I'm Dreaming of a White ... Birthday

Hannah got a special surprise for her birthday this year - snow. :)

Return of the Blogger

OK, so it's been a while. Here is a brief synopsis of what we've been up to for the last two months:


2 Trips to Disneyland (Ella is finally tall enough for the big girl rides!)

1 trip to the Dentist:

oops, sorry wrong picture:

1 Trip to the Museum of Natural History


1 Trip to the beach in Santa Barbara

1 Halloween Trunk or Treat party

1 afternoon spent making a Halloween gingerbread house

For Ella - Countless days spent playing "dress up little sister":

Other things we've been up to since my last post:

1. Number of times we've been sick: 2

2. Number of books I've read: 11 (which explains the lack of blog posts)

3. Number of new bunk beds: 1

4. Number of hours Aaron has had off from work: 0 (OK, maybe I'm exaggerating, but it feels that way)

5. Number of times Hannah has used the potty: 10 or 15 at least. Yippee!

8 Things Tag

OK Becky, I'll play ...

8 shows I watch:
1. Project Runway
2. Friends re-runs
3. SpongeBob with my kids. It's not cause I like it ... really!
4. Biography
5. Intervention
6. What not to wear
7. Uhhhh, sorry that's it.
8. Oh yeah, BYU Football

8 things that happened yesterday
1. laundry
2. unpacked from spending Thanksgiving in California
3. Ella hit Hannah
4. Hannah hit Ella
5. I took Ella to her sports class (golf was the sport of the day)
6. Online Christmas shopping (Cyber Monday)
7. I made mac and cheese for my kids because Aaron had a late work meeting until 10pm.
8. I watched Bridget Jones' Diary on TV (I DVRed it the night before)

8 places I like to Eat, in no particular order
1. Tucanos
2. Rodizios
3. Jersey Mike's
4. Kona Grill
5. Cheesecake Factory
6. My mother-in-law's house
7. My mom's house
8. at home - I love to cook, especially when someone else does the dishes!

8 things I look forward to
1. Going on dates with Aaron
2. Ella's soccer class
3. Aaron getting home from work
4. Bedtime for the kiddos (see previous blog)
5. winter
6. Christmas
7. Girls night out
8. weekends

8 things on my wish list
1. Lasik
2. Lasik
3. Lasik
4. Lasik
5. Lasik
6. Lasik
7. Lasik
8. World peace

8 people I tag:
Any volunteers?

Bedtime

So I'm hoping I'm not the only mom out there to own up to this guilt-inducing confession: my kids' bedtime is my favorite time of the day. Yes, it's true, I look forward to the quiet, the house staying clean for more than 5 minutes, and the ability to choose whichever activity sounds enjoyable to me that night without being interrupted with "ma-aaaaama"! I love my kids very much and they are a lot of fun, but it's so nice to listen to MY music on my iPod (there is only so much "B.I.N.G.O." a person can handle), read my own book (there is only so much Dr. Seuss a person can handle) or watch a movie I enjoy (there is only so much Spongebob a person can handle). However, in my defense, one of the reasons I love bedtime so much is that I really do love the process of getting the kids in bed. The jammies, the cuddling and the prayers - so sweet. Here are some pictures of the kids getting ready for bed and showing off Ella's clean bookshelf (it only looks like this at the end of the day - confession #2).

And, last but not least, some video (it's all black because her room is dark) of Hannah helping me sing her to sleep. I've been singing this same song to Hannah every night since she was a little baby and so she has it memorized and now tries to sing along with me. I'm only posting this for Hannah's cute voice, so please ignore mine. :)

Goodbye Summer

The summer is finally cooling down and I couldn't be happier! I can't wait for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, The New Year ... all the occasions that are just so much more fun with kids. I know it's been a little while since my last blog, but we've just been taking it easy this month. Here are some pics from this month.

Sisters

I was looking through some of the pictures I've taken this month and this picture of Hannah refusing to put her feet in the water made me have such a flash-back to Ella when she was younger. I knew I had a picture somewhere, so I searched through until I found it. It made me laugh how alike they are and so I decided to go through and compare some side-by-side pictures of them when they were the same ages (Hannah is on the left and Ella on the right) :



Newborn



About 3 months



About 6 months



About 12 months

About 18 months

Playing catch-up (part two)

OK, somehow I have managed to let a month go by without blogging. I blame it on the summer. We have just been so busy! Here's the low-down on what we've been doing in July:

1st weekend - spent the 4th of July holiday with family in Southern California. We went to a really long, fairly miserable parade in the blazing heat, but then we went swimming and spent the evening at a great fireworks show. They had some jets fly overhead and then a plane dropped some parachuters (is that a word?) down which was pretty cool.

2nd Week - We were home for about 2 days and then then we went to Southern Utah for a week (Aaron just came for the weekend) to visit more family. We went into the mountains for a fun picnic and it was so refreshing to be outside in some cooler air for a change! We also got to meet Ella and Hannah's new second cousin (or is it cousin once removed - can someone explain that?) while we were there. Baby Daniel is just the cutest little thing and made me just the teeniest bit baby hungry.

Third Week - Again, home for two days and then my sister Kristen came with her four kids for a few days. It was so great to catch up and let the kids play and just spend time with family! We went to the Natural History Museum and the kids loved it.

So then, two days after my sister left, my brother-in-law Tim came for a visit with his girlfriend Allie (sorry Allie, is that how you spell it?) who recently returned from her mission. Again, another great visit. It's always so nice to be with family.

And that pretty much brings us up to date. Whew!

bounce for your life!

Happy Birthday Ella! We've had this amazing little girl as part of our family for four years now and I can't think of anything more wonderful in my life. We had her party at Pump It Up. The kids had a great time jumping and playing. Ok, there was one casualty, but at least it wasn't any of the kids. Sorry Emily!