Updates

Oh my goodness! I haven't blogged here for a super long time! I've got to get back at it because I'm not doing any scrapbooks for my girls right now either!
So I'll get some pictures up and some fun things we have done:
In the fall the girls and I went to Black Island Farms. We have never been before so it was a really great experience, we checked out the animals and then watched a baby pig race.

 Allie went down this fun slide but Marlee was too scared to go by herself:

 Both of the girls went on this fun farm animal train ride:

 They played in a corn pit. It was really cool feeling and was just like a sand box. It was really hot and sunny but the corn stayed cool, it was great.

 The girls and I all went together on this big pipe slide(in the back of the picture). It was really steep and really bumpy so it was pretty scary even for me. Marlee was crying for a little bit and didn't like it one bit.

 But we were happy on the way up!

 There was a fun see-saw, both of the girls were on one side and me on the other.

We got some really good kettle corn for a snack and walked through a big corn maze for almost an hour. It was fun to go through the corn maze and we even went home with some pumpkins to carve!

Allie #5!

Allie turned five September 22nd. The Sunday before we had a birthday party at our house with family. We couldn't keep her present from her so we gave it to her in the morning. A new bike! She only had a tricycle and now wanted a big kid bike with training wheels so she can learn to ride like the kids in our neighborhood. Marlee now gets the tricycle all to herself, she is really excited that she doesn't have to trade off and share anymore.Allie did really good right away on her bike, she went across the street in the culdesac and had a little accident because she was headed towards the curb pretty fast and didn't put on her brakes. She ran into the curb and fell off her seat and hit into the bar on her bike. She was a little shaken but didn't cry. She was learning to use her brakes and is doing great at it.

For her birthday dinner we had her favorite, shepherds pie. She loves fruit, especially melon so I got some watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, and strawberries. I wanted to make a cute bowl out of the watermelon rind, I thought a crown would be perfect but I couldn't find a picture online of what I was thinking so I just did it with the picture in my head. It turned out pretty cute and made it more interesting than just a bowl.

Allie got a lot of presents from her aunts, uncles, and grandparents. She got a princess charm school barbie. She loves it.

She got a book about a testimony glove. She also got a CTR ring, a barbie scooter that has a spot for the barbie to ride too, a cute fall outfit, a tinkerbell purse and tinkerbell art kit.

This is her cake that I made for Sunday, she wanted a castle with people standing around it but this was the best I could do. At least it is her favorite colors!

Here she is blowing out her candles, and her sister Marlee helping.

On Thursday was her birthday and she had preschool, I made some pink and white cake pops that she took to school for all the kids and teachers. Her dad was at work all day so just us girls went with some friends out to lunch at a play place. I went with my parents to a temple sealing that night and we didn't get home till late. She did get some cards in the mail and a present from her aunt Chelsy that was jacks, slinky, microphone, and a jumprope. I made this quilt and quilted it for her and gave it to her after our lunch outing. She was really happy about it because I make so many quilts but haven't made one for her bed yet. I think she is old enough now to appreciate it and love it.Friday we had another birthday party for her friends. We really made this birthday a week long thing. For her birthday party, we went to the castle park in Kaysville and I made her colors pink and turquoise. I made a pink and turquoise castle cake for this party. I love this one so much, I think because I love those colors together.

I found this really cute table cover with cupcakes on the side and mostly pink and turquoise on it. You can see the castle park in the back, it is Allie's favorite park. She is standing here with her friend Sophia.

Here is Allie with some of her friends on the tire swing, it is a really fun swing that spins and swings and can fit lots of friends!

Here is Allie blowing out her candles with all of her friends around.

Allie is growing up to be a really good little girl. She is such a good helper and does what her parents ask her to do. She is learning so much at school and at home and loves to show what she can do. She is a lot like me when I was her age, she is pretty dramatic and thinks she knows everything and can do everything herself.

We love Allie so much and can't even believe she will never be 4 or 3 or 2 again. She is growing so fast but we love every second with her and are proud of her and excited for her future.

