Halloween

Last night (10-30-09) we attended our community's Halloween party - "Boo Bash". They had trunk or treating, bounce houses, booths with games and prizes, a haunted house, food, etc. It was a lot of fun, especially because my Mom and sisters joined us.

Abby wore her pirate costume, the same as last year. It was a little big for her last year but perfect this year. Holly refused to wear a costume to the Boo Bash. She cried and cried for her "Giselle" dress, which is just a regular white dress that she has decided looks like Giselle. She practically lives in the dress because she loves it so much. It didn't look much like a costume but it made her happy.

Abby and Holly both had their face painted. When Abby was asked what she would like to have painted on her face she answered, "Ummmm....a blankie." I helped her change her mind to a pumpkin. I just wasn't sure how a blankie would work out, and a pumpkin is more festive. She liked it. Holly had a pink flower painted on her cheek.

They had a few booths with games for kids to play. This is Holly "fishing" for candy.

Abby and Holly had a blast in the bounce house. They had several set up but this small one was perfect for the girls. They had it all to themselves for the better part of 30 minutes. We just let them jump to their little hearts content. They loved it!


Halloween Night....

A picture of my awesome family on Halloween night.
Abby and Holly were pirates. Paul and I didn't dress up but at least we wore festive colors, right? We'll dress up next year for sure. It's more fun that way!



We went to Paul's parent's church party. It was a lot of fun! I helped the girls walk in the kid's costume parade. They were the most adorable, in my very biased opinion. :-)

They had lots of games for the kids to play to win candy. This is a picture of Abby and Holly doing the cake walk.

Grandma Whiting enjoyed having her grandchildren join the party. I thought this picture was so cute of Grandma Whiting walking Holly around at the Trunk or Treat. The girls scored so much candy!

Playing in the Dirt

I just had to post these pictures of the girls playing in the dirt the other day. They were being so quiet playing on our back porch that I should have known they were up to something. :-) They completely emptied out a couple of Paul's planting boxes and threw dirt in each other's hair. Needless to say, a bath was needed afterward....

Holly was so grumpy afterward. She refused to smile until we got her all cleaned up. Maybe she'll learn that playing in the dirt isn't all it's cracked up to be...

It was pretty tough for me not to laugh at her cute dirty pouty face.

Halloween Cookies

Abby missed a play date with her good friend, Ethan. So we decided to make him some Halloween cookies to make them both feel better. Abby cheered up and forgot all about the missed play date, and had fun making some cookies instead.

Abby decided to make a black cat for Ethan.

Holly frosted a yellow moon for her friend, Daphne (Ethan's sister), but took a bite of it before I could stop her. So I let her eat the rest of the cookie. All she ended up doing, though, was licking the frosting off the cookie and then she ran off to play with some toys.

The best part of making cookies - tasting them!

Abby loved getting creative and decorating the cookies. You can see below the black and pink jackolantern that she frosted for Lillie (even though Lillie lives in Kansas), and the black and pink cat that Abby frosted for Daphne. It was a fun afternoon!

Pumpkin Carvin'

For Family Home Evening on Monday night we carved a pumpkin with Abby and Holly.

At first Abby refused to put her hand in the pumpkin to help us clean out the seeds and pulp. She thought it was too slimy. She eventually joined in on the fun but made a funny face every time she would reach in - she was so grossed out!

Holly wasn't as hesitant about putting her hands in. She seemed to think it was fun to reach in, but would only pull out one seed at a time. I think she was trying to keep her hands from getting too messy.

In the end, we had a less than awesome looking pumpkin, but that's okay because we had an awesome time together!

Halloween Craft

Last year I bought these little puppet crafts for $.10 at the after Halloween sales. I'm so glad I did because it was a perfect afternoon activity for them today.

Abby called the puppet her "Halloween Guy", and was so proud that she made him entirely by herself. She did a pretty good job!

Holly called the puppet her "Scary Guy", and needed a little more help than Abby did. But since the pieces were peal and stick, she was able to do a lot of it by herself. Oh, and you may notice that she is wearing a dress over her clothes. That is her "Giselle" dress, like from the movie Enchanted. She wore it all day and kept asking me to dance with her.

