our year in reveiw

so, to catch everyone up, here are a few of the highlights from the last year. if all goes well, we won't have to have another one of these posts ;D



abigail makenna turns 3 years old! we celebrated abbey's 3rd birthday just a few days before our move. she had a really fun (but simple, since everything was packed in boxes) tinkerbell birthday. aunt emma came up from provo to be with her and we got to have my parents on the web cam.


happy birthday, danny! dan turned 28 last july, just a few days before we moved, which made celebrating a little difficult. i think we had his party on the floor, because everything had been packed up by then. danny likes cake, by he hates frosting (or anything creamy and delicious for that matter), so making a cake that looks like a birthday cake is always a little tricky. this year i wanted to make him a transformer cake and since all of my cake decorating accoutrements were already packed, i made a paper stencil of optimus prime and dusted it with powder sugar. simple, but an effective frosting-free method of making the world's best husband a fun cake.<3 href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGs_qDhAW8gvyaE_P-gOXsJB6_7gC2HD86WTkmvczoIO4HgO6EJk2wIiNyvjQLgZcMwTu4AwCutd7S5ZxE-ZWsltcTnURJ-n6S7Ot5ANpIivyT_DHlVZtCeE7bqAHm_QYlA4cwfpB6-SzF/s1600/canon13136-1.jpg">last august we decided to move up to washington so that we could be closer to family (and because we LOVE the pacific northwest!). it was a two day trek from salt lake to vancouver, we stopped in idaho to see the girls' great grandma <3 style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons">
i'm 25, i'm a mom, and i love twilight. i'm a nerd, blah, blah, blah, i know. luckily, my best friend (hi, chelsea!) is as big a nerd as i am. so one october morning (at 4, i think) we packed up our babies (just the little ones) and drove to forks! i'll spare everyone the details (but not the pictures ;D) and just say that it was a BLAST! we will be going back some day.




happy halloween! we had a super fun breakfast on halloween! (abbey loved it!) tombstone pancakes, black cat toast, turkey bacon fingers, and really orange eggs. the girls dressed up as cinderella and her pumpkin. (i made that pumpkin costume, by the way. without a pattern or a sewing machine. since i'm no good at sewing, i was pretty darn proud of myself.) they were both really cute! we went trick-or-treating at a few friends' houses, and then went to a trunk-or-treat at our church. abigail had so much fun! ellie (at 8 months) was indifferent but cooperative.



happy guy fawkes night! we don't live in england, we've never been, but we do have english ancestors and this just sounded like fun ;D if you don't know about guy fawkes night, you should google it. to celebrate, emma and i (but mostly emma) made a guy fawkes doll and very safely (we're responsible adults now) burned his effigy on dan's grill. we may have also roasted mini marshmallows over top of him. it was a lot of fun and we will be celebrating guy fawkes night every year.



happy thanksgiving! emma and i spent ALL day cooking and we all ate WAY too much. it was a lovely day.



ellie stood up all by herself, for the very first time, on december 17th! luckily, i try and keep a camera in the same room as me and the kids all the time and we were able to snap this before she fell right on her tush. <3 href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFBlLsjXd6S-kY58V-fELssB-y0Aidf1AiSOFBNDmGuvQrME6uT8f8y_gFLZ24CuBfSCVNewTxk0vjyoioLZ8CkpRr0AJGwkpDqxZ0gZqrPUWdMDMIS5cCGr_27GcsAugJPnPo3-6f7lS6/s1600/P1130978-1.jpg">dan has been trying to get me to cut his hair since the day we got home from our honeymoon. i don't cut hair. i don't even trim abbey's bangs, i make emma come over and do it. i stubbornly refused, for almost 5 years, to go near him with a razor but he kept asking me to do it. just before christmas i caved and we bought a razor. i was terrified. luckily, alyssa and jacob guided me through my first, overwhelming experience as a stylist. it was a little tricky, and it didn't turn out perfect, but dan was happy with it and now i'm hired.



