Our Life

Some new things that the girls are doing are as follows. McKayla has learned the difference between her first and last name. She knew her whole name, but now she understands what her first is and what her last name is. She knows her phone number and we are working on our address.

Ariana can now tell us "no, stop!" She normally tells us this when we are putting her to bed or wiping her face after she is done eating. She has lots of words and likes to use them.

I am amazed at how big my kids are getting. I mean they are growing so fast. Big is a relative term in this house:)

This is my oldest McKayla. I loves to pose for pictures and is really starting to understand how to smile so cute! It is hard to watch her grow up. I want her to stay this age forever.

This is little Ariana. If you look very carefully at the top of her head you will notice her first ponytail. Her hair is thicker than McKayla's, but it has stayed shorter. The pony tail lasted about 1 hour before it was pulled out. But it was cute!

Feild Trip

Make a Smilebox photobook

Silly Girls

Say Cheese!

Princess in a sombrero?

Dirt

Every January I start deep cleaning the house. Un-cluttering the piles, washing the walls, blinds, dusting and cleaning out closets and cupboards. I don't enjoy doing this, but I enjoy the result. It is nice to take a look at every room and note what needs to be fixed, touched up, or thrown out. However, I find that my house is way dirtier that I thought it was. I honestly thought I kept my house clean, but oh those little places that it hides. I haven't tackled the hardest rooms yet. I know one of the worst will be the family room because it is out office and Chad's homework station. I also have to go through filing cabinets and clean the computer area. Sigh. Oh well. the question is why do I do this in January after everyone comes to my house in December? They only get to see the end of the year clutter and dirt, never the sparkling new year clean. Reason:I am an outdoor person. i like to be outside as long as possible. Cleaning the house from top to bottom during the January and February help me not go crazy, well more crazy I should say. So here is to tackling the bathroom and scrubbing the tile on my hands and knees.

AMEN!!

I love watching my children's walk towards Heaven Father and the Savior. We say prayers every morning and evening as a family and we help the girls say their prays before they go to bed. McKayla is big enough to bless the food and say her own personal prayer without any help. We pretty much say Ariana's for her. Lately though she has one part down. She waits with eager anticipation until the end and then she shouts "amen". She draws it out to really emphasize the two syllable word. I love it. I can't help but chuckle every time she does it. Having these two girls has really built up my testimony and faith. I am blessed!

O Remember, Remember

So, my church is putting together a re-enactment of a pioneer trek for the youth of our ward. I work with the 12-13 year old girls so that means that I get to go. I went to a meeting last night about it and I am so impressed. The focus is not on the physical trials, but rather to honor the spiritual strength of our ancestors. Every month until we go on the three day trek, we will be memorizing hymns and scriptures. We will also be reading articles about the pioneers and focusing on Jesus Christ as our Savior. I am so excited to go. I know it will be a great spiritual experience as well as a chance for growth in my testimony. The question is do I want to wear the dress? (It's optional). I am thinking not, but I may wear a bonnet just for the fun of it:)

How Cool Is That?

So, my mother in law bought me a small pressure cooker about 3 years ago. I was used to using a giant one for canning. It weighs about 50 lbs and has a gauge on it. The one my Mother in law gave my was a little bigger than a normal pot and had no gauge. I tried to use it once, but I freaked and and was afraid I burnt the chicken, which I did. I have finally gotten brave and I have masted the little pressure cooker. I learned that if have to leave those things alone. These little gems making cooking so easy. You can cook raw carrots in no time. I have used it to cook small whole chicken and when I am done the meat falls off the bone. I have also used it to cook the cheap hard beans in about 30 minutes to use in recipes. If you don't have one, but cook a lot, I encourage you to get one. My mother in law is off on an adventure that will last for about 6 more months, so thought I would blog about the pressure cooker and tell THANK YOU. She is such a smart lady.

Some more details of what I do with it and the time to cook. Note the time to cook starts after it starts to make the funny noise and I turn the heat to medium to finish.

Cooking turkey or chicken: About 20 minutes more if it is on the bone or there is a lot.

Cooking hard beans: How 30 minutes. The other night I did it for 20 then added tomatoes, onions, spices and hamburger to make chili. Then I pressure cooked again for 15 minutes to blend the flavors.

Veggies cook really fast.

Just a thought, it really speeds up cooking time and you can do so much with it.