She refused to show the camera when she was done - She just sat there staring at it. lol I guess she thought he was a little too spooky. But she had fun, just the same.

Holly's Birthday Party

I know I already posted some pictures from Holly's birthday but here are some pictures from her birthday party. We invited some family over for a small party (she doesn't like large groups of people) the Sunday after her birthday. We had dinner together, opened presents and then ate some cake.

This dress was a little too big for her but she loved it just the same - she thought it made her look like Cinderella, aka "Rella".

Holly was so excited about everything she got - even the cards! She just kept gasping and excitedly showing everyone in the room what she had just opened. As you can see from their outfits, Holly got some new dress up clothes. She loves to wear different shoes and dresses every day, and to walk around with purses and jewelry.

It took Holly quite a few tries but she finally blew out the candle - with a little help from Daddy.

Our week of painting...

We spent several days last week painting all of our walls white to prepare to move out in a few weeks. We live in family student housing on ASU east campus, so we have to get everything painted and cleaned up so we can pass "inspection" when we move out. We are trying to get a little packing and cleaning done each day so it won't be as stressful in November.

Here are some pictures of the girls helping me paint Abby's purple room white.



Holly loved playing in the paint and making messes. Thankfully I put a drop cloth down to catch all of the spills and splatters. Holly just kept slabbing paint on the wall and then yelling, "Clouds!" It was pretty cute!

Abby loved having an entire wall for her canvas. She just kept painting a little here or a little there. She hardly made any mess at all, and was a great helper.

Abby painted flowers, plants and butterflies. And she also painted our old house and our new house. She is pretty excited to move!

Holly's 2nd Birthday

Story Time with Grandma & Aunt Mandie

We had a fun visit with my Mom and sister last week. I feel so blessed to live close enough that they can make day trips to visit with us. The girls just love to have special visitors come to spoil them!

They spent part of the afternoon reading books. Holly got to cuddle with Grandma and Abby was entertained by her Aunt Mandie.

Pictures of our New House

By request...

Here is a link to some pictures of our new house. I already have some affordable projects in mind to make the house have more of our personality and taste - especially the kitchen. :-)

NEW HOUSE PICTURES

Thirsty Holly

Stolen Appliances

We were excited to purchase a home that came with some decent appliances, which is almost unheard of for HUD homes and most foreclosed homes in general. We even bid slightly higher on the home because we thought we could afford to, since we wouldn't need to buy appliances (our mistake - lesson learned on that one). But when we went to visit the house after we had won the bid and started the paperwork, this is what we found...

Where the washer and dryer used to be...

The oven, as it looked on the day we bid on the house.

Where the oven used to be - what we found when we went back to visit the house.

We contacted HUD who told us that they wouldn't do anything about the stolen appliances and that we could take or leave the house. Of course we still want the house - so there is not much more we can do at this point. It is apparently a common problem. People know that these HUD homes and other foreclosed homes are sitting vacant, so they come and steal whatever they can take. We just hope that nothing else happens to our home while it sits vacant. We aren't allowed to change the locks or secure the home in any way until we close on the house on November 13th.

The good news is that our realtor was mistaken about how much we would have to pay down, so we will be able to afford to buy new appliances. It will be fun to choose our own, so the story has a happy ending.

Hair Cuts

Okay, so I am about a month late on this post... But we took the girls to Cool Cuts for their first "real" hair cuts. Abby has had her hair cut lots of times from Aunt Suzzie, but Aunt Suzzie moved to Kansas at the beginning of the summer. So we thought we'd spoil them and let them go somewhere fun and special for Holly's first hair cut.

They each got to sit in a car and pick out their own movie to watch while they got their hair cut.

Overall, it was a fun experience for everyone. But I don't think I'll take them there again - it was pretty pricey! The employees were really great with kids, though, and I am glad that Holly had this fun experience to make her less afraid next time we need hair cuts.

LittleBowtique.net

My good friend is announcing the grand opening of her new website LittleBowtique.net

They specialize in handmade gifts and accessories including hair bows, hair flowers, baby name bracelets, tutus, and more!

I have already received an order and LOVE it! Check it out!

