Halle's Woody Birthday

Halle absolutely adores Woody from the movie "Toy Story" so I thought it was great when she said she wanted a "Woody Birthday" and not something related to dolls or princesses! The above picture is one of Halle (nevermind the bruise on her cheek) holding a picture that Mike's mom painted for her birthday. Halle was thrilled when it came in the mail....kissing and hugging it and making sure it was in her room with her when she went to bed that night. We were all quite impressed with the talent Mike's mom shared with us! (There's much more detail in the real picture.)



I was having a hard time deciding what to do for the cake and didn't want to buy one with a picture on it or use a star tip and make an unartistic rendition of Woody's face. So I went online and found a picture of some green alien cupcakes. Fortunately Hal was fine with that. Sorry you can't see them better in the picture!

Below are the dolls we got Halle. When we were in Maui in March she found a little Woody doll and fell in love. We thought maybe she'd enjoy a Jessie doll too. She drags them all over the house. I wonder how long it will be before she's putting doll diapers on them? Hmmm.....

Bananas Anyone? (AKA...Our Trip to Maui)

If you look closely at the top of the above picture, you can see a "bunch" of small bananas growing in the backyard of my grandpa's Maui house. Halle and Liddy think this is really neat. Anyway, On March 12th we hopped on Hawaiian Airlines flight HA29 in Portland and headed to Maui for a ten day vacation. My sister Mollie and her family and father-in-law and my mother and father-in-law are with us. The girls have had a blast being with their cousins and grandparents and love playing on the beach and in the pool. I'm just loving the sunshine and living in my swimsuit. Mike enjoyed golfing here for the first time and we've all enjoyed just being together and not having to worry about the necessities of life. Here are a few pictures of our trip...

Haleakela is on the other side of the island and it takes two hours (one of which is switch backs) and a climb of 10,000 feet from sea level to the top, but it's beautiful at the top and worth a trip at least once in your life.


One thing you have to do this time of year in Hawaii is watch for whales. I'm just as happy seeing them from the coast but Mike, Liddy and his parents went on a boat and saw some amazing stuff.


This is the view from the lanai (deck) in the back of the house. We loooove to hear the waves crashing all day long. The beach is between the plants and the water.


The girls had a blast today when they discovered that as the tide comes in they can lie on their stomachs and be pushed around by the water. Lots of giggles and sandy hair today!


Mike and his mom.


Somehow we always manage to take pictures on the beach without getting one of the family. This time I remembered!


Tomorrow is our last day here and I am not even close to being ready to go home. Work and school beckon though and we'll have to say good-bye till next time.

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.