happy independence day!

happy independence day, everyone! i hope you all had an amazing day! we certainly did!

we took the girls to the playground this afternoon and had a fourth of july picnic. we had a very all american meal (sans the apple pie, which was really too bad); fried chicken, biscuits, coleslaw and mac and cheese. ooh, it was yummy!

after we ate, danny took the girls to play and i took henry for a walk.

poor henry spent most of the afternoon in his stroller, in the shade. couldn't let all that soft, pink, fair skin fry in the sunshine. he did pretty well, though.

(click on the picture to blow it up and check out this kid's HUGE teeth!)

we stopped at the grocery store and the fireworks stand on the way home from the park. danny took abbey with him to get the fireworks and let her pick the ones she wanted!

we bbq some hot dogs for dinner and paired them with potato salad and watermelon. yummy! we all ate way too much and then topped everything off with root beer floats!

we had the kids sit in the car while danny set off the fireworks so no one (namely ellie) would get too curious. it worked out surprisingly well. since our kids are so little, and they have attention spans like goldfish, we didn't put on a very long show. we burned a couple of sparklers, set off a saturn whistle (i hate those), and lit abbey log looking explosive (see picture) that sparkled for about 6 seconds. it was just long enough and a huge hit.

well, with everyone except henry. poor little boy did not enjoy one second of our lovely, patriotic display.

catching up: june

june 6:
no story, i just think this is a great picture!
june 5:
big day! abigail got her very first library card!

she's so proud of herself! and so excited to check out new books every week!


june 12:
ellie snuck out of bed and gave herself a pedicure. nice.


june 15:
abbey snuck in our room, dumped out three baskets of laundry and one basket of books, then made a nest to sleep in. wow.


june 18:
happy father's day! we love our daddy!check out that beautiful tie the girls made for danny!

catching up: may

may 1:
ellie made her own breakfast. cocoa puffs, anyone?

may 7:
happy birthday, aunt emma!

the girls, all ready for church.

may 12:
see this little guy? he's a big boy today!

today he pulled up on his knees. crawling isn't far off...

may 29:
alyssa and jacob brought "sweet baby james" for a quick visit. even though they weren't here very long, alyssa and i made sure we made time to pick up a box of these beauties:

mmm...they were delicious! i love me some cupcakes!

may 30:
while abbey and i were cooking, i gave ellie a little bowl of flour to stir (so she wouldn't feel left out). she decided to give it a taste...

it wasn't such a big hit...

catching up: april

as you can see, april wasn't a really busy month...

april 8:
this isn't really news, it's just hilarious:

when i checked on henry during his nap, this is what i found. i'm not sure if you can see his fat little arm sticking out between the bumper and the mattress, but it's there. hahaha. it was just kinda silly.

april something...:
emma and sarah came to visit at the last minute! yay! we ate a lot of food and didn't sleep very much, it was great. too bad everyone lives so far away!

april 23:
happy easter!
easter baskets were a little skimpy this year. the bunny didn't get to the store until the night before!
ellie was old enough this year to really get into the egg hunt. abbey was a good girl and left some eggs for elle to find.

yumm-o.

the girls drinking milk out of their chocolate bunnies. this is just a weird tradition that my sisters and i made up when we were little. we all still do it, and now my kids do, too.


april 30:

the girls played outside a lot this month. they love being able to get out of the house.

catching up: march

i know, we've been mia for quite a while. the day to day things seem to keep us running all the time. here's a quick recap of the last FOUR months:

march 11:
henry's first mush!he did a pretty good job! i think he swallowed two or three times. abbey took a turn spooning runny cereal in his mouth, she's such a good little mommy!

march 12:
big boy henry has outgrown his bassinet and graduated to his crib! now he has room to stretch out and wiggle around.


march 14:
happy st patrick's day!

today we dressed in all green and only ate green/irish foods. green irish oatmeal and green milk for breakfast. green mac and cheese for lunch. irish stew with soda bread and green jell-o for dinner. yum!

we also made leprechaun cut outs!

march 22:
happy birthday, to me.


look at this amazing cake that abbey (with a little help from daddy) made for me! it was the best birthday cake i ever had!

march 26:
we made a quick weekend trip to rexburg for alyssa (my little sister) and jacob's baby's blessing. it was a REALLY quick trip, but a really great visit. unfortunately, i left my camera in our hotel room and didn't get any pictures!

on the home we stopped in boise to visit with my grandparents. it was a short visit, but so good to get to sit down and let the girls play with great grandma and grandpa.

bye-bye, baby

guess who's officially a big girl? yep, that's right, it's ellie! she took her very last nap in her crib this afternoon and danny pulled out the big-girl-bed for bedtime! she is so excited to be a big girl now!

all things considered, she did really well for her first night sans bars. she crawled in bed with abbey a few times and did a moderate amount of running around, but she was sleeping in bed by 9pm with minimal assistance from us.

i'm hoping this will be a smooth transition...we'll see how she does tomorrow. fingers crossed!

one fish, two fish

for those of you who don't know, today is dr. suess' birthday, which is celebrated with read across america. when i was little, we just called it "dr. suess day", and it was one of my favorite days at school! since my kids aren't in school yet, we celebrated at home. we read a ton of books (well, a ton for wiggly, little people) and did some really fun book related crafts. the kids also watched 'horton hears a who' while i tried to get all my cleaning for the day done before we started our "bookathon" (abbey's name for our marathon of stories).

our big ol' pile of books. we didn't get through all of them, but we sure did our best!