4th of July

We were invited to spend the 4th of July weekend at my sister's house down in Tuscon. Overall, it was a good experience and was really great to visit with my family. But Holly had a pretty rough weekend. She cried most of the time and just wanted to get back home to her own bed. We all feel that way sometimes, right?

The only thing that seemed to make her happy was this rocking horse. My brother-in-law's father made it, and Holly loved rocking on it whenever she had the chance.

My sister, Charissa, was excited to have her good friend, Shauna, visiting from out of state. (I posted this picture for you, Ruffy) We also had some yummy food - an important part of any holiday.

Here is my super cute niece, Wynonna. Charissa has 11 kids and I can't believe how old they are all getting. Tanner and Wynonna, the oldest, are 16 and are learning how to drive.

We had a lot of fun swimming in my sister's pool. The kids especially liked making whirl pools, which was actually a pretty good work out but made me dizzy. :-)

Notice the band aid on Abby's chin - she fell down at Walmart the night before we went to Tuscon and split her chin open. She almost had to get stitches. Poor girl!

My awesome brother, Joe, and his family also came down. It was great to see them and to watch all of the cousins play together.

Playin' Together

I was doing some dishes and other things tonight when I looked over and saw Abby and Holly taking turns pushing each other around the house in their toy baby stroller. It entertained them for quite some time, and we all got some good laughs...especially me!

Holly couldn't quite maneuver the stroller with Abby in it, so Abby used her feet to pull herself around while Holly pushed from behind.

Their favorite part was bumping in to walls and then yelling, "Crash!"

My Best Friend

For Father's Day, I put together this little collage of pictures from the past year. If you can't tell from the pictures, Paul is an AMAZING father! Abby and Holly adore their Daddy!...and I love him for the unconditional love and support that he gives us. Paul is my best friend, and I feel so blessed that he is the father of my children.

Hangin' with my girls...

Abby and Holly like to lay in my bed and read books or magazines, and sometimes wrestle. The other night I caught Holly playing peek-a-boo with Abby. I love watching them laugh and play together!

Abby's Best Friend

Abby just loves all of her cousins and has so much fun playing with them, but when the cousins are not around...this cute guy is who Abby prefers! This is Ethan and his sister Daphne eating lunch with us the other day. I just thought I'd post it because I love how happy they look together. I'm so glad that Abby has a good friend close by. We love you, Sant Family!

Sunday Nights with Family

One of my favorite parts of Sunday is our family dinners that we try to have every Sunday night. Both Paul's parents and my parents live in NW Phoenix, so we try to alternate and visit one of them every Sunday night. It takes an hour to drive there and an hour to drive back, but our time with them is so worth it to us.

Sometimes we invite them to our house. These pictures are from a few Sundays ago when my family came over for dinner. Abby had fun doing a puzzle with Grandpa and Grandma while we all chowed down on some yummy cookies that Paul made for us.

Lovin' this weather...

The weather here has been beautiful this week - in the 90s with nice overcast and breeze. We decided to check out a park we'd never been to before (Cosmo park on Ray road). It turned out to have a dog park. The girls loved watching the dogs splash in the water, and I loved that they were all fenced in a different area of the park. It was fun to get out and enjoy the cooler temperature while it lasts!

The park also had these huge concrete stairs to climb up. You can't tell from the picture but we were up pretty high. Holly likes anything that involves climbing so she was a happy camper.

The park had a pond with a bridge to walk over the water. The water had a bunch of little fish. It was fun to watch them, but I was the only one that could see them. The fish were grey and blended in with the green water. I kept trying to help Abby find one. Hmmm...Maybe she couldn't see them because she had her sunglasses on?

Abby loved climbing on the ropes. It took her a few minutes to gain the confidence she needed. She just kept saying, "Okay, Mommy, what comes next?" That is what she usually says to me when I help her put a puzzle together at home - she must've looked at this as a "puzzle" for her to figure out. She did a great job! It is fun to watch her take on new challenges every day.

Abby was using her arms to help her keep her balance while she walked down a hill. The funny thing was that it was practically flat ground - barely an incline at all. But she acted like it was a mountain. Silly girl!