we spent christmas at my parents house. the girls had so much fun leaving cookies out for santa and opening their presents in the morning. i think ellie was just big enough to really enjoy her first christmas <3 href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixBMzuZ3uKDLqkqa4G0WMGoP12Kx3n47ZQhtZa4A8JtgeJbK8Y5_BpE40FM_Xe5GvYtmsFQcU3up1GHy2cu5aDVxNjmUjG9ZkZAfZV_rCg2FylMI1hR4kiQEYKiYSsvpXHOw8lzb4iBaq_/s1600/D50_2010-01-31_1400-54_6356-1.jpg">first day of primary! abigail is a sunbeam now! she was so excited to start :D luckily, i was a primary teacher for her first few months, so i got to be there with her! she had an amazing time today, and she adores her teacher. (she has the BEST primary teacher in the world. i say this was absolute confidence. sister chambers is AMAZING <3 href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizLNAcQiU95n0FPSBqAPrpnz2TQKS5Nd290cfdjo_RcXsGm6f_NWpXccmD8TuQwkGu7_2NIBhPOXe81M3XCx3kBedT26SHc2QrDuPO45IjnOEP8nUzAGCe50e1U8oYim5WVvYNphR1ikRv/s1600/D50_2010-02-04_2249-25_6638-1.jpg">ellie turned 1 on february 4th! wow, that went fast. it always does :( we had a really fun day with her. and both of our families were able to attend her first birthday via web cam! (i love web cams!) she did really well opening her presents, and and even better job eating her cake. ;D



surprise! we found out in march that we're having another baby! we were all done with babies after we had ellie, so it took a little while for us to wrap our minds around being pregnant again, but, we're so excited to be adding to our family! <3 href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje7tGHDDKaV2A_Ear3_2Hso-jl5irwep7eaoGxDqb0X6a0R4BGW0szI1SdX3baREFvrKGIXQtQLucadcAIpfhNw1VJTQ1YqwgFXXNQcJ1nR9jmnuPjoF47Fj4rAMxixCWfLR4S9PJncrKT/s1600/D50_2010-03-21_1656-41_6760-1.jpg">happy birthday, to me. i turned 25 this past march and was presented with this epic pink and black, sparkly, argyle cake. dear emma, you rock! thanks for making my birthday amazing!



happy easter! the girls had so much fun dying easter eggs the day before with daddy. abbey especially had fun, we painted half of the eggs with glitter :D it was a little tricky easter morning to get abbey to let ellie pick up some of the eggs, but she did her best to share. the girls had so much fun playing with the eggs and opening their baskets. we made a lot of special memories. <3 href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA55Ac-SUcWKS0Q74NytcOX-8Ae38hFa-SY1kMiH7zDV8-V5SsYSYXKT4cDJip4ZFNib-PQT7NzcqTIqF8VWSIZOyDMF5JFN9yrEMx02hLWbjh8uD4aqLk9Ry4PKffM_CafYbIrbcBoJKf/s1600/P1140806-1.jpg">we went to the coast for mother's day this year. i love the oregon coast, it is wonderfully relaxing. while we were there we took the girls down to the beach for the first time. ellie was a little hesitant about everything at first but got more excited and curious the longer she was there. abbey, on the other hand, was going nuts the second she could see the water. we picked up little shells and stones, made a sand "castle" (that was more like a sand mound), and dipped our toes in the water (which was unseasonably warm for may, but made it a much more enjoyable experience for the girls.) :D



we try to do something special (read: homemade with love) for danny every father's day. this year we made him a little scrapbook filled with photos, pictures drawn by the girls, special memories we have, coupons, and some of the reasons that we love him. abbey worked her little fingers to the bone helping me get it ready. it turned out better than i thought it would, and danny really loved it.

my little sister, emma, loves her french horn. a lot. she also loves her niece. it was only a matter of time before emma started to teach her to play.