Frogs and Hippos!

Last week we took the girls to see Disney's "The Princess and the Frog." It was very cute. Chloee loved it. She had been wanting to see the movie ever since the previews came out in the summer. Brooke was not such a good sport. I don't know why I try to try to take her to movies because all she wants to do is eat popcorn and play on the stairs. Tyler ended up taking her home early and my parents brought Chloee and I home.

Last Saturday Chloee had her Christmas dance recital. Now last year she didn't dance on stage, but she did at the Spring concert so I was hopeful she would dance this year. We went to the dress rehearsal in the morning and when it was her turn to go up on stage she wanted me right there with her. I sat down in front on the steps to watch, but that wasn't good enough, the tears started to come. I ended up on stage behind the curtain with a tear stained face Chloee.

(Chloee's the one wiping her eyes)

When it was time to take her back to the room for the girls to wait, Chloee didn't want to let me go. Finally after much persuation she let me go to my seat. As the show started Tyler's mom asked what I bribed her with this show and I said nothing. When it was her turn to go on stage I headed to the hall to see how she was and her teacher said she was good. I went back to my seat to watch. The girls started filling out on stage and Chloee stood on her "X". The music started and Chloee had a tearified look on her face and she started crying then ran to her teacher in front who was helping the girls dance. Chloee stayed their until the dance was over and then went off stage with the rest of the girls. After the dance she told me she liked the other stage better when she had her fancy dance (the Regan Theatre at UVU). Tyler said it's probably because she can't see the audience on the bigger stage because of all the lights. At least she went out on stage, right! We'll have to see how the spring recital goes this coming year. Wish us luck!

Pictures!!!!

Thanks to my sister in law Tasha for taking the girls pictures. Pictures are always fun, especially with an almost 2 year old. Brooke was not having fun and not cooperating either. She didn't want to smile and wouldn't take her picture with her sister. Chloee on the other hand was quite the little model. She had fun taking pictures in her Christmas dress and loved every minute of it. All in all I think we got some cute shots of the girls.

Their beautiful Christmas dresses thanks to Grandma Jane!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

This year for thanksgiving I ended up working in the morning until noon and then was able to come home and spend the rest of the day with my family. We went to Tyler's parents house for dinner and had all the yummy thanksgiving foods, thanks to Grandma Gae and everyone else. The kids had fun playing with their cousins and driving Papa Tony crazy. The next day we spent all day cleaning the house from top to bottom, Tyler helped wash the baseboards and vacuum the floors,he's amazing. We also were able to put up the Christmas decorations and our new Christmas tree. For the past 6 years we have put each branch on the tree post and then had to spread them out and then string the lights. Tyler and I would always end up fighting about the lights so this year we bought a prelite tree from Tia Pan Trading. Tyler took a whole 10 minutes to put the tree up and was so excited. I love it! The best part was there was no fighting or yelling at each other. Chloee and Brooke had fun playing in the box, shutting each other in, I love that they so well together. We hope that everyone had a yummy and enjoyable Thanksgiving this year.

Horsey rides

The other night the girls had fun playing horse with Tyler. I couldn't pass up the opportunity for pictures. I'm so thankful my girls love playing with each other and their dad.

Happy Halloween...

or should I say Happy Thanksgiving since it's only a few days away. I thought since Thanksgiving was so close I should post some pictures from Halloween. This year we were able to spend Halloween with Tyler's family up in Park City at the Marriot Mountainside Resort. We had a ton of fun. We took the kids trick or treating on Old Main and boy was that crazy. There were so many people, kids, adults and dogs. I've never seen so many adults dress up. It was kind of fun. The girls had a good time and thankfully didn't get too much candy. Chloee was Arial, of course, and Brooke was Tinkerbell, her wings didn't stay on very well with all of the people.

(can't you tell she's having fun!)

After trick or treating we went back to the hotel and Heather had put together a fun scavenger hunt for the kids. They all had a blast. Thanks Heather. I have to say this year our family had fun up in Park City just relaxing and spending time with the family.

