Liddy's Baptism

This is my wedding dress--too big, stained and out-of-date. I will never wear it again and I'm sure my girls won't either.



This is what it looked like after I cut it up and made Liddy's confirmation dress out of it. (I say confirmation because she was baptized in a different dress.)




Our stake baptism was on January 2nd and we were lucky it was a small one with only one girl besides Liddy being baptized. We had a lot of family there--Mike's parents and brother came to town and most of my family living in town were there too. Some of our friends came as well and Liddy even invited a neighborhood friends who is not a member of the church! She was pretty excited about that. Liddy really enjoyed the attention and was so proud of herself. She also loved wearing two pretty, fancy, white dresses--she was especially proud of the dress that we made from my wedding dress. We are proud of our "little" girl for the choice she made.

Christmas Morning

So I guess we're through with sleeping in on Christmas morning because this year Liddy set her alarm clock for 7 o'clock a.m. (which I changed to 8:30 but she woke up early anyway). I guess as long as there's magic in Christmas we'll be up earlier and earlier as the kids get older!

We had a nice quiet couple of hours opening and playing with presents until we went to my Grandpa's to join the rest of the family. This year I made presents for all of my nieces and my girls. These dolls are two of the eight I made and they all have little matching dogs to go with them.

What's Your Opinion on Egg Nog

Most of us have had at least a little sip at one time or another during our lives. Some love it and I know some who hate it. When I was a kid, before I had issues with eggs, I loved it with lots of nutmeg on top. But yesterday when Halle asked for "Egg Milk," I knew for sure I'd never drink it again. Something about picturing eggs floating around in milk is not appealing to me, neither is the thick crusty mustache I have to wipe off Halle when she's finished. So to all you "Egg Milk" haters out there....if I wasn't with you before, I join you now!

Happy Holidays!

Since I have a few minutes and it will probably be awhile before I update again, I wanted to say MERRY CHRISTMAS! We hope you're all doing well and received our Christmas letter. Please let us know if we missed you somehow :( We're staying in Kennewick this year and Mike's family will be here right after for Liddy's baptism. We're so excited for that!!! Pictures will come later in January. Merry Christmas!

Halloween

I know it's late, but I wanted to get these pictures up anyway. Liddy is dressed as a snow princess and Halle is a butterfly (she was very unhappy about this when she realized she really wasn't going to be dressed as Swiper from Dora the Explorer--it was kind of funny).This year we had TWO nights of Halloween fun. On Friday we went to our church parking lot for the annual "Trunk-or-Treat" and then on Saturday (which was Halloween) Mike took the girls around the neighborhood while I stayed home and handed out 400 or so pieces of candy. We love the excitement in our neighborhood on Halloween!!! The last picture is of Halle with her cousin Emery.

Sand Castles and Chocolate Chip Cookies

One of the things I love about Liddy being back in school is the amount of time I get to spend one-on-one with Halle. A few days ago I decided to make chocolate chip cookies and asked Halle to help me. She loved dumping everything into the bowl and waited very patiently in front of the oven while the cookies were baking. I liked it when she dumped the packed brown sugar into the bowl and said, "It's like a sand castle Mommy!" How many times have a used brown sugar and never thought of comparing it to sand? If only I could be as creative as a little kid...I love the things they say--so special.

Second Grader

School has officially started and I officially have a 7 year old girl in 2nd Grade! Where does the time go? Liddy is enjoying the beginning of the school year, mostly I think because she hasn't had any homework yet so she's allowed to play outside all afternoon. We love our new house--next door to a small park, surrounded by kids and on a cul-de-sac so the road is a lot less busy than our old one.

Canada/New York Trip

Summer vacation is over and we are almost settled into our new house so here is an update on our lives. At the end of July we moved into our new house and a week later we took a trip to see Mike's family in Ontario, Canada. All but one of his siblings were there to celebrate his parents 50th wedding anniversary. It was great to be there with all of them. Here is a picture of Mike with his family and also one of Mike's parents with the younger grandkids.


On our first day there we made the drive to Niagra Falls, stayed the night in Buffalo, NY and then drove to Palmyra to see the Hill Cumorah and Sacred Grove.

Here is Mike with his dad and the girls at Niagra Falls.

This picture was taken on top the the Hill Cumorah.

A few of us in front of the Joseph Smith Home.

Here we are in the Sacred Grove. Mike had been to all of these sights as a child and teenager but I had never been. It turned out to be a neater experience than I had anticipated. Hopefully next time we go the girls will understand a little better the significance of where we are.

One of Mike's favorite things to do when we go to Canada is to get "chips" (fries) at the Chip Truck. He worked there after his mission to save money for college and thinks they have the best fries in the world! I disagree as the amount of grease on the soggy fries doesn't make me feel very good :( This is a picture of the Bluewater Bridge (courtesy of my sis-in-law Morgan) that we have to cross to get from the US to Canada. The Chip Truck is underneath it. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it.

Mike's parents live just a few blocks from the shore of Lake Huron. There are a few areas with sandy/rocky beaches and the kids had fun playing in the water. It never ceases to amaze me how HUGE the the Great Lakes are! So beautiful too.

Halle's 2nd Birthday

Here is Halle the frosting theif. She couldn't keep her hands off the cake while we waited for everyone to gather to sing "Happy Birthday." She's such a stinker, stealing gumballs and poking holes--I guess it was her birthday so she should be allowed.


My sister found this rainbow cake on someone's blog and Halle and Liddy both love rainbows so I thought it was a good fit. The gumballs around the edge were just to entertain the kids but I thought they were fun too.

Halle Said....

So I'm standing in the kitchen cleaning off the stove last night and little observant Halle climbed up on the bar stool to see what I was doing. I thought it was cute when she looked at the frying pan that was sitting on the counter filled with soapy water and said, "Mommy the pan is taking a bubble bath!" I love her sweet little raspy voice.

Birthdays and Easter

I celebrated my last birthday in my twenties last month and I'm not looking forward to next year when 30 hits and I feel like all of a sudden I need to grow up, not play, not spend my summers swimming, maybe do something that seems more grown up than just taking care of my kids all day. Then I realize that 30's not that old and why not just keep going the way I'm going, feeling younger than I am and being mom to my kids cause that's definitely what I do best. Anyway, I'm rambling, so here is a picture of me with my sisters Mollie and Chloe on the right and my sister-in-law, Marcy, on the left with her new baby, Conley. My sisters are my best friends so it's only right that Chloe and I share our birthday parties since our birthdays are only 2 days apart.

The day we celebrated our birthdays was Easter Sunday so here are some pictures of my girls in their Easter dresses. Because we had just gotten home from Maui and were scrambling to get our house ready to sell, we didn't have an Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday and did it on Sunday in my grandpa's backyard instead. The girls had fun racing for the eggs with most of the cousins on my side of our family. Liddy and Halle were both thrilled at having so much access to candy! Not that they don't get enough during the week:)

Halle Smiles

I had to include these pictures of Halle because it's such a rare thing to get her to smile in a picture.

Spring Break in Maui

It finally came! Our would-have-been Christmas Vacation turned Spring Break in Maui. At the beginning of the month we packed up our summer clothes and flew to Maui with my sister Mollie and her family. We spent our days playing on the beach, swimming in the pool and lying in the sun. We ate some good food and just enjoyed our time together. I was thrilled that Halle wasn't afraid of the water!

Playing on the beach behind the house.

Swimming in Grandpa's Pool

The Volkswagon Thing. This car hardly runs but Mike and the kids have fun driving around town at least once during our trips to Maui. It was included with the house that my grandpa bought when I was a kid. We really should use it more!

This picture is taken at the Two Tiered Pools. We hooked up with some friends from Kennewick and hiked down to the ocean. The view was amazing but it was a little tricky to find a place for Halle to play near the water.