Holly had fun just walking around and exploring a new place. She LOVED seeing all of the dogs!

I LOVE Holly's blue eyes!

Mandie's Birthday part 2

Here are some more pictures of the girls playing in Grandma's backyard on Mandie's birthday.

You would think that Holly posed for this picture but she was just climbing on the chair.

Here is my Mom writing a message in Mandie's birthday card. My Mom writes the best birthday love notes! Thanks for being so great, Mom! ...And that is Mandie's present from my parents - a new digital camera. She is really excited to take some pictures.

As part of the fun, I helped Abby and Holly wrap Mandie in streamers. Abby LOVED it!...and Mandie was a great sport about it. Abby just kept singing "I'm wrapping you! I'm wrapping you!" while she concentrated and decorated Amanda.
Thanks for all of the fun, Mandie! I hope you had a great birthday!

Mandie's Birthday

My awesome sister, Amanda, had a birthday on Tuesday. We had a surprise party for her last Friday, but the girls and I decided to surprise her and visit on her birthday. She had plans with friends but was too sick to go, so we kept her company. We first let Abby and Holly play in the sprinklers a bit and then went inside for Mandie's favorite dinner and pie.

This is Abby on the teeter totter with me.

Holly had more fun playing with Grandpa's ladder and tools than with the water. She kept me busy! She knows no fear.

Grandma (my Mom) had fun watching the girls splash in her backyard.

Abby decided she was too cold to play any more in the water.

Paul's Graduation Party

Here's the happy graduate with his cake. Paul received his Bachelor's degree in applied computer science, and he is happy to be done with school for awhile.


Paul and his little sister, Wendy. Wendy will be starting her junior year at ASU this Fall. We can't wait to throw you a grad party, Wendy! ;-)

Some members of my family chatting after eating pizza. I like this picture because it shows my Mom before she cracked her head open. We're glad you're okay, Mom! It was quite the ending to Paul's party!

Paul visiting the "cool" table...some of our nieces and nephews.

Abby loved playing with her cousins! Here she is with Riley and Audrey, Charissa's two youngest.
I was so excited to catch this cute smile from Kaelyn. Isn't she adorable? She was so giggly and cute during the entire party.

Baby Landon was the life of the party!

Wendy and nose-pickin' Ambyr.

Holly was pretty excited about the pizza!

Congratulations, Paul! We are so proud of you!

Wildlife Zoo

Abby loves hangin' out with her cousins. She had 12 of her 21 cousins at the zoo with her.

This is my adorable niece, Kaelyn. I love her to pieces!...as I do all my nieces and nephews.

This is my super cool niece, Josie, and I.

Holly didn't enjoy missing her nap. She was almost comfortable enough to fall asleep in the wagon...almost. She perked up and was much happier during the aquarium. She loved running through the dark halls and looking at all of the fish.

Nursery Holly

Holly turned 18 months old on April 8th, which means she is now old enough to go to "Nursery" (the church class for 18 mos-3 yrs old). This last Sunday was her first time going to Nursery. Paul and I both thought that she would cry and not want Paul to leave her side, but, to our surprise, she did really well!

Paul had to drop her off because I was conducting "Primary" (the church class for children 4-12 years old). He said that she wouldn't leave his side at first but then the teacher showed her an Elmo car. The teacher pushed it across the floor and Holly chased after it. Paul snuck out and she was fine after that.

These are some pictures that I took of Holly and Paul just before we left for church on Sunday. They like to make faces and play together. What cuties!

Helping Holly...

This is where I find Holly these days. Any chance that she gets, she goes in to the kitchen, opens the dishwasher, and climbs up to play with anything in there. Latching the dishwasher closed used to keep her out but she has figured out how to open that now. She is just completely fascinated by the dishwasher and cries every time I pull her away.

It is cute and funny but I am worried that she is going to break the dishwasher door off. She weighs 30 pounds so it is bound to happen eventually. Thankfully I have a gate that I can use to close the kids off from the kitchen.

She thought that climbing in the dishwasher was so fun that her favorite stuffed animal the cow (whom she affectionately calls "Mow") might like to stand on the door too. That little stinker!