"one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish". this was our first craft of the day. the girls made finger prints in the appropriate colors and then used their cat in the hat pencils (thank you, grandmama) to turn their little prints into fishies.


we took a mid morning break from reading when the ups man brought us the loot from an online shopping spree. there have been some killer clearance sales (i'm talking 80% off!) at some of my favorite stores and i've been taking advantage and getting stocked up for abbey's kindergarten debut this fall.

have you read "ten apples up on top!"? it's a cute little counting book that dr. suess wrote before he was dr. suess. in the book, all the characters balance ten apples on their head, so we did, too.

a "one fish, two fish" goldfish snack. gotta keep our energy up for more reading!



this was our reading chart for our "bookathon". every time we finished a story, the girls got to color in a book. we read 36 books! some of our favorites were; "the pout pout fish", "guess again", "mr. brown can moo, can you?", "what time is it, mr. crocodile?" and "chicka chicka boom boom".

horton taught us about helping others and giving service. the girls decided that their service project for the day was going to be cleaning the living room. they did such an awesome job that horton sent them certificates. they were a big hit.

of course, we had green eggs and ham for dinner. actually, the girls had green eggs and ham, danny and i had chinese take out. we would not eat green eggs and ham (sorry, sorry, sam-i-am). really, these did not look delicious, and there was no way i was going to get an appetizing picture of them, so i didn't even try. the girls loved them though. abbey wants to know if we can have green eggs and ham for dinner every night.

today was an absolute blast! it was so much fun to sit and read and play with the kids and not worry about anything else. i can't wait for next year, i've already got some awesome ideas!

oh, gross.

ellie ate a ladybug tonight.

why? i don't know.

she said it was good.

i don't believe her.

i hope she doesn't do it again.

oh, gross.

snow day!

incredibly, it got cold enough here to snow this morning. even more incredibly, it got cold enough here that the snow stuck! enter: my kids first snow day!

what's that you say? yes, abbey was born in idaho. yes, ellie was born in utah. no, my kids have never played in the snow. it's several long stories, most of them involve me being pregnant and on bed rest during the winters...

so, they had their first snow day in washington...weird, i know. regardless of location, the girls had the most fun they've ever had outside (or maybe ever).

snow! snow! snow!

abbey's very first snow angel. she's been watching all of her cartoon friends make snow angels (or snow bunnies on max & ruby) all winter and she's been dying to make one. i think she made four or five of them.

ellie wanted to make a snow angel, too, but she wasn't sure what to do after she got on the ground. judging by the faces she was making while she laid there, it was a little colder and not as much fun as abbey made it look. with a little help, though, she made a cute little angel.

it stopped snowing and the sun peaked it's head out while we were still playing, so the girls threw snow in the air to keep it coming down.

happy girls sitting in the snow.

after we put dry clothes on, we warmed up with a big mug of hot chocolate (with TWO giant marshmallows each!). it was such a fun morning! i'm so glad that the snow stuck so that we could have our first snow day! it'll have to last us though, i don't think it's going to snow again for a long time...

smile!

ellie drew her first "happy face" on her doodle board today! my children are so immensely talented ;D

la leche

ellie dumped her milk on her head at dinner tonight. after rubbing it all into her hair, she exclaimed: "i beautiful, mommy!" sometimes you just have to laugh at your kids.

sooo tired...

when i went to put ellie down for her nap this morning, this is what i found:

i guess she was just too tired to make it all the way until 11.

happy valentine's day!

hope yours was a good one!

first giggles

this happy little guy laughed for the very first time this morning while i was fixing breakfast!
it was the cutest sound, ever! we've been trying all day to get him to laugh again, but so far our efforts have only been rewarded with smiles and coos.

henry's blessing

today was henry's special day!

a little late, i know, but we really wanted danny's parents to be with us. they're both very busy people, and they don't get the opportunity to sneak away very often. we're so grateful that they were able to come up this weekend and celebrate a couple of awfully special milestones with us!

we blessed henry at home, so it was a very quite and special time surrounded by our family. danny gave henry a beautiful blessing. i am so grateful for such a wonderful husband.

the rest of the day was completely relaxed and we just enjoyed being together. it was absolutely wonderful!



(this was the best picture we could get of our family. try getting three kids to all smile at the same time looking in the same direction.)

and now, please enjoy TONS of pictures of my sweet little guy: