fun times!

This is what I am going to do today. I'll be receiving, not giving.

After about three weeks of terrible pain, I've had enough! So I need to do something about it. I'll let you know how I do.

Wish me luck. I mean, send me some good energy chi.

a few pics

I took some picture of my friend's kids today.

Little Miss Jane.
Look at that little face! I am just in love with her.

Christian.
The mellow, middle child.

And Jack.
The oldest, who is completely obsessed with pirates.

Inez couldn't help but jump in on the action. Judging by her hands, she's pretending to be a dog. A dog with an eye patch.

Thanks for letting me shoot your kids Jenny!

decorations to avoid decorating

After we took our Christmas decorations down, I realized that I need to decorate my house. Yes, we have painted quite a bit, but now one of the questions is, what do we put on our walls and where? (I guess that's two questions.)

Anyway, it is so stressful for me. So I decided to avoid it a bit longer and just decorate for Valentine's Day instead. It's much easier and not so permanent.

art time at our house

As I mentioned before, Gwen is really into coloring. This makes Dave very proud as he is our resident artist. I mean, haven't you seen his work before?

Anyway, I am so proud of Gwen. She even tries to color in circles and such shapes. However, I have to say it is a little creepy when I happen upon her pictures and see orange eyes staring back at me.


Inez on the other hand, has never been into coloring. She has even used the excuse "my hand is tired" and others of the like. So you can imagine my surprise when I came home from a little shopping trip with my Mom to discover this picture she drew.

Dave had been reading to her from The Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 16. That chapter talks about the group receiving the Liahona, some of the daughter's of Ishmael getting married, Ishmael dying, the Liahona directing them as to where to hunt for food and Nephi breaking his bow and then making a new one.

I am still in shock.

And I guess its apparent that both Inez and Gwen think that eyes should be orange.

she's a kook.

Dave asked me the other day how I would describe Gwen's personality.
My answer? Crazy.

How is it possible that I give her the brownie batter spoon to lick, look away for five seconds, and then find her like this? Seriously.







She is always going. And while she is constantly on the go, she runs like Mr. Bean. It is a sight to behold.

She loves to color, making her Daddy extremely proud.


Yelling for "Nez." Seriously yelling. I will be deaf by the age of 40 thanks to Gwen, and Gwen alone.

She also acts like a "baby". Although she never took a binkie when she was a wee one, she will find one every now and then, put it in her mouth and act like a very obnoxious baby. It is quite entertaining.

She is our crazy little Gwenie girl and man, do we love her.

and it's not even Halloween!

A few months ago, I fell for the $1 toy that grows in water. Inez got a pink poodle and Gwenie got a pink cat. They couldn't wait to get home and put them in water!

I didn't read the back of the package until we got home, so I didn't know that they take days, maybe weeks, to expand. So we put them in jars, filled them with water and placed their lids on them.

After a few minutes, the girls got distracted by something else and moved on. Two dollars down the drain. Or so I thought!

We moved. A few weeks ago, my parents asked us if we would come and pick up the girl's science experiments.

Now we have creepy floating poodle and cat to entertain them all the day long!



I know you're jealous!

the non napper

Today is day three of Gwenie being very rebellious when it comes to her nap time. As I type this I am listening to her sing and talk to herself through the baby monitor mixed with the sounds of Woody's pull string.

On day one, I confronted her about it. She seemed confused by the question, "why aren't you asleep?"

When she realizes that the camera has come out, she hams it up.

Then she squeals with delight and yells with excitement about the party (which was nothing more than this pile) with all her buddies in her crib. Her words, not mine—but you will have to imagine them being expressed like a two year old.

She thinks it's funny.

And I indulge her because she is so cute.


Then she jumps in her crib for awhile and breathlessly recites "No More Monkeys" over and over.





My little girl is growing up too fast. I love the quiet house during her nap time and I will miss it very much. However, it is being replaced by the sounds of her and her sister playing, and I have to admit that I love that too.

a good day.

I had a lovely visit with one of my dearest and oldest friends.

The girls played splendidly together (which isn't the norm). Inez even crowned Gwen with a hairband that just appeared in our house one day which is kind of gross when I think about where it possibly came from.




I received lots of yummy fabric in the mail.



And I made a skirt.

Now it's time for dinner (probably frozen pizza, but at least it CPK pizza), bedtime for the girls, and more sewing while watching North and South for the gazillionth time. Let's just say that it's a good thing Netflix doesn't have any late fees cause I'm keeping this one for a long time.

Definitely a good day.

nez 'n' troy

So for the last five months Inez has been wanting a Troy Bolton doll(hereafter referred to as TDB).
I blame this totally on my sister Carol who while at our house last summer gave her girls Gabriella and Sharpay dolls. Inez wanted so deperately to play barbies with them too, but not with a regular ol' barbie. She wanted a High School Musical barbie doll, and loving Troy Bolton as much as she does, he was the barbie of her choice. She begged me to get her one, and I tried to brush it off by suggesting that she ask Santa for one.

Well, this girl does not forget anything. She talked about asking Santa for her very own TBD from August until December.

I (being one of Santa's elves) went back and forth for a long time about this. I had a few thoughts like these:

One. Did I really want her to have a boy barbie doll?
Secondly. She never plays with the few barbies that she already has.
And three. I really did not want to pay very much for a TBD.

Well, about a week before Christmas, I happened upon a TBD. It was the last one on the shelf and it was only five dollars! How could I pass it up? Even if I changed my mind I could always return it, which was a much better alternative then leaving, thinking about it and if deciding to get it, having to get back to the store, without Inez, and hoping they still had it.

Fast forward to Christmas morning. She unwrapped the TBD from Santa. And the look of excitement quickly faded to one of confusion.

"It doesn't look like Troy Bolton."

Fast forward another week. Upon further inspection of the TBD she finally figured out why it doesn't look like Troy Bolton.

"His hair is weird. It's wrong."

"It's supposed to look like this."

And with a heavy sigh and shoulder shrug she declared, "I guess the elves got it wrong!"


*sigh* I guess I'll have to try harder next year.