Kailee's age. They all play outside together and I can feel like I have a little mini Utah neighborhood. We even got an awesome babysitter that lives 2 doors away! Just to make our debt total a little more impressive, we bought a HondaPilot last month (actually because we found we couldn't fit 3 carseats in the back of our accord). It's 4WD so I may not even get stuck on the snowy hills this winter! Things are looking pretty good! Now all we need to do is figure out were we'll be for the next 5 or so years!

Movie of the Year!

Ok so, I know I'm a dork but YAY! Here's the latest Twilight trailer that they are going to start showing in the theatre. It's about time! I swear I haven't even been on the website for the past month or so... I just got lucky when I checked today and found it. And I guess they are just assuming everyone's read the book and knows the whole story cuz they dont leave much out of the preview. Looks pretty good though I'm sure I'll be sitting in the theatre with a hundred or so swooning teenage girls! I may not notice though cuz I'll probably be just as bad! Haha

http://www.twilightthemovie.com/ecard_widget/

And speaking of favorites.... I know most of my friends' kids are older than mine but some of the younger ones may like this phonics website.

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/index/load.htm?f

It is Kailee's favorite activity now. She learned to use the compute mouse her first day of playing so now she wants to get on the computer almost every day. I can't complain though cuz she's already learned most of the letters.

Our third little princess!

Yep, that's right, we just found out that we are having another little girl! We are so excited! Kailee and Ava are best buddies and Kailee's excited to have another little sister to play with. Daddy's little girls have him so wrapped him around thier fingers I don't think he minds not having a boy. And with us being so poor and all, we can just put all our girly clothes into their third rotation!

264 PAGES OF PURE EDWARD!!

For those of you who don’t already know, I have some bad news and some good news. Stephenie Meyer has been working on “Midnight Sun” (Edward’s version of Twilight). Some recently got a hold of a copy and posted it on the web. JERKS! She is so upset that she stopped working on it indefinately. However, the good news is she posted her incomplete, uneditied copy for her fans! So far, the part I’ve read is awesome. How could it not be? It’s Edward!
Here’s the link from her website:
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/pdf/midnightsun_partialdraft2.pdf

My Little Preschooler

Yesterday was Kailee’s first day of Preschool! Does she look excited at all? I was up all night stressing that I would forget to take her or that she would be difficult when I dropped her off. I even had my old nightmares that I had when I was in school (being late for class, forgetting a paper, etc.) Of course everything went great, except for me missing her. Is it pathetic that it made me sad that she didn’t seem sad at all when I dropped her off? How in the world am I ever going to deal with it when she starts all-day school let alone high school or college?

Busy Week

We’ve been in Utah the past week and boy was it hard to come home. We had so much fun with grandparents, cousins, and friends!

We went out to see my little brother get married this past weekend. It was an awesome experience to all be in the temple together. I’m so proud of Michael and we LOVE his new wife Brittney! Just one more (huge) reason we want to be back in Utah!

Big News!

If there is anyone out there who still looks at my blog, sorry I haven’t updated it in over a month. I haven’t been feeling very well and have been napping every day when the girls nap which hasn’t left me much free time. The good news is I haven’t been feeling well because I’M PREGNANT! I’m about 15 weeks along now and been feeling great the past two weeks so maybe I’ll get back to blogging somewhat regularly.

Ode to Toby

Any of my or Beau’s friends probably recognize our little 1990 civic “Toby.” Yeah, that’s right, we name our cars. Anyways, this was the first new car my mom bought after she divorced my dad and it has been part of the family since then. I have had this car since I turned 16. When Beau was deployed with the military, we sold his truck and just kept this car as our family vehicle. After the year in Colorado, we bought our accord and Beau started driving Toby. He’s had minor problems here and there but over-all he has been a great car! I just realized I’m calling my car “he” and not “it” and maybe that explains why I’m so sad that we had to finally replace him last Thursday! Beau hit a deer on his way to clinicals and the radiator burst. We figured it would be more money that the car was worth to get it fixed and Beau’s been going without air conditioning for a bout 3 years, which I haven’t been thrilled about. It gets so hot and humid here and his clinicals are usually at least an hour away so while i feel sorry for the deer and my poor Toby, I’m glad Beau will now have a nice comfortable and reliable car for his commutes. I just need to remember that Toby is just a car and has no feelings. I felt horrible as we just abandoned him in the hospital parking lot and called the tow truck to come and pick him up. Poor Toby!

Busy Summer Already!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog. It’s getting to be a busy summer. My Mom was out for a week, which was awesome! Kailee misses her grandmas and grandpas so much out here it’s nice she comes to visit so often! It has also been getting very hot and humid here so we have had a lot of swimming days. And this past week had been crazy with buying a new car and all. So I will now try to get back to my regular blogging. I updated my recipe too!

