Let the Easter Festivities Begin!

I've noticed that since having kids, Easter festivities have grown from just an egg hunt on Easter morning to an entire weekend of hunts and activities. This year was especially fun because Kylie knew exactly what to look forward to and Emily was old enough to participate this year too.

We started this year with a cute little egg hunt at the Riverwoods. We got there about two minutes before it all started and each of the girls only ended up finding one egg but they were both so excited about that one egg. And they were the cutest kids there by the way :)

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Bathtubs and Bubbles

Sometimes, when we get bored I throw the girls in the bathtub and they have a little mid-day bubble party. 

I can't wait until the weather really warms up so we can spend our days poolside instead of tub-side :)

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A Case of the Sickies :(

March had been pretty rough so far. We keep jumping from one illness to the next. It's those darn changes in the seasons, I tell ya! The poor little munchkins have gotten the worst of it :( Emily caught a cold one week and then it went to Kylie the next. Then back to Emily again and now Kylie is moving onto the always fun, strep throat. I guess it's just been going around, but it's never fun when your little one's get it. So, we've been taking our medicines, disinfecting everything, and doing plenty of this:

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Lately

My children aren't the only ones that wake up in their princess jammies and immediately want to put of twirly skirts and listen to princess music, are they? I swear, I don't know where they get it from... 

We've been taking it super easy around here lately. So easy, in fact that I haven't pulled out my camera in a while because I feel like we do the same thing pretty much every day and  none of it is really exciting enough to take pictures of. (Luckily, though, I do have Instagram so that makes grabbing cute little moments between my girls a little easier than saying, "Hang on, let Mommy grab her camera and get a card and batteries and put a lens on...") Our days usually consist of playing dress-up, making messes, cleaning up the messes, errands, eating, naps, and then more messes and cleaning, and then hopefully dinner by the time Daddy gets home from school. It's actually pretty wonderful. (Except for the whole messes thing, when will they learn that mommy really doesn't like cleaning?) 

The girls are always trying to get into my button stash. It's funny to me how much they enjoy dumping things out of their respective containers. And it really doesn't matter what it is, just as long as there are alot of little tiny pieces to pick up later :) I decided to just go with it today, but they played by mommy's rules :) I put a blanket down for quick clean up and gave them some muffin tins to sort their colors. Kylie called her colors "families." "I'm sorting them in their families so they can be so happy together" And I tried to help Emily with hers but she pretty much preferred to just sort by the fistful.

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My Baby Sisters

Well, not my baby sisters, but my babies that are sisters. I love having little sisters. They are so great together and get along so well (most of the time). I really just love sitting and watching them play. Ky is such a great big sister and talks to Em is the cutest little baby voice when she asks her if she needs anything. Emily follows Ky around the house and wants to do everything just like her big sister. And she always wants to make sure that if she gets something, like a snack, that "Ty Ty" gets the same. If Kylie puts on a dress and wants to dance to her princess music, then Emily stands at the top of the stairs and yells "dress" until I go up and get her one so she can dance too. They love to play "restaurant" and Emily always orders french fries. And they love to cuddle, or as Emily says "cuwwle, Ty Ty."  They even try to convince us to let them sleep in the same bed at bedtime.

We bought this book for our little sisters before Emily was born, and before we knew she would be a little redhead. It's one of my favorite books of theirs and so perfectly describes their relationship already, and the fact that the big sis is blonde and the little is a redhead makes it even better. 

I'm so glad we have little sisters. Sisters hold a very special place in my heart, and I am so glad they have each other too :)

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Home Sweet Home

I was asked to teach a little interior design class for the MBA spouses association. I am by no means an expert at all and I totally laughed at the idea of teaching a class, but I do love to paint furniture and make my own DIY stuff so I found a few things to talk about :) Plus, I was finally forced to take a few pictures of our new (if we can even still call it that) house. So here are a few from my little presentation and a little tiny glimpse into our house. (I'd like to say pictures of the rest of the place are coming soon, but let's just be honest, that's probably not going to happen, so just pay attention to the backgrounds of our photos if you are really that interested in seeing it all.)

The living room with my favorite painted blue dresser/tv stand/toy chest, my favorite pictures of my girlies, and all of my other favorite things:

The master bedroom with painted furniture, diy curtains (don’t mind the little tip at the bottom – I copied this straight from the powerpoint), and cool and soothing neutrals:

The whole message of my little class was based on this idea, and it is completely the way I decorate my own house :)

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My Babies Are Crazy!

I often feel bad about being such a bad blogger. Especially when I have friends and family constantly telling me that I need to update my blog. I just shrug and look away and sheepishly reply, "i know..." It's overwhelming though sometimes, especially when you go a while without. How on earth are you supposed to remember everything in order to catch up. Am I doing my family a disservice by not writing down every detail of our lives in order to remember it in the future? That's the whole reason I started this little thing years ago, for my family, and dog-gone-it, I am going to get better!... maybe...

