Pizza Night!

I have bunco tonight, I haven't been in a few months because of scheduling conflicts, so tonight is Kirk and the girls doing dinner on their own. And what a great day for this, because

Tuesdays and Thursdays are

$2.99 pizza night at 5 Buck pizza!!!

Thinking Ahead

I just spent a few minutes searching KSL.com for Christmas trees (I am totally ok with a gently used tree)! And all the Christmas decorations made me think of how excited I am for Christmas, I just want it to hurry up and be time to put up Christmas decorations, maybe we will have to start the week OF thanksgiving instead of the weekend after! Anyways, all this looking made me realize that I want to make an advent calendar for the kids. I found this one online, but want to keep looking for other ideas, I still have a few weeks to get it all figured out I guess. Now, I need to start working on some of the homemade gifts we are doing this year, which I can't post because some people that may read this may be on the gift list! I will post them in January :)

I love Christmas!!!!

Things I Have Learned

Things I have learned in the past week:

*Ashley can eat her weight in grapes.

*I can kill spiders without screaming, but only the small ones.

*Laundry multiplies during the night.

*Tessa ALWAYS wants to share, as long as it's not her food or toys.

*I am in totally different place in life than I was a few years ago, and I never noticed the change in myself until it happened.

*I always stay up way too late, even when I am tired, and I don't know why.

Single Parenting

I am a single parent this weekend. Kirk is in AZ for an aunt's funeral, with his brother and two sisters. They took off this morning around 4:30 and I had a message that they got in safely, but haven't talked to him tonight, I am sure he is busy. So, for a 3 day spurt, it's just me and the girls.

So, I wonder, what will I do. Well, we went to the zoo today. It was a lot of fun, a bit on the chilly side since I forgot our jackets, but not too bad (I felt like a bad mom forgetting the jackets, but there were lots of other kids there without jackets too. It was in the high 60's, but the wind cooled it down a bit). We also had our cousin Olivia, since her mom is in AZ also, and I think Tessa and her had a good time playing today.

At the zoo, they have a new baby elephant, totally cute, just like Dumbo! And a precious little baby giraffe, it was just beautiful. The tiger cubs where almost full sized tigers by this time in the year, so that was a pinch disappointing, looking for cubs and only seeing large tigers, but everything grows up eventually.

We went with my friend Becky and her munchkins, which I think worked out great, because they kinda moved in a pack, so it was a little easier to keep track of them. I think Olivia has a new boyfriend, because she was talking about Ben on the way home, saying how funny he was and that she liked him! So funny. Thanks again Becky for taking us with you, the day turned out great!

The only downfall of the day was me dropping Ashley's binky down the giraffes ditch where they spray the poop into. And it was the only one I took with me, made for a bit of a noisy drive home :(

Now, for the rest of the weekend, I don't know what we will do. Hm. All I know is that tonight, I plan on getting a great nights rest in a big bed all by myself!!! :)

First Words

Ashley has finally spoken, and it's a real word. Yes, she does say the "bye-bye", "uh-ohs" and whatnot, but she also has her first actual word. Get ready for this, ok, you are ready?? She screams, yes, screams the word "Quiet!" Haha!

There is one particular family member she is directing this to, and you guessed it, it's Rosco. She stands at the glass door screaming Quiet! when he is barking. Sometimes not even when he is barking, just because she sees him. And who would you guess is right next to her yelling it also, yes it is Tessa. I typically tell Rosco "that's enough, no barking" or just knock on the door/window. But not Tessa and Ashley! Ashley actually says it anytime she is around Rosco or if she hears the neighbors dog barking, she hurries over to the window to yell "quiet". And sometimes she wakes up in the middle of the night, and we hear her saying very loudly "quiet"! Too funny. In fact, the other day, I had the laptop out, and she desperately wanted it. But then she heard the neighbors dog, and quickly crawled over to the window so she could yell "quiet", so cute.

And to top it off, tonight I was telling Rosco to sit while I put her pajamas on, and I swear she said "sit" also, like 3 times. So I will be listening for that one too.

Does this mean my darling is destined to be a dog trainer?!