Ava's First Birthday!

I can't believe how fast time goes! Ava just turned 1 yesterday and I know it sounds cliche but it seems like just the other day she was still a little baby. Now she's a little person. We love her so much and enjoy her fun, happy personality. We went to Chuck E. Cheese for her birthday because she is just now starting to really enjoy rides. She's also always enjoyed food. She quickly ate two slices of pizza, drank a full 20oz. cup of lemonade (I let her have it almost full strength since it was her birthday and boy could she tell the difference), and polished off 2 cupcakes in about a minute. And she still wanted more!

Monthly Recipe

I've made pretty good friends with one of my neighbors out here and we have started a little recipe sharing. Her husband loves to cook (but doesn't bake much) so when I started bringing them cookies and such, he would bring me over part of whatever gourmet dinner he was preparing that evening. It's been pretty fun to show off our favorite recipees to each other. Beau and Brittney don't mind the yummy food either. Anyways, it gave me the idea to put some of my fave recipes on my blog so I'll put one on every month or so over on the right side of my blog. Let me know if you try any and Enjoy! Just to clarify, these are not MY recipees (I'm not that creative). Just favorite ones that I have found and tweeked a little.

Half Way There!

So, you all may remember back in February I set a goal to run a 10K. This past weekend I ran my first 5K. It was harder than I thought because I've run further than 3 miles on my treadmill, I pushed myself harder without realizing it while I ran the race. Towards the end I was pretty tired. Sad, after only 3 miles, I know. It was cool though because I got to do it in D.C and run past the Capitol, the Washington Memorial, Supreme Court, etc. I finished in 27:25 not too fast compared to all the good runners there, but almost 3 mins better than I'd done at home.

Thought I'd also post a picture of the real reason we went to D.C. To visit the temple! It was so nice to be able to go since it's been a few months. Beau and I had to take turns watching the kids (we've taken near-by temples for granted). We also had a little bit of time to visit a couple museums. We went to the Museum of Natural History and the Air and Space Museum. CROWDED but awesome!

I Have a Husband Again!!

Beau just finished his difficult semester (we've been told it is by far the hardest of the two-year program)! The past 5 days have been awesome, he comes home earlier, doesn't have to study nearly as much when he is home and may not even have to study on Saturdays!! HUGE improvement. The semester went by pretty fast and he did great of course! I admire him for how well he's doing and for all of his hard work in providing a good future for our family. In short, I just love the guy and I love having him home! By the way.... we are 1/3 of the way done! It's hard for me to believe. I guess time flies when you are stressed out and lonely!

I'm Pathetic!

DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS ON THIS POST UNTIL YOU HAVE FINISHED "THE HOST!!" BUT HURRY AND READ THE BOOK SO YOU CAN RESPOND. PLEASE!!
Ok. Let me start by making excuses for myself. Beau's hardest semester of his whole program ends today and we are going on a little weekend vacation to D.C. I'm so excited to spend time with him and I didn't want to be only part of the way through my book. So, I finished it last night! I stayed up till 1am. Kailee woke up at 6am and went back to bed, but I couldn't. I stayed awake just THINKING. I love Stephenie Meyer's books but she just makes me feel so dang involved that I obsess when I'm done. Am I the only one that reacts this way? I hope not! Please make me feel better! Anyone.... Help!! Beau is laughing at me right now as he just read this over my shoulder. (update: Beau read the book now too and is not laughing anymore cuz he got into it too!)
Ok, again, now don't read my comment unless you have finished the book, so I don't spoil it!
*P.S. sorry about so many comments (most of them are mine) I figured I'd just work through my frustration all on this post so that it wouldn't look like all of my blogs were about this book!

Yuuummm....

I have In-n-Out in California, and Cafe Rio in Utah, and now when we move from Pennsylvania, I’m gonna miss The Meadows. They have the best frozen custard ever! The girls like it too. I think it may be at least a weekly trip this summer. What does this post say about me? I may love food a little too much.

Heavenly Mommy Moment

Today started out not so great. Both girls woke up before 6am and wouldn't go back to sleep. But they were both still tired and whiney all morning. Needless to say, I was pretty tired too and not wanting to deal with them.

Also, lately Kailee hasn't been going to bed very well so I had to cut her nap down to 1 1/2 hours. Since she used to sleep for 2 to 3 hours and I now have Ava who doesn't always want to nap right when Kailee goes down, my house cleaning, dish washing, laundry, and free time has been substantially decreased. So, today when I went to wake her from her short nap, I was ready to turn around and get to a few more chores while she lay there waking up. But she said to me in her cute groggy voice "Mommy, don't leave me." So I lay down with her and when I did she wrapped her arm around my neck and fell back asleep. As I lay there for the next ten minutes I started thinking of all of the things I had to do and wondered if I could slip out from under her arm without waking her. Then I remembered that someday she will not want to cuddle mommy any more and I should just enjoy it. So I got a nice little break and got to watch my sweet angel sleep for a few minutes till she woke up and gave me another big hug. Sigh. Made the rest of the morning worth it.

