Christmas Day

Merry Christmas Nana

Look at all the Santa loot...wow are we spoiled!

Mom...hurry up..I want to open presents!

Ash at Dave's parents house

Christmas day at our house started around 8:30am thanks to the girls sleeping in late! We opened our stockings and had some breakfast then it was on to the tree for more presents. Ash was surprisingly grateful for all her gifts and it was joy to watch her open them. As the girls napped during the afternoon the adults watched Elf and cooked the turkey on the grill...yum yum. We stuffed ourselves silly then headed to Dave's parents house for more food and presents. Ash got a little restlesss waiting to open presents while the aduts cleaned the

kitchen...she is only 3:) We had lots of fun watching the 3 little ones open gifts and play with new toys. Then we headed to the basement for some serious Texas Hold Em. I never had a chance to play...perhaps next year! Maddie conked out about 9pm and Ash made it all the way until 10:30pm when we left. The day after Christmas is almost my favorite day because we don't shower and sit in frontof the TV all day in our jammies...bliss! That night we had a quick adult night out while Dave's sister Cathy watched the girls and went to dinner at Trio Cafe with some good friends of ours. I had the BEST cheese pizza, caesar salad and tomato soup EVER...a really great restaurant. We tried to hit a late movie but everything was sold out that night...so we went home and watched a video...again in our jammies:)

We are headed down to Vegas tomorrow to stay with Mike and Katie during the weekend this time WITHOUT kiddies!! My wonderful parents have agreed to watch them so Dave and I can have a little mini vacation without spending too much money:) Thank you Nana and Papa...we are so excited to sleep in for 3 mornings!!

Christmas Eve

Reading the night Before Christmas

Look at those cheeks!

Oh joy...Santa is coming!

Yummy ribbon!

Playing trains with Papa

Christmas Eve this year was just like the last three...don't you love traditions?? We spend some time at Nana and Papa's before they go to church, then we head over Dave's Grandpas house for a turkey and ham dinner and a silly gift exchange. Then it is home to wait for Santa. Mike, Dave's brother, and his wife Katie alwasys stay with us and it is so fun to hang out together. After the kiddies were in bed we stayed up way too late watching the Hangover...very crass but very funny:)

Cookies for Santa

Have you ever seen such pretty cookies???

Is it Rudolf or just Nana???

We had a fun night a few days before Christmas making cookies for Santa. Ash had a great time frosting the cookies and decorating them however she wanted. Santa ate both cookies we left him! It was a sucess:)

Halloween fun

Cornbelly's
My sweet flower whose head is too big for the costume:)

Alex, Ash and Gavin or should I say Alice, Minnie and Iron Man

Our first pumpkin carving

Ash and Garrett

We did the annual trick or treat party at our community center with Kate and Garrett. We also had everyone stop by for chili and then trick or treating on Halloween. We actually ran out of candy at 7:45pm...I must be more prepared next year! We had one crazy adult dressed as Batman with his wife/girlfriend ring the door and the try to explain why he was asking for free candy on a kids holiday..I hope he doesn't live in our neighborhood...FREAK. We also had a fun Saturday at Cornbelly's with Whitney, Andrea, Cristol and the kids. The weather was so warm and wonderful..just really crowded because it was a Saturday. I actually lost Ashley for about 10 minutes and the kindness of strangers had me reunited with her at the information desk shortly. When I say shortly, it sure didn't feel that way as I am envisioning who took her and where she is going to end up dead...etc, etc. I was hoping to keep it our little secret till we came home and the 1st thing she says to Dave..." I get lost at Cornbelly's Daddy!!" Like she was proud or something..ooops. I had some explaining to do:)

More birthday fun???

We has Ashley's family party at our house on Satuday the 24th. The kids were wild and she was completely obnoxious. She didn't listen to one word, had no interest in opening her presents and was as sassy as could be. Not exactly what I had pictured in my mind for her 3rd birthday. I guess you have good and bad days and this was just a bad one. Maybe next year will be better:)

Yo Ho Yo Ho a pirates life for me!

Trying on our new outfits
Yummy cupcakes Mom

A visit from Captain Jack

Lookslike a party

Happy 3rd birthday!

We has a great afternoon at Pirate Island Pizza with out good buddies. It was pretty empty being a Wednesday afternoon. The food was good and the atmosphere was great. Thank you all for coming, we love all of you!

Binkie bye bye

On a happier note, Ash gave up her binkie without a fight the day after we arrived home from WDW. The dentist told her it was bad for her teeth...thank you Dr. Dentist! She is still napping 2 hours a day and sleeping 10-12 a night..thank god one of my children needs to sleep like me! Mark my words...we will not go through this with Maddie's binkie...bye bye much sooner.

More sickness...