The New Year Resolution

I have debated for 10 days about blogging this, but I decided if I did, then once in awhile someone might ask me how it is all going for me. That whole being held accountable thing. Ever since I had my second daughter I have not lost the baby weight. I feel like I have tried everything with little success. I have tried every magic pill and potion out there. It has amounted to yo-yo dieting and bad health. In fact, I weigh more than after I had her and I have exercised way less. So, this year I am not taking any magic supplement to help me lose wight. I am instead gong to eat healthy and listen to my body. Plus I am going to exercise. I am going to learn to love my body again and be okay with me. My goal instead of a number on the scale is an accomplishment. I want to climb Table Rock for my 10 year anniversary. I have 7 months to get in good enough shape to do this. For those of you that don't know, table Rock is a common hike around here. You climb next to the Tetons and I guess when you reach the top the view is amazing. I really want to do it. So, I am baring myself to you in blog land so that I can be held accountable. You may all remind me that I need to post pictures of us on top of Table Rock in July. Please, you know you want to. Those of you that wish to join me, we can all hike together!

Way too Many

So, in December I took well over 700 pictures. I did narrow them down to 371 pictures that I ordered last week. We did a lot in December. We went to Utah and did things, we had Christmas activities, and we went sledding and built a snowman. This equaled a lot of pictures. I am a scraping fanatic. I make sure that I do a layout everyday to keep caught up. It seems that I just finish my Thanksgiving/November pictures when it is time to re-order. I have lots of scrapbooks that are completely full. At some point I know my girls will enjoys looking back at our lives but for now, I am just having fun! I am grateful to my husband for supporting my hobbies and encouraging me to have fun. He rocks! With out is love, support, and money I couldn't do it.

Kids Say the Sillest Things

Ever wonder how the words coming out of kids mouth forms in their head. I was woke up this morning at 5:30 with McKayla knocking on our bedroom door very loudly. She was crying a little. I asked her what was wrong and she told me that "a bugger was crawling on her face." I asked twice for clarification. Then I got up with her and helped her wipe her nose and settle her back into bed. What a silly girl.

Monkey See Monkey Do

Ariana loves her big sister so much. Whatever McKayla does Ariana tries to do. Every Tuesday and Thursday Ariana tries to put on her little back pack and go to school just like McKayla. It is so cute. My girls are such good friends. I am so very grateful for that. they still argue and fuss, but they really love each other. It warms my heart to see Ariana and McKayla hug each other goodnight and say love you to one anther. I am so blessed.

Godzilla

Thankfully McKayla was at preschool so this destruction of the train world was not met by screams of mortification. Ariana did it this morning when McKayla was okay with it. Of course as soon as Ariana grabbed the red engine McKayla was upset. Life is crazy.

I Wanted Boys

Though both of my pregnancies, I wanted boys. I grew up with 3 older brothers. Both my husband and I came from families with 3 boys and only 1 girl. I thought that would put the odds in my favor. Not that I had anything against girls, but I thought that little boys would be easier. I guess I just felt that I never really fit in with the girlishness of girls. I like pretty thing, but I can't put an outfit together to save my life. Really I am a fashion defect. For the most part I am so grateful that Heavenly Father gave me girls. They are so sweet. McKayla often tells me that she loves me and they both give lots of hugs and kisses. I would have missed out on sweet songs and playing dress up. I would have missed out on the declaration that they want to be like me. Plus, their outfits come together, so I don't have to have fashion sense. However, Ariana is at a stage where I remember the thing that I didn't want to deal with. Emotions! Lots of emotions. She wants to do everything big sister does, and cries when she can't. She wants to communicate things like everyone else and she can't, so she cries. She wants things her ways and when it doesn't happen she cries. McKayla went through a similar period of emotional outburst for awhile. This just is a preview to the emotional teen years. Yea.

Oh No

Our neighbor across the street did something really cool. They built a 20 foot tall snowman. They worked on it for about 4 hours. It was a really neat sight. They also built a now dog next to it. They did this all on Saturday. We were going to go over on Sunday to ask if McKyala could see it up close and if we could get a picture of it. Sadly, someone destroyed it and the dog in the night. The family heard some noises about 4:00 am and when they got up all of their hard work was in a pile. We feel so bad for them.

We built our snowman in the back yard. But, McKyala wanted to build a pink princess castle in the front yard so that her friends could see it. Now I don't want to allow her to do it in the front yard. What f it gets knocked over and destroyed? She would be heart broken. We are starting the castle today, I just hope she understands that I am doing it for her.

Sledding Again

We went sledding agian with some friends to a bigger hill. I thought I was going to have a heart attack trecking up and down teh hill. Good thing I have started working out agian. Agian, the girls loved it!

We finally made a snowman. It only took a few days.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Sledding

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Tumbling

McKayla has been begging me to put this on here for awhile. She is so proud of her
accomplishment. (It's a cartwheel.)