Gardening Family Fun

Yesterday we headed out back to work on our garden. I use the term garden very loosely since we only have a few things growing, but it has been a fun learning experience for us all.

The girls had fun playing in the dirt. We found a few worms, which they were pretty excited about.

Mini-Me?

The other night Abby climbed in my bed and started to read one of my magazines. She told me that she was going to bed, so she was reading a book. Then she said, "Uh oh! I forgot to say my prayers." So she climbed down and said a prayer. I wanted to take a picture of her cute pretending but felt bad when I realized that she was saying a real prayer. She's so grown up!

Abby's 3rd Birthday

Abby turned 3 years old on March 5th. She talked for weeks about having a birthday party at the park, so we invited a few friends and family to celebrate with us. She felt special and we all had a great time!

I felt lucky to spend time with the special birthday girl. I still can't believe that she is 3!

This is Abby and her friend, Ethan, looking at the book that Ethan gave her.

Abby was pretty excited about the new shirts she received from her Aunt Candice.

I've posted more pictures at the following link. Feel free to take a look!
MORE PICTURES

Melmo!

Holly is infatuated with Elmo right now. She walks around the house laughing and saying, "Melmo!" She loves Elmo shows, movies, and books. So when I saw Elmo Live on sale on Amazon for $20 I went for it. These pictures are Holly's first reaction to him. We've had him for a few days now and Abby and Holly both just love him.

Our new ride...

Paul received a bonus in his paycheck this month, so we decided to buy a bike trailer for the girls to ride in on our family bike rides. You can see from the pictures that they love it! These pictures were taken just before bed time, which is why they are wearing pajamas. Paul put the trailer together and they were so excited to climb in and try it out. Then it was off to bed. We took it for our first ride the next day.

And Abby Drive??

So tonight I was laying Abby down for bed and singing her songs like we do every night, when she interrupted me and said, "Mommy, where's Gavin's house?" (Gavin is a nursery friend who is having a birthday party tomorrow) I said, "It's by Ethan's park. It's a red house. I'll show you tomorrow." So then she said, "Ok, and Mommy sit in Daddy's chair and Abby drive." I always drive so Abby calls the front passenger seat "Daddy's Chair". It totally cracked me up that my two year old is already asking me if she can drive to her friend's house for a party. I didn't think I'd have to deal with this for another 14 years! What a smart and funny girl. She makes me smile every day.

Exhausted...

So...This is a picture of Abby at about 10:30 pm last night - way past her bed time. You may have noticed that she is wearing no pants but she is wearing her church shoes. I had put her to bed long before this. I heard her playing in her room but didn't think too much of it; she often plays for a few minutes and then lays down and falls asleep. I asked Paul to check on her when he walked by her room and this is what he found...a half naked Abby pulling out all of her toys and making a complete disaster of her room ( apparently she is also now tall enough to reach the light switch ). What you can't see is the smell... Apparently she has a stomach bug and made a mess in her diaper, which then leaked out all over her pajamas, blanket and sheets. Rather than yelling for me to come help her - she just took off her clothes and her diaper and continued to play, making an even bigger smelly mess. I half felt bad for her and half felt frustrated that I had such a big mess to clean up so late at night, when I just wanted to go to bed. We got her cleaned up and back to bed.

Fast forward to today...Holly was cranky all morning. She was just extra clingy and fussy. After lunch, I picked her up to wash her hands and face. I smelled the familiar smell from the night before and looked down only to find ick all over she and I both. Anyway, it has been a day filled with fussy children and cleaning up messes. I am exhausted and glad that they are both finally in bed. Let's hope tomorrow is better for us all.

Goodbye, Nemo & Flounder...

This morning Paul and I noticed that Abby's fish tank was murky and a little smelly. Paul has heard that you can help fix the problem by replacing 50% of the water one day and 25% of the water the next day. Anyway, the idea was to take the fish out and clean their tank a bit. Paul prepared some water in our smaller fish bowl and transitioned the fish in to that to hang out while we cleaned the tank. We did everything the way the "experts" suggest (we think?). Holly woke up from her nap, so we decided to run a quick errand and finish the fish when we got home.