Just when I thought 2 weeks was enough with sick kids, Maddie came down with a double ear infection. All the mucus from the RSV liked her ears evidently. We are on day 5 of antibiotics and are seeing some improvement. I JUST NEED ONE NIGHT OF SLEEP.....ahhhhhh:)

Sickness abound!!!

We have been sick at our house now for 10 days running...pretty much since we came home from WDW. Ashley had croup and is now vomiting with diarrhea. Maddie was diagnosed this weekend with RSV. She has been so sick all she wants is to be held 24 hours a day..she barely has the energy to cry...it breaks my heart. She is choking on her mucus which makes her throw up her food, so it's been tough feeding her. Ash actually vomited on me the other day...whew I guess I'm due since this is the first time in her life she has thrown up!!! I've been lucky 3 years running:)

Snow White offer

Hey all, my Mom clued me in to a great deal until October 9th. Go to www.snowwhiteoffer.com and print off a coupon that allows you to save $10 on the combo blu ray and regular dvd pack. Walmart is selling it for $20, so with the coupon you will only pay $10 for 2 copies of Snow White. Thanks for the tip Mom!

Father's Day

Ash and cousin Alex

For Father's Day weekend we went down to Capitol Reef where Dave's parents have a cabin. On Saturday it rained almost all day so we took a long drive in the jeep and stopped to stretch when the weather cleared up. On Sunday Dave's parents watched the kids so that we could take out the ATV's for a little adult fun! This was Deb's first time riding one...what a blast!! Something about the open air on your face at 40 MPH is so exciting. We took a picnic lunch with a few adult beverages in the cooler and had lots of fun riding on the Sandcreek trail.

June Activites

We spent the first weekend in June in Monticello taking a jeep ride one day with a nice picnic and frolicking in a creek the next. The weather was super cold for June...something like 50 degrees. The creek in Moab was much warmer. It was our first away from home weekend with Maddie...we didn't bring the play crib thinking she could just sleep with one of us. Needless to say she is very wiggly for just 2 1/2 months and we didn't really sleep either night!

Mother's Day

Papa had so much breakfast he couldn't stay awake...
Grandma Gertrude, Deb, the girls and Nana

We spent Mother's Day at The Gathering Place in Gardner Village. They do a great buffet! We then came back to our house to open presents. Dave gave me a one hour massage...thanks honey! It was nice to have my Grandma up here. She just sold her place in California and we will be moving her up to SLC at the end of June. She will be living at Atria in Sandy, a senior apartment complex that cooks and cleans for her. We are excited to have her close by and see the girls grow up:)

Craig's graduation

I just wanted to give my brother a big CONGRATS for graduating from the University of Utah last week. He majored in Gender Studies and minored in German. He just went back these last three semsters to finish up after being gone for 11 years. It has been a tough road to work full time and complete his courses..but he did it and on a full scholarship nonetheless! Here he is posing with his partner Ian. As most of you know he is getting ready to pack up and move to London to live with Ian. We are going to miss him terribly...thank goodness for my flight benefits:)

Happy Birthday to me....

Ash and Aunt Cathy

The winner of American Idol 2009 is....

Playing on Pirate's Lair Island

Waiting for the gates to open.....

Ashley's favorite character

Ashley and Deb took a quick trip last week to Disneyland for Deb's 35th birthday. This year Disney lets you in free to the park of your choice for your birthday. So...Deb was free...Ash was free...we stayed at Grandma's house....free....flew down for free...what's not to like!! It was so nice to go the park NOT pregnant since the last 2 times I went I was pregnant with Madison. The weather this time of year is perfect and no lines since it was a Tuesday. Ash is now a stunning 40 inches tall so we went on Big Thunder Mountain 3 times in a row! She loved it. I had to beg her to go get food instead of riding a fourth time. Dave's sister has an annual pass and met us after work for the parade and a few more rides. I must thank Nana again for watching Madison so Ash and Mommy could have a little alone time together:)

Pee pee in the potty!

Evidently it helps to be completely naked:)
The finished product!!! So proud!

Ashley has started to wake up with a completely dry diaper in the morning...we make a mad dash to the princess potty and here are the results! We are making progress!

Scrapbook Retreat

The scrapbook room
All the fun gals, Deb, Cami, Jen, Whit, Amanda and Rachel

I love my husband. Just 4 weeks after the birth of our sweet baby he agreed to watch both kids for the weekend so I could go scrapbook with friends! We drove up early Friday and returned around 8pm Sunday. It was so much fun drinking, eating junk, hot tubing, laughing and oh yeah...scrapbooking! We go to a gals house in Eden Utah. She has a 6000 square ft house for the scrapbook retreats! The are enough beds for 8 people and she owns every scrapbook tool available for your use. Here is the link to her website http://www.darcysretreats.com/