Picnic in the Park

     What fun we had at the park today celebrating Grandpa's birthday! Zak was brave 

and borrowed a lighter from the nearby bbq party.

Kevin bought a Minnie Mouse frisbee and the kids had a fun time playing with Kevin and Grandpa.

     The kids did a good deed and helped the director put up mini flags for the concert.

Even James had fun watching everything from the blanket, and playing with Uncle Robert.

Milkmaid braids

   I had time extra time this morning so I decided to check cutegirlshairstyles.com for braiding ideas for the girls' hair.  One of the more recent posts was milkmaid braids, so I decided to try it on Lizzy.  It turned out so beautiful!

     Abby said she wanted hair just like Lizzy, so we made it work with just two hair pretties to hold the hair, as oppose to the 4 or 5 bobby pins holding Lizzy's hair.

     

After bribing Abby with the promise of candy, she let me take her outside for photos.  I love the shot of Abby whispering to Lizzy. 

Daddy birthday

Pumpkins

We bought pumpkins yesterday and decorated them. After we took the pictures outside with the kids, I told the kids it was time to go inside. Ervin was extremely upset that the pumpkin wasn't coming back inside with us. Poor kid.

Lizzy starts preschool!

Lizzy started preschool last week! She was very excited to go, and she was very brave. She had a great time learning about letters and reading a story about a bear that goes to school. As soon as she got there, she went staight to the toys to play. She's got Ervin excited about going to school for himself.

Haircut

Here's a picture of Ervin and his new do. He and daddy are going to swing in the neighbor's swing. He is also demonstrating his new pastime-nose picking. :D He has been doing that ever since Lizzy stuck a marble up her nose. She was very brave when we went to the doctor's office to get it removed. The nurse even gave her and Ervin coupons for free ice cream cones for her bravery.

Yesterday we went to our ward Elder's quorum party. It was a lot of fun and there was a big turn-out. The highlight of the evening was when they brought out the cotton candy machine. Daddy and Ervin were the first ones in line. Ervin thoroughly enjoied his first taste of cotton candy.

Topsy Turvy

So we decided to try the Topsy Turvys (as seen on tv) this year. We've got some herbs, fruits and vegetables going. Here's a picture of our success so far. Our tomatoes are starting to turn!

Our New House

Wow, it has been a REALLY long time since our last post.  We have been completely consumed in preparing our new house for habitation.  Now that we are moved in, and a lot of boxes have been unpacked, it is starting to look like a home.

Here are some pictures.  We will try to do better about new posts in future. :)

Hooray!!!

We finally heard back on our offer to purchase a home.  Our offer has been accepted!!!  We're hoping to close on the 16th of March and move in sometime that week.  We are so excited!  We'll post pictures once we get kinda settled.

Not much new....

Not much new is going on with our family.  Daddy is still going to school and the kids and mommy are still playing at home and going to the library weekly.  We've made an offer on a house, a couple of weeks ago, and we're still waiting to hear back from the bank about the home, which is currently under a "Short Sale".

Here are some pictures of some of our recent fun.

We're dancing!

Zak and I are taking a ballroom dance class through our city's community ed program. It's an eight week course where we are going to learn four dances; swing, foxtrot, waltz, and cha cha. We had our first class this week where we started learning swing. It was a lot of fun! Kevin is graciously agreed to babysit for us during our classes. We can't wait until our next class!

The kids are doing great as well. Mommy and the kids went to the library again today for the fun classes they offer for young kids. Afterwards, we went to Wendy's for chicken nuggets, hamburgers, and french fries. All the way there (and it was a considerable distance due to long overdue construction) "Where's Wendy's house?" :) "No Lizzy, it's not a person's house, it's a restaurant like 'McDonald's' but it's called 'Wendy's'" "Oh....". Then, once we were seating and getting our food situated, Lizzy started in again, "Wendy can sit right here. Where's Wendy?" and she proceeded to gaze about the room looking for "Wendy". I kept explaining to her, but I still don't think she fully understood. :)

Ervin is growing bigger and more grown-up every day. Each day he walks a little bit steadier, and a little bit further. Every day he spouts out a few new words such as; "twelve" (we are always talking about when the big hand of the clock gets to the clock then it will be time to do a certain thing), "ney" and "moo" (like what horses and cows say), "cheese", "drink", "juice", "milk", "tv", and most importantly "Blue's Clues" (his new favorite show).

Daddy is still working hard a going to school at night. He is still enjoying his classes and his instructors. We miss him while he is gone but can usually wait up for him to come home before going to bed.

Happy New Year

What a whirlwind of holidays!