Well...When we got home, I noticed the fish were just sitting at the bottom of the fish bowl. No movement. Not good. Paul broke the news to Abby. We told her that they got sick and died. She made a sad face and hugged me. Then she quickly said that now we could go to the pet store to get bigger fish. She apparently didn't need much time to grieve. She asked me to look at the dead fish, more out of curiosity than sadness. Then she helped me send them down a watery grave. She spent the rest of the afternoon singing about the dead fish while she played with her toys. And tonight during her prayers she said that the fish went down the toilet with their cricket friends and that they were all going back to the pet store. Funny girl.

She is just excited to go pick out some new fish tomorrow. Any ideas for names?

Abby's New Pets...

For Christmas, Abby got two goldfish. The orange one is named Nemo and the white one is named Flounder. When I asked her what we should name them she smiled and said "Fish!" So I helped her with the names a little. She and Holly both just stand there and stare at the fish. Holly says "Wow!" over and over again, one of the few words she has mastered so far.

Yesterday Abby got to go to the Pet Store and pick out a house for the fish. Today we put the new things in the tank. Abby likes to watch the fish play "hide and seek" and swim in and out of the house and bridge.

Here is a blurry cell phone picture of what her tank looks like now...

Our Little Digger...

Holly has taken up a new hobby...


She gets mad when we ask her to stop.


She has even been caught tasting her treasures.


How can such a cute girl have such a nasty habit? This is her playing peek a boo.
We're honestly not that concerned about her nose picking...she just seems to have discovered her nose this week and is still a little fascinated by it. I can't help but laugh.

Christmas Pictures

Click the link below to see some of our family Christmas photos...

PICTURES

Christmas Eve

Abby and I getting ready to open our Christmas Eve pajamas.

Holly and Abby showing off their new pajamas. Holly was having more fun taking her slippers off.


We finished the night by telling the story of Jesus' birth with a finger puppet nativity. Abby was so excited to be involved and we all really felt the spirit. Then we sang Christmas carols. Abby kept asking to sing "Oh Holy Night" over and over again. And she actually knows the words! Then Abby couldn't sleep because she was too excited. Paul and I stayed up wrapping presents and filling stockings. It was a fun night.

4th Anniversary (continued)

Here are a few more pictures from our weekend get-away. For those of you who asked, the place is called Mogollon Resort Cabins in Overgaard, Az...It is between Payson and Show low. Here is their website... http://www.azresortcabins.com/ . We would highly recommend them. They have a buy two nights, get the third for free, which is why they were affordable for us. Our cabin was the "Maverick"...the only cabin with a telephone and internet. We even got cell phone service up there.

My Mom asked for another picture of the front of the cabin, so here ya go Mom.

We enjoyed sitting on the porch. The weather was usually anywhere from 20-40 degrees.

We played some board games in the upstairs loft... We can never do that at home because the girls bump the game board or play with the pieces and mess up the game. We didn't play for long but it was a fun way to enjoy the quiet cabin. We also took naps up in the loft and read books and magazines.

Yes, this is Paul playing "stair bowling" in his pajamas. We found a handy manny bowling set at the dollar store and decided to play on the stairs... just for fun.

Only fair to post my pajama bowling picture...uh...yeah. :-)

We also watched a few movies... My only rule was that we not watch anything animated, since I watch enough of those movies at home with the girls. :-)

Paul was excited to find a place up there that sold good smoked pork sandwiches. We had fun exploring the town's shops and restaurants.

...the real reason the trip was so relaxing. We were in the spa every day!

Our 4th Anniversay

Paul and I are blessed to have the opportunity to celebrate our 4th anniversary at a cabin up in the mountains. Our Moms are taking turns watching the girls back home. We miss them terribly but are doing our best to have fun and enjoy some much needed time alone! :-) Here are a few pictures of our place....

Paul relaxing by the fire...

Our little kitchen

It is an A Frame cabin so I just love all of the windows that look out to the trees...

Perhaps the best part...Our own private spa right outside our master bedroom! Paul and I got in last night. The temperature was about 20 degrees outside but we were warm and toasty in the water. We had trees surrounding us...so beautiful and relaxing!