The Big 4!

This is rather late news, but my little girl turned FOUR! I have nearly been banished from celebrating birthdays with my kids because I turn into such a bawl baby. She's loving being a big grown up girl! Her only request was to go to the Children's museum. And for her own barbie. Sigh. I was kind of hoping to avoid ever owning one. HA. HA.

Crazy birthday morning madness! Eva was not all that impressed with my breakfast man, but Lyla at least seemed happy with it.

We spent alllll day at the museum! I have to admit I think I have as much fun playing with the stuff as the kids do! All went well aside from having to run Lyla to the emergency room in the middle of the day. She hurt her arm while we were there and I figured it was broken, but it ended up being a dislocated elbow. OUCH. The doctor yanked it back into place and told us to go back to playing at the museum. It was actually pretty weird.

I think she spent an hour straight just playing with these little cars.

I'm thinking Lyla got the better end of the deal here. :)

On my Camera

I either don't take very many pictures, or I have a really big memory card.

Either way when my camera finally flashed "memory full" I was shocked at how far back these pictures went! I need to get around to a few blog posts about stuff we've been doing, but for the time being, these are random events in my life that I felt the need to document in a photo. Enjoy!There's nothing like two cute helpers to make baking even more fun! Aren't cousins the best?

Some desserts are best enjoyed in the bathtub. For obvious reasons.


She was supposed to be napping. Then she emerged dressed like this. I couldn't help but laugh. That girl has style!

Studying some flowers they grew under a magnifying glass. They have been loving their new Ikea table.

Lyla pushing Eva in the doll stroller. I now have the opportunity to sew a new seat for it. I guess they're serious when they say "for doll use only". :)

Nursery here she comes...

Lyla is an official nursery girl. Woo Hoo! She's definitely the low man on the totem pole in there, but she doesn't seem to mind. You can tell she feels like a big kid and that's all she cares about!Lyla on her first day of nursery. It's the best one we could get of her and it's blurry dangit. For kicks and giggles below is a picture of Eva on her first day. I have no idea what overcame me and made me dress them in the same outfit. Let's pray we never have a little boy......

Haircut

Sometimes I find posting a picture is unnecessary.

I have a 3 year old who tells me the honest to goodness truth.

Like in reference to the haircut I got last night. I quote:

"Mom. Can I have the piece of hair right there? WOW. They cut it really short. You shouldn't cut your hair that short mama or you'll look like a boy. You'll LOOK like a boy, but you'll sound like a girl".

Needless to say. I'm not happy. Not happy at all. Especially not with that single piece of really short hair.

Biggest Loser

Jared's work recently hosted a "Biggest Loser" competition and Jared decided to go for it. Thanks to a competitive nature (not to mention a WHOLE lot of hard work) he won! Woo Hoo! Way to go Jared! He lost 25 pounds over the course of 8 weeks, half of that weight being lost in the past 3 weeks. He now weighs less than when we got married. I guess those 5 am workouts paid off. Can you tell I'm proud? :) You deserved it Jared, I've never seen anyone work so hard.

Just for fun: before and after pics
(disclaimer: YES I tried to find the most unflattering before picture of him that I could. )

Isn't he nice to humor me and pose for a final weigh day picture?

Here Kitty Kitty

I don't know what came over us, but for some reason we got it in our heads that we needed a cat. Which we found. And adopted. And we love. Say hello to Lucy/Kitty/Scooby Doo! We'll get down to picking one name eventually.

She gets 10 out of 10 for patience and love. She gets a much lower score on survival instincts (see pictures below).

We're working on the whole don't pull the cats tail/feet/ears/whiskers thing. It would help if she would run away from the kids. And stay hidden. But she's a social little booger and won't stay hidden for very long, so this is a pretty common scene. Kitty has put in a request for a dog. To help share some of the abuse- erm I mean love.


To Eva's delight, her favorite game is chasing mint flavored dental floss around the kitchen island for extended periods of time. To my delight this helps fill Eva's daily "I have to run" quota. Bless you kitty. Bless you.

San Diego: day 2

The second day we did what we should have done in the first place: hung out on the beach! Everyone had way too much fun, and by the end of it Jared and I were trying to devise ways to stay an extra day. :)How does the flavor of California sand compare Lyla?

We then cleaned up, (did you guys know sand is impossible to wash off? Oh, I'm the only one that didn't know that?) grabbed some lunch and headed to the temple to look around the grounds. I'm always struck by how peaceful it is whenever you are on temple grounds. Even when kids are with you. On our way out of town I wanted to see the house I lived in when I was little. Does it look the same family? Ignore that poochy-bellied girl out front. Having to eat the kids leftover lunch does a number on the waistline.
The last night we camped in the middle of nowhere, where we all froze to death and rejoiced when we finally made it home the next day.
I had to snap this picture of Lyla for my parents. (Sorry that it's fuzzy) I was apparently a little too careful about not getting sunscreen in her eyes when we spent all that time on the beach so the poor kid ended up with a sunburn that resembled two shiners. I had several people at church ask me if she'd collided with a coffee table. Nope, just dorky me, being dorky!

Vacations are great, but I must say coming home and sleeping in your own bed is too. :)