We had a great New Year's Eve party at our house. We made BBQ pork sandwhiches, which Ervin devoured, then Ervin went down for night-nights. We also had banana splits which Grandma provided. For our New Year's Eve festivities we played fun new games. Zak bought a game at Funfinity called The T-Shirt Game. the object of the game is to choose one of your three Slogan cards that will best match the picture on the T-Shirt card. The Slogan cards are shuffled and the judge picks which card they think best fits the T-Shirt and the person who picked that particular Slogan earns points. It was very fun and crazy! Lots and lots of laughing! We also played Wacky Six, which is a crazy, fast-paced card game! We also played Swipe, which is the dice game Robert got in his Christmas stocking from Santa. You roll dice and with each roll you can get more dice or more chips from the center, the goal is to win the most chips. But also with each roll you can swipe dice or chips from other players. It's a simple game but the tides can change quickly!

And now we're back to our originally scheduled lives. Zak begins school again today. He's taking 3 night classes, each class is one day a week. He is very excited. Ervin was pretty upset to lose his favorite person this morning to go to work, but hopefully mommy can keep him entertained while daddy is away.

Happy Birthday Lizzy!!

It's official! Lizzy is now 4 years old!

We had a special lunch of Lizzy's favorite, chicken nuggets and french fries. Daddy made a special number 4 cake, which Lizzy loved.

Lizzy got a fun new toy called a Honeybee Hop. It's a great little game that has a bee attached to a pole which is attached to the main device. When you push the button, the bee spins around and you try to jump over the pole, or chase down the bee. There are various settings for different skill levels. It plays Flight of the Bumblebee as it spins around and if you get hit by the pole it makes a funny sound and stops spinning.

Lizzy also got a wooden dress-up princess doll. It came with various outfits, hats, and gloves. It will be a lot of fun.

Merry Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year! There are lots of pictures so I'll post them as a slide show.

We went down to Great Grandma's house on Christmas Eve with Grandpa and Grandma Stephenson and family. We had fun watching movies and playing with toys and of course, Grandma's stairs. We each opened one present Christmas Eve to find great jammies that Grandma made for us. Ervin and daddy match with green Cars pants and the girls matched in pink shirts and cute froggie pants. Then the kids went down to bed to wait for Santa while mommy and daddy had fun playing cards with Grandma Great and uncle David and uncle Kevin.

Christmas morning came and we found a lot of presents from Santa! He brought sleds and snowsuits with snow boots for the kids. He also brought them CAT imprinted construction hard hats and badges. Daddy was way excited that Santa got him the new Batman movie on Blu-ray. The kids got a remote controlled car and a karaoke machine from Grandpa and Grandma. Grandpa was kind enough to get us some rechargeable batteries and rechargers so we can keep up with the toys. :) Robert also got Ervin some crayons specially designed for little hands and he gave Lizzy some card games. Grandma also gave Ervin a baby doll who has matching Christmas jammies like Ervin and daddy. Mommy and daddy got a digital camera from Grandpa and Grandma and David gave daddy a print server and mommy a WD TV box. Thanks again everyone! We love our gifts!

Then we went home early to avoid the storm which didn't bother us too bad. We sat down to open more presents. Lizzy got a doctor's kit and proceeded to treat us all. She also got some wooden food to go with her kitchen set that she got last year. Ervin got a Fridge Farm which is an animal matching game that sticks to the fridge. He loves to play with the magnets already on the fridge so we thought this musical game would be perfect. He also got jipped on his other toy, a ball popper. It didn't work, so we're sending it back, and a new one is already on the way. Thanks Amazon!

Friday we went over the Grandpa Jay and Grandma Anderson's house to exchange gifts. Ervin got this great toy truck, some books, a game, and some warm jammies. Lizzy got some warm jammies and a game. Grandma also gave the kids a gift card to Gymboree and we're going this week to pick out some new clothes. Daddy got some new church clothes and a portable tool box carrier. Mommy got a Lionhouse cookbook and a gift certificate to the mall. Thanks Grandpa Jay, Grandma Anderson, and Aunt Lindsay!

Wow! A very full Christmas with family but it was very enjoyable! We're so lucky to have our families so close so we can spend time with them during this holiday season. Happy Holidays!

Christmas Lights

Last night we went with Grandpa Jay, Grandma Anderson, and Aunt Lindsay to the festivities at Thanksgiving Point. We were slightly disappointed because there weren't many lights around the grounds to walk around and see and there weren't any animals in the barn to pet. Also, it was too dark to get any pictures of the kids, so maybe my next post will finally have some more pictures.

However, they did have some real reindeer which were fun to look at. Lizzy had fun walking around with Grandma and Lindsay while Ervin was bundled up bouncing around in the wagon pulled by daddy. He even wore his mittens and matching beanie!

Then we drove through the outdoor lights. Ervin and Lizzy loved looking at all of the lights. Ervin was awed to near silence for the entire ride. :) Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!