Fat Check

If you want to know a good way to get a big fat tax return, just try what we did. Work almost the whole year, quit your job and go back to school, and throw in an extra child. I think we just found an awesome benefit to being poor. I know we should have probably saved all of our tax return to …oh, I don’t know…live off of for the next few months. But where is the fun in that? Heck, we’ve already got the student loans so we might as well use ‘em right? So, I thought I’d show off our state tax return. I’ll try to save the Federal for something boring like food and rent. After 6 years, I finally demoted our mismatched Ikea table and chairs to patio furniture. This one should last us a while because it has a big leaf and 4 more chairs (we just can't fit them in our current tiny kitchen/dining room.
And here’s my new treadmill I’ve been trying to whip myself into shape with. Latest running update: I’m up to 3 miles now! Still not loving it but at least I can breathe now!

Nice Weather!

Can I just say how much I LOVE nice weather! I am such a whimp in the winter, and even in the summer when it gets too hot (unless I'm swimming). But, the past week or so here has been perfect in the 70's. We've been going on walks, and to all different parks around ther area. Yesterday we went to one called Twin Lakes that was almost like a small national park it was so nice. Since I have a neighbor that grew up out here, she gives me the scoop on all hte best places to go. We have been loving the fresh air. I am even in a better mood when I'm in the house if I can have my windows open. Ava loved the swings at the park and kept hanging her toung out so she could lap up the air like a dog with it's head out the window. And Kailee had a ball pushing her sister. I am just so excited for the warmer weather and all of the fun free things that can be done in the summer!

Just call me a RUNNING MACHINE!

I just ran 2 miles for the first time in my life. Just got home from the gym and I have to admit, part of what kept me running was the thought "I'm so gonna put this on my blog!" Yes, thats right everyone, I am tootin my own horn! Before tonight I have only ever gone 1.25 miles. I wasn't planning on going far tonight either but I was running a little slower than usual and felt like I could keep going so I did. I realize this is not a big deal to most of my "in-shape" friends but, I am obviously overjoyed! For anyone who does care....if anyone..... I did it in 19:10! My unofficial goal now is to do a 5K by June. Now, I'm going to bed.

Bodies!

Since we have been out here, in PA, And Beau has had his new busy schedule, we finally (a couple months ago) instituted a weekly date night. I have become dependant on Friday night to get me through the rest of the week. Anyways, for our date this past Friday, we went to a museum exhibit Beau has been wanting to see for a while called "Bodies." They displayed real preserved human bodies, (without skin) so you could see the bones, muscles, and organs. I was a little worried I'd be grossed out, but it was amazing. They even had displays where they had filled a body's arteries and veins with a red silicone material and then disolved everything else away so you could see just the circulatory system floating in water. AMAZING! There was also a display of fetuses (all had naturally died due to complications in utero). They had injected the little bodies with a dye that showed bone development so, on a fetus that was only like 12 weeks old (a little over an inch) you could see every little arm, leg, finger, and toe bone. Beau LOVED the whole thing because he got to show off to me how much he knows.

There were a few moments that I felt like I was in a horror movie and I almost expected the bodies to jump out at me a couple times, but for most of the exhibit I couldn't help but wonder how anyone could believe there was any way this could have all happened by chance, or without an intelligent creator. It was truely an awesome experience to see how amazing our bodies are and I want to tell everyone I know to see this exhibit if it comes to your city. Pictures are not allowed but we bought a souveneir book so here are a couple pics (they didn't have any of the fetuses though whick were my favorite part), and this is nothing like seeing it in person. The first is self explanatory (one of the bodies) and the second is the circulatory system I mentioned earlier (it was made up of thousands of thread-like red veins and arteries).

Easter Fun!

Thought I'd put up a few Easter pics for all of our family to be included in our Easter celebrations. Kailee enjoyed decorating her traditional Easter Bunny Cake (Beau's family did this every Easter while he ws growing up - so we've adopted it as our own family tradition). The licorice was for Kailee to make whiskers but the ended up making the bunny look a litte scary if you ask me (more like a Halloween cake). And of course we had to color our eggs. Kailee quickly put an egg in each color and then spent the next 10 minutes continuously checking one after another without even looking up, seriously, she must have checked each egg about 15 times. Ava has been teething and so sick through most of the festivities but she was able to at least enjoy going through her first easter basket. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter too!