(Chloee didn't want to put her hand in the pot of goo.)

(Papa Tony read one of the clues)

(I made eye balls for a yummy treat after trick or treating)

Scarecrow Festival 2009

Friday my parents and I took all the grandkids to Thanksgiving point to the Scarecrow Festival. Each year the West Rigde Academy puts this on. We had a blast. The kids enjoyed jumping on the inflatable toys, riding the train, which we waited 40 minutes for (so not worth it), getting their faces painted and going on a wagon ride. Chloee loved the horses pulling the wagon. All of the kids loved the snowcones Papa Tom bought for them, they mixed every color of the rainbow like most kids do. After the scarecrow festival we decided to get some dinner and went to JCW's. What a treat that was. We had 5 hungry kids under the age of 6 each having their own melt down. I don't think we will ever do that again, or at least we'll think twice about it. Over all we had a good time and the kids had a blast.

Chloee is 4!

When we got home from California we celebrated Chloee's Birthday with Tyler's family. We had everyone over for cake and ice cream and then opened presents. Chloee had so much fun playing with her cousins and is thankful to everyone for her presents. We love family!

Disneyland...

...the happiest place on earth. We just had the best time on our family vacation. My family, brothers and their families and parents and sister all went to California. We flew into Long Beach, California early Monday morning, I was worried about the girls flying, but they did great. Once we arrived we gotour rental vans and headed for the beach. We went up and down the pacific coast highway and finally decided on Huntington Beach. We had a blast. Brooke loved the beach and had sand everywhere. She was even eating it. She loved jumping the waves with mom or dad holding tight to her hands. Chloee loved the beach as well. Tyler and the kids even built a sand castle. After the beach we checked into our hotel. That was eventful, the rooms were supposed to be ready at 4:30 pm and they weren't ready until almost 5:30 pm. We were lucky enough to stay at my parents timeshare and each family had their own room.

On Tuesday we went to Disneyland. Chloee had such a magical time. She was able to go on almost every ride. Sheloved all the rides in Fantasyland especially Alice in Wonderland. We had a blast going through Toon Town and visiting Minnie and Mickey's houses. After that we went over to California Adventure and watched the Pixar Parade. It was super fun. Then Chloee and my mom and I went on Soarin' What an amazing ride. Mom and I scram and had a good time. After that we rushed back to Disneyland and I talked Chloee into going on the Matterhorn or the bobsleds if you ask Chloee. She wanted to go on it again so my parent took all the little kids Ethan, Chloee and Krew on the ride. They were lucky enough to get to ride it twice in a row. After that fun I talked Chloee into going on Big Thunder Mountain. She had a blast and wanted to go again, but the park was closing. As we were walking to the shuttle, we could hear the firework show. The producer or something from The Nightmere Before Christmas put toghether the show. It sounded way cool. On the shuttle ride home both kids fell alseep on Tyler. We totally wore them out.

Wednesday we went to Sea World in San Diego. We were able to see Shamu and watch some of the other shows. Chloee had fun. It was amazing to see what the trainers can do with the animals and the shows they put on. Sea World was not as busy as I thought it would be. We had fun. After Sea World we went to Old Town and ate dinner at an authentic mexican restaurant. It was really good food.

Thursday was Chloee's 4th Birthday. I can't believe she is 4. We went back to Disneyland becaue Chloee got in free on her birthday. Well we bought the Southern California city pass so we had already bought her ticket in to the park so they gave us the option to get a free pass to come another day or get the price value of one day admisison on a gift card to be used in any park or Downtown Disney. We opted for the gift card and let Chloee pick anything she wanted to buy. She loved the idea of having her own money to use. We had fun going on rides in Adventureland and Frontierland. I was able to convince Chloee to go on Splash Moutain and she loved it, so much that she was able to go again with Chad and Natalie. After the ride she told Tyler that she loved th big drops. Tyler told me she was my child. I love the rides at Disneyland and Tyler really doesn't care about them. He stayed with Brooke when she couldn't go on the big rides and Chloee and I went on them. That afternoon we had a suprise for Chloee's birthday. We had made reservations at Ariels Grotto and took her to a Princess dinner. She was able to eat dinner and meet Ariel, Snow white, Bell, Princess Aurora, and Cinderella. Each princess came around to each table and took time taking pictures and talking to the little girls. My mom and dad had given Chloee an Ariel costume for her birthday so we let her wear itto the dinner. She had so much fun. I loved seeing her smile and get excited when each princess came to our table. My mom and dad and McKenzie came with us to help celebrate.