Summer Update

Allie graduated from preschool, they had a field trip to the Dinosaur Museum in Ogden at the end. She loved preschool and did really well and learned a lot of things. Her teacher is amazing, she does so many crafts, songs, and programs with them it makes me tired to just think about all the preparation and effort that goes in to her students.
Here is her whole class, minus maybe 1 or 2 and plus a couple of younger siblings that came (including Marlee, front and center). Their teacher, Mrs. Esplin is with them and I really really love her.
A couple weekends after that, I went on a trip with my friend and her 3 girls that are friends with my girls. It was an all girls vacation! We stayed in my parent's rv trailer at Bear Lake for 2 nights and we ran a 10k in the Bear Lake Marathon on June 11th.
Here are us runners with our girls:

We had this huge RV park all to ourselves so we played on the grass a little and they had a way fun playground to play at. We definitely wore the girls out on the Friday that we stayed, we had them all in bed asleep by 6:30!

We took them to a beach that we could find, the water is so high this year the beach is covered and the grass that is the beach now is so muddy and gross. We had to be up a lot higher but at least we were by the lake and the girls could search for tiny seashells.

Allie had a huge jacket full of seashells and rocks that she was taking from there and bringing them home. I stopped her and told her we couldn't take them and she had a little melt-down. I finally convinced her it would be okay if we got a picture of her with them so that if she ever was missing them she could look at the picture and it would make her happy.

At the race, my friend Brianna got 54:08! She did so amazing, she is a really good runner and has been doing it for a long time. Me on the other hand, was a lot slower than her. I am really proud because I beat my last years time by 6 minutes. I got 1:07 and I ran the entire way without stopping or walking again. I'm glad that I'm starting to run a little faster though and I'm way glad that I got a better time. My goal was 1:05 but I'm really happy with what I got. I had my 2 munchkins to cheer me on at the end and that was the best part.

The next weekend was Fathers Day, we were really excited to give Brad a Gym membership and some gym clothes and some body wash and stuff to clean himself up after his workouts! These 2 little angels and I love him very much and we missed him while we were on our trip but are so proud of him and how hard he works for our family.
We went to dinner at my Mom and Dad's house on Fathers Day and I just really love this picture I got of Marlee helping Grandpa John open his present. She pulled everything out of the bag for him one at a time and no pause for admiring, but I love this authentic look on my Dad's face.

We are going on another camping trip this weekend, but Brad gets to go this time! I will be posting as much as I can now I want to do more of my Family blogging. In the meantime, have a great 4th of July!

St. George/Las Vegas Trip

Last weekend, we went to St. George to visit Brad's Dad and family. We have been looking at a job for Brad down in Vegas area so we went to look at some neighborhoods that had houses we were looking at online. It was bittersweet, some of the neighborhoods weren't great and the houses weren't all great either. But we did go to a couple of fun places for the girls. At the Bass Pro Shop right outside of it in the casino there is a big fish tank and it had some really cool fish in it, the girls liked it a lot!

We were just looking at the fish until we realized that there was a mermaid in there! She stopped right in front of Allie and was doing a clapping game with her and the girl next to her. Marlee was too scared to go up there with Allie so I held her and she liked to see the mermaid too.

After that we wanted to check out the adventure dome at Circus Circus. It was a little different than we thought it would be but we did go on a ride. There was a Ferris wheel that was hot air balloons as the seats, we got to all ride together on it. Here is me with Marlee:
And me with Allie:

And here is Brad with the girls. If you look behind them you can see a little bit what the seat looked like.

It was way fun and we went up really high and it was all indoors. There was a big roller coaster that was fun to watch go around too. They had a cool 4D Dora the Explorer show but it wasn't on that day, it was Spongebob instead so we didn't go.

We went back to St. George and hung out at the Taylor's house on Sunday and played games and read books and stuff. On Monday morning we met my sister Chelsy who was on a road trip with a couple of roommates. We met her and went shopping at the outlets because we thought it would have great sales because it was President's Day. I got some really cute outfits and good deals at OshKosh there but that's all.

It was a great little getaway and we didn't have to be here when everyone at home got a lot of snow!

Marlee 2 years

While Allie was at preschool one day, Marlee and I went to the store to get some party stuff. We looked at all the party theme birthday stuff and I asked Marlee which one she wanted for her birthday. She chose Minnie Mouse! I was excited to make a Minnie Mouse cake and we got a MM banner, MM plates, MM napkins, and I snuck in a MM singing card for her!

