Hammin' it up

Thing 2 is so funny. She is always hamming it up for us. If she happens to find my camera she picks it up, hands it to me and says "CHEESE!" over and over again. These few poses are a result of her finding the camera and me not being able to resist taking a few shots. I mean come on, just look at that little face.

Midnight Foot Attacker

The other night I was getting ready for our family to go to my brother C's wedding. B was at a retreat for work and since I can't sleep when he is gone, I decided to do some cleaning. I took out some garbage, barefoot of course, and all of a sudden I felt some sharp prickly thing sticking my foot. I started to shake my foot thinking I stepped on a random prickly stick that got stuck to one of my cats and ended up in my yard somehow. I looked down to see a preying mantis on my foot. I think it was attacking my second toe, seeing how I ended up with a small spot of blood on that toe. It was so creepy!! After I shook it off it it just stared at me from underneath the garbage can. In the small amount of light I don't think it realized how big I was and thought, "HEY, that looks like a great midnight snack!" It was the length of my palm and left me with the Hibbie Gibbies!! CREEPY!!

Thing 1's Black Eye

After my brother's wedding we took the kids to Town Square in Las Vegas. It has a great play area for the kids and our girls have so much fun when we take them. They have a hedge maze and Thing 1 was going around one corner while a little boy came from the other side and he hit her in the eye with his head. The result she has a real black eye. The best part is she got it just in time for school pictures this week. It isn't very big and I think I can cover it up with a little bit of makeup but still good grief. It was instantaneous. B brought up a good point in that we were lucky it was after the wedding. I think she is still a doll even with a black eye and with crazy hair from falling asleep in the car for several hours on the way home.

My brother's wedding.

Chris and Janet got married this September. It was a lovely wedding and I am so glad that he found someone to be happy with. I think this is a great match and we're glad to have Janet and her kids in the family.

First Day of School

My little girl is in kindergarten and I can't believe it. Thing 1 and I walk to school with her in the morning and every morning I am surprised at how grown up she is. She has never cried or even teared up when I leave her. She loves her teacher so far and enjoys going to school. Thing 2 wanted to get a picture taken with Thing 1 and how could I not, they are both so cute. She also wanted to go in with her big sister. She did really well though when Thing 1 left. Usually, she cries "LOLLI" when Thing 1 leaves. No I don't know where Lolli or Lala came from, but that is what Thing 2 calls her. I think Thing 1 is so tall especially when looking at her next to her classmates and knowing that she barely made the cutoff this year to go to school so she is one of the youngest in her class.

Thanksgiving Point

During the month of August Thanksgiving Point has $2 Tuesdays. So I took the girls for our last little Hurrah before school started. Thing 2 LOVED petting the animals. Thing 1 enjoyed it as well but nothing like Thing 2  I tried to get Thing 2's excitement documented on video but it doesn't do it justice at all. She could barely contain herself and squealed every time the animals came up to her. I forgot my quarters at the house so the poor little girls were reduced to picking up corn from the ground that others had dropped feeding the animals or from the generosity from strangers. Poor little things. They enjoyed it though and in the end that is what matters the most.

Thing 1's First Perm

Thing 1 has curly hair underneath while the hair on top is super duper straight. I decided to have her perm it before school started thinking that MAYBE it would make it easier to do in the mornings. So far it hasn't really made it easier but it has made it super cute.
Thing 1 was very distraught when we started the whole process but by the end she was a champ. The hairdresser had a male assistant and Thing 1 would have nothing to do with him. I was thoroughly embarrassed. She wouldn't even let him wash her hair. In the end, Thing 1 said it was worth it and she was happy with the results, so was I.

Happy Birthday B

Before is the bottom picture and after is the top one. We also took off some of the trim under the front. I know there isn't a lot of difference but I don't mind it so much now. It is a sage color whereas before it had over five different shades of blue. In the front were three and in the back there were two more. Now it is all one color, green.