Friday we went back to Huntington beach and had fun playing in the sand and water again. Saturday we went back to Disneyland for one more day of fun before we had to fly home. When we got there we found on it was Gay Day 09 in Anehiem and they were all at Disneyland. The funny thing was they were all wearing red and Tyler just happened to wear a red shirt. He immediatley wanted to buy a new shirt and I was not opposed to that at all. We definetly had the whole California experience. Our favorite ride from this day was the new Toystory ride Toystory Mania in California Adventure. It like your at a carnival and get to shot pies at the characters in 3D, so much fun. Well after a fun and interesting day we went to the airport and found out that our plane was delayed 2 hours. Trying to keep a tired 18 month old entertained at the airport was not fun. Once on the plane the girls fell asleep and the ride wasn't to bad. We didn't end up getting back to Salt Lake until 1:00 in the morning. We didn't make it to our house until 3:00 am. We were tired, but had a great time. I love Disneyland and can't wait to go back. Chloee keeps asking when we get to go back. Here are some pictures from our vacation.

Zoo Rendezous

Tyler and I had the opportunity to attend the annual fundraiser for Hogle Zoo this year. Tyler had been working at the zoo building the new animal hospital and his company bought tickets and invited us to come. We couldn't pass up this opportunity knowing it is probably once in a lifetime. The tickets were $150.00 a piece so of course we said yes. We weren't sure what to expect but were excited. When we arrived they had valet parking which we opted out of being cheap as we are. When we walked in the front gates we were met by an eagle about as tall as Brooke, that they were showing the guests. The zoo was closed to the public and all the zoo workers were showing off the animals. Once inside the zoo they had local restaurants with booths giving away free samples. There was Flemings, PF Changs, Z-Tejas, Chipotle, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, just to name a few. The zoo was also debuting the new baby elephant, so we got a chance to see her before her bedtime. We had such a fun time watching the animals, enjoying the great food and watching the people. I think I had more fun people watching than seeing the animals. We had such a fun time and are thankful for the opportunity we had to go.

What a fun SUMMER!

Wow it has been a little while since I have last posted anything. We have had a busy past month. We went camping over the 4th of July up Hobble Creek Canyon and had a blast. My family likes to go camping over the 4th and go four wheeling. We were going to go up and spend three days up there, but our refridgerator went out and we had to stay home the first day and get it fixed. Our camping experience was a good one this year filled with yummy food, dirt and bears! Just before dinner we heard 2 gun shots. I didn't think anything of this becasue there was a shooting range a few miles away. Well a little while later, the camp host came and told my dad that he just shot a bear. A bear cub had wandered into camp and wasn't afraid of humans so when it kept coming towards the camper the camp host shot a warning shot. When the bear still kept coming he shot it and killed it. Boy was I greatful for that, but was now nervous to sleep up there in a tent with two little kids. We made it through the night and had a nice rest of the trip.

My grandpa past away and I had the privelage of speaking at his funeral and representing all of the grandkids. That was nice to hear their memories about my grandpa. What a great man he was a so full of love! My softball team ended up taking 2nd place in our softball tournament. I had so much fun playing with Tyler's sisters. We usually play every year and have so much fun.