Also, Zak and I have finally found a Chinese place down here that delivers. The food was pretty good, we got beef with broccoli and sweet and sour pork (our trial food choice when reviewing a new place) and of course cheese wontons. Zak's fortune was about seeking serenity, and to find it with a book and a good friend. Mine was.... hmm... I can't remember. If I remember, or if Zak reminds me, I will let you know. ;) The spare fortune cookie said something about having a talent for writing, and suggesting writing a letter this week.

Ervin is growing!

I just had to blog! Ervin is growing and developing every day! The teeth keep coming in. Two more have broken through.

Today, Ervin finally called me "mama". It was great! I rewarded him with kisses, of course, but the novelty seems to have worn off now that he's said it a couple of times and been rewarded. :)

Ervin was also helping with laundry today. He's been helping push wet clothes in the dryer for a while now, and he's also discovered how to turn the dryer light on and off. Today he helped push his laundry basket and Lizzy's laundry basket back to their respective places once he helped get the laundry out. He just giggled while he helped and I sure had fun doing laundry with his help.

Drum roll please....

As you know, Ervin's new game is pushing chairs around in the kitchen. He also loves pushing his hippo toy around the living room, correctly and also with the hippo upside down. He's also been standing very well on his own without support for a while. But today, he did the amazing.

While my visiting teachers were here today giving a message, the kids were playing in Lizzy's room. Ervin was in the hall, standing with his hands against the wall, whining for mommy to come get him. I went to him and asked if he wanted to play with the girls in Lizzy's room or come with mommy to the living room. He decided he wanted to come with mommy, so I reached my hands out to him. Normally, he drops to the floor and crawls to me, or stands there holding out his arms and waits for me to come to him. Not today. He took 3 or 4 shaky baby steps into my open arms!! Hooray for Ervin! Hopefully this isn't a one time deal and he will do it again soon and not wait a long time to do it again!

Family Night at the Library

We're really getting into the programs they have available at the local library! It has been a lot of fun!

Tonight we went to the family night, which they do once a month at the library. It was a special Christmas "Hoopla" and we had a great time.

Two men and two women did a little play that was hilarious. The two girls were "Whos" from Whoville and were reading the story of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". Then they announced that the Grinch was in the building and asked him to come out from back stage. Unfortunately, there was no Grinch. There was only Marcello, who was a no eyed, no eared, blue monster with a stringy beard. It was very cute. One guy was the body and the other guy stood behind and was the puppeteer for the face and provided the voice of Marcello.

Marcello was asked if he would play the part of the Grinch, and he agreed. However, he is the exact opposite of the Grinch; he loves Christmas. So all the while he's being himself while the Whos kept correcting him on how he should be acting. There was even good humor for the adults as well as the kids.

After the play, we were led upstairs for fun crafts. There was a long table set up for decorating cookies with fun "easy spray" frosting and sprinkles. In another room there were tables set up for decorating paper ornaments. Lizzy got a little kit with stickers to decorate a 3-D snow globe ornament. However, there were too many kids decorating ornaments, and Ervin was pretty tired, so we went home to decorate the ornament and get Ervin to bed.

Music and Movement

Yesterday we went to the library for a Music and Movement class that they do weekly for kids. It was a blast! Ervin had fun, and eventually Lizzy warmed up to it, even though it wasn't a Princess Party.

Ervin sat on the rug with mommy for a bit, then decided he wanted to go sit with Lizzy on grandma's lap. Then he sat with us for a bit until both kids decided they wanted to be in the action with the kids on the rug and went. It was a lot of fun singing songs about Christmas time, and they even got to ring bells while they sang. They finished with a story about Frosty the Snowman. We will definitely go back! They have a class for older kids which I think Lizzy would enjoy more.

Also, we spent a great day with grandma doing crafts, shopping, and going out to eat. Lizzy helped punch out eyes and glue on buttons. It was great fun! Thanks grandma!

Festival of Trees

This year we went to the Festival of Trees with Grandpa Jay and Grandma Anderson. We were expecting the kids to love it, but it was an overstimulating experience, for all of us. We had a good time though.

There were tons of big trees, little trees, wreaths, centerpieces, and all other kids of art. On top of all of that, there are performers, crafts, lots of food, activities, and Santa. There were a lot of neat trees. One was made all of glass and it was connected to a series of evergreen trees and glass presents and did a music and light show. Wow! The guard lady nearby the tree said that tree sold for $27,000.00. Mommy heard of a Twilight themed tree donated by the Salt Lake Twilighters Anonymous. It had Twilight themed ornaments and had presents under the tree that could have be given to characters in the book.

Afterwards, we went to Daddy's favorite, Crown Burger! Lizzy marched right up to the counter and gave her standard McDonald's order "chicken nuggets, fries, juice box, and a toy". Ervin inhaled a burger and fries.

We had a great time and hope to go again! Here are some pictures I took with my phone.