Oh the Joys of Snow and Utah

One of the joys of being home this Christmas is that we actually got to have a White Christmas which we NEVER have here in Kennewick. I bought Liddy some snowpants and it's been worth the cost because she loves to be out in the snow sledding with her cousins or building a snowman with Daddy. Halle would rather stay inside and complain that she's not outside. Silly baby:)


The other joy was that we were fortunate to have good weather long enough to make a trip to Utah to see our good friends Ben and Lindsey. While we're pretty sure we never want to move to Utah, it's a great place to visit and we had fun in Salt Lake and Heber City. Liddy especially had fun when we took her ice skating for the first time. She started to get the hang of it just as we were leaving.

Halle Learned to Walk

So she finally did it. At 19 months old, Halle gave in and took off. Mike was standing in the hotel bathroom and she just came walking in like she'd done it 100 times before. We couldn't stop laughing because it was so funny to finally see her off her knees! So for all of you out there with babies who don't walk--don't worry it happens. And contrary to popular belief, she's not into anything because she's walking that she wasn't into before and she still sits in her stroller and the grocery cart (as long as she's not with her daddy who lets her out). Congratulations Halle for mastering the skill of walking!

Christmas

Here are the girls in their Christmas outfits. Liddy loved her twirling "princess dress" and Halle since she was walking on her knees, did a good job of ruining the knees of every pair of tights I put on her.


Here we are at Grandpa Curtis' house for Christmas Eve. Santa comes every year and although Liddy has gotten used to that idea, Halle was irate every time we went near him.

This is the best gingerbread house we've ever made but only because Liddy decided she wanted it to look just like the picture on the box. This was perfectly fine with me and all of my perfectionist ways.

Maui Cancelled

Have you ever heard of The Great Wolf Lodge? We hadn't heard much either until driving thru a blizzard to get to Seattle, only to find out our trip to Maui for Christmas was cancelled. Sad times, but we had a blast for one night and one day at this great lodge! It has an indoor water park that has lots to do, an arcade if you're into that, a spa for adults and kids, good restaurants, a clock tower with mechanical singing animals (that sounds cheesy but the kids loved it) and lots and lots for the kids to do and they gave us a great deal on a two room suite with two bathrooms, a living room and a little kitchen area-nice compared to the usual hotel room. It doesn't compare to Maui, but we had fun while it lasted. Plus, how could I forget? Halle learned to walk here!!!

Mike's Christmas Tree

It finally came, the day that I embarassed Mike instead of the other way around. We were invited to a Christmas party at a friend's house and after talking with some friends a few days before the party I decided it would be fun to convince Mike that we were supposed to dress-up like a Christmas tree in order to attend the party. It didn't take much convincing and he never thought twice about me not dressing up because as he always says, I'm a "party pooper." Anyway, we showed up last to the party and no one else was dressed up. Mike played it off like he was all cool for being dressed up and that he didn't care but after the party he told me it had embarassed him more than anything I'd ever done. Hooray for me! I finally got even for all the parties we've gone to that he's embarassed me in some dumb way. I love you Mikey!

Liddy Art

So you may not appreciate these drawings as much as I do but when drawing and coloring keeps your child occupied for hours at a time you have to be grateful for all of the colorful artwork around your house. I love to see the new things Liddy comes up with. These are some her most recent drawings. What do you think of the nose, ha ha? Sometimes I have a hard time throwing the papers away so some genius person suggested I take pictures of the ones I can't part with and save them for Liddy that way. I love my Liddy.

Halle Mei Doesn't Walk

Here are some recent pictures of Hal. She loves to set up this little doll table, put a doll on one chair, food and dishes on the table and then sit in the other chair. She'll stay there forever and play quietly. Halle is 2 days away from being 18 months and she absolutely refuses to walk. There's nothing wrong with her, she'll hold my hand and walk or walk behind push-toys, but nothing on her own. She is the biggest chicken I've ever known, my mom says it reminds her of me when I was Halle's age and Mike says it reminds him of me at 28. Whatever Mike.