I originally wrote this little entry on my photo blog (which is also very neglected, so don't feel like I only ignore this one). Anyway, I wrote this entry on my photo blog originally but I think it really belongs here. Here's a little look into what we do, how prissy my little three year old is and why I have trouble getting pictures of my own crazy kids. 

It's no secret that I adore my own two little munchkins more than anything in this world. If you're new to my blog you should know, I have two of the cutest, spunkiest kids on this planet- but I'm partial. Even with all their cuteness though, I found myself slacking on taking photos of them lately. After a little kick in my own tushy and a little slap on my wrist we pulled out the camera and what do you know, Kylie actually sat still for me and, dare I say, posed too. Oh, happy day! Emily, on the other hand, would have nothing to do with it. Even with my pockets full of smarties, she had better things to do than sit (or even be in the same room) for mommy. Ha! But that's the story of most 18 month-olds, right? Ky only lasted about 3 minutes herself, but I'll still consider it a success & I'm seriously contemplating blowing up the first one to a giant canvas. Wouldn't that be fabulous?

My whole set up for these few little shots were super easy too.  Here's a little peak at how we set it up- I never do these pull backs so I thought it might be fun to see, especially because of how easy it was to get this light. I had Ky hold a reflector on her lap for a couple shots but when she got sick of holding that we switched to a white blanket which did the same thing & was a much better prop for her to sing her princess songs with. I'm telling you, we are going to be in trouble when this little prima donna is a teenager :)

That blanket on Kylie's lap was made by my G.G. (great grandma Juanita). I can't even tell you how excited I was when my mom called and told me that she found GG's blanket and was sending it my way. The other side is a beautiful diamond patchwork design. (I wish I knew the story behind it, if there is one.) It reminds me of her and growing up and I love it. It drapes across the back of the couch in our living room so I can see it everyday and be reminded of where I came from. I love it and am so grateful to have this family treasure in our home.

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Cooking Cookies Baking Cookies

Winter has been surprisingly uneventful this year. I thought we were in for blizzard after horrible blizzard moving to Utah, but we have hardly had any snow at all. Great news, but almost a little disappointing too. Still, it has been too cold to really do much outside so most days we find ourselves building castles, playing dress-up, having movie dates, and baking treats. It's a horrible life, isn't it? 

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It Snowed... A Little...

It snowed, but just barely. I still can't believe how mild this winter has been in Utah. Our old home in Arkansas got more snow this year than we did. Crazy, right? Anyway, it snowed last week and Daddy took Ky out to play in it and make some tiny snow people while Emily and I, aka the cold-intolerant ones, stayed inside in the warm house.

I was pretty impressed with the snow-mickey and little man made with some leftover nails and wood from the construction going on across the street. They built their tiny men on top of a pallet of wood and the construction workers were even nice enough to use that pallet last and let the little men live until the snow finally melted. For the next couple days, every time we went outside Kylie was so excited to check on her little snow people.

Mike told me this little pile of snow was Kylie's mermaid. She made it herself :)

When Daddy and Ky finally came back in from the cold Em was excited to show them how she was ready to go out. She wore Daddy's beanie around the house for the next hour or so, patting her head and saying "hat, hat" "outside."

And that pretty much wraps up our winter fun this year! Haha! Maybe next year we'll get the snow I've been dreading (but secretly hoping for) since we moved here :)

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Starting out 2012

We started 2012 with a crazy day! The new year started on a Sunday and on that day we were packed full. First, our usually leisurely morning was cut short because church now starts at 9am (we can't even get to church on time at 1pm so you can see why this was a big deal). Plus, Mike and I were both asked to be the speakers. We found out later that our talks would be setting the theme for the ward focus for the rest of the year- no pressure... We had a brand new primary class to teach and lessons to prepare that day, and on top of all that, our little girls were becoming official big girls! Kylie had her first day in Primary as a Sunbeam and Emily went to nursery for the first time. I was secretly hoping at least one of them would have a melt down because they missed me so much, but they both did so great and were so excited for their new classes. 

What a way to start the year, right? I can't believe our big girls are "real" big girls now. They were both so excited to tell us all about their new classes and new teachers when we got home from church. Ky's new teachers are our neighbors (who she loved to begin with), she loves telling us all about Chad and Chelsea and how she sang and danced in primary... pretty sure you're not really supposed to dance during sharing time, but you just can't keep her down when there is music playing :) And Emily kept going on about the slide and bubbles in Nursery. I wish I could just be a fly on the wall and watch them learning and getting excited. It's hard to be a part of their every second of every day and then have to just sit and wonder what they are doing when they are away from you. Call me silly, but it was a bit of a bittersweet day, watching my girls grow up right in front of me :)

Happy New Year!

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