The 24th of July was a blast. On thursday we went to the Rodeo with Tyler's sisters and their families. Chloee wanted to see the buckin' bulls. I think she also liked seeing the rodeo queens and princesses. Brooke did pretty good throughout the night. If you bring enough treats she'll eat the entire time. This year I ran the Speedy Spaniard with Tara, Eric and Tracie. My goal was to run the entire 6.2 miles and I did. I ran it in 1hour and 27 seconds. During the race I ended up running it with some girl from about mile 2 and we kept each other going. She pushed my the last .2 miles. I was so ready to give up, but she wouldn't let me. I'm greatful to her for that. After the race we went to to parade for about 10 minutes, which was plenty of parade watching for Tyler. After the parade we went back to Tyler's parent's house and let the kids play on the slip n slide. Tara and I filled up a bunch of water balloons for them to play with and have a water fight. I had an old piece of rubber tubing in the car, so Tyler got the bright idea to make a water weenie. The kids had so much fun with that until it broke. After the water we went to Tracie and Shawn's house for a barbeque and to celebrate Tyson and Josh's birthdays. What a long, but fun day we had.

The last bit of fun we had was going to the Nephi Derby last night. Tyler had never been to a derby. We had a barbeque at Tracie and Shawn's house and then headed down to Nephi. We had a blast watching cars crash into each other and had fun with the family. Chloee called it the crash boom bang! She was excited to watch the cars crash into each other since she tells Tyler and myself to drive into the cars in front of us if we aren't going fast enough. I think we might be going next year because Tyler had a great time!

Balloon Fest

Today started at 6:00 am. I felt like I was getting up for work even though it was my day off. Tyler and I took the girls to see the balloon festival that goes on every year for the Freedom Festival. We've been before, but always go on the 4th. Since this year we will be camping we decided to go the first day. Chloee has been talking about seeing the hot air balloons for a while now. This year was fun. It was great to get up close and actually see inside the balloons as they inflated. We were able to see all the balloons inflate, but they weren't able to take off due to the weather report-stormy. We still had fun and enjoyed spending time with Grandma Jane, Papa Tom and Kenzie. They came along for the fun. Papa Tom loves going every year. Chloee had her favorites: Smoky the Bear ad Tony the Tiger.

Breakfast.

Check out the guy's hair in the balloon basket.

Summer Fun

Yesterday I had the opportunity to run another 5K. This time I pushed my girls in our jogging stroller. I ran the race with Tyler's family. Lindsay, Tara, Tracie, Shawn, Tyson, Braden, Heather and Kole met at our house and we drove together to the race. We ran the Run, Walk, and Roll 5K for the Central Utah Center for Independent Living. Lindsay and Tara's work was one of the sponsors for the race . The course was fun and fairly easy, no hills. I was grateful for that, pushing my girls in the stroller is such a workout! I ran the race in 29 minute according to my chip time. I was very happy with that, since it was only about 30 seconds more than the first 5K I did at 28:29. I was suprised to see that I took 13th in my age group.

After the race, we went to the pool and had a blast. Chloee had fun with her cousins and thanks to Lindsay and Tracie she loved the slide. Brooke on the other had took a little to warm up to the pool. All she wanted to do is eat her Cheetos and sit by the food. What a little munch. She's so cute.

After swimming we were excited to come home and see that Tyler was home from Scout Camp. We missed him and are glad he had a good time boating. Hopefully we'll get him closer to liking boating and we can go more. I took Chloee the other day with our neighbors and she loved it.

Spaghetti

Brooke had her first experience with spaghetti the other day and loved it. I decided it would be easier to clean her of in the bath tub than worry about cleaning a bib or worse her clothes. Just a little update, she now had her two top teeth coming in and I didn't even know it. They had been surfacing but never broken through her gums until the other day. Now I can feel better about giving her pieces of meat and fruit and other stuff and not have to watch her gum them to death. She loves to eat and will eat non stop unless I limit her. I guess that's not a bad thing, at times. She's such a good baby and truly loves her sister and her sister loves her too.

