Frosty The Snowman

I spent an hour shoveling the wet heavy snow off the driveway. Then I went in to bundle up the girls to go play in the snow. I was exhausted but once I got out there I felt like a little kid again. The quiet snow fall and even the smell of snow reminds me of playing in the snow as a child. I just wish I had the energy to do it all day long like I did back then. Here's the end result of our playtime.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Here is a recap of our adventures this past year.

Steve and I started out with a surprise calling to nursery! We were given a 1 year sentence. Steve was released early for good behavior in June and called as 1st counselor in the Young Mens presidency. I am still serving my sentence, but trying to do it with a better attitude. Obviously I have a ways to go.

The girls started primary this year. They struggled making the transition a little, but now love it. Their favorite part is singing in sharing time. They also started preschool in September and absolutely love every minute of it! They are learning so much and want to go everyday. I was a little traumatized by them starting preschool and spent most of their first day crying. Our house felt so empty while they were gone. My little girls are growing up so fast, and I'm not ready for it.

Kaitlin is our active outdoors girl. She loves to play outside, swing, and ride her scooter and princess car. She loves to play princess, but tries to broaden their play time with other games as well. One of her favorites is "meowies" a game shere she is the kitty and Cadence tends her. She loves books and every night she prays that "mom will ready stories to us". She is a little snuggler and still fits nicely in our laps.

Cadence is our social butterfly and makes friends with everyone. She is quite the little mother to all our younger neighbors. She is very easy going and goofy. She loves everything princess and spends most of her days dressed as one. She is always ready with a hug and a kiss for me, Steve and pretty much anyone else.

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Between Lori and I we've been asking the girls for weeks if they wanted to sit on Santa's lap. They kept telling us no, then they told Lori they wanted me to take them; but every time I asked the answer was still no. I got a yes from Kaitlin occasionally but Cadence wanted nothing to do with him. The other day we were on the freeway about to pass the mall, so I asked again. Kaitlin said she wanted to and Cadence said she would do it if Kailtin would sit on his lap with her (so cute how they can tackle their fears together). So we stopped, luckily I had dressed them cute and done their hair. I thought the green vests were kinda festive too. So they both sat on his lap, got pictures taken and even told him what they wanted for Christmas. It may not seem like a big deal to most people, but these are the girls who screamed bloody murder on Christmas Eve when they were 2 because they were so scared about a strange man coming in their house while they were sleeping. We had to call Santa and ask him to leave the presents by the mailbox then we had to lay in their rooms until they went to sleep. And last year as soon as Santa came into the room at our family party Cadence made a mad dash to Grandpa who promised to save her if she was afraid. Since this was the first year that we had both of them willing and happy I had to buy the picture. It was a pricy memory though at $25! When did Santa get so expensive?

In My Room, In my Room

Anyone remember that Beach Boys song? The girls now officially have their own bedrooms. I let them pick out their own bedding and we added bead board and a stencil border at the ceiling. I love the way they turned out. The girls love them also. They even made their bed the first day.

We are just happy Cadence isn't sleeping in the piano room on a too small toddler bed anymore. I'm so happy that they each have their own dresser too. It was getting hard to fit their clothes into 1 room.

Halloween

The girls had 2 Halloween costumes this year. It wasn't planned that way, it just kinda happened. So they wore 1 to preschool, and 1 on Halloween night. I actually dressed up too. We went to Steve's work, and he didn't even know who I was. He totally ignored me until I spoke to him. I thought it was funny.

First Day of Preschool

Oh, my girls are growing up! I can't believe they started preschool. It wasn't a big deal to them, they were excited to go learn and play. They walked right it in, sat right down and played with playdoh. I decided I better leave before I lost it. I then realized that walking was a mistake as I cried most of they way home passing all my neighbors coming back from the bus stop. The crying got worse once I got inside my eerily quiet home; so I cried for another half hour as I cleaned my house. I did get quite a lot accomplished in a very short amount of time though. It's amazing how quickly things get done when there's nobody to undo it. Here's some pictures of our cute, grown-up preschoolers.

Birthday Girls

We had a birthday party at the Bees game for the girls. They even announced it on the sign. Here are some pictures.

Submarine ride and Luau

Ugh, we are so tired of holding this life preserver. I can't believe the adults are making us do it.

We're not sure why the girls look so grumpy in this picture, because they were actually happy. This was taken right before we went on a submarine ride. It was so cool! We went down 128 feet and got to see lots of fish and a ship wreck. The interesting thing is that our pink shirts turned blue because the colors disappear as you go deeper into the ocean.


Here is a before shot of the girls pink shirts.


It's hard to see Kaitlin's shirt but the little area you can see is blue. Cool huh!


We went to a luau one night, and obviously it was a little windy, which was typical for a Maui afternoon. Then the wind would die down around 6 or 7 pm. The girls got a kick out of the men twirling and "sitting" on their fire sticks. It was fun to watch.

Kaitlin got a turtle tattoo

Cadence got a flower tattoo.

I hope that's not a sign of things to come!

Easter In Maui

We want to live at the beach (with maid service of course) The date on all these pictures is wrong which is annoying, but we were lucky the camera was working at all. It has some issues.

The girls loved the sand so much I even considered putting a sandbox in the backyard. It occupied them for hours.



I had to take a picture of the girls with the twin trees.


The girls got their hair braided. We were able to leave it in for a week! It was so nice not to have to do their hair everyday.
Cadence getting her hair braided.

The final result

Kaitlin getting her hair braided.

The final result

We drove the Hanna Highway and I was so car sick I had to get out, but then it started to pour. It was better to get rained on than throw up though.

We stopped at a ranch that was so beautiful until.....



we found a dead rat!

The girls were so scared of these birds and we kept saying "they won't hurt you" until one bit my leg! It didn't hurt but it really surprised me.

Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma's

The girls wanted to wear skirts, so I decided to curl their hair too. They were so good to let me do it. Usually they aren't willing to sit still long enough for even a ponytail.

My Easter Bunnies getting ready to hunt.

Both girls collected a lot of hard boiled eggs. We're gonna have to have a talk next year about collecting more chocolate.



We are a happy family!

coloring Easter Eggs

The girls got to wear their cute little aprons.

We had 12 different colors of dye and only 12 eggs. 1 broke of course but we colored it anyway.


We were actually in Maui on Easter Sunday, but we colored eggs about a week before Easter, just so we could have fun doing it. We then had a little Easter egg hunt in the house because it was freezing outside. It may have even been snowing.