For B's birthday we went camping but on his actual birthday my dad and I painted our house, so B wouldn't have to. Changing the house's color was really what I wanted but not making him paint it was his gift. He did end up having to do a few touch up spots but overall, it was VERY VERY little. My brother M did a bit too to help. I am horribly afraid of heights so he helped where I couldn't reach.
At one point Thing 1 asked me if I was scared (I was standing on our small ladder that only has three steps on it). I told her I was a bit and she then replied, "But Mom you are only like two feet off the ground, that isn't very scary at all. What is the deal?" Yes, Thing 1 does talk like this, mostly because she talks like me. Needless to say, it was awesome having a five year old point out how ridiculous it is to be afraid while standing so close to the ground, but it didn't change the fear factor for me.

Sourdough camping trip

Daddy and Thing 1 fishing together.
Thing 2 playing with her Papa.
Thing 1's fish.

A good friend of ours has some property in an area called Sourdough and she let us go camping up there. We had a blast. We went up for B's birthday weekend since he loves to go camping. My dad came with us and we went fishing. I burnt my nose horribly and got several fever blisters while we were fishing. I put sunblock on the girls but foolishly not on myself . I still have a small scar where my nose peeled, B tells me it should heal.

Pioneer Day

It was sooo hot that day. I like how you can tell how much Thing 2 loves her older sister in this picture.

I had never heard of Pioneer Day until I was in college here in UT and not until after I came home from my mission. On July 24th we celebrate the trek the pioneers made from the East and it is a lot of fun for the kids. We went to the parade and then over to the pioneer museum. The girls made a pioneer children game with a button and a string and got little do rags to wear like the pioneers wore. There was a couple there that had outfits similar to those worn by some settlers/mountain men. They had a real tee pee set up and inside different pelts for the kids to feel. They were serious in their mountaineering! It was pretty impressive.

Grandpa's birthday

Bob and Linda came down the night we had Thing 1's birthday party for a family reunion. Since Bob's birthday was the following day we all had cupcakes that night to celebrate Bob's birthday. They were just left overs from Thing 1's party and I took a close up of them because I thought they were so well done(not by me of course). There is a bakery here in Ogden called Creative Desserts and I had them done there. They were perfect for the carnival theme. I told her I wanted festive fun and bright ones and I was pleased with the results. They had little star sprinkles on top.

Thing 1's Fifth Birthday Party

Thing 1 was given so many beautiful gifts! What a lucky little birthday girl.
Miss Isabelle enjoying one of the rock candy suckers given out. Look at how pretty her face is.
The balloons had little balls in them so they made noises when you shook them. Everything that Buttons did was fantastic. She was so much better then I had expected.
The magic show.

Chloe was timid to get her face done and after her mom got one on her wrist she was willing to get a small one done. I thought she looked adorable.

The potato sack race.
Buttons did the balloons while Thing 1 opened the gifts. This party was so long. In the end it took around three hours to finish everything.
chuga chuga choo choo!
Look at these faces!
Buttons at work.
Thing 2 enjoying the cotton candy and otter pops we had for the kids.

I know this is out of order but I didn't want frequent visitors of the blog(Linds) to swing by for a checkup and miss this one. Thing 1 turned five this year. I can't believe she is so big now. For her party I did a carnival theme. We had all these little booths for games and a clown that did face painting and a magic show and blew up balloons for the kids and a train for them to go on. It was a blast! Many of the parents stayed to help with their kids which was very nice as well. There were over 25 little ones running around so needless to say it was pretty hectic but very worth it. The face painting was AMAZING!!! She was fast and the best face painter I have ever seen.
Some of the booths we had were a hoola hoop throw, a ring toss, a kissing booth(they were blindfolded and had to place a pair of lips on a frog), tin can knock down, bean bag toss, and a bowling one. We had the kids run a race in potato sacks while we were setting up for the magic show and gifts. In the end I think the kids had some fun.