Nestle 5K

A couple of Saturdays ago Tyler's sisters, his mom, his brother's wife and I ran in the Nestle 5K. I had so much fun and couldn't believe how many people were there, over 2000. We started out towards the back and had fun trying to wind our way through all the people. I was so proud of Tyler's mom, she finished the race in under 60 minutes and I think she had a good time. Maybe next year we'll get the entire family out. I was happy with my time and think I'm hooked to running 5K's. My goal now is to run a 10K on the 24th of July with Tara. Wish me luck!

Wow, it's been a while and a lot has been going on. Chloee had her teeth fixed, had her dance recital and even had a pet potato bug. Tyler celebrated his 29th birthday and we had family pictures. So where to start. Chloee had her dentist appointment and did really well. Her appointment wasn't until noon so trying to keep her NPO (nothing to eat or drink) after her clear liquid breakfast was not fun. I felt like a mean mom not letting her eat her rice krispies for breakfast, but she enjoyed her blue Popsicle. My mom took Brooke for us which was a huge help and we headed for the dentist. We got there and the nurse anesthetist and dentist came out and talked to us and told us what to except. I had Chloee on my lap picking out a prize and the next thing I know the NA is giving her a shot in her bum and shortly after that she was fast asleep in my arms. When they were done they put her in the dentist chair and had Tyler and I sit by her until she woke up. Thankfully she woke up fairly fast and we took her home. She tolerated the sedation really well and only had a few funny moments, like when she told me the ground was going in circles and she couldn't walk straight. She had four cavities filled and a partial root canal with a cap put on. Luckily it is the upper back tooth and you can't see it unless she shows you. I'm glad that experience is over.

We've been trying to spend time outside since we've had nice weather. I showed Chloee a potato bug and didn't think she would put it in her hands, but when she did and was OK with it I was surprised. She found one the other day and said to me, "Mom can I have a pet potato bug?" I said, "sure why not" every kid needs a pet and I can handle a potato bug. She was so excited that she found a cage for it and put some grass in it and water. When Chloee woke up from her nap she told me her potato bug was dead and I looked in the cage and sure enough it was. I asked her what happened and noticed she had her detangler spray next to the cage. She said she sprayed it with her hair spray. Well that was a short lived pet. We've had another pet potato bug since then and I'm sure we'll have many more.

Chloee had her dance recital and had a good time dancing once we got her there. After her Christmas show when she didn't dance on stage Tyler and I promised her that if she danced on stage at her recital she could get a big girl bike. She told her dance teacher Miss Jill that she was going to get her big girl bike. When it was time to go on stage for her dress rehearsal, Chloee was very timid and scared. She cried and ran off stage to me. I kept telling her about her bike and not to be scared. Her teacher came over and got her to go up on stage and she did so well during the dress rehearsal. All the other mom's had heard of our little bribe and said Chloee did so well, now she gets her bike. When it was time for the recital to start she went back stage with her teacher and didn't even look back. When it was her turn on stage she didn't even look scared. She danced the entire dance and did so well. She looked so cute in her costume and was the best dancer in the entire program.

The very end of the dance.

After the show we went to dinner with Tyler's family and during dinner Chloee was sitting at the table looking tired. We asked her what was the matter and she said dreamily, "I want my bike."

Here is a picture of her new big girl bike.

Tyler celebrated his 29th birthday and I attempted to make him a JEEP cake. I think it looks more like a tractor, but I gave it a try. Chloee loved it. Happy Birthday Ty.

Thanks to Tasha, my sister-in-law, we now have a great new family picture. We went to the Starmill antique shop and had a great time. This place was so fun. The girls cooperated for the most part and we got some very cute pictures.

Lastly the other day I caught Brooke playing in Chloee's dirty clothes. She came out of the room wearing this...

I had to laugh and grab the camera. It was too cute, gross but cute. I kept taking them off and putting them back in the dirty clothes hamper and Bro0ke kept walking out with the underwear on her head. She's too cute. She's now walking all over and is in to everything. Such a fun and frustrating age. I call her my little tornado. Well sorry for the long blog, but my computer died on me so I resorted to using Tyler's, hence the long blog.