That's my Girl

At the birthday party, they only offered sodas to drink. So I grabbed Tessa a sprite. As I sat down at the table, I explained that we don't give our kids soda and that this would be Tessa's first real soda, all for herself. Well, she took a sip and said "I don't like this water." Yeah!!!! That's the girl I have been dreaming of!!! I know, some people think it's totally crazy that we don't offer soda to the kids, and someday she will like soda, but for now, she doesn't need it (no one needs it) and she can have juice and milk and water instead. I love this little girl!

A few days later, we went to the Pollo Loco (my new favorite place), and they have strawberry soda, so I got Tessa a little bit. One sip, and she says "I don't like this. It's yucky." Bless her! :)

Happy Birthday Isaac

Tessa was invited to a birthday party for her little friend Isaac. I decided to make him a super hero cape. I have never made a cape before, and I wanted his name on it. So, I got really crafty and made my own "patches" for the cape. My stitching isn't the best, but I hope he likes it. Tessa wore it for quite a while the day before his party, so at least I know she loves it!

I used super thick iron on interfacing to make my letters and star. Then I stitched them on the fabric, which didn't turn out as well as I had in mind, which is why I am not posting that picture! I used Word to make my letter patterns. So, I thought it turned out pretty good for a first try, I just hope he enjoys it!

Isaacs party was a blast too. It was held at Thanksgiving Point at the Barnyard. We saw the animals and fed them corn, got our face painted, had the chance to ride the ponies (which Tessa declined, oddly enough since we OWN horses), went for a wagon ride pulled by the tractor, got a personal time with a cute little pony just for the party kids, played some games, and had pizza and cake and ice cream. It was a lot of fun, 3 hours worth and the kids loved it!

Ashley's first sucker! She loved it!

We have darling children, I must say!

Our wagon ride. Ashley is now eyeing the candy cup!

Tessa had so much fun, she even sat on the cow!

It was such a cute little pony, until one little girl didn't hold her hand flat to feed it and it bit her finger, then everyone got a little apprehensive.

MoonLight

Kirk surprised me with a night out on Oct. 2. He told me a month ahead of time to block that night out for our date. All month I kept trying to guess what he had planned. Then, the day before our date, he told me what it was, only because it was like snowing up in the mountains and super cold. He scheduled tickets to the full moon night ride on the lifts at Sundance Resort. It was really fun, great to be out together ALONE and have time to talk and laugh and not sing Sally the Camel or The Ants go Marching while passing crackers to the backseat. We, well I, wore so much clothing because of the weather that we kept warm but kinda ruined the romantic holding-hands-and-kissing-on-the-swing part. Thank you Kirk for such a great time!!!

As you can see, I stayed very warm!

Baby Legs

I have been trying to be crafty lately. I got out the sewing machine one day, because I needed to do something for me. So, I whipped out some leg-warmers for the girls. So totally cute!

This is the first pair I made, ages ago. Look how little Ashley was!

I have been wanting to make more ever since this day, but then the house

sold and life got busy and it just wasn't time for sewing.

A close up view. Darling with cute little skirts!

Shiner

Tessa got her first black eye a few weeks ago. She was running around the kitchen table while I finished up feeding Ashley, and she wasn't looking where she was going, tripped on a chair, and then hit another chair with her eye. It was like watching those 30 second video clips of a plant growing over a months span; it turned purple and blue within 30 seconds, right in front of my eyes. Amazing. Poor girl, it really hurt her, and we had to get out the frozen corn bag to ice it. I am just glad I took away the fork I hadn't noticed she carried the first time around the table!

I know, I know...

It's about time I added some cuteness to our blog. And don't worry, I will try to update our picture sometime too, since it is only 2 years old!

Take a Walk

Ashley has taken her first steps!

Sunday evening, I was on the phone with my mom, fixing dinner. Kirk and the kids are in the living room. Suddenly, Kirk yells at me "Ashley's walking!" And she was! She would take a few steps to us, and then we would turn her around and she would go back to the other person. Well, this continued for a bit, and then we had dinner and went to the neighbors for a little 3 yr old birthday party. And Ashley kept walking! She probably took about 35 steps that entire night. At one point, she was walking across the room, fell down, stood back up with out touching anything, and just kept walking on! It was like she has known how to walk for ever, and just finally showed us that she knows how. It was super exciting!

Now, she hasn't walked much since, just here and there, she is a much faster crawler and just prefers whatever way lets her keep up best!