We gave her some Minnie Mouse panties and Kai-Lan panties. She was going potty a couple weeks before her birthday. I'm so proud of her, she didn't need much bribing, she just loved for us to clap for her when she went. I thought it wasn't very fair of her to be potty trained and she can't even get out of her bed if she needs to go potty, so we gave her a big girl bed and some new bedding! She loved it and got right in it and pretended that she was sleeping! She even said "shhhh!" :)

She got a baby stroller and a super cute outfit from they Young family, and a bunch of toys and stuff from the Bingham family. The bag was super big and she had to crawl inside of it to get her presents it was so deep!

Here is the Minnie mouse cake, it is all frosting, I didn't do fondant this time. The black frosting was a little difficult but I think it turned out pretty cute!

Here is the birthday girl right before she blew out the candles. She had a great Birthday and loved every second of it. It was really funny because some of her aunts couldn't come on her Birthday so they called and said Happy Birthday to her, and she would say Happy Birthday back to them. She understood though I think, I tried to teach her how to make a 2 with her fingers to show how old she is now.

Her birthday was on Sunday, so the day before, we went to Boondocks in Kaysville to have some fun with just our family. She got a crown and a badge and loved to say cheese.
She got to ride on the little rides and they played the arcade games, her favorite actually was the air hockey for little kids and she would always have the puck go into her side even if she had to pick it up and put it in herself.

Marlee loves to wear shoes all the time, she loves cute shoes like any little girl should. She likes to color and have anyone read stories to her. She is very advanced with her speech , I think she says every word. She will say things like "delicious, creepy, that would be great, I'll be careful..." She speaks like a little girl still so cute but she says words like a 4 or 5 year old would. She definitely knows what she wants and when she wants it, she is super stubborn. She sleeps in her big girl bed really good, goes to bed when I tell her and stays in bed all night and sleeps 9-10 hours every night. She has pretty much given up nap time, she doesn't usually have a nap in the day unless she really needs it. She likes to sing, and makes up her own songs. She holds little toys and trinkets in her hands everywhere she goes and she says, "I got my treasures."

She is a very unique little girl and I love to be around her every day. She loves to learn and play and follow her big sister. Marlee is growing up so fast and I hope that I will always remember her at this age.

Brittany's Wedding

My sister, Brittany, got married almost a month ago now to Ryan! My family woke up super early and I got the girls' hair in curlers and we ran out of the house hopefully getting all of the stuff we needed for the long day ahead of us. The roads were really bad and it took us over an hour to get to my family's house to help Brittany get ready. About 3/4 of the way there I realized that I forgot the picture quilt! I was so upset about it, I only had a couple of things to bring and I felt like it was the most important one! It was supposed to be displayed at their reception.
We got to their house and I did Britt's hair and makeup and sent her off to the Temple! I got myself ready and finished getting the girls ready and we went over to Logan. It was a horrible ride too, the roads were super bad and on the way there I realized that I didn't have my recommend! I was way upset again-how could I forget everything? Luckily I got in touch with my bishop and had him call the temple to vouch for me. It was really snowing all day but we did get some pictures at the Temple and then went to the Bluebird for the luncheon, which was really good. After that we went to the Old Rock Church in Providence for the reception. It was a beautiful day even though everything kept going wrong for me. I loved being there to witness probably their most important day of their life.
They were engaged for 6 months and got married in Logan, here they are at the Temple.

It was really snowy all day and this is one of my favorite ones of them outside:


This is our whole family! Ryan is definitely the tallest one in the family now. There are 3 grand kids-all girls.

Here is the new brother-in-law with his favorite little girls. I love this one of Taycie, she is so adorable, and I love that all 3 are looking.

Here are all of us kids together, 6 of us, 1 boy, 5 girls!

Just the girls! We have a little inside joke that Alyssa said when she was really little when we were all in the car together, "Hey! We're all girls!"

Here is Brittany with the little girls. I love how cute Allie and Marlee looked all day, their hair was beautiful and they had cute sparkly headbands that matched their shoes.

This has to be my favorite. All of us sisters with Brittany in the middle on her special day!

I wish the all the best in the world for Brittany and Ryan. I hope they stay so happy and have a wonderful life and family. It was a great day and let me refresh my feelings about my marriage and how important my family is to me.